Betwixt

by Danielle Garrett

  I missed.

  Gabriel swore and kicked his leg, trying to get the cat to relent. I conjured another stunning spell but before I could cast, a shrieking sound pierced my eardrums. I turned and saw a huge scaled creature barreling toward us.

  The cat released Gabriel and turned, inserting itself between me and the creature. He bowed his back, the thick hair standing on end, and released another deep, menacing growl but the creature didn’t stop. It came into the light and with a sick swoop of my stomach, I realized what the cat had been trying to warn us away from.

  “It’s the snareback!” I yelled, my voice reaching hysterical new heights.

  The thing was sleek and powerful, but hideous and twisted at the same time. Ugly yellow fangs gleamed with saliva as it hissed and whipped its tail at the cat.

  Gabriel called forth a spell and I recognized some of the words. He was calling fire. He was a far more powerful conjurer than I was and I scrambled to get clear of the impending blast. “Don’t hit the cat!” I screamed, scrambling to get behind another tree. “He was trying to warn us!”

  Gabriel didn’t answer. He continued chanting and a blazing orb of red and orange flames grew in his hands. He leveled it and with a final cry, shoved his hands forward. I pinched my eyes closed and slapped my hands over my face.

  The heat from the blast radiated over my face and I peeked between my fingers. The smoke was thick, but judging by the guttural animal sounds, I knew the lizard had been hit. My stomach knotted into a fist thinking about the cat. Had it managed to get clear? Was that even possible?

  A hand yanked me out from behind the tree and Gabriel yelled, “Come on, Holly. It’s not dead! We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “What about the cat?” I asked, craning around as Gabriel dragged me out of the wooded area and back to the landscaped grounds and the path that meandered around the campus.

  “Who cares!” he snapped.

  “I do! He saved our lives!” I tugged on my arm, desperate to go back and look, but Gabriel held fast. I couldn’t get away.

  “Please, just—”

  Gabriel swore.

  The rest of my protest died on my lips when something hit me square in the chest, knocking the air from my lungs. My knees buckled.

  A loud voice boomed across the grounds. “Students, freeze!”

  “Ah, Holly Boldt. I should have known you’d be involved in this somehow,” Professor Margot said as soon as she shut the door, sealing us inside her stuffy office. Judging by the cup of tea that still had steam pouring off it, she’d already been awake.

  Small mercies.

  Nearly an hour had passed since everything went to Hades in a hand basket. Apparently, someone had squealed to a professor after not receiving an invite to the soiree and decided to ruin the fun for the rest of us. The professor burst into the party and sent everyone scattering. The guards then took to patrolling the grounds for stragglers and found Gabriel and me.

  Once everyone was accounted for, they shuffled us back to our appropriate dormitories, where we waited for our lead professors to determine our fates.

  Mine was Professor Margot, a middle-aged witch with a dark-blonde bob haircut and features that were probably once quite striking but looked as though they’d been subjected to one too many anti-aging charms. She had a penchant for wearing a bucket’s worth of rose-water perfume every day.

  I sighed and didn’t bother asking what she meant by the throwaway remark about my involvement. I already knew exactly where she’d aimed that barb. My family had a strong dose of notoriety in the supernatural world, and though I’d rarely been written up even for something small like tardiness, it was like all the professors were simply waiting for me to slip up. To be fair, they weren’t entirely off base. I’d had a few adventures during my four years at Stars Academy, and while there were whispers, no one could actually trace any trouble back to me.

  “Now,” she started again, taking a seat at her desk. She stirred the tea and considered me for a moment. “I’ve heard from the other students that were caught out of bed. There was some kind of soiree going on, is that right?”

  There was no point in lying, so I nodded. “That’s right.”

  She arched a brow.

  “Professor,” I amended.

  “Hmm.” She pursed her lips. “Professor Gentry tells me you and Mr. Willows weren’t found at the party though. You were out on the grounds.”

  I nodded. “He was walking me back to my dorms.”

  She gave me a look that said she’d believe that just as soon as she saw a winged pig.

  “Because of the snareback!” I hurried to add. Might as well go all in. “Which, we found!”

  “Yes,” she replied, her tone measured and slow. “Mr. Willows informed Professor Gentry all about it. The thing’s carcass has already been disposed of.”

  “There was a cat,” I burst out. “Was it found?”

  She tilted her head, as if amazed by the question. Slowly, she answered with a drawn out, “No.”

  “He, or it, I supposed, was trying to protect me. On my way to the party, he appeared and scared me and—” I stopped myself from saying Bev’s name. I hadn’t seen her at the group of those detained after the party was broken up. There was a chance she’d gotten out beforehand and I didn’t want to incriminate her. “I think he was trying to keep me out of the woods.”

  “Then I’d say he’s a very smart cat. Perhaps you should have listened.”

  I frowned. “Isn’t that strange though? That he would have been there both times to warn me?”

  She considered this for a moment and then stirred her tea. “Perhaps he’s more than just a cat.”

  “You mean he could be a shifter?”

  “No. There are no registered tabby cat shifters on staff and no one other than staff would have been here tonight.” She set aside her spoon. “He could be your familiar. Have you seen him before tonight?”

  “My familiar?”

  She gave an impatient sigh. “Yes, Holly. A witch usually has at least one in her lifetime. They usually pick us and present themselves. Usually in a wooded setting, to be precise.”

  “I know what a familiar is,” I groused. “But that’s clearly not what’s happening here. This wasn’t some mystical experience in the forest, with a whispering breeze and a Colors of the Wind vibe.”

  Professor Margot sighed. I could almost see her silently questioning all of her life choices. “This isn’t a Disney movie, Holly.”

  “Clearly.”

  She leveled me with a stare that wasn’t cold but didn’t fill me with warm and fuzzies either. “There is an element of unexplained magic to the bond between a witch and her familiar. I would be lying if I said there was a formula or a test. Regardless, it’s usually quite obvious when that relationship forms.”

  An unexpected sadness draped over me and I looked down at my hands. “Would I know if he’d been … hurt?”

  She started to answer when there was a soft knock at the door. Professor Margot glanced up, a gleam of irritation sparking in her eyes. “Who else is awake at this hour?” she asked, the question obviously rhetorical.

  I stayed silent as she got up and went to answer the door, her buttery pink robes swirling around her. She pulled it open and laughed, a quick bark of a sound. “Well, Holly my dear, I do believe this answers the question.”

  Confused, I craned around in my seat. My jaw dropped when I saw Professor Gentry standing there, the orange cat at his feet, his orange and white chest puffed out like he was awaiting some kind of trophy ceremony.

  Which, all things considered, he probably deserved.

  “All of my students have been dealt with,” Professor Gentry said, glaring at me for a long moment before his eyes roved back to Professor Margot.

  “I’m just about done.” She looked down at the cat. “What’s this?”

  Professor Gentry followed her gaze and then shrugged. “He was here before I knocked.”

  “Right.
Thank you for letting me know. I’ll finish up with Ms. Boldt and we’ll be sorted here, too.”

  He gave a nod and then turned away.

  “Now, what to do with you?” Professor Margot asked the cat.

  I stood and joined her at the door. “If he is my familiar, what do I have to do?”

  “I suppose you have the choice to reject him,” she said, pursing her lips as she considered the cat. Her brown eyes looked him over, a thoughtful expression on her face, before they met mine. “But I would advise you to think long and hard about it. A familiar is an incredible asset. Not every witch is so lucky.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, Professor. I like animals as much as the next witch, but I don’t know that I’m a good choice for him. After graduation, I’ll be working a lot and I have plans to travel, too. I just don’t think he would get the attention he needs.” I said the last part to the cat, wondering if he really could understand me.

  “It’s your decision,” she replied.

  “And if I don’t take him home?”

  Professor Margot shrugged. “I’m sure someone else will adopt him from the haven shelter.”

  The cat looked up at me, unblinking.

  “Right,” I said slowly.

  “In any case, I don’t need it in here tonight,” she continued. “I have allergies. So, either way, it’s going with you. Now, I want you to go straight to your room and I don’t want one more toe out of line between now and graduation. Is that understood, young lady?”

  I gave a solemn nod. “Yes, Professor. Thank you.”

  I started to go but she stopped me with a light touch to my arm. “Holly, you’re a bright young witch. I’d hate to see you get tangled up with—” she paused, glancing to one side in the direction that Professor Gentry had departed. “The wrong crowd. I want to see you use your immense gifts for good and light.”

  Her words startled me, shaking up some doubt in the back of my mind, though I couldn’t put my finger on the specifics. Rattled, I nodded again. “Yes, Professor. I will.”

  She stared at me for a long moment, her eyes searching mine, before she relented. Offering a small smile, she squeezed my arm and inclined her head. “Good. I’ll look forward to seeing where your path leads you.”

  With that, she took a step back and ushered me out of her office, closing the door softly behind me.

  The cat followed me out of Professor Margot’s office, never more than six inches away from my ankles. He kept this pace as I started back through the maze of hallways that would eventually wind back to my suite’s door. Halfway there, I stopped and turned back to face the cat, my hands on my hips. I scoffed. “You’re just going to stalk me now? Is that it?”

  He blinked slowly, the answer a clear yes.

  “All right, then. Come on fur ball,” I said, heaving a sigh. Waving a hand, I gestured for it to follow me to my room. “You can stay with me. But just for tonight.”

  As they say, famous last words.

  Undercover Wolf: A Beechwood Harbor Novella

  Introduction

  Note from Danielle:

  Undercover Wolf is a novella that falls in line after Lucky Witch in the timeline of Holly’s series. This story contains *major spoilers* if you’ve not read up through that book.

  Chapter 1

  You know you’ve hit the skids when you start pleading with inanimate objects. Which, sadly, I found myself doing on a drizzly September evening. The sky was filled with grey clouds, and so far, I had yet to find a silver-lining.

  “Come on, just ring,” I pleaded, rubbing at the back of my neck.

  The phone stubbornly refused.

  Sighing, I decided to wave the white flag and call it a day. It was three forty-five, which I rationalized was basically four, which was almost five, so essentially, it was closing time. I shook my head at the pathetic chain of logic but started to shut down my computer anyway.

  The hourglass spun for half a second and a dialog box came up, asking me if I was sure. I lifted a brow. Great, even the machinery thinks I’m copping out.

  “Unless you have some job offers floating around that you haven’t told me about, then yeah,” I replied, pressing the mouse with needless force. “I think I’m all set.”

  I stalked across the small office and took my coat down from a hook near the door. The computer monitor blinked out and I hit the lights. Working alone was a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it was always quiet when I needed to think, and I didn’t have anyone to argue with over music, thermostat settings, or decor choices. But on the other, there was no one to commiserate with and I was left having conversations with the office equipment.

  Then again, that also meant no one would call in the men with the butterfly nets when those musings turned hostile.

  Small mercies.

  I slipped into the hallway, scowling up at the flickering florescent bulb. The landlord still hadn’t changed it. It hummed as it winked on and off while I flipped through my keyring.

  I rented a private office in the small complex that had originally been a log cabin before a real estate developer had come along and bought up all the surrounding land. Word was it took some time, but eventually they convinced Beechwood Harbor’s town council to let them renovate the cabin into a small commercial building as long as they maintained the rustic outward appearance.

  So, while the outside still had hundred-year-old timber, the inside had been gutted and converted into a sanitized commercial space that I shared with a dental practice, yoga studio, and an accountant.

  I sighed when I came face to face with the vinyl lettering on the frosted door:

  Nicolas G. Rivers

  Private Investigator

  “For now,” I muttered, snapping the lock into place.

  Tense fingers of anxiety closed in on my spine, stiffening every vertebrae and muscle when I thought about what would happen if I didn’t get some clients. I exhaled, but the tightness remained as I turned and left the building. A light smattering of rain greeted me on the sidewalk and I looked longingly across the street at the soft glowing lights of Siren’s Song, the local coffee house.

  Without consulting my head—or budget—my legs shifted into autopilot and I changed direction toward the cozy shop, ducking my chin against the rain.

  I realize so-called budget gurus will tell you that when the chips are down, the first thing to go should be the little indulgences. Like overpriced artisan coffee, just for an example. But, you know what I think?

  I think a hot mocha on a rainy day is a helluva lot cheaper than therapy, and there are worse hang ups.

  A thick blanket of warm air enveloped me as I stepped inside the coffee shop and I breathed in the smell of fresh-roasted coffee. My scowl melted away and I smiled.

  The stuff had serious power; just the smell of it made my worries lighter.

  A familiar chorus of voices called out to me. “Hey, Nick!”

  I raised two fingers in a salute. “Hey, Holly. Cassie.”

  Holly Boldt smiled at me as I approached the counter. “The usual?” she asked, tossing her long, braided hair over one shoulder.

  She didn’t bother waiting for me to confirm the order before she fired up the espresso machine—I’d ordered a large mocha since my first visit to the shop nearly two years ago.

  Smiling, I leaned against the counter. “What if I changed it up? Would you have a heart attack?” I teased.

  She grinned over at me as two rich streams of espresso poured from the machine into the waiting shot glasses. “I’d chalk it up to the full moon,” she replied, her emerald eyes dancing.

  I frowned at her and she giggled.

  “Ignore her,” Cassie said with a smile as she took up the helm behind the cash register. “We like routine orders—makes my life easier when I’m ordering product.”

  “Aha. Well, I’m happy to help.” I fished out my wallet and handed her a five-dollar bill. She made change and handed the coins to me and I tossed them into the ceramic tip jar be
side the register. The coins jingled as they hit the others collected in the bottom and I glanced down. “Truthfully, I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep up the coffee habit.”

  Cassie’s smile drooped as her brows knitted together. “Why not?”

  After checking over my shoulder to make sure a line hadn’t formed behind me, I slipped my hands into my pockets. “It’s been slow the last couple of months. I haven’t had any big-hitting clients and my savings are taking a beating. My lease is up in three months and I’m seriously considering not signing a new one.”

  Holly froze, one hand on the lever of the steam wand. “Are you serious? You’re going to leave Beechwood?”

  I lifted my shoulders in a slight shrug. “I haven’t made up my mind, but if things don’t pick up, I don’t see how I can stay.”

  Holly bit down on her lower lip and poured the frothed milk into a waiting cup.

  “Maybe it will pick up,” Cassie interjected, her chirpy tone laced with even more honey than normal. “Why don’t you bring over some business cards? I’ll put them right here at the register.”

  I gave her a wry smile. “That’s kind of you, but I’m not sure how many people are looking for a side of private eye with their hazelnut lattes.”

  “Well…” She paused, clearly searching for a positive spin.

  “I’ll be all right,” I hurried to add. “Thanks for the offer, though.”

  “Sure.” Cassie nodded and then closed the cash register drawer. The old-school machine clanged like a typewriter hitting the return. She turned toward the hallway that led to the supply room and her small office but glanced back at me. “I should go finish up the payroll. See you later, Nick?”

  “Yeah, of course. Have a good night, Cass. Tell the chief I said hello.”