Blonde With a Wand Read Online Free PDF Page B

her.
    “Jasper? Come on. Don’t be stubborn.”
    On the other hand, this spot under the bed had served him well so far. Tucking his paws under his body, he prepared to wait her out.
    Cats were good at waiting, he discovered. The space under this double bed was very small. He smelled old wood and lemon oil. It was probably an antique. This dream was the most detailed one he’d ever had.
    “I really can’t leave you under there. I’m going to levitate the bed.”
    Holy crap! Could she do that? She was a witch in this dream, so anything was possible. Jasper tensed, his tail twitching, as he wondered if his hiding place would rise up to the ceiling. He’d run again if it did. There had to be other hidey-holes in this apartment, and he’d find them. A cat, he was discovering, could fit in very small spaces.
    Anica murmured something in Latin, but the bed didn’t move. “Huh. That always worked when I needed to vacuum up the dust bunnies.” She chanted again. Still the bed remained on the carpeted floor.
    She sighed. “All right. For some reason that spell has a glitch in it. I might as well quit fooling around and do this the normal way. Be right back.”
    Jasper didn’t know what the normal way entailed, but when Anica returned, he found out. She shoved a broom under the bed.
    He freaked. Rationally, he shouldn’t freak. It was a broom, for chrissakes. As a man, he didn’t have a single negative reaction to a broom. As a cat, he hated brooms. He hated this one in particular, which had a thick, round handle with carvings on it. Without knowing for sure, he decided it was a witch’s broom.
    “I need you to get out of there,” Anica said. “Come on. Go.” She moved the broom back and forth under the bed.
    Jasper tried to hold his ground, but in the end he bolted. He ran for the bedroom door, but that was shut tight. He tried to squeeze under her dresser, but no dice. The sliding mirrored closet doors were closed, too. The only escape was through the bathroom door, and that was a dead end.
    He knew that but he had no choice. Racing through the door, he leaped into the tub and hid behind the shower curtain, which was, he belatedly noticed, decorated with glittery stars. The bathroom door closed and he was trapped.
    Her voice took on a crooning, seductive quality. “Poor Jasper. You were a louse about Sheila, but no guy deserves this.” She peeked around the edge of the shower curtain.
    He cowered in the corner, hating that he cowered, but he couldn’t seem to help it.
    “Looks like you’re an all-black kitty, with the most beautiful golden eyes. That makes sense, I suppose, with your natural coloring. Well, enough chitchat. Let’s see what counterspell I need to invoke.”
    The sound of Anica flipping through pages of her book was the only noise in the room, except once when the heat switched on. That was the other thing Jasper had noticed when he’d transformed—the bitter cold of a Chicago March night. He’d been covered by a pile of his clothes, but even so, the sidewalk had felt like ice under his paws.
    Of course, that hadn’t stopped him from struggling to escape when Anica had picked him up to take him home. Better to be freezing and in charge of his life than to be a prisoner sitting in a warm apartment, depending on someone else to provide food and shelter. Jasper hadn’t liked that feeling as a kid and he didn’t like it now as a cat.
    His parents had controlled his every movement until he turned eighteen. He realized now it had been out of concern, but he’d felt smothered and had rented his own apartment the minute he could save enough money. Staying in control was important to him, which made this dream his ultimate nightmare.
    “Hm.” Anica flipped a few more pages. “Maybe in the index,” she murmured to herself.
    Jasper didn’t like the sound of that. He hadn’t heard an aha of discovery yet. What if she couldn’t find a counterspell?
    Then he chastised himself for being a fool