His eyes went wide. “Cora is friends with a demon?”
“It’s a long story, but demons aren’t monsters. Well, not all of them are. Fee is… She’s special.”
His eyes were glazing over as they studied the plate of eggs and bacon in the center of the table.
I spooned food onto his plate. “Dig in.”
He was instantly animated as he scooped scrambled egg into his tiny mouth and chewed with gusto. Fuck, he was adorable.
He slowed as the plate emptied and looked up at me with a smile showcasing tiny, white, razor-sharp teeth. It was the only vaguely threatening thing about him. The rest of him was cute and cuddly. A moon-shaped face with big round eyes and small round ears positioned at the top of his head like tiny plates. They twitched and twisted from side to side as if picking up radio signals. He had two small slits in his face where a nose would be, and his mouth had a sulky look to it. His hands and feet were paws with tiny talons poking out of them, and his body was covered in soft fur so dark it looked blue.
He was weird and cute, and I had no idea what he was. “Jasper called you a mogwai. What is that?”
He licked his fingers, taking care to clean his talons. “Wren doesn’t know.”
“You don’t?”
“Merkle keep Wren forever.”
“You don’t remember any time before?”
He shook his head again and frowned. “Wren remembers a scent…A safe scent. A warm scent.” His nostrils flared, and he extended his neck my way. “Cora smells safe and warm too. Not the same, but similar.” He nodded and went back to his food.
He’d been taken by Merkle. Kept a prisoner all his life.
“Wren, how old are you?”
He paused, and his brow furrowed. “Don’t know.” He looked worried. “Is that important to Cora?”
“Gosh, no. Eat up. It’s fine.”
“Wren doesn’t want to upset his new mistress.”
“Whoa. Enough of the mistress crap. I’m not your boss, or your keeper, or your owner, because you’re not a possession. Do you understand?”
He tilted his head to the side. “Then Cora want Wren to go?”
“No. I mean, you can go if you want to, but you can also stay if you want to. It’s your choice. You’re free now, Wren.”
“Free…” His eyes grew wide. “Wren can go?”
“Yes.”
He looked at the door, then back at his plate and up at me. “But Wren can stay too.”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Can Wren have more food?”
I chuckled and put more bacon on his plate. He went back to his food, making snuffling sounds as he ate. He was a total squishy, and Fee would love him.
I poured more tea into my mug and shivered as the temperature in the room dropped. My instinct was to get up and turn up the thermostat, but then Wren made a strange sound and keeled over face-first into his plate.
“Wren!”
I scooped him up into my arms, brushing egg off his furry cheek. Had I poisoned him? Did mogwai even eat eggs? Shit. Why hadn’t I checked this stuff? And why the fuck was it so cold?
Wait a second. A drop in temperature could also mean another thing…
Jasper materialized by the sink, and my suspicion was confirmed. “What the fuck?” I cradled Wren. “You could have hurt him.”
“He’ll be fine,” Jasper said. “Mogwai are surprisingly resilient, which is a perk to you ignoring me and bringing him with you.”
Was he implying what I thought he was? “You aren’t seriously contemplating using him as a battery to materialize around me, are you?”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s unfair to Wren.”
He crossed his arms over his broad chest. “And I don’t give a shit.”
Of course he didn’t. I narrowed my eyes. “You hurt him, and I promise you I’ll find a way to make you pay.”
“Your promises don’t mean a huge deal, Cora.” He was referring to the deal I’d broken.
“Yeah, well, some promises shouldn’t be exacted.”
Silence reigned between us for long agonizing seconds.
“Your friend Fee is back,” he said finally. “I suppose you’ll be running off to take up your position as her sidekick.”
Jasper didn’t like Fee. He thought I lived in her shadow. Most of the time, I didn’t give a fuck what Jasper thought, but this issue was a sore subject for me because he had a point.
My life had revolved around my best friend for well...ever. Not that I regretted it. No. It was just that I needed more, and I was making sure to get it with my Magiguard gig. A job that was totally mine.
Jasper needed to back off.
“We’re having supper.”
“And then something will happen, and you’ll be roped into helping her.”
“No.”
“Uh-huh.” A smug smile played on his face, and my hand itched to slap him, but that would mean getting close to him, and close to Jasper was a dangerous place to be.
“Fuck off, Jasper.”
“How mature.”
Wren groaned and opened his eyes and made a strange babbling sound that was almost words but not quite.
I cradled him. “You’ve broken my mogwai.”
Jasper snorted. “You need to get rid of that thing before it hurts you.”
And then, without being asked to, he vanished.
I sat Wren up and smoothed the hair between his ears while he recharged after being siphoned on by Jasper.
“Are you okay?”
“Wren a little tired.”
“It’s okay. You can have a TV day today.”
“Tee Vee.”
Oh boy, he was in for a treat. I’d join him, but I had an antsy feeling in my bones that sitting at home wasn’t going to quell. I needed to get out and do something, and there was always one thing that cheered me up.
The mall was going to get a workout, and Jasper and his insinuations could go take a leap.
I wasn’t anyone’s sidekick.
And I wasn’t anyone’s battery.
Never again.
Chapter Five
Two pairs of boots, a fur-lined, fitted jacket, and a cute clutch bag later, my credit card was in tears and begging me to stop the abuse already.
“Ooo,” the ghostly shop assistant said. “This scarf will go perfectly with your cornflower blue eyes.” She dimpled ethereally at me and held the scarf up to me like a sacred offering. “And it’ll totally bring out the gold in your hair.”
Argh, I wanted the scarf so bad, and then I caught sight of the price tag. “Whoa, you’re good.”
She shrugged. “Did this for a living when I was… Well, living.”
I wanted to ask what happened, but in spirit circles it was bad taste to do so. If a spirit wanted to divulge their death story, they would.
“How long have you worked here?”
“Three months. I don’t get picked up for another six.”
Yeah, I knew all about how it worked. I’d worked for Soul Savers Inc, the company that collaborated with the Underealm to organize Reaper pick-ups for souls. In the meantime, these souls were given jobs and places to haunt until their time was really up. Necro City was crawling with ghosts. But most of the time, they made themselves invisible to human and outlier eyes.