Lola, listen to me. It’s going to be okay, I’m coming in there.
She didn’t answer me. I couldn’t feel for her thoughts. It was as if she’d gone blank. Unconscious. Or dead.
Blind terror crawled up my throat, curled around my neck and streaked into my mind. My woman. The love of my latest life!
And what do you propose, Talisman? We’re too big to get inside. Sage landed beside me again and Penelope winced again.
“Sage? Good god, what are you animals doing here? Did you follow me? You have to go back to the shelter. Come on, I’ll take you.” She reached for me, but I jumped out of range of her pale hand. She was too weak to fight me into her arms today, anyway.
No way in hell would I leave my Lola behind.
What can we do? She’s in there and we’re out here. Let’s face it, we screwed the bird on this one.
I didn’t listen to him. I would get my Lola back. I would!
I’m going in.
Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll never fit through that hole. Too much cream thievery and late night kibble. And coffee grounds. Don’t think I don’t know about your habit, tweaker.
This was the perfect time to not let the haters get me down. I hurried toward the hole, ignoring Sage’s discouragement and Penelope’s insistence that I ‘go home right now or else.’
I squished my head through the rusty hole and recoiled.
It smelled horrible in there. Like death and rotten Sage balls.
Really? Was that necessary?
I tried again, blocking my nose from the inside and taking a deep breath before I got my head through the hole. I squished hard. Ignored the pain in my shoulders. Two pops and they were through. I wiggled my front and back legs desperately, wrenched myself from side-to-side.
Uh, Sage? You mind giving me a nudge? And careful not to puncture my butt with your pointy beak.
You know, when I woke up this morning I didn’t envision my day ending with me sniffing your posterior.
Dreams really do come true, don’t they?
Sage gave an indignant hoot then rammed into my rear end with what I could only hope was the broad side of his body.
You bet your stinky cat butt it’s the broad side of my body.
Excuse me, I shit roses in comparison to mice bones and fur.
Another ram and I was through with a fantastic creaking pop.
I choked and coughed, then glared around at the dusty basement. It was clear.
They couldn’t have caught Lola downstairs, or they’d have posted one of the wretched Chokecherry witches to guard the secret entrance. And that meant they were all probably prowling around upstairs.
Take her to the back door. I’m getting us in. Now.
Yeah, like that’s going to be easy to communicate.
You just pummeled my butt, I’d think getting Penelope to understand your hooting and flapping would be a cruise in the park in comparison to that.
Good point.
I didn’t hang around to chat anymore. I had a job to do. Fight the bad guy, rescue the girl, save the world.
Yeah, I got this.
Chapter 11
I was inside the bubble now, and my amulet felt heavy as hell around my neck. The house was quiet. And not that peaceful kinda quiet, but rather that murdery silence. Right before the knife stabs through the shower curtain accompanied by the blood-curdling scream. The calm before the masked psycho jumps out from behind a door with his chainsaw.
I padded down the dimly lit hall, old timey lanterns lining the walls. Hadn’t these witches heard of electricity? Then again, that much magical protection would’ve exploded the bulbs in all the lamps.
Poor Bianca Chokecherry, however did she manage without her hair straightener?
I dashed to the back door, hopped up onto the windowsill and peered out. Penelope stood outside, looking confused as Sage flapped around above her head.
Good one, owl pants.
Open the effing door before I peck your obsidian eyes from their sockets.
Getting Penelope around the back hadn’t been easy, apparently.
I examined the back door and tilted my head to one side, listening for any disturbance upstairs.
Chairs scraped around and footsteps crossed from one side to the other. A door slammed. No one came downstairs. We were in the clear, for now.
The lock was fairly simple. One of those click and turn things that could be opened from the inside without the need for a key. Trouble was, I had paws, not opposable thumbs.
So change into the mannequin thing. Your man form as you call it.
I stayed on the window sill. The amulet was heavy as lead and no amount of wishing would change me. It was the magic in the place. Apparently it worked on electricity and amulets. Our only real hope was that my mouth and paws were dexterous enough to take on the job.
I stood on the edge of the sill and leaned into it.
The metal lock was cool against my tongue, I licked it and tasted metal, then dug my teeth in and twisted my head.
A click resounded through the back room.
Done. Now, herd Penelope up the back stairs and make her try the door.
Cat, I’m going to give you a taste of the beak once I get inside. Sage flapped and hooted, slowly urging our mistress toward the back entrance.
Realization dawned in Penelope’s features and she hurried to the door. The handle inched downward, the hinges creaked and my mistress stepped into the hall, eyes wide and breathing slowly.
You stay outside, Sage, keep a look out for any funny business.
Yeah, it’s what I do best. Sage sounded relieved, even in my head. He wasn’t the talons to the wall bird, he was the logical one. But man, he was there when I needed him.
And stay away from Damien. He’s going to want your feathered ass on his mantelpiece after that shit bomb.
He can dream.
I hopped off the window sill and positioned myself in front of Penelope.
“This is crazy, Tali,” she whispered, crouching over and trying to make herself invisible. Yeah, like that’d happen. Bianca or Lucinda or whoever the hell it was had this all planned out to a tee. She wanted Penelope in her home. All the better to kill her.
Though, she probably hadn’t seen the whole break-in thing coming.
I padded down the hall and Penelope followed, glancing left and right as we went. A low murmur of voices rang out above our heads. I didn’t have to stop and make eye contact or herd Penelope in any direction.
Her shoulders were set. Tension in every one of her muscles.
This was it. Time to confront the bitchy witch and get Lola and Amelia back.
I couldn’t get over the thought that my girl had sacrificed herself for the cause. A horrible nightmare flashed across my brain of her fluffy white fur coated with blood. Damien lived to slaughter animals. Anything less powerful than he. No. Not going to happen on my watch. We hurried up the stairs, two at a time and onto the landing at the top.
The room at the end of the hall was just in view, thanks the door that was slightly ajar. Flickering light played across the boards, picking out the rough grain of wood, the knots in the planks, weathered by years of use. Centuries, even.
Penelope forged on ahead and I sprinted after her, my kitty heart pounding in my chest.
We burst through the door at the end of the hall and skidded to a halt.
“I’ve been waiting so long for you to arrive,” Bianca Chokecherry said, wearing a superior smirk.
Amelia was strapped to a stone tablet in the center of the room. A literal stone slab. Lola was unconscious at her feet, draped across the space. Amelia was wide-eyed and gagged. She struggled frantically against her bindings, never one to lose that plucky spirit.
“What have you done, Bianca?!” Penelope asked. She still didn’t realize how serious the Chokecherry witches were about bringing her down. She’d always thought they were teetering on the edge of darkness but hadn’t fully plunged into the abyss. But, th
ey had. Penelope didn’t quite understand that they were sucking out her powers, her very life essence.
“Just what I needed to,” Bianca replied, standing in the center of a circle of salt. She checked her crimson nails and yawned. “Is this going to take long? Or can I get on with the ritual?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, you’re clearly going to have all these dumb questions about how and why and what I’m doing. Go on, get them out,” Bianca replied.
I despised her with every bit of my soul. Poor Lola. Was she breathing? She’d better be breathing, this was all my fault. I should never have let her enter this god forsaken mansion in the first place.
“What –”
“I’m going to sacrifice your friend here. That’s what this is for,” Bianca said, before Penelope could hit her stride. She drew a horribly sharp silver athame from her belt sheath and held it aloft. “Gorgeous, isn’t it? This is going to be its first blood, and for a good cause.”
“Never! I’ll never let you hurt her!” Penelope yelled, a battle cry of sorts, then sprang into action.
Bianca threw back her head and laughed. She swished the blade through the air, closed her eyes and began muttering under her breath.
Penelope slowed, she gripped her forehead and went pale, then stumbled to the right, to the left.
There had to be something I could do! Anything!
Amelia struggled, Bianca chanted and my Pen hunched and gripped at her middle. In pain. “Stop,” she whimpered.
Whatever this spell was, it hurt Penelope more than anything else had.
My eyes darted around, desperate for anything which could save all three of them. My women. My gaze landed on Amelia, who wriggled and strained. I slunk to the stone slab and around to the other side, out of Bianca’s sight.
Then I began to gnaw on Amelia’s bindings.
Chapter 12
I bit into the bindings, weird twine ropes, and chewed, fighting the urge to vomit everywhere. These ropes tasted like feet. Had to be made of hemp or something equally witch related. Apparently, the Chokecherry witches were obsessed with the new age goodies and fads.
It was a weird thought to accompany the impending doom of my mistress and everything I held dear.
Amelia struggled. “Come on, Tali, you’ve got this.” She tugged at the ropes again and again.
Bianca’s muttering grew louder, and a wind rose in the room, plucking at my fur like some human had stroked it in the wrong direction. I carried on chewing, even though my insides wanted to squirm right out of my body.
Sage, are you there? Is everything clear?
I fought the bindings, tearing at them, and chipped a tooth. Boy, Penelope had better thank me for this later. Losing a life was one thing, but chipped teeth? How very Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber. Maybe I’d change my name to Lloyd. If I lived.
Sage! Senile much?
No reply. That made my guts frolic even worse. Where the hell was that nosy old owl? He’d better be all right. I couldn’t deal with more complications. Already, three of my friends were in danger. One of them, the love of my nine lives. Okay, I admit it. All of my lives.
Bianca’s mutters intensified again. My fur was in a constant state of Mexican Wave and Amelia’s eyes about popped out of their orbits.
“Penelope!” She yelled, and thrashed around. The rope I worked on creaked and tore, trailing fibers wet with my spit. Take that weird dope rope. Hopefully, this shit didn’t make me high as a giraffe’s ass. I needed my wits about me.
Amelia wrenched her arm free, and I took the moment to peer around the slab and check that the Chokecherry bitch hadn’t downed my mistress for good.
But no, Bianca was still there, rocking back and forth now with her eyes rolled back in her head. Wind whipped around her, chasing up papers which had been scattered on a desk in the corner.
A book lay open there, no doubt her Book of Shadows, and the thick pages flicked back and forth, almost as if a ghost hovered above it, perusing to its heart’s content.
Penelope was on her knees in the center of the room, gripping her stomach with her slender hand and staring up at Bianca, in a daze. Too bad she didn’t cast up her accounts all over Bianca’s red rat’s nest.
We’d thought Lucinda was behind this, but where was she? No sign of the mistress of darkness who’d started it all.
I returned to the bindings, hacked at the taste, then chomped on the next one. Amelia had freed her one hand and helped me, ripping at it in order to help. She searched for a knot, found one and began untying it.
“I’ve got this, Talisman. You look after Pen.” Amelia was pale and she had a nasty looking scratch along one cheek, but she seemed strong. An inner fire which had led her to the whole investigative reporter thing.
I bounded to Lola on the slab, but she was out like a light.
Lola! Can you hear me?
No answer there either, but she was alive. Breathing and physically uninjured, at least externally. What had the witch done to her? Put her in a kitty coma? There was no time to waste. I had to interrupt Bianca’s spell before it killed my mistress and my favorite lady friend.
I hopped off the stone, careful not to bump Lola, and hurried around the corner of the slab. I tried to wish myself into man form. Nope, nothin’ doing. The human body wouldn’t come on and the amulet felt like a lodestone. It dragged me toward the fall.
Each swirl of magic and wind from Chokecherry pressed me closer to the floor.
I pressed my belly flat on the boards and crept toward the evil witch, dragging my precious black fur over it.
Bianca reeled and shook her hands in the air, summoning the devil only knew what. No, seriously, only the devil could know. She was that evil.
Penelope’s voice joined the chorus of chanting and wailing from Bianca.
I froze and whipped my head around to look at my mistress. She couldn’t be for real. A spell?
No!
If Penelope did a spell, her magic would be siphoned from her and delivered directly to Lucinda or Bianca or whoever had control of the curse. She was risking her life for Amelia, and she didn’t even know it.
Penelope’s gaze hardened. She gripped her stomach and chanted her magic, looking from Bianca and to Amelia, determination etched into the lines of her face.
Or maybe she did know that it might mean her end.
“No, Penelope, don’t do it,” Amelia yelled, ripping her arms out of the bindings. She sat up and loosened the ties around her legs.
I dragged myself away from Bianca and toward Penelope. I had to stop her from going through with this. I had to!
Penelope raised one hand and pointed at Bianca.
All her remaining energy poured from her hand and struck the bad witch squarely in the chest. Bianca gasped and placed her palm to breast. She stumbled back and the winds dropped immediately.
The pages of the book stopped turning.
I could walk again. I could run!
I launched myself off the boards and ran for Penelope.
But it was already too late. My beloved mistress keeled sideways and hit the floor, eyes shut.
No, this couldn’t be happening.
I galloped to her and stopped in front of her face. I licked her nose and pawed her cheek gently. Nothing. She was out like a light.
“Ha! I still beat you, stupid bitch,” Bianca said, and wheezed a laugh. “I’ve been waiting for you to get your comeuppance for years and now it’s finally happened. Good riddance to bad garbage.”
I turned and placed myself between Penelope and Bianca, my hair standing on end. I hissed and spit. If Chokecherry came near my mistress, I’d go furry balls to the walls. Scratch her to ribbons and use her leftovers for a chew toy.
Talisman, where the hell are you?
Sage?
I’m above the roof. Someone’s coming. I can’t see who it is.
I didn’t reply, but it was good to hear his thoughts and know he still lived, unaffect
ed by the necromantic magic swirling in this hell hole.
Bianca stumbled toward Pen and me, and I prepared for the ultimate battle. The one that no one ever walks away from. I spat again, pressing my ears flat against my skull and hissing for all I was worth.
“You don’t scare me enchanted feline –”
Amelia lurched off the stone slab with a terrific battle cry, the kind that shook the rafters and invoked real terror in anyone who heard it. Bianca wasn’t immune to that effect. Her eyes went wide. Her mouth dropped open and she let out a terrific squeal of fright. When she’d tried to kill Pen just moments ago, she’d drained her body of its energetic reserves. She had nothing left to cast another spell to stop Ami.
Amelia careened into her and drove her to the ground, slapping and clawing for all she was worth. A bitch fight worthy of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.
But Bianca’s initial fear dissipated relatively quickly. Amelia was weak too from whatever Bianca had done to her to get her onto that slab.
The witch fought her off easily.
I sprinted to catch her before she could get away.
Bianca Chokecherry kicked Amelia out of the way and sprinted out the door.
Chapter 13
I stood over Penelope, staring after Bianca Chokecherry. My mistress was in grave danger, unless that fake Ginger was caught and brought before a council of witches, Dagda Cerridwyn included, and punished for her dastardly deeds.
The Chokecherry witches and their coven, would never stop attacking the DeLacroix family. Not as long as they had evil breath in their vacuous soul-devoid bodies.
Tali?
I spun, shocked to the core. Lola! You’re all right. I streaked toward her, relief flooding every cell in my body.
She jumped off the concrete slab and hurried toward me, her fur sticking up at odd angles. Tali, I’m sorry, I tried to do as you said, but they found me in the hallway.
I know it’s okay, wait… they?
Yes, Bianca Chokecherry and the other guy. The horrible one who hates animals. He knocked me out. I thought for sure they were going to do something… unnatural to me, but he must’ve left. Did he leave? He scares me so much, Tali!
Fur Magic Boxed Set: Talisman, Sage, Fawn, Lola: Paranormal Romantic Comedy Page 24
