Page 56 of Cheater Slicks

“Thank you.” Kierce took his plate, sniffed it, then handed it back. “I’m done.”

Laughter stuck in my throat as his quirky manners totally missed the mark.

“No worries.” Pascal helped himself to the plate. “I was hoping you would say that.”

After inviting himself to flop onto my bed, he started shoveling in Kierce’s share like he might snatch it back. Kierce watched me savor the first bite, cocked his head to one side, and confusion wreathed his features until I poked him in the hip. “You okay over there?”

“Josie’s been teaching me polite ways to decline food.”

That explained a lot.

“That explains it.” Pascal echoed my thought almost exactly. “I didn’t expect you to bother pretending to be interested in the cake, so your lessons are going…um…great.”

Heartened by Pascal’s endorsement, Kierce grew earnest. “Did you find my excuse acceptable?”

A polite decline didn’t always work in the South. Folks showed their love through food. Even if you didn’t want to eat, you did. It was expected of you. For Kierce, a firmer stance might be required to get him off the hook in future social situations.

“Normally, I would say it might be more politic to take a bite then claim you’re too full to hold anymore. You’re not a fan of sweets, so I’m not going to put you through that for the sake of politeness.” I recalled his expression when Carter attempted to feed him a cupcake after our first kiss. “You could claim you have a gluten allergy. It wouldn’t work for everything, but it does cover a wide variety of baked goods.”

“Hmm.” He appeared to consider it. “I’ll have to remember that.”

A flicker of blue light snared the corner of my eye, and I glanced over to find Pedro massaging the joints in his hands that had ached in life. The habit, like so many others, had rolled over into death.

“Hey.” I paused my snacking to examine the spirit. “What’s wrong?”

“Dis Pater was in town tonight.” He checked me over head to toe. “It’s you I’m worried about,mija.”

“How did you…?” I would have blamed Pascal, but he had stayed in too. “Who told you about that?”

“It’s all the spirits Tremain brought with him are talking about.” His clipped tone conveyed his distaste of Tremain, his spectacle, or perhaps it was filling the house with rambunctious spirits while Vi was vulnerable to possession that bothered him. But if the latter was the problem, he needn’t have worried himself. Rollo would have taken every precaution. “They claim there was a showdown on Ursulines.”

“Showdown is a bit wild west for what happened, but he was here.” A sour taste flooded my mouth. “So was Ankou.”

“I’ll give us some privacy.” Kierce rose and helped himself to my kit, laying a salt line around the room. He didn’t speak again until he activated the ward, erecting a quiet bubble where no other spirits could overhear our conversation. “Now we can speak freely.”

As I vented about the events of the night, Pedro stroked my hair, his expression growing darker.

“What can we do?” He glanced at his brother, including him in his offer. “How can we help?”

That he was always so quick to pitch his lot in with mine left my heart full to overflowing, but I was too afraid that the parade might swallow him whole to invite him to come out with me. He would be safer behind the wards at Vi’s once I checked them over after Rollo’s guests left. Pascal would be too.

“I’ll let you know once I figure out our next steps.” I set the cake aside, unable to stomach it. “I don’t trust this sudden altruistic streak from Ankou.” I took a moment to check my messages and found one from Carter. “I need to make a call real quick.” I pointed at my cell. “Carter.”

To give myself a smidgen of privacy, I rose and stepped a few feet away from the others.

“I had a question,” she said by way of greeting, “but Josie already answered it.”

“Ah. Sorry about that. Somehow I put my phone on silent.”

“How is everything?”

“Complicated.”

Carter grunted in commiseration, but she didn’t press. For now.

“How’s Harrow?” I ought to text him myself, but she was already on the phone. “Any side effects?”

“He didn’t tell you?” She sighed, as if she wasn’t surprised to hear we weren’t playing nice, but I thought we had been. “He decided to stay in New Orleans and make a long weekend out of it.”

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