“Hey, Grady. How’s everything going?”
A long sigh came through the phone. “The store’s a complete disaster. I’m going to be stuck here for a few more hours, cleaning up and going through everything to figure out what they took.”
I frowned at that. “Do you want me to come over and help out?”
“No, no. The owner’s here with me, and we brought in everyone that works here because we’ll be able to see what’s missing more easily than someone else.”
“I’m sure I can still help with—”
“No. Please don’t. You’re on vacation. I couldn’t live with myself if I made you help me.”
“I don’t mind.”
“I know, but I promise I’m okay. Thank you, though, it was a kind offer. I’m sorry I won’t be able to hang out with you today.”
I held back my sigh. “It’s fine. I guess that means you can’t come out for lunch?”
“I’m really sorry.”
“It’s alright.”
We spent a few more minutes chatting before we hung up, and I tried to decide if I should drive over there anyway to help. I felt bad not going, but Grady did seem like he didn’t want me there, so I wasn’t sure what to do.
My mind drove me to the street Grady’s shop was on, but when I parked my car, I realized I wasn’t parked in front of the comic shop; I’d parked in front of Laz’s antique store.
Scanning the front of the stores, my gaze paused on the comic shop, and I still couldn’t decide whether to go in or not. But maybe Laz would know.
Decision made, I hopped out of the car and strode into Laz’s store. The handsome man was behind the counter, tinkering with something, but he looked up at my approach and smiled widely. “Hey, Isiah.”
“Hey, Laz. How are you today?”
“I’m good. You?”
“Good.”
“How was the house?”
A smile spread over my face. “It’s perfect. I put in an offer.”
“Really? That’s great, man.”
I leaned my elbows on the counter. “So I was wondering if you think I should ignore Grady and go help him in his shop or not? I assume you know what happened there?”
“Yeah, he called me this morning. I actually tried to go down and help earlier, but he kicked me out, so I wouldn’t bother.”
I sighed. “Well, there goes that plan.”
He smiled. “Did you eat lunch yet?” I shook my head. “Want to grab something together?”
Another smile stretched my face. “That would be lovely.”
“Great. Give me a minute, and we can go across the street to the sub place, if you want.”
“Perfect.”
While I waited for him, I pulled out my phone and shot off a text to Raph to let him know I was going to lunch with Laz. He texted back almost right away.
Raph: Bring him back with you so we can all hang out tonight.
Me: I’ll try. He might have to wait until after work.
Raph: Tell him to take off early.
Me: You can tell him that, he’s your boyfriend.
Laz came out from the back with a smile, then his brow furrowed as he pulled out his phone. After staring at it for a few seconds, he asked, “Why is Raph telling me to take off work early?”
I snorted. “I told him that we’re going out to lunch, and I think he’s jealous that I’m getting to see you, and he isn’t. He wants me to bring you back with me afterward.”
“Oh, um… isn’t he still out with Alaric?”
“They should be home in a few hours, I think.” When he didn’t respond, I said, “You don’t have to, of course, but I’d be happy for the company if you did want to.”
That made him smile. “Can I think about it? The store’s been pretty empty today, but I’m not sure if I should close early.”
“Of course, think about it.”
He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
“What?”
He huffed. “I was going to say that you could always hang out here after we finish eating if you don’t want to go back by yourself.”
I smiled. “I’d like that.”
With a nod, he led the way out the door and said, “Cool.”
We walked across the street, ordered our food, and found a table. We were a little quiet while we were eating, but it wasn’t a bad quiet, it was more like two people simply enjoying time together with no need to fill the silence. I didn’t have that very often with people, and it was nice, content.
A little while into our meal, Laz said, “Izzy?”
“Yeah?”
He opened and closed his mouth a few times before shaking his head and mumbling, “Never mind.”
“No, what? Go on. You can tell or ask me anything.”
He blew out a long breath before saying, “Raph said you were scared of the Conclave before you worked for them, but he wouldn’t tell me why. I, um, was wondering about it?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Well, I did tell him he could ask me anything, didn’t I? That was about the last thing I’d ever expected to hear from him, though.
“Never mind. I’m sorry, you don’t have to tell me. I didn’t mean to bring up a bad subject. I’m sorry, Isiah.”
“No, no. I… I don’t mind telling you. I was just surprised, and… it isn’t an easy subject to talk about.”
“You don’t have to tell me about it,” he whispered.
I ignored him and said, “My parents were very old when they had me, and they died when I was very young. I had six older brothers and sisters, and they all lived together in our parents’ estate with me. My siblings were the ones who raised me. My three older sisters and three older brothers. I was the baby of the family, and they often treated me that way, but I was also rather spoiled by most of my siblings.” I smiled fondly at the memories of them. Of the happy memories.
Before I lost my nerve, I continued, “When I was fourteen, our home was broken into by a coven of dark witches and warlocks that were hopped up on sacrificial magic. My whole family was captured that night. I was knocked out at some point, and when I woke up, it was in… in a dark cave that was covered in blood.”
“Jesus, Izzy, you don’t have to keep going.”
I swallowed as my mind’s eye provided the gruesome reminder of that horrid place. The place of my nightmares. “No,” I whispered, “I want to tell you.” If I didn’t finish now, I didn’t know if I’d ever gather the courage to tell him, and for some reason, I felt like it was important for Laz to know my history. So I pushed down the old feelings of horror, fear, agony, disgust, and grief, and I kept going. “There are sacrificial rituals that dark magic users do in order to gain power. They start small, killing bugs, then they move on to small animals like mice, then they get a little larger, moving on to squirrels and rabbits, then larger after that, and so on. Eventually, they get to humans… after humans, they move on to other magic users. Once they get a taste of sacrificing a magic user, they never go back. They seek out more magic users and more power.
“By the time my family was captured by that dark coven, they had more blood on their hands than some small platoons. They had been traveling the country for years, picking off humans in small towns that had no chance of fighting back. And then they decided to move on to magic users, and… well, my family was the second family of witches and warlocks that they’d captured. They… they chained us to the walls in that cave and tortured us for weeks, bleeding us for their spells or just t-to drink our blood.”