The Witch Is Back

  “Poppet, every witch has a wild beast within her that she can call upon when required,” Sinjin explained.

  “I still don’t understand,” I said, feeling my lower lip pout like a child about to have a temper tantrum.

  “Witches can turn into animals,” Bella finally said, sounding exasperated.

  I looked at her like she’d just sprouted another head. Then I laughed, figuring the joke was totally and completely on me. People turning into animals … yeah, right. Yes, I had come to grips with the fact that witches and vampires weren’t just the stuff of Halloween cartoons—but people taking the shape of animals? Then it occurred to me that werewolves probably also existed in this strange new world I called my life. “Um, so you’re what, also a werewolf?”

  Bella looked at Sinjin as if she was anything but amused, as if being called a werewolf was like being called a bitch or something. He just smiled at her, shaking his head. “Perhaps you should demonstrate?”

  Bella’s lips curled malevolently into what I suppose was the closest to a smile she could achieve. It was, however, dripping with something that was far from sweet. She then stepped away from Sinjin and walked to the center of the living room, swaying her hips like she thought she was Marilyn freaking Monroe.

  “Remember your tail this time, love,” Sinjin said, and chuckled to himself at what I imagined was an inside joke. I swallowed hard, not wanting to admit that there was nothing worse than an inside joke when you weren’t on the inside.

  I crossed my arms against my chest and watched Bella, hoping she would turn into some slathering, furry, flea-infested beast. I felt Sinjin come up behind me and wrap his arms around me, but I didn’t change position. No, at this point, I was too pissed off. None of this made any sense. If I’d had any real balls, I would have just turned around and left when I discovered her here.

  ’Course, I was interested in what Bella planned to turn into, so I suppose my deciding to remain there was purely in the interests of curiosity. I watched her walk the perimeter of the room—and then she did something that defied logic, something that I don’t even know how to begin to describe. She dropped to her hands and knees and, in a split second, became a lioness. There was no scrunching of bones, no snarling or sweating or anything that seemed to characterize the shape shifters you see in the movies. She was a woman one second and a lion the next. Her purple dress lay in scraps at her feet, obviously having not fared well in the transformation.

  “Oh my God!” I screamed, not waiting around to decide if my eyes were deceiving me. Instead, I looked for the nearest exit. Sinjin laughed behind me and pulled me tighter into his chest.

  “Shhh, my pet,” he crooned into my ear. “She will not harm you.”

  I looked down at the lioness in front of me. She sliced the air with her paw, missing my leg by a few inches. Then she growled, so fiercely that I found myself climbing up Sinjin to escape. “She’s going to kill me,” I protested as I tried again to run away, but Sinjin held me in place, chuckling all the while.

  “Come,” he said to Bella, the lioness, and she purred immediately, allowing him to stroke her between the eyes. I wasn’t sure if I should be jealous or not, considering they looked like Siegfried and Roy, but somehow jealousy did enter into the equation.

  “I believe she is ready for instruction now,” Sinjin finished.

  With that, the lioness trotted back into the center of the room and lay down on the floor. Then, just as miraculously as before, she transformed, only this time it wasn’t quite as spontaneous. Her long caramel-colored tail shortened into her backside while her claws recessed into human fingertips. Her rib cage decreased in size, now revealing only the outline of her ribs. Her two perfectly matched, very large breasts (D’s by the look of them) were perky and completely real. She stood up and faced us both, naked.

  In her nudity, she was absolutely magnificent. Great, just great.

  “Um,” I started, not really sure where to look. By the expression on Bella’s face, she wasn’t exactly shy when it came to standing completely naked in front of Sinjin or me. ’Course, I couldn’t say any of this was for my benefit.

  “Well done,” Sinjin said, and I felt myself coloring. Whether or not he was getting pleasure from the sight of her flawless body was anyone’s guess, but I wasn’t a total moron so I had to imagine he was.

  “Poppet, now it is your turn,” he said as he pushed me away from him.

  That was when I lost my temper. “If this is some plan you’ve concocted to have some freaking, weird threesome animal-style, I’m not into it at all.” Then, feeling a bit more bravado after my outburst, I threw my hands on my hips and glared at Sinjin. “In fact, I’ve seen enough. So you two just party on down, but I’m leaving.” Then I made for the nearest exit.

  I heard the sound of Bella snickering, which was just as well. I wanted nothing more than to escape—to lick my wounds in the comfort and privacy of my own little home, to bemoan the destruction of my relationship with Sinjin. I hurried down the hallway, grabbing my overnight bag from the corner, and was about to throw open the door when Sinjin materialized instantly in front of me. I walked headlong into his chest and sucked in a surprised gasp of air.

  “Get out of my way,” I said.

  “Is my little poppet jealous?” he asked with a big smile.

  I felt something in me breaking. So he was going to tease me about this, was he? “I don’t want to talk to you anymore, Sinjin. I want to go home.”

  “Please,” he started.

  “No, this whole thing was shitty on your part.” I tried to sidestep him but he grabbed both my arms and wouldn’t let go.

  “I apologize for offending you, love.”

  “Stop calling me that.”

  “I do not understand,” he said.

  So I decided to make him understand. I dropped my bag and stepped back, away from his hold. Surprisingly, he released me. “Let me help you then. First off, it’s not okay that you surprise me with that awful woman in your house and especially”—I glanced down the hallway to see if we were alone, which we were—“especially when she’s dressed like that and you’re dressed like that!” I motioned to his pajama bottoms. “Second, you should have warned me ahead of time that Bella was going to be here because that was just incredibly disrespectful, not to mention suspicious. And third, it is totally not okay that she’s parading around completely naked and, even worse, that you seem to be enjoying it!”

  He smiled slightly, as if my little freak-out session amused him, but when I bent down to pick up my overnight bag, his smile disappeared. “Please accept my humblest apology, love,” he started. “And for the record, I cared no more for her demonstration than you did.”

  I looked at him in disbelief. I’d have to be the biggest idiot in the world to be buying any of this bullshit. “Please. I’m smarter than I look.” Then it dawned on me that he’d just called me “love” again. “And I don’t want to hear you call me ‘love’ ever again, when it obviously doesn’t mean anything!” I railed against him, feeling my voice choking with tears.

  “Calm down, poppet,” he whispered and pulled me into his chest. “I see now where I went wrong and I cannot express how sorry I am. Please believe me that Isabella means nothing to me. We are merely old friends.”

  “You really expect me to believe that?” I asked incredulously.

  He nodded. “Yes, because it is the truth. You are the only woman for me, Jolie.” The way he said it screamed of honesty. There was no smirk on his face, no arrogance in his eyes, nothing. “You have always been the only woman for me.”

  I faced him and sighed, my guilt reminding me that acting the part of the jealous girlfriend was probably unwarranted.

  No way, Jolie, jealousy was most definitely warranted here, and you did the right thing, I corrected myself. But somehow my anger had managed to simmer down. Maybe it was due to his confession that I was his only one. “Sometimes you say things that I just don’t know how to argue with.”
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  “How can I make this situation more comfortable for you?” he asked with sincerity. I knew he was being straight with me; his eyes showed no deceit or subterfuge. “We need Isabella, poppet, to instruct you; but I understand your reservations.”

  “Well, for starters, you can tell her to put some clothes on,” I said angrily, but my slight smile softened the bite of my bark.

  He chuckled and threw his arm around my shoulders, grabbing my bag and looping it over his opposite shoulder. Then we sauntered into the living room again where Bella was sitting on the couch and dressed in a tight black mini skirt and a plunging red halter top. She had magicked the outfit, if I had to guess—I hadn’t seen her with a change of clothing.

  “Is your little outburst over?” she asked with a sneer.

  “Isabella, we shall have no more of your foul mood,” Sinjin said with authority. Bella turned a surprised expression his way but said nothing.

  “What does turning into a beast have to do with finding the prophetess anyway?” I asked grumpily.

  Sinjin glanced down at me and smiled reassuringly. “They are not necessarily related, love, but you will need to hone your magic, cultivate it, in order to attempt to locate the prophetess. This is just one avenue to allow your magic to grow, to encourage it and strengthen it so you will be prepared when the time comes.”

  “I have places to be so let’s get this over with,” Bella announced as she glared at me and stood up.

  “Fine by me,” I grumbled.

  She approached me, and her eyes raked me from head to toe. “You honestly believe she has it in her?”

  Sinjin tightened his hold around me. “Without a doubt,” he said sternly. “And I do not recall asking you for your opinion.”

  Bella looked at me, her jaw tight. “Let’s see if you truly are such a powerful witch. All you need to do is focus within yourself and draw your sister beast to the forefront. She will choose you.”

  I glanced at her and then at Sinjin before my mouth dropped open. “What does that even mean?”

  Sinjin looked down at me, a sweet smile on his beautiful face. “Your magic works only if you concentrate on it, love. You must guide your power, tell it what you expect of it.”

  “Okay,” I said, still not sure what I was doing. Did everything have to be so esoteric where magic was concerned?

  “Close your eyes,” Bella snapped and I obeyed. “Now imagine a field full of animals, as many as you possibly can.”

  I exhaled as I debated about inquiring whether I should be selective in my imagining the animals. But deciding Bella probably wouldn’t react nicely, I just went with my gut and imagined an enormous pasture, like what you’d see in the farmlands of the Midwest. Then I pictured an elephant dropping from the sky and landing with a thud on the ground. He wasn’t hurt, though. The next animal up was a hyena, who landed a few paces behind the elephant, followed by a yak and then a dog that looked like Lassie.

  “Are you done?” Bella insisted.

  I clenched my eyes even more tightly closed and realized I only had a dozen or so animals in my pasture. “How many do I need?”

  Bella grumbled something that I couldn’t make out. But she didn’t say anything else so I continued imagining animals dropping from the sky until it looked like I had the best-ever petting zoo.

  “K,” I said, finally satisfied.

  “Now, without losing your focus, tell the animals to come forth and claim you.”

  “Okay,” I whispered and imagined myself walking into the pasture. Then I cleared my throat and said in my best authoritative voice: Please come and claim me.

  And nothing happened. So I said it again. Still nothing.

  “Um, nothing’s happening,” I said aloud, being sure to keep my eyes shut.

  “It may take a few moments, but eventually, one will,” Bella responded.

  I shut my eyes even more tightly and focused on the animals that were now surrounding me—an elephant, tiger, all sorts of birds, an alligator, various rodents, anything I could think of. Then I said to myself: Please select me. Whoever you are, please select me.

  Then a funny thing happened. An elephant and a monkey stepped forward at the same time, followed by a puma and coyote, as well as a red-tailed hawk that soared overhead. “Um,” I started.

  “What?” Bella snapped.

  “What is bothering you, poppet?” Sinjin whispered.

  “What do I do if more than one animal comes forward?” I asked, still keeping my eyes clamped shut, afraid the animals might disperse if I opened them.

  “There can’t be more than one,” Bella said, her tone dismissive and impatient. “There will be only one.”

  I looked at the animals that were now circling me. Yeah, there was definitely more than just one. “Um, are you sure?”

  “Just choose one!” Bella snapped.

  I looked around me again. The elephant sidled somewhat closer but, figuring an elephant would do a number on Sinjin’s living room, I turned to the monkey. After Bella’s little sexy-lioness show, however, the last thing I wanted to do was show up as a freaking chimpanzee or baboon. I continued until my eyes rested on an animal that would certainly give Bella’s lioness a run for her money. A tigress.

  And then a feeling of lightness descended on me—as if my soul were floating to the very top of my head. I opened my eyes and found myself on all fours. I glanced down and noticed the stripes of the tiger coloring my paws, which were in a word … huge. So this could only mean … I’d done it! Somehow, and I had no idea how, I just managed to magick myself into a tigress.

  Holy crap! I am a witch!

  And that was when I realized for certain that I was something more than I’d ever thought I was or could be. It wasn’t really so much that I’d turned myself from human girl into wild cat; more that I’d been able to control whatever power existed within me to actually be able to do something so completely … impossible. At that moment I felt a huge outpouring of emotion toward Sinjin. He’d been right all along—I was far more than I thought I was and it was because of him that I’d been able to cultivate my abilities, to hone my powers. Sinjin was my teacher, my mentor, and what was more, he had never stopped believing in me. Even when I doubted myself.

  You will never doubt yourself again, Jolie Wilkins, I thought firmly.

  Taking a resolute step forward, I focused on my surroundings. Everything appeared almost colorless, and distorted—as if I were looking through a bottle. I looked up at Sinjin and felt my heartbeat increase. He was just as stunning as always, but his eyes were bright red. The way he shifted looked as if he were moving a million miles a second, and strangely enough I could see every fraction of his movement. It wasn’t just a blur.

  I took another few steps, feeling wobbly on my new legs. I glanced up at Sinjin again and tried to say something, which only came out as a growl. He approached me, kneeling until we were eye level.

  “You are stunning, love,” he whispered.

  At the word love, I growled at him again and he chuckled, as if he understood. Then, just as quickly as the bizarre sense of light-headedness had overcome me, it started again. I shook my head and found myself suddenly lying in Sinjin’s arms. I glanced down and felt my cheeks flush as I realized I was completely naked, just as Bella had been.

  “She is a tigress, as I knew she would be,” Sinjin announced to the room, pulling me closer. Apparently realizing I wasn’t as comfortable as Bella with public shows of nudity, he tore off his shirt and slid it over my head and arms. It fit me like a dress. And of course I didn’t miss the display of his incredibly muscled chest, which caused a hiccup in my heart rate.

  “Very good,” Bella said in a hurried, dismissive sort of way. “I imagine we will be in touch.”

  He smiled at her courteously and kissed the top of my head. She stormed out of the room. Judging by the fact that I heard the front door slam shut behind her only moments later, I had to imagine she’d seen herself out.

  “You shar
e an unusual friendship,” I started.

  He nodded. “Truly we are not friends.”

  “Then why?”

  “She owes me,” he interrupted. “Speak no more of her, poppet. I am much more interested in you.”

  I imagined this was his line to move us into the bedroom. I smiled up at him. “Interested in me?”

  “You had a multitude of animals to choose from, you said?” he asked. I felt my hopes deflate. I mean, how hard was it for a girl to get a little action?

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Can you demonstrate?”

  I took a deep breath and figured there was no point in arguing with him. Besides, I was curious as to whether or not I could become another creature. I closed my eyes and was surprised to find it took no time at all for all the animals to assemble around me again. This time my attention centered on an eagle, perched in a nearby tree. I focused on the gallant raptor and the same feeling of light-headedness began to fill me. Then, in the span of a blink, I was in Sinjin’s kitchen, standing on the counter and glancing down at the room while an array of colors reflected back at me. The brightness of the colors astounded me—they were like nothing I’d ever seen before. I guess it made sense because a bird’s vision included a much broader spectrum of colors than a human’s.

  I heard Sinjin chuckling but couldn’t seem to focus on him and realized my eyes were now on the sides of my head. I hopped around, turning my head in order to see him. The scratching of my talons against his granite countertops scraped in my ears and I had to hope he wouldn’t be concerned about me damaging them. When I turned my eagle head, I could see him out of the corner of my eye. He was entirely black, like a shadow.

  “Can you fly, poppet?”

  I lifted my arms—er, wings—and flapped a few times before kicking off with my legs to find myself airborne. But I never had the chance to fully experience the rush of flying, because seconds later the dizziness from before returned. My heartbeat escalated at the thought that I was midair and resuming my human body. I didn’t have much time to worry, though, because the next thing I knew, I was falling.