Kahlua and Cream: A Magical Detective Agency

by WL Flinn

  Ashe walked in with me. Penny immediately went up to her and rubbed against her. Ashe let her inner vampire out and I semi-shifted and Penny immediately told her. It’s the Sickness. Does the fire guy have a healer?

  Ashe looked at Penny. You know enough to ask for a healer but still call him the fire guy? She sat there and looked at us. He smells like fire. What do you want?

  SallyAnn was lying on the sofa. She picked up her head a little. “Hey, Mom.”

  Penny jumped up behind her legs and put her head on SallyAnn’s hip. I am telling you, Sienna, Get a healer. She is going to need it.

  “I am going to get you some ibuprofen,” I said. I put my hand on her head and she was burning up. “It should help with the aches and with the fever.” I ran to the bathroom and texted Cal. Do you have a magical healer? My little girl has the Sickness.

  Rusty sat down on the sofa with SallyAnn and started telling her jokes to make her feel better. “Rusty,” I practically screamed, “Get away from your sister. I don’t need you getting sick, too!” He looked at me sadly but went up to his room without another word.

  My phone buzzed and I looked down. The healer will be there in about half an hour.

  I took a deep breath. A half hour. I could do that. I walked out with a couple of tablets and a glass of water. “Here honey, take these.” her skin was pasty and slick with sweat. She shivered even though she was under a quilt and a very large golden retriever.

  “Is this what you felt like, Mom?” she asked. “I have the Sickness, don’t I?”

  “You are going to be much better than me,” I said sitting next to her on the couch. “You are young and healthy. I was an unfit, old lady.”

  “Was?” she cracked.

  “Okay, so maybe still am an unfit, old lady.” I stroked her hair and Ashe paced nervously by the door. Suddenly she pulled it open. I hadn’t heard anyone, but she ushered in a woman in her mid-fifties.

  “Hi, I am George.” She looked at the couch. “And you must be my patient.” She walked over and started opening a bag filled with regular medical instruments.

  “George?” my daughter whispered, like it took all her strength to say that. “Did your parents want a boy?” She giggled to herself.

  Normally I would have smacked her for being rude, but George just laughed. “It is short for Georganna, but that doesn’t fit me.” She put her hand on SallyAnn’s forehead. Then she broke out a stethoscope and listened to her chest. Penny sat with Ashe and me.

  George looked at me and indicated she jerked her head toward the kitchen to speak to me privately. We walked into the kitchen. “It’s the Sickness,” she said. “I can give you a choice. You can take her to the hospital. She will need to go now. It is progressing very quickly. Or,” she held up her hand to stop my reaction, “I can ‘treat’ it.” She stared at me and raised and an eyebrow. It dawned on me she meant to treat it with magic. I had no idea how magic would help this.

  “Which would be better?” I asked. “I just want her healed as quickly as possible.”

  George looked around and whispered, “I can cure her quickly and make it look like I used normal methods. She will be better by morning.”

  “Do it,” I said and grabbed both her hands. “And thank you.” I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what magic could do to help, but if she could help my little girl, I was all for it. And if all else failed, I could always take her to the hospital.

  George took a couple of pills and gave them to SallyAnn. Penny sneezed when she pulled them out so I knew there was magic in the room. George took SallyAnn’s pulse and temperature. “Okay, young lady, I believe you should be feeling better very soon. Those are antibiotics. I am going to leave some more with your mom so you can take some in the morning too. Two every four hours until they are gone even through the night. She is going to have to wake you up.”

  SallyAnn was already getting tired. George pulled the blanket up around her shoulders and walked me and Ashe to the door. Rusty has wandered downstairs sometime was playing on his phone ignoring us. “George, thank you so much for coming over,” I said genuinely meaning it. “But I have to ask, is she going to have magic?”

  George looked at me and back at SallyAnn. “I can only guess. But since you ended up with magic, I would say there may be a genetic component. I think it is going to happen. What I don’t know is what type it will be. If it will be like your magic or not. We don’t know that much yet.”

  She smiled at me. “She should start feeling better very quickly.” Then she walked out of the house.

  “Well crap,” I said. “What do I tell her?”

  Penny looked up and said, She smells sparkly. It is already happening.

  Ashe grabbed my hand. “Let’s wait to see how she feels. Let’s just see how she is doing tomorrow. Breathe. We will get through this.”

  I walked inside and pointed up the stairs. “Rusty, I said stay away from your sister.”

  I slept on the floor next to SallyAnn on the sofa. When the sun lit up the living room I heard her start moving. She sat up to go to the bathroom. “How are you feeling, baby?” I asked kissing her forehead. It felt cool to my lips.

  “I feel good,” she said. “I mean I am a little tired, but nothing like what you went through.”

  “That’s great, honey,” I said wrapping her in a hug.

  “Uh, Mom, I can’t breathe,” she giggled.

  I let her go, “Are you hungry?” I got up and handed her two more of the pills George had left for her.

  Rusty came running down the stairs, “Did I hear food? I am starved.”

  SallyAnn rolled her eyes. “You are always hungry,” she said slapping at him.

  I got in the kitchen and started mixing pancakes happily humming to myself. The happy moment was shattered by plates crashing to the floor.

  “Holy shit,” Rusty cried.

  “Language,” I said automatically, and turned to see what had happened. SallyAnn was standing in the middle of the plates she had dropped. Her arms were covered in a fine blonde hair. She had a mother of pearl button in the middle of her forehead.

  “Mom,” Rusty’s voice cracked. “What is wrong with her?”

  I grabbed SallyAnn up in a hug. “Nothing is wrong with her, Rusty.”

  SallyAnn started crying in my arms. “Mom, something is wrong. I don’t feel right.” She started to breathe hard and the hair on her arms got thicker. In order not to have anything happen in the house I told Rusty to open the slider. I walked her outside.

  “Take deep breaths honey. Just keep taking deep breaths. I can explain.” My mind was raging. I thought I would have more time. I wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t supposed to show any signs yet.

  I sat her on the outdoor sofa and started pacing. Rusty sat down next to her holding her hand. “You two need to listen very carefully, okay? You know I had the Sickness, right?” They both nodded. “Have you heard the rumors what happens to some of the people who get sick?”

  Rusty looked at me, “You mean that people get magic? That suddenly they are like Harry Potter? I think that is all crazy talk.”

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t want to ever tell the kids. But I am pretty sure SallyAnn was going to force my hand. I refused to let her be alone through this.

  “Rusty, close your eyes,” I said. SallyAnn locked eyes with me. I stripped down in front of her “Okay, this is a little weird.” I closed my eyes and shifted to my alicorn. SallyAnn’s jaw hit the floor. She hit Rusty.

  “Stop hitting me!” he opened his eyes and saw me. “What the heck? Mom? Where did you go?”

  SallyAnn looked from me down to her arms and back to me. “Th, th, that’s Mom,” she whispered. Penny came out and sat by them.

  They got up and walked over to me. “Mom,” he said. “Are you in there?”

  SallyAnn snorted. “She isn’t in there. She is there. Am I going to do that too?”

  I took a breath in and shifted back. “Whoa, Mom! Some warning! You’re naked!”
He turned around quickly.

  “I can’t control what happens to the clothes,” I mumbled. I threw on my sweats quickly.

  “That is so cool!” Rusty gushed. “You turn into a funky, unicorn thing.”

  “It’s an alicorn,” I corrected. I carefully watched SallyAnn through all of this. She kept looking at her arms which were back to being hairless by this time. “How are you doing, sweetie?” I asked her.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I didn’t know what was happening to me at first. I just got really angry and I changed without any warning,” I told her. “I didn’t want that to happen to you. I wanted you to be prepared for this.”

  “But you weren’t going to tell us if I didn’t start getting fuzzy? Why didn’t you trust us? This is big, Mom. Why didn’t you tell us?” She looked at me angrily. The hair on her arms started returning.

  “I didn’t want you dragged into this world,” I confessed. “It can be dangerous. I wanted to keep you safe.” Clearly, she didn’t believe me. She rolled her eyes at me and crossed her arms over chest.

  “Let me tell you about the case Ashe and I are working on so you understand.” I walked into the house and brought out a picture of Beth. I handed it to the kids. Rusty looked at her. “She’s hot.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That is what some group thought too.” I said staring at them. “There is a group out there grabbing teenage magicals. They are doing bad things to them.” Looking in her eyes I just couldn’t bring myself to say exactly what was happening. I couldn’t scare her that badly.

  “Mom,” Rusty said. “We are used to your stories from work. We know what happened in the sex crimes division. We get it.”

  “But why do they want magical kids?” SallyAnn asked. She was trying to hang on to her anger with me, but she had to look at my face to see what I really thought.

  I sighed. “Because they want to breed them and see if they can get magical babies.”

  What little color was in SallyAnn’s face drained out. She touched the picture of Beth. “We found her,” I said. Tears welled up in my eyes. “We found her in time. She’s okay.”

  Rusty jumped up and hugged me. “You rock, Mom.”

  I tried to talk around the lump in my throat. “It was a group of us, not just me.”

  “Well, Ashe rocks too.” He laughed. “But she knows already.”

  I was really happy not having to hide that part of my life now. The kids kept waiting for my arms to fuzz out. I think they would push me to just get a rise out of me to see if they could aggravate me.

  SallyAnn decided she was fortunate she was still remote learning. She was trying to maintain her cool, but I knew that would be impossible for a teenage girl. Like any big brother Rusty made sure of it.

  I heard a growl of aggravation and then a cry of pain while I was in the dining room working. I just knew. I looked up and Rusty’s eyes were huge. He looked on the verge of tears. “I didn’t mean to, Mom. It just happened.” There standing in front of us was a beautiful palomino alicorn. Her horn, mane and wings were a mother of pearl. and her coat was the same blonde as her hair. Her eyes were still the same blue.

  She snorted at me. “Rusty, open the slider,” I said. I pointed my finger at her. “You, young lady, need to march right outside this minute. And no leaving hoof prints.” Did I really just say that? What kind of world was I in?

  SallyAnn pranced by Rusty and lifted her tail as she passed a ferocious bit of gas and or giggled. Well, I guess some things about being an alicorn were ok. She got out in the back yard. It was still light enough I couldn’t let her leave.

  “You need to change back,” I said grabbing a blanket to cover her. She stared at me and nothing happened. “Close your eyes and think about being human,” I coaxed. She snorted but nothing happened.

  Penny came strolling out on the back porch. Need some help? she asked. SallyAnn’s ears flicked forward and she started backing up as fast as she could. Weird noises were coming out of her muzzle, but she hadn’t figured out she really couldn’t talk yet.

  Penny sat and looked at her. When you are shifted like this, I can talk to you mind to mind. If I am with you, then we can link to either Ashe or your mom if we can see them. But they have to be at least partially shifted.

  Since I wasn’t shifted I couldn’t follow the conversation. Penny and SallyAnn both looked at me. “Really, you are going to make me shift so I can talk to you both?” I shimmied out of my clothes and shifted in record time. ‘I am getting pretty good at this if I do say so myself,’ I chuckled.

  Mom, SallyAnn said, Penny talked.

  I know. She is awesome. Penny preened at the compliment.

  No, Mom, she talked in my head.

  SallyAnn, I am talking in your head.

  SallyAnn’s big, blue eyes turned to me. Hey, watch the horn, girl.

  How are you talking in my head? she asked.

  It seems to be some special magic of Penny’s is all Ashe and I can figure,” I answered. “She can’t do it very often if we aren’t shifted, but it is fine if we are shifted or at least semi-shifted—you know when your arms get all fuzzy.

  So, what is this partially-shifted that she was talking about, SallyAnn asked.

  We both looked at Penny. It is when you smell more sparkly. For Ashe, she gets more shiny, but not full vampire. You get more hairy, but not full alicorn.

  I can do that on purpose? SallyAnn asked. Then I would be able to talk to Ashe and you when I needed to. That would great. You should have told me earlier.

  She snorted at me. I’m a dog. What do I know about what you need?

  Hey, I need to be a human again, SallyAnn interrupted. I can’t stay like this forever.

  Okay, honey. I took a deep breath hoping she would mirror me. She did. I lowered my head a little. Close your eyes. I want you to think about something that makes you feel human. Like holding a cup of coffee.

  Of course, you would think of that, Mom.

  “Think of holding your beloved iPhone then,” I said. “Keep your eyes closed. Feel the phone in your hands.”

  In a flash, my SallyAnn stood before me. “Whoa,” she said.

  I quick changed and threw the blanket over her. Rusty walked out and threw his hands over his face. “Mom, you gotta warn a person if you are going to do that. You just can’t run around naked all the time.” He threw me a blanket which I quickly wrapped around myself. I grabbed SallyAnn by the shoulders and looked her over.

  “Are you all right, baby? Did it hurt too much? Do you feel okay?”

  She looked at me and didn’t say a word. She took a deep breath and said, “I think I am okay, Mom.”

  “We will go out for a run when you feel up to it. Penny loves to go for runs.” She barked her agreement. “We will have to practice you shifting. That will help you get control over it.

  “Plus, I am sure this goes without saying, but you can’t tell a soul. You can’t tell your best friend, you can’t tell anyone.” I made sure she was looking me in the eyes. “I am serious about this, SallyAnn. Not. A. Soul.”

  “I know, Mom. I am not leaving the house for a very long time.” She wrapped her arms around me as best she could with a blanket over her. “I love you, Mom.”

  I picked up Ashe to take her over to the BlackHats’ office. We had a planning and strategy session to figure out how to move forward. Now we had to work on finding the girls that were sold; tearing down the trafficking ring and freeing any girls that were already taken.

  “So, SallyAnn is a shifter, too?” Ashe asked. I filled her in on how I had to show Rusty and SallyAnn the truth about me and the magical world.

  “They took it pretty well,” I said with a bit of pride. “I had always raised them to accept the outsider. Who knew the outsider would be me?”

  Ashe smiled, “They are good kids. I feel like they are my niece and nephew.”

  “Well Rusty would like to be more than your nephew,” I laughed. “I did tell him your talents were yours to tel
l or not to tell. So, he will probably ask. Knowing him he is probably hoping you are a shifter and he will get to see your naughty bits.”

  We were still giggling about teenage hormones when we walked into the office. Cal just rolled his eyes at us. “What? Two girls can’t have a good time?” I asked innocently.

  He grunted at us and indicted that we should take our seats. We said hello to everyone gathered and Cal called the meeting to order. “Here’s what we know.” He flashed a picture of Sal Carlotta on the wall. “Sal seems to be expanding from his human trafficking connections to adding magicals. They have auctions approximately once a month. So, we have a little time before the next one.

  “We know there were five other girls taken and bought. We had cameras outside the venue and took pictures of the various guests and the ones we believe bought girls. Joe is following up with facial recognition and tracking.”

  Joe stood up. He cleared his throat and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Okay, not much for being the center of attention, I thought.

  “We have names and addresses on all five purchasers,” he started. “We have begun surveillance around the locations. This is being done by shifters and by drones. We believe we need to hit all locations at once for the best chance of getting all five. If we grab one girl at a time, there is going to be heightened security after the second one at least.”

  A big guy interrupted, “Isn’t that going to take a lot of manpower? Do we have enough people for that?”

  Joe gulped and looked at Cal. Cal stood up and said, “We think if we send four person teams to each location we should be good. We aren’t human, thank God. So, we should be able to overwhelm most teams. Plus, they won’t be expecting us.”

  There were soft murmurings in the room. “Boss, we think it should be five or six to be safe,” a voice said in the back.

  “We will do what we can,” Cal said, “But we just don’t have a lot of people. Our name isn’t out there enough yet to bring in new recruits. We don’t have time to train people. We have to go with what we have.”

  Cal took a step back and Jim stepped forward. The wall lit up with four and five people teams. Fortunately, Ashe and I were together. They were not going to split us up. As if she heard my thoughts she turned and gave me a thumbs up. “We got this.” We were teamed up with Jim and Cal. The fact we had two elementals would give us a strong team.