Read Cajun Magic 02 - Voodoo for Two for Free Online Page A

let the brew sit so the potion cools down a bit.” As the liquid came to a boil, she counted aloud. “One, two, three, four, five.”
    Alex and Calliope chimed in, “Six, seven, eight, nine, ten!”
    A quick twist extinguished the flame and Lucie fanned the potion, hoping to speed the process.
    Alex leaned over the recipe book to read the next set of instructions. “Says here to sprinkle the potion on the wings of a love bug.”
    “You mean those disgusting bugs that fly around piggy-backed, mating all the time?” Calliope asked.
    Alex’s lips twisted. “It says love bug. What else could it mean?”
    Calliope jumped up from her stool. “I’ll go outside and see what I can find. There are usually a bazillion of them making bug-gut glue all over my car.”
    Before Lucie could utter a word, Calliope rushed out the door. Just as well. Finding the bug would give her something productive to do while they waited for the potion to cool.
    Alex bent over the recipe book. “You realize you have to turn this hexed bug loose in the same room with you and your intended target, don’t you?”
    “I do?” Lucie leaned over Alex’s shoulder and read the scribbled words, then grimaced. “That’ll be a trick to get me and Eric in a room all by ourselves.”
    “How are you going to manage that? Sneak into his bedroom at night? I understand they have a pretty impressive security system at the Littington mansion. I don’t think you’ll get by that.”
    “Don’t worry, I’ll think of something.” What , she didn’t know.
    Calliope rushed back in, a frown marring her freckled forehead. “What’s wrong with this place? Only last week there were hundreds, even thousands of the little creatures.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Calliope grimaced. “No love bugs.”
    “No love bugs?” Alex and Lucie said in unison.
    Lucie’s heart sank into her shoes. “All this mixing and angsting for what? Nothing! A big fat goose egg. Great! Just great!”
    Calliope held out her hand. “I did find a ladybug. I figure one flying bug is as good as the next. Can you use a ladybug?” Calliope stopped talking long enough to inhale. “Gag!” She clapped a hand over her nose. “That stuff really stinks.”
    “It’s not the smell that counts. It’s how well the potion works,” Lucie held out her hand. “You couldn’t find a single love bug? Jeez, I still have dead ones stuck all over the front of my ‘Stang. Why is it you can find them when you don’t want them, but as soon as you need one—”
    “You can’t find one,” Alex finished. “Sounds like the story of my love life.”
    Calliope’s brow furrowed. “You have guys stuck all over the front of your Jeep?”
    “The way my mother keeps throwing them at me you’d think I’d be scrapin’ them off my bumper.” Alex leaned over the cookbook. “Does it have to be a love bug?”
    “The recipe says, ‘Sprinkle the brew on a love bug’s wing and in a loud, sweet voice you must sing, “Fly little bug, fly high up above and make my lovebirds fall in love.”’”
    “Hey, I thought this was a love spell for people,” Calliope said.
    Lucie flipped the page back to read the title. “It says ‘Love Spell.’”
    Alex shrugged. “Whatever. You need a flying bug. All you have available is the blasted ladybug. What can it hurt?”
    “Ah, jeez!” Lucie slammed the book shut. “I can see it happening already. Another Voodoo spell gone awry, courtesy of the misfit granddaughter of Madame LeBieu. This time, they might even give me the front page of the Bayou Miste Herald .”
    “Don’t sweat it, Lucie.” Alex slipped the ladybug out of Lucie’s hand into her own. “Maybe the spell wasn’t meant to be.”
    “Yeah.” Calliope’s face lit up with a huge grin. “And you can stay here in Bayou Miste with us.”
    With her two best friends, maybe. But top them with a dead-end job, a foreclosure hanging over her grandmother’s head, and a nonexistent love life, no way. And to