Potions Eleven: A Paranormal Witch Cozy (Fair Witch Sisters Mysteries Book 2)

by Christy Murphy

  "We need to find Scarlet and Poppy," Didi said.

  "They're not in school today. I think they're at Damien's funeral," Dakota answered. "Is something wrong?"

  "It's kind of personal," I said. "Do you know where the funeral is?"

  Dakota shrugged, and then said she had to go.

  "Now what?" Didi said, her voice a mixture of impatience and discouragement.

  "We can check the paper or call around," I said.

  "We're running out of time," Didi said, concern echoing in her forehead. "I don't know what to do."

  "Let's get back to the car," I said.

  As we rushed back to Didi's Toyota, I spotted a parking enforcement officer dancing around our car.

  "What's that noise?" Didi asked.

  As we neared, I realized he wasn't dancing. He was being chased by screeching Fred.

  "Oh no," Didi said.

  The two of us rushed over to the scene.

  "I'm guarding this car with my life, my love," Fred said.

  Olivia flew at the parking enforcement officer's head, pecking him ever so lightly. He swatted Olivia away.

  "Careful," Didi snapped at him. "You'll hurt her."

  "That thing is going gouge my eyes out," the guy said, "that's if this darn cat doesn't shred me to pieces first."

  "Just stop running," Didi said. "Everybody stop!" My sister put her hand to her head. "I need to think."

  "It'll be okay, Deeds," I said. I could feel my sister teetering on the edge.

  "Nothing is going right," she said. "I can feel that dark thing rising that everybody's talking about."

  "You can feel it?"

  "I don't know why you can't," she said. "I've been feeling it for a while now."

  Fred and Olivia had stopped attacking the parking ticket guy.

  "Is this your car?" he asked Didi.

  "I'm gonna move it right now," Didi said.

  "That's fine, but you're still getting the ticket," he said, slipping the paper under the windshield wiper. "And I have to give you a fine of $100 per animal for leaving your pets unattended in the car. You know, you can kill them even if the window's open."

  "I'm not cruel to pets," Didi said.

  "Oh yes, you are. It's thoughtless pet owners like you that deserve more than a ticket," he said.

  I should've let Fred tear him to shreds.

  "We know that. Don't give me that ticket," she said, waving her wand.

  I grabbed her hand before she aimed the wand directly at the parking enforcement guy. I knew she hadn't meant to do anything, but I worried if she used her magic in anger, that she'd join me on my evil path.

  "They're not our pets," I lied.

  "What?" Mr. Parking Enforcement said.

  "You can't give my sister a ticket for leaving pets in our car when we don't have any pets. And they're not in her car," I said.

  "Why have you forsaken me," Fred cried.

  "They were in your car a little while ago," the ticket guy said.

  "I don't know," I argued. "They must've just jumped in there through the open window or something."

  "Fine," the guy conceded. "I have your license plate number. So if they leave with you, I'll know they're yours. And I'll make sure you get the maximum fine."

  "Just give me the stupid tickets," Didi said.

  No. My sister wasn't going to get that stupid pet ticket. "Everything's fine. You can go now," I said, waving my hand. The instant I did that, I knew it was a mistake.

  Pain pierced my skull. My knees buckled.

  I found myself in the seat with my sister kneeling next to me.

  "Pal, are you okay?" Didi asked, her voice hysterical. "Pal! Why did you use the push? It was just a stupid ticket. Please don't die. Please don't die."

  I had to pull it together. "I'm okay," I said, trying to open my eyes, but everything seemed dark. Was it my own death that I was seeing?

  "You're not okay," Didi said, tears falling down her face. "Nothing's okay."

  "It's fine. Get into the car. We'll find them," I said. I forced myself to pull my legs all the way into the passenger seat. "Get in the car," I said, and my sister stood up to go to the driver's side.

  I leaned back, put my head on the headrest, and I closed my eyes for what I thought was a second.

  "Pal!" I heard my sister yell as she shook me. "You're not dying, are you?"

  I forced my eyes open. "No, just resting."

  "I'm calling Mom," she said, reaching into her pocket and grabbing her cell phone. "No!" she screamed. My entire body flinched.

  "My phone is dead!" she cried as she burst into loud, heaving sobs.

  "My love," Fred said. "Don't fret."

  Fred's voice was sort of soothing.

  "Joy!" Didi screamed while crying.

  Fading in and out of consciousness, I tried to console her. "It's going to be okay," I slurred. "I'm fine."

  "Stop saying that. Nothing's fine. Maybe I'm evil, and this is my punishment. To watch my sister die and not be able to help her."

  "You're not," I said, but I couldn't be sure she'd heard me between my slurring voice and her crying.

  I felt something fall into my lap with a jarring thud. It took me a moment to realize that it was Fred.

  "Pet me," he said.

  "Fred," I said, trying to get the energy to tell him I couldn't pet him right now. He pushed himself underneath my hand. Within a couple of seconds, I found myself able to pet his head. It was so soothing.

  "That's right," he said. "Keep going."

  The same warming sensation I'd gotten from Mom in the hospital emanated from Fred.

  "Yes," he said to me. "That's why I'm here to help you, even if you are not my first choice."

  I chuckled. Same old Fred.

  "Pal," Didi said. "Did you just laugh?"

  I looked over at my sister. "It's Fred. He's making me better."

  "Fred!" Didi said, bending over to kiss him. "I love you."

  "I love you, too," he said.

  "Don't distract him. I'm not all the way better."

  "Keep healing Joy, Fred."

  "As you wish," he said.

  Did my cat just quote The Princess Bride?

  "Thank God you're okay," Didi said. "No matter what happens, Pal, it'll be fine if we stick together. Hell or High Council."

  Her smile was genuine, but her eyes were worried.

  It always crushed my heart when my sister look defeated. She always came through for me. I needed to come through for her. I wracked my mind trying to think of what to do next.

  "Maybe the funeral is listed on one of their social media accounts," I said, reaching for my phone.

  "And maybe Olivia can heal your phone," I said.

  Olivia hopped onto Didi's phone. "Why didn't you say that a minute ago?" Didi said.

  Olivia hooted what I assumed was an explanation.

  I tried to look at each of their Facebook accounts, but they were all set to private. That was new.

  I closed my eyes. I needed to remember Damien's passwords. They'd all be added as his friends, and I could see.

  "What's wrong?" Didi asked.

  "Their accounts are set to private."

  I put my thumbs over the keyboard of my phone. I needed to be careful. So I reached out with my magic and waited to see what might happen. I found my thumbs moving on their own, and when I looked down, I'd logged into Damien's Facebook.

  I found a photo from the funeral on Scarlet's page. She was with some relative. I showed it to Didi.

  "Who takes a selfie at a funeral?" Didi said, shaking her head.

  Luckily it was location tagged. I looked at the photo again. "Deeds, is that Dashiell March's new girlfriend with Scarlet?" I asked.

  "Let me see," she said, grabbing the phone.

  "It is her. She's wearing the necklace and look who's wearing one, too. It looks a lot like the one Damien's dad was wearing before, too."

  I looked closer, and both of them were wearing those necklaces wit
h the vials on it.

  "Wait a minute," I said. I clicked on Scarlet's "about" page. "Look at this." I showed her a list of Scarlet's relatives.

  "Whoa!" Didi said. "Dashiell March's new girlfriend is Scarlet's Aunt Cher."

  Didi and I traded looks. "Damien wasn't at all happy about his parents' divorce," I said.

  "We need to hurry and get to that funeral," Didi said. "That picture was posted this morning. They might've already left."

  "And that's only if she posted it right away," I said. "This could've been yesterday."

  "Pal," she said. "Don't overwhelm me right now. This is our only lead."

  "Sorry," I said. "It could still be happening."

  Didi's Toyota started on its own and screeched down the street.

  The car flew down Wilshire Boulevard.

  "I guess that spell is working now," I said.

  "Looks like it," Didi said.

  "I'm going to call Mom and have her meet us there," I said. Even though Fred had healed me, I'd almost killed myself performing the smallest bit of magic.

  My call rang, but went to voicemail.

  "No answer?" Didi asked.

  "She must be with a client. I'll leave a message."

  "I'll text Jason," Didi said.

  We would've called the business line to the shop, but the car had crossed town in a matter of minutes. I was surprised it didn't drive right onto the cemetery lawn.

  "So I guess this is the burial, not the funeral. That was at the Methodist Church," I said as we jumped out of the car.

  "We're almost out of time," she said.

  I realized I needed to tell Mom we were at the cemetery and not the church. But there wasn't time.

  I looked around, but didn't see anything. Didi tapped me on the shoulder and pointed.

  "Over there," she said.

  In the distance, I saw a few figures hovering around one of the plots, digging with shovels.

  "That doesn't look like a funeral," I said.

  "It looks like a grave robbing," Didi said as she dashed across the lawn.

  "Wait for me!" I said as I hobbled after her. Maybe I should have had a few extra moments with Fred to get a little more healed. My side ached, and there was darkness everywhere. Of course, this was the cemetery. I wasn't exactly at my best when surrounded by death after almost dying.

  "Looks like we have a visitor," Aunt Cher said.

  "You were right about her," I overheard Poppy say.

  I needed to catch up to Didi, but I was huffing and puffing. I could barely even see, things were so dark. I staggered over to my sister. There was a pot boiling next to the pile of dirt. Scarlet and Poppy were both digging. No wonder I hadn't seen them at first. They were halfway down the hole.

  "Well, this is going to work out better than I thought," Cher said. "Marius is going to be glad to meet you at last."

  How did she know about Marius?

  I looked at her eyes, and she had the same violet color that Gerald had. "You're a vampire," I croaked out.

  "No she's not," Scarlet said. "We're witches."

  "And we've got the power of three on our side," Poppy said.

  "Did they just reference the TV show Charmed?

  "So do we," Mom's voice said from behind me.

  I turned around and smiled at Mom, and then turned back to the three of them. I'd expected them to quake with fear at the sight of Mom like everyone else did. But these three didn't seem to understand what they were up against. Mom put her hand on my shoulder. I could feel the life come back into me. But the place was still dark.

  "We don't want to hurt you, old lady," Scarlet said.

  "I don't want to hurt anybody," Poppy said. "I just want to be young forever."

  "I want power," Scarlet said.

  "You'll both have it soon," Cher said.

  "You're lying to them," Didi said.

  "What?" Poppy said.

  "You're the liar!" Scarlet yelled at Didi.

  "She has no intention of giving you what you want," Didi said. "I don't know what she wants in this grave, but I get the vibe she's going to drain you two dry as soon as she gets it."

  "Is that true?" Poppy asked, stabbing her shovel into the ground next to her. "Have I been digging up gross dead body parts to brew this potion so you can keep it all for yourself?"

  "No. They're lying!" Aunt Cher said. "You're going to get back to digging now," she added while waving her hand.

  "You're doing the push," I said.

  "The what?" Poppy asked as she picked up her shovel and joined Scarlet digging.

  "It's like the Jedi mind trick," I said. Poppy continued to shovel, her expression confused.

  "It's magic. She's forcing you to do this through magic," I explained.

  "And it's not even her magic," Mom said. "Where did you get it from?"

  "It looks good on me, doesn't it? Do you recognize it? Maybe this will jog your memory," Cher said as she raised her hand, and thin bolts of electricity shot in our direction. Mom raised her hand and it stopped.

  "It doesn't fit you well. You should bring it back to where you got it and get a refund," Mom said.

  "No matter. I'm cooking up some of my own," Cher said.

  "Back away from that cauldron," Mom said.

  Cher folded her arms. Mom sent her lightning zing of magic right and Cher, but it bounced back.

  Mom looked surprised.

  The sound of a shovel striking something hard caught all of our attention.

  Cher rushed over to the hole and grabbed Scarlet.

  "I'll need some energy to execute this last spell," she said, making the same constipated face I'd seen on Gerald.

  Scarlet screamed.

  Mom tried again to use her magic to no avail.

  Olivia flew at Cher and snatched the necklace from her neck while Fred leapt toward the cauldron and knocked it over, spilling the potion into the dirt. "Why is knocking over containers so satisfying?"

  Didi rushed to pull Scarlet away.

  "I can't believe you'd be this foolish," Cher said, grabbing Didi by the shoulder and beginning to feed from her, too.

  "No!" I screamed, pointing my wand at Cher.

  My head exploded in pain. Everything flashed white. I heard screaming. I didn't even feel myself falling to the ground.

  I regained consciousness and found myself on the grass of the cemetery. Was this my new lot in life? Constantly collapsing. I'd fainted more in the last six months than an army of Southern belles with a chronic case of the vapors.

  Fred was on my chest, and Mom was holding my hand. I was practically sweating from all of their healing magic.

  "Good work, kid," Mom said as I sat up.

  "Did I save Didi?" I asked. I noticed Poppy and Scarlet were still here, but Cher was gone.

  "I might've helped you a little bit," Mom said. "But you gave her a real wallop."

  "So I nearly killed myself again for nothing," I said.

  "Not for nothing," Didi said, kneeling down. "For your sister."

  "That's sweet," Scarlet said. I would've written it off as sarcasm, but her tone sounded more friendly.

  "Where's Cher?" I asked.

  "She took off," Scarlet said. "I can't believe she did this."

  "So she was the one who killed Damien?" I asked.

  "No," Scarlet said. "That was me."

  "That's not true," Didi said.

  "Really?" Scarlet asked.

  "My sister can tell the difference between the truth and a lie. It's part of her arsenal of magic," I said.

  "What happened with Damien?" Didi asked Scarlet.

  "He was trying to use magic to stop my aunt from marrying his dad. I wanted them to get married so that I could get close to Damien," she said. Scarlet turned to Poppy. "I'm sorry."

  "I don't care," she said. "I'm over him."

  Scarlet turned to Didi, but my sister averted her gaze.

  "Fine, I'm not," Poppy confessed. "I'm just glad you didn't really have a crush on Wilde
r. He's no good."

  "He's been nicer since his accident, though," Scarlet said. "Who knew a brain hemorrhage would make somebody a better person?"

  "You two know that he's not in high school, right?" I told them.

  They shook their heads no.

  "So is he a college guy?" Poppy said, and her expression looked like she was revising her opinion of him.

  "You were saying about Damien," Didi said, motioning for Scarlet to continue.

  "Damien believed he was related to Evelyn Carson Barber, and so he wanted to keep the tooth and hair that we'd gotten from the grave site for himself, and he stole his father's potion necklace," Scarlet motioned to the necklace she was wearing.

  Olivia flew over and snatched the necklace from around Scarlet's neck.

  "It's not working anymore," Mom said. "That's why Didi can tell if you're telling the truth now."

  "Oh," Scarlett said.

  "It was tacky anyway," Poppy consoled.

  "What's Damien's last name again?" Mom asked.

  "March," Didi said.

  "He might be related to Evelyn," Mom said. "It would explain why your aunt Cher wanted to marry his father. Have a kid and mix bloodlines. It would also explain why he was able to access that much magic or at least start to access it."

  "So what happened after Damien decided to keep the tooth and hair?" Didi asked.

  "He wanted to do a love spell to make his dad fall back in love with his mom, so he didn't have to live in that cruddy house and his mom didn't have to work so hard," Scarlet said.

  "It didn't seem so cruddy to me," I said.

  Everyone looked at me, and I got the vibe that my opinion was in the minority.

  "My aunt got really mad. She said we should just go over to his house and take it. So we went over when he didn't show up to school. We were in his bedroom, and he wouldn't give it up, so I tried to grab it. We fought. I pushed him, and he hit his head on the corner of the desk," Scarlet said, her voice shaking and her eyes cast downward at the cemetery grass. "I didn't even think he hit his head that hard, but then my aunt went over to check on him, and she tried to revive him, but he was dead."

  "She must've sucked the life out of him," Didi said.