Blonde With a Wand (14 page)

This is not the time, girl.
It might never be the time. Even though Jasper had stepped in to save the day, that didn’t mean that he was particularly fond of her.

Orion pinned down his trophy with both paws while the fairy protested in a high-pitched voice. Orion glanced over at Anica as if asking permission to eat it.

“You can’t munch on the fairy,” Anica said. She looked around for the other two, but they were nowhere in sight. They’d probably taken advantage of the distraction when Orion caught their friend and miniaturized themselves to the size of a gnat. Then they could slip out the way they’d come in, through the old-fashioned keyhole in her apartment door.

She gazed at her cat. “Let me amend that, Orion. If the fairy you captured removes the illusion placed on my apartment, he can go free. Otherwise munch away.” She guessed that the captured fairy was one of the boys, because the girl was way too savvy to allow herself to be caught.

The remaining fairy continued to squeak, and with some difficulty, Anica made out the words. He begged to be allowed to remove the illusion so he could go home.

“All right.” Anica knelt next to Orion. “That’s a good kitty. Let me have the fairy.”

Orion seemed reluctant to let it go, but eventually Anica held the struggling boy in both hands. “I’m handing you over to the wizard,” she said, “and I warn you not to cross him or you’ll end up dragon chow for sure.”

The fairy squeaked some more as Anica stood and gave him to Jasper. Her breath caught as her hand touched his. He was so damned warm. So deliciously naked.

At this juncture she should have been reminding herself why she’d turned him into a cat in the first place. He’d lied to her. More than that, he hadn’t thought doing so was such a bad thing. He’d been unrepentant.

Then she remembered what Sheila had said in the restaurant bathroom.
He’s just that good.
She’d always criticized women who had sex with bad boys, men they didn’t particularly approve of, just for the promise of sensational orgasms. Criticizing had been easy for Anica because she’d never been tempted by such a man.

But she was sorely tempted now.

It might not matter, though. Chances were he wouldn’t want anything to do with her, and that would solve her moral dilemma, now, wouldn’t it? Still, she knew that if he’d been willing, she would have abandoned her principles. Quite a comedown for Goody Two-shoes.

Jasper raised the fairy in the air. “Put this room back exactly the way you found it. And make it snappy.”

Anica almost giggled. He sounded like a father reprimanding his kid, which was probably the right tone to take with this little delinquent.

With a few high-pitched commands from the tiny fairy, the nude paintings were replaced by the landscapes Anica had chosen for the walls. The upholstery went back to a muted floral pattern, and the red bawdy-house glow changed to normal lamplight.

Orion watched in total fascination. He was especially intrigued when the bottle of Jose Cuervo rose from the coffee table and wobbled through the air on its way back to the kitchen. Like baby ducks, all three shot glasses followed. The computer winked off, and the room was back to normal.

Jasper glanced at Anica. “Should I let him go now?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Jasper opened his hand. The fairy fluttered his wings a moment, as if testing to see if they still worked before he launched himself into the air. In two seconds he was airborne, and then, with a little pop, he disappeared.

Jasper looked startled. “Did he vaporize or something?”

“No. He’s right there.” Anica pointed to something that looked like a tiny insect heading for the door. “He’ll leave the way he came, through the keyhole.”

“You might want to stick some gum in that keyhole from now on.”

Anica looked at him and smiled. “They’d just find another way. The only thing that works is a magical protection spell. I had one . . . before.”

“Before you turned me into a cat.”

Her chest tightened as she realized the mood of cooperation had left along with the fairies. They’d faced down a common enemy, and she was grateful for his help. But now he’d leave, and maybe he’d tell her how he planned to pay her back for this, and maybe he’d just let her find out the hard way.

“When did it happen?” she asked. “You changing back, I mean.”

“Sometime after those jokers showed up. Orion and I came out to investigate. I was watching them changing everything and I was getting really angry, but then I started feeling weird. Somehow I knew what was about to happen to me, and so I ducked into the kitchen so I wouldn’t transform right in the middle of the living room floor.”

“Did it . . . hurt?”

“Fortunately no.” He flexed his shoulders. “I’m a little sore, but otherwise I seem to be fine.”

“I guess that potion took longer than we expected for some reason.”

“Right. Thank God it worked eventually.”

She gazed at him, unsure what to say. “Does it matter that I’m horribly, terribly sorry for what I did?”

He sighed. “I don’t know, Anica. Being sorry doesn’t quite cut it when you consider what I’ve been through.”

“I know. I know it doesn’t.”

“Where are my clothes?”

“Hanging in my closet. I’ll get them for you.”

“That’s okay.” He started down the hall. “Give me five minutes and I’ll be out of your hair.”

She watched him walk away and tried to think of what she could do or say that would make a difference. “Can I make you coffee? Put together a sandwich?”

“No, thanks,” he called over his shoulder. “I just want to get home. I want my life back.”

That was plain enough. He wouldn’t be hanging around for coffee or anything else, for that matter. She couldn’t blame him. He’d had a life, and she’d temporarily stolen it.

“I’ll phone for a cab.” She could at least do that much. She glanced at the clock for the first time and noticed it was a little after midnight.

She put down her wand to dial the phone. Once Jasper was gone, she’d test to see if her wand worked again. She expected that it would, which meant she could re-create the protection spell for her apartment.

She would be happy to have her magic back. She tried to focus on that and forget about the man who was about to exit her life. He wasn’t the right guy for her, had never been the right guy. She’d allowed sexual attraction to override her good judgment.

The cab company agreed to have a driver outside her building in twenty minutes. Unless Jasper chose to wait down by the curb, which he certainly might if he was angry enough, twenty minutes was the outer limits of her remaining time with him. She might never see him again in person. If he had anything more to do with her, it might come in the form of revenge, blackmail, or something equally ugly.

His cry of alarm startled her out of her morbid thoughts. She raced down the hall, terrified that something had gone wrong with the transformation after all.

Something had. In a frightening replay of the previous night, Anica first saw a pile of Jasper’s clothes on the floor. Then she watched in horror as a black cat crawled out from under the clothes. Jasper was a cat . . . again.

Fuckin’ A!
Jasper hissed in fury when Anica burst into the room. If he didn’t need her, or rather her witchy sister, he’d give in to the urge to scratch the living daylights out of her. He’d been a man again! Why hadn’t it lasted?

“Oh, Jasper.” Anica’s eyes filled with tears.

As if her tears would do him any good. It gave him little satisfaction to know that she was so upset. Her upset was nothing compared to his upset. He was ready to chew the carpet.

Although the worst part was that he’d found when he was a man, he was still attracted to Anica, even in those dopey flannel pajamas she was wearing. Her blond hair had been mussed and her cheeks pink, giving him a preview of what she might look like after a brisk round of sex. He did
not
want to want her. For one thing, she was a witch, not exactly his dream girl choice. And for another thing, she was a witch who’d turned him into a cat.

What kind of romance would that be? He’d be afraid to cross her for fear she’d zap him with her wand again. Talk about a total imbalance of power. And yet knowing all that, he hadn’t been able to stop the flow of sexual chemistry between them.

Looking around for some way to vent the frustration he felt on more than one level, he spied the delicate posts of her antique bed.
Yes.
Walking over to the nearest one, he stretched his front claws as far as they’d go and began to systematically mark up the wood. Let her try to stop him. Just let her try.

She didn’t, and eventually the thrill of ruining a precious piece of furniture faded. He wasn’t naturally a destructive person. In fact, he was a little ashamed of himself, even if she did deserve the memento of what she’d done to him.

Tearing up furniture wasn’t getting him anywhere, though. He bounded into the living room, hopped up on Anica’s desk chair, and turned on the computer. While he waited for the program to boot up, he considered sinking his claws into her desk, as well.

But his heart wasn’t in it. If he was ever part of an invading army, he would be lousy at sacking the city. Mindless destruction wasn’t his thing, even when he was furious.

Instead of scratching the desktop he leaned over and watched Orion batting a felt mouse around. Maybe Orion was becoming inspired to be more active. That would be a good thing.

Anica had followed Jasper into the living room, as he’d expected she would. She leaned over and helped him with the keyboard so he could bring up Word. She smelled really, really good. He wished she’d scratch him behind the ears. . . .

No! Forget that stuff. He didn’t care about ear scratching anymore. He’d had a taste of being a man again, and he would focus all his energy on getting back to that. Once he had a screen to work with, he typed a message to Anica.

 

CLL LLY.

 

“You’re right.” Anica picked up her cell phone out of a holder shaped like a dragon. “I should have thought of that immediately. She’ll still be at work.”

Jasper was already on to the next thing. MKE POSHN.

“Right, right. Obviously we didn’t give you enough.” Anica put the cell phone to her ear. “I need to speak to Lily Revere. It’s an emergency.”

Damn straight it was an emergency. And he was . . . getting his ears scratched by Anica while she waited for Lily to come to the phone. He was also purring. Shit. He needed to knock that off, but he couldn’t seem to stop the rumbling noise, especially when she scratched her finger along his jawline. Yeah, like that.
Nice.

How could he react this way when he was so angry with her? Apparently his human mind could be boiling because he was trapped in a cat’s body, but his cat body loved being caressed by a woman who knew exactly how to do it.

“Lily, it’s me,” Anica said. “Jasper changed back for a few minutes. Yeah, I know. It was exciting, except that now he’s a cat again, which frustrates both of us.”

As she continued to rub behind Jasper’s ears, he had to remind himself why it was so bad to be a cat, and specifically Anica’s cat. He recalled the thrill of manipulating the commodities market and pulling down a sizable profit. That was increasingly harder to do in this economy, but that only ramped up the challenge.

He loved a challenge. Being a pampered cat living in Anica’s apartment was a sick joke compared to the life he’d had before, no matter how good it felt when she smoothed a finger over his nose.

“I need you to come help me mix up the potion,” Anica said. She paused to listen. “I suppose I could do the actual mixing before you get here, but I think you need to do that chant thing. Okay, good. See you then.”

After tucking the phone back in its dragon holder Anica stroked her thumb along Jasper’s jaw, and he arched into her touch. “She’ll be here as soon as she gets off work,” Anica murmured. “In the meantime I’ll mix up the brew and start it simmering. I’ll make a lot this time.”

He wanted plenty of that brew, no matter how nasty it tasted. But if one bowlful had given him only about ten minutes, he hated to think how many he’d have to drink to get an entire twenty-four hours. And then what? Would he have to keep chugging the stuff to keep from growing hair and claws? Had he turned into some kind of werecat?

Just then he noticed Orion lying on his side next to the sofa, reaching with his paw as far as he could underneath. The poor chump had lost his felt mouse and was too porky to squeeze under there and get it.

Anica walked into the kitchen to collect the ingredients for the potion, and Jasper leaped down from the chair to follow her. Then he glanced over at Orion, who was struggling mightily. Jasper remembered how the orange cat had valiantly attacked the retreating fairy, which had kept Anica from having to live, even temporarily, with nude paintings and X-rated upholstery.

Orion’s heart was in the right place. Yeah, maybe he’d tried to kill Jasper initially, but Jasper would have felt the same if his space had been invaded. Walking over to the sofa, Jasper dropped to his stomach and made himself into a very flat cat so he could wriggle under the sofa.

Once there he found the mouse right away. Funny what becoming a cat could do to a guy’s perspective. Losing control of his life had made him a lot more sympathetic to the kinds of concessions Orion was forced into every day. If Orion wanted the mouse, Jasper would provide the mouse.

With a swipe of his paw he sent it skittering out from under the sofa. He had a limited view from under there, but he could see Orion pouncing on the felt toy, then rolling over and kicking at it with his back claws. Watching Orion enjoy the mouse gave Jasper a good feeling. Life in general still sucked, but Orion’s playfulness had turned out to be a little spot of happiness in the middle of a swamp of despair.