Perilous Paws (Kitten Witch Cozy Mystery Book 8)

by Corrine Winters

  “You don’t want to be between me and my sister right now.”

  She laid her hand on his arm and chanted a few words. The bodyguard found himself vomiting up a squirming mass of nightcrawlers. He bent over, hands cupped over his mouth, retching over and over but there seemed no end to the worms erupting from his throat—

  At least, to his perspective. The simple illusion tricked his mind, and the party was so wild most people didn’t even notice the man’s distress.

  Ember moved past the panicking man to see Krebs with his fingers around Ash’s throat. Ember slowed, waiting for a sign from Ash on how to act.

  “You broke my ride, witch,” Krebs sputtered.

  Ash didn’t bat an eye. “I can fix your ride. I just need to get back to the altar.”

  Krebs shoved her back by her throat, releasing her to stumble and cough a few feet before slamming into the Yellowjacket.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Krebs muttered, grabbing Ash’s arm in his monkey paw grip.

  Ember grabbed Cedric’s hand. “Come on, we have to get back to the car. We have to follow them, Cedric.”

  “Okay, okay,” Cedric said, offering no argument. He led her back to the PPD and they climbed in swiftly. He followed Krebs’ tail lights as the shirtless man and Ash departed the scene.

  “Careful not to follow too close,” Ember said. “Krebs is paranoid, and with good reason. He’s been abusing the Faerie’s Death’s Head Caps.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “Simple. He out accelerated you even after you used your Nitrous Oxide, and I detected the smell on the exhaust.”

  Ember ticked off her points on her fingers.

  “Secondly, his behavior is telling. Aggressive, xenophobic, agitated—he’s suffering the affects of FDH addiction.”

  “Why would anyone take poisonous mushrooms enough to get addicted?”

  “Because taken in extremely small increments can result in a hallucinogenic, euphoric state. It’s also rumored to strengthen the magic of witches and warlocks who consume it.”

  “Does it work?”

  Ember shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is, Krebs thinks it works for him.”

  “How’s he driving it with a cracked block?”

  “My dad drove a truck with a cracked block for a couple of months. It’s not the death sentence people think it is. Being down a piston means he’s probably running badly, though.”

  “That’s probably why he’s going so slow,” Cedric said.

  “Or he’s onto us. I knew you were getting too close.”

  Krebs suddenly tore off the main road, plunging into the darkness of the unlit highway. Cedric followed, finding a gravel path barely wide enough to qualify as a driveway. They thumped hard over the sudden dip and crackled along the gravel road after Krebs’s tail lights.

  “He’s stopped. I think I see a house up ahead.” Cedric glanced over at her, a pained expression on his face. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

  Ember cocked an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, um...” Cedric arched an eyebrow. “I thought Ash was responsible for the toxic mushrooms.”

  Ember gave him a grim, silent stare. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

  Thirty-One

  Ember kept the protective ward up as she and Cedric crept along the rock-strewn path toward Krebs’ home. The two-story post-modern home was spacious, if in poor repair. No lights glowed from inside of the dwelling.

  “I’ll check it out.” Cedric shifted into his wolf form, dropping to all fours and giving his great shaggy form a twisting shake. Cedric padded silently up the steps, his nose snuffling the ground.

  Ember watched his progress. Her eyes widened when she saw the glow of a mine spell.

  “Cedric wait!”

  Cedric paused, too late. His paw struck the outer edge of the magical ward. A semicircle of greenish light emanated up around his wolf form. Cedric cried out, then twisted around on the ground until he adopted his human guise once more. His howl died into a whine, then a human gasp.

  “Cedric?” Ember raced over to him. “Are you all right?”

  To her relief, he still breathed. Cedric’s eyes fluttered open. “I think so. Just need a minute…”

  Ember cast a quick mind clouding spell on Cedric. Anyone who looked at him with the intent to harm would be unable to see him clearly. She kissed the top of his head. “Pull yourself together, I’ll keep looking.”

  Ember raced up the shallow steps, hopping over the mine spells when she came upon them. A reddish energy web blocked the front door. Ember’s eyes narrowed. It was a binding spell which would have held her in place while a weak but steady flame would slowly sear her flesh from her bones.

  It was a dark magic spell, which prompted Ember to greater caution. She kept her shield at the ready as her left hand opened, palm facing upward.

  Ember summoned a magical missile known as Ajax’s Sear to her hand. It crackled with energy and would hit any target she sent it at. However, she could only summon one per day, and if she didn’t throw it within a few minutes the backlash could cause her injury.

  “Ash?” Ember called out.

  “Oh, she can’t hear you,” Krebs said, appearing in the doorway across the living space from Ember. “She’s a little bit…tied up at the moment.”

  He doubled over, laughing at his own joke. Krebs sucked on a vape, the end lighting up and flashing. He spewed out a cloud of indigo smoke, then immediately doubled over coughing.

  “You’re killing yourself with that stuff, Krebs,” Ember called out. “Just like you killed those poor people who ate at the buffet provided by Olberman.”

  Krebs’s sweating face contorted into a sneer. “Olberman? That man is a swine. I had intended for him to eat the salad, but the jerkwad was on a paleo cleanse. I figured if a few of his party guests dropped dead it would reflect bad on him in any case.”

  Ember glared. “You killed people just to make a businessman look bad?”

  “So what? They’re just insects anyway. Once Ash unlocked the power of the Death’s head caps, I took my first steps to immortality.”

  Ember pursed her lips, feeling genuine pity for him. “You only think that they’re making you stronger, Krebs. How did you convince my sister to hurt people?”

  Krebs scowled. “I didn’t. She tried to betray me by keeping the dosage of Death’s Head caps small enough to be non lethal. Fortunately, I intervened without her knowledge. It’s a shame Olberman didn’t succumb, but I’ll get him yet. He won’t develop this area and put an end to our racing tradition.”

  “Your racing tradition that started up all of three years ago, you mean. You’d really kill people just to keep doing your dumb street races?”

  “Don’t call them dumb,” Krebs sputtered. “It takes a lot of skill.”

  “Yeah, so does making me a Whopper at Burger King. I like double lettuce, no tomato. That doesn’t mean they deserve trophies, or acclaim.”

  “See here now,” Krebs said. “Racing is a noble tradition that dates back to the earliest days of the internal combustion engine. Men have sweated, bled and died on the sacred track.”

  “For what? So a redneck in a jumpsuit can take a million dollar endorsement deal for turning left? While you scamper and scrape for whatever scraps you can get.”

  “I have over a million YouTube subscribers,” he sputtered.

  “And they pay you how much for each subscription again? Or do you pay them so they don’t have to watch?”

  Krebs howled, chanting a spell and then taking a big puff on his vape. He spewed a cloud of noxious gas, magically enhanced to expand the room. Ember, blinded, did all she knew to do. She let the spear fly, crackling across the room.

  Krebs howled again, this time in agony. She heard a heavy thump as she doffed her shirt and wrapped it around her nose and mouth.

  Coughing, Ember moved past the still form of Krebs. His ey
es rolled back in his head, a line of foaming drool slithered down his chin.

  “Nightly night,” Ember said, patting his cheek before she continued on past him.

  She opened windows to clear away the toxic smoke before heading down into the basement. Ember found Ash there, chained to the wall with a gas mask over her face. Ember raced to her side and pulled the mask away.

  Ash spit out a wad of cloth and gasped as Ember moved to release her.

  “Thanks, it was getting hard to breathe,” Ash said. “Jerk knew that if I couldn’t speak or move my hands, I couldn’t use magic.”

  “He’s a warlock,” Ember said.

  “For real? I thought he was just a poseur.”

  “He has enough magic to be dangerous, mostly to himself.” Ember set Ash free and helped her sit on a nearby stool. “How did you end up with Krebs anyway? And why didn’t you contact me?”

  Ash sighed. “I was looking for a grimoire Krebs was supposed to have. The Libras Eternum. When I hooked up with him, I found out about his plan to poison Olberman with the Death’s Head fungus, and figured I’d better stick around to make sure it didn’t go off. I failed, though…”

  Ash held her head in her hands. “I should have asked for help. I didn’t know Krebs was playing me until it was too late. By then, he was so paranoid he’d smashed my phone, and, and I had to keep up the ruse twenty-four seven or he’d have caught me. I was on damage control, you know?”

  Ember sighed. “What’s important is you’re safe, and you’re not a killer.”

  Ash cocked an eyebrow. “How did you figure out Krebs was the killer anyway?”

  Ember dug out the calendar scrap and grinned. “Krebs, Lead Sled. I just didn’t know the Hot Rod jargon. Now, come on. Cedric should be recovered by now.”

  “Just a minute. Since we’re in the basement, I want to check here for the Libras. It’s the one place I haven’t been able to search.”

  “He hasn’t shown you his sex dungeon before now?” Ember asked.

  “Yeah, right, he wishes.” Ash winked. She dug through a bookshelf, then hissed through clenched teeth. “Yes! Here it is.”

  “Why did you want that tome anyway? It’s not dark magic, is it?”

  “Of course not. The Libras is a sort of atlas to the dimensions throughout the universe. I thought it might be a big help to finding where the hag stashed Cedric’s memories.”

  Ember smiled. “Thanks, Ash.”

  “Anytime.” They hugged tightly, then headed up top to find Cedric putting the cuffs on a drooling Krebs. “Multiple counts of murder by poisoning means when he wakes up, he’ll be looking at a century before he sees daylight. Or more.”

  Ember hugged Ash again, and they staggered out into the night air. For the first time in a while, Ember could look up at the moon and breathe a sigh of relief.

  Ash was safe. Ash remembered her. In that, she could take comfort.

  Thirty-Two

  Ember sat in the living room with April while Cedric finished up the lunch dishes. Ember held up a flash card with a math equation on it written in bold black letters.

  “How about this one?”

  April’s face scrunched up.

  “It’s okay to use your fingers,” Ember said. “You’re still learning.”

  April unfolded her thin fingers and counted, her lips moving silently. She lifted her blue eyes up to Ember’s gaze. “Four?”

  “That’s right. Good job.”

  Cedric came out of the kitchen, a towel slung over his shoulder. He leaned against the threshold to the living area, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched Ember and April working together.

  “What about this one?” Ember asked, holding up a new card.

  April peered at the card and scowled. “I don’t like the ones with the X’s.”

  “Sweetie, you need to know this for second grade. You want to go on to second grade with all your friends don’t you?”

  April sighed. “Yes.”

  “Then come on, give it a try.”

  April pursed her lips, blowing air out in an exasperated sigh. It teased a lock of her hair before subsiding. “X’s mean you add the second number together that many times?”

  “Yes, dear.”

  April scowled. “I don’t know. It’s hard! Can’t I go out and play?”

  “We need to get through this, April. I told your teacher we’d get you caught up on your homework. Besides, you need time for your food to settle.”

  Munkilok snapped his gaze up to glare at Ember. “She said she wants to go out and play, witch.”

  “This is important, Munkilok. If you care about her, you’ll encourage April to do it.”

  “Bah. I think nothing of your stupid cards.” Munkilok used April’s hand to snatch the card right out of Ember’s grasp. He gleefully ripped it in half and leaped to his feet, laughing as he rushed outside.

  Ember sighed, rubbing her temples with her thumbs. Cedric moved behind her, his strong fingers massaging her shoulders. Ember gasped, leaning her head back in the chair.

  “Oh God, that’s the spot.”

  “You’re so tense.”

  “We’re trying to coax a possessing entity out of a first-grade girl without traumatizing her further, you’ve lost your memories, and my sister is obsessed with studying that Libras to the point she barely goes outside any longer. I think that warrants some stress.”

  Cedric massaged a hard knot of stubborn inflammation away from her neck. Ember moaned and leaned forward so he could more easily reach.

  “It certainly does. Ash really thinks we can find my memories using that book?”

  “It’s like a roadmap. Based on Aetrix’s background and magical orientation, Ash thinks she can extrapolate which dimensions in the multiverse the hag could have accessed. It will narrow things down some, if nothing else.”

  Cedric went to work on her shoulders, big knuckles grinding away pain and strain. “What are we going to do about April?”

  “I don’t know,” Ember said. “We need to get her to shut the door that allows Munkilok access to her mind and body, but she doesn’t think he’s a bad guy. He might not even think he is, either, but it’s not healthy for that girl to grow up with a spirit sharing her head.”

  “No, it’s not.” Cedric’s voice grew husky. “I know you’ll figure it out, Ember. You’re a brilliant woman.”

  Ember looked up toward Cedric as his touch grew more sensual. Her eyes half lidded; she lifted her lips toward his as he leaned in for a kiss.

  Cedric took her breath away with a kiss so passionate she could taste all the repressed feelings they’d both endured. Ember exulted in his familiar taste, ran her fingers through his soft, wavy hair—

  “Hey, witch.”

  Ember and Cedric broke apart as April ran back inside, wearing Munkilok’s devious expression.

  “Your hotter sister is here, looking crazy as all heck. You might want to see what she wants.”

  Cedric glared. “Hotter sister?”

  “Let it go, dear, he’s trying to get a rise out of you.” Ember moved to the door and peered outside. Ash stood in the lawn, spreading white powder in a circle about herself. “What is she doing?”

  As Ember exited the house and approached Ash, she noticed how filthy her sister’s garb truly was. It was as if Ash had gotten wet and then rolled around in the dirt. Her hair matted against her scalp added to the generally haphazard image she presented.

  “Ember! I did it, I found out how to use the Libras to open gates to other dimensions! Cedric’s memories are as good as found.”

  “Slow down, Ash. Remember what happened the last time you went off all lone ranger and did something halfcocked.”

  “Ah, it’ll be fine. I did it once already.”

  “You what?” Ember was aghast. “You went to another dimension? I thought that was supposed to be crazy dangerous.”

  “I’m a crazy good witch,” Ash said with a wink. “And so are you! We can do this, Ember.”
>
  Ember’s hand flew in front of her mouth. “The Faerie Death’s Head Caps…it was all over the basement where Krebs held you hostage. I think you got dosed, sis.”

  “Nah, no way,” Ash said. She completed the sand circle and clapped her hands together. “Now, watch this.”

  Ember felt the gathering of eldritch forces and cried out. “No, Ash, wait!”

  The white circle lit up so brightly Ember had to shield her eyes with her forearm. As it faded into a dull glow, Ember lowered her arm once more, blinking in the strange light. Ember gaped, looking up at a blood red sky populated by slowly flying, enormous green reptiles with insect wings.

  The landscape itself was blasted and torn, jagged peaks and rugged fissures running through hard, pitiless ground. A bolt of lightning crackled through the sky overhead. Green lightning.

  “Ash, what have you done?” Ember sputtered. “Where have you brought us? Where are we?”

  Ember turned to grab an apparently dazed Ash and shake her. “What have you done, Ash? What have you done?”

  * * *

  To be continued…

  * * *

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  Check out my newest series, Hex and the City. This is a fully built out world that I’m going for. Look for the Hex and the City logo and you’ll know you’re in my world! If you like funny paranormal chick lit cozy mystery, then read on!

  * * *

  Witching & Moaning

  Hex and the City, Book 1

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  By Corrine Winters

  Thirty-Three

  The yellow taxi’s brakes squealed as it rolled to a stop outside the ten-story brownstone. Blair peered out of the back window, her heart leaping with joy inside her chest.