Practically Angels

by Melanie James

  “So, you think Michael had the motive to take out Charles Nelson? Did you ask him?” They might be on to something here.

  “We never got to ask him straight up. Mr. Swimmer Guy blindsided us. But he definitely seemed like he was the type to murder someone. Susan told us Michael had threatened Charles quite a few times in the past, warning him not to get involved with her. He’s a real control freak,” Chloe added. “We planned to tell Daryl all about it too. See if he could help. But now…I don’t know if he’ll remember how to eat with a spoon, much less help solve a crime.”

  “Other than that, we didn’t learn much about Midge. Most of the people we talked to just started blabbing their secrets. It was a futile lesson in TMI. Take the O’Briens next door, they seem like a happy couple but it’s a train wreck over there.”

  “Well, it’s none of our business,” I replied. “Let’s try that potion now and see if we can wake these boys up.”

  “Rub the mixture right on the spot where we hit them,” Jade said, dipping her fingers into the bowl.

  Following her lead, Chloe and I smeared the goop on the boys’ red contusions. Almost instantaneously, they both sat straight up.

  “What? How did I get here?” swimmer dude asked. “Who are you people?”

  Daryl was equally mystified. “What? What happened?”

  “I think you were in an accident. We found you like this outside and brought you both in to help you,” Jade lied.

  “Accident? What accident?” Daryl rubbed his skull and looked at his hands, checking for blood.

  “Who knows? Could be anything. Maybe a heavy brass incense burner fell on your head,” Chloe said.

  “What? Never mind. The last thing I remember, I was walking down the sidewalk. Not sure where I was going.”

  “Same here,” swimmer guy said, apparently the love potion had also worn off. I reasoned the truth serum was no longer having an effect.

  “Amnesia. Interesting.” Jade made a mental note of their conditions.

  “Okay, off you go then. Both of you. Have a good night,” I said, nudging them to leave.

  Our discharged patients staggered out the front door and wobbled down the sidewalk.

  “Whew! What a day!” Jade collapsed into a chair. “Potions. Demons. A witch. Homicidal lawyer. Head trauma. Wow! Did I miss anything?”

  “You have no idea, guys. It gets worse. I was completely wasted with truth serum when I confessed everything to Zane. Not just that we are angels, but everything. Every. Thing. I confessed what I’ve been thinking about with him. What I wanted to do with him. You know what? He even said truth was more dangerous than lies. He was right.”

  That night, I barely slept. And when I did, I was so busy talking to myself, I might as well have been awake. It was awful.

  The more I questioned things, the more questions I had. I still liked Zane, immensely. I still felt that undeniable passion to be with him. But how much of that was genuine? Now that I knew he was part demon, I worried my attraction could be explained by my angelic nature reacting to his demonic side. Some strange magnetic magic could be pulling us together. Were my feelings artificial? How dangerous was this? How wrong was this?

  When the morning sun finally came through my window, it was a relief. I could start my day, stay busy, and stop thinking about him. Basically, my plan was to be like an ostrich, stick my head in the sand and just avoid Zane or any more thoughts on the subject.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chloe, Jade, and I stepped out to enjoy our morning tea on the porch. People watching and drinking tea before opening the store had become our morning ritual.

  Two blocks away, in front of the Law Offices of McDermott and McDermott, we noticed blue and red lights flashing.

  “Daryl’s police car!” Chloe yelped. A small crowd of morning dog walkers, stroller pushers, kids on skateboards and bikes all gathered to witness the first arrest in Angel Bay’s recent collective memory.

  “Things sure have been getting more interesting by the day in this town,” I remarked.

  Within seconds, Daryl emerged from the law office, leading a handcuffed and protesting Michael McDermott right into the back seat of his cruiser. Susan was standing on the front steps, apparently wiping her tears with a handkerchief.

  “Told you. It’s just like the story. Michael McDermott was a coldblooded killer this whole time,” Chloe said.

  “Maybe it only took a brass Buddha to that boy’s noggin to get him to finally solve a crime,” Jade added.

  As the day progressed, the whispering theories of our customers only confirmed what we suspected. Michael had been arrested for arson and the murder of Charles Nelson. His motive was obvious to the entire town, greed. But, like our rumor-mongering customers, we could only speculate on what juicy and damning evidence had been uncovered to cause his arrest.

  “One less mystery to be concerned with,” I said. “Poor Charles. If we’d only have known ahead of time, we could have prevented this tragedy. That’s what real, full-fledged angels would’ve done. Instead, we made a love charm, which only made things worse.”

  “Almost angels. Besides, fortune telling isn’t in the job description,” Jade replied.

  My mind drifted away from our conversation, pulled into the infinite loop of ruminating over Zane.

  “Are you okay, Emmy?” Chloe asked. “You have that same spaced out look in your eyes that Daryl had when I bashed him in the head with the Buddha.”

  “I’m just thinking this through,” I said. “We may not be fortune tellers, but we did pick up some bits of information between Eve and one of her Hellions. Tonight, there is a full moon, which apparently gives them some special power, or at least an advantage with their senses. She’s ordered them to find something; a physical object, or perhaps valuable information.”

  “Or someone.” Jade sipped her tea.

  “Right. If we set aside all my other questions about Zane and focus on finding out what Eve and the demon were talking about, we might gain some advance knowledge and prevent another tragedy. After all, we’re talking about a witch and her evil minions.”

  “You realize Zane is her son, and he’s going to be mixed up in whatever they’re up to. You may not like what you find out,” Chloe said.

  “I know. What I mean is, I just want to leave my emotions out of it. Just learn the facts, like detectives would or something. With my brain and not my fricking hormones, I guess you could say. That way, I’ll also have a clear-eyed view of who Zane is and what I might be getting into by continuing to go out with him. Because, let’s face it, last night’s plan to interrogate him under truth serum turned into a complete fiasco. It’s best to not even talk to him right now.”

  “Aha!” Chloe poked me on the shoulder. “That’s what this is about. Isn’t it? You’re avoiding him and you want to justify it. I can’t say I blame you. I just think you ought to be honest with yourself. So, you made an ass of yourself. You said too much to your crush. You wouldn’t be the first or last person to do that. Just imagine what Daryl is feeling today after confessing his feelings for me. I doubt I’ll see him around for weeks. Speaking the truth does weird things. It’s too bad, because I like him. But you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to end his misery by being the one to ask him out.”

  I cringed, knowing she was exactly right about my motive to avoid Zane. “Fine. I’d rather crawl under a rock than face him today. But the fact remains, we should find out what they’re all up to and keep these emotions at home. In a box. Buried in the yard.”

  “We need a new plan for tonight’s full moon. How do we spy on Eve and her minions?”

  “It’ll be more difficult now that Eve knows we’re angels. I doubt she trusts me and it’s totally my own fault.”

  “Hold on. She didn’t know until she eavesdropped on you and Zane. Natasha was right. Our angelic nature can’t be detected. So, it’s not like she’ll have a witchy early warning system or something. We can sneak onto her farm and list
en in.”

  “We need the right cover,” Chloe said. “And we’ll do it just like they did in Dark Beasts, Book Fourteen.”

  “In Hot Fursuit?” I asked, knowing where she was going with it.

  “Exactly. We have the magic. We just have to shapeshift into farm animals, like they did in the story.”

  “No. Absolutely not. There is no way I am going to spend the rest of my life stuck in goat form or something worse.”

  “Oh, stop kid-ing around, Emmy. You’d make a cute goat,” Jade giggled. “I’m not even sorry for the pun.”

  “Oh my god. I can’t believe you guys are serious,” I groaned.

  “There is a recipe. Right here. We have three to choose from. Cow, horse, and just for you, goat.” Chloe slapped a book on the table.

  “No.”

  “I’ll take goat if you don’t want it,” Jade said.

  “Seriously? I meant no, as in no fricking way we’re shapeshifting into animals.”

  “Suit yourself. But this is a foolproof formula. It says so right here.” Chloe tapped the page.

  “Does it specify to what level of fool the guarantee is still valid? Because I’m thinking we might be testing the limits of it.”

  “It has an instant antidote, which we could blend up and keep ready for an emergency, and if nothing else, the shift wears off in two hours,” Jade explained. “Sounds about as foolproof as you can get.”

  I thought back to the text message we received from Natasha. It was time for a speech.

  “The choice to do the right thing is always up to us, and we have special gifts. Maybe it is all a test, in a way, to use our gifts, to take the big risks, all in the name of justice and truth. We could prevent a witch and her demons from carrying out some nefarious plot on the innocent people of Angel Bay. What a great way to redeem ourselves after the physical harm we’ve caused to so many.”

  “And don’t forget your carnal thoughts and lascivious dry humping of Zane’s demonic motorcycle seat. You talk in your sleep, by the way,” Chloe whispered.

  “Um, you’re probably right. But could there be anything more angelic to atone for our sins than saving the good people of Angel Bay from demonic forces? We should make a vow to finally uncover Angel Bay’s secrets and drag them into the light of justice!”

  “We’ve already agreed to it, but that was a good speech, Emmy,” Jade said. “Let’s close the shop and get to work.”

  The potion was quite complex, with over two dozen ingredients from oils to herbs, and it was custom tailored to each of us. The emergency antidote alone took an extra hour of work.

  “Shouldn’t we test it?” Jade asked.

  “You first,” I replied.

  “Hold on,” Chloe said, examining her mason jar filled with formula. “Why not test it out on someone else? Like maybe the O’Briens?”

  “Are you nuts? We can’t just transform our neighbors into animals for some experiment,” I said.

  “I’ll be the guinea pig. I’m not afraid. Just give me some of the antidote right after,” Jade volunteered. She took a sip from her own jar, grimaced, and fell to the floor.

  I expected to see some painful and grotesque physical transformation, but instead, I was pleasantly surprised. She shimmered and glowed until a small green cloud enveloped her. Within seconds, it dissipated and there was Jade—a brown and white goat.

  “Yes!” Chloe cheered, scratching Jade’s neck. “And you are such a cute goat, all dressed up.”

  We failed to consider an important fact. Our clothes would remain on our bodies. In Jade’s case, her clothes fell loosely around her goat-sized frame, but ours would be destroyed and besides, clothed farm animals would not be a good disguise.

  “When the time comes, we’ll have to be naked.” I held out a spoonful of antidote. Jade lapped it up. Just as quickly as she’d transformed into goat form, she reverted to her human body.

  “How do you feel?” Chloe asked.

  “Perfectly fine, and I understood everything that was said, with no issues. It was like I was standing here as I am now.”

  “The plan is foolproof—just like we said.” Chloe was clearly proud of herself.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Since we’d already closed the store for the day, we decided the best plan would be to leave for Eve’s farm before the Hellions started arriving for their full moon ritual.

  The ride to Eve’s was beautiful and it helped to calm my already stressed-out nerves. Stopping short of the farm, we decided to stash our bikes in the woods so they couldn’t be easily seen by anyone passing by.

  Chloe carefully placed an open jar of shifter antidote in a hollow stump, where it would be easily lapped up by us upon our return.

  It wasn’t long before dozens of Hellions on motorcycles thundered past our hidden location. I carefully examined each rider, looking for Zane but he was nowhere in sight.

  “I bet he’s already at the farm. It’s his mom’s place after all,” Jade said.

  “I hope so.” I’d been unsure if I wanted to see him partake in the upcoming ritual—whatever it was. But decided it was best to know to what level my half-demon hottie was involved in the mysterious goings-on.

  “Time to strip. Everything off.” I prayed no one would choose that moment to wander out of the thicket of trees as we turned our backs to each other and silently disrobed.

  Our awkwardness about being naked in the woods was overshadowed by our nervous anticipation of shifting into farm animals. I kept reminding myself this was a foolproof plan that we had, for once, thoroughly tested—everything would work out the way it was supposed to.

  Against my better judgment, we unscrewed the lids from our mason jars and clinked them together.

  “Cheers,” I said.

  There was no going back.

  The concoction tasted like cold Brussels sprouts, potato peelings, and coffee grounds, with a hint of oregano. It was the most disgusting mixture I’d ever tasted. After the group gagging session, we fell to the ground. Within a minute, I stood up on four legs instead of my usual two. I had been magically transformed into a beautiful appaloosa mare. Chloe was a clumsy looking black and white cow, and Jade had reverted to her brown and white goat form.

  “I can talk. Oh my god! Seriously? Can you guys hear me?” Jade whispered.

  My head swung around in her direction, startled at this latest development. Who knew we’d have the same ability to speak that we had in human form?

  “Damn. I’ve always prayed for big boobs. Now look at me.” Chloe shook her udder. “Four big boobs just wobbling out there for the world to see. This is so embarrassing.”

  “Technically, you now have one giant boob with four huge nipples,” I pointed out.

  “Thanks. It makes me feel even better,” Chloe groaned as we made our way toward the farm.

  “The tail takes some getting used to, but I love it.” I swished it back and forth like a horse would—or at least I thought it would.

  The full moon was just beginning to climb over the treetops as we quietly moved closer to the farm. The motorcycles were parked near the barn, and we could hear voices coming from inside. Jade wiggled her nose against the large metal gate which secured the pasture behind the barn. Peeking through the huge open door, we could see the Hellions gathering in the dim light of a single lantern.

  Other, real farm animals were already secured in their respective areas for the night—something we hadn’t anticipated.

  “Someone’s going to think we broke loose,” Chloe whispered. “Now what?”

  “They’re bikers, not farmers. They expect to see animals, but I doubt they’ll care what we’re doing,” Jade replied.

  I hoped she was right. “Exactly. Just act natural. Move slow and easy, right behind them so we can hear what’s going on.”

  A green light flickered to life, illuminating a wooden platform. Eve stood in the center, holding a strange lantern which emitted the mysterious light. The ghostly flame flickered over the
crowd assembled below, casting a creepy aura throughout the barn.

  Eve raised the lantern and began to speak. “Once again, you are gathered under the full moon. You are about to be transformed into your truest forms to enjoy your freedom. You will be free to roam the forests and explore all other wild places you find. I remind you, this wilderness you love and enjoy every full moon is still in danger. While the developer Michael McDermott is now incarcerated, your lands are far from safe. Just today, I learned of another hundred acres being bought up by McDermott Estates Development Corporation, even while he sits in jail. I urge you to each pay a terrifying visit to the remaining landowners. You must warn them not to sell out to the development company. You may use every evil trick you have, but do not physically bring harm to them.”

  Someone emerged from the shadowy part of the impromptu stage, joining Eve.

  “Zane,” I whispered.

  We quietly waited with bated breath to see what bizarre demonic form the Hellions would assume. Most concerning to me was the form Zane would take.

  The Hellions in the crowd growled. Their bodies contorted in the ethereal green light. But on the stage, Zane was confronting Eve.

  “Mother. Stop. The landowners have had enough with McDermott’s extortion tactics. Why not appeal to their human nature instead of frightening them into not selling out?”

  “Because their human nature will always put money above justice but there is one thing more important to humans than money, and that is fear. Once the demons give them a warning, they’ll be afraid. Sheer self-preservation will be enough to stop them from selling out.”

  “And what if it doesn’t? This land, nature, everything you and the Hellions draw power from will become one big construction zone. There must be another way rather than resorting to the McDermott playbook.”

  “No, Zane. This is our last stand, our last chance. Someday, you’ll appreciate what I’m doing.”

  “And what about Nelson? He’s dead now. How many more people will have to die before your twisted plan works out?” Zane growled, and turned toward the door.