Chapter 3
Pulling the cellphone from my pocket with such force that I gave myself an atomic wedgie, I pressed number one– Kai’s speed dial number and slammed the phone to my ear. The ringing seemed to go on forever. One after another, the most annoying sound ever created…
Well, second most annoying…
The first was the click to his voicemail.
“What the hell?” I ground out through gritted teeth. “Where could he be?”
“Try again! Try again!” Maeve ordered like the cheerleader she had never been.
Shaking my phone at her, I seethed, “What do you think I’m doing? And why are you freaking out? You deal with life-and-death situations on a daily basis. Now, you’re freaking…?”
“Yes! I am freaking out. Yes! I deal with life-and-death situations on a daily basis, but it’s never my sister. I didn’t even…”
“I know you couldn’t even deliver Maisie’s babies, but…”
“Yes, it is the same thing!” She snapped. “Shut up and hurry!” Was her brilliant response as she made a super-exaggerated whisking of her hands.
Unable to answer for fear I would lose my mind, whatever was left of my religion, and quite possibly all the hair on my head, I slammed the button on my phone so hard I’m probably going to need a new device.
Once again forced to listen to the mind-numbing ringing, this time with Maeve doing what looked like the potty dance while whispering, “Come on, Kai. Come on, Kai. Come on, Kai.”
The second the damn thing clicked over to voicemail, I didn’t even take a second to listen to my Mate’s wonderfully rich voice.
Hitting the red button, I was just about to scream at the top of my lungs when Aideen huffed, “Just use the mental link. I don’t know why in the hell you insist on using stupid electronics where you are literally connected to Kai’s brain.
Come on, Girl. Get it together. Do I need to… ?”
Tuning out the irritating Dragon Queen with whom I shared my time as she continued to rant and rave like the Ladies of the Dragoon Bootay Auxiliary and Coffee Club, I shoved tons of extra Magic into the Mating Bond I shared with Kai and tried not to scream. “Hey, hun…”
No answer.
“Kai…”
Dead Air.
“Kai?”
Nothing.
Looking at Maeve and Theresa, I tapped my temple and mouthed, “He’s not answering.”
“Why aren’t you speaking? It’s not as if….”
“I know he can’t hear me, Maeve. Excuse me for freaking out.
” My hands were flying in every direction.
It had to look like I was auditioning for an air traffic controller position at DFW.
At one point, my right hand was in, then out, then in again.
In hindsight, I should have shaken it all about, but, well, I was in full-on what-the-fuck mode, and not thinking straight.
“I just went from freaked out to scared,” I admitted. “Kai always answers! Always! Always! Always!”
“Okay, we all need to…” Theresa interjected, trying to be the voice of reason.
Sadly, I was so far from reason that I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. That meant that I speared her with a look and kept right on going.
“And if Kai can’t answer because he’s busy, Roy tells me what’s up?”
Waving her hands back and forth like she was having a hot flash, Maeve blustered, “Then call Roy.”
I wanted to clap back at her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t because I hadn’t thought of calling the Fairy King, Roy, with whom my Mate shared his soul, until that very moment. So instead, I stuck out my tongue and mentally called, “Hey, Roy.”
Nada.
“Roy? Are you there?”
Zip and Zilch.
I was seriously about to lose. I was holding on by a fraying thread. I could feel it all building up within every fiber of my being. I had to hold it back. I simply could not shoot fireballs in every direction. I could not burn down Marvelous Martha’s Brew House and Bougie Bags again.
I just couldn’t.
So, I took a deep breath and tried again.
“Kai?”
Nothing.
“Roy?”
Still nothing.
It was the weirdest thing I’d ever experienced. The absence wasn't empty. It was wrong. Like screaming into a canyon and realizing there should have been an echo...but there wasn't.
Looking at Maeve and Theresa, I let the first thing that came to mind fly from my lips. “Well, fuck!”
As both women’s eyes opened so wide, there was more white than color; I had a thought. “YES!”
Shoving my right hand into the back pocket of my jeans, I growled, “Where the hell is that thing?”
Spinning toward the bar in the coffee shop so quickly that everything was a blur, I slapped the high-polished wood with the flat of my hand and ground out, “Where in all that’s holy is my phone?”
“In your hand,” Maeve huffed.
Turning on her, I got as far as, “No, it is…,” When I saw the bright pink device in my left hand.
“Oh,” I breathed.
Then, before Maeve could go into her rant about how I needed to be taking every vitamin, mineral, and supplement, I hit the speed dial for my bestie, the next Witch in line to be the Baba Yaga, and put it to my ear. For what seemed like the millionth time, the damn thing was ringing.
But this time I got an answer.
“If this is another emergency involving glitter, sequins, or a hot glue gun, I quit,” the petite redhead with enough Magic to power every light for Christmas in July and keep them bright until December twenty-fifth huffed.
“Kai's gone.” Two words that broke my heart to say.
“I'm coming.”
There were no questions. No hesitation. Zelda was a true friend. She was the one person who knew all my secrets because she had been there when most of them were created.
Holding up the phone and giving a fist pump, I shouted, “She’s coming!” And headed for the door.
Racing outside, my left foot hit the welcome mat with Martha’s Brew House my right foot was just about to follow suit, and I was half-turned with my hand out to grab the handle and pull the door shut.
Not even waiting for the ringing of the bell hanging from the frame, both feet were on the mat, and I was taking off when a flash of light gray fur flashed to my right.
But I didn’t have time to stop. Zelda was on the way, and we were going to find Kai.
We had to find Kai.
Moving at a high rate of speed, well, fast for me, I literally got half a step when my tummy hit something immovable. The bottom half of me came to a screeching halt. My top half kept going.
My life flashed before my eyes.
My face was heading for the asphalt.
I could see it all playing out. I saw my big, swollen, broken nose, my two black eyes, my fat lip, and all of it immortalized in the ten thousand and three wedding pictures I planned to have taken. No, it wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened.
Yes, it was in the top ten.
And there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it but tuck and roll.
Everything flipped to slow motion. A red haze fell over my eyes. The shit was about to hit the fan, and my boobs were too big to properly tuck and roll.
But dammit all to Hell, I was gonna try.
Chin to chest, arms crossed over my face, I shrieked like my cousin the Banshee as my feet left the ground.
Trying with all my might to get my knees to my chest, I vowed to start exercising and maybe eat one less blueberry cake donut a day when things went sideways, upside-down, topsy-turvy, and higgledy-piggledy.
Fireballs flew in every direction. I couldn’t have stopped them even if I tried. Which I didn’t. Because I was trying to save my face.
Flames erupted from both hands. One blazing ball shot through the drive-thru window. Another left a flaming scorch mark across the hand-carved, wooden Welcome to Marvelous Martha's sign. A third just narrowly missed Arthur's favorite potted fern, which would have broken his heart.
“Son of a ….whooooph!” I tried to yell at the exact moment my tailbone hit the hard, unforgiving parking lot with extreme prejudice.
Shudders racked my spine. My head felt as if it might blow off my shoulders. The palms of my hands had a case of road rash I just knew belonged in the medical books as an example of what NOT to do.
My mouth opened and out flew, “Wet Blanket!”
Blue, purple, and pink foam filled the air. Puffy clouds filled with bubbles and sparkles of every color of the rainbow zoomed in from every direction, blanketing all of my errant fireballs until there was nothing left but a few plumes of fuchsia smoke.
Rolling over and pushing onto my knees, trying to give my butt some relief, a flash to my left, then the appearance of a shapely silhouette through the wisps of smoke had me squinting.
Realizing who it was, I was just about to holler out a welcome when her hand snapped up, followed by her index finger and a hushed, “Shhh…”
Her eyes went from one fluffy pile of foam to the other, then shot to me.
She looked towards my shop, where the Wolfhounds were engaged in an extensive and welcoming, butt-sniffing session to end all butt-sniffing sessions. Then her eyes shot back to mine.
Before I could say anything, she slowly turned in a complete circle, then nodded. “Okay.” Blinking and looking at me, she shook her head. “It only took me thirty-seven seconds to get here.” Shrugging, raising her hands and jutting her chin forward, she added, “What the hell happened?”
Because I knew that I was about to get another legendary talking to, and that she already knew what had happened because she was, well, the strongest Witch in the world aside from the Baba Yaga, I ignored her questions.
Moving faster than I had in at least a couple of centuries, I was up on my feet and marching toward the dogs in record time.
Luckily, the new dog, the one that had caused me to fly ass-over-teakettle in my very own parking lot, did not have her nose shoved up one of my boys’ asses because I was on a mission.
Snatching the piece of cotton I knew belonged to my man from her teeth, I tried– and failed–not to accuse, badger, and demand as I accused, badgered, and demanded, “Where did you get this?” I shook the piece of Kais’ T-shirt in her face. “Where is Kai? What have you done with him? Answer me…!”