Page 123 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

“Can I come too?” asked Waleed.

Giordano glanced back at him, then to Percy. Percy gave a nod. Giordano’s lips twisted. “All right.”

But any move that might have been made to depart the cemetery was then paused by the grotesque sound of wet kisses on crumbling and putrid, half-rotten skin. The increasingly heated display in front of them eventually forced Percy to call out, “Enough of that! At least until you give Cleo her body back.”

When Molly turned to face them again, she was positively beaming. She led her zombie up the garden path, where Percy stepped forward to take a closer look at him. “Puss?”

“My cat,” said Molly.

“Your familiar,” finished Percy with an exasperated eye roll. “A lot of fucking use, you were.”

“Urrrrrrrh,” Puss protested.

“What the hell is going on?” asked Tareq.

“It’s probably best we just go now,” Giordano said hurriedly. Then to Percy, “We’re good? We’re done here?”

“Cocktails later?”

“I’ll call.” And with that, he led the way out of the cemetery, half carrying the exquisite and uninjured Tareq, Waleed trailing dazed and normal-looking behind.

“Leo,” said Percy, “locate some local morgues. We’ll need to steal a body for Molly. And possibly another for Puss.”

“On it.” He pulled out his notebook to jot a reminder down, and Althea let out a cry of furious exasperation in response, immediately stomping off towards home. “Al, wait!” Leo ran two steps after her, then turned back to Percy and declared, “I’m taking her out for dinner. Somewhere really expensive. And I’m putting it on your card. And you can’t stop me.”

Percy gave a small nod. “All right.”

“Okay.” He made to dash away again, but Percy called him back.

“Leo?”

“Mmm?”

“Thank you. I love you.” Leo almost visibly melted, and his full body smashed back into Percy’s with an enormous burst of love. Percy held him for as long as Leo could stand the thought of Althea getting further away, then Percy, feeling him pull back, whispered, “Run.”

He gave Percy and Joe each one final, thankful glance, and was gone.

“Right,” said Percy, dropping Moxie, his unpossessed and slightly abnormal kitten into his pocket, “Let’s get these two home and body-swapped?—”

“No,” said Joe, reaching in and picking the unwilling kitten back out. “They can meet us there.” He handed the kitten to Puss with a glare at Molly. “She knows where you live. And we’ve got something we need to do.”

Percy, none too pleased to see his kitten back in Molly’s company, glanced around with a lightly annoyed shrug. “The council will clean it up.”

“Not that.” He said to Molly, “Go. Revive anyone you killed on the way, and when you get there, go into one of the bedrooms. Leave Althea alone.”

She gave a guilty tilt of her head and ambled away with her familiar.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Percy turned to an anxious Joe. “What is it? It’s not like you to let an arch villainess and her zombie lover walk the streets of Paris unaccompanied. Certainly not with my cat. Are you all right?”

“I am,” Joe assured him. “Really. But there’s something important we need to do. Right now. It can’t wait another minute.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

A RELIGIOUS RENDEZVOUS

Joe led the way out of the cemetery, across early morning, still-quiet streets, where he was relieved to see a few people out and starting their day. Normal. Looking at them like they were the strange and abnormal element of the city, no memory of their supernatural slumber.

He paid scant attention to them, pulling at Percy’s hand, racing as fast as he could walk, almost a run, across one street, down an alley, over another wide road.

---