A Charmed Cauldron Read online

  I crossed my arms in front of my waist. “I’m not pouting.”

  The werewolf moved a step more.

  “Obviously you did the wrong spell,” I said.

  “Nonsense. I never cast wrong spells,” my mother said.

  I kept my stare on the werewolf. “He just moved again. If the spell worked, then he wouldn’t have proceeded toward us.”

  ‘Fine, the spell didn’t work right. We all have our off days. Some more than others.” She cast a side glance at me. “We have to do something now.”

  I released a deep breath. “Okay, let me think of something.”

  “I don’t like the way that he’s looking at us. He is going to lunge soon,” my mother said.

  “Just follow my lead,” I said.

  As I recited the words and my mother spoke with me. I hoped this spell worked. Sparks came from my fingertips and flew across the space toward the werewolf.

  “Oh, good job, Halloween. That’ll show him.” She pumped her fist.

  I wasn’t going to consider this a success quite yet. I’d give it a few more seconds and see what happened. A whirling energy appeared in the air around the werewolf.

  The werewolf wasn’t moving now. Apparently, the spell had worked this time. Ha. I’d known I still had my fabulous magic skills intact. Okay, for a moment I had been worried. Now I saw there was no reason to worry.

  The werewolf was still staring at us, but that was all that he could do. The spell wouldn’t last long so we had to get out of there while we had the chance. Why were the werewolves after us? It had to have something to do with the Book of Mystics. They probably wanted to lead the Underworld.

  “We have to get out of there,” I said, grabbing my mother’s hand.

  We turned and headed for the staircase. I looked back at the werewolf. He was still in the same spot. My mother and I rushed down the stairs and toward the front door. That was odd. I thought for sure we’d left the door open. Now it was closed. Maybe my mother had closed it. I felt bad that we were leaving without finding Daniel and his grandmother. I would come back once we had spoken with the werewolf leader. If the werewolves were up to something maybe she could shed light on it.

  We rushed out of the house and to the car. There was no sign of the other werewolf. It could be back at the manor for all I knew. Maybe the man was looking for the Book of Mystics. It wouldn’t do him any good though. He wouldn’t find it. I was sure of that. We headed out of the driveway and down the street to the manor.

  “We’ll check on LaVeau Manor. I’ll call her and then leave. I will tell her that we need to meet right away.”

  We pulled up to the house. So far everything looked fine. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

  I rushed into the house. “I’ll look around for the wolf.”

  “I’m coming with you,” she said, holding onto the back of my shirt.

  We went through the downstairs of the house. There was no sign of the wolf. I needed to hurry and make the call, so I decided against checking the rooms upstairs. I knew that the Book of Mystics wasn’t up there. No one knew where it was but me. I retrieved the woman’s name from my files.

  “Do you have it?” my mother asked as she stood in the foyer.

  “Got it,” I called out.

  I pulled out my phone and entered the number. After a couple rings the woman picked up the call.

  “Jessica?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said with hesitation.

  “This is Halloween LaVeau.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Is there something wrong?”

  I supposed she figured I wouldn’t call unless there was a problem. She was right about that this time. I hated only to call if there was a problem.

  “I need to speak with you about a couple werewolves,” I said.

  “Oh, who are they?”

  “That’s what I need to find out,” I said. “Can you meet me right away?”

  “Yes, I can do that. Where should I meet you?” she asked.

  “That’s up to you. Just let me know,” I said.

  “How about the coffee shop in town? I can be there in fifteen minutes.”

  “All right, I’ll see you then,” I said.

  I went back to the foyer.

  “I thought I heard something,” my mother whispered.

  “Where did the sound come from?” I asked.

  “The foyer. It was a squeaking noise.” My mother moved back a few steps toward the door as if she was ready to run.

  A squeaky sound came every time she moved.

  I pointed down at her shoes. “It’s you.”

  She peered down. “Oh, sorry.”

  I grabbed her hand. “Let’s go to the coffee shop.”

  “What’s with everyone wanting to meet at some kind of coffee shop?” my mother asked.

  “It’s trendy? She’s thirsty? I don’t know.”

  My mother and I got into the car. There was no sign of the werewolf as we pulled out of the driveway. Thank goodness. Soon we arrived at the coffee shop. We parked out front and hurried into the shop. The sound of a coffee machine whirled in the distance.

  “Do you see her?” my mother asked.

  “I hope I remember what she looks like,” I said, peering around the room.

  When a tall dark-haired woman stepped into the shop I knew it was her right away. I waved when she looked my way. Jessica rushed over and we sat at the nearby table.

  “Sorry if I was late. I hit every red light on the way.”

  “It’s fine,” I said with a wave of my hand.

  She set her purse down on the table. “So you wanted to speak about a couple werewolves?”

  “There are a couple werewolves around the manor,” I said.

  “Well, you don’t know the second one is a werewolf for sure,” my mother said.

  No, I guessed I didn’t.

  Chapter 8

  “I wish you had a picture to show me of these guys.”

  “Well, I could tell you what the werewolf who turned into his human form looks like if that would help.”

  “Sure, give it a shot,” she said.

  “Okay, he had dark hair and green eyes. He was very lean and fit. The guy he was talking to is pretty much the same.”

  “So do you know them?”

  “No,” I said.

  “Oh, wait. The guy has a scar on his right butt cheek,” my mother said with a straight face. She was completely serious.

  I glared at her. “How do you know that?”

  She held her hands up. ”Okay, I can’t help it. He looked good. I’m married, not blind.”

  “Okay, so he has a scar on his butt. Does that help you?” I asked.

  “Actually, I think I may know who that is,” Jessica said.

  “Just by the scar on his butt?” I asked.

  “He was in an accident, so he has that little scar back there. He got caught in a trap. It was a whole thing.” She waved her hand. “Anyway, it happened to him when he was in werewolf form.”

  “I thought werewolves healed or something.”

  “No, you would think they do, but they don’t,” she said with a click of her tongue.

  “That’s interesting,” I said. “So who is this person?”

  “His name is Jimmy Valentine.”

  “Do you know where I can find him?” I asked.

  “No, he’s been missing for a while, but we’ve been looking for him. Now that we know where he is I think we should go find him.”

  “Well, wait just a minute. Why are you looking for him?”

  “He was stealing from werewolves.”

  “Did you try having him arrested?” I asked.

  “Yes, we tried having him arrested, but he took off.”

  “What did he steal?”

  “Oh, you name it.”

  “Anything he could get his sticky fingers on?” my mother asked.

  “Exactly,” she said with a wink.

  Okay, so he was a criminal. That explained why
he was in the house. He was trying to steal something.

  “Do you think he was trying to, you know, take over the manor and get the Book of Mystics?” I asked.

  “Heaven forbid if that happened, because he would be a terrible leader of the Underworld. You on the other hand are fantastic,” she said with a huge smile.

  “That’s so sweet of you,” my mother said.

  Oh, sure, she was proud of me now. She’d never been proud of me before. She’d acted as if she didn’t know who I was.

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ll come and get him,” Jessica said.

  “Well, I’m sorry, but now that he’s on my property and I’m aware of the situation I’ll have to deal with this problem. But I assure you I will take care of it. And if possible get all of the items that were taken back for everyone. I’ll just need a list of the things that were taken. I’ll let you know as soon as we have them. Of course the police will take care of it after that. Then he’ll receive punishment according to the Underworld rules and bylaws.”

  “What you mean? You’re going to step in and take care of this? If I’d known that I wouldn’t have said anything.”

  I was a bit taken aback by her tone with me. She’d just said how great of a job I was doing and now she acted as if I wasn’t competent enough to find the werewolves? Well, I’d show her a thing or two. Now I was angry. I supposed she realized that she had made me mad because she tried to backtrack somewhat.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” she said with a smile.

  I didn’t return the expression. I just stared at her blankly. My mother crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at her.

  “What I meant was that a lot of the werewolves are upset and they would rather we just deal with this ourselves. You know, before we had to take it to you. Of course we didn’t want to bother you.”

  “Yes, but now that I’m aware and everything… I just explained to you I will have to take care of it.”

  She glared at me for a moment. I guessed she didn’t have anything else to say. It was done already. I couldn’t change the fact that I knew about this. She would just have to deal with it.

  “Well, I guess I’m no longer needed here today.”

  “No, I suppose you’re not,” my mother said in a snippy tone.

  I waved my hand at my mother. I didn’t need her input. She would only make things worse by talking to this woman that way.

  “I think we have everything we need for today, but if I have any other questions I’ll make sure to call you. As soon as I know anything I will let you know.”

  Jessica stood from the chair. “Fine, just let me know. Good luck to you,” she said in a snippy tone and she headed for the door.

  “Well, that was interesting,” my mother said. “Can you believe her snotty attitude about it?”

  “Yeah, that was strange, but I guess people are territorial. Especially the werewolves, you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I think I get it,” my mother said. “So what do you plan on doing now?”

  “I guess we will catch a werewolf.”

  “Like with a trap?” my mother asked.

  “Of course not. Like with a magic spell.”

  “Oh, right. What is wrong with me today? Of course. We’re witches. Zip, zap and he’ll be in handcuffs in no time.”

  “Well, I think it’ll be a little bit more than that, but you’re on the right track,” I said.

  “So let’s get out of here.”

  We stood from the table and headed for the door. I couldn’t help but feel as if someone was watching us as we walked down the sidewalk toward the car. I looked around to see if I noticed anything unusual and that was when I saw Jessica sitting in her car watching us. I smiled and waved, but she gave me a dirty look at first. Then she smiled and waved. I got an uneasy feeling from her. Something was up definitely suspicious.

  “What was that all about?” my mother asked as we got to the car.

  “I don’t know. I get a strange vibe from her, that’s for sure.”

  “Me too,” my mother said as she opened the car door.

  We got in the car and I looked to see if Jessica was still sitting over there. She had backed out of the parking space and was taking off now.

  “Well, I guess now that that’s over we can get back to the manor and work on our spell. I’m not going to let this werewolf take over and make us scared,” I said.

  “We were pretty scared earlier when we went in the neighbor’s house.”

  “Yes, that’s all over now. I know what I’m dealing with so I’m ready for the battle.”

  My mother pulled out from the curb. “You think it’s going to be a battle?”

  “Well, not with like swords or anything, just with magic.”

  “Yeah, and them pouncing on us and chewing our faces off,” my mother said.

  “That is graphic, don’t you think, Mother?”

  “If they get mad at us that’s what they’d do. If they’re mean guys, then they’re going to be mean. That’s what mean people do.”

  “Yes, I suppose that’s what mean people do, but don’t you have faith in my magic skills by now? I mean, I’ve been pretty good, don’t you think?” I asked.

  “I must admit that you have been darn good at magic lately.” She pushed the turn signal, indicating we were taking a left.

  “Thank you, Mother,” I said, blowing on my fingernails and wiping them off as if polishing them. I patted myself on the back.

  Just a short drive and we were back at LaVeau Manor, pulling down the driveway. Tall lush trees surrounded the perimeter like a fortress. It looked so peaceful and nothing seemed unusual. There was no indication of what might be brewing just beyond the edges of the property. Nevertheless, I had to prepare myself mentally for what might be ahead.

  My mother came to a stop in front of the manor and turned off the car. “So should we do a magic spell out here before we go inside?”

  “No, I don’t think that’s necessary. Look how serene and call it is,” I said.

  I hoped I didn’t regret that decision.

  Chapter 9

  My mother and I had just stepped into my office to discuss the issue at hand when the doorbell echoed throughout the manor. I paused, listening to the drawn-out chime.

  My mother clutched her chest. “For heaven’s sake, why don’t you change that thing? It sounds like a gong. Maybe you could get a tone that’s a little more pleasant to the ears.”

  I shrugged. “I’m used to it now.”

  “Who could that be?” my mother whispered. “What if it’s the werewolf?”

  “Good. I hope it’s him. I’ll confront him right now.” I pushed my chest out, shoved my shoulders back, and held my head high as I walked toward the door.

  I peeked out the hole in the door. I released a deep breath and yanked the door open.

  Annabelle’s eyes widened. “What’s happening?”

  I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the foyer. “Get in here.” I closed the door and locked it.

  “I’m sensing that something’s wrong. What have you done?”

  I scowled. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  At least I hoped this wasn’t my fault. No, it definitely wasn’t my fault.

  “Considering you locked the door in a hurry I’m sensing that this could be serious.”

  When I didn’t answer she said, “Oh, dear, are we in danger? What will happen to us? Is there a killer on the loose?”

  “Why do you think there’s a killer on the loose?” I asked.

  She quirked an eyebrow.

  “Okay, never mind that. Just come with me and have a seat.”

  Holding her hand, I guided Annabelle in the library. She took a seat in one of the leather chairs that were in front of my desk. My mother sat in the one next to Annabelle. “Good evening, Annabelle.”

  I moved around the desk and took a seat.

  “Okay, now tell me what’s going on around here,” Annabelle said.r />
  “We have a bit of an issue here,” I said, placing my hands on the desk.

  “Well, I assumed that much. Are you going to tell me what this problem is?” Annabelle asked.

  “Well, it’s just that you get so upset over the paranormal.”

  She got a worried expression on her face. “Yes, but I’d rather know than have something like this hidden from me.”

  “Okay, here goes… there are werewolves around and I think they’re trying to get into the manor,” I said.

  Her expression turned to one of panic. She jumped up from the seat and ran across the room. I leapt from the chair and chased after her. I grabbed her from behind and we both fell backward onto the floor. My mother stood and walked over to us.

  She tapped her foot against the floor. “For heaven’s sake, what has gotten into you all?”

  “Nothing has gotten into me.” I sat up from the floor. I still had a hold on Annabelle. “Why are you trying to run?”

  “I don’t want to be in here and be attacked by someone looking for a book,” Annabelle said.

  “You’re safer in here than you are out there,” I said, helping her up from the floor.

  “I knew there was something to freak out about.” Annabelle went back to the chair and plopped down. I went back to behind the desk and took a seat.

  “I’m telling you there is nothing to be worried about. I have everything under control.”

  Annabelle looked at my mother and they laughed.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Go ahead, laugh. I’ll show you all.”

  A growling sound came from somewhere nearby. We froze.

  “What was that?” Annabelle whispered. “It sounded like a wolf.”

  “It could have been the pipes,” I said.

  “Well, unless the pipes are tall with dark hair and walk around the manor I’d say that isn’t it.” Annabelle pointed over my shoulder. “I just saw someone walk by the window.”

  I jumped up from the desk once again and raced for the door. My mother ran along beside me.

  “You stay here,” I said.

  “I can’t let you go out there by yourself,” she said.

  “I’ll be fine. I have my magic to protect me. You need to stay here with Annabelle.”

  My mother reluctantly nodded. “Okay, but be careful.”