Playing With Fury

by Annabel Chase

“What makes you say that?” the chief asked, clearly amused by her assessment.

  “He’s too short for her and looks like he spends most of his time indoors—not that there’s anything wrong with that,” she added quickly.

  “Neville’s invaluable,” I said. “I honestly don’t think I could do my job half as well without him.”

  “It’s good to surround yourself with people you trust,” Wilfrieda said. “That’s why family is so important.”

  There was no point in contradicting her. People as pure and innocent as Wilfrieda wouldn’t understand my predicament and I was determined to keep it that way. I hurried to catch up to the short, pasty wizard. However much I wanted to spend the rest of the day with the chief and his beloved aunt, it was fury time.

  Chapter Two

  “We should check on the portal before we get started,” I said.

  Neville and I headed to the mound where the portal was located, adjacent to Davenport Park and the Susquehanna River. To humans, the mound looked like a regular hill. Little did they know it was a place that separated this world from Otherworld, the supernatural realm.

  I gave the area a sweeping glance before Neville and I ducked inside the mound. I walked straight to the back wall and placed my hands on the cool rocks to feel for any abnormalities. Ticking off daily tasks gave me a sense of accomplishment and the portal was an easy one. As long as the portal was still dormant and demons weren’t pouring into Chipping Cheddar, I could consider the day a success.

  “How’s your guest?” Neville asked.

  “Wilfrieda isn’t my guest. She’s the chief’s aunt and she only just arrived.” I continued my examination of the wall.

  “I wasn’t talking about Wilfrieda.”

  Oh, that guest. Sassafras Persimmons had been my mortal enemy in high school, yet somehow we’d ended up as—for lack of a better word—friends. My return to Chipping Cheddar and my relationship with Sassy were proof that the universe had a twisted sense of humor.

  I turned to glare at him. “Are you trying to incite violence to make me fight harder during training?”

  The wizard chuckled. “It’s going well then.”

  “She’s annoyingly cheerful. She’s already smiling by seven, which should be against the law by the way.”

  He frowned. “What’s wrong with seven?”

  “In the morning,” I emphasized. “Before coffee.”

  “What a monster,” Neville said.

  I nodded solemnly. “Exactly.” I resumed the process of checking for weaknesses. The energy levels were normal, unlike Sassy’s.

  “You’re very kind to open your home to her. I’m sure she appreciates it. It can’t be easy for her, adjusting to a new life without her longtime paramour.”

  Her longtime paramour was none other than Tanner Hughes, my first boyfriend—until he cheated with Sassy courtesy of a spell cast by the witches in my family. Witches that did not want their precious fury romantically attached to a human.

  “It’s for Clara’s sake more than anything,” I said. “She needs time alone with Quinn when he visits.”

  My best friend Clara had let Sassy move in after the breakup with Tanner. Unfortunately that show of compassion coincided with Clara’s boyfriend transferring FBM divisions to spend more time in Chipping Cheddar with her. I agreed to have Sassy stay with me on the nights Quinn was in town, which happened to be right now. For someone suffering through a devastating breakup, the former cheerleader seemed remarkably upbeat.

  “All clear,” I said, as I checked the final section of the portal.

  “Got it.” Neville tapped on his phone screen.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m completing the report on my phone,” he said.

  “Look at you, technowizard.”

  “That is my specialty.”

  It really was. Neville had more magical gadgets than a Harry Potter theme park. He was the Q to my supernatural Bond and I meant it when I told Wilfrieda he was invaluable.

  “Unfortunately there’s no technology that can reconcile the monthly budget for me,” he said. “That I shall have to do on my own.”

  “Sounds like a party. Be sure not to invite me.”

  We exited the mound and walked to the park for our training session. The sun was shining and families were out and about, playing ball and strolling along the river.

  “We should’ve come earlier,” I said.

  “That was the original plan, but you said you had to meet the chief’s aunt.”

  “She seems nice, doesn’t she?” I asked.

  “She does. Not that I’m surprised. You don’t get to be Chief Fox with an unpleasant family.”

  I stopped in my tracks and looked at him. “Do you really believe that?” If so, what did that say about me?

  Neville seemed to realize his mistake. “It’s not a reflection on you, Agent Fury. Your situation is different.”

  “I like to think so.”

  “I’m looking forward to Sunday,” Neville said, clearly trying to change the subject.

  I blew a raspberry. “Can we skip over Sunday and go straight to Monday?”

  Neville looked taken aback. “Agent Fury, it’s your housewarming party.”

  “Yes, but I’m not the one who wanted to host it.” I’d succumbed to pressure from my family to show off the renovation of the old barn that was now my new house. I viewed the party as a Band-Aid. The sooner I ripped it off, the better.

  Neville pointed to a secluded area of the park. “We should work over there.”

  I spotted a family of four playing Frisbee nearby. “I don’t know, Neville. I think we might have to relocate for today. There’s too much potential for interference, even if we use a cloaking spell.”

  “We could use your backyard,” he suggested. “There’s ample space.”

  “That’s true.” Although the potential downsides included interference from my family as well as a nosy human neighbor.

  “The area behind the barn is far enough from the main house. Your family won’t even know we’re there.”

  As I debated the options, a toddler stumbled across the grass. He tripped and fell flat on his face. The moment he lifted his head from the dirt, his piercing cries filled the air.

  I winced at the earsplitting sound. “You’ve convinced me, Neville. My house it is.”

  We took Neville’s car to Munster Close. It was tough being a passenger in the wizard’s car. Aside from the strong smell of spearmint air freshener and the endless selection of jazz, he drove with the dainty foot of a ninety-year-old skeleton.

  “You know the speed limit is twenty-five, right? Not ten.”

  Neville shushed me. “I’m focusing on the road.”

  “If you focus any harder, you’ll have your face pressed against the windshield.”

  He parked in front of my house and shot me a triumphant look. “See? All in one piece.”

  “I’m surprised we made it the same day,” I grumbled.

  I was relieved to see no cars in the driveway. Maybe we’d luck out and get through training without an audience. I’d already taken to hiding my schedule from Grandma so she didn’t try to observe any more sessions. She was a persistent witch with a complete disregard for boundaries, though, and I had no doubt she’d be stalking me again at the first opportunity.

  “Nobody’s home,” I said. “We might as well use the whole backyard. No need to hide behind the barn.”

  We opened the gate and entered the backyard between the two main houses. When my parents divorced, they divided their property in half. My mother remained in the existing farmhouse that used to belong to the Wentworth family. My father built a new house five hundred yards away and now lived there with his second wife, a vampire named Sally. My renovated barn was smack dab on the property line that divided the parcels.

  “I thought we’d do more demon identification today,” Neville said.

  A whine escaped me. “Do we have to? I have that thingamajig
now. I don’t need to use my brain anymore.”

  Neville held up his phone. “You mean the app I created?”

  I waved a lazy arm. “Yes, that.”

  “It isn’t meant to be a substitute for thinking, Agent Fury. You won’t always have the luxury of whipping out your phone at the critical moment.” He shook his head. “Sometimes I find it hard to believe you were top of your class.”

  I wanted to cry like the fallen toddler in the park. He was right. The longer I stayed in Chipping Cheddar, the softer I became. I’d always been an overachiever, primarily to escape my hometown and become an FBI agent. Now that both of those goals were off the table, I had nothing to strive for anymore. It didn’t help that I was also overtired. Sassy kept me up later than usual talking my ear off about all her plans as a newly single woman. She made me take a dozen photos of her to upload to various dating apps and somehow persuaded me to take a video of her performing some sort of strange dance to upload to another app. I didn’t understand the purpose, but I’d swallowed half a bottle of wine by then and wasn’t in the state of mind to question it.

  Neville seemed to sense my mood because he quickly apologized. “I didn’t mean…”

  I silenced him with a hand. “It’s fine, Neville. I know what you’re saying and you’re absolutely right.”

  The wizard blinked. “I am?”

  I nodded. “I guess I’m still going through an adjustment period.” Like Sassy, but with fewer bright white teeth and less bounce in my step.

  “How would you like to battle this demon?” Neville conjured a strange-looking creature with a beige face and thin lips. No teeth that I could see. Its smooth, bulbous head reminded me of a cartoon alien.

  “He looks like he’s going to either ask me for Jell-O or shout at me to get off his lawn. What’s the threat? That he’ll gum me to death?”

  The demon held up a hand and sharp claws slid from its finger pads.

  “Pro tip: they’re poisonous,” Neville said.

  “Now you tell me.” I jumped back a solid two feet as the demon swiped at my middle. It certainly didn’t move like a geriatric. I had to figure out what it was before I could fight it. I fumbled for my phone as the demon mashed its lips together and advanced.

  “No technology,” Neville yelled.

  “Then what’s the point of having it?” I glared at the wizard before turning invisible. It was the one power I could use to buy time.

  The demon grunted a noise of surprise. Its head swiveled left to right and it sniffed the air. Judging from the two holes that passed for a nose, I bet the power of scent wasn’t one of its strengths.

  I pulled out my phone and opened Neville’s app.

  “No cheating, Agent Fury,” Neville said.

  “What? You can’t see me.” Anything appurtenant to me was as invisible as I was.

  “I don’t have to see you. I know you.”

  “Is it a Voldemort demon? It has that poor excuse for a nose.”

  “There’s no such thing,” Neville said wearily.

  I held up the phone in front of the demon and snapped its photo, quickly uploading it to the app.

  “Aha! A desiccation demon.” I grimaced as I read the brief description. “Immobilizes its victims with poisonous claws before sucking the soul from the body via mouth-to-mouth.” I glanced at Neville. “That’s gross. Why would you subject me to this one?”

  The demon followed the sound of my voice and I scurried closer to Neville as it clawed the air between us.

  “You’re a fury,” Neville said. “I expect you to overpower it.”

  I scrolled up to see how I was supposed to defeat it. “It dislikes oranges.” I moaned. “Is this a dating app or a demon app? What do I care if the demon doesn’t care for vitamin C?”

  Neville’s exhale was weary. “Keep reading, Agent Fury.”

  “Eden,” I corrected him.

  “You really should stop talking if you expect invisibility to work in your favor,” Neville said.

  The demon reached me before I could finish reviewing the summary. I felt a rush of movement as the claw sliced through the air. Thanks to my quick reflexes, I jumped aside at the critical moment and the demon tumbled forward.

  “Oh, now I see why you chose this one,” I said, smiling. I darted to the nearby lemon trees that Aunt Thora lovingly and magically cared for and plucked one of the lemons from a branch. Hopefully she’d forgive me for taking one without permission. It wasn’t like a tree of knowledge or anything.

  I turned visible again and held the lemon behind my back. “Here, demon demon. Who’s a good, bulbous demon?”

  It jerked toward the sound of my voice and smiled when it spotted me. Well, I assumed it was a smile. It looked more like an unhinged Muppet mouth.

  The demon charged and I stood my ground. I let it get within six inches of me.

  “Say ahhh,” I said. I whipped out the lemon and squirted the juice directly into its Muppet mouth.

  The demon hissed and steam emanated from its mouth and nostrils. It dropped to the ground and writhed helplessly as its body crumpled and sank into the earth.

  “It looks terrible, but it smells heavenly,” I said.

  Neville crossed the lawn, shaking his head. “You cheated,” he said.

  “Fine. Then give me a B instead of an A. I can take it.”

  “Cheaters don’t get knocked down a grade. They fail.”

  “This is a demon identification session,” I said. “If you didn’t want me to use the technology the gods gave me, then you should’ve…”

  The wizard’s face reddened. “The gods didn’t give you the technology. I did!”

  “I’m back,” Sassy’s voice rang out.

  Neville and I exchanged alarmed glances. I quickly stomped on the remaining bits of the demon’s body.

  Sassy rounded the corner of the main house and sauntered across the backyard. Her arms were laden with shopping bags.

  She flashed a smile when she saw Neville. “Oh, great. We have company.”

  “We do not have company,” I said, bristling. “Neville and I are just finishing up a training session.”

  “I don’t understand why you train for a job you already have,” she said.

  “And I don’t understand why you’re not working,” I said.

  She shook a bag at me. “What do you think this is? All these stores are my clients. They buy regular ads in the newspaper. Anyway, it’s important to shop local.”

  “The FBI likes to make sure I’m current with my skill set,” I said. “That means constant training.” Really it was because the FBM threw me into the deep end when they put me in charge of the Chipping Cheddar outpost. I’d trained as an FBI agent because I’d wanted nothing to do with the supernatural world, so I had some catching up to do.

  Sassy pretended to snore. “In that case, I’ll see you inside. I can’t wait to try on my new clothes.”

  “Didn’t you try them on in the store?” I asked.

  “Of course, but the lighting will be completely different in your place.” She hesitated. “On that note, you really should think about investing in a full-length mirror. It explains a lot.”

  “I’ll bear that in mind,” I said.

  Sassy held up one of the bags. “I bought you a dress for the mayor’s party. I checked your closet and noticed you didn’t have anything appropriate to wear.”

  I balked. “You bought me a dress?”

  “Of course. Anything for a friend. We girls have to stick together.” She blew me a kiss and skipped the rest of the way to the barn.

  I raised my eyebrows at Neville as if to say—you see?

  “It seems you have a personal shopper,” Neville said.

  “I don’t want a personal shopper. I want my new house to myself.” At least I’d have that soon enough. Quinn had to leave town again the morning after the party. I had the date marked in red on my calendar.

  Neville gazed at me in sympathy. “Before I go, would you like me
to conjure a demon that looks like Sassy for you to stomp on?”

  I clasped my hands at my chest. “You sweet and generous wizard. Neville, I have never appreciated you more.”

  Chapter Three

  “Is this a Single White Female thing?” I asked from the gallery landing. “Am I going to show up at your new place and find the same furniture?”

  It was bright and early the next morning—too early for Sassy to be taking photos of the barn’s interior.

  She looked up at me. “Good morning, sunshine. I’m getting ideas for your housewarming party.”

  I descended to the main floor, twitching from a lack of caffeine. “What kind of ideas?”

  Sassy lowered her phone. “The type of decorations you need and where to put them. Whether to bring in extra tables and chairs. That sort of thing.”

  “You’ve given this way more thought than I have. Why do I need decorations? It’s a housewarming party.”

  “You have to have a theme, silly.”

  “The theme is a new house.” It was a welcome change from the dusty attic in the main house.

  Sassy shook her blond ponytail. “What about food? What are you serving?”

  “Appetizers,” I said. “Anything that can be eaten without a fork.”

  She frowned. “You mean you haven’t decided yet?”

  “I’ll figure it out tomorrow morning.”

  Her eyes rounded. “You’ll be too tired to think tomorrow morning after all the fun we’re going to have at the party tonight. I don’t know how you’ve left this to the last minute.”

  I shrugged. “It’s amazing how easy it is to put off things I don’t want to do.”

  She seemed to vibrate with excitement. “Let me help you. We’ll spend the day preparing. It’ll be so much fun.”

  “I can’t,” I said. “I have to work.”

  “Are you ever not working?” she asked. “No wonder you’re not in a relationship.”

  “What can I say? I’m married to my work.”

  She looped her arm through mine. “Do you think Clara will marry Quinn? I hope so. I really want an excuse to buy a fancy dress.”

  I suppressed a smile. “I thought you were going to say because she deserves to be happy.”