Becoming A Witch (Raya Book 1)

Chapter 9

     Raya pulled up to her house to find a cop car idling at the curb. Getting out of her car, she sent up a prayer that her eyes wouldn't glow for the duration of this encounter, however long that may be.

     The cop had dusty blond hair. He had a slender build, but his shoulders and biceps seemed to strain against the confining material of his uniform shirt suggesting he was well kept beneath the poly-blends. "Ma'am, is this your house?" He had a subtle country twang threaded through his deep voice. It was so slight that it was easily overlooked if you weren't used to hearing it. Raya had always been able to pick up on that twang, being somewhat obsessed with the whole idea of southern bells and plantation times with their extravagant balls that dripping court intrigue all over the place.

     Raya nodded. "Yeah, is there a problem?" She didn't mean to sound defiant, but alas, the words were out, so she just had to go with it.

     The officer removed his mirrored glasses, slipped them around his neck. He wore a scowl as if he was trying to intimidate her into confessing her deepest darkest secrets. "Are you aware your door is missing?" he pointed out.

     Raya scoffed. She quirked the side of her mouth. "Yeah." She didn't feel the need to elaborate.

     The officer's brow rose. One of his eyes twitched at the outer corner as if he wanted to say something more than, "Would you care to explain?"

     Raya folded her arms over her chest. She tilted her head to the side. "Is it illegal to replace my front door?" This time challenge was clear in her voice.

     Responding to her attitude, he seemed to grow larger than life with just the bunching of his shoulders, with the stiffening of his spine. He looked down at her as if she were some delinquent. "Not normally, but when we have a complaint about explosions and you happen to be missing your door," he didn't bother finishing his statement, leaving the rest hanging up in the air. If his blue eyes looked any deeper into her own, she was sure he would need a ladder to get back out!

     Needing to break the mood before she squirmed, before she confessed all, Raya rolled her eyes and let out an exaggerated sigh. "I'm sure there was a complaint. Well, you can tell Ms. Simons that she can find her excitement somewhere else. I've been redecorating, and figured-" she shrugged her shoulder. She tossed her hands up in the air, saying, "why not? Sorry that you had to come out." Raya's expression turned apologetic. She forced her eyes to look wide and innocent, turning her mouth into a pout. It may not work, but then again, he was a man, and she wasn't above using her feminine charms to get her way.

     The officer looked in the direction of Ms. Simons' house. Raya could see the curtain fall back into place through the large front window. He addressed Raya again. "You know, this could have all been avoided if you didn't remove the door beforehand." He stopped and looked down either end of the street before he continued. "This may be a quiet neighborhood, but anyone could've tried to break in. You're lucky your dog didn't go wondering off." He lectured.

     "Dog?" Raya looked towards the hole in the front of her house. "I don't have a dog." She sounded abhorrent. Together the two of them started across the thick green carpet of grass. Raya had already put all else out of her mind. What dog? Why? How do I get rid of it? Why!

      "Coulda fooled me. As soon as I got to the threshold he started in at growling at me." It seemed the more officer blue eyes spoke to her, the more pronounced his accent grew.

     Sure enough there was a dark brown middle sized dog laying on her couch. Raya curled her lip in disgust. Hopefully there wasn't a newly established flea circus on her couch. "Yeah, that's not mine." Raya looked up to plea with her eyes at the officer. "Can you get rid of it?"