Meadow lived in a tiny, rundown apartment complex on the other side of town. Small and rundown didn’t mean bad. There were plenty of decent, lower-middle class neighborhoods where good, hardworking folks lived.

This was not one of them.

I drove past some suburban homes, kids playing outside and dogs barking in the yards. Everything seemed sunny and cheerful and then… I turned the corner. A veritable shithole was crammed dead center in the pretty suburban landscape. The buildings were covered in graffiti, parking lot cracked and broken, and the entire place looked like it should have been condemned long ago. I caught sight of a couple of rough-looking figures lurking in a stairwell, probably up to no good.

The lawn was overgrown, and if I hadn’t known better, I would have said the place was abandoned and taken over by the homeless. But the people who lived there weren’t squatters. They were simply so poor, and quite possibly stoned, that they didn’t care about their environment as long as rent was cheap. Not that poor equated stoners, but if a dem was looking for an easy place to find a foothold, the desperate and poor was a good place to start.

I parked and left my car unlocked. There wasn’t anything worth stealing, but if they wanted to look, I didn’t want them busting in my window to do it.

I headed up the external stairs and knocked on Meadow’s door while trying to ignore the pervasive stench. Down the hallway, a stained, old, dirty mattress was propped against the corner and I didn’t want to even think about what caused those stains.

It seemed the high-class mayor had taken to “slumming it” when it came to finding a mistress.

The door slowly swung open, a large, brown eye peering out at me. Not concerning, I’d be wary in this neighborhood too. The large, burnished brown ear that flopped into place amid her copper curls though… Yeah, apparently Boyd had developed a taste for the exotic.

Meadow eased the panel open farther, confirming my suspicion. Her upper body, complete with large breasts hardly hidden behind a skimpy halter top, was all human. Well, minus the pointed ears. The rest of her was all golden red fur and cloven hooves.

Boyd liked him some faun.

Staring at her knees, the way they bent like a goat’s, I wondered how she got on her knees for the mayor without falling over. Which brought up other interesting mental images and I internally shook my head.

“You Meadow?” Because of course a faun would have a name like Meadow.

“Who’s asking?” Now that I could see both eyes, I noticed their glassy, unfocused appearance. Drugged. It certainly explained the “erratic and emotional” behavior the mayor described.

“Your lover boy sent me.”

She looked up at me, or rather, over my shoulder. “Is it tea time? I do rather enjoy a spot of tea.”

All right then. I wondered if she was chatting with a white rabbit and a crazed guy wearing a weird hat. “Yes, it’s tea time.” I’d learned to humor the crazies. “A very special tea that will make you feel better.”

I glanced past her into the apartment. There were a few bags of the demon drug littering the floor. “Yeah, definitely no more sugar for you.”

I helped her wiggle into some clothes to hide those hooves from any humans we might pass and then left her resting on the stained and tattered sofa. I gathered up all the drugs I could find, tossed them into a metal wastebasket and fried it all with a quick shot of hellfire. Enough to get rid of the drugs without entirely misshaping the container. It was only a little lopsided when I was done. I just had to make sure that once she got clean, she stayed clean. I didn’t want to leave any temptation behind.

I led her downstairs, catching a few nasty looks from tweens who’d shown up while I was inside. They obviously knew enough not to mess with me, and it didn’t look like Meadow had any friends who’d be too worried about her being dragged off.

By the time I got her back to Momma R’s, the fairy was just coming around. I dragged Meadow through the door and tossed her onto the couch beside Pinky.

Momma R jumped into witchy mode and pressed a hand to Pinky’s forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” he grunted and took a few deep breaths, stretching his arms up. “My head hasn’t been this clear in days.”

Both Jezze and Momma R looked him over, just to be sure. We got Meadow settled and woke her enough to pour the stuff down her throat too. She was back out like a light.

Then we waited, wanting to make sure our success rate was two for two.

“How much of this can you make? There are a lot of tweeners who need it.”

“The recipe isn’t hard.” Jezze shrugged. “It was more a matter of finding the right recipe. I can call the local healers and let them know. If they all start brewing it, they should be able to distribute it pretty effectively.”

Which was what I liked to hear.

“Good.” I ran a hand through my hair, relieved we had a little good news, finally. “Fuck, but I still gotta find the source and cut this shit off.”

“Just below the chin.” Jezebeth winked.

I rolled my eyes and just enjoyed a breather, waiting for Meadow to wake up. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long. The woman wiggled and stretched, releasing a low baaah as she woke. She looked around in confusion, rubbing one of her brown ears. Her eyes looked clearer and thankfully I didn’t see a trace of demon red in them.

“Where am I?” Her voice had that little pout that annoyed the hell out of me and she poked out her lower lip.

“Someplace safe.” I sat on the coffee table, trying not to look like I was ready to shake answers out of her. “Do you remember what happened?”

She blinked those wide brown eyes at me and shook her head.

“Whatever you’ve been taking,” I held up one of the empty baggies, “did a real number on you. You’ve been out of your head and haven’t exactly been as discreet as Mayor Boyd would like. You stalked him at home?”

A look of horror spread over her features when I reminded her about the way she’d been acting. “Oh, no.” She covered her mouth with her hands. “My baby. Is he mad at me?”

I looked Meadow over. Her human bits were plump and voluptuous and while I wasn’t a goat connoisseur, she seemed to have a nice figure there, too. I reached out and patted her knee. “I’m sure he’ll get over it.”

She jumped up and pressed her hands to her chest. “I should go talk to him and apologize.” She shook her head, copper curls bouncing. “It wasn’t really me acting like that.”

I stepped in front of her, stopping her from her race to City Hall. “Maybe you should give him a day or two. He’s gotta help the city through this crisis. Election year, you know?”

“Oh.” Her ears drooped and lower lip poked out. “I guess you’re right.”

“And before you go, I have questions. Where’d you get that crap?”

She shrugged and looked away, no longer meeting my gaze. “A dealer.”

“Uh-huh. Which dealer? This isn’t your average street drug. It’s demon brewed with dark magic. Nasty stuff and it’s all over town. I need to know the source.”

“I don’t really remember.” Her quivering lower lip was pissing me off. “I… it was just a guy. I’ve bought stuff from him before. I get stuff from different guys. I don’t know their names.” A shrug. “I pay them, and get what I need.”

Considering the way she looked and how she lived, my guess was she wasn’t paying them in cash. I doubted the mayor was the only one she got onto her backward knees for.

“You have to remember. Give me something.”

I could see her struggling to remember, but it was clear her mind was still fogged. I managed to get a list of her normal hangouts and a few small-time dealers, but they sounded like street peddlers. They weren’t the guys I was looking for, but I could rough ‘em up a little. It was a long shot, but I’d take what I could get.

“All right, Meadow.” I’d gotten what I could and called a cab for her, the vehicle now waiting outside. “Lay low for a while. Stay off the hard stuff. You’re lucky this shit didn’t kill you.”

“Yeah, thanks,” she nibbled her lower lip and I wasn’t going to feel bad for her or fall for her cutesy little looks. “I guess… I guess I’ll just head home then.”

I thought back to the shitty little apartment I’d found her in, drug baggies all over the floor.

Apparently I was going to fall for her cutesy looks.

I grumbled and pounded to the kitchen, grabbing a piece of paper and jotting down an address. I shoved it at her. “Okay, you’re obviously in a bad spot. Get some help or you’re gonna end up back where you started.”

I was sending her to a halfway house that catered to tweens and I also made a mental note to tell the mayor he needed to take better care of his fucktoy. The fat fuck could afford it. Being the mayor didn’t pay well, but I knew he was on the take from humans and tweens alike.

Those fathomless eyes were wide, her little mouth hanging open. “Oh, thank you!”

Then I had an armful of faun, the woman bouncing in place, and I fought to extricate myself.

I shoved her in the cab’s backseat, brushing off her clingy hands, and sighed when the cab went around the bend and out of sight.

Job done, I focused on the next item on my list—the most important item. I climbed the porch stairs and found Jezze waiting for me in the entryway. Now I had a decision to make.

“That’s two tweens it worked on.” I took a deep breath and hoped I was making the right choice. “That’s good enough for me.”

It’d have to be. I wasn’t sure how much longer Sorsha’s spells and charms could hold.

“I have a batch brewing for Bry already.”

Okay then.

We headed to the kitchen and Jezebeth took the boiling pot off the stove. A few whispered words of power and a dash of human ingredients and then we just had to wait for it to cool. I stared at the cooling brown liquid. It held the key to my future.

I waited until the mixture was room temperature and then poured it into one of Bry’s bottles. I carefully made my way up the stairs, determined to be optimistic for once. I needed my baby boy to be okay, and this was looking like the best option available.