She was over six feet tall at the back and had legs that spread in all directions. I’d expected her to have some weight behind her, so it caught me off guard when I easily spun her off to the side and pretty much smashed her into the wall. She lay there stunned and I used the moment to hurry my ass up.

I’d promised Feish something to go with tea, and I wasn’t going to disappoint. “Enough of this, Jinx,” I snapped. “Seriously, I didn’t bother you. I don’t know why you’re bothering me.”

“Job,” she whispered, pushing herself up. Her seven legs wobbled, and she kept the injured one lifted. “You’re a jerk.”

I glared at her. “What do you mean by job?”

“My job to scare people. That’s my job.”

“Well, knock it off. Scare someone else.” I wanted to run, but I also knew that turning my back on a large predator was a bad idea. Very bad idea. So, I went sideways around her, keeping her in my sights.

I still couldn’t believe how light she’d felt when I’d grabbed her leg. Her bristling, furry leg against my palm, ugh, it was like I could still feel it there. I suppressed a shiver as I continued on down the path. A memory attempted to surface in my mind but didn’t quite emerge. Something from Gran’s book. There’d been something important about her, beyond the Charlotte’s Web stuff. About . . . her hair? I blinked a few times and the world did a funny little wobble thing that had me on my knees like I’d had one glass too many of that really lovely Pinot Grigio I’d had that one time at that one restaurant with Himself.

My brain grappled for the information as I leaned against the brick wall of the alley and slid down, so I was no longer standing, but in a semi-crouch, my head leaned back and my hand throbbing.

A long black leg slid into my vision. I blinked up at the fangs and multiple eyes staring down at me. That long black leg shimmered and shifted into a naked human leg. A woman with hair as black as any I’d ever seen leaned over me, her mouth wide and fangs that made me think of her spider form bared to me.

“You are way too big,” I said, and my words were slurring hard. So hard. “Big furry spider.” As I flopped my hand at her, a hand shot forward that was not my own and clamped around my wrist. Webbed fingers, greenish-yellow skin, and then Jinx was gone, just like that.

I rolled my head toward Feish. “Hey, you saved me.”

“Her spines are in your finger. Slivers. Makes people sick.” Feish clicked her tongue several times and then she was dragging me back the way we’d come.