by Bella Falls
I spotted the large hood over the gas burning stove. “Hey, Beau. Think you could fly up this and see if there is a way out?”
“But I'll get dirty.” He wrinkled his nose.
I pushed him toward the stove. “It's either that or someone else will take your place at the house.”
His eyes rimmed with pink tears. “You’re kicking me out?”
“No, you fool. If we die here, then Tipper’s house will go to someone else. And I'm guessing they won't ask you to stay there.”
He sniffed. “Point well made. And it's your house now.”
Shaking my head, I glanced at the darkened hole in the hood, hoping for our luck to change. “We don't have time to make distinctions. Now change into a bat and go.”
Beau did as I asked, and the bat squeaked and fluttered its way up the vent above the stove burners.
When he flew back down and returned to his form, he coughed profusely. “They need to do a serious cleaning.” Dark smudges covered his face.
“But can you get out?”
“I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?”
“Just tell me.”
Beau dusted himself off. “Bad news is that there's a vent grill covering it.”
I groaned. “There can't be any good news after that. We’re stuck.”
He held up a finger. “Don't lose hope. The good news is that the metal is rusty. A side effect of existing in the Southern humidity. With a little force, I think I can force my way out.”
I kissed the old vampire on the cheek. “Brilliant. When you do make it out, go find Nana. And whatever you do, don't bring my brother back with you. He'll never let me hear the end of this.”
“Find your grandmother. Got it.” He nodded once and poofed into a bat again. Listening to his squeaks and the grating of metal on metal, I waited for him to return. When he didn't, I allowed myself to hope again.
Skeeter smashed that hope to smithereens when he flitted his way into the kitchen. “We've got even bigger problems.”
Chapter Four
I fingered the piece of paper with a specific recipe on it I’d found on the floor while cleaning up and waiting for Beau to come through. “Oh, Ali Kat. What have you done?”
In her handwriting, she’d written directions on how to add a few extra ingredients to baked items in order to encourage love. It didn’t feel awesome to confirm my suspicions.
If she affected the baked goods and someone else snuck a love potion in the lemonade, then no wonder we teetered on the edge of disaster. And what if there were more ingredients slipped into the mix?
The kitchen door swung open with a crash. “You have got to figure out what to do.” Skeeter flitted around the kitchen, dipping up and down and knocking things off with a noisy clatter. “Don't you have fancy-schmancy powers or something?”
I set a whisk back on the nearby table. “Sometimes I can find things that are lost. But we’re talking about objects, not figuring out spells.”
“Well, just use those powers in reverse. Because at this point, we are going to become Love’s roadkill rather than its new fans.” Skeeter’s rather un-poetic statement conjured up an image of him being smooshed under a large truck tire.
Beau needed to be successful in finding my grandma. As the strongest witch in town and the one that sat in the high seat of the town council, she’d know exactly what to do.
Hiding in the kitchen to save my own skin wouldn't be one of the things she would endorse. It would be spiteful not to attempt to solve the situation before she ever arrived. And as Nana always said, an ounce of spite is worth a pound of unicorn manure. As bad as things were getting, we were knee-deep in it at this point.
My tracking powers wouldn’t do me much good standing in the kitchen. I snatched Skeeter out of the air and dragged him with me back to the front counter. Picking up the punch bowl, I tried hard to get a read on it.
Skeeter hovered behind me. “What are you, crazy or something? I told you not to let that stuff touch you.”
“I’m not sloshing it around. I'm trying to get a read from it. See if I can reverse the process and find the one responsible rather than using the person to find out who spiked it.” I ducked as something flew right by my head.
The failed cupid floated a few inches away from me. “Don't say I didn't warn you.”
Usually, I needed some quiet and a bit of time to concentrate to tap into my core of energy. With the cacophony of chaos around me, getting any quiet would be impossible.
I shut my eyes and did my best to concentrate, adding a rhyme like I used to when I needed the extra focus. “Block the chaos and all my stress. Help me find who made this mess.”
A burst of energy poured out of me in several directions, and I waited. Nothing. No line of connection. No spellwork to tether me to the culprit and pull me towards them.
Ducking back behind the counter, I panicked. “It's not working. I think it's because I'm holding the bowl and not touching the lemonade itself.”
Skeeter shook his finger at me. “But if you touch the liquid, I can't be held responsible for what might happen to you.”
I stared at the pink concoction and weighed my options. “Frosted fairy wings, what else can I do?”
“You said that you usually use the person to find an object, right?” Skeeter asked.
“Oh no,” I groaned. The mosquito of a cupid had a point. My powers left me only one more option. I had to venture into the main room and try touching folks to see who tampered with the lemonade.
“Wait a minute.” Skeeter rushed back into the kitchen.
“Coward,” I cried out.
He surprised me when he returned, holding a metal mixing bowl. “What's that for?”
“Your head. You're going into battle, you might as well try to protect your noggin.” He held out the shiny metal bowl.
See, it was that kind of charming stupidity that had made me want to help the pitiful cupid in the first place. What could I say, I was a sucker for other suckers.
I accepted Skeeter’s offering and surveyed the battlefield. Couples flung each other about in a wild dance. It broke my heart to see Alison Kate and Lily with the wrong guys. But I had bigger fish to fry, and I couldn't let my personal feelings get in the way. Juniper whizzed by my head, her dark green trail sparkling behind her. Horatio destroyed everything in his path, attempting to grab the fairy out of the air.
“Me like pretty flying thing.” He giggled, which in any other circumstance might seem comical.
But the troll’s regression to a more primal version of himself scared me. What would happen if someone in the room upset him? Then we'd all be in terrible danger.
Placing the mixing bowl on top of my head, I gave a weak salute to Skeeter. “Wish me luck.”
Jumping over the counter, I crouched down and made my way around the room as plastered to the wall and out of the way as possible. With my guess about the red velvet cake pops, I decided to test my talents with my friend first. Approaching Alison Kate, I took her hand out of Ben's grasp. Neither of my friends seemed too pleased.
“What do you think you're doing?” Ben frowned at me, his eyes vacant of real comprehension.
“Sorry, but I need to borrow her for a second. Why don't you go dance with Lily?” I pushed him toward the right girl.
He scrunched his face up. “She is no fun. I want someone who is a laugh.”
I turned my back on him and reached for Alison Kate's second hand, concentrating on her. A crash nearby made it almost impossible.
Needing to come up with another quick spell to focus my powers, I did my best. “Give my powers a little shove. Find who cast a spell for love.”
A pink glowing string of connection extended between my friend and the platter of red velvet cake pops. Even though I was the only one who could detect the link, it fueled my hope. “Gotcha, Ali Kat.”
Alison Kate blinked at me. Scolding her now wouldn't do any good. Whatever spell she was under
, she might not even remember in the long run. And I was running out of time.
Ben returned to her side, with Lee in tow. “See? She's trying to keep us apart.”
The vacant look on Lee's face confirmed how affected he was. Separating him from Lily, I held Lee's hands against his protests. I repeated the same spell to help me concentrate and waited.
A thin pink line glowed between Lee and the punch bowl. “Leland Chalmers, Jr., what did you put in the lemonade?”
He produced a flask from his back pocket, and I did my best not to shutter at one of my late great uncle’s possessions. “A little moonshine never hurt anybody.”
Had my friend been in his right mind, I'd be the last person he’d say those words to. The urge to punch him rose in my chest, but the urgency of the situation kept my head cooled. “You spiked the drink?”
He nodded, unscrewing the cap on the flask and pouring a little bit more liquid into his red plastic cup. “Wasn't all me neither. Dash brought it here, although I think he had more reason to come than this.” Lee wiggled his eyebrows at me.
A quick check of my other two friends showed me no connection of them to any object in the room. Great. Four down, a room full of raving idiots to go.
“Good, Charli, you’re back. Nice hat.” Mason’s deep voice thundered over the noise behind me. “See, I told you I wouldn't let you get away.”
I turned to face the detective. “Mason, concentrate. I need your help. For real. Please fight the spell you’re under and wake up.” I snapped my fingers in front of his face. He turned cross-eyed, concentrating on them. With a goofy grin, he snapped his own fingers in the air.
“Cool, new rhythm for us to dance to.” He stomped his feet and clapped his hands. “Don't you people here down South do square dancing or something?”
Without waiting for a response, he held my hands and whipped me into the center of the room, whooping and hollering.
A rougher hand grabbed my arm. “I think the lady would rather dance with me.” Dash pulled on me to yank me away from the detective.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Mason grabbed my other side. “She wants to be with me.”
“And I say different,” growled Dash.
The two men yanked back and forth on me, and the metal mixing bowl flew off my head, landing with a loud rattle on the floor. The last thing I needed was to be a human wishbone torn apart by two delusional men.
“Stop it, both of you.” I tried to pull my arms out of their grips. When neither would let go, I knew I needed to play the game. Faking tears, I shook my lower lip with purpose. “You're hurting me,” I lied.
Both men dropped my arms and apologized profusely.
“Idiots,” I muttered.
“You hurt her, you monster,” Mason accused.
“Who you callin’ monster?” Dashes eyes flashed gold. Not a good sign.
“You know I can stop you where you stand, werewolf.” Mason shook out his hands and pushed up his sleeves, preparing to throw some of his warden authority power at the big man.
“I told you before, I am a wolf shifter. There is a difference, and I'm happy to give you a lesson if you say it one more time.” The corner of Dash’s mouth curled into a snarl and fur rippled over his knuckles.
“Were—,” Mason began.
Never before had I been so happy for a troll to almost trample us, breaking up the fight as we fled out of his way. Trying to find anyone else who had tampered with the lemonade was pointless. We were all mere minutes away from becoming smears on the floor. I pushed my way through the crowd and hopped back over behind the counter next to Skeeter.
“You did your best.” He patted my back.
“My best isn't going to save the day this time,” I whined.
“Well, now you sound just like me. What a pathetic pair we make. At least now nobody will survive to let the world know about our failures. So there is that bright side.” His wings fluttered in acceptance.
Standing up, I placed my hands on my hips. “There's another possible bright side.”
“What's that?” asked Skeeter.
Taking the ladle from the punch bowl, I dipped it into the pink liquid. “You know what they say. If you can't find a unicorn, you might as well turn yourself into one.” I poured a copious amount of the drink into a red plastic cup.
“That's a stupid saying, Charli,” warned Skeeter, waving his hands to stop me.
“If this ship’s going down, then I might as well go crazy with the rest of them. Then, maybe, I won't have to stand by and watch my friends destroy themselves.” I lifted the cup to my lips and steadied myself for the content’s effects.
A loud pounding from outside the building stopped me. Peering out the glass front door, I spotted a small tornado twisting outside, lightning shooting out of it. Just what we needed, a disaster on top of another disaster. With words on the wind, the tornado hit the door, blasting it open with full force. As soon as it had appeared, the tornado dissipated, and in its place stood my grandmother.
“Nana,” I called out in relief.
My grandmother peered at me over her glasses. “Charli Bird, why is it that whenever there's trouble, I seem to find you in the middle of it?”
Chapter Five
To the best of her magic, Nana salvaged what chairs and tables she could. Everyone sat in a circle, looking disheveled and a bit frightened. They all held red plastic cups in their hands.
“I said drink it all down,” insisted Nana.
“But it's sick and tastes…disgusting,” protested Linsey, shivering after taking a hesitant sip.
Nana had mixed up an emergency batch of her special sludge for everyone. I hoped that one day she would let me in on its magical ingredients, but for now, I was satisfied that everyone tasted the awful concoction that had helped save my life before.
Doc checked over each person for any lingering effects. My brother, Matt, who Beau failed at keeping away, kept the group secure in the building with his own warden protection.
“How did this happen?” whispered Alison Kate. Stray tears streamed out of her eyes as she looked around her place of employment. “Twinkle and Sprinkle will be so mad at me.”
Matt walked to the edge of the circle. “That's a good question. What did happen? Charli, as the one person seemingly not affected, I hope you have some answers.”
“Me, too. My memory’s a little fuzzy.” Ben rubbed his forehead.
Murmurs of agreement and requests for me to explain things echoed around the room. I caught Mason’s eyes, but he glanced away from me, scowling. Normally, this was his job. To present the theories and facts and suss out the suspects. No doubt his ego had taken a beating. I'd feel bad for him later.
Pacing in the center of the room, I worked through my string of thoughts. “I first suspected something was wrong after I returned from picking up the cherry pies at the diner. Even that early into the event, my gut was doing a number on me.”
My brother’s eyebrows furrowed. “What was your first clue?”
I glanced at my four friends, now sitting in the right pairings, Lee holding Alison Kate's hand and Ben checking to make sure Lily drank her thick medicine. “Everyone's typical behavior was altered. We can all make subtle changes in ourselves from time to time, but we don't shift into a completely different person all of a sudden.”
“I do,” growled Dash. He gave me a short nod and the vaguest hint of a smile, sipping on his drink. I appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood.
“So then, who cast the spell?” asked my grandmother.
“That's the question I tried to answer before you got here. The cause of all the problems started with the lemonade.” I pointed at the punch bowl of pink liquid still on the counter behind everybody.
“But didn’t you make it?” Alison Kate stared at me wide-eyed.
I nodded. “I was trying to help Skeeter with his last-minute tasks.”
Linsey locked onto me like a vulture. “So you’re the culprit?” I could s
ee her composing another article in her head that would become my headache in the morning.
My friends jumped to my defense, and I attempted to calm them down. Nana punished Linsey by pouring more sludge into her cup, daring her not to drink it with her famous stare.
Watching her face screw up in disgust bolstered me. “Like I said, I was sent to pick up pies, so at some point, the lemonade was not in my control. I'm guessing that in the time I was gone, the lemonade was spiked with something.”
“With what?” Alison Kate asked. Lee slouched in his chair.
Nana groaned with recognition, and I nodded at her. “A love potion.” Gasps of shock filled the room.
“And why would a simple love potion have affected us as poorly as it did?” Mason sat up straighter in his chair, unable to deny his natural detecting instincts.
I held up my finger. “One love potion, no, it shouldn't have affected everyone. But…multiple love potions mixing together could cause some serious reactions.”
Murmurs of surprise and looks of guilt were shared. I paced in the middle of the circle. “Lee, you admitted to me that you spiked the lemonade with moonshine.”
My brother clenched his fists. “Are you serious?”
Lee leaned forward in his seat. “Yeah, it’s true. I’m guiltier than a horn dog in springtime. I had Dash bring me a special batch. But I only meant it for good, I swear.”
He mouthed an apology at me and continued. “You see, my great-grandpappy told us the story of how he earned Great-Granny’s love way back in the day. He passed that special recipe down in our family as a way to secure our own true loves.”
“And what's involved in that recipe?” I pushed my friend.
Unable to deny his guilt, Lee gave up his information. “I put a stash of rose quartz in with the mash. Supposedly, soaking the grain with the stones encourages love when given to another person to drink.”
Nana clicked her tongue. “Boy, you know that your great-grandpappy was telling tall tales, don't you? Lorinda Mae had her eyes set on Eustis from the first time she laid eyes on him. He didn’t need any help. And you don't go messin’ around with crystals or stones if you don't respect their properties. How many did you use?”
