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Those things out there do not appear to be aware of her as anything but another mortal. I sense no interest at all.

“Intriguing.”

Extremely.

Nobody knew who Cat was, but Cat was in the game. “Old Bones, this may be more complicated than I thought.”

Probably. And she may be more of a challenge than I had anticipated. Her mind has a remarkably stout shell surrounding it. It conceals her memories and all but her surfacemost thoughts. There is enough on the surface, though, to confirm the notion that she serves neither the Shayir nor the Godoroth.

“That’s hot news. Shucks. Recomplication wasn’t what I wanted right now.”

Dean continued to grumble his way up the hall. He had a pie in the oven and didn’t think it was reasonable that he be expected to watch the door as well. We were turning into a bunch of cranky old men.

Had to be the Dead Man’s wicked influence.

Pshaw! Allow her to knock a second time before you open the door, Dean. I need time to get the bird back here.

Dean responded with select commentary worthy of Mr. Big himself. I have to admit I felt a certain sympathy for his position.

Go into your office, Garrett.

He was surly. Still had that one eye inside my head.

I went, but watched as long as I dared.

Dean stiffened, presumably getting instructions. He really hates having the Dead Man get into his head. I managed to get out of sight before he yanked the door open, not waiting for any damned second knock while his pie was baking.

The Goddamn Parrot blasted inside, staggering the old man, arriving with his beak going full speed. “Lay your glims on this bimbo! Hooters deluxe!”

“What is that?” Cat squeaked. My erstwhile traveling companion seemed a touch irritable.

Welcome to the house of aggravation, dear.

“A pet. Ignore it. Product of a wastrel youth. It doesn’t understand that it is offensive,” Dean replied. “It escaped some time ago, going out to search for Mr. Garrett, my employer. Mr. Garrett has vanished. Wenching again, no doubt. They were inseparable.”

I considered what choke holds might best serve in a debate with a man Dean’s age.

Garrett. The creature No-Neck has been warned. He recognized the bird but failed to take its message seriously. He seemed to think you were trying to pull some clever practical joke.

Great. “He didn’t get the name No-Neck for no reason,” I whispered. But would I have listened to a talking bird I had met only once, when both of us were drinking?

Probably not.

Unless it was a redhead. Dean. Please close the door.

“Cheap shot!”

The Goddamn Parrot kept yapping like he thought Cat was Winger. Maybe he couldn’t tell the difference.

Near as I could tell from the racket, she kept getting in Dean’s way, possibly because she didn’t know how to deal with the Goddamn Parrot. No matter how obnoxious the critter gets it’s never good manners to stomp somebody’s pet in their own house.

Then the awful truth plopped like a great stinking lump falling behind the tallest herbivorous thunder lizards.

“Hey, Honeybuns, dig the weasel out of this dump and let’s get going.” Yes. Him. And his humming wings.

The Goddamn Parrot shrieked and headed down the hall. Dean clumped after him, exercising his own vocabulary. The bumblebee buzz drifted. I heard rattling at the door to the small front room.

“Nothin’ in there. Stinks, though. That bird. Let’s look at this next one.”

I went over behind my desk and picked up the spare headknocker. It was time to find out how much power a cherub had.

Calmly. Calmly.

The runt’s mouth never stopped. Neither did his banger. The smoke began coming in under my office door.

The Goddamn Parrot’s beak never stopped.

Dean kept swearing.

Cat kept after everybody. She sounded like she was about to break down crying.

Be patient, the Dead Man sent. The girl is rattled. This is to our advantage. I see weaknesses in the armor around her mind.

“Oh, excellent,” I muttered. “And what about that stinking, banger-smoking cherub?”

Cherub?

“The one in the hallway with the rest of that baby riot? The half-bug little guy trying to get into everything?”

Cat shrieked, “Fourteen, stop that!”

Oh. That cherub. And, somehow, I knew he could not sense the little monster at all except through the senses of others. Presumably he was seeing through Cat’s eyes, since I was not out there. Unchosen mortal Dean ought to be blind to the critter.

Would ordinary mortals smell the smoke even if they could not see the smoker?

“That very cherub,” I said. “Since you’ve found these chinks, chip away.” And good luck with the runt. You marvel, you.

Your attitude needs adjustment desperately.

“And you need to get back outside of my head, Chuckles.” Gotcha. I felt his withdrawal. He didn’t do it as a favor to me.

He was going to need all his minds to deal with Cat and Fourteen.

I tried to commune with Eleanor. Eleanor wasn’t interested. And who could blame her?