~
Angelique couldn’t be sure she’d added the ingredients in the right order to garner the correct result, but she was over halfway through her spell, and she wasn’t about to stop now. What could possibly go wrong?
It wouldn’t be like the last time. She hoped.
She mixed and stirred, stirred and mixed, and sung a happy tune while she was doing it. Being happy within her work always made for a better class of spell.
Except for the times that it didn’t.
Angelique’s attention was caught by something that flitted in and out of view of the corner of her right eye. She didn’t immediately turn to look at it because that would give the game away — but there was definitely something there, hovering — she was certain of it.
She knew that the only thing that would be hovering around would be either a lost spirit or a fairy. She doubted that a fairy would be stupid enough to pay her a visit after the last time. And she’d lodged a complaint with the fairy godmother to boot.
“Leave, be gone,” Angelique commanded as she whipped her index finger to the right and pointed at — an aura.
Not just any aura, she was sure that she knew that aura, and this time she would deliver that kind of payback that meant it would never darken her door again.
“Now…” George materialized in his human form in front of her. Right at the moment that she aimed a magical thunderbolt at him, and zapped him with a jolt of electricity that made his teeth chatter.
“You!” Angelique growled like a she-wolf.
George groaned inwardly. He seemed to have done that a lot in the last couple of days, and he didn’t like it much.
His life up to that point had been about fun — getting zapped by a witch was not fun. Especially, if he had done nothing mischievous to warrant it in the first place.
“Ouch!” George shook off the magic and glared at the witch. “If you will let me apologize…”
“You’re here to apologize?” Angelique snorted her contempt at him.
Faeries didn’t apologize.
Faeries were diabolical.
Faeries were mischievous.
Faeries couldn’t be trusted as far as you could throw them, and she’d like to throw that one right out on his backside.
“Yes.” He snapped on a bright smile, and she didn’t buy it.
“Not accepted. Go away,” Angelique offered him a death glare as she leaned over her cauldron and eyed him with suspicion.
“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” George tried a different smile, one that always seemed to work on the females that he knew.
“Not harsh enough.” She offered another snort of contempt.
Obviously, the witch was too hardhearted to recognize a smile when she saw it. That might just make his job harder.
“I’m here to make amends,” George tried another smile. She definitely didn’t like that one; she sneered back at him.
“You can make amends by leaving,” Angelique pointed her index finger toward the door, just in case he didn’t know where it was.
“But…” He had one more smile in his arsenal; he unleashed it, — it was normally a smile that made women’s knees go weak.
Angelique pulled her head back on her neck, curled her top lip in disgust, and looked at him as if he just grown another head. Damn, witches were hard to please.
“What part of go away and don’t darken my door again don’t you understand?” Angelique demanded.
“I have a little problem with all of that.”
“As far as I’m aware — I don’t care. As for you-you are a problem,” Angelique slapped her hands onto her hips, cocked her head to one side, and glared at the fairy.
“Okay, let me rephrase and say we have a problem,” George offered back.
“There is no we,” Angelique was adamant.
“Trust me when I say — there is a we,” George offered back with all sincerity.
“Says who?” Angelique demanded.
“Says the fairy godmother,” George informed her and watched as the information sank into her brain, scrambled it a little, and she eyed him with a lot of suspicion.
“What does that mean?”
“Apparently you have somewhere to be,” George informed her.
He felt as if he had the upper hand now — but somehow, he didn’t think it worked like that.
“Yes, right here — doing this. Leave,” Angelique hissed.
“The fairy godmother wants me to help you.”
“To do what — exactly?” Angelique was more than suspicious — she was wary of the fairy that had caused her spell to go so horribly wrong before. Now the man had appeared just before she was about to create a new spell — she didn’t believe in coincidences.
“I can’t tell you, but you need to come with me,” George offered back as simply as he could.
“I wouldn’t go with you if my life depended on it — and if you can’t tell me where, then I definitely wouldn’t go anywhere with you,” Angelique rallied back.
“I’m sensing that you have a problem with trust.” George knew that his smiles didn’t work with her, but he smiled anyway.
“You’re a fairy,” she offered.
“I see your point.” He lifted his hand and tapped his index finger against his lips as he considered it. “I’m sensing you also have a problem with me.” He stated the obvious.
“Gee, I wonder why?” Angelique bit out; her tone was dripping with acid for the past wrongs than he’s done her.
“My bad,” George admitted he’d been wrong to mess with her spell, well, he didn’t actually admit it. “But, this is different…”
“It always is when a fairy wants something.” Angelique folded her arms and snorted her contempt for the man. She wasn’t about to help him.
“It’s not like that,” George offered back with a singsong tone.
“I’m sure it is,” she mirrored his tone.
“Could you please just put your suspicious witchy nature to one side for a moment and consider that I’m on the up and up?”
George folded his arms across his muscled chest and questioned her with a raised eyebrow. It worked for the fairy godmother; he kind of hoped it was going to work for him.
“No,” she snapped back.
“Well, that’s not helpful,” George snapped back.
“I’m sorry — I didn’t know that I was supposed to be helping you.” She lifted her arm and pointed to the door once more. “Let me help you out the door.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you agree to help me,” George offered back.
“So you do want help!”
“No.”
“You know I can hurt you, right?” Angelique warned him.
“You know I can counteract your magic, right?” George offered back.
He didn’t want to get in an all-out war with the witch. He just wanted to do his fairy godmother’s bidding, find her fated mate, put the two of them together, watch magic ensue, and be done with Christmas.
Then he could go back to being drunk, debauched, and all the things that the fairy godmother didn’t like about him.
“You know I can swat you like a fly, right?” Angelique tossed back.
“Not in this form, you can’t,” George smirked as he motioned down his human body.
Angelique called on her magic, whipped up the broom from the corner of the room, and shot it toward his head. George didn’t see it coming — and groaned as the hard, prickly twigs smacked him upside the head.
Then the broom cluttered to the floor as Angelique folded her arms, and offered him a big beaming victorious smile.
“Gotcha!” Angelique said.
“Oh, I’m really going to enjoy Christmas fairy-ing your backside,” George muttered.
“Huh?” Angelique cocked one eyebrow, questioning him with just a look. The man had muttered, but if she thought she’d heard him right — he’d said that he was the Christmas fairy.