Once Upon a Charmed Time

by Rose Pressey

  “Maybe he’s going to kill someone else. At least let me try a spell. I want to hit him with a spell right now,” my mother said.

  I grabbed her arm. “Hold on. Wait just a minute. We can’t do that yet, not right out here with all these people around us. We’ll follow him for a bit longer to see what he’s up to.”

  “But I know he’s up to something bad because he’s a bad person,” my mother said.

  She was really worked up now.

  “I have to call the cops and let them know we followed the guy here.” I dialed the cell number of the cop who had given me his card. Since he didn’t answer, I just left a voicemail. I hoped he’d check it soon.

  We kept up the pace, following the guy. He turned into a little shop. We stopped for just a moment to give him time to enter.

  “Are we really going to go in there too?” I asked.

  “I think I should go in,” Nicolas said.

  “I can’t let you do that. I want to know what’s going on in there. I’m going with you,” I said.

  He looked at me as if he was completely frustrated at my hard-headedness. I couldn’t blame him for that, but I wanted to hit the guy with a spell too. I had revenge on my mind. And I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hurting anyone else. But I also didn’t want to put my mother at risk. I didn’t want Nicolas and Liam going in there either. I wanted them to let me handle this all on my own. I could take it. I was the one who’d brought this man to us. If he wanted to hurt me then I was going to stop him from hurting anyone else I loved.

  He had gone into a women’s clothing boutique—what was he doing in there? Was another target of his in there?

  “Okay, come on, everyone. Let’s go.” I motioned for everyone to follow me.

  I led the way. I opened the door and we all flowed into this expensive boutique full of beautiful women’s clothing. He was nowhere in sight. He had to be around here somewhere. Was he in the dressing room hiding or was he in a back room somewhere? Perhaps he had slipped out the back door. Maybe he’d known we were following him all along. Surely someone who worked here could tell me. They had to have seen him come into this place. The woman behind the counter hadn’t even looked over at us yet. We would have to go to her apparently.

  The woman looked up at us. Immediately a frown appeared on her face. Had this man told her about us? Where were the police anyway? We’d told them we found this guy.

  “May I help you?” she asked in a clipped tone.

  I felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. This woman obviously thought we had no business here.

  “We’re looking for a man who just came in here,” I said.

  She glared at me. “There’s no man in here.”

  “Yes, there has to be. We just saw him enter less than a minute before we did.”

  “If you don’t leave then I will be forced to call police,” she said.

  “Good. That’s exactly what you need to do,” I said.

  “Get out of here right now,” the woman yelled.

  I couldn’t believe she was kicking us out. She was obviously hiding this man.

  “You’ll be sorry,” I said. “Wait until Richard Gere finds out.”

  She glared at me. Nicolas and Liam grabbed me by the arms and guided me toward the door. So maybe I was a tad bit worked up.

  “He’ll try to kill you too,” I yelled as they took me out.

  “I can’t believe that she kicked me out,” I said. I stood on the sidewalk trying to calm down.

  “I can’t believe you were referencing Pretty Woman,” my mother said.

  “I was delirious. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “It was funny though. I actually recorded it on my phone,” Liam said.

  “Oh, that’s very funny. This is a life-threatening situation and you are laughing. This is not humorous.”

  “You’re right, Hallie. I apologize. It is not a funny situation.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  The woman was glaring at us from the other side of the window.

  “Should we stick around and wait for the police?” Nicolas asked.

  “Only for a short time longer,” I said. “This woman might come out and clobber me right here on the sidewalk.”

  “Maybe if we move over just a little bit out of sight she won’t be so upset,” my mother said.

  Since the woman was still standing at the window staring at us I decided to take my mother’s advice and move away from the store. We moved a few steps to the left and out of sight. Time passed and it didn’t look as if the police were going to show up. I guessed since there had been no gunfire they weren’t too much in a hurry. It would be hard to explain that we had followed the shooter.

  “I think it’s time we leave. I’m getting a strange feeling out here and it’s not from that woman.”

  We stepped off the curb and headed across the street toward the car.

  “It doesn’t help that we have such a recognizable car,” my mother said.

  “Don’t remind Liam,” I said.

  There was a lot of traffic so we had to wait for the light. Not something I was used to since I lived in small-town Enchantment Pointe. We finally got our chance to cross the street. I was almost across when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a car. It was headed right for me.

  “Halloween, look out,” my mother screamed.

  Nicolas grabbed me on one side and Liam grabbed the other. They pulled me out of the way just in time. Luckily, my mother was already on the sidewalk. The wind had been knocked out of me. We had landed on the sidewalk. People walked by as if nothing had happened. A few gave us dirty looks, letting us know we were in the way.

  “He tried to run over you,” my mother said.

  “Are you okay, Hallie? Anything broken?” Nicolas touched my arms and legs.

  “No, just probably bruised my butt,” I said.

  Liam and Nicolas stood and then helped me up. I looked around to see if I spotted the car. It would be hard to pick him out now with the traffic zooming by.

  “We have to be more careful from now on and watch for this guy,” my mother said.

  “It would help if I knew who he was. Did you see the license plate number better this time?” I asked my mother.

  “I may have gotten a few numbers,” she said.

  “Well, I guess that’s a start.” I brushed off my clothing and pushed the hair out of my eyes. “Maybe if I give the police what I have they can track him down.”

  We got into car without further incident. As we pulled away I dialed Detective Manning’s number. Unfortunately, I had to leave a message.

  Chapter 22

  Soon Detective Manning had returned my call. He requested that we meet him and he’d take us to the address from the license plate. We picked up and headed over to the police station. Detective Manning came right out as soon as we pulled up. He walked over to the car. When he saw us he frowned.

  “Would you like to ride with us?” I asked.

  He looked at the car and said, “I think it would be better if I drive. You can follow me.”

  “Did you see the way he was looking at the car?” Liam asked when the detective walked away.

  “Oh, you’re imagining things,” I said.

  “No, he was totally going to make fun of us for the car.”

  “Shouldn’t he?” I said.

  “Yeah, I guess I am being a bit too sensitive.”

  “Definitely. What’s gotten into you?”

  “I don’t know. I suppose I’m not feeling myself. Something just seems strange since we’ve been here.”

  “Maybe you’re just homesick,” I said.

  “I don’t get homesick,” he said.

  We fell in behind the detective’s car as he pulled out of the parking lot. We headed toward the address… wherever that was.

  “I’m just glad he agreed to do this,” Victoria said.

  “It was very nice of him,” I said.

  I watched Liam and Nicolas lo
ok at each other. Why were they being so jealous? What did they care if this guy was just being nice?

  The trip took longer than I expected, but it was mostly because of traffic. We pulled up to an apartment complex and found a parking spot. We parked and got out of the car, meeting the detective over beside his car.

  “Okay, so here’s what we should do,” he said.

  I wasn’t used to having a stranger involved in our investigation into magic.

  “I’ll go up and talk to whoever answers the door and find out everything from there. You can come and talk to him, but I just don’t want to possibly put you in danger. I don’t want that to be on my hands. I hope you understand,” he said.

  I supposed I did understand, but I was anxious to talk with this person. I wanted to be gung ho and go up to the door right away. I stood by the car door and watched as he walked away. He didn’t go far though. He stopped at a nearby door and knocked. No one was answering and I was beginning to think that this was going to be another dead end. Why did all the leads fizzle out? It was so frustrating.

  After a few more seconds the door opened just a little bit. That was strange. The detective placed his hand on his gun, as if he was nervous that the person was going to do something to harm him. I couldn’t get a good look at who was at the door, so I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on. However, I was even more anxious now. What if this person did try to harm the detective or us?

  Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. When I looked to the left I knew for sure that I had just seen Dalton.

  “Hey, there’s Dalton,” I yelled.

  I didn’t know if I should run or not since I didn’t know who was behind that apartment door. I saw the back of Dalton again.

  “Did you see that?” I asked.

  Out of the corner of my eye I spotted him again and he disappeared right before my eyes.

  “I saw him,” Nicolas said.

  “Me too,” Liam said.

  “That was the guy we were telling you about,” I told Victoria.

  All of a sudden the air became thick. My legs shook and I fell to the ground. I knew I had been hit by some powerful magic. What was going on? Had Dalton cast the spell or was it the person behind the door? The detective was still trying to get the person to speak to him.

  “Hallie, are you okay?” Nicolas rushed to my side, helping me up from the ground. Liam rushed to my other side to help. I brushed off my clothing and tried to regain my senses.

  “I’m all right,” I said.

  The words came out, but it was as if someone else was speaking. I still wasn’t completely sure that I was all right.

  “Maybe you should have a seat in the car,” Nicolas said.

  “No, I’ll be fine,” I said. “I want to find out what happened.”

  I was just getting ready to go over to the area where I’d seen Dalton when the person behind the apartment door opened it wider. I got a good look at her. She was shorter than me, probably four foot eleven to my five foot two. Somehow the detective had talked her into coming out. We watched as they talked. In the meantime Nicolas and Liam went to look for Dalton. I didn’t want to leave Victoria alone.

  I decided to let them look for him, although I was anxious to find out if he was still around. I couldn’t believe he kept giving us the slip like that. Finally the woman went back inside the apartment. The detective came back over to us.

  “What did she say? Is this the right address?” I asked.

  “She knew Carter Cobbs. He stayed with her for a while. She said she finally got rid of him.”

  “What does that mean?” Victoria asked.

  “It means she’s scared of them. Though she doesn’t know what they’re up to.”

  “They?” I asked.

  “There was a woman with the man as well and sometimes other people would come over. I think they were up to something sinister.”

  I’d say, considering they had the bottles and potions. They had to be connected to the witches not being able to do magic.

  “Where did Nicolas and Liam go?” he asked.

  “Oh, yeah, we saw Dalton. He went around that way and they went to find him.”

  The detective was just going to go look for Nicolas and Liam when they returned.

  “What happened?” I asked. “Did you find Dalton?”

  Nicolas shook his head. “No, he was nowhere around. He disappeared again just like before.”

  “So what’s the deal with this guy?” the detective asked.

  “Well, it’s a funny story now that you ask,” I said. “We found him tied up in a basement of a house.”

  The detective’s eyes widened. “And you didn’t report this to the police?”

  “Well, it was a funny situation and we didn’t know if we should or not because we didn’t think anyone would believe us. Dalton didn’t seem interested in telling anyone. Plus it had to do with the magic.”

  “Regardless, this is a serious offense. You should have contacted the police.”

  “Yes, well, in hindsight perhaps we should have.”

  “Can you give me the address for the house?”

  I gave him the address and he said he would look into it. We thanked him for all his help and watched him leave. After that we got out of there. I didn’t want to hang around any longer than absolutely necessary. It was definitely making me feel weird and giving me the creeps. That constant vibe of magic being used the wrong way lingered in the air. Plus, there was the feeling of someone watching us. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

  I explained to Nicolas and Liam what I’d found out from the detective—the woman claiming that a man and woman were staying with her for a while, and that they had been doing some strange things with witchcraft and the potion bottles.

  “She said as far she knew they weren’t witches,” I said.

  “They had to be, right? If they were doing magic,” Liam said.

  “I don’t know of any witch who can perform magic like what we found in those bottles. That stuff seemed really powerful. The spells were cast by someone with a lot of skills,” Nicolas said.

  I didn’t want to admit to Victoria that my magic was on the fritz. I’d had too many embarrassing times with that in the past. I didn’t want to go back there again. However, I needed to cast a spell to see if I could make a connection between the bottles and the people this woman claimed lived with her. Maybe if I could find a clue somehow… How could I convince Victoria to do the magic and not let her know that mine was not so great right now?

  “Victoria, we would love it if you would do a spell with us,” I said.

  Victoria probably knew what I was up to.

  “Really? You would do that for me?” Victoria asked.

  I couldn’t believe that she was that excited about me asking her. She’d be doing me a huge favor and instead she thought I was doing her a favor. That was fine with me.

  “We can go back to the office. I have a special room that is set up for spells. You’ll love it. It’s fantastic,” Victoria said.

  She had a room for spells? Maybe I needed one of those too. All I ever did was use the kitchen and the cauldron. It did have a quaint charm though, so maybe that was all I needed. Like I said before, I wasn’t a fancy person, just simple.

  We went back to her office and prepared to do the spell. Though I wasn’t sure how I would fake this and let her take over the spell. I would think of something once we got in there. We parked the car in front of the office and headed inside. We followed her back up to her office and through the door.

  “It’s just right down here,” she said, motioning down the hallway.

  When we stepped into the room I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like a magic world in there with all kinds of bottles and potions. A big cauldron sat in the middle of the room. It was definitely a great set-up. I needed to up my game for the leadership thing. If I wasn’t careful Victoria would take over my position as leader. I had the advantage though. I had t
he book and I was the leader. No matter how many fancy things she had.

  “The room is amazing,” I said, looking around.

  “Thank you,” she said. “We spent a lot of time over the years perfecting it. This space wasn’t my vision. It was the coven leader before me. She did all of this.”

  “Impressive,” Liam said as he looked at some of the bottles on the far wall.

  “So should we get started?” I asked, motioning toward the cauldron.

  “Absolutely. Why don’t you pick out the things that you need for the spell,” Victoria said. “And then I can lead, would that be good for you?”

  “Perfect,” I said with a smile, all the time thinking how I was so glad she’d said that.

  I went around the room and picked out all the spices I thought would work for the spell—bay leaves, rosemary and cloves. We gathered around the cauldron and watched as she placed the spices into the water, one by one, reciting the words for the spell. I felt the floor hum and the energy took over the room. We held hands and then started reciting the words with her. With any luck this spell would allow us to see what was going on with the bottles and give us some kind of clue to where they came from or who they belonged to.

  We were ready for the spell so she called to the elements. “Calling to the element air, please help us. Calling to the element of fire, please help us. Calling to the element of water, please help us. Calling to the element of earth, please help us.”

  I hoped that this worked. I recited the words along with the others, carefully so I wouldn’t miss a word. Victoria waved her arms through the air. The elements were needed now more than ever. We needed to draw the power to help us with the witchcraft. A shot of energy came from the ceiling and hit me in the head. It traveled down my body to my feet. That was a good sign. With that much energy I would cast an excellent spell. I wondered if the others had felt it too. It was almost impossible not to feel it. I continued with the words wondering if more energy would come from the ceiling. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt, it just gave me a boost of energy.

  One thing about the spell though was I didn’t know when this information would come to us, or how it would appear to us. I’d had spells that left images in the sky and the clouds or on the wall. It was a mystery where the information would pop up. I just hoped that it showed up soon though. I was becoming inpatient. I wanted to know where to find the person responsible for all of this.