WITCH SHIfT

“It’s not fair,” Harper said when I told her what happened and tried to find out who the guy was.

“What’s not fair?” I asked because I had no idea what she was talking about.

“It doesn’t matter” she said smiling but you could tell she was still thinking and whatever she was thinking about made her sad.

“So who is the jerk?” I asked still wanting to know who the hot asshole was.

“Jon Prestyr Worth, from the East Coast Worth’s, and also our resident head Witch,” she said with some disdain.

“It sounds like you don’t like him much either,” I said smiling glad that she didn’t like him.

“A lot less now,” she responded and I smiled thinking it was nice that she thought less of him for treating me bad. “He owns and runs Mail Orders. If you need something he can get it. He’s our version of Amazon for the supernatural world.”

“Oh,” I hadn’t thought of that. I mean witches needed stuff that wasn’t sold at Walmart. Thinking about the other people around town I realized it’s not like a werewolf could order certain things off Amazon. I laughed.

She smiled and laughed with me. It was nice having a friend. “Do you think he is right, that they just like fighting with each other?”

“No, well maybe, but that’s not it. Al wasn’t even going to open a bar, he was happy working at Glitches. Then him and Lincoln got in a huge fight and they have been enemies ever since. He may have opened the bar just to get under Lincolns skin, but I don’t know for sure. Their hatred goes back a ways though. “

Harper was right. They didn’t act like two guys who liked fighting with each other, it was something more, and that something more was ruining my chance of ever getting a promotion. Of course I didn’t expect one when there really wasn’t any way to get one, but still.

“So let’s see. I need to figure out what the problem is. Then I need to make sure they pull their heads from their asses and fix it. Then they each need to learn how to order better and quit running out of shit?”

“So you say,” Harper said standing up from the small table in her lobby we were clustered at.

“Why do I feel like that will be impossible enough?”

“Because you are dealing with us now silly and not humans,” she said smiling down at me. “We are very different breeds. We all have our own needs but still want the protection of the rest and the feeling of camaraderie. Ready to move here yet?”

I laughed at her instant sales pitch. “Not yet,” I said.

“Well I will be glad when you do. There just aren’t enough women here in Fae-Ville,” she said like it was a sure thing.

“There just aren’t enough women anywhere if you ask me.” I said right back. “So tell me more about this Jon guy.”

“No,” she said laughing and walking away.

Well that was mean. I mean I just wanted to know what kind of jerk he was and if he treated everyone like that. “Fine,” I huffed. I needed to call the office and tell Anna what was going on and checking their latest orders to see where we could maybe tweak some things.

My room smelled good as I entered and I could tell the maid or whoever had been to clean while I was gone. There was even a small chocolate that was left on my pillow, how nice. I grabbed my laptop and opened the sliding door to the balcony and pulled up my Meetings account.

“What’s up,” Anna asked eating something not good for her right in front of me, or at least my image.

“Could you send me the latest orders for both Al’s and Keggers? They keep accusing us of shortening them. These two are a handful.” I said to her.

“Whatever the problem is, fix it.” Oliver said over Anna’s shoulder.

“I’m trying sir.” I said pissed she didn’t give me any clue he was there. “They are blaming us for shortages. But they fight so much between each other I don’t know if it’s true or not.”

“Of course it isn’t true.” He screamed. “Damn paranormals think their special. Fix it Maryse, and fix it fast.”

Then our connection was cut off. I was really beginning to hate that man. I texted Anna that I still needed the invoices and the coming delivery bills and then I closed my computer down and went to go sit on the deck.

JPW

“Took you long enough boss, but at least the noise has stopped.” Harvey said from the office as I walked in.

Harvey was a dog shifter, not a wolf, a dog. He was cursed by some damn witch and now he was a dog every fourth day. I was the only one that would give the guy a job after he lost job after job. He was a good worker and he didn’t deserve what happened to him. I had been trying to reverse the spell for years but I hadn’t found the right mix yet.

“It was just some damn human riling up the two boneheads again. Sometimes I wish the humans would just stay the hell out of this town.” I said not really thinking about it.

“I know boss, but we need their money, well we don’t, but the rest of the town does.” Harvey explained what I already knew.

“You’re right, were you able to get a hold of some more quartz’s for the dwarves in the mountain?” I asked taking my seat behind my desk.

I loved my desk, it was elven made, and it was remarkable. It was grown not made and it was the most stunning piece of furniture I had ever seen. In my mind it was the best deal I ever made when I negotiated for the desk for just twenty bottles of golden cognac from Europe.

“Yeah, there was a quartz mine in Arkansas that was willing to let about a ton go. I figured we could store the rest and up sell it to the off shoots as we go.”

“Good Job Harv. Ok we need to make some cash from the tourists, what do we have that we can start pushing before the season lets up?”

“The souvenirs are going well but everyone in town is saturating the market now. We need something that is new and different. We need a hook. I just haven’t figured out what it is yet.” Harvey said a little broken and scratching his head.

We had been trying to come up with something for the last few months that only we had, and could push to increase our disposable income. In other words, we wanted a cash cow to come walking in the door.

“Well keep thinking buddy. If we can’t come up with it no one can.” I said grabbing my latest report from the Witches council of the East Coast.

It seemed after reading the news sheet that relations between the humans and Fae were breaking down. The Fae were tired of following the human’s edicts and were starting to fight back. That wouldn’t be good for any of us if the battles turned physical. The humans outnumbered us a hundred to one, and while we were a lot stronger on a one on one basis, just the numbers alone would wipe us out.

I was supposed to attend the New York Council meeting in a week. I wasn’t going. I hated the witch’s council and all their talking. All they ever did was discuss shit to death and then did nothing about it. I was a doer not a talker. Besides I wasn’t the most politically correct Witch to walk the planet.

“Earth to JP,” Harvey said and jolted me from thinking.

“Yeah,” I said setting the paper down.

“It’s your turn to buy dinner. What are we having tonight?”

“Whatever it is it will be better than that meal you brought us Friday. What the hell was that anyway?” I asked still remembering the unpleasant side effects I had all night.

“The vendor said it was a meat hash, it smelled good.” He said complaining.

That was the day before his change. Sometimes dog smells and people smells weren’t in sync. I think I would pick dinner from now on the night before his change.

“How about we split a pizza from Drac’s?” I threw out.

“Meat overload?”

“Of course, is there any other kind?” I laughed.

“No, there isn’t.” He said with a certain certainty to his voice.

I laughed even harder.

Maryse

“Drac’s has the best pizza in town.” Harper said matter of fact.

“Well good, I’m starving, can we get a supreme?” I asked wondering if she liked that.

“My thoughts exactly,” she said smiling at me.

We just walked in the door and we were waiting behind two guys. Then they turned around to see who came in and I lost my voice. It was him, Jonathon, the mean witch. Damn why did he have to be so good looking. Of course the way he was looking at me now, he didn’t look so good. He looked like he smelled something funny. What an asshole.

“Hey Harper,” the other man said cheerfully.

“Hey Harv, great night for pizza,” Harper said smiling at him.

“It was,” Jonathon said with hint in his voice.

“I see you are your miserable self Jonathon.” Harper said right back at him.

“Hanging with humans Harper, or is that the flavor of the week?” He asked right back.

“I’d say I have a flavor for witches but I wouldn’t want to get your hopes up. I just like good people like Maryse and Harv. You see whose name I didn’t mention?” Harper shot at him.

“You couldn’t handle a witch when you had one, too much for you. Stick to what you can handle without having to commit.” He said back real angry.

What the hell was going on with these two? Did they date? Is that why she didn’t like him? It was making more sense now.

“I’m a water nymph, we flow from love to love, you just didn’t have any.” She shot back.

“Ok this is getting out of hand,” I said. “Hi, I’m Maryse,” I said introducing myself to the other guy, the one Harper was nice to.

“Harvey, I’m a shifter, well sometimes, it’s a curse from a witch.” He said not embarrassed and my eyes went immediately to Jonathon. “It wasn’t JP.”

“Sorry,” I mumbled thinking I shouldn’t have assumed it was. That was wrong of me.

“Anyway, JP has been trying to figure it out but we are still working on it.” He said with a light in his eyes for his friend.

“What were you before, or still are?” I asked.

“I was human. I dated a girl from a witch family not knowing what they were. We broke up. They cursed me. I’ve been like this ever since.”

“Do you know the family? I have some relation that may be able to help you?” I asked quickly.

“What family could you possibly have that could help him?” Jonathon asked a little prissy.

“I know the head of surgery for East Coast Medical, Tom Oliver. Do you know anyone better than that?” I said sneering back at him.

His face lost the heat he had gathered. Harv immediately looked at him with hope. “He’s good,” Jonathon admitted. Then with a giant concession you could tell on his part he asked “would you ladies like to join us? I’ll buy. Harv can tell you what happened and maybe you could pass it along?”

“We would be delighted to let you buy us dinner,” Harper said entwining her arm in mine.

Not sure what that was about but we ended up all going to a giant booth for four. I sat on the inside next to Harper and was across from Harv so we could talk. Harper was talking to Jonathon and the waitress getting our pizza’s ordered.

“To be honest, if I was a normal shifter, it would be fine, but I am forced to change every fourth day into a dog and can’t change back to the next day. I couldn’t hold a job and no one understood till I met JP. We make a good team.” He said being honest with me so I had to be honest back.

“If you go back to being human will you and Jonathon,” I said not able to use the nickname, it didn’t feel right, “still be friends. He doesn’t seem tolerant of humans.”

He lost his smile for a second. My guess was he wasn’t sure either. I needed to get this back on track. “What was the name of the girl you were dating?”

“Lucille, I called her Lucky, Truesdall.” He said.

“You’re kidding?” I said disbelieving.

“Do you know her?”

“Like a bad itch. Our families use to go to the same events. She would torment me when I was younger till my sister put her in her place. She’s the epitome of a mean girl. Whatever did you see in her?”

“Um, well, she is pretty hot, or was, I was young, you know.” He stammered out.

“Enough,” I said laughing. “I’ll call my dad and ask what he thinks.”

“Your dad, you’re Tom Oliver’s Daughter, the level forty-five?” Jonathon spoke up interrupting us.

“No, I’m his stunted daughter, the level one. Harper, I’m not hungry anymore. Can we go?” I asked her not wanting to be here anymore.

“Sure Maryse,” she said giving Jonathon and evil look. “Have them send our Pizza to the inn. Good night gentlemen.”

“I’m sorry,” Jonathon said but he didn’t look sorry and I had all I could do to contain the tears that were trying to escape. I made it out of the table and I turned back to Harv.

“I will ask my dad and have Harper let you know what he said.” Then I walked away.

Harper was right behind me as we made our way out of the pizza shop and back down Main Vein heading back to the inn.