Suddenly Sorceress by Erica Lucke Dean Read Free Book Online

kitty?”
    The cat growled and went straight back to tearing at the floor. His claws dug in deep, lifting both the carpet and the pad, exposing the subfloor. With both out of the way, I clearly saw a pool of water seeping out from under the door.
    “Oh, no!” I tossed the clothes onto the bed and darted to Karma, who calmly peered up at me. With a deep breath, I gripped the towel wrapped around me. “This is bad. Did you do this?” I felt ridiculous even asking. He rubbed against my bare leg and purred.
    Defying my better judgment, I opened the door. Instead of searching for the little black skunk, my eyes fixated on the overflowing toilet. Inside the bowl, packed down as if Matt had been turned into a beaver, was one of my good bath towels. It blocked the water from going down, and the toilet had been flushed—repeatedly, if the water level was any indication.
    “Damn it!” I yanked open the door and ran to the toilet, dropping my towel on the way, and pulled the drenched linens from the bowl. “How the hell did he—” I stopped and realized I’d forgotten to look for Matt. Even as a skunk, he’d manipulated me. The stinker.
    Letting loose a string of obscenities, I splashed back into the bedroom. I would kill him. Skunk or no skunk, spray or no spray, if I could get my hands around his furry little neck, I would definitely wring it. I knew that after plotting such an elaborate ruse, he must have ventured farther than the bedroom. I’d stepped halfway into the hallway when I saw Matt, still in skunk form, at the edge of the stairs, poised to spray my cat.
    “Don’t. You. Dare!” I said through clenched teeth as I pointed at him. Waves of anger rose and flowed like a tangible force, surging down my arm and through my outstretched finger like ripples in a campfire. An explosion of heat—hot and bubbly—radiated from me. The moment felt right, somehow. Almost liberating. I closed my eyes, and blue light flickered behind my lids, mesmerizing me. I guess I sort of blanked out again because the next thing I knew, the skunk had vanished and in its place, reared up on his hind legs and wiggling his nose in my direction, was a huge gray rat. “Karma, no!”
    The cat pounced, capturing my former fiancé in his razor-sharp teeth, and bounded straight down the stairs.

 
    Five
    K arma playing Tom to Matt’s Jerry happened so fast I didn’t have time to react. It didn’t help that my unexplainable sexual frustration had reasserted itself, further distracting me. With no time to worry about the fact that I was completely naked, I simply bolted down the stairs in a blind panic. I couldn’t allow my cat to eat my estranged fiancé. How would I ever look at Karma in the same way again? Cats are supposed to eat rats, aren’t they? I mean, traditionally they were raised for the express purpose of hunting rodents, right? Karma would gain immediate street cred for ridding the house of such vermin. Then again, no one would have forgiven Wilbur if he’d eaten Templeton.
    “Karma! Put Matt down. Bad kitty. Bad! Kitty!” I screamed frantically. “I’ll open a can of tuna. No, wait, sardines. I’ll—I’ll grill you some salmon! I’ll even watch your back while you crap in Mrs. Camp’s rose garden! Here, kitty, kitty?”
    The cat cut through the dining room and ran under the table where I couldn’t follow. I winced at each squeal coming from the rat as I tried to reach them. I managed to topple over two chairs before Karma darted out and cut through the butler’s pantry. Swiping at his tail, I almost had him when he jumped onto the counter. I grasped at nothing but loose fur as he escaped, a muffled growl in the back of his throat. Rounding the marble-topped island, he headed straight for his bowl as if he planned to place his meal in his dish to eat.
    I cornered him in the kitchen. He released Matt to lick his chops. Then, holding the rat between his two front paws and gripping him with his claws, he hovered over