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“We’d better get to the aquarium,” he said with a sigh.
“The vampires will be going nuts,” I agreed. They’d be wondering where we were since we hadn’t even told them we were stopping for food, let alone other things.
I didn’t know how right I was, but I was wrong about the reason. When we walked into the aquarium, there were sharks floating around in midair, and patrons screaming and running, except this one green guy, who leaned against one of the dividers and tossed popcorn in his mouth. He was watching the sharks wide-eyed and saying, “Dude, whoa . . .”
I was surprised I could hear him over the shouting. “Is he the Jolly Green Giant?” I asked Hudson, pointing at the popcorn man.
“No,” Hudson said distractedly, “that’s just JJ. He’s probably stoned.”
“He’s got cool dreads.” I could have smacked myself. I wasn’t being very helpful. I didn’t know what I could do.
Ravens were flying around, landing on people’s heads and pecking at them.
“The stingrays are gone . . .” Hudson said. “Oh shit, they’ve turned into ravens again.” He stepped forward, looking determined.
“Do we need to find Tripp?”
“Yeah,” he said and froze. A penguin marched up to him and started barking orders like a drill sergeant. We gaped at the creature.
Looking around, I saw all the penguins were out of their enclosure and marching around yelling at everyone.
“This has to be some kind of spell gone wrong,” I said, reaching for my medallion. “If I take off my necklace, will it all go back to normal?”
Hudson turned to me. “Or it might make it worse with sea life still stuck outside their tanks, but without the magic keeping them from suffocating in the air.”
My hand flew to my chest. “Oh, you’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Stay here,” he said, pointing to the wall next to the Jolly Green Giant. “I’m going to find the others.”
“Okay,” I said. I felt useless, as usual. I wondered if I should call Phoebe and ask her to come help. This seemed like a lot for one witch, even a powerful one like Tripp, and I didn’t know how much help the other guys would be. I pulled my phone out, ready to dial Phoebe, when two large guys grabbed my arms and started dragging me back toward the door. The phone slipped from my fingers.
“Let me go,” I yelled, but in the current chaos, I was sure no one noticed or cared. I tried to drop into dead weight as we’d learned in self-defense class. It didn’t even slow them down. They carried me out through the aquarium doors, pushing aside the fleeing patrons, and to a van waiting on the curb. They dumped me inside and slammed the door.
I jumped up and looked around for escape, but there weren’t any windows in this van, and the driver’s section was divided from my compartment by a cage.
“Help,” I yelled and banged on the door.
Hudson
It took us a while to get the aquarium back to normal. Even after Tripp dispersed the malignant spells, the animals had to be calmed down. That's what I did best because I spoke the language of the sea. I swam through the main tanks in my sea turtle form, sending peaceful vibes. Many of the animals had fled, but if the ones who remained said it was safe to return, they would come back.
As I did my thing, the two vampires worked to clear out all the patrons and shut the aquarium down for the day. Tripp had been able to dispel the smaller incidences and stay open but this was too massive. There were at least three different spells: the stingrays into ravens, the sharks able to swim through air, and the drill sergeant penguins. If it weren’t so dangerous for the animals and against all the rules of our magical town, it would have been funny.
It took us longer than I hoped, and then I redressed and headed over to where I’d left Delphine. She wasn’t there, but I hardly expected her to be. One of the others must have taken her to the cafe or even to their apartment. I knew Levi and Roman were all in on this mate thing, like I was, but I didn’t know about Tripp. He was a hard nut to crack. He’d barely even acknowledged my presence at the aquarium until I’d come up with the Adopt a Creature campaign.
Delphine wasn’t in the cafe, and the whole building seemed quiet and still without patrons. I picked up the discarded cups, napkins, and food as I went along. We’d have to do a thorough cleaning before we opened tomorrow . . . if we opened tomorrow. Was this just a sign that whomever our attacker was had escalated his attacks? Would this happen every day until we closed permanently?
I hoped not. Surely even a witch like this needed to rest. Tripp would need to rest after dispelling the resulting spells too. I tossed the last of the abandoned snacks in the trash and started wiping down the tables.
Levi ran up to me. “Where is she?”
I frowned. “Isn’t she with you? Or Roman?”
He shook his head.
“I left her over by the wall there,” I said pointing. “I’d come over here to look for her, but I figured one of you had taken her downstairs. Maybe she made her way on her own?”
“Roman’s checking downstairs,” he said. “And Tripp’s gone to his apartments. I’m sure he’ll let us know if she’s there.”
