Disarming an armed assailant in a crowded building was a dicey move, especially one as unhinged as Blezor. If I spun and grabbed for the gun, it might go off and harm an innocent monster or even Anjelica. I couldn’t risk that. I had to play it safe and look for an opening when I could thrash him without injuring anyone else.

“Hey!” the squid monster bartender shouted. “Take it outside.”

I almost laughed, but that was the kind of place the Palomino was. The bartender was never going to help me. He just wanted to make sure that if I was going to fight, it didn’t start a riot—or make a mess. The sea of people parted as we made our way toward the front door. Everybody we passed acted more inconvenienced than scared by a gunman with a hostage. Anjelica trailed behind, her eyes bulging. Outside, Blezor pressed his gun into my back. “You’re going to wish you never met me.”

“Honestly, I already wish that,” I said. “I wished that less than ten minutes after I started talking to you.”

He jabbed me with the barrel of the gun. “Then why did you sleep with me?”

“Ew, you slept with this creep?” Anjelica said. “I thought you had standards.”

“Why would you think that?” I said. “Okay, I do have standards, usually at least. It’s just that—”

“Shut up!” Blezor said, his voice breaking like he was about to cry. I looked back at him, eyeing his hands in the hope he would let up his grip on the gun, but he was white-knuckling the grip.

Blezor’s monster truck towered over the rest of the cars in the parking lot.

“I kind of feel like I should have seen that when we came in,” I muttered to Anjelica.

“Yeah, we really blew that one,” Anjelica replied, nodding.

“I just don’t understand, honey bear,” Blezor said, his voice trembling. “Why would you betray me?”

“Don’t call me that.” I wheeled on him. “I already told you, it wasn’t personal. I needed the dagger. You had the dagger. It was as simple as that.”

“I can’t believe I was nothing but a mark to you. I shared things with you that I never shared with anyone else.”

“I never asked you to do that. And also, really? I mean, we barely talked.”

“We had a connection!” he screamed, the gun shaking as I inched backward. I wanted to put Anjelica behind me. A shotgun blast wouldn’t hurt me much, and I doubted Blezor went to the trouble of dousing them in virgin blood or using consecrated bullets. He seemed too impulsive for that. But Anjelica was new at this, and she wasn’t taking the hint. Her wide eyes were simply staring at him, transfixed with fear, out in the open. She was half-demon, so she might have been fine, but there was an equally good chance that the human side of her bled out, and I didn’t like those odds.

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“Tell me I was more to you!” he shouted.

“Just do it,” Anjelica whispered. “Even if it’s a lie.”

“It’s not a lie!” Blezor stomped his feet like a tantruming child. “It’s not a lie!”

“I’m sorry,” I said, looking him in the eyes through my sunglasses. “I don’t know what you think I am or what you want from me, but I’m not that person. I’m not a good person. I never claimed to be. I’m just trying to survive. So, no, you were nothing more than a mark to me.”

Blezor took a step forward. “You’re a bit—”

The top of a metal trash can smashed into Blezor’s face with a big clang. Kimberly stepped out from the shadows outside of the club. “I thought he would never shut up.”

I looked down at the unconscious Blezor. “That’s not even the worst thing about him.”

“Should we kill him?” Kimberly asked.

“If I wanted him dead, I’d have already killed him. He still has some use to me.”

“How?” Anjelica asked.

“He still loves me, and I can manipulate that.”

“Wow,” Kimberly said, shaking her head. “You really are a terrible person.”

I shrugged. “Except I’m really not a person at all.” I turned to her. “Did you get what we need?”

She pulled the list from her pocket. “Yup. Here it is. Ingredients and recipe.”

I snatched it from her. “Took you long enough. I thought you said thirty minutes. It’s been almost forty.”

“Oh, I’ve been here,” Kimberly said, her eyebrows raised. “I just wanted to see if you were good enough to save yourself. You aren’t.”

“I was biding my time.”

“Sure you were.”

“I was jus—”

“Hey!” Anjelica said. “Not to make this all about me, but I’m the one who’s going to die when the sun comes up, so it’s really not cool to hear you arguing about taking your sweet time. God, you are both so selfish.”

“You’re right,” Kimberly said. “I’m sorry.”

“Ugh. I am so sick of you two saying you’re sorry. I don’t care. Sorry doesn’t matter. Words are meaningless.” She slapped her hands together. “Let’s have some action.”

“I mean, did you already forget—again—that I saved your life?” I replied.

“And you put it in danger just as much!” Anjelica said. “I don’t even care. I know you are both doing your best…I just was hoping it would be better.”

“We have the list for the potion,” Kimberly said. “That’s something.”

“You’re right.” Anjelica pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose. “You guys are doing great. Well, maybe not great, but better than I could do by myself. I’m just crabby because tons of people are trying to kill me, I haven’t slept all day, and my insides feel like they are about to explode.”

“That’s fair,” Kimberly said, nodding. “It must be hard.”

“It’s so so so so hard!” Anjelica whined. “But now I’m over it. What’s on that list you brought us, anyway?”

I held it into the light. “Four ounces boiled intestine from a monstrous spider, three teaspoons pureed werewolf bane, five saffron stems from a dragon’s garden, two tablespoons coarsely ground wraith liver, one-ounce peeled skin from a zombified human, and a pinch of pixie dust.”

Anjelica grimaced. “I’m supposed to eat that?”

“Only if you don’t want to die,” Kimberly said with a shrug.

“I super don’t want to die. But I also super don’t want to drink that.”

“Tough decision.” Kimberly’s words oozed with sarcasm. It was one of the few moments that I thought I could actually like her.

“Most of this shouldn’t be a problem,” I said. “But I haven’t seen a dragon in ages.”

“I have that covered,” Kimberly said. “I picked some up from my dragon friend.”

“You’re friends with a dragon?” Anjelica asked in awe. “That’s so awesome. Man, this night is a roller coaster of emotions.”

“He’s more like a father to me,” Kimberly replied. “A very annoying father.”

“Porth i Fasnach apothecary Mortar and Pestle,” I said, and a portal opened in front of me. “Shall we quit complaining and get this over with?” I stuffed the list in my pocket and pushed Anjelica toward the portal. “You’re a pain in the ass, but I don’t want you to die.”

“That’s sweet, in a weird way,” Anjelica said.

I smirked. “That’s not a very common sentiment, so I appreciate it.”