Magical Midlife Invasion (Leveling Up 3)

He bent beside me and then leaned forward, bracing his large hand against the windowsill. Both of us were far enough back and low enough that the darkness of the room would mask what little of us might be visible from the deer’s vantage point. “Is it glowing?”

“Yeah. Looks like a shifter, too. Ivy House can’t feel it. That’s what’s been eating Mr. Tom’s flowers.”

“Edgar’s,” Mr. Tom said.

“Sorry, yeah. Edgar’s. Can you follow it, Jasper? Without being noticed?”

“For how long?” Jasper asked.

“I don’t know, until…you have something to report, I guess. But it can’t know you’re there.”

He stripped off his shirt and jogged out of the room. I felt him heading for the stairs. He’d use one of the third-floor openings in the floor or wall and take to the sky.

“Now what, miss?” Mr. Tom asked, a buzz sounding from his pocket.

I shook my head, needing to do something more. This creature was on my property, and Ivy House couldn’t defend herself. It was on me to pick up the slack. Everything in me wanted to run out there and teach the shifter a lesson. Teach it—mostly likely a him—to invade my space and mess with Edgar’s flowers. Logic had to reign supreme, though. That deer would be back. Haste without planning caused mistakes. Right now we had the upper hand—we needed to keep it.

Mr. Tom swore under his breath. The light from his phone screen highlighted his cheekbones and eyes. “It’s Niamh. The house across from hers has a prowler. She just caught a glimpse before the figure slipped behind the bushes. She’s wondering if she should engage.”

“What is it? Is it a shifter?”

Mr. Tom bent to his phone, typing out a message. I wondered why he didn’t just call, but was thankful for it. Text was quieter and there was less room to insult each other. It would be quicker.

I clutched the windowsill, my mind whirling. I couldn’t be sure the entity at the front was a danger to me, not yet. Could just be a burglar. I had to get ready to move, though, just in case.

“Not a shifter,” Mr. Tom said as his phone vibrated with a new message. “A human form. She doesn’t know what magic it is.”

I paused. “Tell her to keep watching, but not engage. If it is a powerful mage, she’ll be on the losing end of that battle. We need information before we combat this. If it comes on Ivy House’s property, have her text, just in case it has the same spell as the shifter out back.” I pushed away from the window and crouch-crawled to the center of the room. “Come on, let’s get ready to fly in case something kicks off.”

I stood and made my way downstairs, pausing again at the bottom of the stairs. Did we head to the front, or back? Austin would likely approach from the rear through the woods, and if he caught sight of that shifter, he’d give chase. If the entity at the front joined in the battle, we’d need to intercept. If not, and we went to the back to help Austin, we’d leave the front vulnerable.

“Mr. Tom, go get Ulric and Cedric. Have them watch the front in case that prowler heads this way.”

With him dispatched, I made it to the back of the house. Once there, I stripped off my clothes and changed form. Mr. Tom joined me not long after and followed suit.

Minutes ticked by. I felt Jasper invade the airspace, high overhead. The fact that I could sense him in the air made it that much stranger that I couldn’t feel the deer whose hooves were in Ivy House dirt.

“Wee ’aft oo fiiiin du schpell—” I sighed and stopped trying to talk. I was getting better at working around the enlarged teeth and prominent canines in this form, but it was an ongoing struggle. I’d wait to tell Mr. Tom that we needed to find the spell that might allow a creature to walk past magical surveillance undetected.

Although…he had set off my magical tripwire, so there was substance to him. It actually didn’t get past magical surveillance. It was just Ivy House that was blind to it. But why?

“Ook.” Mr. Tom pointed, his long claw tapping the window.

The deer worked around the side of the house as if tracking the flowers. We followed its progress from within the house, moving from window to window, staying well back or within the shadows.

Mr. Tom glanced at his phone, the screen somewhat obscured by his long nails, not lit up. No text message from Niamh. The prowler at the front wasn’t an issue. Not yet.

The deer shifter didn’t eat any more flowers or do much of anything but look. It moved its head like a person might, checking each window, pausing for a long time with its snout slightly raised, looking at the second or third floors. Given my room spanned the back corner of the house, I had a sinking suspicion that it had a special interest in my room.