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

protein bar are you doing? Get the sample and let’s get out of here!”

I blinked, glancing up at the sky above me. Two fairies fought with flashing blades and colorful energy blasts. Smoke filled the lush garden and the ground rumbled as fairy energy blasted and something exploded not far from where I stood.

Oh. Yeah. The poison. I bent down and reached for the feather just as a particularly powerful blast shook the ground beneath my feet and caused the trellis to wobble.

The flower’s poisonous hairs barely missed my arm. I jerked away from them, the last of the muzziness draining from my brain.

I grabbed the feather and quickly dipped its tip into the glossy pool of liquid in the center of the bloom.

“Ugh!” A foul gust of black mist shot up from the flower as the poison clung to the feather. The nasty mist stung my face and eyes and I stumbled back.

“Naida!” Sebille screamed again.

The feather wobbled in my fingers, trying to escape my grip. I held on. “I’m coming!”

I turned to leave the trellis. I didn’t make it. On the heels of another concussive blast, the entire structure wobbled sideways and fell on top of me.

I screamed as the poisonous thorns of the vining pierced my skin.

The feather jerked violently and flew out of my grip, floating skyward.

“No!” I tried to grab it, but the thing was too fast.

“Naida?” Grym’s voice said, filled with worry. “Are you okay?”

Other than several seriously burning holes in my arm and shoulder, stinging eyes, and a general feeling that I was going to collapse, I felt great. “I’m fine. Help me out of here, will you?”

Lea came running down the path, her glamour gone and her hair flying out behind her. “We need to get out of here. Sampson and Lovelace are barely holding her off.” I spared her a quick glance and saw the little brownie running along behind her.

Good. That was good.

Grym grabbed my hand and yanked me to my feet. Agony slithered through the entire left side of my body and my leg buckled out from under me.

“Naida?”

My stomach clenched in sizzling pain. Nausea burned and Fire scalded along my flesh. Something acidic oozed from the thorn holes and scorched its way down my arm. I was pretty sure I could feel blisters forming in its path.

Grym tried to haul me off my feet.

“Don’t touch the poison!” I screamed, suddenly sure I’d make him sick too.

Energy exploded around him, the light burning my eyes and making me stumble back. He wrapped a hard, muscular arm around my middle and threw me over his rock-like shoulder.

He’d transformed again. His gargoyle form was impervious to most poisons.

“Good idea,” I mumbled as my world turned charcoal at the edges.

“Come on!” Sebille screamed. The last thing I heard before the world fell away was the sound of fairy wings beating Hades out of that horrible garden.

27

You’re Invited to Attend a Special Event

I woke sometime later and jerked upright. “Hobs!” My gaze shot around the room. I was relieved to see I was in my apartment. In my own bed. Something eased in my chest.

But Hobs wasn’t where we’d left him. And Doctor Whom’s traveling birdhouse was gone.

I shoved at the blankets and stood, nearly hitting the floor again as dizziness swamped me. I eased myself back onto the mattress, breathing through the woozy feeling.

Sebille’s voice rang out loud and clear in the Make Me a Magic Muffin song. The sprite opened the bathroom door a minute later. She looked at me and frowned. “What are you doing?”

I squinted. “Right at this moment, I’m trying to whittle two Sebilles down to one,” I told her.

Both sprites gave me a crooked grin. “That’s probably from the poison. Nasty stuff. Whom almost couldn’t save you.”

She didn’t have to be so cheerful about it.

Blood fled my face in a wave. “How long have I been out?”

Sebille shrugged. “Long enough to annoy the hobgoblin out of here.”

Relief washed through me. “He’s okay?”

“Right as rain. The feather with the Obsession sample arrived here shortly after you dropped it and Whom set to work right away healing the little runt.” Her eyes sparkled. “That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s in Lurve.”

I shoved at the covers, scooting back with the intention of laying down again. “The brownie?”

She nodded. “I’ll let him tell you. You want tea?”

“Yes! Please.” My stomach gurgled. “And some toast?”

She rolled her eyes, clearly feeling put upon. But at least my double vision had resolved and there was only one of her. The thought of two Sebilles nearly finished what the poison had started.

I shoved my feet back under the covers. My toes met warm fur. Something squeaked, and I yelped, jerking my feet back.

A tiny white mouse clambered out from beneath the covers, ears and whiskers twitching with pique. Another followed on its tail and another. The entire “nest” encompassed six of the irritated little rodents. “What the?”

Sebille turned away from the teapot. “Your medicine. They’re hiding from the cat.”

I sighed. One of the downsides of using Doctor Whom was that he gave out mice as medicine. It probably seemed reasonable to him, being an owl and all, but for the rest of us, it was an exercise in frustration. I certainly wasn’t going to gobble the little guys. But I couldn’t just put them out on the street either. I had no idea if they knew how to fend for themselves out there.

I patted the covers on my lap and the tiny critters filed over and curled up again, settling back to sleep with a chorus of tiny sighs.

I grinned. “We’ll have to find homes for them, or Wicked and Hex will drive them crazy.” I’d had the “talk” with Wicked about eating my medicine more than once. But he had a cat’s instincts and didn’t seem able to keep himself from chasing them.

Sebille handed me a steaming mug of tea and set the plate of toast down on