by Linda Wisdom
“And do it right.” He grinned, waving the paper in the air. “Thanks for letting me be part of the fun.”
Stasi ran for her Explorer and Blair climbed into the passenger seat.
“How could they do that?” Blair exploded as Stasi started up the engine.
“Ultimate cruelty.” She aimed the SUV toward the main road.
Blair was positive her stomach was boiling over with acid by the time Stasi reached the bottom of the mountain. It was made worse when they had to stop for directions twice.
By the time they pulled into the parking lot and Blair jumped out of the vehicle, she was ready to throttle anyone in her way. She knew that was an excellent reason for Stasi to be with her. She’d need her friend’s calming influence to get through this without turning anyone into warthogs or worse.
The minute they entered the animal shelter they heard the varied howls, yips, and meows from the inhabitants.
“Can I help you?” A volunteer from behind a waist-high counter asked with a bright smile.
“Yes, I was told my Border Collie was brought in here.” Blair mustered a smile she didn’t feel.
The volunteer’s smile dimmed. “A male Border Collie was brought in last night.”
“That’s got to be my Jake,” she said brightly. “I didn’t realize he got loose and I’m sure I’ll have to pay something to retrieve him. I’m really sorry this happened.”
“Um, ma’am, I’m afraid it’s not that easy. The police brought him in here because he mauled a child,” she said slowly. “He’s been labeled dangerous and is in quarantine for now. Naturally, he can’t be released.”
“Dangerous?” Blair’s voice indicated just who the dangerous one was. “My dog has never bitten anyone. In fact, from what I’ve been able to learn, a vindictive son of a bitch lied to get my dog out of the way. So there was no mauling, and I want my dog now.”
“Blair, if they succeed with this farce of Roan’s, the shelter will have to destroy him,” Stasi muttered under her breath.
“I’m not leaving without my dog.” Blair refused to back down.
“I’ll get the supervisor.” The volunteer practically ran to the back room.
“We have to get him out of here.” Blair’s mind whirled with possibilities, but for now her pressing need was to see Jake and make sure he was all right. “And damn the consequences.”
By the time the shelter’s supervisor arrived, Blair was loaded for bear, but she forced herself to relax and offer a friendly smile overlaid with concern. She was determined not to give the supervisor any reason to call the police because a dog owner went ballistic. Keeping her magick under wraps wasn’t easy, since her temper was feeding it.
She waited while the supervisor explained Blair couldn’t just take her dog home even if she had the proper paperwork—paperwork that Blair magickally produced when asked for proof she was the owner, including the dog’s vaccination papers and a clean bill of health from a local veterinarian.
“Then I want to see him,” she insisted. “I want to make sure he’s all right.”
“He’s been sleeping a lot, and I doubt he’d know you were here,” the supervisor went on. And I know why. Blair silently vowed extra retaliation for the tranquilizer dart.
Luckily, Stasi quickly intervened and with a magickal soft nudge she and Blair were escorted to a rear room.
Blair’s heart sank when she looked at the red tag attached to the kennel bars, labeling the dog as dangerous. A sluggish Jake was sprawled on a blanket in one corner of the concrete floor. His chest rose in shallow breaths. For a moment Blair feared she was too late. She tamped down the darkness inside her that threatened to erupt.
“Jake?” She crouched down, her fingers wrapped around the bars.
“I wouldn’t get too close,” the supervisor warned, but one fulminating look from Blair had her backing off.
“Jake? Look at me. It’s Blair.”
The dog had trouble lifting his head and whimpered, but his tail slowly thumped against the floor a few times.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of here,” she whispered low enough for only him to hear.
He whined softly in response, but his eyes were still hazy.
Blair looked over her shoulder and caught Stasi’s attention.
I need five minutes, she mouthed.
Stasi gave a brief nod. “Play statues, if you please.” She touched each woman on the arm and they immediately froze. “Do it fast,” she told Blair.
Blair quickly released the lock and pulled open the gate, kneeling on the cold concrete floor.
“Okay, baby, we need to do something you might not like, but it’s the only way I can get you out of here without any trouble.” She frowned at the odd-looking metal banded collar around his neck. She knew that Jake never wore a collar when he was in dog form. It was easy to guess it was an unwanted gift. A quick scan told her the collar held enough magick to keep him in canine form. “We’ll deal with that later,” she said grimly. “But first things first.” She placed her palms gently along the dog’s side. “Dog so mighty. Dog go small. Come be six inches tall.” Jake’s body shivered as pink and gold sparks traveled from Blair’s hands and covered him. The sparks cleared away to reveal what appeared to be a toy dog that she immediately picked up and gently tucked inside her bag. She took a deep breath and concentrated. “Old dog gone. New dog here. Sit and stay until we are clear. Make it so.” She waited until the vision of a Border Collie materialized on the floor before she left the kennel, quickly locking the gate. “Okay.”
Stasi released the two women and chuckled as if one of them had said something funny.
“I can’t bear to see him like this,” Blair said, squeezing out a few tears. “You said he mauled someone and I refuse to believe he’d do that. I’m going to the police and finding out exactly what happened. This is ridiculous.” She brushed past the women and headed for the exit.
“She raised the dog from a puppy,” Stasi explained as they all left with a tearful Blair leading the way.
“We need to get out of here pretty fast,” Blair said as they drove away from the shelter.
“How long do you think the illusion spell will last?”
“Ten minutes. As long as there’s no disturbance back there, it could last even longer.” She carefully took the small dog out of her bag and settled him in her palms. He lay inert, appearing to barely breathe.
Stasi took one look and pressed harder on the accelerator. “I did something for that ‘just in case’ factor. They saw a sedan and not an SUV, and they think you were a brunette and I was Asian.”
“Wow, you thought of everything. I am really impressed.”
“Just don’t tell Trev. He winces any time I bend the law—human or magickal—a bit.” She didn’t hesitate in increasing their speed. “I magick myself out of one speeding ticket and you’d think I’d robbed a bank.”
“They put a collar on him,” Blair whispered, her fingers hovering over the dog.
“A collar? He’s never worn one.”
“He’s wearing one now, and it’s bespelled to keep him in dog form.” She felt her temper rise again. “I’ll have to get it off. If only he would have let me use that protection spell for him last night! Of course, they’d find a way to get back at us. And what better way than to tranq him, throw him in a shelter, and make sure he’s on their most ready to kill list?”
“We’ve got him now,” Stasi assured her. “And we’ll soon have him free.”
Blair glanced at her friend, grateful that Stasi would do anything she could to help her and Jake. Her friend who once wouldn’t break one teeny tiny magickal rule was now helping Blair break more than a few laws, and looked as if she was having a blast doing it.
As the Explorer sped up the mountain, Blair thought of Horace’s errand.
“I wonder how Horace did with the poop bonfires?” she mused, keeping Jake warm within the folds of her jacket. Stasi cranked up the heat and Blair di
rected the vents toward him.
“What do you think? This is probably the most fun he’s had in ages.”
For the first time in the past ninety minutes, Blair smiled.
“I hope he took pictures.”
***
“It was awesome!” Horace bounced up and down in his excitement as he met Blair and Stasi at the kitchen door. “Let me tell you, wolf shit smells really bad when it’s set on fire. I put bags outside of every door, so they got it everywhere. That Roan dude was royally pissed, too. And I left a bag at the end of one of the ski runs and someone ran right into it!” he chortled. “Talk about brown skid marks,” he snickered.
“He enjoyed his task way too much,” Irma told them, drifting into the kitchen with Phinneas behind her. “Where did you get the toy dog? Oh no! Is that Jake?”
Blair didn’t answer as she swiftly walked down the hallway to her bedroom, where she laid the tiny dog on her bed.
Horace skidded to a stop and hopped onto the end of the bed while Irma and Phinneas crowded around. “Whoa! What did Jake do to have you turn him into a toy?”
“It was the only way I could get him out of an animal shelter that would have destroyed him.” Blair’s heart tightened with worry as she heard the soft whimpers coming from the dog. She knelt by the bed and gently ran her fingers over his fur. When one finger got too close to the collar, she felt a shock that not only zapped her but Jake. “Damn it! It won’t allow me to get too close, much less remove it. Shocks like that could end up killing him.”
“Let me see what I can find on enchanted apparel and accessories.” Stasi ran out of the room.
“Doggie so tiny. Doggie so small. Doggie grow tall. Make it so!” She lightly pressed her fingers against Jake’s back legs and watched while her power shimmered over him and he lengthened to his usual size. His woof! wasn’t as strong as usual but he licked her hand. As he tried to scramble up, he fell back, panting.
“It’s the collar,” she told him. “It’s keeping you in canine form and it’s protected. We need to find a way to get it off. Still, you’re out of that shelter. Good thing, because if they decided you weren’t dangerous, you would have been neutered and put up for adoption.” The dog’s soft growl told her his opinion of that. She smiled. “You’re safe now. Ten to one you’re still feeling the effects of the tranquilizer dart they shot you with. Horace found one out in the woods.” Her smile disappeared and anger started building up again. “Thank the Fates my location spell worked.” She stroked his head and looked into his dark eyes, still glazed from whatever he’d been shot with. “I’ll get you feeling better. I promise,” she whispered, dropping a kiss on his head.
She heard the phone ring and ignored it. A moment later the ringing stopped, so she knew either Stasi had picked up or the voice mail had kicked in.
“I bet you’re hungry, too.” She smiled at the sound of a tiny whine. “That we can take care of. Let me get you something.” She climbed off the bed, careful not to jostle him. “Gee, Jake, it seems every time you’re in my bed you’re in dog form.” She dropped another kiss on his head and left the room.
“Man, they did a number on you.” Horace could be heard chattering away as she left. “I bet you’d love what Blair had me do this morning. We’re talking bags of burning wolf shit all over the place up there. They were running around putting out the fires and gagging at the smell. Most fun I’ve had in centuries.”
“Great, now he’ll want to help us all the time,” Blair muttered, heading to the kitchen for coffee for herself and to figure out what she could give Jake.
“We have a voice mail from a royally ticked off Roan,” Stasi announced from her spot at the kitchen table, where piles of spell books were scattered across the surface. “He seems to think we had something to do with the stinkfest up at the resort. I vote we call him back never.”
Blair looked at the coffeepot-shaped clock that perked on the wall. “The shops!” she groaned.
“I called Ashley and Jordan and asked if they could work today,” Stasi said. “They jumped at the chance to earn some extra money, so I opened the shops for them and warned Felix to behave. Horace can stay up here.”
“He’s back there telling Jake all about his big adventure.” Blair poured herself a cup of coffee then rummaged in the pantry. “Jake really needs to eat something. Do we have any cans of dog food left?”
“No, but I think there’s still some roast beef he could have.” Stasi put one book aside and picked up another. “So far no luck in finding anything on enchanted dog collars, although I did find a great spell to look ten pounds thinner.”
“The trouble is, it’s someone else’s spell. We really need to know what they did.”
“That would mean confronting Roan.”
“I know.” Blair sipped her coffee and sat down at the table, pulling one of the books toward her. “Too bad these never have a table of contents.” She studied the elegant calligraphy that detailed a spell to change a gown’s design and color. “I want to see if there are other options first.”
“We could go to The Library.”
“Where The Librarian would give us riddles instead of answers. No thanks. We’ll figure this out for ourselves.”
They both looked up when the phone rang again. Stasi checked the Caller ID. “It’s Trev. Hi.” Her voice lowered to a purr then turned sharp. “What? They can’t do that, can they? Fine, did that son of a bitch tell you what he did? Because there’s no way we can allow him to get away with something so nasty.”
“What?” Blair was positive this had something to do with Jake, but Stasi just waved her hand at her to remain quiet.
“Their actions have to have broken some magickal law,” she argued. “And in a sense, they involved humans by dumping Jake at an animal shelter!” Her expression tightened. “You know what? I’m not talking to you anymore.” She clicked the phone off. “It isn’t any fun when you can’t slam the receiver down.”
“What did he say?”
Stasi returned to her chair and sat down, then brought a book toward her. Her golden-brown eyes glinted with fury. “It seems Roan called Trev, stating that we vandalized the resort and if Trev can’t ‘control his witch bitch,’” she hooked her fingers in quotes, “then Roan would take further steps.”
“And wouldn’t Eurydice love to hear that?” Blair leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “So Trev’s coming up here to yell at us?”
“Probably.” Stasi linked her fingers together and stretched them out in front of her.
“You don’t seem too worried about that.”
“Once he sees what’s been going on up here, he’ll understand why we did it.” Stasi glanced at the clock. “He’ll probably make it up here later this morning, which is actually a good thing, because he might be able to think of something we haven’t. For all we know, a wizard spelled the collar, not a witch. Your call, Blair, but I think we should wait for Trev to get here before we consider going up to the resort. If nothing else, we’d have an attorney with us to bail us out of jail.”
Blair looked toward the hallway.
“Go back and be with Jake.” Stasi gave her a gentle push out of the chair. “We both know I do better with the books than you do.”
Blair didn’t hesitate to get out of there as soon as she had pulled some of the roast beef out of the refrigerator. Stasi was right. She enjoyed diving into books, while Blair preferred winging it.
“I even managed to stick one of the bags in the spa area.” Horace was still talking. “You should have seen all those female Weres running out of there and not even bothering to wear towels. ’Course they don’t care about being naked, do they? I really wish I had taken a camera with me. Or even video. I could have put it up on YouTube. But I guess Stasi and Blair would have taken it away from me.”
“You’re right, we would have.” Blair pointed toward her dresser. “Take my iTouch into Stasi’s room and knock yourself out.”
“I’m out of here.”
And he was.
Blair sat carefully on the side of the bed. She smiled down at the look in Jake’s eyes that seemed to send her a thank-you.
“Why do I feel that’s for me sending Horace out of here?” she chuckled, setting the meat near his muzzle. He nosed the roast beef and wolfed it down in no time. “He rarely gets a new audience for his stories, and he’s seeing this morning as a true accomplishment.” She ran her fingers down his side. She winced when the dog whined and tried to move away from her. She gentled her touch and carefully probed again. She was positive if he had been in human form she would have seen bruises. “The collar must also be keeping you from healing.” She chalked it up as another reason for her to go after Roan and his Pack. At the rate her temper was growing, she doubted even Trev with all his wizard power would be able to keep her off Roan. She wasn’t reckless enough to think she could win a physical battle, but she could sure do some damage. She mentally catalogued what silver she had in her jewelry armoire. She cupped her moonstone pendant in her palm, watching the stone glow a soft blue and turn warm against her skin.
“Too bad Jazz is off with Nick. She’d love this kind of confrontation,” she told Jake, pleased to see he had eaten all the meat. “Same with Maggie. She’s fought rogue Weres before and won the battle.” She couldn’t resist fondling his ears. “But I need to do this myself. I won’t let them get away with this. They can’t think they can come in here and do what they want.”
Garbled sounds from her ankle reminded her that she and Jake still weren’t alone. “Sorry guys. You’ve been pretty quiet lately.” She pulled off her boots and socks. Fluff and Puff uttered a grateful thank you and started babbling away.
Jake uttered a soft woof and panted. His back legs scissored.
“Don’t tell me. You’ve got to pee. And I guess you can’t exactly use the bathroom, can you?” She held out her hands as he tried to scramble to his feet. “Okay, let me help you. No trying to jump off and onto the bed until you are feeling better. Maybe I could shrink you again and put you in the tub.”
