Page 29 of Cheater Slicks

Pretty sure the adamantine wall of my guilt was the only reason Ankou hadn’t invited himself into my dreams lately. He probably slammed into it face-first every time he tried to pester me.

“You should rest.” Kierce brushed his lips over mine, his cheeks flushing when I grinned up at him like an idiot. I was doing my best not to project sex-starved-maniac vibes at him, but it was hard keeping a PG relationship after I’d had a taste of him. The only thing keeping me from taking a whole bite was guilt. As much as I enjoyed watching Kierce unravel, I was tied up in knots over the state of my brother’s soul. “I’ll see what I can do about a host for Anunit.”

The urge to protest balanced on the tip of my tongue, and I realized I was afraid of letting him out of my sight. I think I had been since we met Pierre. But Kierce was a grown man. And god-adjacent. He could take care of himself.

So why did my stomach drop into my toes when he walked out the door?

An earthquake snapped me out of a dead sleep, and I clutched the headboard like that might protect me from the rattling thumps jostling my bones. As my vision cleared and I spotted the cause of my shakes, I asked myself for the umpteenth time if it was too late to become an only child.

Then the reality of my situation, what had brought me to New Orleans, sank in, leaving me tasting ash.

“Rise and shine.” Josie bounced up and down at the foot of my bed. “You’ve got to see this.”

“See what?” I released my death grip on the headboard. “What time is it?”

“Come on.” She tossed me a pair of wrinkled jeans. “Move it.”

I missed the leg hole on my first try, and it was a near thing on the second, but I got it in three. As much as I wanted to know what had put a bounce in her step this morning, in light of everything, I couldn’t shake a sense of unease that whatever had her in such high spirits couldn’t be good.

Before I could pull on a bra, brush my teeth, or comb my hair, she yanked me stumbling into the hall.

“Is that safe?” Rollo’s voice rang out from the living room. “Are wesurethat’s safe?”

“It’s a baby.” Pascal, still in Matty’s body, sounded delighted. “What harm could it do?”

“You ain’t got much sense, do you?” Jean-Claude clucked his tongue. “You see them teeth?”

“Oh, God.” I lengthened my strides until I rushed past Josie. “None of that sounds good.”

We stumbled into the living room to find everyone already there.

“What’s going on?” I checked the time. “It’s four in the afternoon.”

“I have a new host,”Anunit announced from nearby.“Perhaps this one will be more to your liking.”

There was no sign of Harrow, which I took to mean he was in a bedroom recovering from his possession. I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. Maybe I could let Josie do the honors? She would love the horror sure to splash across his face when he woke in New Orleans with no memory of how he got here.

“I’m afraid to look.” I sought out Kierce, who was the center of attention. “You found a host that fast?”

“A willing one.” His expression turned thoughtful. “More or less.”

That was the type of logic that led Anunit to believe she couldborrowHarrow.

“Your man is as crazy as you,maringouin.” Rollo recoiled from Kierce’s general vicinity. “Who in their right mind sticks a dead god in the body of a…whatever the hell that is?”

One of the big touristy items on sale most anywhere in Louisiana were alligators. Parts of them, anyway. Taxidermized, I guess you would call them. Most with the dark, bumpy skin left intact. Feet glued on the end of a stick as a backscratcher or claws strung on a keychain. Leathery heads were popular. Bare skulls too. But this…

I understood why Rollo couldn’t put a name to it despite knowing it had started out life as a gator.

This was my first time seeing a preserved hatchling. The miniature cowgirl hat was an interesting choice to complement the baby pink feather boa wrapping its neck. The bedazzled bikini top was eye-catching and drew attention to the small tiara glued to the front of the hat. Its matching chaps were held in place by a rhinestone belt. A scaled-down cigarette stuck between its teeth finished the look.

“I was searching for options when a man approached me with several of these.” Kierce held his selection out to me, clearly proud. “Since it was alive at one point, I hazarded a guess Anunit could reanimate it.”

“And since it was already dead, there was no pesky soul to shuffle aside to give her an avatar.” As soon as I held out my hand, Anunit leapt onto my palm, ran up my arm, and sat on my shoulder, the feathers of her boa tickling the side of my neck. “Well? What do you think? Will this work for you?”

“I like this body’s teeth.”She snapped her jaws, and the cigarette tumbled out.“I can manage.”

“I’m glad that’s settled.”I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and spotted Badb hiding in the jackets hung on a vintage coatrack in the corner and asked Kierce, “Can Badb handle this arrangement?”

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