Love Croakies by Sam Cheever (the kiss of deception read online .txt) 📕

only to happily return, dancing to its own music.

A beat later, the lady’s hat that belonged to the feather flew into the store and joined the feather in a graceful waltz that totally captured the Chimera’s attention. A moment later, the monster actually sat down, its golden gaze transfixed. Every once in a while, the creature would take a swipe at the feather with its giant paws, just like a housecat.

Hilarious.

For the first time in moments, I took an unclenched breath. “Okay, that seems to be soothing hi…”

Without warning, the Chimera hit the hat and feather with a leathery wing, and they crashed to the floor. He pounced, swallowing them in a single bite.

“Oh!” Sebille and I lamented in a mournful duet.

“Bad kitty!” I scolded. “You spit that out right now!”

The Chimera had been trying to chew but was looking a little green around the gills. Probably because the artifacts still seemed to be dancing inside its mouth. The creature’s cheeks kept bulging from side to side as if being shoved around by its snack.

“Drop them, Rustin!”

To my amazement, the creature slumped dejectedly, dropping to its belly and opening its mouth to release the items.

The hat and feather flew out and surged toward the door, a bit soppy and mangled but mostly unhurt.

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, that was…”

The feather rushed in suddenly and bopped the Chimera on the nose, then darted away. The dividing door slammed shut behind them, followed by an angry roar that I was sure would bring the neighbors if I couldn’t find a way to shut him up. “Stop that!”

The front door opened and Lea came through. “What’s going on over here? I…” She stopped dead in her tracks, and her mouth slammed shut. Without another word, she turned and went back out the door.

A beat later, she seemed to have a crisis of conscience and cracked the door again, sticking her nose through. “Do you want me to zap it or something?”

A groan sounded and I turned to find Grym sitting up, holding his head. “Those little devils pack quite the punch.” He gave Sebille and me a lopsided smile. “What’s wrong with you two? You’re looking a little pale.”

In the blink of an eye, the Chimera was on Grym, standing over him with a snarl on its lips. Grym’s eyes bulged. “Okay, that’s a big kitty,” he said, holding very still.

“That’s no kitty,” I said softly so as not to set it off. “It’s Rustin.”

Lea came into the store, her fingers dancing a spell on the air. At my announcement, she stopped spinning magic. “That’s Rustin?”

Sebille and I both nodded just the tiniest bit. I couldn’t shake the feeling that sudden movements might set him off. “We need to get him away from Grym.”

A silvery drop of Chimera spit landed on Grym’s cheek. “I couldn’t agree more,” the cop said.

“Meow!” Wicked rubbed against my calf as he passed by, heading toward Rustin.

I tried to grab him, but he was too fast. “Wicked, no!”

Ignoring me as only a cat can, he trotted up to Rustin and bumped against one thick leg.

The Chimera looked down and hissed, every bit an oversized cat.

“Meow!” Wicked responded, then gave the thing a hiss of his own.

The Chimera blinked in surprise.

“We need to do something,” I said, my voice reaching shriek level.

Wicked rubbed his way along the creature’s body, the tip of his tail sliding along the Chimera’s belly.

To our collective shock, the monster backed off and lay down on the floor, resting its enormous head on its paws.

Wicked curled into a ball in the curve of the Chimera’s belly and started purring.

Sebille turned on her heel and headed toward the dividing door.

“Hey! Where are you going?” I asked.

“To get your cat a can of tuna. He’s more than earned it.”

Yes. He certainly had. I blinked, “Wait, are you talking about Wicked or Rustin?”

Sebille snorted out a laugh.

6

Love. The Deadly Plague

Rustin shivered inside the blanket I’d given him and clutched his tea cup like a life preserver in a roiling ocean. His piercing blue gaze was underscored by purple arcs and his black hair stuck up in tufts where he’d speared it multiple times with shaky fingers.

“More tea?” I asked the ghost witch.

Nodding, he scratched his classically perfect nose, which drew my attention to the fact that he wasn’t wearing his wire-rimmed glasses. “And, I wouldn’t turn down something to eat. Taking my other form burns a lot of energy.”

Sebille quickly grabbed our cups and headed for the tea counter.

Nobody wanted me to make them tea. My tea was more a form of punishment than a treat.

I patted Rustin’s shoulder, which, despite his current fragile state felt muscular and strong beneath my fingers. “It is pretty impressive, though,” I told him with a grin.

Rustin shook his head. “I’m sorry about the premature transformation. I don’t have the best control these days.”

I retrieved the packet of brownies I’d dropped earlier, when cranky Cupid had kidnapped me. Someone, probably Sebille, had replaced the wrapped bundle in the hidey-hole. I found a clean plate in the cupboard and arranged the brownies over it. “I’m glad to finally see it,” I told him, settling the plate in front of him. “Though, for a few minutes there, I was afraid it might be the last thing I saw.”

He winced. “Maddie’s working with me on controlling the beast. If I’d had Sadie with me, she could have headed it off.”

“Where is the little cutie?” Sebille asked, placing another steaming cup of tea in front of him.

“Birte picked her up a few minutes after Naida disappeared. They’re having a girl dragon day.” He smiled and sipped. “I think it involved painting each other’s claws or something.”

We laughed dutifully. Little Sadie looked up to Birte, who, despite her ungainly human form, transformed into the most beautiful dove-gray dragon I’d ever seen. Birte had spent too much of her life hating her dragon form, and young Sadie had been abandoned at a young and