“Finding an already-dead one’s easier,” Briony conceded. “Wouldn’t’ve brought it to church, anyways. Would’ve left it outside Hayden’s door like a draft excluder ‘til he stepped in it. All squishy between his toes.” Her legs just swung more. She was aware this marked a basic difference between Bubbles and… ‘most everyone else here. Everyone else being demons, because while the humans and stuff weren’t noticing her any more, she wasn’t noticing them. She had figured that guy with the horns was maybe a Sin or a Vice or maybe just totally crazy – they were all a little bit crazy really – because he was using the dead cat as a… a prop. Which was exactly what she would do with it. Find something that was apparently really nasty and leave it somewhere for the best reaction. Like taking a gutted cat to church. “I want to!” Bite someone’s throat out, that was. “Only I got a mouth full of Airla and that other guy when she went—” She clapped her hands together with a splatting noise. “—and ugh. M’gonna get Airla-germs.” The last part was rather deliberately sang just that little bit louder. People tended to notice and pay attention when she did that. Except they didn’t this time and Briony just pouted up at Rachel Fells for being so predictably needy that Daniel had her under his thumb. It was hard to traumatise your family in church when they weren’t listening. “Fair trade,” she agreed. “I have a lot of dolls.” Well, she did. “But they’re the ones you always see in the movies. Porcelain.” Most of them had cracked faces too by now. She thought they were brilliant.
“I know it off by heart,” Briony said, her face settling into a sulky frown. “Real one and everything. They’re real holies.” ‘They’ being the rest of the family. Although when Paul had tried to claim he was any kind of righteous man, she had actually laughed at him and pointed out his magical preferences. “Doesn’t matter what the words say so long as they sound mostly-right when you say it out loud. Not that any of them have really read these ones, ‘cause Daniel’s talking.” And she was sure what he had just said made no sense whatsoever, whichever way you painted it. For possibly the first time ever, she didn’t react badly to having something snatched from her, and instead just watched Bubbles’ reaction to the books with a vague amusement. “It was around my waist. With a funny sort of knot where it forks. But,” she wriggled until it disappeared back up her shorts, “it gets longer and shorter and stuff.” She forgot what the word for that was, but she wasn’t about to admit it. Automatically slipping back into the poster-child for trauma when Bubbles clearly disturbed the hold Daniel had on some, Briony leaned into her Mommy. Yes, she needed comfort. She was also lifting her cell phone from her pocket because she hadn’t been allowed to bring her own to church. “Calvert?” The little Fear slid away from Rachel again as everyone else turned away, dodging the arm that tried to wrap around her shoulder. Even Rachel knew she didn’t really want to do that. “That blonde lady from the TV? Paul won’t let me watch stuff about her. She nearly died by vampire bites though.” Then she registered the rest of Bubbles’ declaration and her eyes widened with a delighted interest before she twisted around in her seat with a grin. “What happened? Did she die?” Oh, no. Wait. If she’d died then Paul would be happier this morning. Unless they didn’t find a body.