Page 54 of Strike It Witch

The cat jumped onto Denzel’s head and dug his claws into the man’s scalp. Blood streaked down his face in long, skinny rivers. “Ouch, shit. Okay, it’s our club insignia.”

I nodded, and Fennel hissed and leapt away.

“Club?”

“I mean,” Kale looked at Denzel, who was mopping blood off his face with the hem of his dirty T-shirt, “I guess it’s more like a church than a club.”

“It’s definitely a cult,” Bronwyn said.

“We’re not creepy or anything,” Kale said. “Not like typical deist cults. We don’t do sex stuff, and we think women deserve all the rights, and we love LGBTQ+ folks, so we’re not like a freaky religious sect, but yeah, I guess we’re still a cult.”

“How very self-aware of you,” I muttered. “Why Mictlantecuhtli?”

“Shh.” Both men bowed their heads. “Be careful. He might hear you.”

“You think the Aztec god of death is going tohear me? Like he’s just hanging out in the scummy backyard of your condemned house waiting for someone to speak his name?”

“Hey, that’s not cool,” Kale said. “We cleaned up last week.”

“Try water. It helps grass not to die,” I said.

“The water got turned off. We haven’t showered in three days.”

Eww. I couldn’t imagine how bad it smelled in that house. I got a little dizzier just thinking about it.

Bronwyn looked at me. “Guess cults don’t pay as well as I thought they did.”

“Look, we’re not hurting anyone. Except you, but we apologized for that.” Kale dusted off the seat of his pants, his gaze on Fennel. His wounds, and Denzel’s, were already mostly healed. As I suspected, they were shifters, which begged another question.

“Why didn’t you just shift when Fennel attacked you?” Shifters were strongest in their animal forms—even a hybrid form would likely have allowed them to fight the cat off. For a few seconds, anyway.

“Do you think turning into a rat would havehelpedthe situation?” Kale asked.

Now that was a surprise. I’d assumed they were wolf shifters Alpha Floyd was too lazy to deal with.

“Why’d you ask about Fennel’s kittens, then?” Bronwyn scowled at the men. “Do you have a death wish?”

“She makes a good point,” Denzel said to Kale.

Kale rubbed his arm absently, as if recalling an old injury. “Yeah, guess I didn’t think it through, dude. I’ve been attacked by a feral cat before. It didn’t go well, but it wasn’t as bad as what your familiar just did to me.”

“It’s worse than you think. Fennel isn’t my familiar. He’s a magical cat who’s as vicious as a wolf with an injured paw on his good mood days.”

“Yeesh.” Kale shivered.

“Funny you should mention wolves,” Denzel said. “At first, I thought you might be a wolf shifter.”

“Why would you think that?” I asked.

“Because Alpha Pallás wants us gone. Kind of figured you were an assassin or something. The other members of our, uh, club?—”

“Cult,” Bronwyn murmured.

“—have all left town due to the threats.”

“Or they’re dead,” Kale said.

“Why would the pack want you dead?” I asked.

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