Chapter 9
2534 Words
9Topper rang the doorbell and got no answer. She knocked several times, but that went unnoticed as well. Alfred was either not home or ignoring her. If it was the latter, he was in for a surprise. She was not going to let one bad date take out a friendship that had endured her entire lifetime.
Topper went to a nearby flower pot and retrieved the key from under it. She could have used magic to open the door, but that would have been an intrusion. Friends used keys, and that’s what she did today, letting herself inside without a shred of guilt.
“Alfred?” she called, walking back through the house. She heard a scrambling sound, then watched the back door slam. “Alfred—wait! We need to talk. There’s something important I need to tell you.”
She rushed down the back steps after him, lifted her hands, and sent a retrieval spell out to stop him from running off. Alfred paused in the back yard of a neighbor’s house, turned around to look at her, then stumbled off as if the spell hadn’t really affected him.
“Hell’s bells. This repetitive failure stuff is enough to give me a damn complex. Alfred,” Topper called again, chasing after him. Stark and Theo caught up with her before she got over the neighbor’s fence. “I tried to stop him, but it didn’t work. Something’s wrong with Alfred.”
Stark’s hand on her arm made her pause.
“What kind of creature is Alfred?” he asked quietly. “Is he more human or more something else?”
“He’s a… Alfred’s a fish,” Topper admitted. “He’s a shifter and has spent a lot of time in his animal form. He’s only been human for a short while now.”
“And he is immune to your magic?” Stark asked.
Topper stopped. “Not usually… no one in this town is immune. But weird things have been happening with me since you came to town. Maybe my magic isn’t working on Alfred either.”
She turned to Theo who grabbed at his clothes and held up a hand to stop her.
“No, Topper. No more magic tests. Let’s just say something’s wrong with Alfred,” Theo exclaimed. “I’m going around to head him off. See you two on the street.”
Topper turned back to Stark. “Do you think the beeberg is on Alfred?”
Stark straddled the fence with a single long legged stride. “I will investigate and let you know.”
Topper bit her lip. “Stark? Be careful. Alfred’s my friend.”
“I will be as careful as I can be,” Stark vowed, jogging ahead until he could see the creature in question.
The being was struggling to walk, no doubt fighting off Topper’s spell as he dealt with the dakkari now trying to control his brain. Stark walked quickly to catch up with him. He could see something moving on the man’s back under his shirt. That meant the dakkari had not taken possession yet, but she was working hard to do so. Well, at least they had found the beeberg.
“Alfred?” Stark called, speeding up when the being stopped and met his glare.
Alfred hissed at him—or rather the dakkari did—as they faced each other. Stark spoke to the creature in his native tongue, eliciting more hissing. At his continued approach, the hissing turned into a series of growls he doubted the poor shifter had ever made with his human throat.
He saw Theo coming towards them now from the opposite direction. Behind him, he felt Topper huffing as she caught up with them as well.
Stark spoke to the beeberg again in Glacieran. The beeberg controlled creature raised hands as if to claw at him. He put out his arm to prevent Topper from running forward and being on the receiving end of the creature’s wrath.
“Topper, no. Your friend is being controlled by the beeberg. We must find a way to separate them as quickly as we can.”
Topper swallowed back her pride. “My magic… it doesn’t seem to work. What else can we do?”
Stark turned and looked down at her. “Your magic might work if I can incapacitate the beeberg. Were you jesting about turning people into other creatures or is that a truth about your skills?”
Topper snorted. “Is this really the time to question my word? That’s only going to make me mad again.”
Stark drew himself up to his full height, the better to glare down at her. “Goddess preserve me. Calm that ego of yours, Witch. I just want to know if you can turn your friend into something smaller than the dakkari so it will make her turn loose of him.”
“Oh. Sorry,” Topper said. She fisted and unfisted her hands as she thought. “I don’t know if I can turn him into anything. But I can order him to revert to his animal form. Would that work?”
“Really? How can you order him?” Stark asked.
“It’s a pact everyone makes with Gaia when they come to live in Magic, New Mexico. The women in my family are the executors. We can order shifters to change either way. The magic law was put into effect for the safety of everyone in town. Sometimes a shifter goes into their animal state and doesn’t want to shift back. That can be problematic. We made the van for first timers. The young, arrogant ones are the worst.”
Stark nodded. “Okay. We need to be prepared if you can manage to get him to change. The dakkari beeberg will attack you as the source of her loss. I will stop her of course, but she can be quite vicious.”
“As vicious as Topper when she’s mad at you?” Theo asked softly, earning a hissing from Alfred and dual glares from Topper and Stark. “Hey… it was a joke. I’m tense over here. I’m hoping we don’t have to fry one of my best friends.”
Stark narrowed his gaze, holding the dragon’s. “This is bad, but it will be okay. I swear it.”
Topper nodded grimly. “Okay. If you’re that sure, I’m ready to do what I can.”
“Order your friend to change then,” Stark commanded.
Topper raised her hands and the wind lifted around her.
“Blessed Gaia, hear my call,
Help the one who’s now enthralled,
By your command and by my wish,
Let Alfred be once more a fish.”
They watched Alfred’s eyes grow wide and then the man disappeared into his clothes. A loud scream split the air as something fuzzy launched itself at Topper’s head.
Her answering scream froze Theo in place, but Stark reached out and snatched the creature mid-air. Topper watched his eyes shift and change. He spoke some words in his language. The screaming animal was suddenly covered in a block of ice with only its head outside of it. The hissing continued, but fighting was no longer possible. Stark worked his fingers free of the frozen block, until he held a beeberg popsicle in both hands.
“Alfred?” Topper called in alarm. She waved her hands, purple flecks of magic went flying everywhere, and suddenly a fully dressed Alfred stood in front of them. “Oh, thank the Fates.”
Stunned, Alfred’s gaze went from Topper to Stark to Theo and back to her.
“Topper? What’s going on? Why are we all out on the street?” he asked.
Topper stepped into Alfred and hugged. “I was so worried about you.”
“Ow… don’t hug me so hard. My back is killing me. Wait… did you just make me shift? Why did you do that out here in public?”
Topper looked at the ice bound dakkari in Stark’s hands. The ice wasn’t even melting. Later… she’d think about his magic later.
She hooked her arm through Alfred’s. “Come on. Let’s get you home. I’ll tell you on the way.”
Theo brought in Nonny to take a look at Alfred’s wounds.
Since all the dakkari were now accounted for and the threat was neutralized, Lacey and Frost were now heading their way to help with the mastiffs.
Topper and Stark were staring into the van at the dogs. “Could we do the same thing for the dogs?” she asked.
Stark nodded. “But it is hard to know if they will survive the dakkari being ripped from them.”
Topper turned away and rubbed her face with one hand. “I’m too old for this. If I hadn’t opened the portal, none of this would have happened. This is all my fault.”
“If you hadn’t opened the portal, Frost would never know about Lacey and his child, now would he?”
Topper sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right. I just… poor Alfred. I should have been more careful. And now the dogs may die.”
Stark set the dakkari on the ground where he could keep an eye on it. The ice wouldn’t melt for some time, but he didn’t want to chance it escaping. He turned Topper by her shoulders until he could force her to look at him.
“We were able to quickly save your friend because of the amazing things you can do. This is no time to doubt your previous decisions. Yes—the two in the truck may die, but they also might live. All we can do is try and save them. At least then, we will have exhausted possibilities, yes?”
“Yes,” Topper agreed, nodding. “I’m just… I don’t know what I am. I don’t like this. I don’t like dealing with alien creatures. I want this to be over. I want it to be over now.”
She screeched when Stark shook her. Her head wobbled back and forth.
“What the f**k are you doing?” Topper yelled.
Stark snorted. “I am calming a hysterical witch by shaking her until her common sense returns.”
Topper smacked at his hands and jumped out of reach. “Well, stop it. Shake me again, and I swear I’ll find a way to turn you into a toad.”
“You will help me try and save the dogs,” Stark ordered.
Topper sighed and nodded. “Yes. I will help you… but keep your damn icy hands off me.”
“Until tonight,” Stark agreed, turning back to the van.
“Until I say otherwise, you arrogant bastard,” Topper declared.
Not arguing further, Stark opened the truck latch and lifted one of the dogs out. He held it in one hand and pointed to the dakkari. “This time—I’m going to freeze the dakkari before you turn the animal into a smaller version of itself.”
Topper nodded again, not smiling this time.
“Ready to start?” Stark demanded. “Our actions must be in concert.”
Topper glared. “Just freeze the green bastard. I’ll take care of the dog.”
Stark murmured words in his language and ice crystals formed a sheen on the back of the dakkari. They grew and covered the creature until the dog whimpered as it shivered with cold as well.
Topper waved her hand. The dakkari fell to the ground, solidly frozen. Stark held a yapping, mad Chihuahua in his hands instead of the mastiff. He inspected it and saw there were wounds left, but nothing that would not heal in time.
“Nice work,” Stark said, speaking loudly to be heard over the yapping. “Now please change him back. The other species is much better behaved.”
Topper wanted to disobey out of spite, but she couldn’t. She had never been a fan of small dogs. She waved her hand and the mastiff reappeared.
She watched as Stark lowered the dog to the ground and urged it to sit. “Remain here,” he commanded the animal. And it did—watching him with a guarded gaze. Topper glared. Stark better not think she was ever going to obey him like that.
Rolling her eyes at her thoughts, she repeated the process on the second dog and made it small. The second dakkari felt out of it, but the wounds were greater. There was no yapping, just whimpering. She changed the second dog back to its original size and Stark carefully put the wounded animal back into the van. Patting the area beside it, the first dog jumped right up in there without further prompting.
Stark consoled both of them and then ran his hands over the second dog’s wounds. A fine sheen of ice crystals formed over the area. The animal lay down and closed its eyes. The other lay down next to it for comfort.
Topper looked from Stark to the animals. “You really do have a way with them. I can see why you chose to work with animals for a living.”
“Mostly I didn’t want to be a politician and make laws for Glacier. I’d done enough law keeping.” Stark petted both animals one more time before closing up the van on them. “Frost says his mate understands how to heal animals. What I did will keep the dog mostly out of pain until Lacey can work on it properly. But I’m thinking both dogs will heal from this.”
“Good,” Topper said, nodding.
They both turned as Theo and Malcolm came out of Alfred’s house. Theo glanced into the back of the van, but didn’t ask Stark anything about the dakkari popsicle or the two dead ones. He just said they would meet Frost and Lacey back at the Sheriff’s office so they could hand over the dogs.
She and Stark watched the van drive away.
Topper sighed as she turned back and thought of what still had to be done. The two male dakkari were dead, their hosting days at an end. The female was still active and glaring, but going nowhere. She waved her hands and made all three creatures pocket sized.
Stark smiled and pulled his purple cloth from his pocket. He set all of them inside and tied it up to make it easier to carry.
He stood and held out his hand. “Thank you for helping. I know it was hard to be so brave despite your aversion to the situation. Star Rangers are not any better sometimes. Frost was an exception. However, in this case, we required your magical help.”
Topper nodded, but said nothing. Her mind was still trying to shove what they’d had to do away. She did reach out and wrap her arm through his. Then she took them home with replying to his explanation.
It was going to be a long while before she could accept the ease with which she’d let Stark order her around.
It took a bit of finagling, but they found containers for the missing dakkari, including the two dead ones which Stark was planning on taking back with him. The rest had started hissing when they saw their female get thrown into prison like their own. Stark spoke to them in his native language and the hissing magically stopped—or at least it seemed like magic to Topper.
When the doorbell rang rapidly, Topper sighed and hung her head. “Now what?”
She trudged to the door, her steps dragging. All she wanted was a long, hot shower and to forget what she’d seen today. She opened it to find Malcolm frowning on her doorstep.
“Good. You’re back. The men in black have come calling,” he said, turning around to jog away the moment he’d delivered the message.
Topper glanced over her shoulder when she felt Stark come up behind her. “You better stay here. I have to go pretend we didn’t open up a space portal. Then I’m going to have to mind wipe the government officials sent to investigate it.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Stark said, running a hand over her hair.
Topper closed the door and walked into his arms. Having someone in her life to hug was a luxury she’d rarely had. Stark was leaving soon so she might as well make the most of him while she could. This meant forgetting their arguments from earlier and his insistence she help when she didn’t want to. All of it was high on the list of reasons she’d never let any man stick around long.
“Hug me,” she ordered, before she could change her mind about indulging. She let herself be held in his strong arms for a few precious minutes and then gently pushed away. “Okay. Now I have to go be Topper the Powerful again.”
Stark bowed his head to her, but the look in his eyes clearly said he didn’t want to let her go alone.
Sighing, Topper lifted a hand “It’s alright. I do this all the time,” she said.
And then she was gone.
- Writer
