Something Wicca This Way Comes Read Free Page A

healthy and in beautiful
shape.
    “ Can I pick you up?” She
asked, carefully sliding her hands lower to support his
surprisingly large figure. Feral cats often became nervous about
getting picked up, but the big grey fellow just leaned into her
arms and braced himself against her chest.
    Blinking dark sapphire eyes up at her, he
began a gravelly purr that delighted her.
    “ Such a sweet boy,” she
smiled. “Would you like to come home with me?”
    As if he understood and approved, the
purring grew louder. She only hoped that her waiting friends didn’t
mind.

 
A Circle of Thirteen
     
    By the time the girls reached Mary’s house,
they were once more in high spirits.
    The big gray tomcat showed no fear for being
enclosed in a moving vehicle. In fact, he almost made a nuisance
out of himself, exploring each of the bags that Beth had prepared
until she started to complain.
    “ He’s going to get cat
hair all over my spell ingredients,” she moaned. “Don’t blame me if
you end up growing whiskers on your chin or fur on your ears. You
can blame your silly love affair with all things
feline.”
    Liz decided that was a pretty good threat
and quickly pulled the cat up onto her lap.
    Mary came running out of the house the
moment they pulled into her driveway.
    "You're late," she complained as Beth and
Liz scooted over to make room for her on the back seat. "What took
you so long?"
    "Liz had to stop and pick up a stray cat,"
Judy replied with a smirk.
    "Only after you nearly hit him with your
car," Liz returned without any malice.
    If nothing else came of this evening, she
was glad that she'd found the feline. He was quite friendly and
responsive, for a cat. Whenever she spoke to him, he would look
right at her with those incredible blue eyes and blink or meow, as
if he were fascinated by what she had to say.
    "Typical Liz," Mary teased. "You better
hurry, Judy. The rest of the girls will be waiting for us."
    Sure enough, when they finally made it to
the meadow beyond the lumber mill, they were met by some very
anxious friends.
    "You're late!" Bev pointed out, and Judy was
again quick to blame it on Liz's need to rescue everything and
anything that purred.
    This time, Liz just made a face at the other
girl.
    "Do you think I should lock him in the
car?"
    "Heavens no!" Judy yelped in answer. "If he
makes a mess in there, my parents will never loan it to me again.
You'll just have to hold him."
    "Or you could just let him go," Bev
recommended. "I mean, he's only a stray, right?"
    Liz frowned.
    "Not anymore," she declared. "He belongs to
me now."
    The big tom offered one of his gravely
meows, as if to emphasis her claim.
    "And we all hope that you're very happy
together," Mary teased, "but I'm going to need something more than
a cat to warm my bed. So can we please get on with the ritual?"
    "Yes!" Beth eagerly agreed. "Everyone not
holding a cat, please help carry bags and start gathering wood for
the fire."
    As if sensing the excitement in the air, the
cat began to squirm, putting up such a fuss Liz was forced to let
him go. But instead of dashing away into the trees, as she’d
expected him to do, the feline stayed close to her side.
    “ There you go,” Bev
gestured towards the cat and then the car. “Now you have free hands
to help out.”
    It didn't take long before the girls had a
roaring bonfire built within a large pit in the center of the
meadow.
    Liz could see from the layers of ash in the
pit that the girls had done this many times before.
    What she hadn't expected was the enormous
cauldron that was unloaded from the trunk of Betty's car, along
with an old wooden chest that had strange symbols carved all over
its surface.
    "It's an altar," Beth explained when she saw
Liz studying it. "Each of us have a small personal one that we use
at home and store all of our tools in, but we use this larger one
for group rituals."
    "What sorts of tools?" Liz asked, imagining
Ouija boards and voodoo dolls. There was a lot that