Eugenia

Three weeks later, Jeremy and I had been on eight dates, and it was becoming clear to me that this relationship had the potential to be something special.

It turned out he'd been serious when he asked about Speculative Rock. For our second date, he took me to see the Natural Angels in concert.

I was humming to myself when I opened the store one Monday after we'd gone to a county fair both days of the weekend.

"I need to ask you a question," Celesta said, pulling me from my happy mood.

I stopped wiping down the counter and looked at the ghost who sat on the windowsill. Today she was dressed a like a 1960s hippie.

"What is it?"

She motioned to the worktable. I saw the spell book. I know it hadn't been there before so she must have used magic to get it here.

"I need you to show me the potion recipe you used," my great-grandmother said. "I've been thinking a lot about what happened with the mice."

"Why?"

"What about it?" My heart thudded in my chest. "Did I put it in the eclairs by accident? Is it going to make Jeremy crazy?"

"Just show me."

I opened the book to the potion recipe but something wasn't right. When I'd seen it before, there had been a lot more ingredients. Panic rising in my chest, I flipped through some of the pages until I found the list I'd seen before.

Celesta watched me then nodded. "The fan must have blown the pages while you were with Amethyst. You mixed two recipes together."

All the blood drained from my head, or at least it felt like that. "What did I do?"

She waved a ghostly hand over the page. "If you mixed these things together the ingredients for the lure potion before you got to hummingbird dreams, you probably created a love potion."

I dropped to the stool. "A love potion? I thought those things didn't really exist."

Celesta shrugged. "It isn't truly a love potion. It will create a feeling of goodwill and fondness for whoever hands it to the recipient. Love sometimes follows, but not always."

"So..." I swallowed. "If Jeremy ate an eclair that I handed him that had this potion in it, he would think he cares about me."

She nodded.

"But it won't last."

"I didn't say that," she said. "I said it could turn into something real."

"Or it might fade." I dropped my head to my hands. "This is why I should stay away from magic. What am I going to do?"

#

Jeremy came to get me on Tuesday for what was becoming our traditional pizza and bad sci-fi movie night, and my heart sank when I saw his car. The wonderful time we'd been having together was all the result of magic, and he probably wouldn't feel anything toward me in another week or so.

How could I break up with him without telling him the truth? What would he say when he found out that my great grandmother was a Fairy ghost who introduced me to a potion I screwed up and possibly harmed him in some way?

I mean, who knows what long term medical problems he might have after taking a messed up potion.

Never would I mess with magic again. I was done. I would be as human as he was.

When I opened my apartment door in answer to his knock, I guess I'd been worrying about what I would say too much. It all spilled out of me.

"I don't think we should see each other anymore," I blurted.

"What?" he said, blinking. I saw then that he was carrying flowers.

I swallowed and continued. "You don't really have feelings for me. My great-grandmother is a Fairy ghost, and--

"I know."

"--she gave me a recipe for a spell to get rid of mice, but...what did you say?"

"I know about Celesta."

Now I blinked at him. "You do? How?"

"I can see her." He smiled. "I didn't know her name until I talked to my uncle Hugo. He apparently knew her when he was a child."

"Wait. How does your uncle know my grandmother?"

"My uncle is half-Fairy on his father's side, and apparently his brother dated Celeste's niece, Amber."

Suddenly, my great-grandmother appeared. "Amber was my great niece, my brother's granddaughter. You must be Bryn's son."

Jeremy smiled at her, and it freaked me out a little, seeing someone pay attention to Celeste. "I am. It's a pleasure to meet you formally."

Celeste smiled so brightly I had to wonder how she would react if she were still alive. "So, if you're Bryn's son then you must be..."

Her voice trailed off, and I thought I saw a touch of fear in her eyes.

"Yes, ma'am," Jeremy said. "I'm a Were. A werecat, actually."

"Wait a minute," I said, my head reeling with everything I was hearing. "You're a Were and party Fairy?"

"Yep."

Longing surged in me. If things worked out with me and Jeremy, I could visit the Fairy Realm again. I hadn't realized how badly I wanted that. Maybe I shouldn't tell Jeremy the truth. One little lie of omission, and I could have everything I ever wanted.

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. Look. What you think you feel for me isn't real. I made a lure potion but I messed it up and it turned into a temporary love spell. In another week or so, you will think I'm as big a freak as you did before."

He started laughing. "I'm not magicked, Genie."

"The potion was put into the eclairs," I said.

"Which I buy for the people at the nursing home my uncle lives in. They're all supernaturals of some kind. Every week when I go to visit him, I take a dozen eclairs. He told me this shop had the best pastries in town, and I had to buy them here or no where else."

"Oh, Hugo was always such a nice boy." Celesta sighed.

Jeremy ignored her. "I knew something was different about that one batch. All these older men and women became more affectionate to one another, and while it was sweet, it that made me realize I've been letting my work get in the way of a love life. I didn't want to wait until I have to use a walker or wheelchair to come to your door."

"Are they all right?" I asked. "The people at the nursing home? The mice attacked one another."

Again, Jeremy laughed. "The people at the nursing home are all fine. Possibly a few of them are a bit chagrinned at their immodest behavior, but there are no ill side effects. In fact, there a couple of romances brewing. It'as actually quite cute.

"Oh, and I've taken your mouse problem into my own hands. I am part cat, after all."

Then he took me in his arms. "So, what do you say? Pizza and Sleepwalkers tonight? It's about werecats. I thought it might be a way to introduce you to what I am."

"Cool," I said, still amazed that out of all the men in Elijah Creek, I meet a part Fairy werecat. That had to be a one in a million kind of thing.

Was it possible the Fairies were watching over me after all?