In fact, she was very clear about the notion they weren’t dangerous. Though, why the feeling was so vivid, she couldn’t say. She possessed her own kind of intuition for sure, but it was a very average sort of intuition. This? Well, this sort of intuition was different.
Nina’s patted the back of her head before her cool fingers clasped her neck. “More times than Marty’s got lipsticks. Keep breathing.”
“I’m really dizzy,” Poppy complained, her spine beginning to ache.
“It’s those pants,” Nina commented. “Always wondered how Stanley managed to squeeze into ’em without popping the top of his head off.
A soft hand reached down and grabbed Poppy’s, pulling her up and holding her firm when she stumbled from lack of blood flow. “Let her up, Nina.” The lady named Marty righted Poppy and smiled. “So tell us what happened so we best know how to help you.”
Poppy stared at the woman with eyes of cornflower blue and hair in more shades of blonde than she even knew existed, and thought about her request. She wasn’t quite sure how this had happened…or if anything had really happened at all.
Marty pressed with a warm smile, “Poppy, honey? How did this happen?”
Words escaped her.
But they didn’t escape the cat. It hopped down from the garden wall and wound its long tail around Marty’s legs. “Ask me, Bleached One. I know how it happened.”
The woman named Wanda bent and scooped the cat up, snuggling her close to her porcelain cheek with a smile. “What kind of mischief have you been into now, Miss Calamity?” she asked, her tone oozing indulgence.
Calamity purred in return, curling into Wanda’s arms. “It was an accident, I swear, Wanda.”
Nina tweaked the cat’s ear, her face stern against the backdrop of the dark night. “Quit coddlin’ her like she’s some baby, Wanda. She was out way past curfew, which is bullshit. She damn well knows better. And lay off the tuna when I’m not lookin’. It makes her puke.”
Wanda flapped an irritated hand at Nina before resuming her cuddle with the cat. “Hush. She’s just acting out because you’re so hard on her. Now, tell Auntie Wanda what happened here, Calamity, and I promise there’ll be some warm milk tonight before bed.”
Calamity purred and brushed Wanda’s cheek with her paw. “Okay, it went down like this. M to the C to the Guill-i-cudd-E was spinning records at this lame Halloween party—”
“A party you didn’t ask fucking permission to go to,” Nina growled, her black eyes narrowing as she jammed her hands into her hoodie pockets.
Calamity stopped purring and gave Nina a hard glare. “You don’t ask permission to crash a party, Beastmaster. It’s not a goddamn crash if you ask for entry. Anyway, I was chillin’ to Poppy’s beat and I got a little carried away when I broke out my smooth MC Hammer moves. I tripped on a glass of water, knocked it over on the wiring for the speakers, which I’m pretty sure weren’t up to code, and wham! Almost electrocuted Poppy. So I try to do the right thing by knocking her wee sprite ass out of the way with my magic, but I slipped and fell into her, and then we both fell—”
“Into the puddle of water!” Poppy spat as she retreated from her fog, the entire episode coming together in a clatter of memory. “That’s exactly what happened! When the cat jumped on me, she dug her claws into my shoulder, and I tripped and fell into the water where the speaker wires were. See?” She pulled her pleather jacket with the stars she’d bedazzled on herself away from her shoulder, pointing to the scratch marks to show the women.
Marty winced, leaning in closer to inspect her wounds.
Nina swished a hand at Marty, pointing to her purse. “Dig around in your mom bag there and get this kid some Neosporin, Blondie.”
But Poppy waved a hand in dismissive fashion. “I swear I saw stars and a big flash of light. Then there was this tingle…like a weird shiver that raced all along my limbs, and then the cat was freaking out and yelling at me to come outside and call you before someone, I can’t remember who, came and picked me up—”
“That bitch Cecily from Familiar Central,” Calamity interjected with a scoff. “Swear, she can smell a newb from a realm away. She’s gonna show up here and demand to take DJ Puts The Needle On The Record back to the realm so she can claim her as her own, and I’ll be dipped in cow dung before I’ll let that happen.”
“Claim me?” Poppy squeaked, scanning the dark neighborhood for this woman named Cecily.