"Willow's Missing Tail" 14

“Martha…Are you reading this?” Perfidia’s voice was low and vibrating with anger.

“I’m right next you Perfidia and yes, I am,” Martha responded in a dark tone.

“He knew everything about us…how?” Perfidia asked shaking her head.

“It’s a mystery,” Martha agreed.

Daphne picked up the teapot. “Maybe some more of your calming tea will help,” she said refilling their cups.

“Only if I can pour the contents on his head,” Perfidia stated with glittering eyes of vengeance.

“I think that’s an excellent idea.” Daphne gave her cousin a conspiratorial smile.

Martha was more concered with the how he'd gained the information. “I won’t say I’m not considering some form of just deserts for Avery, but I’m more interested in learning his source."

“I’d like to know that too; it has to be someone close to us. He couldn’t have gotten all this from Miriam.” Perfidia's eyes reflected concern as she flipped through the pages of her file.

“You're right, Miriam wouldn’t have had this in-depth knowledge,” Martha agreed.

“And who’d know Willow had a sibling?” Perfidia asked with narrowwed eyes, "Avery implied it was Daphne, but look...here it is Martha in your file. Avery already knew about it when he did those havocs on us last summer.”

“Yes, and how had he found out you were working on a camouflage potion? I see that information was a recent entry in your file.”

Perfidia frowned. “I know, and I can't imagine how anyone would know that...unless…do you think it could have been those nosy birds spying on me?”

“Yes, those feathered spies of Avery’s are everywhere!” Daphne protested.

“Wait a minute…take a look at this Martha,” Perfidia spun her file around and tapped on a specific line.

Martha read the line and looked up Perfidia with disbelief. “Is that what I think?”

“Yes, it's the protection spell I used on my store’s entry door.”

“But isn’t it your own composition?”

“It is; I've never written it down.”

“Then how would anyone know it, unless you told it to someone?”

“No, of course I didn’t...but if there was one of Avery's spy birds hanging around when I'd placed it on the door; they might have heard me say it.”

“That's a possibilty,” Martha nodded.

“And did you have this file on me Daphne, when you entered my store?” Perfidia questioned her cousin.

“Yes,'; I;d already stolen the files form Avery and I ahve to admit, knowing that spell made it easy for me to access your store. But I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb all your stuff; I just wanted a way to ruin Avery’s business…and his life.”

Martha closed her file folder and looked at Daphne. “If we help you find Avery…what are you planning to do to him?”

“Exact revenge…get back my business…and exact revenge,” she said it twice because she really wanted revenge; she wanted to see him squirm.

 

Willow was lounging on the floor next to her human when she felt a shift in the atmosphere. The dibling cat was back. Willow stretched out her paws, extending her claws as she turned her head.

The black cat, Thistle, had slithered into the room and was staring at Willow.

Chaos and Ram stepped over to Willow to combine forces, if needed.

Martha noticed the other black cat and its look of intent aimed at Willow. “Stop your cat from magicking Willlow,” she told Daphne.

“My cat? Oh no, that cat belongs to one; I doubt it ever will. It only does what it wants even after you’ve paid it up front with room and board,” she grumbled, “ANd it eats more food than a cat that small should eat.”

Perfidia slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a gold chain with a talisman of an owl on it; she'd intended it for Chaos as a gift but Willow needed it more. She dropped the chain over Willow’s head; it fit perfectly around the cat’s neck, like a collar, and the eyes of the owl charm glowed with a protective green light.

Thistle gave a low annoyed, meow and sat down but her eyes remained on her sibling.

“Thank you Perfidia,” Martha nodded, “I’m sure Willow appreciates your gesture too.”

Willow did appreciate the added protection but she was sure she could defeat her sibling if and when the time came for a showdown. She didn’t want one but it felt inevitable that a showdown would occur.

“Okay, now that the cat fight is neutralized can we get back to planning how we trap Avery and make him give me back everything he’s stolen?” Daphne asked, nervously tapping her long, purple fingernails on the table.

“He said he’d send us his new location; we’ll have to wait for that,” Martha told her in a reasonable tone.

“Wait? I can’t wait; I’ve waited too long as it is;”  Daphne whined.

Perfidia remembered her cousin’s impatience and she wasn’t in the mood for it.

“Settle in Daphne; you’re not getting revenge tonight, and I still have more questions for you.”

“Such as?”

“Where did you find Willow’s sibling? I didn’t see a location mentioned in either of these files Avery had on us,” Perfidia asked.

“No, there wasn’t a location noted in the files but since it noted there was a twin sibling to Willow, I knew Avery had to have found a clue to where she was or he’d found the cat. So I had Sahara, my parrot, look for a feline matching Willow’s description all over Avery’s property and sure enough…she was there.”

“Avery had her?” Martha asked, astonished at the implication.

“Yes, he did.”

Martha’s eyes darkened and she turned to look at the Thistle.

The cat met her gaze and in that exchange, Martha understood the cat didn't want to be a threat to Willow; it wasn't her decision. It was the nature of sibling familiars to test each other's strengths; it was in the book Perfidia now had in the chapter on power struggles between twin familiars. Martha intended to read that chapter carefully.

“I don’t understand Martha, what good is that cat Thistel to him if she isn’t his familiar. How could or would she help him?” Perfidia asked, also staring at the sibling cat.

“We'd have to ask Avery about that, but I think the cat might have been another card he could have play on us; if he’d needed to. I’m not sure what form of havoc since its obvious Thistle, like Willow, has a will of her own. She wouldn't do anything she didn’t want to.” Martha surmised and saw Thistle had understood her, and agreed.

“Avery can be very persuasive…I'd bet, even to a cat,” Daphne sighed, frustrated at how he'd fooled her. “When I think how gullible I was; I still don’t understand it.”

Martha studied the two cats eyeing each other with caution. “That may be true of your dealings with Avery, but Thistle might not have had her own reasons for going along with Avery, and you.”

Thistle’s ears turned at the conversation and she gave each human a look of consideration.

It was true she had her own reasons. The human, Avery, had found her trapped in a spell-locked cage on a dilapidated, abandoned, familiar ranch with ten other felines. Even though Thistle and Willow had been born into a warm, loving home,when they were old enough, they were placed in the care of familiar trainers who were to help them find their purpose and their human.

Willow had found her purpose in Martha and once Willow left, Thistle became lonely. She’d tried to bond with humans but she couldn’t. After a year, she feared she’d never find her place or purpose and then she was taken from that comfortable training facility to that awful ranch and left there, forgotten, until the human Avery found her and opened the cage. He’d restored her freedom and gave her sustenance; she was thankful to him for both. Then that red-haired human showed up to take her away from Avery’s warm home and generosity. Thistle wouldn’t have gone with her except she’d heard the red-haired human talk about Willow, that was why she’d changed her mind. She wanted to see Willow again. She didn’t understand the need to best her sibling once she saw her and she wanted to contain the need but it had taken hold of her, and it was growing stronger.

Willow had felt the call to usurp her sibling’s power too but being the sophisticated, self-aware feline she was, she was more adept at ignoring things that displesed her.

*

Avery found the perfect spot for his vanishing home and business, nestled back in the deep forest of Perfidia’s open lands. He knew from here he could keep an eye on Daphne and she'd never find him.

His frown deepened just thinking aboout her and his gullibility. What had he been thinking of, partnering with her? He'd felt, right from their introduction, she couldn’t be trusted. But he'd ignored that premonition in light of the attraction between them that he'd thought mutual; it proved to be only one-sided and foolish, but he would not dwell on what had been. He was in the battle now and needed to get a message to Martha.

He took a business card from his desk drawer and called one of his exceptional, field representatives to his office.

The green and orange feathered bunting flew into the open window and landed on Avery’s desk.

“Find Martha Kendalite and deliver this card.”

The bird twittered agreeably, took the card in its beak and flew back out the open window.

*

“We aren’t going to settle this tonight; as I said, we have to wait for Avery to make contact,” Martha reiterated to an impatient Daphne..

“Fine; I'll wait,” Daphne sighed dramatically then turned to Perfidia, “So, do you want me to leave?”

“No need; I've enough bedrooms and you’re welcome to stay…so long as you don’t create any disturbance in my home.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Daphne said with as innocent an expresison as she could msuter.

“Right, so it wasn’t you who let loose all those grasshoppers in my bedroom when we stayed that summer at the beach house with our parents?”

Daphne laughed. “Perfidia we were ten and it was just a childish prank…but it was fun watching you try to catch them everynight.”

“It was not, and there was one I never could find; it chirped merrily all summer long and drove me crazy.”

“I know,” Daphne giggled but at Perfidia’s dark look she relented, “Okay, I’m sorry for that too…so can I stay?”

“Sure, you can have the bedroom upstairs, across from mine.”

“So you can keep an eye on me?”

“Something like that,” Perfidia said with a cryptic smile. It had been nearly two decades since they’d seen each other and she didn’t know her cousin as well as she used to, but she had a feeling the prankster side of her personality hadn't gone away.

 

Martha was given the same first floor bedroom she’d used the last time she’d stayed at Perfidia’s, during the summer solstice festival. She walked into the room was happy to see the garden was still blooming. She stepped over to the glass door that led out to the garden and saw Willow under the delphiniums. Ram and Chaos had been given two cat sized feather beds in the kitchen, both provided by Willow but she wondered where Thistle had settled for the night. Then she saw the black tail of cat creeping through the delphiniums and she opened the glass door watching the cat creep up on Willow, and she was ready to intervene if needed.

Thistle slunk over to Willow but stopped a foot away; the protective owl glowing a steady green from around WIllow's neck..

Willow opened her eyes and nodded to her sibling.

Thistle settled down under the delphiniums close to Willow, a tiny, cat smile of contnement was on her feline face as she closed her eyes in slumber.

 

Martha smiled at their tentative bonding; the two cats still had to settle the competitive drive within them but she had a feeling they would find a way. She turned to go back into the room when a small, yellow and green bird landed on her shoulder.

“And who are you?’ she asked but seeing the business card in the bird’s beak, added, “Is that for me?”

The bird nodded its little feathered head and dropped the card into Martha’s open palm before it flew away.

 

Martha looked at the blank calling card knowing it was from Avery, but how had he known she was here at Perfidia’s?

Martha stepped back into the bedroom and looked at the card in her hand. “Okay Avery; where are you?” she asked it, then turned the card over twice and watched the message appear.

It wasn’t what Martha expected; it wasn’t an address, it was a request.

Martha,

Please don’t tell anyone I’ve contacted you; I need you to meet me at the Heaven’s Brew tomorrow morning at 10:00, and please come alone.

Avery