The Cat Jumped Over The Moon: The Witches Of Castle Falls, #2

By Phaedra Weldon

The Ghost Watchers are in town for Castle Falls' annual Halloween Festival. But not everyone is happy they've arrived, especially when one of them is murdered. Ginger Blackstone must solve the murder before her ex-boyfriend, the show's researcher and medium is arrested and a long-buried homicide in Castle Falls remains unsolved, forever. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Caldwell Press
• Release date: Jun 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386760153

Book preview

The Cat Jumped Over The Moon

The Cat Jumped Over The Moon

Witches of Castle Falls, Book 2

Phaedra Weldon

Caldwell Press

Dedication

For all the Mama D’s in my incredible family…

Summary

The Ghost Watchers are in town for Castle Falls’ annual Halloween Festival, bringing with them unwanted exposure for the small town of unconventional conventionals. Especially when one of their crew turns up dead.

The TV show’s leading researcher, Ginger’s former boyfriend, is the main suspect. Will Ginger’s need to prove his innocence put her and those she loves in mortal jeopardy?

ONE

Imade a face at the catastrophe that, up until a few seconds ago, had been a small, potted, well-maintained English ivy. Mama D had kept the plant for years. It thrived in a plastic hanging pot by the front door. I remember thinking when I was younger, that it lived off air because I’d never seen her water it.

Ginger!

My shoulders came up to my ears as I winced at the tone in Mama D’s voice. Max, my new cat familiar, jumped off the counter and scurried out of the room, successfully throwing me under the bus.

Traitor.

I slowly pivoted and met the unctuous stare of my grandmother in the doorway of the shop. Hi. I waved. It was a small wave.

But she wasn’t looking at me. No…she was looking at the mess behind me. I stepped out of her way as her cane tapped harshly on the dark tile.

She pursed her lips as she examined it and then looked at me. "Care to explain what you were trying to do?"

Well, I, uh… I felt nine again, back when I used to explain all weird things that happened around me. I stopped myself from shuffling my feet and straightened my shoulders. Max and I were practicing. You know, working together. After all, he’s my familiar now. He amplifies my power, and so you can see I wasn’t really prepared for what was going to come out so I didn’t really know how to pull back when it—

Got away from you? Mama D was still looking at me. Sideways.

I put my hands behind my back. Yeah.

She looked back at what was no longer the front of her shop with two windows and a door with a simple hanging English ivy. Gone were the windows, and the door, hopefully still behind the wall of thick, rustling ivy as it covered everything from corner to corner and floor to ceiling.

Where are my windows?

Hopefully with the door. I swallowed. Behind the ivy.

You haven’t told it to stop, Ginger. That’s how I knew what you were doing. It’s moving under the door and creeping up the side of the house.

Oh my stars! I held brought my hands out in front of me, closed my eyes and immediately connected with the plant. Connecting was the easy part. Controlling—that was a broom of a different wood. I told it mentally to stop. But I could still hear it. I screamed at it in my head, but it was still moving.

Ginger, just yell at it.

"I am yelling at it." I opened my eyes but held my hands out.

She shook her head and held out her own arms. Like this. Then she turned and took in a deep breath. "Stop growing, you stupid plant!"

I felt the plant stop. It wasn’t so much like the squealing of brakes on a car, but like the crack of distant thunder. And…I had an instant headache. I put my fingers to my temple.

Sorry, Mama D said as she lowered her hands. I forgot you were still connected. But you felt that?

Yeah. I think you cracked one of my teeth.

"That’s the power you have to command. Plants communicate by feelings. Emotions. And sound. Emotion can be carried through sound."

You mean like how music can make a plant grow?

She held up a finger but continued facing the wall of ivy. It was a lot darker in the room, although it was midmorning, October the sixteenth. Or it can destroy it.

You mean the old experiment with classical music versus rock and roll?

Precisely. And remember, as a Hedge Witch, you can connect to the plant on a level a regular cowen can’t. You don’t need to shout at it. You can still deliver the same intent and emotion with thoughts. You just need practice. Just—she looked back at me—not in my shop? With that, she held out her arms, her cane clutched in her right hand, her eyes closed.

My jaw dropped when the vines started folding in on either side, quickly and neatly revealing the two windows. The openings formed perfect rectangles that settled and stilled along the borders. Then Mama D lowered her left arm and held the cane out in front of her. The vines did the same thing, revealing the door. But instead of revealing just the door, it cleared itself away from the space above the door as well, revealing Mama D’s favorite plaque.

It read, There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. William Shakespeare.

She was about to say something when the door opened. Mama D and I stepped back as Dr. David Flanagan stepped through. He was my boyfriend and a vampire. And yes, vampires can be out in the sunlight. Well…vampires like David, that is.

He was dressed in nice pants, leather shoes, a white shirt and sports jacket, and stopped just inside. He looked from me to Mama D and then back to me. What? Did I do something wrong?

No. I blinked and waved at him to come to me. We hugged. I loved hugging him. He was warm and strong and tall and… Sigh. Gorgeous. He also had a musky smell that I found intoxicating. I assumed it was part of his also being a shapeshifter. It’s good to see you—but shouldn’t you be at work?

Hello, David, Mama D said as she shut the door and then ambled to the counter as she continued in a deeper tone, imitating David’s voice, Hi, Mama Donahue, how are you? You look good today.

David turned red as he left me to put a hand on Mama D’s arm. She turned and hugged him. I’m sorry. I forgot the rules. I greet you first, then my girlfriend.

Age before beauty, Mama D said as she patted his arm. But Ginger’s right—it’s ten thirty on a Wednesday. Didn’t you two just see each other last night?

Yes, ma’am, we did. David stepped back to me and kissed my forehead. I came by to tell Ginger I’ll have to break our lunch date.

I looked up at him and gave him a boo-boo lip. I mean, yeah, I was disappointed, but he was a doctor, so I understood. Busy?

Yeah. Dr. Helena’s in Westminster helping them out, and she won’t be back till this afternoon. So I’m assisting Dr. Munch with two autopsies.

It amazes me that a general practitioner works with the dead, Mama D said as she moved stuff around on her counter. Wait…you’re a vampire. No it doesn’t.

I smirked at her and noticed David was staring at the wall of ivy.

He pointed at it. That’s new.

A gift from your girlfriend, a.k.a. overpowered Hedge Witch. Mama D shook her head. The windows and door are my handiwork.

David’s gaze lingered on the ivy before he tore it away and looked at me. You made it grow like that?

Not on purpose. I crossed my arms over my chest. Max and I were practicing. Together. I looked at the two of them and realized they both wore the same expression. We’ll get it under control. I promise.

Mmhm, Mama D said before she opened the register and started her morning money check. Most businesses put their cash in vaults or safes overnight to protect it against thieves. Not Mama D. She kept it in an old register, circa the Stone Age. The thing seemed to like my grandmother, and preferred opening up just for her in the morning.

It hated me. Literally refused to open.

I took David’s hand to bring focus back to him skipping our lunch date. And to me and not the ivy or my lack of magical control. He looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes, and I realized I could forgive him anything. Will I see you tonight?

It’ll be late. And if something happens, I’ll let you know. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips.

The bell of the door jingled and then, Ew. Stop. Not in a place of business.

I knew the voice. I’d lived with its owner all my life.

Melody Blackstone. My older sister and owner of Past & Future Times Antiques in our little town of Castle Falls. Just last month she’d lost her business partner, Carmine, to a murderer trying to find The Book of Ill Deeds. That’s a book created by a witch and used by the Hunters to discover, find and catch those supernaturals who commit acts of evil. They’d somehow lost it and it ended up in Castle Falls. Three people lost their lives to that book, and the murderer’s name was in the book. Of course, he’d been arrested and incarcerated in the cowen justice system. And the book was never recovered.

That was because I was the only one who knew where it was. And I wasn’t telling anybody. Not even David.

That same murderer had kidnapped Melody and held her in his family’s decaying mansion on the edge of town. He’d threatened Melody’s familiar, Twinkle, which kept her under his thumb. He’d believed Melody knew where the book was. Once I figured out where Melody might be, as well as our killer, I’d sent David out to the mansion to rescue her. He’d told me later he’d really only rescued the cat. Melody could take care of herself.

I’d figured since then Melody would like David. You know, warm up to him. After all, she was an animal lover, and David was a shifter as well as a vampire. His wolf form was sooo adorable. Big. But adorable.

But David had noticed, as well as I, that as September turned into October, the chill in the air wasn’t entirely the weather. As David and I saw more of each other, Melody’s tolerance of him had all but disappeared. It wasn’t as if she were overtly rude—

Well… Yeah, she was.

She’d demanded he leave Mama D’s house one night when she’d come over for dinner and found David there. David had been the one who cooked for everywhere. Melody abruptly had an excuse to leave after our granny read her the riot act about the house belonging to her and she could have whomever she wanted stay in it.

I hadn’t seen much of her since that night. I didn’t visit the antique store that often—I didn’t actually have a house to decorate with furniture, since I was mooching off Mama D for the time being. Until I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.

I could feel David tense next to me as he turned and faced Melody.

One thing about my sister—she was a Stevie Nicks fan. No. Scratch that. Fiend. The woman ate, drank and breathed anything related to the singer/songwriter. She even dressed like Miss Nicks. Which worked for Melody because she had that long face, large brown eyes and perfect lip shape. Not to mention her red hair wasn’t as fiery or brassy as mine. So she kept it bleached, or dyed, or something, just the right color. Melody dressed in flowy clothing, lots of jewelry and boots all summer long.

And if you