Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson

Author:May Peterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-07T15:31:36+00:00

* * *

It was like dream logic, going melty and distorted. Tibario standing across from me, face lit with a grin, finger on a trigger, with Mio half-dressed and gasping behind me—a curious, surrealist nightmare.

“Brother?” Mio stepped down, tried to go to Tibario, but I snarled, covering him with an arm.

“Wait.” I tried to caution Mio with my expression. This could be the incubus.

“Actually, I’ve thought better.” Tibario slid into my room, gesturing with the barrel of the gun. “Do get up. And step the fuck away from my little brother.”

Mio gripped my shirt but stayed behind me. My pulse rattled in my ears. “Ginger snap, I don’t know what your education was like, but if you came in here hoping a silver-tipped bullet or three was going to scare me, you’re not—”

Force blared from the barrel. Piercing heat punctured my upper abdomen. The right side, a great yawning weal of pain that flamed across me. I clenched my jaw, swallowed an involuntary scream.

“That. Hurt.” I snapped my neck, already covering the wound. Blood seeped down my belly. At least it didn’t feel like it’d been a hollow point. Then I probably would have had to bear-shape to force it out. “Do you have any idea how rude that is?”

Tibario threw off spite like a cloud. He cleared the pistol again. “Maybe one in your brain will trouble you a bit more. But we could make this easy. Get. Away. From Mio.”

I didn’t move. Definitely not the incubus. And it also meant that whoever our mystery killer was, if they really were forestalling an attack on Mio...they now had a much easier prey.

Mio slipped out from behind me. He raised both hands, as if to show he wasn’t armed. “Brother. Stop. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

Tibario’s hiss practically steamed. “I’m going to get you out of here, Mio. You’re going to be just fine.”

“Yes. He is.” I had to stop and catch up to my body’s recovery.

“As for your question about what I’m doing here, well. I hope you didn’t think that you were an elusive quarry.” Ginger snap sniffed. “You all but handed me your address. I’m a spy. You could be living under a rotten log in a hedgerow and I’ve found you by now. You can’t believe that there are that many giant, mysterious houses full of foreign dignitaries in Vermagna.”

No, I didn’t exactly blend in. “Mio can leave any time he wants.” I looked down at him. “If you want to go with ginger snap, you know you’re free to.”

A throaty, unpleasant laugh punctuated Tibario’s grit lines. He was halfway into the room now. “Oh, good Lord. Yes, I’m sure you’ll let him leave. After you’ve bogged him down in feelings of obligation, charms and promises and sad stories.” The barrel’s tip lifted. “You have outrageously bad timing, by the way. My catching all of that cannot be simple luck.”

Mio took a few steps forward, arms still upraised. “Calm down, Tibario. I can explain the situation, just put the gun away.

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