Crap.

  I paused to aim my cane at his phone. “Disfare!”

  A cone of raw energy swallowed his device, blowing out the circuitry. He dropped it with a small yelp, but I’d lost ground on Janelle. Kayla, who had entered the house behind me, collided into my back.

  “Keep the grandparents away,” I panted. Then to Janelle: “Wait!”

  She’d entered a room off the end of the hallway. When I arrived moments later, I found little Oliver standing against the wall, a Garfield blanket clutched to his chest, round eyes fixed on the open closet opposite the foot of his bed. We’d gotten the right bedroom this time, only I couldn’t see anything.

  “Ollie, baby, what is it?” his mother asked. “What’s wrong?”

  He didn’t so much as glance over. I was switching to my wizard’s senses when something shifted in the back of the closet. A moment later, it skittered into the light of the room. The object took a moment to make sense of, but it was the Babaroga’s horn, crawling on what looked like a set of gnarled crab legs. It rotated until the horn’s pointed end was aimed at Oliver, as if claiming him.

  “Get back,” I said to Janelle, who was between me and the horn.

  But she’d already raised the gun to her shoulder. “Cover your ears, baby.”

  Oliver’s wrists went to the sides of his head an instant before she squeezed. The deafening blast sent the horn airborne in a burst of powder.

  But as the horn collided into a wall, the legs sprang out, becoming fingers. The rest of the Babaroga emerged behind them, black rags billowing as she landed in the room on taloned feet. The horn was now seated in her forehead. It parted her dank, oil-black hair, revealing a pair of murderous eyes the color of rotten squash. And she was huge, the hump of her bent back nearly touching the ceiling.

  Oliver released another shrill scream.

  I dropped Tabitha’s carrier, producing an explosion of swearing, but before I could move past Janelle, she fired again.

  The Babaroga took the shot in the chest, black smoke breaking past her face, but she barely flinched. A bone-thin arm slashed across the room. Janelle cried out as nails raked her and knocked the gun from her grip. Clutching her right forearm to her chest, Janelle lunged between the creature and her son.

  “Back off!” she screamed at the monstrosity, blood spilling between her fingers.

  The Babaroga was no doddering hag. She was large and lightning fast, with enormous hands for snatching and a mouth that stretched from ear to ear for devouring. The horrible gargle in her throat sounded like a cross between laughter and retching. Her other arm lashed out, but I shouted an invocation first.

  “Vigore!”

  The force that erupted from my cane shot past Janelle, scattering her braids, and caught the Babaroga in the face. Her head snapped and she staggered backwards, fingernails grooving the walls.

  “Cover Oliver!” I said to Janelle.

  She’d ignored my directives thus far, but that one seemed to get through. She took her son to the floor and used her body to shield him.

  With nothing standing between the Babaroga and me now, I separated my cane into sword and staff, an acid bite of fear in my throat. The creature had caught herself in front of the closet, her obscenely large hands gripping the sides of the opening. She yanked, propelling herself back toward me.

  I thrust my staff and shouted, “Protezione!”

  Light crackled from the staff’s opal end and hardened into a blunt barrier that caught the arriving Babaroga in the gut. I swung my sword at her horn. The blade scraped off it at a bad angle, leaving it intact.

  Need to trap her for a cleaner cut.

  Staff raised, I spoke into the air between us. Light glistened along hard, transparent edges. When the Babaroga rushed in again, I slammed the walls of air closed around her, leaving only an opening for her horn.

  I raised my blade to pry it lose. She responded by thrashing and shaking. The motion emitted a disorganizing energy, rippling my manifestation. I pushed more power into the trap, but it only made her more frenetic. And now nightmare visions of bloody caves and children’s cries were jagging through my head.

  “What in the ever-loving hell is going on in here!”

  I looked over to find the grandmother arriving in the doorway. She stopped suddenly, the color falling from her face as her gaze moved from me to the thrashing monstrosity.

  “I tried to keep her away,” Kayla called, appearing behind her, “but she’s a lot stronger than she looks!”

  The grandfather poked his head over her shoulder and took in the scene. “My shell!” he exclaimed, pointing at the horn set in the Babaroga’s forehead, as if ID’ing a stolen item.

  Meanwhile, Kayla was fishing in her bag for something. She pulled out a large reddish-brown mineral—her prized carnelian crystal. What pointless plan she had in mind for it, I couldn’t begin to guess.

  Still struggling to contain the Babaroga, I shouted, “Get them out of here!”

  Kayla returned the crystal to her bag and corralled the grandparents into the room opposite us.

  At the same moment, my enclosure around the Babaroga failed. Talons flashed, batting down my blade. A backhand of knotted knuckles caught me in the side. I shot against the wall, pain spearing my ribs, and spilled to the floor. Potions and spell implements fell from my pockets.

  Shallow nether creatures are sooo much easier, I thought of my normal work.

  By the time I winced myself upright, the Babaroga was facing Oliver. Though Janelle was still covering him, one of his socked feet was poking out from under her stomach. Gleeful-sounding gibberish poured from the creature’s mouth as she spotted it too. Still dazed, I attempted a protection, but the gathered energy scattered like smoke. The Babaroga grabbed Oliver’s foot—then screamed and retracted her hand.

  Tabitha had bitten her.

  My freed cat stalked forward, a low caterwaul in her throat. The Babaroga took an uncertain step back—as much from the menacing ginger tabby as from the blood-red energy growing around her. Wispy tendrils stretched from Tabitha and caressed the creature. I didn’t know if a Babaroga could be seduced, but this was clearly her first exposure to a succubus’s power, and it was confusing the hell out of her.

  It also bought me time.

  I looked around at the various tubes and bags that had spilled from my coat pockets. They would either be ineffective against a creature of her strength, or too dangerous to deploy in a confined space.

  A confined space…

  “Kayla!” I called.

  She appeared from the room across the hall, stuffing the grandparents back inside before closing the door again.

  “Your crystal!” I shouted.

  Nodding quickly, she pulled it from her bag and underhanded it to me. I caught it and wheeled toward the Babaroga, who was shaking off her confusion. A nasty foot struck out from under her rags and caught my cat in the gut. Tabitha went yowling through the air, landing somewhere behind the bed. The Babaroga waved away the lingering red mist with a hand and reoriented herself to Oliver.

  Just need to get this thing inside her, I thought, palming the crystal.

  Too fast, the Babaroga’s arm shot out, seizing Oliver’s entire leg. He screamed. Janelle began beating her arm. Unfazed, the creature dragged Oliver out from under her, pulling him toward her yawning mouth.

  “Ollie!” Janelle cried, grasping for his hands before losing them.

  I lunged forward and crammed the crystal into the back of the Babaroga’s mouth. She gargled violently. Nerve endings shrieked in my upper arm as she clamped down with her teeth. I winced as much from the pain as the horrid smell coming out of her, but I kept pushing, kept forcing the crystal down.

  When it was well inside her throat, I gathered my power and shouted, “Disfare!”

  The invocation that surged through my mental prism and down my arm became trapped inside the crystal. There it vibrated, the energy multiplying inside the carnelian’s sheer faces, gaining strength.

  The Babaroga’s teeth clamped down harder. I bit back my pain as the teeth punched through sinew and ground into bone. Much more and I’d lose the arm at the shoulder. Amoeba-like spots swarmed my vision.

  At last, the energy overcame the crystal’s resistance and exploded.

  I stumbled from the violent flash. A torrent of Babaroga body parts hit the walls in a rotten splatter before crumbling into piles of ash over the floor. All except for her horn, which hovered before dropping like a weight. I grabbed it out of the air, emptied a pile of salt from my pocket, added dragon sand, and dropped the horn on top. Shaping a cylinder of air, I uttered, “Fuoco.”

  A bright column of flames burst from the sand, singeing the ceiling, then dropped down again, engulfing the horn. From inside, faint shrieking sounded. But that too dampened, and then died out altogether.

  By the time the flames were exhausted, the horn looked like a black chunk of cinder.

  Dispersing the cylinder, I stepped forward, but Janelle beat me to the final deed. With a decisive stomp, she brought her boot heel down onto the horn and ground it apart.

  “Mama?”

  We both turned to find Oliver sitting up, his arms reaching toward her.

  “I’m here, baby,” she said, picking him up and hugging him against her. “I’m right here.”

  He hugged her back with both arms and legs. “Mama,” he repeated, but with conviction this time.

  His first spoken word in months, and it was a good one, confirmed by Janelle’s snuffling laugh.

  I looked around for Tabitha and found her pawing one of the piles of the Babaroga’s ashes as if she’d just relieved herself. In fact, I was sure she had. On the floor nearby was the carnelian crystal. I picked it up and carried it to Kayla, who had observed the incredible sequence of events from the doorway.

  “Is it all over?” she asked.

  Though bruised, battered, and bleeding down my arm, I managed a smile.

  “It’s over.”

  11

  One week later

  “I don’t see her anywhere,” Tabitha complained from inside her carrier, “and I’m getting a chill.”

  We were on the sidewalk in front of the Superhero Depot, and Kayla was late, but the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The cold front that had pushed off the November heatwave scattered fall leaves along the street and buffeted my trench coat. Autumn was back, and at least one of us was enjoying it.

  “Remember last week when you said you were so hot you would never complain about the cold again?” I reminded her.

  “With my luck, I’m coming down with something terminal,” she pouted.

  I rolled my eyes, knowing what she was really after. “If you want to go in, just say it.”

  “And be besieged by those little cretins? I’d rather take my chances with pneumonia.”

  Recognizing her resistance as token, I carried her inside. I avoided Clark, who was helping someone at the register, and headed for the back, where I opened the bookcase onto the secret passageway.

  It was Friday afternoon, and the tutoring center was full. Kayla had wanted us to meet her here for a surprise, which I thought was going to be Oliver’s return, but he wasn’t here. Even Tabitha couldn’t hide the disappointment in her eyes. I imagined the boy was entangled in legal doings over his custody and would be for some time.

  Troy, aka Fade Cut, twisted around in his seat.

  “Hey, it’s that dude Everson and his cat! And she’s even fatter than the last time!”

  He led the charge toward us. I lifted the carrier over their heads as the kids pressed around and jumped for her. Tabitha peered down from her perch, clearly lording over the attention. I even caught a small grin.

  “Garfield?” someone said.

  The kids quieted and turned. I almost didn’t recognize the little boy coming toward us. Neither did anyone else, it seemed. His chestnut eyes beamed above his broad, boyish smile. The volunteers broke up the kids and ushered them back to their seats, all except for Oliver. I had told Kayla that children’s auras were resilient, but holy hell. Oliver’s entire being was brimming with light.

  “Hey, buddy,” I said, feeling as though I were witnessing a miracle. “How are you doing?”

  “Great,” he replied brightly, but he only had eyes for Tabitha, whom I lowered again. “Look what I’m wearing,” he said, twirling so that the big G on his cape swelled in and out of her view. Then to me: “Can I?”

  I looked at Tabitha, who gave a tired shrug as if she would tolerate him.

  Oliver’s mother, who had entered the tutoring center behind him said, “Fine with me.”

  “Just take her to the back away from the other kids,” I whispered to Oliver. “Troy, especially.”

  He accepted the carrier in his eager hands and hurried off, talking a mile a minute through the mesh door.

  I shook my head. “Unbelievable.”

  “Right?” Janelle came up beside me. “Every day’s been better than the last. It’s like he’s making up for lost time.”

  “Any lingering effects?”

  “None that I can see. He sleeps through the night and wakes up smiling, stoked for the new day.”

  “How about you?”

  She held up the arm that the Babaroga had gashed. “Whatever you did fixed it right up. She was referring to my healing spell, the same spell I’d applied to my own shoulder, the soreness only now leaving the tissue.

  “And the custody situation…?” I asked carefully.

  “His grandparents dropped the case. We worked out something with a mediator that’s going to be good for everyone. Oliver most of all.” She extended her hand toward me. “Thanks for everything.”

  I accepted her firm shake. “Just glad I could help.”

  We turned to watch Oliver. He’d opened the carrier door and was trying to coax Tabitha out.

  “So, not allergic to cats?” I joked.

  Janelle laughed. “Nah, Oliver loves them. I just wanted to set some ground rules with you. But now that we’re buds, you’re welcome to come over with your cat whenever you want. Just use the front door next time.”

  Now it was my turn to laugh.

  She looked around. “Kayla said she’d be here, but I’ve got an appointment to get to. Can you tell her I’ll be back to pick him up? Oh, and…” She pulled a piece of paper from her purse. “Oliver drew this last night. I want you to have it.” It was a picture of a large ginger cat with luminous green eyes.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said.

  “Since that night, it’s all he’s been drawing.”

  As she left, she passed Clark, who had entered the tutoring center at some point. He opened his mouth, but when she ignored him, he closed it again. I strolled over.

  “Everson,” he said formally.

  I stood beside him. “I’m not going to add insult to injury—I know you thought you were doing your job—but Kayla was right about Oliver. I can’t explain how, but she knows things. Try to listen to her next time.”

  He nodded as if he would take it under advisement and hurried off to talk to one of the volunteers.

  “Psst,” someone whispered.

  I turned. From the secret corridor, Kayla’s pixie hair glowed moon white. She hooked a finger for me to join her. I looked over at Oliver, who was giggling and hugging Tabitha. My cat stared at me with a flat-eared frown that suggested she was nearing her capacity for attention. Another few minutes wouldn’t kill her.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Kayla whispered as I joined her in the shadows of the narrow corridor. “I wanted you to see him for yourself.”

  “It’s amazing. But what are we doing in here?”

  “I overheard what you said to Clark.” Her eyes beamed up at me. “I really appreciate that.”

  “But for you, that little boy wouldn’t be here.”

  “It helps knowing a wizard. We make a good team.”

  “We do, don’t we?”

  I was suddenly aware of how close we were. As if by some gravitational force, our faces were drawing together, a scent of sage and sandalwood filling my breathing. An inch apart, she touched her forehead to mine.

  “It wouldn’t last,” she whispered. “I’ve read your future, and it’s with a woman who isn’t me. Someone you’ve already met.”

  As if coming out of a spell, I straightened and coughed into a fist.

  “My wisdom’s suggesting I not complicate our friendship,” she said, touching her hair.

  Though still dizzy with our near-kiss, I nodded in agreement. “What I told Clark,” I said. “If I’m being honest, it was as much for me as for him. I’ve doubted you, too, and I’m sorry about that.”

  She seized my lapels and yanked me in. Her kiss was as close to my mouth as one could get while still technically being on my cheek. I was tempted to correct that as I reciprocated, but her wisdom was right. My relationships since becoming a wizard rarely ended well, and I decided I wanted Kayla to remain a part of my life.

  As we separated, she smiled shyly and smoothed my lapels.

  “How about a couple magic tricks for the kids?” she said.

  12

  I sank into my reading chair that evening, cracked a beer, and took a long swallow. My little celebration for our happy ending on the Babaroga case. I looked from Oliver’s drawing of Tabitha, which I’d taped above her divan, to the model herself, dozing comfortably. When she caught me watching, she squinted irritably.

  “Can I get you anything?” I asked.

  “We’re not talking,” she reminded me.

  “Oh, c’mon. Suspending you in midair and having you somersault was a great trick. Didn’t you see the kids’ faces? They loved it.”

  “How could I see their faces when everything was spinning violently? They’re lucky I didn’t projectile vomit all over them.”

  “Admit it. You enjoyed their attention.”

  “I’m over it.”

  I laughed triumphantly. “I knew it! You have a soft spot for kids.”