Dewitched (Witchless In Seattle Mysteries Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

Let the games begin.
    I zipped down the steps as fast as my heels would allow, making a dash across the lawn as the petite woman screamed in terror again. “Kill eet! Get eet out!”
    A crowd had begun to form and someone, also in a leotard, with a pair of scissors, pushed their way through the gathering performers.
    “Noooo!” I bellowed, diving into the throng of people, pushing my way past them to get to the acrobat. “Wait! I can help!”
    The slender woman trembled, her hair a nest of tangles as she shook her arms out, bouncing oh so gracefully in a circle. “Get eet out! Get zis beast out of my hair!”
    I latched onto her arm and turned her to face me before eyeing the man with the scissors. “You! Put the scissors away, please . Now, just hold still. It’s probably just a bat, as scared as you are. They’re common in these parts, and I know it’s freaking you out, but we need bats as part of our ecosystem so please try not to hurt it. I promise, if you just hold still…er, what’s your name?”
    “K,” she said on a violent shiver. “Just the letter, notheeng else.”
    “Just one letter?” I asked for the sake of Win, because I couldn’t stop laughing over their one-letter names.
    “ Oui, mademoiselle ,” she said on another shiver
    “Before you say anything else, mostly everyone in the troupe does have one-letter names, Stevie. Save the crass jokes for later,” Win chastised before I’d even had the chance to crack a joke.
    I fought a smirk and gripped K’s arm. “Right, K. Just hold still and I promise I can get him out of your hair without you losing any.”
    I began to spread her lush locks and ramble on about the plusses of bats, plucking until I identified Ding, Bel’s uncle. Of course it was Ding. The old adage “blind as a bat” definitely applied in his case.
    “You are not frightened?” K asked, calmer now as I untangled Ding.
    “Nah. It’s just a bat.” I pulled him out and held him up briefly while everyone’s eyes widened and they made horrified faces. “See? Aren’t they cute?”
    Pushing her hair from her face, K’s slight body shuddered in revulsion. “Eet’s deesgusting. Ack!”
    “You oughtta tell the broad to eat somethin’ before she starts usin’ words like—”
    I coughed—loudly, to cover Uncle Ding’s retort. “I’ll just take him out back and set him free. I’m sorry you were frightened.” I tucked Uncle Ding into the palm of my hand as the performers rallied ’round K to soothe her, hoping they hadn’t heard his response.
    When I reached the steps, I opened my hand and gave Ding a stern look. “Uncle Ding, what were you told about flying without an escort?” I whisper-yelled.
    “Well, hello gorgeous!” he chirped, his sweet aging face a total deception. Uncle Ding was a letch. An utter and total tiny ball of letch. All tiny hands, all the time. “Long time no see, hottie. I had an escort, but I left his butt in my dust somewhere around Eugene, the slowpoke.”
    “Oh, you did not,” I admonished, pointing a finger at him. “I know you, Uncle Ding. You sonar-ed her boobs from way up there, didn’t you?”
    He shrugged his wings before giving me a guilty look, his wrinkly white face scrunching up. “Okay, so my aim’s a little off.”
    “You’re such a fibber. Uncle Ding, you cannot accost the women attending this party. Understand? It’s unacceptable, and if you’ll be staying here, we have to have rules.”
    “Fine, fine. Everybody’s always with the rules, so serious and everything. Bats just wanna have fun.”
    “But you can’t have fun in an unsuspecting woman’s boobs. Now, I’ll take you up to see Belfry, and you must stay in my bedroom during this party. But above all, behave, please? There are a ton of humans down there who’d become unhinged if they knew you could talk. Hear me?”
    “Like you need to ask twice. Who wouldn’t want to stay in your bedroom?”
    “Ah, charming old goat, isn’t he?” Win