Part 9 (2/2)

Looking back on it, he wished he hadn't done that with Anica, for obvious reasons, but that was water over the dam. Her seductive walk reminded him of what could have been, would have been, if Sheila hadn't picked that night to come to his favorite restaurant. Sometimes life wasn't fair.

He noticed that they'd left the closet door open. He'd be wise to go settle into the closet and seek forgetfulness in a nice long nap. Hanging around Anica was not a productive move on his part. But as he listened to the beat of the music he wanted to go in and see how she was making out with the dance lessons.

The blender whirred again and this time they might plan to drink the margaritas they made. Soon the sisters were laughing, and one of them turned the music up another notch.

Jasper edged down the hall and peered around the corner.

Anica stood with a margarita gla.s.s in one hand, and as he watched she drained it. Then she sashayed over to Lily. ”Okay, I'm ready.”

”Good! Now move your hips like this.” Lily undulated like a woman having vertical s.e.x.

”Lily, that's so trashy!”

Lily smiled. ”That's the idea. You could do it in bed with a guy, couldn't you?”

Anica blushed. ”Yes, but this is-”

”Fun. Try it.”

Still blus.h.i.+ng, Anica made a halfhearted attempt.

”More.” Lily demonstrated again. ”Exaggerate.”

Anica took a deep breath. ”Here goes nothing.” She executed the move exactly the way Lily had.

Jasper's eyes narrowed to slits of pleasure as a purr rumbled spontaneously in his chest. She was getting to him. Not good.

He wanted to watch Anica dance all afternoon, but he couldn't seem to shake the desperate need for a nap. That would be the cat influence taking over. With a yawn he trotted back to the bedroom and hopped up on the bed. He fell asleep to the music of Gloria Estefan and Anica's laughter.

He woke up to the scent of warm chicken. A quick check told him that his cat status hadn't changed. It should have by now. A sick feeling of dread curled in his stomach.

Or was that hunger he was feeling? He followed the chicken smell, which took him through the living room and to the doorway of the kitchen. The scent of tequila and lime still hung in the air, but Lily was gone. Anica, wearing a pair of flannel pajamas, stood in the kitchen. Jasper missed the red dress, but he had more urgent concerns than ogling Anica.

Orion wove a figure eight through Anica's ankles. The hiss he sent in Jasper's direction seemed more obligatory than threatening, but Jasper paid little attention. All his focus was on the kitchen clock. Six thirty. More than twelve hours had pa.s.sed since he'd lapped up that evil brew, and nothing had changed.

Anica turned to him. The look of concern in her blue eyes told him all he needed to know. She was worried.

”I see you're awake,” she said. ”I fixed you some chicken.”

Theoretically, Jasper should be too upset to eat, but that didn't seem to be the case. He was starving. Even so, he didn't want to push his luck with Orion, so he waited until Anica had placed Orion's bowl of food on the floor and the big cat had shoved his face into it. Then Jasper leaped to the counter and began to eat the chicken Anica had warmed for him.

”I don't know what to think, Jasper,” Anica said. ”We'll see what happens tonight, and if you're the same in the morning, I'll have to swallow my pride and call in that couple, the one on the Wizard Council.” She shuddered.

Although he was intent on eating, Jasper listened with one ear. The thought of a governing body called the Wizard Council blew his mind. But if such a thing existed he wanted them in on this. The crisis was at hand.

”In the meantime, I can't do much except wait.” Anica kept talking as she started was.h.i.+ng the margarita gla.s.ses. ”Too bad I couldn't ask Lily to renew the protection spell on this apartment, but I didn't dare put her through any more magic spells today. Between repairing my crystal ball and the coffee shop cleanup and protection spell, she was on overload.”

Magical people should be able to handle that sort of problem, Jasper thought. Maybe Anica could have cured Lily if she had her own magic working.

”Anyway,” Anica continued as if trying to convince herself, ”the coffee shop was the interesting place to break in to. They won't be so excited about a boring little apartment.”

She dried the gla.s.ses and put them in the cupboard. ”But speaking of that, I can't even remember if I locked the dead bolt.” Putting down the towel, she left the kitchen.

Once she was gone Orion meowed softly. It seemed to be directed at Jasper. He peered over the edge of the counter and sure enough the orange tabby was gazing up at him, a pitiful look on his fuzzy face.

Orion had suffered a lot in the past twenty-four hours, and Jasper thought he needed some sort of reward for that. Anica hadn't offered him one, but she might be too distracted to think of it.

Orion wasn't supposed to have the chicken, but Jasper couldn't stand looking at that sad face. He picked up a bite of meat and dropped it to the floor in front of Orion. Orion scarfed it up at once and licked his chops. Then he glanced up at Jasper in obvious longing.

Jasper dropped the last two pieces of chicken on the floor. He didn't need to worry about food, anyway. If nothing happened tonight, then tomorrow Anica would call in the wizard top bra.s.s, which should do the trick.

Once he became a man again he would head for the nearest restaurant and order a steak dinner. Orion would be stuck with those dry little pellets, maybe forever.

”Dead bolt's on,” Anica said as she walked back into the kitchen. ”Not that a dead bolt will stop fairies, but I doubt they'll bother with this place,” she murmured, almost too softly for Jasper to hear.

He hoped she was right about that. He'd seen the kind of destruction a band of teenage fairies could create. He hoped they didn't show up here, especially when he was in this vulnerable cat form.

Anica spent the rest of the evening reading, and Jasper spent it watching her read. d.a.m.n boring. He wished she'd try a few of those dance steps instead.

Finally, around ten, she yawned. ”Time to go to bed.” She gazed at Jasper and Orion. ”Can you two guys manage to share my bed without fighting?”

It could have been a line out of a p.o.r.n movie if the two guys in question hadn't been cats. Jasper wondered if Anica was starting to forget he was a man in a cat suit. He wasn't about to let that happen.

Chapter 9.

Anica wasn't sure what woke her, but as she lay in the dark, she heard someone, or something, moving around the apartment. Could be the cats. Rising cautiously on one elbow, she checked in the dim light to see if they were on the bed. Both were gone.

Okay, so it was the cats. At least they weren't fighting, which was a relief. Maybe they were even getting along, becoming friends. Comforted by that thought, she settled back onto her pillow.

She'd barely closed her eyes when the sound of teenage laughter drifted in from the living room. Her eyes snapped open and a chill ran through her. Not cats. Fairies.

Throwing back the covers, she jumped out of bed and instinctively reached in her bedside table drawer for her wand. Not until it was in her hand did she remember that it was useless. But the fairies might not know that.

Now that she was fully awake, she noticed a red glow coming from the living room. Where were the cats? Kneeling by the bed, she lifted the skirt and peered underneath. ”Orion?” she called softly. ”Jasper?”

She couldn't see much at all, but when she groped under the bed as best she could, she didn't come in contact with any furry bodies. They could be anywhere in the apartment. Wand in hand, she crept out of the bedroom. She'd never realized how much she depended on her magic until this moment.

On her way down the hall she told herself that the fairies were only teenagers who had slipped away from their parents and were looking for thrills. They weren't dangerous, only mischievous. If they'd been dangerous, they would have invaded her bedroom.

They'd probably figured out that if she was careless enough to leave her shop unprotected, she might have done the same with her apartment. They might be after her wine and tequila, forbidden to them at their age, and any food she happened to have on hand because, like most teenagers, they were always hungry. They were often destructive, too, but being magical, they considered it only temporary destruction, easily fixed.

Fairies and witches moved in different circles, so a prank played on a witch wasn't as likely to be discovered by fairy parents. As she neared the end of the hall, she caught a glimpse of what was going on in her living room and was not amused. The little snots had decorated it like a s.e.x club.

Nude paintings hung on the walls. Her sofa and chairs were upholstered with images of couples in various s.e.xual poses, and the entire room glowed red. That was bad enough, but many of her magic books had been pulled from the shelf and strewn carelessly around the room. One of her favorites lay open on the coffee table, a page torn.

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