spies and spells 01 - spies and spells by tonya kappes

to focus on the angry feline. “I didn’t know you were going to come find me. Now that I know where I can find you, I will bring it by tomorrow.”
    I reached over and wrapped my hand around the door handle to shut the door. Mick put his hand on the edge of the door, stopping me from closing it.
    “Not so fast,” he grunted. “I will just follow you home to make sure I get the package from you.”
    “That won’t be necessary. I’ll bring the package to you.” I said as Vinnie jutted forward, knocking Mick’s hand off the door, and slamming it shut. Vinnie peeled out of the parking lot. “Nice,” I said in a sarcastic tone, referring to the screech of the wheels in the SKUL parking lot.
    “Maggie, we can’t be bothered with the flirtatious nature of the officer when we have a problem with him.” Vinnie whisked down the road after the cat that was darting in and out of traffic. “You know and I know the spell you placed on the man from the park should’ve worn off by now. He obviously has been keeping an eye out on you. And I have not detected him on my radar.”
    “Don’t worry. Just keep up with him,” I ordered my familiar, my eyes bouncing from sidewalk to sidewalk trying to keep up with the feisty black cat. “If it’s a cat-and-mouse game he wants, he shall have it. All I know is I have to reverse the spell.”
    “Why is that?” Vinnie asked turning down the street toward a warehouse on the docks near the Kentucky River.
    “Someone has to be wondering where he is. He might have family. He might have kids. He might have missed work.” My voice escalated with urgency as each possible thought of who was missing him ran through my head. “What if someone filed a missing person report?” The knots in my stomach got tighter and tighter thinking how I might have altered this man’s life on a silly dare. “What if he never turns back into the human male he is?”
    The thought of me screwing up a mortal life made me sick to my stomach. I was going to have to tell Auntie Meme and she was going to have to use her powers to reverse the spell. There was no way I could let this continue.
    “We aren’t alone, Maggie,” Vinnie said in his robotic voice.
    I turned my body around in the Cobra and looked out the small back window. Sure enough, there was a black rice burner car with red lights illuminating from underneath behind us.
    “Are you sure they are following us?” I asked. The car’s blacked-out windows made it impossible for me to see the driver.
    Vinnie’s engine roared. I could feel the road moving faster under us. Though I knew Vinnie wouldn’t wreck, I still turned back around into the driver’s seat and gripped the wheel. The speedometer read eighty miles per hour in a forty-five miles-per-hour zone leading down to the docks.
    “I’m sure.” Vinnie’s engine revved before he took a sharp turn into a warehouse parking lot, fishtailing to a stop in front of another car that seemed ominous. “And he isn’t alone, Maggie.”
    Mewl! The black cat with eerie green eyes jumped up on Vinnie.
    “Shit,” I groaned.
    This had to be one of the times Auntie Meme had warned me about. She told me not to get myself in a situation where I had to use magic. She told me never to get in a situation where my familiar had to do some crazy outlandish thing that would bring attention to us and our craft. She’d warned me. But I never listened. I totally wished I had listened.
    “Now what?” Vinnie asked, revving the gas as we idled.
    I bit my lip and continued to release and rewrap my fingers around the wheel.
    “I don’t like what I’m sensing you are feeling,” Vinnie said.
    “Where are we?” I asked, keeping an eye on the bright yellow car with chrome wheels, equally as low to the ground like the black car behind me. The yellow car didn’t have the blacked-out windows. Both cars had me pinned. I zeroed in on the little bit of space behind Vinnie. If I reversed and took a hard swing left, I