Love Croakies Sam Cheever (red queen ebook txt) 📖

was pummeling another cherub with the fashionable leather weapon.

Devin had a big hand around the throat of one cherub and was stabbing the knife at the other, continually missing as the thing dodged easily from side to side.

As I shoved to my feet, my horrified gaze spotted another cherub speeding through the air in Devin’s direction.

I threw up my right hand, my brain automatically registering the soughing sound of air being displaced by a flying artifact. A stiff width of felt met my palm, and I looked down at a wide-brimmed felt hat with a hard brim.

Devin went down under three cupids, his husky cries turning my blood cold. His form became indistinct, wavering in the light, and started to grow. Dense gray fur sprouted along his arms.

He was shifting.

The cop dropped the knife and punched a suddenly massive fist into one of the cherub’s faces. The nasty demon flew backward directly at me. I yelped and flung my hands up, not even thinking about the hat I was still clutching. To my surprise, the brim of the hat made a deep slice across the creature’s back.

The cherub screamed and hit the floor near my feet. It promptly turned black and disappeared in a burst of gray dust.

I sneezed as the dust assailed my nostrils.

Devin’s hands had turned to paws and he swung a thick, furred arm at another cherub, raking the nasty bug in four, deep furrows across its chest.

The cherub shot skyward, shrieking in pain, and then plummeted toward the half-shifted cop again. Acting on pure instinct, I threw the hat at the thing like a frisbee. The brim caught the cherub in its middle and the creature slammed into a thick pillar near the stairs and popped into dust.

The hat flew back my way. I threw up a hand and caught it, running at the cupid that was still attacking Nina. It had managed to yank her from behind the bench and was lifting her off the ground, its tiny wings moving as fast as a hummingbird’s. Before I could reach her, a second demon had joined the first and they’d managed to get her a few inches off the floor.

I flew at them, smashing the brim into the first one and then, without thinking, slamming the hat down over the second cherub’s head.

It disintegrated in a puff of dust.

Sebille buzzed past me, and green light filled the air above our heads. When I glanced up, I saw with horror that the air was thick with the ugly little things.

Heavy footsteps announced Grym’s arrival, probably in gargoyle form by the sound of the footfalls.

My left hand shot into the air. A bottle slammed into my palm.

I threw the hat at two cupids diving toward Ralph, hitting first one and then the other. They disintegrated with a satisfying pop.

The hat came soaring back, and I caught it again.

I glanced at the bottle in my hand. “Super Pop. A sugary delight!” the label read.

“Great,” I mumbled. “Soda pop. Not very useful.”

“Behind you!” Nina yelled.

I reacted without thinking, swinging the hat at the demons. Before the artifact could connect, another cherub slammed into me and the hat hit the floor. I fell on top of it, and the cherub attacked, wings humming as its razor-sharp teeth snapped at my throat.

All I had left to fight with was the sugary pop.

I jammed the bottle between the deadly teeth and it broke, spilling the sugary liquid into the cupid’s snapping jaws.

The demon went very still, its black eyes going wide, and with a sound like a balloon inflating, it suddenly expanded and started to float away. It was as if somebody had put an air hose into the thing’s mouth and blown it up.

The cherub floated out of my grip and, tiny arms and legs flailing, sailed away like an ugly dirigible.

“Awesome sauce!” I said.

Another scream pierced the air. My shoulders sagged. I looked around for the culprit and found Nina fighting off three cherubs. With a sigh, I stood, one hand clutching the hat and the other holding the bottom of the broken soda bottle.

With a weary sigh, I trudged toward the battling woman with my strange weapons.

12

Spots to be A-Voided

Nina, Sebille, and I sat on the dust-covered bench where Nina had been hiding. The dusty remains of the cupids would have been off-putting, except that I couldn’t find any part of my person that wasn’t already covered in the stuff. What was a little more cherub dust on my weary butt?

Nina’s hair stood straight up at the top, the fine strands glued together with battle gore. Her eyes were white spheres in a sea of gray grime. She stared straight ahead, one hand rubbing her copious baby bump, and said nothing for long moments.

Devin had been over several times to make sure she was okay. She’d nod each time, give him a weary smile, and then insist she was fine and that he should go back to work.

I wasn’t sure if she was a strong woman or just so freaked out by what had happened to her that she’d gone to that special place in her mind.

Beside me, the sprite looked fairly unaffected by the great battle of the demonic cherubs. She was inspecting the split hairs on the end of one of her long, red braids when I glanced her way. “What took you guys so long?” I asked, flinching at the accusatory tone of my question.

Sebille fixed me with a haughty look.

“Sorry,” I said. “I’m a little grumpy.”

Sebille rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t a walk in the mall down there, you know. We kicked some serious cherub butt before we came up here.” She grimaced. “Grym’s cleaners are going to need a lot of vacuum bags.”

I nodded. “It could be worse. At least the little guys pouffed into dust instead of entrails.”

Sebille’s gaze rose slowly upward to the glass dome at the center of the mall. “Except for those guys.”

Half a dozen cherub balloons were stuck