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  “I assume she went to the locker room, but I had no idea where that is.” I scanned the room.

  “Maybe at the back of the gym?” Natalie asked.

  That meant we would have to walk all the way through before finding it. Without further discussion, we walked across the gym floor. We got halfway through the room when I saw Gracie standing over by the treadmills. She was talking to another woman.

  I froze on the spot. “There she is. We have to hide before she sees us.”

  Jennifer and Natalie followed me as I hurried over and hid behind a large piece of workout equipment, although the machine didn’t provide much concealment. With all the mirrors around it would be easy for Gracie to see our reflection.

  “She still has the duffel bag,” Jennifer said.

  “I knew she would keep that thing with her.”

  “I told you she probably would. She’s a little wacky,” Jennifer said.

  “A little?” Natalie said.

  After a couple minutes, and a lot of strange looks from gym members wanting to use the equipment we were hiding behind, Gracie headed toward the back of the room. We followed her across the room. That was when she went in the doors that led to the locker room.

  “Now we just have to wait for her to get out of there, and then we can sneak in,” I said.

  “Yes, but we have to avoid the employees. I think there’s quite a few of them around,” Natalie said.

  I looked across the space. So far none of them were looking at us, but it was just a matter of time.

  “What is she doing in there?” Jennifer asked.

  “Probably fixing her makeup or something.”

  “Did she come here to work out or have a modeling session?” Natalie said.

  Just as I was about to give up, Gracie stepped out of the locker room. She had no idea that we were over there spying on her. As soon as she was out of sight we hurried through the door into the locker room. Now we just had to find her locker before she came back. Unfortunately aisles lined the middle of the space and the walls.

  Luckily, it didn’t look as if anyone had placed locks on any of the lockers because then we’d be in big trouble. We started opening up doors, looking through people’s stuff, which seemed totally wrong. I didn’t like doing it, but I had no choice. This was important. It wasn’t like I was actually taking anything. Well, except for Gracie’s hairbrush.

  The main door opened and the sound of footsteps echoed across the room.

  “Someone’s coming,” I whispered.

  I motioned for Natalie and Jennifer to follow me. We had to stop looking through the lockers for a while until this person left. That meant we had to get out of sight. We managed to hide in one of the shower areas.

  “This is weird,” Natalie whispered.

  I pulled the curtain back slightly so that we could peek out from behind it. The lady was dressing in her workout clothes.

  “What’s taking her so long?” Jennifer asked.

  “I don’t know. She’s putting on her shoes now,” I whispered.

  This whole sneaking around thing made my stomach hurt. I just wanted to get out of there with the brush. The woman tied her shoes and then headed toward the main door. She paused and looked over her shoulder, as if she sensed someone watching her. Actually there were three someones watching her. I put the curtain back so she wouldn’t notice us. After a few more seconds, I eased the curtain back again. Luckily, the woman had left.

  “Hurry,” I said as I yanked the curtain back.

  We scattered across the locker room like mice, continuing our search. Even though I wouldn’t tell Jennifer or Natalie, it seemed hopeless.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” the woman yelled.

  I spun around. A tall dark-haired woman was staring at me.

  “Ah-ha. I found it,” Jennifer yelled.

  The woman wouldn’t believe my story about looking for my bag now that she saw Jennifer holding up a hairbrush. In a split second I had come up with a lie to tell her—I’d forgotten which locker was mine.

  “I’m glad you found my brush,” I said and ran over to Jennifer.

  The woman glared at us, folding her arms in front of her chest. Instead of sticking around to chat, we all ran toward the door. The woman dashed after us. Why was she so suspicious? It was only a hairbrush. You’d think we were trying to steal money.

  “I saw you take something out of the lockers. Were you stealing money?” she asked.

  Who left money in their locker anyway? That certainly wasn’t a wise decision. We ran out of the locker room as if the place was on fire. She was right behind us, yelling for an employee. This was causing way too much attention. I looked around to see if Gracie was there, but didn’t see her. I knew she was there somewhere though. She was bound to see all the commotion. If we could just get to the door we’d run out of there and we’d be home free. Or so I thought.

  We darted out of the building with the woman following us and now the employee was chasing us too. She’d managed to capture the attention of the woman behind the desk. It looked as if we were running from a bank robbery, but instead of a bag of cash, we had a dirty hairbrush. Did Gracie ever clean this thing? At least I could see the car from where we were now. I hoped Natalie remembered to unlock the doors before we got there.

  Just as I thought I’d made it home free someone grabbed my arm. When I spun around, I realized it was the employee. At least that was better than it being Gracie.

  “What did you take?” she asked.

  “Take your hands off of me right now.” I yanked my arm, but she had a tight hold. She must really lift weights. “I didn’t take anything.”

  I wasn’t going to admit anything. I supposed we could’ve just taken some hair off the brush and tossed it, but again I didn’t want to do that.

  “Get off my friend.” Jennifer stormed over to us.

  “This woman said she saw you take something from the locker room.” The employee pointed.

  “Well, she’s crazy,” I said.

  “Then why are you running from her?”

  I pulled my arm away from the employee. This was making me really angry and I knew if I wasn’t careful I would sprout hair soon. I felt the color of my eyes changing already. When the employee looked at me, I knew she noticed too. Her face turned pale and she backed up a bit. I supposed now she would leave me alone.

  Gracie came out of the door. Our eyes met at that moment. She knew we were there for her. I took off running, but I knew she was behind me. She wasn’t as fast as me though, so I had an advantage. There was no way she would catch me. However, I felt the magic as it zoomed around me. I had really created some sort of force field. I was able to avoid all this magic. Whatever I’d done I wanted to keep it up.

  Jennifer and Natalie had already reached the car. They had the doors open for me as they yelled for me to hurry. I leapt into the car and slammed the door shut just as Gracie reached it. She pounded on the window and zoomed another magic spell through the window at me. I ducked and so did Natalie. We managed to miss it—just barely. Natalie put the car into drive and we took off.

  “I think I ran over her feet,” Natalie said.

  I looked back. “No, she’s still standing. She looks mad, but not injured.”

  “Did you get the brush?” Jennifer asked.

  “I got it.” I held up the brush.

  “Once she realizes what we took she’ll know exactly what we’re getting ready to do, so we need to hurry before they have time to do any kind of preemptive magic work,” Natalie said.

  “They can do that?” Jennifer asked.

  “They most certainly can,” Natalie said. “Where do we go next?”

  “Well, I would say that we would go to Sarah’s house, but we still have that guy, Dave Mitchell.”

  “You don’t know much about him?” Natalie asked.

  “Just that he’s been following me around,” I said.

  “We do have to find him. If he’s with
them, then we have to have his hair too.”

  Just then my phone rang. “It’s Jack. I forgot about our date. He must be home already.”

  “Don’t answer.” Natalie waved her hand toward my phone.

  “No, you have to answer,” Jennifer said.

  “Hey, you’re not here at the building,” Jack said when I answered.

  Chapter 26

  How to Date a Witch Rule #26

  Never ask her to cast a spell on the first date

  Jack was suspicious of the phone call. It was evident by the sound of his voice. I’d made an excuse that I was helping Jennifer, but in fact it was the other way around. I hoped to finish this spell, get the evil witch to leave me alone, and then all would be back to normal. Right now we were trying to track down the motorcycle guy, Dave Mitchell, before we had to go visit the glowing-eyed witch, Sarah. I was probably just delaying.

  As we drove past the cemetery, I looked over to see if I could spot Tim. We tried to call him again, but there was still no answer. There was not a word about his whereabouts… until I spotted him. Well, it was the back of his head, but I was positive it was him.

  “Look at the cemetery. Tim’s back,” I said, pointing. “It’s the guy I told you was missing.”

  Natalie pulled the car over to the side of the road and we all hopped out. I couldn’t wait to ask him where he had been. When we approached the cemetery no one was there. I started to think maybe that I had imagined seeing him. The gate was open, so we went inside.

  “Are you sure you saw him?” Natalie asked.

  “I thought I was sure. Yes, absolutely. I know I saw him,” I said.

  “Maybe he just left,” Jennifer said.

  I headed back over to the gate and looked out onto the sidewalk. He wasn’t there either. I had a feeling that we were being watched. That was when I spotted him across the cemetery.

  “There he is.” I pointed.

  We rushed over, down the path, and caught up to him. I touched his shoulder.

  “Tim, I’m so glad to see you,” I said.

  When he turned around, I realized it wasn’t Tim. It was just a guy who looked like him from behind. Now I was truly disappointed.

  “Sorry, I thought you were Tim,” I said.

  “No, he’s not been around for a bit,” the guy said. “We haven’t heard from him.”

  I had just called to ask about Tim. I should have known he wasn’t giving the tour tonight, but I’d been hoping that I was wrong.

  “You don’t have a clue where he is?” I searched his dark brown eyes to see if I thought he was being truthful with me.

  “Not a clue. I haven’t heard a word.”

  “Well, thanks anyway,” I said.

  He seemed to be honest.

  “Hey, are you all staying for the tour?” He looked at his watch. “It starts in twenty minutes.”

  “I’m sorry, but we have somewhere to go. Thanks anyway.” I waved.

  We rushed back out to the sidewalk and toward the car. That was when I caught sight of Dave as he stood beside the brick building across the street. When our eyes met he moved behind the building where I couldn’t see him.

  “It’s him. It’s the guy we’re looking for,” I said.

  The sound of a motorcycle cranked and then I saw the tail light as he headed away.

  “I’ll catch him,” Natalie said.

  Maybe he was headed to Sarah’s place and now we were following him.

  “I don’t think you’ll be able to catch the motorcycle,” I said.

  “Don’t be so sure,” she said. “Buckle up.”

  I glanced back at Jennifer. Her eyes were wide and as she clutched the side of the car door. Natalie sped away from the curb. It wasn’t long before we ended up at a red light. Up ahead, I spotted Dave. He didn’t think that we were actually going to follow him, so he wasn’t in a hurry. He probably thought that I would try to go the opposite direction to get away from him. Why was he there watching us? If he wanted me then why didn’t he come over and try to take me? What if Sarah had sent him?

  To my surprise we managed to catch up with him. He acted as if he was taking a leisurely stroll through town. It really was almost as if he wanted us to follow him. Perhaps he was bringing us exactly where he wanted us. We were following directly into his trap. Soon he pulled into a mansion’s driveway. The brick house had three stories and a landscaped garden in front with a bubbling water fountain. He drove up to the front circle drive and got off the bike.

  I had a strange feeling about this place. Sarah must live here and this guy had brought me here on purpose. She would probably attack us soon.

  “I have a bad feeling about this place,” I said.

  “Me too,” Jennifer said.

  Just then someone opened the mansion door. Jack stepped outside and walked right up to Dave. They started talking. Jennifer let out a gasp. I didn’t know how to react. I was speechless. My stomach twisted into a knot and my knees went weak.

  “Is there something wrong?” Natalie asked.

  For a moment it felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. I couldn’t even answer. The words wouldn’t form.

  Finally Jennifer answered for me. “That’s her boyfriend.”

  “Whoa,” Natalie said. “That’s not good.”

  “I’m going to confront him right now,” I said, grabbing the door handle.

  Natalie grabbed my other arm. “No, don’t go. We need to find out more first.”

  I sighed. “I know we do, but how?”

  “We’ll sneak around and try to find out more. Maybe we can listen to the conversation and find out what they’re talking about.”

  Were they talking about me? Were they talking about bringing me here? Had Jack been involved in this all along? I’d thought I could trust him. If I couldn’t trust him then who could I trust? Whose house was this?

  “We’ll get out and sneak over to the house,” Natalie said.

  That didn’t sound like the best of plans, but it was all that we had. The three of us got out of the car and inched across the driveway, hiding behind the bushes until we reached the house. I hoped that it wasn’t too late and that we hadn’t missed out on any important information from their conversation. I still felt queasy thinking about Jack.

  “We should break up so that we can cover more of the area. We’ll find out what this place is all about,” Natalie said.

  Against my better judgment I agreed to this idea. Jennifer had gone with Natalie. They were going to split up once they reached the back of the house. I was worried about Jennifer. She wasn’t used to sneaking around dangerous places. Was this place dangerous? I was used to danger because of my werewolf status. When I shifted I often roamed around all kinds of spooky places. The only difference now was that I wasn’t in werewolf form. Perhaps I should change.

  I was still hiding behind the bushes, trying to hear their conversation. All of a sudden someone grabbed me from behind. The person placed their hand over my mouth. I couldn’t say a word. The next thing I knew, I had been stuffed in the trunk of a car with something over my mouth so that I couldn’t make noise. It had all happened so quickly there was no time to shift. I had no idea where they were taking me. Did they have Jennifer and Natalie too?

  We drove for a little bit but I couldn’t keep up with where we were going. There were too many twists and turns. Finally, the car stopped. I had no idea where we were now. The trunk opened and I looked up into the face of a stranger. He glared at me with dark eyes and a sneer appeared across his face. He yanked me out and led me over to the house. Who was this man? The house was nice, but not as big as the other mansion. I didn’t recognize it either. I tried to break free from the ropes that tied my hands together, but I had no luck.

  Maybe I should just make a run for it. He didn’t have my legs tied, only my hands. I could still run. Well, it wouldn’t be as fast, but I could still do it. I had to give it a try. What was the worst that could happen? Oh, yeah, the man could ki
ll me… there was that. I attempted to run, but I only got a few steps before I fell flat on my face. It wasn’t as easy to run with my hands tied as I’d thought. I needed them for coordination and balance.

  Unfortunately, the man grabbed me up from the ground and yanked me toward the house again.

  “Nice try,” he said. “But you’re not getting away.”

  My mouth was still covered so I couldn’t speak, but I wanted to tell him what I thought of him. Was Jack involved in this too? That was utterly disgusting. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe that I’d seen him talking to that Dave guy.

  The man led me into the house. It was dark in there and he took me into the living room. He sat me on the chair and then walked out of the room. I could try to run, but I wondered if he had locked the door. I eased up from the chair and headed toward the door. Voices carried across the hall from another room. I was inches away from the door when the man appeared in the hallway again. He raced over to me and grabbed my arm.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  What did he expect? He’d left me in the room alone. He shoved me back into the chair and held his hand on my shoulder, pressing down and trying to make sure that I didn’t move again.

  That was when the witch Sarah appeared at the threshold of the door. She stared at me without speaking. Her eyes glowed again, stronger than I’d ever seen. What was she going to do to me now? She turned around and walked out of the room without saying a word.

  “Don’t even try to get away. The door’s locked. You can’t go anywhere,” he said.

  I glared at him. There had to be a way out of there. I just had to think of it. I needed to do it quickly. He walked out of the room to join Sarah. What were they doing? I moved in the chair, contemplating if I should make a run for it again.

  After a couple of seconds, Dave entered. I couldn’t ask him where Jack was or what he wanted to do to me since my mouth was still bound. He came over and got me out of the chair. He untied my hands. Why was he doing this?