Free Magic and Mayhem: Witch and Were (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Eliza Gayle Page B

knew which one. I kept them guessing and as long as I didn't start acting my age they would be perfect.
    I pulled my long hair up into a French twist and placed the hat on top. I shoved a few strands of white under the brim and secured everything with some pins.
    At this point I was pretty sure I was running on adrenalin and I feared the moment I slowed down it would all crash down on me resulting in a complete and total melt down.
    And then someone would have some explaining to do. Either my sick friends or my secret keeping, sex addicted mother.
    She always swore there wasn't a man alive she couldn't find appealing. My lip curled. Did that include Shifters? The idea kind of freaked me out. My mother always kept her lips shut about my father, claiming she wasn't one hundred percent sure about his identity. (Just what every girl wanted to hear growing up. Am I right?)
    I grabbed my forehead and shook my head. My thoughts were out of control and if they didn't stop soon all I'd have to show for it would be a massive headache.
    For now I needed to take this day one minute at a time.
    Norman brushed against my leg and I bent over to scratch behind his ears. "Now you want me? Fifteen minutes ago you were ready to attack me. You little traitor." I waited, hoping for the umpteenth time he would talk back. Why couldn't I have a normal familiar?
    I sighed. Probably for the same reasons I had so little magic. I was the result of a witch getting pregnant by a mortal. Or so I'd been led to believe. Shifters also didn't have magic. Why had I never thought of that before?
    I finished scratching my goofy cat and headed toward my packed Kors bag and grabbed the paperwork for today's meeting.
    " Avoir , my poor, confused kitty. Wish me luck."
    He did not wish me luck...

2
    " H ey , Momma," I greeted when my mother finally answered her door.
    "Shhh," she whispered. "Call me Charlene today, okay?"
    I stood outside my mother's condo door staring up at an almost mirror image of myself in another fifty or so years.
    I didn't know exactly how old my mother was, nor did anyone else. With both of my grandparents gone since I was little, she had no one to out her real age anymore.
    "Why? What's going on?" I asked.
    "Nothing." She averted her eyes and began picking at a speck of something from her shirtsleeve. My mother was not a great liar. If you took the time to actually notice it wasn't difficult to see her tells.
    I sighed. Her denial could only mean one thing. "Who is he?" I asked, stepping through the doorway.
    "Why do you say that?" she asked. "I've always asked you to call me Charlene, you just never listen."
    I wandered through the living room and back into the kitchen looking for whatever latest man she had squirreled away in this place. Hopefully, I wouldn’t find him tied up like the last one. That poor guy had been near tears when I freed him.
    "For Goddess' sake, Momma, how many times do we have to go through this?"
    "Charlene!" she practically shrieked at me.
    I shook my head and resumed my search. "Whatever, Char-lene."
    "Why are you here anyway?" she asked. "I thought you had an important business meeting today. For those fancy facial creams you cook up in your kitchen. Still think its weird you sell those to humans. What if something bad happens?"
    I opened the hall closet and peeked behind the coats and sweaters neatly lined up. No one.
    "Nothing bad is going to happen. I've been making them for years and no one's had a reaction since that first year." I turned back and narrowed my eyes at my mother. "But you know that, so quit trying to distract me. Where is he?"
    She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away. "I don't know what you're talking about."
    "Hey, Patience. What’s cooking?" My mother's fully functioning familiar, Buzz the almost geriatric cat, emerged from the bedroom. Like my mother he was nearly one hundred years old, but unlike my mother, he looked it.
    "This and that," I answered. "What about you?"
    "Same