T*Witches: Kindred Spirits (14 page)

Startled by Epie’s hand and Sersee’s terrifying
words, Cam lagged behind.
Sun that heals us with the light
, she stammered silently.

But it was too late. Sersee was finishing up:
“A rodent the panther will quickly devour!”

Pain engulfed Cam. Searing, intense. She tried to scream but every muscle in her body, including her throat, tightened, twisting in agony. Her head was shrinking, her face contracting, her belly crumpling in on itself, her legs and arms shriveling as she became smaller and smaller …

With her last ounce of human strength, Cam cried out, “Alex! Help! Ileana! Miranda! I’m —”

The rope that bound her fell away and she tumbled to the wet cave floor. She landed, not on her hands and knees, but on paws. Tiny, scrabbling rodent paws.

“Perfect!” Sersee clapped her hands. “I couldn’t have chosen a better rodent to tempt a cat. You’re a hamster, Apolla — or should I say, a Camster!” She scooped Cam up and brought her over to Jason’s snout. Cam tried to speak but could only emit a pitiful squeaking sound.

Sersee was in her glory. “Jason the panther, meet Cam the hamster. No! Jason the panther,
eat
Cam the hamster.”

Instinctively, the panther began to drool and snarl. Cam felt his slobber soak her head, drenching a patch of
her short, red hamster pelt. Then she was snatched away just as Jason’s jaws snapped shut.

Long, sharp fingernails held her. “You’ll have to excuse your panther pal’s impatience. He hasn’t been fed in two days. And where’s the fun in watching him slurp down such a teeny, tender morsel?” Sersee asked. “Even if the outcome is a done deal, let’s at least make the game challenging.”

Although she didn’t know if it would come out in English or squealing Hamster-ese, Cam sent one more frantic SOS to Alex, Miranda, and Ileana.

“They can’t help you, my little pet, eyes so tiny, red, and scared.” Sersee flung her onto the floor. “Miranda and Ileana are powerless. And Alex? Well, normally, I don’t gossip, but the scuttlebutt is she’s roaming the island. Who knows where she’s got to …”

“I do,” a voice from down the tunnel announced.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

It was Michaelina.

Her little hamster heart sinking, Cam dashed across the cold, stone floor, searching for a safe hiding place — and noted that Michaelina was not herself exactly. For one thing, she seemed jittery, and, for another, she was draped in someone else’s cape. This one, a vivid burgundy, was way too big for the shortest witch. She looked like she was wearing her daddy’s —

Cam didn’t finish the thought. She didn’t have to. From her vantage point as a lowly rodent, she’d caught sight of something Sersee and Epie could not have seen. Bounding from the floor onto the bench and from there
scrabbling into a hamster-sized cranny in the cave wall where Jason couldn’t get to her, she watched.

Knowing exactly what was going to happen.

And what she needed to do.

Epie clapped gleefully. “Michaelina!” she called out. “Hurry. You’ve got to see this. Look what Sers and I did!” At Sersee’s glare, she amended, “I mean, Sersee did. But I helped.”

Michaelina was still in the shadows. Sersee squinted, tilting her head as if she were trying to figure out why her little lieutenant seemed so nervous and why she was moving so oddly. “How lovely of you to join us,” she finally said. “Now haul tush, Mike. We should all be together for this. I’ve eliminated the problem princess.”

As Michaelina stepped out of the shadows and drew nearer, Cam sprang from her hiding place and took a flying leap.

“Arghh! Get it off me! Eeek!”

Eeek?
Epie had actually screamed “Eeek”? Cam laughed out loud. Which came out in a high-pitched chatter that sounded as though she’d sucked helium. To create a distraction, she scurried up the chunky girl’s leg, bounced onto her fleshy, flailing arms, then ran in dizzying circles around her neck, digging in her tiny claws at every op.

Frantically, Epie tried beating her away, but the sluggish
witch was no match for the hasty hamster. Making it worse, the snarling panther was now crouched at Epie’s feet, eyeing her hungrily.

Just as she was Cam, though shrunken and fluffy with fur, Jason was probably still himself somewhere under that sleek ebony hide, Cam realized.

Epie’s full-volume panic got neither help nor sympathy from Sersee. The formerly fearless Fury was having an “eeek” moment of her own. Michaelina had come out of the shadows. She wasn’t alone.

“Company’s here!” Alex quipped, emerging from beneath the lush velvet cloak she’d found at LunaSoleil. Aron’s cape was more than big enough to cover Michaelina and herself. Back around her neck was the baby quilt Miranda had sewn for her.

Sersee was visibly shaken and momentarily speechless.

“Your thoughts are wildly scrambled, so this is just a guess,” Alex continued. “But you seem a little edgy. Could it be because Cam and I are together now?”

“Together — in a manner of … well,
squeaking
,” Sersee retorted, composing herself. She pointed to the hamster perched on Epie’s shoulder. “Honey, I shrunk the witch.”

Alex stared openmouthed at … Cam? She didn’t know whether to laugh — or cry. Then the furry little
redhead hanging onto Epie by a claw sent a clear message:

One joke
, Cam threatened,
and you’re birdseed
.

“You turned her into a small plump creature, perfect prey for a panther.” This from Michaelina, fascinated and impressed.

Sersee glared at her. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. I’ll assume you wouldn’t dare betray me, that you allowed yourself to be ‘used’ by Punk DuBaer only to bring her here, as you should have.”

Before Michaelina could respond, Sersee commanded, “Now, snatch the moon charm from around her neck. She won’t be needing it.”

Michaelina made no move toward Alex.

“Now!” Sersee demanded. “Do it.”

Alex folded her arms, confident. “Not so fast, Captain Flash. Your little lackey is under a truth-telling spell. She won’t jump when you snap your talons. She’ll say and do only what she truly wants to. She told me everything.”

“You think?” Sersee shot back, her eyebrows arching dramatically. “Excellent. Then the truth will out, won’t it?”

“Watch out! You’ll get burned!” Epie shouted a warning. Too late. Michaelina dashed behind Alex and, with one hard, swift pull, yanked off her necklace. The moon charm hit the ground clinking.

Alex whirled on her. “How could you do that?”

The green-eyed witch shrugged. “She told me to. My truth is simple. And flexible. I’m on one side only. Mine.”

Alex felt blindsided, betrayed, bummed. Naïve was so not her style. How could Michaelina have played her so slickly that she’d never sensed it?

Sersee snapped orders. “Michaelina, quick! Get the rope and tie her hands behind her back.” In one fluid motion, she spun and knocked Cam off Epie’s shoulder. “Help her. I need to soak up this moment — before I kill them both.”

Keep her talking! I have an idea
. The wind knocked out of her, Cam hit the ground scampering and sent a message to Alex, hoping no one would bother to eavesdrop.
Just bait her
, Cam continued urgently, still unsure if her thoughts were coming out in English or Hamster-ese.

English
, Alex sent back, then turned and taunted her would-be captor. “Now that you’ve got me, Skeletor, what are you going to do, frizz my hair?” When Epie and Michaelina giggled, Sersee wheeled on them, silencing them with a glare.

No one noticed Cam skid around behind Alex.

Sersee snorted, “What was that, cactus-head? No, I had a rattier idea. Jason here” — she pointed to the panther,
who’d followed Cam’s scent and was approaching Alex — “oh, by the way, just so you’re clear, I didn’t name him Jason. That’s the name he came with.”

Alex’s jaw dropped. Michaelina hadn’t mentioned that. But then Alex hadn’t thought to ask her.

Sersee continued, “Panthers have greedy appetites. Well, who wouldn’t after being starved for two days. He deserves a
double
delicious snack. Besides, how cute would twin hamsters be? Like a Double Whopper?”

Alex felt something tickle the back of her calf, race up her leg, and perch on her arm. Cam.

The panther was now staring up at them, drooling. Keeping a cautious eye on him, Alex blurted, “Watch out, Sersee, there are ferocious spirits in these caves. DuBaer spirits. Our grandfather died here.”

The tall, bony witch gloated. “How fitting. We’ll just continue the ritual — make dying in these caves a DuBaer tradition! I’ll be rid of you forever. The DuBaer do-right twins will never grow to their most bountiful goodness. Pity.”

“How could they do that anyway, Sers?” Epie asked, as if she’d just thought of it. “We’re unstoppable, isn’t that what Furies are?”

“As long we keep our society secret,” Michaelina reminded her. “And no one exposes us until we’re ready.”

Alex was momentarily distracted by a scratchy sound
and something tugging at her rope handcuffs. Correction: gnawing on them. There’d been a hamster in her classroom in elementary school. She’d fed it one day and had gotten bitten. The creatures did have sharp teeth and a fierce bite — sharp and fierce enough to gnaw through rope? Quickly? Alex went with a wild thought. “Does my uncle know about your little secret society?”

“Lord Thantos? Not yet,” Sersee said. “But when he realizes all I’ve done and how puny his nieces’ magick is compared to mine, I think he’ll take a very special interest in it. In me, in particular. None of them, not one thought I was good enough —”

“Good enough for what?” Alex asked, hoping she could keep the dangerous witch talking, or bragging, until … What was taking Cam so long?

“Good enough to be a fledgling, you moron!” Sersee kicked the growling panther away and stomped over to Alex. “To be among the chosen that Karsh anointed each year, to be tutored by the most esteemed Elder on Coventry. Each year, the old fool passed me over. Nor did Lord Thantos regard me as especially talented. He, too, ignored my requests to learn at the hand of a master.”

Finally! Alex felt the rope give. She slipped one hand out and, while Sersee continued her rant, reached into her back pocket and gripped the spool of gold chain. Stepping forward, she got in Sersee’s face. “Lord
Karsh was right about you. You’re not smart enough. You’re not good enough. You’re not even good at being bad. That’s why Thantos didn’t want you —”

Mute the baiting!
Cam frantically telegraphed Alex, climbing higher on her sister’s back.
Just get our necklaces …

I need to put these three out of action first
.

“Who are you talking to?” Sersee whirled suddenly. “Where’s the rodent?”

“Where’s the rope? Is that what you said?” Alex was locked in mock-mode. “It’s right here!”

She focused all her fear, rage, and hope, again hearing Aron’s words, “
I’ll be with you, I always have
,” then willing her father’s gold chain to whiz off its spool and whip forward like a gleaming snake, a golden lasso. She sent it flying toward Sersee. It looped through the air at astounding speed.

Not faster than Sersee, however, who ducked.

Fascinated by Alex’s telekinetic trick, Epie didn’t. She stared at the wildly whipping chain, which slapped her ankles and corkscrewed itself up her bulging body. Like a gold-encrusted mummy, she went down hard.

Recovered from her shock, Sersee lunged at Alex, sneering, “I remember now, you
did
win the telekinesis round. Too bad your aim is off.” Gloating, she hadn’t noticed
the hamster skitter out from behind Alex, didn’t realize it was staring at her with smoldering intensity, pinpointing its beady, blazing eyes directly on Sersee’s violet orbs …

The lunging witch shrieked and froze as Cam’s stinging ray blinded her.

Score! She had stunned Sersee. The formerly large-’n-in-charge witch was rooted in place. In the second it took for Cam’s beam to completely immobilize her, the First Fury bellowed, “Attack!”

Michaelina made her move. She looked from the chain-wrapped Epie to Sersee, stiff and standing like an angry statue, to the hungry, prowling panther. And she ran, dashing for daylight as fast and as far from them as she could get.

But Jason, starved, taunted, and painfully taught to obey Sersee’s commands, crouched lower to the ground, ready to pounce at the twins. Only his eyes betrayed his fear, his abject terror of committing such a heinous act. But his hunger and the cruel instincts Sersee had instilled in him were getting the best of him. Growling, he drooled and bared sharp, flesh-tearing teeth at Alex.

Cam, staring at Sersee from her sister’s shoulder, telegraphed Alex:
I’m still myself inside this rodent coat. That means Jason is, too. Talk to him
.

“Jason, it’s me, Alex. And this hamster is really Cam. You were right; we were in danger. Now you really
can
help us.”

Alex heard or, rather, felt Sersee sending a scrambled message. It must have been something like, “Sink your teeth into them now!” because the panther cocked his head at the frozen witch, his ears up and twitching in concentration.

“Don’t listen, Jase. She’s evil,” Alex pleaded, trying to contain her terror as the animal swung his head toward her.

Jase. Cam’s fear began to disintegrate in a wave of aching compassion for Jason. For Jase, whose motives had been pure and unselfish, and whose reward was to be captured, tortured, starved, and turned into an untamed beast, all because of his loving concern for her.

“Jason, I know you’re in there somewhere,” Alex urgently continued. “You can use your own free will. You do not have to follow her commands. I promise, Cam and I will get you out of this.”

The panther’s tail began to lash. He bared his teeth at them, his mouth foaming with hunger.

“Kill!” The single cry came from Sersee, who had nearly thawed from Cam’s immobilizing glare.

Startled, the panther whirled toward the witch who’d just commanded him — and pounced. As his
claws raked Sersee’s purple robe, Cam dug her tiny claws into Alex’s shoulder. They both watched, horrified as Sersee stumbled backward, her cloak in shreds.

“No!” Alex and Cam screamed together.

Cam’s urgency and passion had released her human voice but at a painful price. Her throat burned, her ears rang, and her head ached fiercely. She was nauseatingly dizzy. Violently tightening her grip on her sister, she feared that she might pass out and plummet, smash unconscious onto the rock-hard floor.

“Down, Jason!” Alex yelled, trying to unfasten Cam’s nails from her flesh. “Stop. Don’t kill her!”

The starving panther started to back off, then changed his mind. He lunged at Sersee, knocking her to the ground, and sunk his teeth into her shoulder.

As Sersee howled in pain and shock, Cam tumbled from Alex’s shoulder, landing on the wildcat’s back. He swung around roaring.

“No,” Alex commanded. “That’s Cam!” She grabbed the animal’s swishing tail and held on tight. “We don’t hurt people! Jason, we believe in healing, helping,” she babbled, bouncing along the floor. “So that all things — even Sersee — may grow to their most bountiful goodness.”

While Cam clung quiveringly to his back, the panther sank to the floor, exhausted, weak, and confused.

Squatting beside him, Alex put her arms around his slick black neck. “It’s okay,” she cooed, petting him. “Oh, Jason, we are so sorry.”

Cam was down on the cave floor now, breathing hard as she watched Sersee hug her wounded shoulder and whimper. Cam telescoped in on the puncture wound. It wasn’t as drastic or deep as she’d feared. Already the dribble of blood was beginning to dry. Jason had been too frail to cause real damage.

“You’ll be fine,” Alex assured the wounded diva. “There are enough herbs and healers on this island to cure everything.”

Okay, Doctor Done-enough, tell her to take two aspirin and call you in the morning
, Cam chattered a message.
Remember me? Sister. Twin. Best friend. Hamster! Pick up our amulets, do the unmorphing spell, and get me out of this rat’s body
.

Speedily, Alex found their moon and sun charms on the cold, wet floor of the cave where they’d been flung. She held out Cam’s sun amulet, expecting her to take it. But raising her paws in exasperation, the little hamster began to babble irritably.