“That’s reassuring.”
“For once, please, stop with the petty sarcasm, okay? You don’t like me, I get it. But you are not helping, and right now, you need me to change Scott back so he can make the calls or whatever is necessary to lift the violations on the bar.”
“I’ll try my best.” She purses her lips, and I let out a heavy sigh. I need to call Kristy and tell her what happened. She might know how to fix things. I run my hand over Binx’s sleek fur and then get up, picking up Scott-cat and shoving him into Eliza’s arms.
“Don’t let him escape, and don’t let him eat anything weird.”
“Define weird.”
“Anything that could kill him.”
She looks down at the cat and shows off her fangs. “I can handle that.” She turns to me. “Where are you going?”
“I need to get my phone and, uh, make some calls.”
“To who? The animal shelter?”
“No, a friend.” I wince. “Because I really have no clue on how to change him back. I don’t even know how I did this in the first place. Transfiguration is really complicated magic that I’ve never even attempted on this level before.”
Eliza’s blue eyes go wide. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Oh, how I wish.”
Eliza turns back to Scott-cat and shrugs. “I’ll take him home. I promise to take good care of him.”
“Just…hold him for now.” I wait until she’s in the office with the door closed before going back outside. I run to the car, unlocking it and reaching in to grab my purse as fast as I can. As I close the door, I see a black SUV drive down the road, slowing when it gets in front of the bar. The windows are tinted so I can’t see inside, but I get a bad feeling and know they are looking for me.
I ran out of Scott’s office, holding a big ginger cat that definitely wasn’t there when I walked in. I’m sure anyone in the neighboring offices heard us arguing, but no one can prove I did anything to Scott, let alone that my magic went rogue and I turned him into a fucking cat. And if Ella says what she saw, they’ll think she’s crazy.
It was the first thing I thought of, though now that I have a chance to actually think about it, I should have turned him into a mouse and let Binx, Freya, and Pandora take turns playing with—I mean babysitting—Scott.
Holy.
Fucking.
Shit.
I shake my head, stunned again at what I did, and race back into the bar. Eliza comes out of the office and shuts the door behind her.
“He can’t get out in there, but if he pees on anything, you’re cleaning it up.” She crosses her arms. “You said you were going to handle our Health Department issues. While I won’t deny that I enjoy seeing that little rat bastard in his current state, I don’t see how this is going to help our issue.”
“I know.” I sit on the edge of a bar stool, twisting my hair around my fingers. “I didn’t mean to do it. I told him to call the Health Department, and he flat-out refused and then told me that he’s trying to get a new bill passed that will mandate where vampires are allowed to live in the city and Lucas would be the first vampire he targeted. It pissed me off and the next thing I know, there was a cat sitting where my brother had been.”
Eliza studies me for a second and then comes closer, going back behind the bar again and starts making me a drink. “Transfiguration, you called it? How does it even work?”
“It’s the same principles as shape shifting, using the basic magical formulas that cause a werewolf to shift shape.”
“I never thought about magic so…so scientifically.”
I put my head in my hands. “It’s just as complicated.” Plowing a hand through my hair, I look up at Eliza and laugh. “I can’t believe…” I double over, and Eliza laughs too.
“That little prick got what was coming for him.”
“I should have done this years ago.”
“Why didn’t you?” she asks, and her tone softens. “Lucas isn’t one to gossip, but I know what happened at that party. Your family sounds horrible.”
“They are. Well, my sister isn’t.”
“So, they treat you like shit for years, but the second that asshole threatens Lucas, you go all dark witch on your brother?”
“Yeah. Maybe it’s messed up that I’m used to his threats, but mess with my friends…with someone I love…”
Eliza pours the drink into a cocktail glass and slides it to me. “Maybe I underestimated you.”
I almost choke on my drink. “Was that a compliment?”
“It’s as close as you’ll get from me so enjoy it.”
“Thank you. Look, I’m not trying to come in and be your stepmom or whatever.” I shake my head. “But I really do love Lucas, and I know he really does love you.”
“So you think we should be gal-pals now?”
“No, I don’t think anyone should be fake friends for the sake of someone else. But we have something in common, and there’s no reason to be hostile.”
She leans back, studying me again. “You know he turned me for revenge, right?”
“I heard the story from Monica,” I confess.
“Ugh.” Eliza rolls her eyes. “Now that one does annoy me.”
I take another sip of my drink. It’s sweet, with a faint taste of strawberries. “I don’t really know her.”
“That I won’t judge someone until I know them shit annoys me too. We’re all judgy. It’s just a matter of how much we’re willing to admit it to ourselves.” She crosses her arms.
“Fine, I’m a little judgy sometimes, but I usually have good intuition. It’s a witch thing.”
“I judged you right away,” she admits. “And you’re pleasantly proving me wrong, especially seeing how much you make my sire happy.”
“He makes me happy too.”
“Spare me the details.” She wrinkles her nose. “He’s an easy vampire to love.”
“I would say the opposite.” I smile and sip my drink again.
“I tried to hate him,” she says quietly, and I’m not sure if she’s talking to me or to herself. “He turned me into a vampire to get revenge on my father, but lucky for me, the bond between sire and offspring is strong. As much as I wanted to
hate him for taking me away from my human life, I couldn’t. And it didn’t take long to realize that being a vampire is much better than being human.”
I nod and sip my drink, finding this all so fascinating.
“My point is,” she begins, putting her hands on the bar. “Lucas is everything to me. You piss him off, you piss me off. You threaten him, you threaten me. You understand.”
“I do.”
“And now I believe you.” She looks into my eyes as she talks and then pushes off the bar. “What are you going to do with that fucking thing? I can hear it meowing from all the way out here.”
I can’t hear meowing, and I’m thankful for my human ears right now. “I don’t know.”
“People will notice your brother is missing.”
“Trust me, I know.” I set my drink down and pinch the bridge of my nose. “I should probably call my friend and start figuring out how to change him back. Lucas hasn’t called yet, has he?”
“Not yet.”
“Good, he was still sleeping when I left.” I get my phone from my purse and call Kristy. The call goes to her voicemail, and then I remember she’s working today. I call Evander next, and he answers right away.
“Are you busy?” I ask as soon as he says hello. “I’m in a bit of a pickle.”
“What did you do?”
“I kind of turned my brother into a cat.”
“Do you have a death wish, sister?”
“Not particularly. I didn’t mean to do it, and I’ll change him back as soon as you can tell me how.”
“What do you mean, you didn’t mean to?”
I bite my lip. “We got into an argument, and I kinda sorta threw energy at him, I think, and now he’s a cat.”
Evander is silent for a few seconds. “Who else knows about this?”
“Um, just Eliza, Lucas’s vampire-daughter or whatever.” I can feel Eliza glaring at me as I speak. “I’m at Lucas’s bar in Chicago. Not panicking or anything.”
“Start with taking a deep breath. Everything is going to be all right.”
“Is it?”
“Well, hopefully. We usually get by, don’t we?”