by Rose Pressey
“Oh, yeah, I just had some meetings and stuff. I didn’t see that I had missed your call. So what have you been up to today?” he asked.
I might be crazy, but it sounded as if he was suspicious. How did he know?
Chapter 15
How to Date a Witch Rule #15
Don’t be afraid if a frog randomly appears. No, she didn’t just turn someone into this little creature… maybe.
I decided to give Laurie a visit and ask more questions about the witch. If she had any clues at all, it would be better than nothing. I hadn’t heard from her since the meeting at the café when we saw the witch. It seemed as if that had scared her away. Maybe she thought this witch was attached to me and she didn’t want any part of it. Well, she’d be right to do so. If I could stay away from me I would too.
I pulled up to the address on the form she had supplied to me. I got out of the car and went in the direction that pointed to apartment 201. Once off of the elevator I turned to the left. The door was there on the right. I rang the doorbell and movement sounded from the other side of the door, but no one came. After a few seconds, I rang it again. After a few more seconds Laurie opened up.
By the expression on her face, I knew that I wasn’t her number one selection for a visitor. She didn’t want to see me.
“Hi, Rylie,” she said with a frown.
“Do you mind if I come in?” I asked.
She stared for a moment and then opened the door wider. “Sure, but I have to warn you that my place is a mess. I was just cleaning.”
“Oh, it’s no problem,” I said as I stepped into her apartment.
This was what she called a mess? It looked absolutely spotless. She had everything neat and orderly. The decorating was what I’d call rustic glam, with a white sofa with silver sequined pillows. The bookcase on the wall next to me was full of spell books.
She motioned toward the sofa. “Would you like to have a seat?”
“Yes, thanks.” I sat on the edge of the sofa and she eased down on the gray upholstered chair across from me.
She placed her hands in her lap. “What can I do for you?”
I moved the pillow since the sequins were poking me in the arm. “I just came by because I have some questions.”
“If this is about finding a date, you know, I really think maybe I’ll just wait on that. I decided maybe I’d rather be alone right now.”
She was definitely freaked out by the witch. Though she could have changed her mind, it was too much of a coincidence.
“Actually, this isn’t about that. I wanted to ask about that witch we saw at the café.”
Her eyes widened and she shifted in the chair uncomfortably. “What do you want to know? I really don’t know anything.”
Her phone rang, cutting me off from responding. She jumped up as if this was some sort of saving grace that she needed.
“I’ll be right back.”
She took off, leaving me sitting there awkwardly waiting for her to return. I wasn’t sure why I’d even come. She probably wouldn’t tell me anything. While she was out of the room, I took a peek around. She was in the other room, so I inched over to the kitchen. Nothing out of the ordinary there, just the usual things.
That was when I noticed something on the counter. It was a necklace exactly like the one at the abandoned house. I picked it up for a closer look. Yes, it had the same stone and design. Footsteps echoed from the other room. I tossed the necklace back on the counter. It was too late though, she’d seen me looking at it. She narrowed her eyes and quickened her steps.
“This necklace,” I said. “It’s just like the one I found.”
“Really?” she asked with suspicion in her voice. “Where did you find it?”
“It was at an abandoned house. Actually the house where the witch was supposed to stay.” I studied her face to gauge her reaction.
She chuckled nervously. “Yes, that is a strange coincidence.”
“Isn’t it?” I said. “Don’t you think there’s some kind of connection between that witch and that necklace? Where did it come from? Can you tell me anything about it?”
“I don’t really know. I just found it at a little gift shop and thought it was pretty,” she said with a wave of her hand.
There was no way that she was being truthful.
“So you’re not going to tell me anything else about it?”
“I have nothing else to tell you,” she said. “Why don’t you come back and sit down on the sofa and we can talk about other stuff?”
That was definitely strange. Who had she been talking to on the phone? I was getting a weird vibe from her. It was making me uncomfortable and I didn’t want to stay any longer.
“You know, I actually have to be going, but thanks for talking to me,” I said.
As I headed for the door she ran across the room and stopped in front of me.
“Where are you going so quickly?” she asked.
“I just need to leave.” I reached for the doorknob.
She was still standing in front of me, staring with that strange smile on her face. She was trying to stop me from leaving her place. This wasn’t going to happen. I had news for her. I moved around her and she moved to stop me.
“Rylie, you can stay for a little while. We can talk. Maybe I do want a date after all.”
“Actually, I don’t have time. Sorry,” I said as I reached for the door again.
If she wanted me to stay it was for all the wrong reasons.
She pointed toward the kitchen. “But I have beef jerky.”
Was she trying to bribe me to stay? That was completely strange.
I grabbed the door knob and twisted. “Thanks, but I have plenty of that at home.”
When I opened the door, she reached for me. Laurie knew way more about that necklace than she claimed. Why did I always attract the weird people? I just had a natural knack for it. Lucky me.
Thank goodness I was in the hallway now. I raced toward the elevator and pushed the button several times, as if that would make the doors open sooner. Now Laurie was running down the hallway after me. I had to get away from her. Maybe I should take the stairs. Just as she was about to reach me, the elevator doors opened and I raced inside. Luckily, I was alone in there. I pushed the door button so maybe they would close before she reached me.
The doors closed just as she lunged forward. A second sooner and she would have made it. I stared at the little lights at the top of the elevator, willing them to hurry to the first floor so that I could get out of there. Would she take the stairs and catch up with me? I didn’t want to stay around to find out what she had planned and why she wanted me to stay there. I knew for sure that I needed to research the pendant. Once again I needed to go back to the witchcraft store and ask the shop owner if there was any connection.
The elevator doors opened and I spilled out into the lobby. So far she hadn’t made it down. I raced out of the building and hopped in my car. Whew. I looked around, but Laurie was nowhere in sight, which was kind of odd. I had expected her to follow me. I cranked the engine and took off toward the witch store.
After a short time I arrived, parked, and hurried out from behind the wheel. When I reached the front door, I realized the place was closed. Now what? I cupped my hands over my eyes and peeked in the window. Nope, no one in there. Feeling discouraged, I went back to the car. The opening hours weren’t posted on the door, so I had no idea when the owner would return.
Back behind the wheel, I pulled out of my phone and searched for the opening hours. As I sat there contemplating what to do next, I stumbled across a bunch of symbols while scrolling on my phone. One pictured was on the pendant in my bag. It was actually listed as the symbol for an ancient coven that apparently was no longer in existence. Was this some kind of antique that Laurie had found? Was it purely a coincidence that I had found it also? I knew that couldn’t be it, but if this was a coven it wasn’t even around anymore. What had happened to it and where had Laurie found
the pendant? Did they mass-produce them to look like the ancient one?
I did another search to find any information on the coven and discovered that they had been stopped by other witches when it was discovered they were doing evil spells. So I had a powerful witch following me who was doing some pretty nasty spells to me. The pendant I’d found had to be hers. She was associated with a coven of evil witches. It had to be connected with that.
Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. The owner had arrived back at the shop. She was opening the door, so I jumped out of my car. When she glanced back, I waved. She looked a little disappointed, but she couldn’t really turn down a customer just because I was asking questions, right? No one wanted to acknowledge the evil witch and her powerful skills. Just because she was powerful was no reason to ignore the problem.
“Excuse me,” I said as I walked up behind her. “I just have a question for you.”
“Yes, you have a lot of questions, don’t you, dear.” She opened the door.
She tried to be sweet about it, but I knew she was annoyed.
I followed her into the shop. “It’s actually about this pendant.” I pulled it out and dangled in front of her face. “I found out it was associated with a group of witches who were pretty bad. I wanted to find out more information about the coven.”
“Any historical books that I have will be in the back of the store.” She gestured with a tilt of her head.
“Do you mind if I take a look?” I asked.
“No, help yourself,” she said with a forced smile.
I knew she just wanted to get rid of me for a few minutes. I made my way to the back of the store and found the section with the books. It was only a few. I really didn’t know where to start, so I pulled one off the shelf and flipped to the section on covens. The book provided absolutely no details, so I put it back on the shelf. Next I pulled another one down.
“Did you find anything?” the woman asked, startling me.
I set the book on the table next to me. “Actually, I found nothing yet. Do you happen to know anything about the coven?” I asked.
“Let me see the pendant again.”
“Sure.” I pulled it out of my pocket and dangled it in the air.
“Where did you find this?” she asked as she took a closer look.
“It was in an abandoned building. It was the address that I found for the witch. You know, the powerful one with the glowing eyes.”
“You need to get rid of this.” She shoved it back at me. “Throw it away. Just don’t keep it.”
“Why? Is it cursed or something?” I asked.
“It’s possible. Now I have to ask you to leave with it.”
Chapter 16
How to Date a Witch Rule #16
She enjoys dancing under the full moon
A full moon filled the sky tonight and that meant that all the werewolves turned for the entire evening. I never looked forward to this because I liked to be able to control when I shifted, although I knew that was very rarely the case. I had plans for the evening, so at least I wouldn’t be alone. I wouldn’t just roam the city waiting for the hairiness to go away. I was looking forward to seeing Nana and my mother. However, the rest of the clan… not so much.
We got together once a year for a family outing and tonight just happened to be that night. There was no way my mother would let me avoid it. I’d tried that in the past and she always made me feel guilty until I finally agreed to go. I didn’t even try now. At least I didn’t have to take Jack since he was out of town. My mother would have insisted that he come along. What would he have done there? He wasn’t a werewolf. He’d just have to watch us get all hairy and run around howling at the moon.
My family was meeting in a wooded area. There was a picnic section so that we could have dinner. After that, we would all shift, and with any luck, it would be over. We could all go home and forget about this until the next time.
I was picking up Nana and my mother first so that I could drive them. My father was already at his brother’s house doing some things to prepare for the evening. He would drive from there. When I pulled up to Nana’s house my mother waved from the front porch. She’d probably been waiting there for an hour. She was way more excited about this than me.
Nana and my mother hurried into the car. They were dressed in matching Capri pants and red and white blouses that looked like picnic tablecloths.
“I see you’re ready for the big event.” I smiled when I thought about how excited they got for this thing.
“We would have brought an outfit for you, but I figured you wouldn’t wear it.”
“At least now you’re learning.” I turned the car around and headed down the driveway.
The family gathering would have been okay, but I had some cousins who didn’t like me all that much, I guessed because of the curse thing. Now that that was over I thought they could get past that, but I doubted that would be the case this evening. Of course Nana and my mother sang the entire ride again. We made the drive over to the wooded area and I parked behind the other cars.
“Looks like there’s a good turnout,” my mother said as she checked her makeup in the mirror.
“Yes, it sure does,” I said, less than enthusiastically.
“Now, Rylie, you behave tonight, okay?” She swiped more red lipstick on her lips.
I held up my hands. “What? I’m always good.”
Nana patted my shoulder. “Of course you are, dear, you’re just the sweetest thing in the whole world.”
“Oh, Nana, I can always count on you to say the sweet things.”
My mother rolled her eyes.
I checked my makeup too. I knew that my cousins would criticize me if I didn’t have enough makeup on. Of course if I had too much on they would criticize me for that too. It was never right. Nevertheless, as much as I hated to I got out of the car and headed toward the picnic area. My mother had made that fruit marshmallow salad concoction and Nana had a lime Jell-O mold. I’d come empty-handed. It was probably better that way.
Jell-O molds didn’t sound like something you’d find at a werewolf picnic, but there would be plenty of ribs, steak, and hamburgers… lots of meat. The tables were all set with red and white checkered tablecloths and food on each table.
My aunt Sheila waved me over. “Rylie, I’m so glad you’re here.”
Her daughter sat at the table and she immediately rolled her eyes. I wanted to tell her that they’d get stuck like that, but she wouldn’t care. That was just wishful thinking anyway.
Aunts, uncles, and cousins were all around. There were probably fifty people there. I couldn’t possibly talk to everyone. Maybe if I were to hide behind a tree they wouldn’t notice that I was missing.
I was being completely antisocial. I needed to toughen up and do this for my mother and Nana. They obviously enjoyed it so much. So I plastered a smile on my face and sat there eating my ribs and corn on the cob like it was the best time of my life. I even had some of that weird salad with the marshmallows.
Soon the sun had set and now the moon was high in the sky. The transformation had begun. My skin tingled and the hair sprouted on my arms. It was covering my face and the rest of my body. Everyone around me had changed as well. They howled and loped in all different directions. I decided to take off to my left. That would give me a chance to get away from everyone. I’d always preferred to run alone anyway. I supposed maybe that was why the rest of the family didn’t like me much. It was supposed to be a group thing and I always wanted to be alone.
I wasn’t sure why I enjoyed going solo. It wasn’t that I didn’t like people. I just always seemed to be awkward in conversations so it was easier to just talk to myself. Maybe Lily was right. Maybe I did need to have Jack help me out with my ‘issues.’ I decided to run to the left over to a little area that no one else had seemed to notice. We would run for about an hour then everyone would come back and just hang out until the sun started to come up.
A breeze blew the fur on my face as I loped away. I ran through the leaves crunching under my feet with the branches pulling at me. I had to admit this was an exhilarating experience. I wouldn’t want to do it every night, but it was a good outlet every once in a while to get out my natural animalistic instincts. I had to remember not to go too far. I didn’t want to get away from everyone and then not be able to find my way back.
A short distance later I sensed a presence. When I looked around, there were no other werewolves, but something caught my eye. I looked to the right and noticed someone move behind a tree. No one was supposed to be out here. I raced in that direction, loping over the top of a downed tree branch. When I reached the tree, no one was back there, but I saw him. He was running away. It was the motorcycle guy. There was no way he should be out here.
He was invading my space. That made me extremely unhappy. I’d been angry when he came to my apartment, but even more so when he followed me out here in my most vulnerable state, with my family. There was no way he was going to get near my family. If he so much as tried to touch my Nana, or my mother, I would claw his eyes out. I took off after him. I’d teach him a lesson about personal space.
I ran fast as I could. He would be no match for me. As soon as I came up on him I jumped on his back in one giant leap. He tumbled to the ground face first. He rolled over and tried to scoot away. His eyes were full of fear. I jumped on top of him and pinned him down, growling and exposing my teeth. He screamed out. I guessed he thought I was going to rip his neck open. Couldn’t a girl have a little fun? I was just trying to scare him.
How long should I hold him like this? He was squirming and trying to get away. I hadn’t expected to see fear in his eyes. I guessed I’d scared him long enough. Now maybe he would leave me alone. He had to know it was me. Maybe he just suspected I was a werewolf. Maybe he had no clue. Maybe he hadn’t seen us all turning into werewolves. Nevertheless, I hoped that would keep him from coming around here and messing with me. When I released him from my claws, he jumped up.