I had company. She puts something in the food and water.”
“You mean someone’s drugged you? That’s awful.” He was filthy and he smelled, but his eyes were beautiful, a deep glowing purple. “You should have them arrested.”
He chuckled. “I’ll do worse than that, if I get out of here. You got a name, Lollipop?”
“Sassy Peterson.”
“Peterson, huh? Any relation to Trey?”
“He was my brother. You knew him?”
“We met.” He pushed to a sitting position and gave her a tipsy half bow. “Evan Beck, at your service.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Dunno.” He scratched his black beard. “What day is it?”
“The fifteenth.”
“Of April?”
“Goodness, no. It’s the fifteenth of May.”
“Then I’ve been here more than a month.” He tugged a lock of matted hair. “That’s why the old biddy’s unhappy with me. The fatted calf ain’t fattening up fast enough.”
Sassy stared at him in horror. “You aren’t seriously suggesting this person intends to eat you.”
“’Fraid so.”
“But why?”
He shrugged. “I got in her way.”
“What about your friends . . . your family, won’t they be looking for you?”
“I’ve got a sister, but she thinks I left town.” He pushed a knotted hank of hair out of his eyes and gave her the once-over. “You’re a tasty little piece. She must be saving you for dessert. What’d you do to piss her off?”
“I didn’t do anything. I fell out of the tree. The roof broke my fall.”
“What the hell were you doing in a tree?”
“Freeing the fairies,” Sassy said. “I opened the cage and let them out.”
Evan jumped up. “You what?”
“I had to do something. They were dying.”
“Oh, shit. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s a goddamn do-gooder.”
“I suppose you would have left them there?”
“Damn straight.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“The hell I don’t.”
Sassy shook her head. “It’s the stress talking. Very understandable, after what you’ve been through.”
“You don’t know shit about me, sugar tits.”
Sassy stiffened. “Don’t be vulgar.”
“Cut the crap, prissy britches. You drank the witch’s fairy juice. That’s why you’re lit up like a Christmas tree. Well, you’re in the shitter now, babe. The witch don’t take kindly to meddlers.”
“I did not drink it,” Sassy said, indignant at the suggestion. “The jar came loose and the fairy gunk hit me in the face. It was an accident.”
“You got splooged. That’s your story?” Ignoring her gasp of outrage, Evan dumped the contents of the bucket on the floor and turned it upside down.
“Where are you going?” Sassy said.
“Either you broke the spell the old hag put around the shed when you opened the jar, or she didn’t bother to shield the roof. I’m out of here.”
“You can’t leave me.”
“Oh, yeah? Watch me.”
He hefted his body through the hole in the ceiling and disappeared.
“Come back,” Sassy cried, rolling to her knees.
She froze as a chilling howl shattered the quiet night. Oh, God, it was the thing from the road. It would take more than a few overgrown sticker bushes to keep that nightmare out. Sassy gritted her teeth and dragged herself over to the upended bucket. Ignoring the ring of ooze leaking from underneath the slop jar, she put her hands on the metal bottom and pushed to her feet. The blood rushed to her sore ankle, and she winced in pain.
She was looking up at the ceiling, trying to judge the distance, when Evan stuck his head back through the gap in the straw.
“Shag your ass, Lollipop, unless you wanna get et.”
“I can’t. I think I broke my ankle when I fell.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“No, I’m not, and stop swearing. I don’t like it.”
Evan let loose a blistering stream of foul words in response, and dropped back through the hole.
“Where did you come from, Miss Goody Two-shoes, the moon? You’re about to be a Sassy sandwich, and you’re bitching about my language. I’ve met a lot of supers in my time, but you take the prize.”
“Supers? I don’t know what you mean.”
There was a loud crash from the direction of the cottage, followed by a grinding snarl.
Evan’s head snapped up. “Hear that? That’s the witch. Now we’re both screwed. No good deed goes unpunished.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“You are such a Lollipop.”
“How did she catch you?” Sassy asked.
“She tricked me. She was the cutest little granny you ever saw before she broke out in ugly.”
“Cheesy Pete,” Sassy said, remembering her fairy tales. “She’s been cursed. That’s why she trapped the fairies, to break the spell.”
“Or maybe she likes a glass of fairy juice with her Cheerios.” His teeth flashed white in his dirty, bearded face. “And you