Page 1 of Bright Dark Curses

ONE

It had been four days and twenty hours since my bounty hunter shifter boyfriend had left for the bounty hunters’ guild with Hannah in the back seat of his SUV.

So much for “a day or two.”

Ian had decided to stick around at the guild to make sure Hannah didn’t try to broker a deal using Bagley and the shop’s dark magic past for a more lenient sentence on her murdering ways. Very considerate of him, but I was eager to finish what we had started on Halloween.

Memories of our last moments together while we kissed on top of some poor soul’s burial ground flitted through my mind.

I sighed, full of yearning, and surveyed my domain from the bead curtain. We had taken down the Halloween decorations, but the shop retained a wonderful cozy fall atmosphere, especially around this time in the evening. The two tables were occupied by women chatting animatedly as they wrapped their hands around their mugs of tea and coffee, two older women sat at the stools sharing a muffin, and Brimstone and Destruction stood behind the counter, making sure our customers were satisfied.

I know—shocking!

Dru was currently too busy using Bagley’s money to buy the seasonal restaurant next door and turn it into a vintage clothing and accessories store to work at the Tea Cauldron. Unlike me, she had no qualms about using money earned through the practice of dark magic. “Cleansing through laundering.” Her words, not mine, although they had a nice ring to them. Perhaps I’d add them to my affirmations.

So, now I had Brimstone. I wasn’t completely sure of how that’d come about except that I’d been desperate and he’d walked into the shop a couple of days back and stated he needed a job. Key thought he wanted to go “straight,” as in, stop his life of paranormal fire-starting crime, and how could one say no to that?

I had to admit he looked good standing tall and ramrod-straight behind the counter. He had divested himself of the vampire three-piece suit and was wearing a crisp white shirt under one of our newly delivered black aprons with the shop’s logo embroidered on the front. His sleeves were rolled halfway up his forearms, and he wore his blond hair slicked back. Even his permanent scowl seemed somehow inviting.

I wondered if magic was involved.

The door opened, filling the shop with soft tinkling, and a middle-aged woman entered.

“How may I serve you?” Brimstone intoned in his deep, ominous voice.

The woman blushed and let out a giggle.

Oh, Good Mother Earth, not again. I rushed behind the counter. “What can I get you! What. Can. I. Get. You?”

Brimstone grunted.

The woman giggled again, then batted her eyelashes. “The day’s special, please,” she said, almost shyly.

“Right away,” I said before Brimstone could utter another word. I gave him an eloquent look, and he turned abruptly toward the row of teas and the water urn. The woman watched him with a dreamy expression in her eyes. “Want a muffin to go with it? Cookies?”

After the success of her Halloween muffins, Veva’s friend was expanding her operation into cookies. The Tea Cauldron and cookies didn’t have the best history, if you minded eating baked goods made with unwilling human blood, but I couldn’t find it in myself to refuse. After all, I knew firsthand how hard it was to start a new business.

The woman blinked and looked down at the glass display. “Oh! I’ll have a chocolate chip cookie. Thank you.”

“Coming right up. Want to sit at the counter?”

As if in a trance, the woman shuffled to one of the stools. As I put a plate with her cookie in front of her, another customer entered the shop. A younger woman this time, dressed in an elegant coat and smart pants. Her gaze roved the shop, then all but lit up when it found Brimstone.

“What can I get you?” I asked once she divested herself of her coat and came up to the counter.

Her eyes never leaving Brimstone, she said, “Coffee, please.”

“Muffin? Cookie?”

“Is that really him?” she asked in a whisper.

I followed her gaze to Brimstone. “Jeremy works here, yes.”

“Oh, my lord,” she all but squealed. “I’ve been a fan of his vlog forever.”

I choked on my own saliva. “His what?”

“You know, Decadent Temptations?” She leaned in. “Do you know if he’s going to take it up again? Could you ask him?”

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