Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

P aige Turner tried to press a tissue to her furry face in a desperate attempt to dry the tears that had fallen. She slid a paw onto her mother's pale form as she perched on the edge of the hospital bed.

A variety of machines beeped, providing proof that her mother remained alive…barely.

It had been days since she'd found her mother clinging to life under the Mexican ruins. And in those days, no real progress had been made. Instead, she'd sat vigil at her bedside as research had been performed on her condition.

Twilight Trance .

A magically induced coma of sorts that had no known mechanisms for reversal.

Paige shook her head at the idea. She hadn't gone through all of this to watch her mother die in front of her.

Dewey fluttered into the room, a consoling expression on his teal features as he buzzed toward her. "Hey, Paige. You don't look so good."

"I don't feel so good," she said with a shake of her head.

He pressed his lips together. "Is it a hairball? "

She snapped her gaze to him with a sniffle. "No. It's my mom. Not a hairball."

"Well, I mean…sure, your mom isn't doing so hot but we're working on that. But that weird feeling in your gut could be a hairball. I mean…you are part cat now."

She heaved a sigh, climbing to her oddly jointed cat-like back legs and pacing the floor at the foot of the bed. "Yes, I know. How is progress going on getting me back to being human Paige?"

"Well, there's good news and bad news on that front."

"Give me the bad news first."

"Doesn't work that way," Dewey said with a shake of his head. "Here's the good news. I can make you non-feline."

"That's great! I can't wait to not be part cat."

"The bad news is…you'd be part dog."

Paige screwed up her face as she stared at him. "What?"

"Yeah. The reversal serum I created will strip away the feline parts, but instead of putting back the human ones, it'll replace them with dog."

Paige slid her eyes closed as she crossed her arms and shook her head. "You're joking."

"I'm not. Now, there is a little more good news."

"What is it? That you're close to creating the serum that'll actually work?"

"No, but if you don't want to be a dog, I can easily swap out for werewolf, harpy, or mermaid."

"Those are all worse."

He bobbed his head up and down. "I thought so, too, which is why I went for dog. The thing is…no more hairballs, but the downside is…you can't eat chocolate. Or grapes."

"I don't want to be part dog."

Dewey held his paws in the air. "Okay, okay. I'll keep at it to see if I can find one that'll just reverse the cat stuff."

"Please. I'm getting sick of being part cat, too. "

"Is it the hairballs?"

"Stop talking about hairballs." She shook her head. "That's only part of the stuff I hate. Last night, Devon came by to sit with me."

"Okay? What does that have to do with anything."

Paige's feline features turned stony. "He scratched my ears, and I started purring."

"Whoa. Hey, now, this is a PG conversation. I don't need to hear anymore."

Paige narrowed her eyes. "Really? Says the dragon writing steamy paranormal romance involving me and Devon."

"That's different."

Paige shook her head. "Whatever. Just…please find a cure. I want to be ready to roll if they find something to help my mom."

"Technically, you are ready to roll. I mean…you're actually readier to roll than you were before."

"Readier? That's not even a word, is it?"

Dewey shrugged. "Who cares. The point is…you are faster and more agile than a human Paige. So, technically, you're in better shape to track down an asset as cat Paige than human Paige."

"I don't want to be a cat while I track down an asset. Too many things could go wrong."

"To be fair, a lot could go wrong with human Paige, too. I mean…if history serves as any reminder, you're pretty accident-prone as a straight human."

She clenched her jaw tightly, her words sliding through clenched teeth. "Just fix this."

Dewey held his paws in the air again. "Okay, okay. I'm on it."

He flicked his gaze to the woman in the bed. "Any changes? "

Paige sank onto the edge of the mattress again. "None. She's just…inching closer to death with every breath."

The words made her burst into tears again, and she hid her face in her paws.

Dewey patted her on the head. "Paige, we'll find an answer. Drucinda is tracking every possible lead. We'll find something. We didn't come all this way just to give up."

"I should be helping," Paige cried. "But how can I? I can't even type with these stupid paws."

"Being part cat shouldn't be stopping you from doing anything, Paige. You'll have to find a way to work around it. Maybe type-to-text or something?"

Paige's features crinkled. "Right. You're right. I can't cry every time something weird happens to me. Around here, it happens like twice a week, so I'd just constantly be crying."

"You sort of are."

"What?" She snapped her gaze to him, her claws popping out.

"I said…that's bizarre."

She narrowed her eyes, certain that wasn't what he'd said but willing to let it slide. The door to the hospital room burst open, and Devon strode in.

"Hey, babe, how's Mom?"

Paige stared at him for a moment, her paws curling into fists. " My mom is no different."

"Well, technically, she's also my mom."

"Mother-in-law," Paige reminded him.

"Oh, yeah," Dewey answered with a nod. "I'd forgotten. We need to wake Reed up so she can meet her new son-in-law. Wow. I bet she's going to be so proud of you becoming a princess, Paige."

"Oh, I'm certain," Paige said with a bob of her furry head. "She's going to wake up and pet my furry little head and be so happy that I married a vampire. "

"Who is going to be happy that you married a vampire?" Drucinda asked.

"Reed," Dewey answered her. "Paige is royalty now. I bet she's going to be thrilled. Her little baby, all grown up and a princess."

"I doubt it," Drucinda answered with a shake of her head as she marched to the monitors to read them. "She'll likely be horrified."

"Really?" Dewey rubbed his chin as he pondered it.

"Remember, she disappeared thirty years ago. We have no idea how much of the current world she knows. But if she hasn't kept up with things, she'll likely still see Dominic Durand as an enemy."

"Yeah," Devon answered as he nodded. "She wasn't happy when you brought me on board. In fact, she was pretty upset."

Drucinda flicked her gaze to him. "Correct. Although, she had a soft spot for you after you delivered little baby Paige."

"Not much of one. She probably thought we were both involved in that threat against her."

Dewey's eyes went wide as he stared into space. "Oh, she probably thinks this was your endgame all along! Now, you've won. You waited over thirty years for Paige to grow up so you could marry her and ruin Reed's life."

"But I didn't," Devon said with a shake of his head. "Didn't the note say they'd do something terrible to Paige?"

"It really depends on your view of marriage whether or not you'd fall into that category," Dewey answered.

"Like awful terrible. Like kidnap her or kill her."

"Oh, well, you almost killed her. Remember when you went all beast mode and marked her?"

Devon threw his hands in the air. "I'm never going to live that down, am I?"

"It was pretty crappy, Devon," Paige said. "I mean…I ne arly died. And Dewey had to save me, and he messed up the serum, and I turned purple."

"I never meant to hurt you," Devon answered.

"What did you think would happen when you sliced me open?" Paige demanded.

Dewey fluttered over to land on her shoulder, his eyebrows raised, and his arms crossed. "Yeah, Beefcake, explain."

"I…I…" He pressed his lips together and shook his head. "I…slipped on the bathroom tile and accidentally sliced her, okay? I didn't mean to do it. And I was totally going to fix it, but then you got all weird."

Paige's eyes went wide. "All weird? Maybe because I was poisoned and scared."

"I'm sorry, okay? Those stupid penny tiles are super slick. I was trying to find you, and then bam, I was falling. I grabbed onto the shower curtain, but with my weight, it crumpled, and I scratched you."

"Those tiles are really difficult to navigate with that smooth vampire skin. Poor thing," Drucinda said with a pat of his shoulder.

"Yeah." Devon bobbed his head as he stared at his friend. "Very slick."

Paige heaved a sigh. "Fine, okay, you didn't mean to kill me. But still, I'm not sure my mom is going to love you."

"Well, I'm going to try my best to make a good impression. I think helping to save her life is a good start."

Drucinda rubbed his arm. "It is, darling. I'll tell her, don't worry."

"What do you mean, you'll tell her? I'm her daughter. I'll talk to her first."

"A daughter she may not even know. We have no idea how long she's been like this or what she knows of the world. She may recognize me, but she may not know you at all. "

Paige's stomach twisted into a knot as Drucinda's words sliced her. Her mother had only seen her as a baby. She may not recognize Paige or feel close to her.

The idea brought tears to her eyes again.

"Well, actually, we know she wasn't in a coma while at the French Chateau. Paige's stony Golem friend said he knew Reed. He called her Mama, and said she took care of him."

Drucinda crossed her arms as she stared at the woman in the bed. "Yes, she couldn't have been in this Twilight Trance for longer than a week or so, or she'd be dead already. But that doesn't mean she's kept tabs on the outside world."

"Fine," Paige said with a sigh despite it twisting her insides into knots, "when she wakes up, you can talk to her first."

"We can both talk to her," Drucinda offered. "Let's just take things one step at a time."

"If she wakes up," Paige lamented, hanging her head.

Drucinda crossed to the monitor, eyeing it again. "I think she will. We have a promising lead."

Paige's heart leapt at the words, her pulse racing as adrenaline coursed through her veins. "You do? What is it?"

"It isn't much, but…I may have stumbled upon something that will undo the trance."

"What?" Dewey questioned.

Devon's features crinkled. "Yeah, there's nothing in this world that I know of that'll reverse this. I asked my dad, and he said the same."

Drucinda held a finger in the air as she stalked closer to them. "Ah, but there is the trick. There is nothing in this world. No one said there was nothing in any world."

"So, there is something?" Paige asked, her voice breathy with hope.

"A serum. Tricky to find and not in this world. But not impossible once one opens the horizon to other realms. "

"Other realms?" Paige asked. "So, we just need one of those Realm Wrangler things, and we can grab this stuff, right?"

"Not quite. There is something else you'll need. But I've worked out where you can get this particular serum. Though it'll take some work."

"What's the serum?" Dewey asked. "Can I whip up a batch here?"

"And risk turning my mom into a mushroom? Umm, no," Paige said with a shake of her head.

"Uh, Paige, at no time were you in danger of turning into a fungus. Please. I know what I'm doing."

"Right, that's why you have turned me purple, puny, into a puddle, plastered– "

"Okay, okay, I get it. I've done a few…less than perfect things, but I've never come close to making you a fungus."

Drucinda set her hands on her hips. "Will you two please stop babbling and pay attention?"

"Fine," Paige said, crossing her arms. "What's the serum?"

"Eclipsarum Elixir," Drucinda answered.

Dewey burst into laughter. "Are you joking? That's a myth. It's not real. It's like…saying goldfish have a three-second memory."

"That's true," Paige answered.

Dewey rolled his eyes. "Paige, goldfish have memories that can span centuries."

"They don't live centuries."

Dewey shook his head at her. "Sometimes, Paige, sometimes."

"Never mind. It does exist, I have found it. But…you will have to do some traveling to get it."

"Where to?" Dewey asked. "Realm of Eternal Frost? Enchanted Forest? Underworld Abyss? "

"None of those," Drucinda said with a shake of her head. "Have you ever heard of a place called…Bucksville?"