A Touch of Brimstone by McKenzie Hunter
16
Ididn’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?
“It’s just a sleep spell,” she assured me. “I can wake him or do whatever you wish me to.” A cruel smile feathered across her lips. This is not how to ingratiate yourself to a person. This is not normal. Be more normal.
“Wake him and let him go,” I said, watching the thrill from the anticipation of violence eke from her face. It wasn’t the violence she wanted; it was domination.
She scoffed. “Let him go? It’s not that easy, Luna. He knows. Right now, those are the rules.” She bristled, her voice tight with irritation. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s what we’re fighting for. Our acknowledgment and place in this world. No longer will we have to go through such extremes to hide our existence or be penalized anytime we risk exposure.”
“Don’t hurt him. Get him out of here, or all talks are over. I’m leaving.” I had bargaining power and I had to wield it to help Jackson out of a mess that I was moored to.
With a sound of contempt, she nodded in agreement and looked in the vampires’ direction. A woman started toward us, her auburn hair a stark contrast to her limestone-fair skin. She possessed an overwhelming presence, despite her slight build. Her movement toward us was done with the ease of someone floating through the air. I glanced at her eyes but refused to hold focus with the vampire as she attempted to hold mine. As if it was instinctual. Compel the human, get them to do your bidding.
With the vampire at Jackson’s side, the witch whispered a spell, and a brilliant silver light moved over Jackson’s face. He eased up on his elbows, like he’d been awakened from a deep sleep. Confusion was all over his face at me standing a few inches away, the stern-faced witch in front, and the vampire’s tranquil features that vied for his attention. Which he surrendered to easily. Transfixed by her eyes, he was lulled into complacency.
Her brusque, stilted voice didn’t sound melodic or entrancing, but Jackson was enchanted by it. Enthralled by her. I remembered that feeling—and hated subjecting him to it. Forcing him into a faux need to please her and follow her wishes without challenge. Even if it was her simple request that he go straight home and remember that it was a lazy day for him.
Attentive to her directions, he stood when commanded to, walked out the door, and didn’t look back, just as she had instructed. He obeyed, without any signs of being controlled by someone else, which seemed the most worrying thing about vampires and their ability to compel. How did you determine if a person was acting of their own volition or at the behest of a vampire?
“This is why living in the shadows is ridiculous. He should know who we are, what we are capable of, and leave us the hell alone. Spending our talents hiding, making sure the simple little humans don’t know of our existence is foolish. We’re giving them power over us. Over us!” the vampire hissed. Nothing about her voice was beautiful or lyrical, despite the hold it had over Jackson. It was arctic, cold and sharp as a blade.
“It’s always power with you all, isn’t it?” Anand acknowledged, moving from the shadows, a blade in hand, taking in the five people in the room with the disinterest of looking at common nuisances.
The witch stood and squared her shoulders. Her lips furled as she placed a laser-sharp focus on him.
“Abandon this Awakening absurdity and walk away unscathed,” Anand urged.
“Or you can stop following Dominic and the Conventicle’s restrictive and insidious rules and join us. Why should we be hidden from humans and forced to accommodate them? Why are we required to bow to their whims and not the other way around? Why are you complicit when the most powerful of our kind are being jailed to satisfy the Conventicle’s ego and flaunt the control they have over us? We don’t need regulation and anonymity,” she challenged.
“Rei, this misrepresentation isn’t befitting of you. Own your belief and your true desires,” he told her. “You believe revealing magic will put you on top of the food chain. That you’d be allowed to be openly reckless without consequences. You all want exemption from governance and rules under the false belief that it will be liberation. It won’t. It will lead to a great deal of violence and everyone vying for domination.”
He closed the distance between them, forcing her to adopt a defensive stance despite her shifter and vampire allies spreading out to surround him. She was clearly a powerful witch, and the others were undoubtedly just as formidable, but faced with Anand, apprehension and fear lingered in their postures. Forcing them to be reactive. He had the lithe, calm assurance of a person who thrived on adrenaline and danger. Surrounded by predators and powerful magic, he carried himself as if he was a wolf surrounded by lambs.
“How is that different from what we have now? The Conventicle making and enforcing the rules.”
“Rules? You mean, not using magic on humans, not stealing magic from other witches, and not killing other supernaturals. Are those rules too hard to follow?”
Rei tutted. “They break them all the time.”
I wasn’t totally convinced that the world knowing about supernaturals was a bad thing. We could learn to coexist. Were the Awakeners the bad guys or the good guys? I was getting a stress headache trying to figure out who the good guys were and where I stood.
“Most of the time it’s fixing issues that arise as a result of you and your ilk being reckless and trying to reveal yourselves.”
“I don’t care. It’s time for new rules and governing.”
“You don’t like the rules? Fine, let me put you out of your misery.”
Rei’s eyes flicked from Anand to Helena, who had taken up a position next to him. She was dressed in slim beige slacks she’d paired with a burgundy draped crisscross tank that revealed another network of markings twining up her arms, similar to Dominic’s. The magic-restricting marks were still in place. Flawlessly shadowed eyes with thick mascara, liner forming a peak at the end, cherry-red lips, and defined cheeks highlighted by blush. She’d pulled her tresses back in a severe ponytail. She looked as if she was going to an event and not a potentially violent ambush. But this was Helena; maybe she might consider this an event.
Rei swallowed, stepping back, her lips moving ardently and her hands circling around each other. A blast of spherical magic launched from her like a rocket, smashing into Helena and dissipating over her body.
Rei’s breathing became more ragged as she shuffled back a few more steps, more aggressive magic springing from her with no effect. Her face was panic-stricken as she looked at her companions. The vampire was the first to react. A lightning strike movement placed him just inches in front of Helena. A self-satisfied smile traveled over Helena’s lips as he looked down at the stake embedded in his chest. His shock barely registered before the blade she held in the other took off his head. Instead of a body, there was just a splattering of dust piled on the floor and the bloodstained stake.
I swallowed the scream. Rei’s lips furled into a snarl as she made quick slashes in the air. Books flew from the shelves like a whirlwind, whipping around the room and striking at Helena and Anand, who used their weapons to slash and hit them. Another slash of Rei’s finger, and the pages of the books ignited. Fire blazed, books launched, the strain of the effort heavy on Rei’s face.
The room was pure chaos at Rei’s hand as Anand and Helena dealt with the flaming books being hurled in their direction and chairs being magically flung at them.
“Animal,” was all I blurted as one of the shifters morphed into a bear without breaking stride. Seeing the quick change from human to beast was shocking, no matter how many times I witnessed it. The bear pinned Anand to the ground. Anand delivered blows hard enough to make the animal huff and growl in pain.
Too preoccupied with fighting off the flaming books and warding off flying furniture, Helena couldn’t help Anand or counterattack.
The supernatural that I suspected was a witch cupped his hand, and a whirl of white, blue, and black coalesced. His brow furrowed as he concentrated, making it bigger. As black overtook the sphere, the room clouded over. His face showed strain as he directed the sphere over Helena. She gasped for breath, her color waning. The witch had found a workaround by affecting the environment.
Even feet away from Helena, I could feel the results of the oxygen-removing spell. She clawed at her throat. I moved back toward the wall, keeping my distance from the magic. I needed to distract the witch, break his concentration. Grabbing one of the few items still intact, a heavy Dungeons and Dragons light, shaped like a die, I hurled it at the witch, hitting him on the side of his arm.
The oxygen-siphoning sphere shuddered a few feet away from Helena, but not far enough to prevent its effect. The heavy mug I lobbed at him next hit a diaphanous field, rebounded, and pitched into my hip, sending me stumbling back. Recovering with a groan, I looked for something that could pierce the field and found Rei on the other side of the room providing protection for the oxygen-siphoning witch. She shook her head, a silent request for me to stay put. She wouldn’t kill me—that was some comfort—but the throb in my hip was proof she would hurt me.
The shimmering field that covered the witch flickered and dropped, and the mug I hurled smashed into the side of the witch’s face. He stumbled to the side, and the sphere shuddered then vanished. Running out of objects heavy enough to throw, I searched for more items and found the source of the breach in Rei’s field.
Dominic.
He had pulled Rei against his chest and held a claw at her jugular. I turned back to find Helena standing over the manacle-subdued, oxygen-siphoning witch. There was a naked man where moments ago a bear was fighting Anand. The man wasn’t moving, not even a faint rise and fall of his chest.
Rei’s eyes were calculating, glancing at the claw at her throat then cutting to the two remaining allies in the room, who were doing their own assessment.
Amid all the violence and pandemonium, it was hard not to think of Cameron. The damage was extensive, with areas empty of books, partially burned books strewn throughout the store, the registers on the floor, and several bookshelves smashed.
Her store was in shambles. She’d lose income. How would the destruction be explained? The cameras? Was this being seen on her phone real-time? How would they handle her knowledge of them?
Dominic’s expression was stoic as his eyes met mine. I wasn’t sure if it was his presence or tempered anger that had increased the room temperature by several degrees.
One of the shifters watched Dominic as he took in the damage.
“Is this what you all want?” Dominic asked, directing his attention to all the Awakeners in the room.
“No, but it seems to be what you want,” the lone shifter growled. I knew the tell now; he was about to shift.
“You do it and I’ll kill Rei,” Dominic told him. “Then my sister will kill you and this little stunt will be for naught.”
More evaluation took place. I felt sure they were speculating whether this cause was worth their life. They’d lost two already with nothing to show for it.
“Helena.” Dominic nodded at her and she moved aside, allowing the magically neutered witch to stand.
Dominic released Rei, I assumed as a sign of good faith or to show that she was not a threat to him. He hadn’t restricted her magic.
“Has there been any contact between Roman, Celeste, or Vadim?” He directed the question to everyone in the room.
Their jaws clenched in a mutual demonstration of allegiance. Dominic inched in Rei’s direction.
With ire, she squared her shoulders and met his gaze. “You won’t get any information from me. Are you afraid you’ll feel the sting of Roman’s claws, or is it Celeste’s magic that you fear? You have no immunity to it, do you? I hope it’s Roman’s claws that get you both.” She snapped her head in Helena’s direction.
The tight air of contention filled the room. She’d struck a nerve—pointed out their weakness.
The front door of the store blasted open, and strong magic flooded in with the group of seven people who entered with practiced efficiency and military precision. Magic reminiscent of when I was in the room with the Conventicle burst in. Powerful. Heavy. And undeniably hostile.
Friend or foe?
I could see the lack of recognition on Dominic’s face before the woman at the front of the group fired three gunshots at him. He darted to the left, barely missed being hit by bullets that blew the plaster from the wall. Dominic returned fire. A menacing red glow of magic pummeled into the woman’s chest. She crumpled to the ground. Dominic was moving faster than the other people could target him.
Rei realized too late that despite their attack on Dominic, this new group weren’t allies. She was ensorcelled in a bubble, blue and white intermingled, giving way to smokey black. Her oxygen was being choked off as the magic-wielding newcomer efficiently pulled it from her. Rei collapsed, her face distorted by her struggle. Her lips were losing their rosy color and her face blanched. Small lines formed across her eyes from broken capillaries. Dead.
The vampire was locked in a frozen state. I could only assume this was necromancer magic. Power over the dead. The vamp wore his helplessness with a tight-lipped scowl. I didn’t avert my eyes fast enough to miss his demise by beheading. This wasn’t an idealistic group of people like the Awakeners; they were trained assassins. Magically powerful and brutally efficient.
The assassins’ precision seemed to unleash something in Helena. The vampire body hadn’t become dust on the floor before Helena had its assailant’s head twisted at an odd angle that no one could survive. Anand was a whirlwind of movement, lithe and deadly. I still hadn’t been able to determine if he was immune to magic, or so swift that no one could use it against him.
I chanced a glance in Dominic’s direction. A thrown ball of magic breezed over my shoulder, barely missing me as I dove to the floor. My head hit a toppled bookcase. I was a little dazed, but I fared better than the wall with the hole punched through it. That could have been me.
Scrambling to my feet, I grabbed a piece of the metal wizard collector’s item and threw it at the magic wielder, hitting him in the head as he prepared for another strike against me. Shock and anger took over his face.
Running out of items heavy enough to be of use, I searched around while moving in a zigzag to prevent being in his line of sight. I whipped around at the sound of footsteps behind me. I threw a charred hardback, but the shifter dodged it. Her menacing approach was measured and taunting. I kept my eyes fixed on hers, looking for the spark that seemed to light their eyes before they changed. If the others were so efficient with their magic, would this shifter be just as skilled at changing without the identifying precursor?
Anand lunged at her, knocking her to the ground and holding her down in her partial shift to tiger.
I continued to ease back, taking myself out of the crossfire, hoping to melt into the background. My mind was rampant with thoughts. They’d killed the Awakeners. Were they there to also kill Anand, Dominic, and Helena?
Convinced they wanted to kill me, too, I scanned the room for an escape route. There was an emergency exit to the left of the store and another exit leading to the alleyway in the employee lounge. From my position, they were an equal distance apart, obstructed by toppled bookshelves, bodies, and debris. I chose the employee lounge.
Before I could run, I felt the intensity of eyes on me. Two pairs turned in my direction. Helena saw it a moment before I did. One of them, a man in his mid-fifties, moved toward me. The cold gleam in his eyes and the cruel curl of his lips belied his gentle, paternal appearance. How often was his lethality underestimated by his appearance? With a slight flick of the man’s hand, I slammed back into the wall. His magic held me firmly against it. I strained, trying to tear away. His hands were rigid in front of him.
Was Helena afraid to challenge him? Why was she just standing there doing nothing? Out of my periphery, I saw Dominic speeding toward the man, whose chest caved in from the impact of Dominic’s punch. Dominic was just a blur as he twisted, avoiding the knife hurled from the center of the room. Without losing his speed, he sent what looked like a fiery arrow in the attacker’s direction. Dominic was the embodiment of puissance and violence. It worked to my advantage at the moment, but I was witnessing his unrestrained power, what he could do. This was why the Conventicle feared and hated him.
The affable-looking man gurgled out a strangled gasp for breath that wouldn’t come. His struggle to hang on to life seemed to take too long, the shock of his demise slowly registering on his face. Helena taking a knife to his throat seemed like a mercy killing. She chose that over dealing with the man standing near her, who shot a sphere of magic straight at me. I dropped to the floor and flattened my body against it and watched as it hit the illuminated wall that surrounded me.
The shock of his failure registered briefly before Dominic was behind him. He wrenched the man’s head to the side, and the man dropped.
My breath came at short shallow clips. The violence was horrific. Dominic was violence. Period. A powerful reminder of my goal: do whatever was necessary to untangle myself from him and this world.
Dominic stepped forward, examining the cocoon of magic that surrounded me. He pressed his hand against it then quickly jerked away. Amber seized his eyes, and his face strained as he tried unsuccessfully to dismantle it. After several attempts he was joined by Helena, who circled it, examining it, and jerking back at the pain from touching it.
“This isn’t witch magic.”
Dominic grimaced. He was searching the destroyed room, moving quickly throughout the space, opening doors, moving anything large, when the cocoon of magic fell.
Left in the room was just Anand, who was on the phone, Helena, who stayed close to me, examining the space where I’d been enclosed in magic, and Dominic, who kept searching through the store for something or someone he hadn’t revealed.
I was preoccupied with picking up broken ceramic pieces. Engaging in the useless act of trying to clean up. I had to do something, no matter how futile.
“Your arrogance will be your failure,” Madeline said as she entered the room with several other people. Her gentle tone was diametrically opposed to the harshness of her scowl.
Startled by her presence, I was again unnerved by the ease in which they navigated the world undetected.
My eyes followed hers as she took in the state of the store: the bodies, the blood, the evidence of extreme violence. Then her eyes rested on the trash bag I was holding and the pieces of broken ceramic in my hands.
“Leave it. We will handle that,” she instructed me. She directed the rest to Dominic. “Zana will take care of the cameras,” Madeline told him, shooting me a harsh look before nodding to a woman with a purple pixie cut, shorts, an oversized shirt with strategically placed rips, and an ankle-length cardigan. A crescent moon and stars tattooed her neck, and the boredom with which she walked through the store was in stark contrast to Madeline’s intensity.
Moving her hand in rhythmic circular motions, Zana whispered an incantation as she moved through the space. The same iridescent glow flitted over the room where I knew there were cameras. She was precise and methodical. Techno-witch. Once she’d gone through the store, she went through the coffee shop and all the surrounding stores.
“Is she erasing them?” I asked Dominic.
“No, she’s changing what will be shown.”
“If Cameron already saw it, she’ll know it was changed.”
He shook his head. “She won’t. Zara’s the best techno-witch because she leaves no evidence,” he admitted quietly.
“Or rather, there’s an illusion or compulsion spell with her magic. We’re just pawns whose minds you manipulate on a whim,” I spat out.
He stood taller, his hand shoved in his pocket, ignoring my barb.
“What about this?” I waved my hand around. “You can’t just make this go away, magic it away with illusions and manipulations. These are real things that were destroyed. Real consequences because of this. How much more do the people I care about have to suffer because of the supernaturals?”
“That’s enough, Luna,” he snapped.
“Enough. Yes, I’ve had enough.”
Anger had clouded all rational thought. I marched off, needing to get away from reminders of my predicament and another attempt on my life. I was furious at the supernaturals treating our lives and minds like game pieces to be manipulated at will to win whatever game they were playing.
The thrum of magic that brushed against my skin as I stared out the window seemed foreboding, now that I knew what it was. Before, I’d ignored the breeziness of air, viewed a slight fluctuation in the energy as innocuous—just my mind playing tricks on me, a stuffiness in a room that needed to be ventilated. There was something quite ominous about an area that was usually bustling around this time of day, now that no one was around. I didn’t believe in coincidences. Magic. It was all magic, and I hated it. I just needed to fix the situation. How?
Fixing the situation consumed me as people entered the store and left, and I took in more magic-drenched air. Watching the orchestrated removal of all evidence of supernatural existence left me awestruck. The cleanup crew. The people behind the machine who had done this so often, it was a methodical and efficient system.
Dominic’s placid face of indifference confirmed this was just another day for them. Murder a bunch of people, destroy a store, set books on fire—no problem, I got you covered.
Repulsed, I went outside, several feet from the store. Stared at the markings on my finger.
“Undo,” I whispered.
“Luna.”
I turned to see Jackson, who had been compelled to go home. I wondered, like the witch’s curse, whether the compulsion broke when the vampire died. He eased toward me, the arrogance and self-assurance muted, genuine concern and curiosity filling his eyes.
“Can we talk?”
“About what?” I asked. Magic? Because if you remember it, hell yeah, let’s discuss it. I was desperate enough to even collaborate with him. He’d become the lesser of two evils.
He shrugged. “I don’t know, you seem like you could use someone to talk to,” he said. “Let’s get a drink.”
Alarms went off. Apprehensive, I took several steps back. “Maybe another time.”
Something was off and I couldn’t put my finger on it.
He grasped my arm. “It doesn’t have to be a drink. Coffee?” He pointed in the direction of the Starbucks a few blocks away. His grip tightened at my attempt to tug out of his hold.
“Is everything okay?” Dominic asked.
Jackson released my arm.
“Everything is fine.” The contempt Jackson had for Dominic was the only thing consistent about him. “You know where to find me, if you need me,” Jackson entreated. Hints of desperation lingered in his voice as concern flooded his eyes.
Dominic pressed his hand to my back. Warmth crept along it, and I stayed in place as Jackson warily backed away, his shoulders drooped.
Things were indeed a mess if I was contemplating going to Jackson for help despite something being noticeably off about him. For a brief moment, I thought he could provide something Dominic couldn’t. Not quite safety—maybe a neutral zone? Or perhaps it was just familiarity. That’s what it was. Despite his recent unsavory role in my life, the weirdness going on with him, he was a version of normal, and nothing I was experiencing was anywhere near that now.
I wanted somewhat normal, even if it was in the company of Jackson.