Haunted Hex (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 10) by Sara Bourgeois (best value ebook reader txt) 📗

up close and thinking that she looked like me. A harbinger of something that had never come to pass.

At least I hoped.

Chapter Three

After having second breakfast at the Brew Station, Mom and I went back home. She spent the day with me taking care of Laney so I could rest. Instead of resting, I did things around the house. Mom kept telling me to sit down, but there was a nervous energy buzzing through my veins. Vacuuming and dusting helped me release some of the tension even if Mom did keep giving me the side-eye.

A bad feeling had crept back into my gut. After a couple of days of respite, I was once again waiting for something awful to happen.

I’d told Mom my theories about the bag, but she’d told me to focus on Laney. “I’ll ask around,” Mom said. “You don’t worry about this.”

“But it was my shop, Mom,” I protested.

“Let your Coven handle this. It’s our job,” she said.

Since I didn’t have to worry about the black magic bag someone had broken into my store to leave me, I focused on food. It had been Thorn’s first day back at work, and I made him a feast.

Pasta was always a good choice, but I wanted to elevate it beyond cooked noodles drenched in sauce. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely doused ziti noodles, but I put them into a baking dish. I added double concentrated tomato paste to deepen the flavor, and three generous dollops of cream cheese. Next was demi-glace and some grated parmesan cheese. Before it went into the oven, I crumbled some mild Italian sausage on top.

Once the pasta was done baking, I pulled the dish out of the oven and stirred in more parmesan cheese and some garlic and herb grass-fed butter.

For more flavor, you could add crumbled herb cheese and red pepper flakes, but I did not put those on the entire dish. Instead, I’d let Thorn, and my mom if she stayed for dinner, choose their toppings.

While the pasta was baking, I’d sliced up a loaf of Italian bread and brushed each slice with melted butter. While the entrée cooled a bit on top of the stove, I sprinkled the bread with garlic and salt before popping it in the oven for a few minutes.

My timing was perfect because Thorn walked through the front door just as I was pulling the bread out. “Dinner’s ready,” I called out.

“Smells delicious, sweetie, but I need to go,” Mom called back.

“What? I made plenty,” I said as I put the baking pan on the top of the oven next to the pasta.

I hurried into the living room. Mom had handed Laney over to Thorn. She was slipping her shoes on and grabbing her purse as Thorn rocked the baby.

“Mom, are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I just need to go check on Lilith,” she said.

“Lilith? What’s wrong with Auntie Lilith?” My pulse kicked up.

Was this the bad thing I’d been waiting for since the break-in at the shop? Mom saying she needed to check in on Lilith caught me off guard. In my entire life, Lilith had never needed anyone to check in on her.

I swallowed a lump in my throat at the realization that the anti-aging spells over us might really be wearing off. Lilith and the Aunties were all closer to a hundred than most of the general population ever saw.

“She’s just a little confused,” Mom said. “She’s tired, sweetie. And she thinks someone has been hanging around outside of her house. I’m just going to go check it out.”

“Thorn, should you go with her?” I asked. “If someone…”

Mom cut me off. “Thorn’s been over there, sweetie. There’s nothing for the police to do. I’m going to go sit with her for a while.”

“Still, you shouldn’t go alone,” I said. “Even if she is just imagining it. Is that what you’re saying? What if she’s not? What if something is watching her, but it’s not a person?”

“Your dad is meeting me there, sweetie. Please don’t worry,” Mom said. “We’re going to have dinner with her and make sure she’s fine.”

I let my mom leave after that. I didn’t want her to keep Dad and Lilith waiting, but I had so many questions. Aunt Lilith had visited me in the hospital and come to see me after. She’d seemed fine. It was hard to fathom her going through such a steep decline so fast.

But what Mom was talking about sounded like dementia. I shook my head because there was no way. There was no way Lilith had gone from being… Lilith… to a terrified and confused old woman in less than two weeks.

Something was wrong.

“Whatever that is, it smells incredible,” Thorn said. “I’m starving.”

“Oh, right,” I said. “I made us a special dinner. I think you’re going to like it. Let me take Laney, and you go get changed.”

“Thank you,” Thorn said. “I’ll be right back.”

He handed Laney over to me and ran up the stairs. I hadn’t packed him a lunch because he always got up before me, and I wondered if he’d eaten at all to day. If he and Jeremy were buried in a mountain of paperwork, he probably hadn’t taken the time.

Laney began to fuss a little, so I took her over to the changing station and got her settled into a fresh diaper and pajamas. Thorn came down the steps just as I was picking her up again.

“Does she need to eat?” he asked. “I can feed her.”

“She’s already nodded off again,” I said. “Why don’t we eat, and I’m sure she’ll be ready for a bottle after dinner.”

He thought about it for a second. I knew Thorn was probably starving, but it hit me that he probably missed Laney. It was his first day back at work, and he hadn’t seen her all day.

“I was going to put her down in the bassinet while we ate, but I’ll put her in the bouncer on the