Chapter 5
FIVE
I sent Lilian my brightest smile. “ If you’ll excuse me again?”
Not waiting for a response, I slipped from behind the counter and followed Alex upstairs.
“ It’s Shane ,” he whispered.
“ What happened?”
“ He shifted and now he can’t shift back.”
“ What ?”
We arrived at the second-floor landing area and I gaped at the giant wolf pacing in circles behind my new sofa, which was now stuck in the middle of the doorway into the living room.
Shane stopped his pacing at our arrival and let out a low whine. His wolf was a beautiful dark gray, missing his right eye, as his human form did. The remains of his clothes lay tattered all over the hardwood floor.
“ What happened?” I asked, gaping.
Alex ran a hand through his long surfer brown-blond hair. “ We were moving the sofa into the living room when he randomly let go.” That must’ve been the first crash. “ He said it was nothing, so we tried lifting it again and then he just shifted.”
“ Did he say anything?” I looked at Shane . “ Did you say anything?”
“ Nope . He just, poof ! Shifted .”
Shane whined again and butted his head against the door frame of the bathroom.
“ And you can’t shift back?”
He butted his head harder, which I took as a no.
“ Does this happen to shifters?” I asked Alex .
“ Never happened to us before,” he said, rubbing his face. “ I’ve heard of shifters instinctively changing during a fight or huge argument, but they can always shift back.” He looked at me, pleading. “ What do we do? Is it some kind of spell?”
Was it? Brimstone’s icy fingers came to mind, but the connection seemed far-fetched. “ Let me try a cleansing spell.”
I dipped into the kitchen to grab the spray bottle of moon water I kept upstairs, and approached Shane .
“ Stay still,” I told him.
He planted his butt on the floor and watched me, full of hope.
The amount of trust he put in me made my chest constrict. If Shane was in trouble, I would leave no stones unturned, would not sleep until he was back to normal.
But no need for extremes yet.
I sprayed some moon water over his fur, then knelt by his side and sank my fingers into it and concentrated.
Cleanse .
I poured a good amount of power into the spell, and felt my magic tingle down my arms and into his body. The moment the spell was done, I dropped my butt to the floor, feeling instantly weak. Knowing me enough by now, Alex immediately retrieved a can of energy drink from my fridge and handed it over. I accepted it gladly and took a large sip.
“ Are you good now?” Alex asked Shane . “ Can you shift back?”
Shane narrowed his eye, then growled in frustration, a snarl pulling his mouth back.
“ Crap ,” Alex said. “ I don’t think he can.”
No , he definitely couldn’t.
“ What do we do now, boss?”
I took out my phone. “ Now we call the big boss.”
Ian agreed to cut his client meeting short and rush home, and we agreed to smuggle Shane back to the cemetery. The van would make for a great cover; we just had to get him downstairs and outside without anyone noticing.
I peeked into the hallway downstairs. It appeared empty, the muted sounds of conversations and soft background music drifting from the shop. I gave Alex and Shane a thumbs up and started down the steps.
The downstairs bathroom door opened, and a woman stepped outside, drying her hands with a handkerchief.
Alex and I froze on the stairs. Shane scrambled backward, his nails clacking on the hardwood floor.
Luckily , the woman didn’t notice us and simply pushed the bead curtain aside and returned inside the shop.
“ That was close,” Alex whispered. Shane agreed with a reproachful whine.
“ The bathroom door is always closed,” I whispered back, somewhat affronted. “ How was I supposed to know?”
“ Don’t you have some connection with the house?”
“ Witch , not psychic innkeeper.”
Shane let out a wolfish snort and took the steps down, nudging me to keep going.
“ Fine , fine.” I took the rest of the steps, taking care to be as silent as possible, then positioned myself by the archway to the shop, trying to block as much of the view into the hallway as possible. “ Go , go, go,” I urged.
Alex and Shane hurried into the hallway, then plastered themselves to the wall all the way to the back door. Alex opened it, and Shane snuck through.
“ Was that one of the pack?” Natalia asked behind me.
I yelped and whirled in surprise at the same time Alex let the door close behind him.
“ What’s Alex doing here?” she asked, peeking over my shoulder.
“ He was dropping some stuff,” I said, my heart still hammering.
“ Was that Shane’s wolf?”
“ Rufus ,” I lied, then forced a scowl. “ You shouldn’t leave the front unattended.”
“ We ran out of cookies. Was going to check if we had more in the back.”
I shooed her back into the shop. “ I’ll check. You go back.”
“ Sure , boss.” She gave the back door a last curious look, then returned to the shop.
I went into the storage room and peered outside the window into the backyard. The gate was closed, and the sound of a vehicle starting told me Shane had made it safely into the van.
Time for me to follow.
I grabbed a box of Mei’s cookies and returned into the shop. The only customer left was Lilian the blood witch.
“ Problems ?” she asked, a hopeful tilt to her question.
Good Mother Earth but witches had the worst timing ever. I plastered a smile on my face and retrieved her now empty mug and plate. “ No problems, but I received an order delivery request and need to go for now.”
“ When will you be back? I’d love to continue our conversation. I have a feeling that your shop deals with the most interesting cases.”
I went around the counter and took her coat off the hanger, holding it in clear invitation for her to put it on. “ Very boring, really. Nothing unexpected ever happens around here.” I shot a glare at Natalia , who was watching us in fascination, and she busied herself washing the mug and plate.
“ If you say so,” Lilian said cheerfully. “ I will make sure to stop by tomorrow, see if we can talk in private.”
“ Tomorrow is not good for me,” I hedged. “ Wednesdays are so busy, you understand.”
She patted me on the cheek. “ I’m sure you’ll find space for me.”
I cursed silently as she put on the coat and wiggled her fingers in goodbye before stepping out of the shop.
“ Who was that?” Natalia asked the moment the door made contact with the frame.
“ A high-level witch.” I looked at her pointedly. “ So you better not mention love spells while she’s around.” Since they were highly illegal and I hadn’t told her the ones I’d made for her were placebos.
Natalia paled slightly and shook her head sharply. “ Not a word.”
“ Good .”
I returned upstairs to retrieve Bagley from the windowsill, which took some acrobatics as my new sofa was still stuck at an odd angle in the doorway, and brought her down to her usual home inside the metal locker in the backyard.
“ I like your new sofa,” she said.
“ I highly doubt that,” I replied as I retrieved the plastic container and put the locket inside.
“ The placement, however, leaves something to be desired.”
Oh , good Mother Earth . “ You saw what happened to Shane .”
“ Hard to miss the young man going suddenly furry,” she said with a cackle. “ Or his friend’s panic.”
“ Are you going to recommend a dark magic potion to fix him up?”
“ Would you like me to?” she asked all sly evilness.
“ You know, Ms . Bagley , I’m starting to think that you weren’t a very powerful witch.”
“ Think again, child.”
“ After all, wouldn’t a powerful witch who knew what she was doing not need to fall back on using unwilling blood for everything?”
Bagley made a choking sound, which, considering she didn’t have an actual throat, was quite the feat. “ Take that back right now!”
“ Why don’t you sleep on that, huh?” I said, putting the container in the locker and closing the door with a satisfying clunk .
There were some faint sputtering noises, then the backyard grew quiet but for the sounds of traffic drifting from the end of the alleyway.
Perhaps it was mean of me to rejoice in winning a battle of wits with an old lady stuck in a Victorian locket for the rest of her undead life, but I’m sure Grandma would’ve approved.
I went back inside the shop and told Natalia I needed to do an urgent errand. On my way back to my Vespa , I called Mark —berzerker, pub bouncer, Dru’s new maybe boyfriend, and occasional Tea Cauldron shift-filler—and asked him to come help Natalia out.
Given he worked until early morning most nights, he wasn’t exactly happy to be woken up this early to go work elsewhere, but I sweetened the deal by reminding him Dru would be right next door and promising two weeks’ worth of free coffee and muffins.
That taken care of, I took the protective cover off Bee - Bee and pushed her into the alleyway.
Brimstone creating ice instead of fire was one thing, but Shane being unable to shift back to normal was a problem that needed all my focus.
And all my focus it would receive.