Demon Can’t Help It by Kathy Love

the waning light.
    “Well, hello, crazy thing.”
    She leaned forward to scratch the side of the feline’s neck. He angled his head, offering her better access. Jo smiled, surprised the temperamental beast was allowing the attention.
    She rubbed the cat for a few more seconds, then straightened up, stretching the sore muscles in her lower back. She was a mess—dog-tired, sore, apparently a nervous wreck.
    Raising her hands over her head, she stretched, angling her head from side to side to get the kinks out of her neck. As she dropped her arms, she spotted her.
    A pretty woman with long wavy black hair and pale eyes and skin stood on the other side of the courtyard, watching her from the growing evening shadows. Jo sat up, peering at the woman.
    “Hi,” she called.
    The woman tilted her head as if she didn’t understand what Jo had said. Then she looked behind her as if she thought Jo was talking to someone else.
    Jo frowned, finding the woman’s reaction strange. Who was she? Had Ren rented out the apartment he’d originally offered to her? He must have—the courtyard doors were locked now and had been when she arrived.
    “Are you renting the upstairs apartment?” she asked.
    Again the woman looked at her as if she didn’t understand. Maybe she really didn’t speak the language. So Jo pointed to the upstairs. “Do you live up there?”
    The woman followed her gesture, but didn’t respond. She did, however, step closer, and Jo had to reassess her initial opinion of the woman. She wasn’t just pretty, she was stunning.
    “I’m Jo,” she said slowly, emphasizing each syllable, feeling a little stupid, because she still wasn’t sure if it was a matter of the woman not comprehending her. Although what else could it be?
    The woman’s eyebrows drew together as she studied Jo. Then she gestured to herself, patting the base of her throat. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Not even a rush of air.
    “You can’t talk,” Jo said with dawning understanding.
    The woman touched her throat again, and nodded.
    The poor woman.
    Just then, the door to the carriage house opened behind Jo. She turned in her chair to see Maggie coming out, still wearing a pair of silky red pajama bottoms and a matching cami.
    “Jo, what are you doing here?”
    “I just came to visit before you all head to work. But everyone was sleeping, so I just decided to relax out here.”
    Maggie joined her at the table.
    “And I was meeting your newest tenant.”
    Maggie frowned. “Who?”
    “Your newest tenant.” She gestured toward the place where the woman had been standing. But she was no longer there. Jo peered around the courtyard, searching for the woman. She was nowhere.
    Maggie looked around, too, clearly trying to understand what Jo was talking about.
    “We don’t have a new tenant,” she finally said to Jo. “It’s still just Erika, Vittorio, Ren, and I living here.”
    Jo studied the shadows and vegetation for a moment longer. “But I just saw a woman in here. Long dark hair, pale skin.”
    Maggie gave her a quizzical look. “I don’t know. Unless she wandered in off the street somehow, she shouldn’t be here.”
    Jo stared at Maggie, not really seeing her friend. She had seen the woman—as clear as day. She’d interacted with her.
    What was going on? Was she losing her mind?
    “I guess I must have—dreamed it,” she finally said to Maggie. “I—I did doze off for a bit.”
    Maggie nodded, giving her an understanding, almost sympathetic look. “That must have been it.”
    It must have, Jo told herself again, trying to convince herself of that theory. But she couldn’t quite do it. She had seen the woman.
    She glanced around again, but there was no one but herself and Maggie there. Then she noticed a small black shape sitting in the place where Jo had last seen the lady.
    Erika’s cat. He blinked at her, his golden eyes there, then gone for a moment, then back. The wise, unreadable gaze like that