Page 41 of Cheater Slicks

“No problem.” He lifted the right side like it weighed nothing. “Two feet enough?”

“That’s fine.” I watched as Kierce picked up the left with the same effortlessness. “Thanks.”

After repositioning the eyesore of a bed and sweeping around it, Kierce laid a thick new line of salt.

Between the two of them, they had the whole thing done in under five minutes.

“Scoot aside,cher.” Jean-Claude knelt opposite me, his big joints popping like gunshots. “I’ll get him settled in.”

“I can…do it…myself,” Rollo muttered, already half asleep. “Stop…fussing…over me.”

Until I failed my first attempt at standing, I hadn’t realized that I sat on my legs for so long they had gone numb. I didn’t have time to catch my balance before Kierce scooped me off my feet and retreated to the far corner, clearing a path for Jean-Claude to tuck in Rollo.

“Wait here.” He set me on a decorative stool, backing away with reluctance. “I’ll close the circle.”

“I’ll stay with him.” I rubbed my face, exhaustion setting in, wishing I had a pot of chicory coffee to gulp. “Someone has to reset the circle if he needs to get up and pee or whatever.”

With so many cemeteries nearby, the urge to sneak out and recharge almost overwhelmed me.

“No. I’ll stay with him.” Jean-Claude cut me a scowl. “You’re about to tip over just sitting there.” To forestall any protest, he raised a gnarled hand. “If I need magic help, I’ll ask your magic man.”

A laugh made it halfway up my throat before the room tipped onto its side with a loud thump.

Or maybe that was just my head hitting the floor.

“Are you ever going to wake up?” Cool fingers pried open my right eyelid. “Hello in there.”

“Brat,” I grumbled at Josie, turning on my side in the bed I didn’t remember climbing into this morning. Or had it been last night? I wasn’t sure anymore.

“Suit yourself.” A cold, rough weight hit my chest. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

As I lifted my head to squint at what she had thrown at me, I came face-to-face with...

A single beady, black eye gleaming with malice. White innards spilling out in stringy clumps. Bumpy hide crosshatched with old scars. And teeth.

So many needlelike teeth.

“Oh, God.” I flicked the covers and sent the thing flying, adrenaline spiking my sluggish brain. “What is that?” As it sailed through the air, I scrabbled out of bed, tripping on the rug and smashing my tailbone on the hardwood. “Mary, you better start talking fast.”

The object in question hit the lazy blades of the ceiling fan whirling overhead, bounced off a paddle, and flew into the window. Sparrows did that sometimes at home, but they collided outside. Not inside. What the hell kind of fresh horror had gotten in the house while I was sleeping?

Josie, worthless sister that she was, couldn’t breathe through her laughter to answer.

“Are we under attack?” I rubbed my eyes with my fists. “How did it get past the wards?”

But the mystery attacker wasn’t done yet. It smacked against the windowsill, flinging itself onto the floor in time for Badb to swoop in through the open door and dive-bomb it with terrifying cries of vengeance.

The spectacle only sent Josie into more hysterics as Badb slung the dark blur by its tail with such force the body went sailing, whacking Josie in the shoulder as the crow horked the rest onto the foot of my bed.

Gingerly, I reached down to poke the corpse, felt a dried line of glue, and spat a curse. “Really?”

The tail, stuffing exploding from the base, belonged to the alligator Anunit had been using as an avatar.

“I found Badb with it earlier.” Josie sucked in air between peals. “Shereallyhates that thing.”

“It’s ruined.” I tossed the leathery scrap into my trash can then got an eyeful of what Josie meant. The body, what remained of it, was mostly head and torso. Badb had been pecking it to pieces for a while to have done that much damage. Its costume was long gone. No wonder I hadn’t recognized it. “There’s no salvaging that.”

“Anunit isn’t back yet, according to Kierce, so we’ve got time to figure out something else for her.”

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