Free Meows, Magic & Murder by Madison Johns Page B

all of the moist food all over the kitchen.
    “Meow, meow,” Pansy wailed.
    “I can see that I’ll have to bring Pansy with me today. It just won’t be safe for Pansy to stay home, not with Merlin on the rampage.”
    They ate breakfast and Petunia caught sight of Melvin running across her backyard with Noah chasing after him, vigorously shaking a can of treats. Petunia tried not to stare too pointedly since Noah only wore jeans and no shirt, his rippling muscles in perfect gawking view. No, Petunia. Don’t look at Noah! Oh, God, was he ever in shape.
    “Petunia, whatever are you staring at?” Aunt Maxine asked. She turned and muttered, “Oh, welcome to the neighborhood.”
    Petunia buried her face in her cup, or as near as she could, guzzling the coffee down.
    “Don’t act so coy, dear. It’s not like you’re gawking or anything.” She batted her eyelashes for emphasis.
    “No, I wasn’t. I just wondered why Melvin is running around like that again. He said that he only does that when he’s frightened by a cat, and mine are all here.” She took a mental count of her cats, and frowned. “Hey, where is Pansy now?”
    “Looks like he slipped out the rip in your screen door. I thought you were planning on having that fixed.”
    Petunia stood up. “I was, but then I found a body.”
    “Well, don’t just stand there, get your cat before he gets gobbled up by that Pit, or, er ... he scares that dog again. I’d hate to see Noah have to chase his dog all over town again. It might not bode for him well in the next election.”
     
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
    After Petunia went out the door, she raced after Pansy, who was having fun hissing and pawing at Melvin, who then ran the opposite way, much to Noah’s displeasure as noted by his narrowed eyes.
    “Can’t you catch that cat of yours?” Noah grumbled.
    “I could say the same about your dog. He needs obedience classes, from the looks of it.”
    “Pansy, if you don’t stop this nonsense right now, I’m going to let Merlin outside and then you’ll really be in trouble.”
    Pansy bounded toward Petunia. “What are you talking about?”
    Just then, a tiger cat entered her yard. “Hurry up. We have company, or specifically, you do.”
    The tiger cat raced forward and Petunia picked Pansy up just before the cat got too close. “What have you done to anger every cat in the neighborhood?”
    * * *
    “I can’t believe you, Petunia,” Pansy wailed all the way to Lucy’s house. “I can’t believe you turned me into a cat and now I have to deal with all of the cats in the neighborhood after me?”
    Petunia stopped walking, trying to regain her composure. “I didn’t mean to turn you into a cat, for one thing, and how was I to know that you would find a way to make so many cats come after you. You really need to try to play nice. Did you do something to make the other cats angry?”
    “Oh, uhm ... no, I have no idea.”
    “I find that hard to believe, but it might just be they’re tired of you scaring Melvin. Most cats don’t know he’s harmless and actually afraid of cats.”
    “Expressions, dear. You really need to learn how to not move your lips when you talk to that cat,” Aunt Maxine said.
    Petunia sighed. “Oh, what’s the use? There’s no way I can make it up to Jeremy, I mean Pansy, for what I’ve done to him.”
    “You could at least try to turn him back,” Aunt Maxine suggested. “Who knows, you might just get lucky on your first try. We’ll have to take a look at the potion book when we get to the shop.”
    Petunia wasn’t so sure, but she owed Jeremy that much, a real chance to try to at least turn him back into human form. Although that worried her, too. What would he do to her if he was a man once again?
    “Run, run as far away from you as I can,” Pansy said, jumping into her thoughts. “I just think you should at least attempt to turn me back.”
    “ And what if you turn into a frog or grow an extra head? There are worse things