Witch Doctor

CHAPTER 21 PART 1 | munchies

📎A/N. Hello my lovelies. We have seen the power of nature around the globe in the past week. Here in New Zealand a 7.8 earth quake hit the lower North Island and parts of the South Island, as well as a Tsunami. There has been flooding in Indonesia with nearly 20,000 people affected, and storms across the ditch in Queensland, Australia produced winds of up to 100 m.p.h. / 160 k.p.h and hailstones the size of golf balls... and all this occurred around the first super moon in 68 years. Coincidence? ... I'll let you be the judge of that ;-)

Thank you to all those to reached out this week to make sure I was okay after the news of the earthquake hit. I really do appreciate your concern and I was very touched.

I hope you enjoy the chapter, if you do, don't forget to vote. It's real easy... just click that little star.

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For once, Keira had no problem with Ryker's excessive speed. In fact, if he weren't already pushing the vehicle to its limits, she'd cast a spell to press the accelerator to the floor. The moment the tires rebelled at the sudden screech of brakes as they pulled into the station's car park, she was out of the door before it came to a full halt. She imagined the worst, and with Dayna not answering her calls, each scenario that played out was more horrifying than the previous.

Keira raced inside and called out to her sister. The moment she burst through the door Jessie Pearl looked up from her monitor and froze. A muesli bar hovered halfway to her mouth, as her other hand held a phone to her ear. Keira halted in her tracks and glanced around the nearly empty station. She didn't know what to expect, but a peaceful and quiet building wasn't it.

"I'll phone you back," said Jessie Pearl before placing the handset back onto its cradle. "Is everything all right?"

The door swung open, and Ryker materialized beside her. "I've checked the perimeter. Did you find them?"

Keira shook her head and turned to Jessie Pearl. "Where's my sister and Ananya?"

The dispatcher indicated towards Ryker's office. 'They haven't come out since you left."

"Is everything okay here? Where's Jobson?" Ryker asked, referring to the desk sergeant.

Jessie Pearl leaned back in her chair and placed her hand over her heavily pregnant stomach. "She ducked out to get us some pizza. Why?"

Keira didn't wait for the answer. Instead, she headed across the room relieved at not finding any of the thousand scenarios that had played it in her head during the mad dash. An odd sweet smell flew up to her nostrils when she pushed open the closed door and entered Ryker's office.

"What the—"

Dayna was sitting—or rather, lounging—in Ryker's chair with her feet up on the desk. Ananya was in a similar position on the couch. They were both doing a good imitation of hyenas with their raucous laughter. Tears rolled down Dayna's eyes while Ananya held on to her stomach begging Dayna to stop as her sides hurt too much.

Keira waved her hand in the air to clear out some of the smoke that hung in a low cloud formation. "What the hell is going on?"

Instead of answers, all she got for her troubles was another round of laughter. Keira placed her hands on her hips. "This is not funny."

This only set them off again.

A low growl erupted from beside her. "This is a Sheriff's station; not a teenage frat house."

He strode across the room, opened a window, then glared down at Ananya. "This is your doing, isn't it?"

Ananya swung her legs off the couch and sat up. The twitch from her jaw was an indication that it was a struggle to keep a straight face. "And why would you assume it was me? I'm just an old woman," she said.