“She hasn’t grown at all.” Eliza looks down at the golden retriever puppy.
“I know.” I take off my shoes and bend down to pet Scarlet, earning a growl from Pandora. “Oh, hush,” I tell her. “I just want her to calm down.” Scarlet presses herself against me, licking my hand. “Kristy said the same thing,” I tell Eliza and move into the house. “I’ll have to figure out how to adjust the glamour so she looks like she’s growing.”
“You could just take the collar off,” Lucas suggests. He dozed off most of the drive to Thorne Hill. Eliza drove us, muttering something about feeling like she was Driving Miss Daisy since both Lucas and I sat in the back. The extra forty minutes of sleep seemed to do him some good.
“Of course you’d let her get a dog,” Eliza sighs.
“I don’t let Callie do anything,” Lucas replies. “She makes her own decisions.”
I look up at him and feel turned on all over again. “Fuck, I love you.”
“Must be nice,” Eliza quips.
“You’re my daughter,” Lucas tells her. “Callie is my wife. And please, take the damn thing for the weekend.”
My puppy-dog eyes narrow into a scowl. “She’s growing on you.”
“She shouldn’t. The thing is a demon,” he says as if he has to remind me that Scarlet is fucking terrifying when you take her collar off.
I point to the stairs. “Lucas, go up to bed.” I look at my familiars. “Can you check out the curse? See if you can figure out anything, because I’m kind of at a loss.”
“Don’t you need to explain what’s going on to them?” Eliza asks incredulously.
“I already did.” I take off my shoes and tap my forehead. “In the car. I told Binx, and he told the others.”
Lucas moves with vampire speed up the stairs only to stop right at the top and wince with pain. I squeeze my eyes closed and force myself to take in a slow breath. I’m so close to a panic attack. The foyer light starts to flicker, and electricity hums through the air.
“What’s the deal with having more than one familiar?” Eliza asks quickly. Too quickly. I’m sure she’s a little curious, but I think she’s more so trying to distract me right now, and I’m so thankful for that.
“It’s pretty much unheard of. Witches and warlocks only get one familiar, and that’s if they get one at all. The spirits have to come to you and decide that you’re the one they want to work with.”
“Work with?”
“Serve. Obey.” I make a face. “I think of my familiars as friends, not my minions to do my bidding.”
“Then how did you end up with three?”
“I don’t really know, but I’m guessing it has something to do with me not being a full witch.” I head into the kitchen to let Scarlet out back and to get something for us all to eat. “Binx came to me when I was ten and still in that research lab. He alerted Tabatha, who came and broke me out.”
I open the fridge, so happy I went grocery shopping already, and get out a package of chicken breasts. Cooking is the absolute last thing I want to do, but I know I need something healthy and high in protein so I can heal and produce enough blood for Lucas to drink in the morning.
“Freya’s witch was killed by demons. I was following the body trail as I hunted the demon and found her huddled up next to her witch’s body.” The memory hits me hard in the heart. “She was an owl then.”
“They change forms?”
“Their animal form isn’t what they really are, since they’re spirits. What animal they choose to represent themselves as is based on who their master is.”
“Of course you’d get a black cat from the start. So basic.”
I laugh. “I know, right? But really…” I pull a skillet from a cabinet and get hit with another memory. “Abby gave me a stuffed animal for my birthday when I was in the lab. It was a black cat. It was the only thing I had that brought me any sort of comfort.”
Eliza’s face softens. “That’s fucked up.”
“I know.”
“What about the other one?”
“Pandora.” I grab the kitchen shears and cut the chicken up into small pieces so it’ll cook faster. “Her witch was killed by her boyfriend. He found out she was a witch and killed her.”
“What kind of animal was she?”
“A fox. She’s not trusting of anyone, really, especially men. She likes Kristy and Tabatha, tolerates Evander, and is finally warming up to Lucas.”
“If her master was murdered by her boyfriend, I don’t blame her for not trusting anyone.” Eliza leans against the counter, watching me cook. “So their witches died. But why did they end up with you?”
“That’s the part I’m not sure of. With Freya, she followed me home after I killed the demon. She hung around the house but wouldn’t come in for a few days, and then one morning, she shifted into the tabby cat she is now and we’ve been bonded ever since. Pandora was the same. She followed me home but shifted into a cat right away.”