Page 31 of Cheater Slicks

A faint static sensation lifted the hairs down my arms, and I knew without checking that lightning arced in the palms of Kierce’s hands. I didn’t want this to get ugly, so I backed up and invited myself to sit in his lap. He was so shocked by the move, he lost his focus on Rollo—and his lightning—and fixated on me.

“I’ll take my share of the blame,” I said, accepting it was probablyallmy fault, “but Kierce has nothing to do with this.”

“The crazy didn’t start until he got here,” Rollo protested. “He brought these damn gods into our lives.”

“I have a divine parent, so, no.Ibrought these damn gods into your life. We just didn’t know it at the time.”

“Gods are everywhere.” Jean-Claude stood in the entryway to the kitchen. “All the time.” He cocked one bushy eyebrow at Rollo. “You’ve met Papa Legba how many times? He and other loa are in and out, and I never once heard you raise your voice to them, to disrespect them, the way you’re doing now.”

“That’s different,” Rollo gritted out. “Mamaw?—”

“—loves Frankie like a daughter.” Jean-Claude kept pressing on that sore spot. “I hate to tell you this, but it’s a damn fool thing you do tempting the wrath of a demigoddess. She might walk, talk, and look like the girl you grew up with, but she is a force of nature, and she has to be as tired of your shit as I am.”

Without another word, Rollo turned and left, but I knew better than to think I had heard the end of this.

A sharp jab in my thigh brought my attention to my chair of choice, and I cleared my throat. “I’ll just…”

But I didn’t get the chance to finish the thought as Kierce lifted me, readjusting his bony knee, then set me higher on his thighs. He looped his arms around my waist, securing me in place, and a flush crept up my throat into my cheeks for no good reason. Unless you counted how he was looking at me.Reallylooking at me. With the edge of hunger he had concealed from me since Matty…

And just like that, my lustful thoughts evaporated into thin air.

“We have eight hours until midnight.” Josie broke the awkward silence. “What do we do until then?”

Most of our contacts wouldn’t be awake until dusk, which didn’t leave us with many useful pursuits.

“We track down every person in the city whose symptoms match Matty and Vi’s, and we figure out what they have in common.” I puffed out my cheeks. “We need to pin down what, exactly, is happening to the victims, why it’s affecting a specific demographic, and who is responsible. What they stand to gain from it. Then we can work on reversing it.”

“Rollo has a list of folks we know from the Quarter who’ve been afflicted by this soul sickness. He’s been working on it since Vi took ill.” Jean-Claude ducked into Vi’s room and returned with a notebook Rollo must have left in there earlier. “These ones would rather die than go to a hospital.”

“This will help.” I read his notes on their condition. “He even marked their faction.”

Odds were good victims hadn’t been chosen based on their paranormal heritage, judging by the small sampling we had already, but more information was always better than less.

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders.” Jean-Claude clucked his tongue. “Most of the time.”

“I’ll start calling the hospitals, see if there are more cases outside the Quarter.” Josie climbed to her feet. “New Orleans has a large private hospital network for paras, so I’ll begin there then check to see if any got lost in the human medical system. We can cross-reference for matches after we get names and birthdates.”

From her tone, I could tell she wasn’t expecting much to come of it, but she was eager to contribute.

“I have patients to see.” Jean-Claude grinned when Badb sailed in from the kitchen, breadcrumbs stuck to her beak with sticky sweet bourbon sauce. She lit on his shoulder, and he scratched her head with a gnarled finger. “I’ll keep my eyes and ears open while I make my rounds.”

Folks were more likely to confide in him than the rest of us, given his profession and his deep ties to the community, making him the ideal candidate for canvassing the neighbors for any details the locals might have seen or heard. “That would be amazing.”

“Pascal can help me run through my calls,” Josie decided after the scope of her task sank in. “He’s good with people.”

With the work split between the two of them, we would have our answers that much faster. “Okay.”

That left Anunit, who hadn’t returned since sprinting from the room earlier, unaccounted for.

As much as I wished I could skip her and lower my stress threshold, I had to locate her for my own peace of mind. I was about to wriggle off Kierce’s lap, which could have been all kinds of interesting under different circumstances, when a distant yelp shot us all to our feet.

“Harrow?” I scrambled toward the noise.“Harrow?”

“Frankie?” He appeared in the open doorway of a guest room, his eyes wide and red-rimmed. “What the hell?”

“It’s a long story.” I cringed at the explanation about to tumble out. “Maybe sit first?”

“Fuck no.” He shuddered from head to toe. “There was something in bed with me.”

---