The Cupcake Coven

by Ashlyn Chase

  Her outfit struck Rebecca as a little odd since everyone else was in black and this woman was a high priestess. Oh well. Maybe she was from another discipline that wore white…for the color of the moon, or something.

  Black was the color of protection and when their ancestors had to meet in secret, they blended into the night better in black. Of course, the days of witch burnings were over and their right to practice was protected by the first amendment. Thank goodness. Wearing white could be a way of celebrating that.

  Hanna cast the circle the usual way, protected each member, and glanced at Fayleen frequently. Meanwhile, the new High Priestess glanced at Celestia more often than the others.

  Finally, it came time to cast their spells. Rebecca went first.

  “Dear Goddess, please send another baker to help me with my store. Send only those who meet my standards and more. My business is improving, and for that I give you thanks. Keep my progress moving and reviews high in the ranks. If it be for the good of most, so mote it be.”

  She shrugged. It wasn’t the most eloquent spell she’d ever written, but she hit the highlights without shooting herself in the foot this time.

  Celestia went next. “I, Celestia, call on the Goddess to improve my salary and job security. I love going to work, and wish for that—”

  Suddenly, Celestia disappeared.

  The whole room sucked in a deep collective gasp. Rebecca’s head lightened and whirled, but she got hold of herself before fainting.

  The new High Priestess chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Keith blurted out. “One of our own just disappeared into thin air.”

  The air’s thin all right—half of it disappeared deep into thirteen sets of lungs.

  A moment later, Celestia returned. She teetered on unsteady feet, but didn’t fall over. Her eyes were so wide Rebecca could see white all around her green eyeballs. Her face seemed a little green too.

  “Wh—what just happened?” Rebecca asked.

  “Teleportation,” Fayleen said, matter-of-factly. “Celestia. Did you go where I think you went? To your workplace?”

  Celestia’s mouth opened, but instead of speaking, she simply nodded.

  “Excellent!”

  Celestia turned bewildered looking eyes on the woman. “Excellent? You call that excellent? One minute I’m thinking of my lecture hall and the next, I’m there. Then I thought about the coven, and here I am. It’s a good thing I didn’t think of the Amazon rainforest—”

  Oops. Gone again.

  “What the hell?” Keith shouted.

  The new High Priestess held up one palm. “Give her a minute.”

  Sure enough. Celestia returned. This time she looked pissed. “Fuck! This is so not excellent! I stood face to face with a big, fat snake coiled around a tree branch.”

  “You’ll learn to control it,” Hanna said, quietly.

  “Can you do this, Hanna?” Celestia demanded.

  Hanna shrugged. “Maaaaybe.”

  Celestia folded her arms. “Well, I wasn’t trying to go anywhere, but it happened.” She faced the new High Priestess. “How did this happen?”

  “In every ritual, you ask that your magic grows, do you not?”

  Celestia focused her glare at Hanna. “Someone told us to ask for that.”

  “And your wish is being granted.” Fayleen looked smug. Rebecca thought Keith was going to wipe that smirk off her face with his fist. Who knew a cross dresser could churn up so much testosterone?

  “Would anyone else like to try?” Hanna asked.

  Among the ‘hell nos’ and no ways’, one voice rang out. “I would!”

  Rebecca was surprised to see Abby, also known as Ariel, raising her hand. The young witch hated her job as an Au Pair. Certainly she didn’t want to transport her way to her employer’s home.

  “Ariel is the youngest of the group,” Hanna said to Fayleen.

  Fayleen smiled as if she understood. “Now, Ariel. A word of caution…Be sure to think of a spot where no one will see you materialize. You could cause a panic.”

  “Or a heart attack,” Keith muttered.

  “Okay.” Ariel closed her eyes and a moment later, she disappeared.

  Hanna and Fayleen smiled at each other.

  The group waited for her return…and waited…and waited.

  “Uh-oh,” Myranda whispered to Yvonne. Rebecca was standing next to them and caught the concerned remark.

  “Where did she go?” Rebecca asked.

  Fayleen shrugged.

  Hanna cleared her throat. “Well, let’s continue with your spells while we wait for Ariel.”

  “Seriously?” Keith asked.

  Fayleen crossed her arms. “She knows how to get back. Maybe she’s just enjoying herself.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes.

  A moment later, Ariel rematerialized with a new Chanel scarf around her neck.

  “Where were you?” Keith demanded.

  Arial tipped her nose in the air. “Paris.” She giggled. “Don’t worry, Fayleen. I materialized in the fitting room.”

  Fayleen walked over to her and kissed her on both cheeks. “Magnifique.”

  Celestia glared at Fayleen. “Sorry, but this whole thing feels like manipulation to me. I think someone needs to go back to Witchcraft 101.”

  Fayleen pointed to herself and raised her eyebrows in question.

  Celestia just folded her arms and glared at her.

  Fayleen burst out laughing and Hanna blushed so hard she looked as if she was might turn purple.

  Rebecca cleared her throat. “Um…Ariel, how did you pay for that scarf?”

  “Pay? I didn’t. I just returned to the fitting room and popped back here.”

  As a business owner, that bothered Rebecca. She gazed at Fayleen. “Do you condone theft?”

  “Absolutely not,” the High Priestess said. She turned to Ariel. “You had your fun. Now put it back.”

  Ariel sighed. “I doubt the pricey designer conglomerate will miss one scarf, but it’s the principle…I guess.”

  Fayleen smiled sadly and aimed an almost imperceptible headshake at Hanna.

  Rebecca hoped Dru was all right. He was usually there before she opened—but here she was flipping over the ‘open’ sign and turning on the lights.

  A couple of men walked right in.

  They must have been waiting—Whoa. How did my dad describe the characters I was supposed to look out for?

  Both had dark hair. One was tall and had a scar across his cheek and the other was short with a mustache. The short one has a mole next to his eye.

  Oh no. It’s them!

  Her father had said to get out and call the police. She dashed into the kitchen and grabbed her phone. She was just headed for the back door when she felt a vice-like grip on her arm.

  “Owww.” The tall guy caused her to wrench her shoulder and his fingers were digging into her arm.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” the little mustached troll asked.

  “Where do you think? My father told me to get the hell out of Dodge if I ever saw you two.”

  “Now why would he do that? We haven’t done a thing to you…yet.” If he’d twirled his mustache, she wouldn’t have been at all surprised.

  “You’ve practically taken my arm off. Tell your brute to let go. He’s hurting me right now.”

  “Hey, Opie. Let her go.”

  Opie? Maybe it’s one of those ironic nicknames.

  Nickname or not, at least he let go of her arm. She rubbed the sore spots left by his over-enthusiastic fingers.

  She was too far from the door, and it would take too long to unlock it, so trying to make a run for it would just result in more punishment.

  Dru strode into the kitchen and halted when he saw the two men. Her face must have told him the story, because he narrowed his gaze at them.

  “What’s goin’ on here?”

  “None of your business, cowboy.”

  They must have been watching th
e place for quite a while if they’d seen Dru wearing his cowboy hat. He hadn’t worn it since his first or second day.

  “Dru. You sh—should leave.”

  “Yeah, Dru. Scram,” said ‘Opie’. Apparently he could talk after all…in an octave so low, he sounded a little like a foghorn.

  “I’m not goin’ anywhere.” Dru set his hands on his hips. If only he was wearing a gun belt like in the Old West…then Rebecca remembered she was in favor of gun control.

  The good news was that the criminals didn’t seem to be armed either. At least there was nothing she could see, and in hot July their light weight clothing wouldn’t hide much.

  “I—um…I propose we sit down and discuss whatever you came here to say in an adult, civilized manner,” Rebecca said. Yup. That sounded as idiotic as I feel saying it. But to her surprise, moustache man nodded and smiled.

  “Now you’re getting it. Your old man said you were smart. Speaking of the loser, where is he?”

  “My father isn’t a loser.”

  The guy reared back and laughed. “He sure as hell is. He lost all our money on a ‘sure thing’, and said it turned out to be a scam.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Dru interjected as he walked toward them. “But that has nothing to do with her.”

  “If you know what’s good for you—and her, you’ll shut up and stay where you are, cowboy.”

  Dru stopped short. Rebecca tried to implore with her eyes and her nod that she wanted him to comply. He folded his arms and glared at the intruders.

  Moustache man turned back to her. “Now, Rebecca, is it? We just want to talk—unless your boy gives us any trouble. Then we’ll start breaking legs. Got it?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. First, we want to know where your father went.”

  “I don’t know.” It was the truth. She figured if she lied and said, New Jersey, it might come off as insincere. She’d been told she was a lousy liar.

  “Okay. We figured you might say that, and it might even be true, so we’ll come back to that. The second thing we want to know is, how fast can you sell this place and give us our money?”

  “Holy heck!”

  “Yeah. So, you see…it’s pretty damn important that we find your father. ‘Cuz if we don’t, you’ll have two choices. Sell and pay us back, or collect the insurance on what’s left of this place…and pay us back. Either way, we’ll get our money.”

  A tear leaked out of the corner of her eye.

  Dru advanced on them again.

  “Stop, Dru,” she choked out around the lump in her throat. “It’s just a threat. Nothing has happened to us, and I don’t want it to.”

  He did stay where he was, but he clenched and unclenched his fists as his arms hung by his sides.

  “Yup. She’s the smart one,” Opie said in his low bass.

  “That’s for sure.” Moustache man said. “Now if she’s really smart, she won’t call the police. By the time they get here, we’ll be long gone and it’ll just make the boss mad.”

  “I wouldn’t make him mad if I were you,” Opie said.

  “S—so, how do I get in touch with you if I find my father?”

  “We’ll be back. And if you haven’t found your father by then, there’d better be a For Sale sign out front.”

  They looked ready to leave and Rebecca couldn’t get rid of them soon enough. She just hoped Dru didn’t do anything ‘heroic’ i.e. stupid, as they walked by.

  She held her breath as Moustache man passed him, then again as Opie, who was the same height as Dru, stared at him.

  As soon as the outer door closed with the bells’ second jingle, Rebecca collapsed into the chair and let out a huge held breath.

  “Dammit!” Rebecca banged her fist on the industrial kitchen counter. The floor rumbled under their feet and the lights flickered on and off. Dru’s mouth went dry. “Did you do that?”

  “I—I don’t know.”

  I think my little witch has more power than she realizes. “Maybe you should try sendin’ them to Timbuktu. You can’t just let them take everything you’ve worked for away and put you on the street.”

  Rebecca looked like she was thinking.

  “What?”

  “I could bind them.”

  “Honey, you’ve got guts, but don’t be foolish. We’re gonna need help if you want to tie up that big guy. Hell, I can probably take ‘em by myself one at a time, but not both.”

  She chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I’m not talking about tying them up. Binding is something I can do magically.”

  “Oh. So, one little witch and a lot of magic can…what exactly?”

  “As it turns out, it’s not just good for the witch. If you do it right, it’s also good for the person you bind. Maybe they’ll see the error of their ways and try to change. I’d show you, but I can’t close the bakery and be upstairs at odd times. I don’t want to get a reputation for being unreliable.”

  “I’ll hold the fort. You go do what you gotta do,” Dru said.

  “I’m not quite ready. It takes a bit of preparation to do a spell right. I doubt they’ll come back right away.”

  “Okay. What kind of preparation do you need to do?”

  “I need a couple of black wax figures. I can get those at Myranda’s shop. I could also use some black thread, small mirrors…” She tapped her lower lip and began to pace.

  “Why don’t you write down whatever you need and I’ll go get it for you.”

  Rebecca smiled. “I’ll just dash upstairs and find the spell in my Book of Shadows. Then I’ll be sure to have everything.”

  “Off you go, then.” Dru gave her a soft pat on the ass.

  She jumped, but giggled and dashed upstairs.

  He strolled out to the display cases to see what else might be needed for the day. He was plenty freaked out about the danger, but he was getting used to hearing magical solutions. She believed magic could take care of her…and maybe it could. If not, he was determined to be there, protecting her.

  There were plenty of pies and cookies. Scones and turnovers for the breakfast crowd. He was surprised she didn’t have more muffins, but she explained the giant muffins had gone out of style since so many people were health conscious, and normal sized ones could be bought anywhere. It looked like all she needed were croissants and lemon bars.

  In a few minutes, she reappeared with a list and tucked it into his pocket. “You don’t mind walking all the way to Myranda’s?”

  “Of course not. If you want, I can pass out samples along the way.”

  Rebecca threw her arms around him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Then she backed away slowly. “I mean—what I will do without you when you leave.”

  “You may not have to find out. I hear I’m about to lose my job at the ranch.”

  She sucked in a deep breath. “What? Why?”

  “I wasn’t supposed to be gone this long. I thought with the police helpin’, it might take a week or two to find Shasta and bring her home. Unfortunately, they’ve been no help at all. The pagan community has helped much more.”

  Rebecca quieted, but he could practically see the thoughts churning in her brain.

  “What are you thinkin’?”

  “I wonder if you should go home and rescue your job. The coven can keep an eye out for Shasta. I’ll take her picture to the next ritual.”

  He hugged her. “That’s mighty selfless of you, but I ain’t leavin’ New England without Shasta and I ain’t leavin’ you alone when you’re in danger.”

  Rebecca smiled. “Talk about selfless…”

  Dru leaned over and kissed her. He didn’t mean for it to be a passionate kiss, but Rebecca responded to him readily. Her body melded to his, and she made a little sound like an inward sigh. He pulled her tight and sought entrance to her mouth. She opened to him and their tongues met and tangled.

  The little bells sounded over the door and a male laugh was followed
by, “Not again!”

  They broke apart to see Ethan grinning at them.

  “I don’t know when you have time to bake, Rebecca. Not with this guy constantly groping you.”

  She chuckled. “He’s not doing anything I don’t want him to do. So there.” She stuck her tongue out at him.

  “Save that tongue for better things. I just came in to pick up some coffee and bear claws.”

  “No bear claws for a while, I’m afraid,” Rebecca said. “They go stale too quickly, so I’ve stopped making them until business picks up.”

  “You’re still struggling to get customers?”

  “Not like before. It’s a lot better. Now I’m concentrating on finding another baker.”

  Ethan pointed at Dru. “Teach this guy—if you can keep your hands off him long enough.” He smirked at both of them.

  Rebecca threw her hands in the air and returned to the kitchen.

  Dru strolled over to Ethan and lowered his voice so Rebecca couldn’t hear. “I’m worried about her. I don’t want to say why, or she might crack my skull with a saucepan.”

  Ethan seemed to follow. He whispered, “Is there anything I can do?”

  “Yeah. Maybe show up at lunchtime when you can? That way she won’t be alone when I’m passing out samples. Is that something you can do? I don’t know how busy you are.”

  Ethan smiled. “I’m always on call. Twenty four-seven. Fortunately, there’s free time between jobs, and from here I can get to the dock in five minutes.”

  “So you might be able to hang around some days while I’m out?”

  “Sure. But can you tell me why in general terms?”

  Dru hesitated and bit his lower lip. Then he thought of a comfortable way to explain without giving up any specific information. “Yeah. Women shouldn’t be left all alone in a city full of people—some good and some not so good.”

  Ethan leaned away and scrutinized him for a moment. Then he nodded. “Yeah. That could be dangerous. But some people have Wiccan ways to protect themselves.”

  “True. But it would be good if people didn’t have to rely on that completely.”

  Ethan narrowed his eyes, but before he could ask anything more specific, Dru hurried behind the display case. “So, what can I get you?”