Page 18 of A Touch of Brimstone

“Luna, Luna, Luna.”

My name came from him in a low, deep, melodious sound. A draconian chorus with a dangerous harmony. He circled me again, watching me carefully. My heart pounded and everything in me screamed to run, but Anand guarding the exit made that impossible.

“What mess have you gotten yourself into?” he whispered.

I swallowed and shook my head. “I don’t know.” The statement escaped before I could stop it. What had I gotten myself into?

Again, he was in front of me, studying me with avid curiosity. He spoke softly, as if to himself. “You’re not a witch or a Dark Caster, but you are responsible for releasing the prisoners from the Perils. How was it done?” His gaze slipped to my finger again.

I had no response for him.

He sighed. “Tell me what you know of the Perils.”

Dominic was trying to discover a link where none existed. What I knew of it was only what I’d gathered from the conversation upstairs.

“A prison for supernaturals. Where you keep your worst.” I couldn’t imagine anyone worse than the ones upstairs, but obviously I was wrong.

His head barely moved into the nod. “Perils of the Underworld, where I am its guardian.”

Whenever I watched a show where a person passed out after getting terrifying information or horrifying news, I always called BS. No, double BS. What? You forgot to breathe? To do the very thing so intrinsic to your body’s survival that you hold your breath to deprive it of oxygen, but the body’s like, “Nah, bitch, give me the good stuff. Give me oxygen.” And forces you to breathe.

Now I felt the need to issue a formal apology. Because my body seized. All the things that seemed automatic, essential, a necessity just felt foreign. My mouth dried, my breathing was ragged, shallow, and definitely not enough to survive, and fight or flight was simply nonexistent. I stood there for what seemed like eternity trying to get my body to respond appropriately. To react. And to participate in anything that would remotely be considered self-preservation.

“What?” I eked out.

“Luna, you’ve released my prisoners from the Underworld. You may not have been the weapon, but you were the tool.”

Believe me, you’re a tool, too.

Oops. Didn’t mean to say that aloud.

With a wry smile he started pacing around me again, his hands behind his back, my name said over and over but not in the alluring, sultry way. It was a rough, disparaging string of words. Nearly excruciating in its execution.

“Tell me, Luna,” he said behind me. I whipped around to face him. “Should I destroy the tool for a short-term solution, or find the weapon?”

Fighting with the guardian of the Underworld wasn’t going to fix my problems. In fact, it would probably make them worse. I was moored to this. Despite my protective responses rearing in overdrive and telling me to run like hell, this situation wasn’t going away. But if I was going to be a player, I wouldn’t be intimidated into my decision.

Squaring my shoulders, I looked him straight in his fiery amber eyes. Despite the hard intensity of them, I held his gaze. “If you were interested in the short-term fix, you wouldn’t have intervened.”

His face remained impassive, his head canted slightly as he continued to listen.

“I’ve been pulled into something that I definitely don’t want to be in, dealing with people I hope to never encounter again. I want it to be over. I want to have nothing to do with this situation or you dreadful people.” I lifted my hand, presenting the markings. “If working with you is the only way, then I’m in. If we are working together, no more threats. I don’t care how thinly veiled they are. You will not bully me. Are we clear?”

His expression changed but it was still indecipherable. Understanding? I didn’t think that was it. Amusement? Definitely. Portentous? It better not be.

His lips curled slightly into a small, tight, mirthless smile. He looked over his shoulder at Anand, who flashed a grin. “I’ve been commanded to behave,” Dominic said to him. The laughter in his voice made its way to his eyes.

“Little Luna.”

“It’s just Luna,” I shot back.

“Luna. You are correct. I want to find the person behind this, especially if it is a Dark Caster. I know their history and the chaos and destruction they enjoy. It needs to be stopped. And to do so, we will have to work together.”

I’d been abducted and attacked by a vampire, sniffed by a lion, interrogated by a witch, and nearly devoured—or whatever his intentions were—by a wolf. I had every right to be overly cautious and I didn’t like the subtle undertones in his response. A limited alliance.

“I want to help.” Biggest lie ever. I had to help in order to get out of this mess. My face must have betrayed that because he looked smug now.

“You are the little fish. I want the whale. You are the means to the whale. As long as I need you for that, the others will never touch you.” Everything he said possessed an implicit “but” and I didn’t like it.

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