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

to the glass of the ceiling, tiny arms and legs flailing. I grinned. “As Lea would say, blizzardy!”

My friend Lea was a great BFF and a talented witch. But her grasp of modern slang left something to be desired.

Sebille snorted out a laugh. “I’m not sure how they’re going to get them down.”

“Pop them,” said a soft voice beside me. Sebille and I turned to find Nina grinning. “That’s what I’d suggest.”

We all laughed, the sound turning slightly hysterical before we managed to rein it in.

“Unh,” said Ralph, who’d placed himself on the bench across from us and was looking a little green around the gills. Nobody had asked the mall manager how he felt because we were afraid he’d tell us.

He was a non-magic human. He’d watched what had to have been close to a hundred demonic cupids try to kill or abduct a bunch of his customers. He’d seen one man turn into a wolf. Yeah, Devin had finally gone all the way to furry. It had been stupendous.

Plus, Ralph had seen a dragonfly-sized Sebille shoot green energy at the nasty cherubs. He’d watched Grym pound them into literal dust with his rock hands. And he’d witnessed me slicing them with a sombrero and inflating them with sugar.

Busy day.

It was no wonder the man was currently mumbling to himself and twitching as if he’d swallowed a live wire.

I jerked my chin in his direction. “Should somebody go and…I don’t know…hold his hand or something?”

Grym came up the stairs from the first floor, his human form firmly back in place. His gaze searched the area until it found me. He smiled.

My tummy warmed from that smile, and my world stopped threatening to topple.

I stood as he headed our way and met him at the end of the crosswalk. “How’s it going down there?”

He rubbed a hand over his weary face, the day’s whiskers making a crackling sound against his hand. “The witches are here. They’ve managed to remove the poison from most of the affected and are working on wiping everybody’s memories.”

I nodded, rubbing my hands over my arms. “Ralph needs some attention.” I gave Grym a meaningful look. “I’m starting to worry he’ll never recover.”

We both glanced toward the bedazzled manager. The man was smacking the air in front of his face as if he was being attacked by gnats.

Grym winced. “I’ll have someone come up and take care of him.”

A long, feral shriek sounded from the other end of the mall. I jumped and bumped into Grym. He steadied me, pulling me into his warmth. I wanted to pull away. To show him I could stand on my own two feet, but his warmth felt way too good to push away.

I sighed. “That will be Daisy. We locked her into the athletic attire store so she wouldn’t kill me for looking at Ralph.”

Grym made a non-committal grunting sound. “I’ll send the witches there after they finish with Ralph. Did you ever locate the rest of his staff?”

I shook my head. “I checked after the worst was over. The office was empty. They must have flown the coup.”

He held me for a long moment, until I found the strength to pull away. We stood in awkward silence for a beat.

Then Grym pointed toward the domed ceiling. “Is that your handiwork?”

I looked up and barked out a laugh. “Guilty.”

He shook his head. “It’s never boring around you.”

“I do try.” I gave him a narrow-eyed look. “Are you over the whole caveman thing?”

He frowned. “Caveman thing?”

I formed my voice into what I assumed a caveman might sound like, though I had no way to know for sure since we hadn’t run into any when we’d visited the Jurassic era. I wish we had. It would have been icy. “I man. You woman. I kill any man who touches woman.”

Grym winced. “Yeah. Sorry about that. I kicked that off pretty quickly after you left. I’m surprised it even affected me. Poison usually doesn’t.”

“Maybe because you were still in your human form?” Grym’s gargoyle form was, not too surprisingly, hard and impermeable. Not much got through it. And his system was attuned to that form. But although most poisonous things didn’t have their full effect on him, occasionally something slipped past his defenses. “I’m glad it’s gone. I kind of like you the way you are.”

His eyes sparkled. “Ditto.”

We stared at the flailing beachballs for a minute. Then I couldn’t help myself. I had to ask. “How are you going to get them down?”

Grym’s lips curved in a slow smile. “Well, there’s only one way to get a balloon to descend.”

I grinned too. I couldn’t help it. “Pop them?”

He nodded. Light filled his gaze as he refocused it on the inflated cherubs.

“How are you going to do it?”

He bent down and pulled something shiny off the floor, holding a tiny arrow up for me to see. “It just so happens I have access to a whole bunch of sharp projectiles. I’m guessing there are a few discarded bows around here somewhere.”

The inherent justice in using the cupid’s bows against them was almost too much. I dissolved into laughter again. And was happy when Grym’s deep chuckles joined with mine.

We were all sitting around the table at Croakies. Grym, me, Sebille, and Archie, trying to come up with a plan for finding the serum and stopping the cherubs.

Archie sipped the tea Sebille had given him. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and I keep coming back to the missing serum.”

I nodded because I agreed. “Whoever was behind the theft has to be the same one sending the evil cherubs around.”

“Did the ogres admit to selling a ward-busting tool like the one they gave you to anyone else?”

“They denied it. But I couldn’t help feeling like they weren’t telling the whole truth.” I glanced at Sebille.

She nodded. “I agree. They’re a slippery bunch.”

I barked out a laugh. “That’s certainly one way to put it.”

“Feel like giving them another visit?” Grym