Page 51 of A Touch of Brimstone

I didn’t have the situation under control so much as I leaned into just evading Jackson. But it was what was needed to keep Emoni from marching over and intervening.

“Hi,” I greeted him before he could say anything, and jabbed my thumb in the register’s direction and the line forming. Quickly, I returned to the store before he could answer.

Him waiting for me to finish was another reminder of my underestimation of his arrogance and nonexistent sense of propriety. Why not harass someone at their job? What’s wrong with that? He sat at the table nearest the checkout and waited until I didn’t have any customers and no other option but to leave the area and reshelve books and tidy the store.

At least he had the common courtesy not to approach as soon as I left the checkout.

“That was a hell of a performance, wasn’t it?” he remarked.

“You should tell Emoni and Gus,” I suggested. “Or is this your segue to us just talking and then you peddling your ‘I’m so wonderful and should be shared among the masses’ speech?”

He blew out a sigh of exasperation. “Must you always be so…” He searched my face, not because he was lost for words but because he was a calculating manipulator, something else I could recognize now that my rose-colored love goggles were removed. What was his goal? A thinly veiled insult to put me on the defensive? A prick at my insecurities to unsettle me? Or would he play on my emotions?

“Cold and spiteful.”

Ah, the emotion route. When narcissism and self-entitlement fail, make it the other person’s fault.

“Cold? Spiteful?”

“You’re throwing away our relationship because of one indiscretion. You know how much I love you and how losing you has made me feel. Don’t kick me while I’m down. Is that who you are now?”

He was laying it on pretty thick. What kind of Jedi mind trick was he trying to pull? His arrogance blinded him to how contrived he sounded.

When he ambled closer, his head bowed in submission as if he were a wounded pup and I had just rejected him or—even worse—kicked him, I despised him for the dramatics. Then I despised myself just a little for the moment I allowed his performance to make me feel guilty.

“Three years and it’s gone and you’re ready to say goodbye to it. All of it.”

“No, not at all. We had a history. Some good times that I will remember fondly and some bad times that I’ll remember, too, and take as lessons for future relationships. But we’re over. To be honest, it’s not just the cheating. That shone a light on the flaws in the relationship that I’d ignored. We need to let the relationship stay over. Not just for me, but for us both. Move on.”

“Lulu.” I hated that name and had told him numerous times. “Don’t do this to us.”

“You would rather me be miserable in a relationship with you, so that you can be happy?” I asked, though he’d never admit it. He’d have to be a special type of ass to openly admit that he would not have a problem with that.

“You weren’t miserable. It’s a protective mechanism. I made you happy. And you know that. That was always my goal, and I succeeded in every way.” His heavy-lidded look used to work, so of course he’d try it now. He made it sexy, and I fell for it time and time again. He attempted to follow it up with a kiss. The gentle ones he used to give me. A feather touch with the promise of so much more. It had worked before, enhanced by my love for him. But not now. I shoved him back.

“You know this isn’t about us getting back together. It’s about you winning. This is just you wanting your way and nothing else. You want me happy, go away.”

“As you wish,” Rei said. Jackson’s eyes glazed over; his body became rigid before collapsing to the ground. Dagger in hand, Rei started driving it toward his chest.

“Stop!” I yelled, not caring who heard, but there wasn’t anyone to startle. I took a quick glance into the coffee shop. Empty. Almost. One person remained: a man standing just a few feet away. His round face and stern appearance matched his short, stout body. The eyes were keen with predatory alertness, like the others. Scoping his prey. Shifter.

How had I missed Cameron and Lilith leaving? Or the absence of customers? There was no way I was so engrossed in my conversation with Jackson that I missed people exiting the store, and Emoni wouldn’t have left without telling me, and we never left anyone in the store alone. The witch must have used a spell to compel them to leave.

My theory was proven when four non-humans joined the shifter. Two of them were vampires, for sure. I suspected one of the new arrivals was a shifter. She had the nuanced ferocity that I’d come to attribute to them. Predators in their own right. I wasn’t sure what type of supernatural the fourth new arrival was. Perhaps another witch.

“Don’t kill him. Please.”

My heart pounded and my mouth dried as I tried to make sense of what was happening.

“Luna, we owe you a great deal. We know what you’ve done. What you have sacrificed to make this happen. I want to convince you of our cause and our appreciation.”

What terribly wrong version of the story had they heard? Willing? Not at all. Sacrifice? I was at the point of bartering anything to get out of this web I was caught in. Was this part of Rei’s swaying me that supernaturals should be revealed, unimpeded by the rules that kept them from using their magic against humans, doing things like this without consequence?

“Luna, it is as you wish. What would you have me do with him?”

As I wish. I wish you not to be an ex-boyfriend-killing sociopath. Why is death always the first option with them?

She waited for instruction. What to tell her? No to the killing or hurting him, but can you cast a spell to make him less of an insufferable ass, seemed really inappropriate. I knelt down and pressed a finger to Jackson carotid’s artery; I found a pulse. The beat was steady but slower than mine. Was this his normal or a result of him being in this state? Would it continue to slow until it stopped?

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