A Charmed Cauldron

by Rose Pressey

  I wished I knew where he was taking her. For all I knew he could be driving her to the gates of hell to drag her down there with him in some kind of diabolical plan. What was even stranger was that the demon was following the road laws. Was he worried about being pulled over and getting a citation?

  Then the thought struck me. I would cast a little spell, even though it was difficult to do while driving. I would just make a red light turn. Maybe that would give me time to get out of the car and yank Annabelle out of there.

  I had to keep my eyes on the road, follow the car, and cast a spell all at the same time. This wouldn’t be easy. As I pushed the accelerator just a bit more I recited the words for the spell. I hoped that this spell wouldn’t cause me to wreck.

  “The color red stops the bad, now don’t let the demon move ahead or I’ll be sad.”

  Okay, not my best work, but it was hard to come up with a great spell under this kind of pressure. I concentrated on the red light up ahead. Much to my relief, a few seconds later it turned yellow and then to red. Amazingly, the mystery man, a.k.a. the demon, stopped at the light. It was almost too good to be true. But it wasn’t over yet. Now I had to pull up alongside the car, get out, and grab Annabelle. What if the man had the door locked? That could very well be the case. Then I would be out of the car and he could possibly take off with her. That would set me back quite a bit. I tried to remain calm as I merged my car into the next lane.

  As I pulled up beside the car the mystery man didn’t look over and neither did Annabelle. I shoved the car into park and fumbled with the door knob. Of all times for the thing not to work correctly. A couple cars had pulled up behind us now. Otherwise the traffic was light. He’d said he’d had a challenging time getting to the shop because the traffic was heavy. That had been my first indication that he was lying and making up stories. Plus, he’d been late. Even the demon couldn’t be on time for a date, and he was obviously in a hurry to trap Annabelle.

  After a few more seconds of me grabbing at the door knob I got it to open and I jumped out of the car as quickly as possible. Annabelle still hadn’t realized that I was coming for her. Adrenaline surged through my body now as I raced toward her door.

  It felt as if someone had knocked the wind out of me. Fear and nervousness mixed and churned in my stomach. I reached the car, grabbed the door handle and yanked. Thank goodness it was unlocked. When I opened the door, Annabelle screamed. The mystery man had a smirk on his face. He was proud of what he had done.

  “Hallie, what are you doing? You scared me to death.” Annabelle clutched her chest.

  “Get out of the car.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her out.

  One of her shoes fell off. She reached down to try to get it from the ground.

  “Don’t worry about that. We have to get in the car,” I yelled.

  “But I need my shoe.”

  “We’ll buy you a new pair,” I said.

  “You have to tell me what’s going on. Did someone die?” she asked.

  “Just get in the car.”

  Annabelle ran around the other side and got in the car. I slid behind the steering wheel as if slipping into home base. I thought we were in the all clear, but then I saw movement out of the corner my eye. I’d expected Carter to do something before we got in the car, and I’d been one hundred percent correct. Panic surged when he got near my car. He reached out and grabbed the door handle. In one swift movement he yanked it open and then Annabelle out of the car.

  “Get your hands off her,” I yelled.

  Of course he didn’t follow my command.

  I jumped out of the car and ran to the back. He’d already dragged Annabelle back there. If he thought he was putting Annabelle back in his car then he was about to get a rude awakening. I’d teach this guy a lesson. The only arsenal I had on me right now was to do a quick spell. With any luck that would slow him down a bit. Then I would use old fashion muscle with a knee to the groin.

  Annabelle struggled to get away from him. I raised my arms and used the energy around me. Electric zinged like when walking across carpet in socks and then touching a doorknob. My hair was probably standing straight up.

  The spell hit him and knocked him backward onto the ground. He groaned and struggled to get up. Now I’d use this as my chance to run over to knee him right between the legs.

  That seemed to do the trick, and I hadn’t had to use any magic. I brushed my hands together.

  “That was awesome,” Annabelle said.

  A few people who had been walking along the sidewalk stopped to watch the scene unfold. Unfortunately, no one offered to help us. Things like this usually didn’t happen right in the middle of this charming little town—everyone knew that paranormal stuff took place here and sometimes it could get a little hairy.

  Someone behind us honked their horn, but they would just have to wait because I was a little busy with a demon right now. I had to keep Annabelle from being kidnapped and taken straight to the gates of hell. The temperature hadn’t gone up, but it felt even warmer right now. I suppose that was because we were in the presence of a demon. The heat radiated off him. A woman walked her dog on the sidewalk. The dog barked at the demon.

  “Yeah, I fell the same way, little pug,” I said. “Let’s hurry before he has a chance to get back to us.”

  Before heading back to the driver’s side, I gave him one last glance. He was still on the ground. If a demon wanted to take on human form, then I would take advantage of it and kick him where it hurt. At least it had worked. He’d be down there for a while. Though now he would definitely be after me. At least I had satisfaction momentarily. Once back in the car, I peered in the rearview mirror. Thank goodness he hadn’t gotten up yet. I had to get Annabelle away from this guy for good.

  “Thank goodness we’re safe now. Make sure your door is locked,” I said. “That guy is awfully tricky. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he had witchcraft helping him.”

  If he was a demon he wouldn’t have magic powers like spell casting. Other than the disguises what kind of magic was he using? Changing his looks was bad enough. I didn’t need more magic added onto that.

  The light turned green and I punched the gas.

  “Hallie, you know I love you, but I have to know what’s going on? How did you know to yank me out of that car? You’ve done a lot of crazy things, but I have to say this might be the craziest.”

  “That guy was the mystery man.”

  “What are you talking about? He said his name was Carter. He didn’t look like the mystery man.”

  “Oh, on the outside he looks like a gorgeous hunk, but I saw the real him. He let the façade slip. There’s some sort of magic going on and he disguised his looks.”

  “You mean the guy I was out with was really some hideous demon-looking guy?”

  “You got it,” I said.

  Her eyes widened. “That’s the most frightening thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “I hated to scare you like that, but I didn’t know any other way. I had to get you away from him immediately before something horrible happened. Did you get my text?” I asked.

  She looked down at her phone. “Ranger?”

  “No, the next one.”

  “Oh, I’m in danger. I guess I didn’t hear the phone with the chatter coming from Carter.”

  “What was he talking about?”

  “Something about taking me somewhere special. I don’t know. It was just a lot of small talk.”

  I looked in the rearview mirror. He was still sitting there. That was weird. I figured he would come after us. A couple seconds later when I glanced back again he had taken off from the light. That was probably because the cars behind him were honking. Now I had to see if he was going to chase us. If I had to bet, I’d say definitely he would.

  Annabelle peered over her shoulder. “Hallie, don’t let him catch us.”

  “Don’t worry. He’s not getting us.”

  I kept glancing in the rearview mirror as we got
further away from the red light where this all went down. His car wasn’t back there. I hadn’t seen it turn off, so I wasn’t sure where he’d gone. I was just relieved he was gone now. Annabelle was still looking over her shoulder.

  “I don’t see them,” she said.

  “I think he’s gone for now. Let’s just hope he doesn’t come back.”

  “It figures. The one date I finally get and this happens. I’ll never want to go out with anyone again. I’ll be paranoid that he’s a demon.”

  I felt so terrible because this was all my fault. The only reason he’d targeted her was because of me. She really needed to distance herself from me. She would just say that I was ridiculous if I mentioned this, but I knew it was the truth. Annabelle just didn’t have the heart not to be my friend anymore. That was because she was such a wonderful person.

  I knew that she was still shaken by what it happened. And I knew it would take her a long time before she finally calmed down.

  “How about we have some chocolate cake?” I asked.

  It wasn’t much to offer, but it was all I had at the moment.

  “Sounds like a wonderful idea,” she said.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll figure out who this is and make sure he never comes back.”

  My phone rang and I saw my mother’s picture pop up on the screen.

  I handed the phone to Annabelle. “You’d better tell her you’re okay. I ran out of there in a hurry. So I know she’s freaking out.”

  I made the next right turn and headed back toward the shop. I hoped that he didn’t return there.

  “Tell her we’re on our way back,” I said.

  When we pulled up to the shop and my mother was standing at the front door. I knew she had been pacing inside, waiting for us to return. She rushed out onto the sidewalk as we got out of the car.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re all right. I was so worried about you all that I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t think of anything else.” My mother clutched her chest.

  “You’re not going to believe what Hallie did,” Annabelle said. “It was awesome. She kneed that guy right between the legs.”

  I shrugged. “I just did what needed to be done.”

  My mother laughed. “Well, she is my daughter. Are you sure he won’t come back here?”

  “No, I’m not sure,” I said.

  I wish I could say differently, but he had it out for me. I knew this wasn’t what my mother wanted to hear, but I had to tell her the truth. We needed to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. I felt like it was a zero chance that he would stay away.

  Chapter 28

  The next morning, I was down in the parlor at LaVeau Manor. The chatter was high in the room as the other witches gathered. When I’d told my mother about the security issues and that someone had broken in she was not having it. Understandably she was upset, and she’d insisted on blabbing to all the witches in Enchantment Pointe. Now the coven was gathering together to cast a spell that would protect the manor. One more time I’d try the spell. With any luck it would be foolproof this time.

  I’d gone into the kitchen looking for Thomas, but once again he’d taken off. Not before leaving the milk out on the counter though. Pluto meowed as I placed the carton back in the refrigerator.

  “I know you’re unhappy with Thomas. I am too,” I said.

  After placing food and water in Pluto’s dishes, I went back to the parlor. All the witches had arrived now.

  My mother stood in the middle of the room. She clapped her hands together. “All right, ladies, ladies, ladies… and gentlemen.” She pointed to the corner of the room where a couple of the guys were sitting. “We need to get the spell started. We have other things to get to today, so let’s secure the manor.”

  My mother had already explained to them that someone had broken in last night and had gotten through the spell that was supposed to protect the manor. I still had unanswered questions about how that had happened, but I’d work on finding that out later. Also, I had called a company today to install security equipment, so the guy was currently doing that. I supposed he would have to listen to our witchy antics while he worked.

  I assumed that the spell would work just fine now that I had a lot of energy from the other witches. But I wasn’t taking any chances. Cameras along with an alarm and motion detectors would be installed on the front and back doors. Also the windows on the bottom floor, of course. I didn’t think anyone would go to the trouble of trying to get to the second- and third-floor windows. That would take some work.

  The witches stood and I joined them in the middle of the parlor. This was where we would perform the magic. We stood in a circle in the middle of the room, holding hands and reciting the words for the spell. I felt the energy so thick in the room that I could barely breathe. But I supposed that was a good thing. That was what I wanted and why we had called so many witches to the manor. I would have to tough it out even though my ability to breathe became worse the longer we carried out the spell. Was anyone else noticing that or was it just me not being tough enough?

  I hadn’t spoken to Nicolas this morning, which was a bit surprising. Even though we hadn’t communicated much lately, I’d still expected to hear from him after he knew that the werewolves were around. He had seemed concerned, so I found it a bit odd that he hadn’t contacted me this morning. Nonetheless, I was taking care of the situation with no problems. I hadn’t even contacted Liam yet. I had many things to do in order to get rid of the werewolves. He would eventually find out what had happened.

  We finished up the spell and the witches started talking amongst themselves. I was attending to the installation guy and then turned my attention back to the room and the witches. I stepped closer to hear what the chatter was all about.

  My mother focused her attention on me. “Halloween, what did you say that neighbor’s name was?”

  “It’s Daniel,” I told her for the twentieth time. She never listened to me.

  “Right. Well, we were just discussing him and we figure you should look him up online.”

  Actually, my mother had a good idea. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

  “We can do that,” I said.

  My mother clapped her hands again. “Well, all right. Let’s get to it. Is your computer in the office?” she asked.

  I held up my hand. “I thought maybe we’d search for him, as in you and me. Not the whole room.”

  “Well, they’re curious too,” she said. “They have a right to know what kind of dangerous things are going on in Enchantment Pointe. They live here too.”

  With all the curious faces staring back at me, how could I say no to that? I turned and motioned for the group to follow me across the foyer and into the library. We passed the installation guy again. He gave us a curious look as we all marched over to the library. I sat down at my desk with an audience waiting for me to discover every detail about this man. I was skeptical that I would find anything.

  I typed the name into the search bar and got a lot of results. Unfortunately, none of them matched.

  After a couple minutes, I shook my head. “I just can’t find anything. Maybe with a little bit more searching I’ll pick up something.”

  My mother released a big sigh. “This is just unacceptable.”

  Did she mean my searching skills were unacceptable or the fact that we couldn’t find anything was unacceptable?

  She said, “I know what we can do. We’ll cast a spell to find out more about Daniel.”

  I supposed that wasn’t such a terrible idea. I’d done things like that in the past. Not with perfect results, but it would be better than nothing.

  “All right, we’ll give it a shot,” I said.

  I might as well. We had all the witches here already and it would bring the most results that way. We marched back across the foyer toward the parlor. The installation guy gave us some serious side eye. Actually, he looked a little scared.

  We stood in the same manner as b
efore, holding hands and reciting the words for the spell. Again there was energy in the room, but it was nothing like before. I supposed this spell wasn’t quite as important as the other. That was the reason for the feeling. Toward the end of the spell a name popped into my head.

  “I have a name,” I called out. “I don’t know what this means, but I could search for it and see if there’s any connection.”

  “Oh, that’s a good idea,” my mother said. “What’s the name?”

  “The name is Bruce Smith.”

  The entire group of witches raced back across the parlor toward the library. The installation guy had stopped working and watched us this time. I knew he would be running out of here soon, thinking that we were bonkers. I sat back in front of the computer again and typed in the name. I scrolled down until I noticed the picture. Without hesitation I clicked on the link and right away knew this was big.

  “She found something. I can tell by the look on her face,” my mother said.

  “I’m not sure what this is this. Give me a second.” I motioned.

  Everyone leaned closer as if that would make me tell them faster. Or perhaps they didn’t want to miss a word I said.

  “The picture. It’s who I thought was Daniel, but the listed name is Bruce Smith. The name that I was given from the spell,” I said.

  “Oh, my,” mother said with a surprised look on her face.

  “The man in this photo has been reported missing,” I said.

  A few of the ladies gasped.

  “I think I need to call the people who reported this guy missing and find out exactly what’s going on with him.”

  “You definitely have to call,” my mother said.

  I pulled out my phone and touched the numbers on the screen. Right away it took me to a police department in Colorado. Oddly enough, that was where Nicolas was currently. That was a strange coincidence. It went to the detective’s voicemail. I left a message, but I wasn’t sure if this was an emergency or not. I mean, if the man was reported missing and I knew exactly where he was, then somebody needed to get over here right away.