Fangs and Fur- Beta Read Along
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2025 by LA Magill. All distribution rights reserved for the exclusive use of Wicked Women LLC.
By sunset, Dili’s shoulders ached from grinding herbs and stirring her brew. The synthetic blood potion was incompatible with her automatic stirring stick, a clever magical device which empowered magnetism to run along the rim of her cast iron cauldron. It had been over a year since her last manual brew, and the effort it required made her cranky.
And hungry. Dili yearned for a bowl of hearty stew and a hunk of bread as big as her face, but she could not leave the potion until it thickened up. Otherwise, all that hard work would be wasted.
“Toad, can you bring me a biscuit from the kitchen, please?” Dili said.
Silence. Both in the house—apart from the bubbling potion—and in her mind.
The witch frowned and suddenly realized she had not seen her familiar since that morning with Jasmine.
It wasn’t unusual for Toad to still be out. Sometimes, he would explore so far from home that he’d be gone for a few days at a time, but he always told her when he was leaving.
“Toad!” she called out louder.
Her loyal familiar gave no response, which was completely out of character. The magic bond between them meant he could always hear her, no matter how far apart.
Growing nervous, Dili poured all her remaining energy into stirring. The synthetic blood finally came to the correct consistency forty-five minutes later. Dili vanished the flames beneath the cauldron with a snap of her fingers and made a mental note to return in a few hours after the potion had cooled.
Though she felt far more hungry than before, she was more concerned about her familiar than about her own needs. Dili moved through each room of her house, calling for him. The kitchen windowsill—his favorite sunset perch—sat empty. His cushion by the hearth remained undisturbed since morning. He wasn’t sound asleep in his preferred basket in the garden, and he hadn’t tucked himself into bed early, either.
Dili stood by her back door, facing out into her idyllic garden. A stiff wind had picked up through the evening, bringing with it dark clouds loud with thunder and heavy with rain.
Dili knew her familiar was perfectly capable of handling a bit of bad weather. She was also certain he was far too quick and clever to be scooped up by a wayward vampire. Still…
“Oh, Toad, where are you?”
No response came. No mental nudge, no soft padding of paws—nothing.
She closed her eyes, sighed once, and returned to the kitchen to prepare a much-needed meal. After spending all evening brewing and searching, she did not have the energy to make fresh stew. Instead, she placed two thick pieces of flatbread made with a whole grain flour from Mr. Aboah into the hearth. While they heated up, she prepped her skillet for her fish.
Comforting aromas filled her kitchen when she pulled the flatbreads out. She was too hungry to wait for them to cool and immediately tore off a chunk. She dunked the piece into a bit of special Croatian olive oil she’d traded three pricy luck potions for, then gobbled it in one bite. The flatbread burned her tongue, but Dili didn’t care. The satisfying taste and soft texture soothed her, while the silky feel and rich flavor of such high-quality oil delighted her.
Chewing happily, Dili set about to making the rest of her supper. She reached into her right pocket for two frozen rainbow trout the Milligans had paid her with a few weeks ago. The colors of their speckled skin and bold red stripe still looked as vivid as the minute they had been caught, thanks to her magical preservation.
The sizzle of searing skin made her mouth water. When the scent of cooking fish blended with the taste of the savory bread, nostalgia overcame her. The flatbread she could make in her hearth was far better than the first breads she remembered, but that somehow made the memories all the sweeter. She appreciated the delicate flavors of the freshwater fish, but she sometimes missed the briny taste that only came from the ocean.
The witch inhaled deep, basked in happy memories for just a moment, then drew her focus once more.
“Toad wouldn’t miss fresh fish even if one of his lives depended on it,” Dili muttered.
She indulged in a beer, a leftover from the last six-pack Vanessa had brought over rather than a home brew. She still had some of the date wine left, but it would have been too sweet on her palate to enjoy her fish.
Despite her hopes, Toad did not return home for supper. Nor had he come home by the time she made her evening tea. The kettle whistled, pulling her back to the kitchen. She poured the steaming water over chamomile flowers and carried the mug to her favorite chair by the window, next to Toad’s empty perch.
Outside, the clouds had begun to spill over. Rain soaked into the ground—good for the garden, but Dili knew Toad would rather overnight in a shed somewhere than venture home in that downpour. She knew he’d be fine. It wasn’t too much water to worry about flash flooding, nor was it too cold.
Dili sipped her tea and opened her journal, recording the day’s treatments and noting which supplies needed replenishing. The familiar weight of Toad curled up in her lap was conspicuously missing.
As darkness settled completely, she lit the lantern on the back porch—a habit for whenever Toad stayed out late. The small flame flickered with torrents of wind and spurts of rain, but it wouldn’t go out.
“Just an adventure.” She looked out over the long shadows across her garden. “By morning, he’ll be whining about the rain and demanding an extra helping of breakfast.”
She stored the synthetic blood before trundling off to bed, but before blowing out her candle, she cracked her bedroom window open a little wider than usual.
Next chapter coming Friday, August 8.
December 2 update: *contains small spoilers for later chapters*
Eagle-eyed re-readers may have noticed that the original version of this chapter had Dili reaching into her left pocket instead of her right. Oops! That world building inconsistency is a great example of a drafting mistake that gets caught during developmental editing.