Relatively Familiar (Accidental Familiar Book 2)

  Relatively Familiar

  Accidental Familiar 2

  By Belinda White

  Copyright 2019 Belinda White

  Kindle Edition

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue: Arc's Story . . . The Beginning

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  A Note From Belinda

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  Prologue: Arc's Story . . . The Beginning

  WHEN I FIRST SENSED the large and unmoving lump behind me in my bed, I totally freaked. In a logical and manly way, of course.

  After leaping from the bed and wrapping my robe around my naked body, I whirled around to glare at the lump. From this angle, I could see it was a human-shaped lump with a crown of silky golden hair.

  Sonya.

  At least the who part was solved. Now for the how.

  My home is very well warded. In fact, warding homes is one of my magic specialties. It wouldn’t be bragging to say that I was one of the very best at it. Well, it might be a bit of bragging, but that didn’t make it any less true. I was the master. No one I knew could even come close to the impenetrable wards I could create.

  Only now, apparently, someone had penetrated them. The ones on my own home, no less. The strongest I had ever done. Or so I had thought, anyway.

  The question remained, how did she manage to bypass my magical security system and gain entrance to not only my home but my bedroom as well? Not that she hadn’t tried that feat before, because she had. Many times. It had been Sonya’s main goal in life to tarnish my perfect ward record.

  Not for any bad purpose. Rather, just to prove that she could.

  As witches go, the two of us were pretty much equal when it came to sheer power. It’s just that our powers are very different. Mine focused on protection abilities. Sonya’s powers were on the destructive side. The difference between Earth and Fire.

  It made for a rocky, yet highly invigorating, relationship.

  Now that she had managed to break through my protections, I would never be able to forget it. She would make sure of that.

  I sat in the chair by the bed, waiting for her to turn and flash me that brilliant winning smile. But she didn’t. After a few minutes of waiting, the worry started to creep in.

  No way could Sonya hold the gloating in this long. Something was wrong.

  Walking around to the other side of the bed, I freaked for the second time. This time probably not nearly so manly, as I’m pretty sure I screamed a little.

  Sonya wouldn’t be gloating about breaking my wards. Not now, not ever.

  Sonya was dead.

  I’m a damn powerful witch. The name Archimedes Mineheart Junior meant something in the circle of witches. But even I couldn’t make a dead body disappear. Or move it across time or space either.

  Which was a very bad thing, because it was just at that moment of discovery that all my homes’ wards went off at once.

  I was surrounded.

  From the flashing red-and-blue lights coming through my bedroom curtains, I was guessing the police. And as the local police knew exactly who and what I was, chances were very good that there would be a couple witches' council members too.

  My wards would stand up to a single witch any day of the week, but multiple ultra-powered masters of the craft? My home would be breached within a matter of minutes.

  I couldn't spirit the body away, and I couldn't just disappear myself either.

  Or could I?

  As luck would have it, and because of circumstances completely beyond my control, my familiar was not with me at the moment. But they wouldn't know that, would they?

  As the last of my protection spells fell, I took one final look at Sonya's body, trying to commit everything about the sight to memory. Then I opened the bedroom window and cast the transformation spell.

  They didn't even bother to knock. One minute I had a front door, and the next minute I didn't. An entire squad of heavily armored police officers entered the room. Once they declared the place clear, the witches entered.

  Part of me really, really wanted to make my exit at that moment, but the other part was hoping for some small clue as to just what the hell was going on. The curious part of me won out. Unfortunately, there is that old saying about what curiosity does to cats.

  Seeing the three council members enter gave me a moment's pride. Most times, they only sent two. My reputation must be even stronger than I had thought. There wasn’t much that could withstand a trinity of witches. Not ones with their power. A single witch, no matter how powerful, would never stand a chance.

  There were two ways I could play this. I could try to sneak out the front door and past them. But that might draw more suspicion than I wanted. They might decide to try to stop me, and the chase would be on. There would probably end up being a chase, anyway, but I wanted as much of a head start as I could get.

  Taking a deep breath, I arched my now white and furry back and hissed for all I was worth. A couple officers jumped at my ferocious battle cry, but the witches just smirked.

  "That's just his familiar," Tabitha said. She was the actual second-in-command of the entire council. They must really think I was a threat if they sent her.

  Just what the bloody hell was going on here? I waited until the last of the police officers had entered the bedroom, which they did quickly after finding the entryway empty. The witches stood back to back in the center of the front room and closed their eyes.

  Crap. They were casting feelers out for my magical signature. Wouldn’t they be surprised to find it right there in front of them?

  I ran as fast as my little furry legs would carry me, but not toward the door. I darted back into the bedroom and up and onto the half-open windowsill. Thank the Goddess I had thought to open it. Hovering for a second on the narrow sill, I eyed the tree just outside the window. I'd seen Baxter make the leap dozens of times, but then, he was a cat through and through. I was a man in a cat suit.

  The mental debate was still on when the first cry from the witches came from the living room. “Stop that cat!”

  It was now or never.

  I jumped.

  Chapter 1

  THERE WERE TIMES WHEN keeping a promise was hard. This wasn’t one of them.

  My promise to Arc, my new accidental familiar, was an easy one for me to make good on. Mostly because it gave me a reason to leave home for a while. Home was confusing right now.

  Aunt Opal was being uncharacteristically hovering, and my best friend Opie had taken a bit of a runner on me after seeing me do a massive magical attack. I couldn’t really blame either of them, I guess. Both witnessed my new and previously unknown ability. It was scary as heck.

  It scared me too.

  Helping Arc clear his name back in Indiana would give me a chance to make some things up to him, plus give me the
distance I needed from my family and Opie to think things through. Find my new status quo.

  Arc had even promised to help me with that. He was proving to be a good friend too. I really needed one right now.

  I glanced over at the gorgeous dark-haired man in the passenger seat beside me. “So, you want to go over what happened one more time for me? From the top this time?”

  He’d already given me the short version. Someone had killed his ex-lover Sonya and was trying, successfully it seemed, to pin the murder on him. Right now, that was all I knew. I needed the whole story, and preferably before we got there.

  Or before the witches’ council showed up and arrested us both. Him for a murder he didn’t commit, and me for harboring and helping a known fugitive.

  Truthfully, I was a little surprised they hadn’t shown up already. They were well known for their ability to track down magical renegades. It sounded weird, but in a way that had me worried too. Were they waiting for something before making their move? Were they secretly tracking us?

  At first, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me. The silence lengthened. I let it. Losers speak first. It was something my cousin Ruby had taught me a long time ago.

  “I really don’t know much,” he said, finally. “I woke up one morning to find I wasn’t alone in my bed. Which was totally strange, because I had been when I went to sleep, and the wards on my apartment were still fully in place as far as I could tell.”

  I’d seen his wards in action. They were pretty dang impressive.

  “Sonya?”

  He nodded and then looked back out the window, not meeting my eyes. Normally, I’d take that as a sign of evasion or untruthfulness, but I could tell he was hurting. Arc had truly cared for Sonya. They might not have been a real couple, but according to him, they’d been friends pretty much all their lives.

  Kind of like Opie and me. And there was the pain again. I brushed it to one side. I’d deal with it later.

  “Was she alive?”

  “No. I thought so at first.” He gave a dry laugh. “She was always trying to break my wards. I thought she’d finally succeeded and that any minute, the gloating would start.” Closing his eyes, he leaned heavily against the back of his seat. “At the time, I thought that was the worst thing that could have happened. Man, was I wrong.”

  That was bad. Not only had someone broken through the Mineheart Fireworks Ward, they had also managed to place a dead body right in the bed next to him without him waking up. That would be kind of hard for anyone to believe.

  Even me, if Arc hadn’t been under a truth spell when he’d told us he was innocent. And Ruby’s spells rarely missed their mark.

  “Could you tell how she died?”

  He shook his head. “No. Not really. But her head didn’t look quite . . . right.” A shiver passed over him, and he swallowed hard. “I’ll never forget the look on her face. She’d seen it coming, and it had terrified her.”

  A couple minutes passed in silence. The drive from Wind’s Crossing to Oak Hill, Indiana wasn’t an overly long one. If we followed the speed limits, which I sure as heck would be as I had a fugitive in my car, it would take no more than an hour. We still had time, and I didn’t feel the need to rush him.

  Arc took a deep, catching breath. “Of course, that’s when the council showed up.” He threw a glance over at me. “I guess I probably should have told you they sent a trinity. Your Aunt Opal was one of them.”

  The car swerved slightly as I looked over at him. He had failed to mention that part before. That was so not good. And here he’d been staying in our house within mere yards of the woman for days now. That had to have taken guts.

  The council worry notched up a little. I didn’t know many council members, but I knew my aunt. She was good. Very good. How had she not known the man she was looking for was right upstairs in her own house?

  It didn’t make any sense.

  “Sorry I didn’t tell you before. I thought maybe it would complicate things.”

  Well, yeah. But what was there to do about that now? “How did you get away from a witches’ trinity that had Opal as a member?” That feat was an impressive one. Trinities were powerful in themselves. Ones with Opal in them I had thought were pretty much unstoppable.

  “Can’t you guess?”

  Oh, yes. The cat thing. When I’d first met Arc, he’d been in an animal shelter one town over from Oak Hill. He’d been tiny and furry at the time. That’s what had led to the whole accidental familiar thing. Just as much his fault as it was mine, if you asked me.

  “Even as a cat, it’s pretty darn impressive that you got past them.”

  “If it hadn’t been for the big oak tree outside my bedroom window, I wouldn’t have.” He smiled. “I’d seen Baxter, my familiar, come in and out of that window via that tree many times.” Then he got pensive. “I wonder how Baxter is doing right now. How could I have forgotten him for this long?”

  “Well, it’s not like you’ve been on vacation or something.” I paused. “Was he in the apartment when you left?”

  “No. He was out wandering. He does that at night.” He was quiet for a minute. “He’s walked with me over to my uncle’s before. You think maybe he could have found his way over there?”

  He was asking me? “I really wouldn’t know.” I smiled at him. “You’re the first cat I ever really spent any time with, and you know how that turned out.”

  “That’s right. You sneezed at the shelter. And you were wearing one of those face masks too. Are you really that allergic to cats?”

  I nodded. Not something I was proud of, but also not something I could deny. Well, I could deny it . . . until a cat showed up. Then my sneezing and watery eyes would give me away pretty dang quickly.

  “I feel for you. That must have been rough growing up.” He was back to looking out the window. “Me and Baxter are pretty tight. Until I went off and abandoned him.”

  “If he’s your familiar, then he’ll have some idea of what’s been going on, right? And if your uncle lives that close, I’m sure if Baxter didn’t find him, he’d find Baxter.” I hesitated. “Your uncle would do that, wouldn’t he?” I mean, I know Aunt Opal would go looking for Yorkie Doodle if anything ever happened to Ruby. Goddess forbid.

  That earned me a brilliant smile. “Yeah, he would. Thanks. I feel better now.”

  “Good, so get back to the story. All that work you did back home on my computer. Did you find anything useful?”

  Arc made a face. “Just that they’re pretty sure I’m guilty of killing Sonya.” He rubbed a hand down his face and went back to leaning heavily on his seat with his eyes closed. “Can’t say I blame them, really. I mean, the Mineheart wards aren’t known for being breachable. No way is anyone going to believe I slept through them going off.”

  “I’m pretty sure they didn’t go off.” He just looked at me. “Well, for one thing, they were still up when you found Sonya, right?”

  He nodded, his expression thoughtful.

  “And for another, if they had gone off, I’m fairly certain the neighbors would have heard it.”

  “So, we’re back to the question of how did they get through the wards without setting them off.”

  “Looks that way.” I glanced down at the fuel gauge. I hadn’t thought to fill up before we left, and we were running kind of low. Good thing, too, because I had the opposite problem. I’d been drinking far too much. I pulled over to the side of the road and looked at him. “You need to change into your alternate persona so I can get gas and take a restroom break.”

  “Hey! I’ve gotta go too.”

  That was a dilemma. But for him, not me.

  “Sorry, but we’re far too close for you to show yourself in public.” I pointed off into the woods. “Why don’t you change into your cuter, furrier self and go out in the woods?”

  He just looked at me with his eyebrows drawn together. “And how am I supposed to wipe with paws?”

  “Seriously? You can’t wait to do
that until we get to the hotel?”

  “I’ve kind of needed to go for a while now. I just didn’t want to say anything because I figured I’d get the ‘you should have gone before we left home’ lecture. Only I didn’t need to then. Now I do.”

  Since I’d already admitted to having a need for the bathroom myself, I couldn’t really complain. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to stick to my guns here. There was far too much at stake.

  “You need to suck it up, change, and go out into the woods by the road to do your business.” I held up a hand to stop him from butting in. “When you’re done, find a nice clear patch of grass and scoot your bottom on it. I’ve seen cats do that in videos.” Found it pretty dang hilarious, too, but I didn’t think saying that would help my case.

  He glared at me, but then he opened his car door, changed, and ran off into the woods.

  I was really hoping he wouldn’t take a long time just out of spite. It would be like him, and my needs were getting a bit desperate. Before long, I’d have to go into the trees myself. But there was a town just up ahead, and I was holding out for a nice, flushable toilet.

  Unfortunately, while I was waiting for Arc to finish his business, the council showed up.

  Chapter 2

  At least it wasn’t a trinity this time. It was just a single witch. One I didn’t recognize. I only knew she was council because they always insisted on wearing that stupid hat. No non-council witch would be caught dead in the thing, but for them, it was a status symbol. Well, all of them but Opal. At least my aunt had better taste than that.

  She wheeled her car in front of mine sideways, like she was somehow blocking me from getting away. Yeah, lady, I thought, there is such a thing as reverse, you know. But then, I didn’t know how many others were on their way to join the party.

  Jumping out of her car, she pointed her wand at me. “Don’t move.”

  I just looked at her. Yes, I was worried, but I sure as heck wasn’t going to let her see that. There was a small chance that as long as Arc stayed in the woods, we’d be fine.