Page 54 of Bombshell

It was sometimes easy to forget that Heath was the youngest amongst us at twenty-four years old.

“He told us something new about himself,” Heath said as if it were obvious.

Ambrose glared at him. “Then just say that, you Millennials keep making up new words for shit where there is already a perfectly good English vernacular for you to choose from.”

“Actually,” Heath waved his pointer finger in the air. “I’mtechnicallya part of Gen-Z which is the next generation down and it’s not my fault you’re from Generation Dusty Ass—”

I cut him off before he and Ambrose could get into a silly fight that would last the rest of the evening and get us absolutely nowhere. “For now we’re just going to keep it business as usual. I go to lessons three times a week, Daphne, you keep going to treatments with Alexander, and the rest of you keep the shop up, just like you’ve been doing for the past few months.”

“Business as usual you say?” An unfamiliar voice asked from the corner of the shop.

A woman who I’d never seen before was leaning against the banister of the stairs, examining her nails.

It was clear she was a witch, but I hadn’t felt even a ripple in my magical protection and I’d just redone the enchantments earlier this week. “Who are you and how did you get past my protections?”

The woman looked relatively young with beautiful red hair that cascaded and swayed around her hips as she crossed the lobby. “Oh, those? Darling, if you’re going to put protections up you probably shouldn’t do it with flimsy enchantments. Those will barely keep out a vampire and you’d get the same effect from garlic at that point.”

I flinched at the immediate snub and it combined with her almost scolding tone grated against my skin.

Dallan stood and stepped in front of me, crossing his arms over his chest as he glared at the woman. “Identify yourself,witch, you are in my domain and no one enters my domain without first identifying themselves.”

It was the harshest I’d heard him sound in a long time, the very floorboards underneath our feet creaking with his displeasure.

But the woman didn’t seem scared by Dallan’s intimidation, no it actually seemed to bring a gleam of interest into her bright purple eyes that seemed much older than her young facade.

“I’m here for you,” then she leaned around Dallan’s bulk to look at Daphne. “And for you.”

Dallan stiffened with surprise, but Cash’s growl filling the space quickly distracted me as he wrapped his arms around Daphne and her stomach, hiding them from the woman’s gaze. “Touch my mate and I’ll rip you limb from limb.”

The woman’s auburn brows drew together in confusion as she pointed at Daphne. “Touch her? I’m confused, is this not the home of the Cthulhu who requires my services for prenatal spells for the human who got herself knocked up by a gargoyle? Did Art give me the wrong address? But you’re such a handsome, big guy, I was so hoping you were the right Cthulhu.”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop as I rounded Dallan’s front just in time to see the witch draw a red-painted fingernail down Dallan’s chest.

Anger filled me like a hot brand as I watched Dallan frown at the woman. “I told Art that I wouldn’t need your services, witch.”

The woman’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

“Please, call me Deanna. Lovely Art and I were getting nowhere with ournegotiationsfor service and I decided to come and try my hand at it myself. I’ve never had a Cthulhu before and your ink will be so valuable for my collection.” Every word that the witch purred was sultry with innuendo and I gasped as she reached up to give Dallan’s tentacles a firm tug.

No one but me was allowed to touch Dallan’s tentacles. Ever.

Dallan reeled back away from her grasp and I used the opportunity to push her away with a gust of wind—the same wind that had eluded me completely only hours ago.

“Backoff,”I snapped at her, wishing I could set that pretty red hair on fire. “Dallan is mine.”

Her full lips opened in an ‘O’ of surprise as she looked over my shoulder at Dallan. “Art didn’t say you had a girlfriend, though what you see in this mule I’ll never understand.”

The word‘mule’hit me like a truck. It had been so long since I’d heard it that every single time one of the coven members or other more traditional supernatural creatures muttered it under their breath like a curse came crashing back.

“We donotuse that word here,” Dallan barked and suddenly my vision was blocked as Dallan wrapped his arms around me, showing me the inside of his forearm and the vine tattoos inked there. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave one more time.”

“You’re seriously going to kick me out? I’m here to help you, Cthulhu, not the other way around.”

“He asked you to leave,” that was Ambrose this time. I wasn’t sure when he’d left his post on the wall but when I glanced downat my feet sure enough his scuffed black combat boots were also in my line of sight. As much as Ambrose pretended like he hated us all, when push came to shove he was the most protective.

“And a Dark Elf is here as well?My, this town is positively crowded with creatures I haven’t had yet.” Deanna’s gasp of delight sent a shiver of disgust crawling down my spine.

“None of them want you here, witch. We never had a contract, never made a deal, and I want you out of my shop.”

---