“Grim?”
I turned at the sound of Basil Ellwood’s voice. He was standing close to the door, wearing his normal all black attire, and looking like a goddamn demi god with the light spilling over his gorgeous features. My dick did a jump in my pants despite myself. The traitor. When Basil licked his lips, I had to hold in a groan.
“Grim?”
I blinked when I realized I was staring and forgot to respond to him. Get it together, man, he’s a frickin’ witch. “Hey.” Did my voice normally sound that husky?
Basil’s brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”
Giving myself a mental shake, I asked, “Can we go somewhere to talk? I have a job I need some help on.”
He gave me a concerned expression, obviously not believing me.
I held my hands up. “If I wanted to kill ya, do you really think I’d come into a store your family owns and show my face?”
He sighed. “No, I guess not.”
“Look, I haven’t had lunch yet. You wanna walk next door and get some food so I can tell you what’s goin’ on?”
He smiled a little. “Sure.”
“Don’t forget to exchange numbers!” the fae yelled from the counter.
Basil waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
The other witch asked Basil, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
Basil rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, Del.”
The other witch narrowed his eyes first at Basil, then at me and said, “If you hurt him, I’ll come after you.”
Since the were-cyclops and the fae were standing behind the small witch with their arms crossed, making it obvious that if that Del witch came after me, I’d have to deal with them, too, I said, “I won’t hurt ‘im. Not unless he tries hurtin’ me or… someone else.”
The witch nodded, then said to his brother, “Be careful.”
Basil sighed, but nodded at him before jerking his head to the side and saying, “Come on or they’ll never leave us alone.”
I nodded and let him hold the door for me as I passed through.
Before he shut the door, I heard giggling from inside the shop, and Basil ground out, “Shut up, Delaro!” Then slammed the door shut, or tried to slam it, but it only closed slowly. Which had me stifling my own laugh.
Then I realized I was entertained by witches, and I cussed myself out.
Basil walked beside me on the sidewalk to the next building over, neither of us saying a thing. A hostess sat us at a small table near the kitchen, and a waitress came over to get our drink order, and Basil said, “I know what I want, but have you been here before?”
I waved that away. “I’ll take a burger and fries.” Basil wrinkled his nose and ordered some weird veggie dish, so once the waitress walked away, I asked, “What’s wrong with a burger?”
“Nothing, if you like eating innocent animals.”
My eyebrows lifted. “You’re a vegetarian?”
“Yes. Most witches are.”
My brow furrowed because I knew that wasn’t true. The witches I’d known back home all ate meat. “They do at home.”
“Yeah? Where’s that?”
I mentally cursed myself for giving up this information, but I still answered honestly. “Gauhala.” On the other side of the world.
Basil nodded. “What made you move here?”
“We needed a change of scenery.” Not exactly the truth, but hell if I was gonna get into that right now.
“Never been there.” A small laugh came out of him. “I’ve actually never traveled out of the country. Out of this realm? Yes. But not out of Brinnswick.”
“Outta this realm?”
“I lived in Faela for a few years, and I go back every few weeks.”
My eyebrows lifted again, surprised he was offering up so much personal information. And Faela? I didn’t think they allowed anyone but fae to even visit them. “Faela?”
He nodded. “It’s peaceful there.”
I had no clue what to do with that, but luckily, the waitress brought us drinks, interrupting us.
Once she was gone, Basil asked, “What do you need?”
I sighed, happy to get straight to it. “My current mark is a jinn. He’s wanted for murder, rape, and assault. I found him, tried to take ‘im on myself, and was nearly killed. Not even my dagger worked on his magic.”
“Yeah, no kidding. Jinns are no joke.” He took a sip of the water the waitress had given him.
When he said nothin’ else, I added, “I lost an innocent human in the process.”
Basil frowned. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
He obviously wasn’t getting it. “I need your help to take it down, shadow boy.”
The witch froze. “You’re seriously asking for my help?”
I huffed out a frustrated breath. “Not ‘cause I want to, but you’re the only magic user I know that hasn’t tried killin’ me in the last year, so…” I trailed off with a shrug.
“Such high standards you have for your friends.” Before I could point out that we weren’t friends, he kept speaking. “I’m in, but do we need more backup? I can call my brothers or my… dads to come help if you think we need it.”
I blinked at that. I’d barely told him anything about the job and he was jumping in anyway, and offering to bring in more help. I was immediately suspicious. “Why are you helping me?”
Basil rolled his eyes. “Because you asked.” My eyes widened, and Basil stared at me before sighing. “I don’t want a wild jinn on the loose, either. The last thing we need is some crazy-strong lunatic hurting innocent humans for the hell of it. Give me the run down so we can make a plan.”
Trying to take him at his word, I nodded and started laying out everything I knew about our perp. Our food came out while I was talking, so I spoke in between bites of delicious food while silently praying I could actually afford the meal I was indulging in.
When I finished talking, Basil asked, “Are you still injured?”
“What?”
He rolled his eyes again. “You said the jinn hurt you, so are you still injured? I can heal you if you need it.”
My shocked eyes felt like they were buggin’ out, but I shook my head. “I’m healed.”
He nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but a voice called over, “Basil?”
Basil sent me an apologetic smile before turning in his seat toward a man in a chef’s uniform who walked out from the kitchen and said, “Hey, Tio.”
The chef guy made his way over and surprised me by flicking a towel in Basil’s face as he said, “You didn’t tell me you were here, asshat.”
Basil batted the towel away with a laugh, and the sound shot right through me. I didn’t know if I’d ever heard him laugh before, at least not a true one, and though I’d never admit this even by pain of torture, he had a hellova laugh. Holy shit.
Basil said, “Didn’t plan ahead, and I didn’t want to bother you. You on break?”
“Yeah, just for a few minutes.” The chef turned to me and said, “Hey, I’m Tio, Basil’s brother.”
My eyes widened yet again. Another brother? And the chef… what if… I glanced down at my food, and Basil snorted and muttered, “He didn’t fucking poison you, hunter.”