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“It is.” It’s not finished, either. Not by a long shot.
She patted the afghan still on my lap. “Did you make this?”
“Yes.”
“It’s nice. Can I use it?”
I put it on her. She kicked the blanket off and wrapped herself in the afghan, like a little mouse nesting.
“It’s soft,” she said and fell asleep.
A VOICE SPREAD THROUGH THE APARTMENT, PURElike a crystal bell, sweet like honey, soft like velvet.“Girl…Want girl.”
I opened my eyes. The magic was up, setting the bars on the windows aglow with ethereal bluish light. I saw Julie slip into the hallway, a ghostly, silent shape in the darkness of the night-drenched apartment.
“Girl…”It was coming from the outside.
My fingers found Slayer’s textured hilt. I took it, rose, and followed her.
“Need girl…Girl…Want girl…”
Outside the kitchen window, a pale shade floated an inch from the glass and my ward. Female, with a delicate, almost elven face and a heartbreaking body, she looked into my house with lavender eyes. Her skin glowed with a faint silver radiance. Improbably thick, long hair streamed from her head, coiling like tentacles.“Giiiirl,” the creature sang, stretching her arms to the window.“Neeed…where, where?”
Hi. And what kind of screwed-up beastie would you be?
On my kitchen table, crouched atop a crumpled curtain, sat Julie. She had worked the window latch open and was trying to pry the mechanism securing the iron grate.
I put Slayer down and took Julie by her waist. She clutched at the bars.
The creature hissed. Her jaws unhinged with reptilian flexibility, baring rows of anglerfish teeth in a black mouth. A strand of her hair whipped at the window, aiming for the kid. The ward reacted with a pulse of angry carmine. The creature jerked in pain.
I pulled on Julie. “Julie. Let go.”
Julie snarled something wordless and charged with fury. I dug my heels in and pulled harder, throwing all of my strength and weight into it. Julie’s fingers slipped and I almost crashed to the floor. She kicked, struggling like a pissed-off cat. I dragged her off into the bathroom, dumped her into the tub, and slammed the door shut behind us. With a howl, Julie launched herself at me. Her nails raked my arm. I grasped her by the back of the neck, forcing her down into the tub, and opened the cold water tap. She writhed under my hand, spitting and biting. I dunked her under the stream and held her there.