Maudlin's Mayhem (Bewitching Bedlam #2)(56)
I went over to the white board on the wall and wrote a note in huge letters—bats weren’t that good with their sight. I wasn’t even sure if he could read while in bat form, but it couldn’t hurt. I wrote that I had gone to the city council meeting, that Bubba was over at Sandy’s, and for him to use the secret cat door into the basement if he wanted to fly around the house. I’d leave it ajar just enough so he could get through. I added “I love you” and a note about tomorrow I’d be picking up the hex-breaker, and that was all the room there was on the board.
Standing back, I knew I had done all I could. Resigned to yet another night of this mess, I left the lights on, returned to the kitchen, grabbed my purse, and headed out for the meeting.
THE BEDLAM TOWN council was made up of the mayor and a number of representatives from the various PretCom races. Leonard Wolfbrane was leader of the Alpha Pack. Brentwood, a rabbit shifter, was the representative from the rodentia shifters. Two members of the Fae Courts—Naia from Summer, and Ateria from Winter—were here. Ralph Greyhoof represented the satyrs. I glared at him and he glared back. Elsa Liftwing spoke for the avian shifters. There were also reps from the werepumas, weretigers, werebears, elk shifters, a member of the Woodland Fae, and a human. I represented the witches as High Priestess of the Moonrise Coven.
Goblins, ogres, and their ilk weren’t allowed to sit on the council. While vampires were allowed to live in Bedlam, they were under the rules imposed by the coven and weren’t allowed to speak at council. Other more nefarious creatures were deported whenever they were found on the island. They were generally up to no good, and couldn’t be trusted to keep to a treaty.
As I entered the room, it looked like everybody else was already there.
“Sorry I’m late. I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately. Somebody hexed my household.” I wasn’t feeling in the mood to gloss over matters.
“I heard you paid a visit to Garret James,” Leonard said. “Be cautious. He’s not all that friendly.”
“He seemed fine to me, and what matters most is that he thinks he can break the hex.” I slapped the agenda that someone handed me on the table. “Let’s take care of the important matters first, all right? Delia? Do you mind? I’d like to call for a vote on keeping Delia as mayor. I’m happy with her. I think we’re all happy with her. Delia, are you willing to continue with the job?”
She tugged at her collar. “Well, it’s a lot of work, but I can do it. However, I’m going to need to hire another deputy to take up some of the slack over at the sheriff’s office.”
“That’s fine, don’t you think?” I looked around. Just about everybody nodded. “Bedlam’s budget is pretty healthy. So I motion to make Delia’s temporary position as mayor permanent. Next election is in three years.” We all knew that the elections were only a matter of formality here on Bedlam, at least as far as the position of mayor went.
“Second the motion,” Elsa said, raising her hand.
“Show of hands, please,” Naia said.
Everybody but Ralph raised their hands. When the rest of us stared at him, he hesitantly joined us.
“Motion carried. Delia, congratulations, the job is yours for the next three years at least.” I reached over, picked up her gavel, and banged it.
She grabbed the wooden gavel away from me, grinning. “Gee, thanks. All right, so that’s taken care of. Next on the agenda, we have a request from the neighborhood around Fourth and Yew Streets for a stoplight. Apparently some of the teens like to use the street for racing at night and there are a lot of kids on the block. I recommend we assign someone to conduct a feasibility study on Bedlam as a whole. We’ve grown by about five hundred over the past couple years, and it might be time to start beefing up our infrastructure. Until then, we can always put in a three-way stop sign at the intersection. Yew ends at Fourth.”
As the debate spilled over into stop sign discussions and from there into requests for business licenses and so forth, I lost track of the conversation. By the time the evening ended, I had no clue of what we had discussed, except for the fact that we had voted Delia into office, and also agreed that we needed a three-way stop sign on one intersection, and a roundabout on another.
I didn’t stick around for the after-meeting cake and coffee, but headed for the door.
“Maddy? Are you all right?” Ateria caught up with me before I exited the room.
“Not really. I mean, I’m fine, but we’ve had one hell of a week over at my house and frankly, I can’t wait until tomorrow. Leonard’s right—I consulted Garret James, and he’s making me up a hex-breaker. Until then, I’m just holding my breath and trying to get through this.” I paused. One thing I had learned about Ateria over the past couple months was that she was nobody’s fool and she didn’t cave to popular opinion. “Do you think I’m making a mistake by dealing with Garret?”
She considered the question, then let out a soft laugh. “Maddy, Garret might frighten a number of people around the area, but he’s got nothing on the Winter Fae. We make him look like a cuddly baby and you know it. I think you have to do what you need to in order to protect your loved ones. If hiring Garret brings you peace, don’t let anybody stop you. We’re all in this life with a limited amount of time and resources—even the Fae, though it may not seem like it. You can’t make everybody happy, so you make those happy who mean the most to you.”