Page 33 of Nightmares and Numerology

Or maybe Rodney would keel over, saving me the trouble of calling them. He certainly looked like death warmed over. Slick with sweat, his skin was gray and waxy. His lips were a darker color, as though he’d gotten frostbite. His eyes were watery and didn’t focus well on me. But he’d been the one calling my name.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Indie asked.

In response, I allowed her access to my memories of everything that had gone on over the last couple of days that she’d been asleep. Well, minus certain sexual details.

“I’d offer to hex him for you,” Indigo said with a note of amusement in her tone. “But I think someone already beat us to it. What do you want to bet that Andrea has witch blood in her? She probably caught him stepping out on her.”

It wouldn’t have shocked me. Rodney’s expectations ofwomen were unattainable. I couldn’t be perfect enough to match whatever ideal he had in his head. I still didn’t want him to get hurt, though. He’d ruined parts of my life, but I still didn’t want him to be seriously injured. I just wanted him to have an inconvenient and itchy condition for a few decades.

“Why does he look like he’s about to drop dead?”Indie wondered aloud.

“Andrea said he has anemia. At first, I thought she was lying to save face. It seems like the sort of thing a politician would consider a winning proposition.”

Indie lapsed into a thoughtful silence as Rodney came level with me, barely able to glance my way without his lip curling. Even sick and in a flop sweat, Rodney was still going to be Rodney. I was sorely tempted to let him weave into traffic. He really was the worst partner I’d ever had. The juxtaposition between Angelo and Rodney wasn’t even close to fair. Angelo wiped the floor with my ex in every metric. And Angelo was mine now. My mate, whatever that actually entailed.

“Lydia,” Rodney said, sounding as breathless as I felt.

A line of sweat poured down one temple and into his eyes. He didn’t even have the strength to lift his hand to bat it away. He blinked too fast, eyes wide and glazed with confusion.

I could have escaped him. He didn’t look healthy enough to chase even a regular woman down the street, let alone one who’d recently come into her powers. It might have been the smart thing to do, given the changes in me he was sure to notice. He’d subtly mocked my appearance before. Horns on my head were definitely enough fodder to keep him going. But I was afraid that leaving now would mean abandoning him to collapse in the street.

“What do you want, Rodney?”

Rodney staggered forward a step, trying to seize my elbow. I backed up, and he nearly toppled onto the pavement at my feet.

“I don’t… feel good.”

“That’s why there’s urgent care and emergency rooms. You should go to one or the other. You look awful.”

His face took on the color of a blanched onion. I could almost see his blood moving sluggishly under his skin. His pulse looked labored, and he even smelled sick. The Koloth could sense disease or a festering wound and was eager to investigate. I hoped that wasn’t the ‘hunting together’ Olga had mentioned in the coven house.

“No hospitals. She said no hospitals or she’d…”

Rodney swayed dangerously, completely losing the thread of what he’d been saying. His eyes slid out of focus, and I only had a second to realize what was happening before he pitched forward. I was there to catch all two hundred and fifty-plus pounds of dead weight. It was easier than I would have thought, but it still made my arms ache. I could lift a lot, but I wasn’t practiced at it yet. And I didn’t care how in shape a person was; no one expects the uneven weight of another person to fall on them. I ended up half-collapsed under him.

“That sounded ominous,” Indigo muttered. “Three guesses whosheis. You were right to worry about her, just not for the reasons you think. I’d say that woman is a monster.”

“So what do we do about it?”

“Get your ex-husband to a hospital. Whatever curse or malady he has will kill him if we don’t act quickly. I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to leave him to his fate, but we won’t get answers unless he survives.”

“Add to the list that ‘leaving people to die’ isn’t a good thing, Indie.”

“Yeah, yeah, that too. But practical reasons matter more right now. Andrea poses a threat to your ex’s life. That’s where the plan started, and I doubt that’s where it ends.”

“So I should call 911?”

“Yes. And then the coven. We have a ritual to perform.”

Chapter Fifteen

Angelo

I ended up walking in on the tail end of a party I hadn’t been invited to.

Roy hadn’t even bothered to put me on the list, guessing (correctly) that I wouldn’t have kept quiet about his plans.

The son of a bitch had proposed to Fifi on a commercial property he’d bought from Bea. The cake and decorations made the interior of the realty office too bright and sweet-smelling for my taste. Then again, I wouldn’t have been thrilled with the development even if they hadn’t thrown an after-engagement party in my place of business.

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