I laughed uneasily. “Your gift. Well, not a gift. If this was a present, it would be the worst present ever.”
He gave me a funny look, but headed back up the porch, and held his front door open for me. I followed him inside, feeling confident until the door closed behind me, and I realized we were alone in pretty much the coziest cabin I had ever seen. This seemed like the kind of place you went to for a romantic getaway, not to deliver a man-rat to a potential love interest. It was also pleasantly warm inside with a cheery fire crackling away. But that was the only sound. A thick, hardback book rested in the seat of a recliner near the fire. Daniel had been reading.
I loved that. A man who liked to read. A rare commodity anymore. “I’m sorry to bother you.”
“No.” He took the trash can from me and motioned toward the couch. “You’ve made my night infinitely better by coming.” But then, he peered down into the can. “Um, what’s this?”
“That,” I said carefully, “is Cliff, Roger’s ex-business partner who has been missing for five years.” I plopped down on the couch and sighed, happy to be able to relax after such an exhausting day.
“Wh…” Daniel gave me a cockeyed glance. “What?”
“Set him down. He’s not climbing out of that. He almost chewed through the purse we had him in, so we had to find something he couldn’t get himself out of.”
Daniel nodded and put the can on the coffee table, then sat beside me. “Start at the beginning.”
“Okay, so we tracked the curse to a witch named Catrin who Roger had an affair with when he was married to Beth. I had to lean on Catrin a little, but in the end, I was able to get her to admit that she’d cursed Cliff.” I sighed and told the rest. “And when we went to the office to undo the spell, Cliff turned up. He, ah, he killed the witch, Catrin before we could even think about fighting back.”
A wave of sadness came over me. I’d help run a business for years. I wasn’t a soldier or a police officer. It wasn’t a part of my daily life to see people die. I didn’t think I’d ever forget watching that witch be attacked like that. It was sad, even if she had a responsibility in all of this.
“What did you do after that?” Daniel asked, his tone gentle.
He must have realized that it was a traumatic thing to see someone die, even if that someone used dark magic, cheated, and overall seemed to be a terrible person. I was glad I didn’t have to explain the way I felt to him.
I released a slow breath. “By the time he turned to attack Beth, I had time to gather my thoughts and my magic and…” I motioned to the trash can. “I unleashed Karma on him.”
“Karma?” He lifted a brow.
I nodded. “That’s who, or what, I am now, Daniel. That’s why I suddenly have powers. I’m Karma.”
His brows drew together, and he was quiet for a long minute before he said, “Okay.”
“Just okay?” I asked, studying him carefully.
I kind of expected him to be shocked. Or ask a lot of questions. His quiet acceptance of something I was still struggling to accept felt weird.
“Well,” he gave a small smile. “You kind of accepted the whole bear shifter thing pretty easily.”
I couldn’t help but return his smile. “Well, I’ve always kind of liked bears. And, somehow, the whole thing fits you. It feels like I can’t like you without…” I realized what I was saying but caught myself. “I can’t accept Daniel without accepting you’re a bear. So, I did.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, looking pleased. “So, you unleashed… karma on the guy.”
“Yup,” I gestured to the trash can. We both leaned forward and looked down at the brown tear-drop shaped creature. Its claws scraped against the bottom of the trash can as though it was trying to dig itself out, but there was no chance he was going to get through the metal. Every so often he’d stop as though he needed to catch his breath and his tiny nose and whiskers would twitch. The little rat would be almost cute if I didn’t know it was Cliff. “And that’s what he turned into.”
Daniel whistled through his teeth. “Well, at least he’s not the hulking beast anymore. I can’t tell you how many slaughtered animals I’ve come across in the last few days, how many families I’ve had to reassure. I wanted this thing caught as much as anyone. And then there’s the fact that Beth is safe, too. That all of you are safe.”
“Yeah, it’s the best ending we could have hoped for,” I muttered.
“What about the witch’s body?” He asked.
“I think the police decided to tell everyone that a mountain lion came out of nowhere and killed her. I don’t know if anyone will buy it but that’s the story we’re going with and would explain all the random animal deaths around town.”
He shook his head. “Good. Although the sheriff must have grown a liking to you, because he knows about all this supernatural stuff, but he doesn’t usually like to be involved in it.” He grimaced at the garbage can. “And I can take care of that.”
“Oh, I’m relieved. I hoped you’d be able to. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do if you didn’t know what to do with him.” I laid my head back on his couch and sighed.
“Hey, um, so I got a call from the sheriff,” Daniel said carefully.
“Oh? Tonight?” Lifting my head, I tried to be casual.
