Ferocious Flea Market Dragons, page 16
Overtime, the crowd at the park shrunk and grew as more friends and family stopped by. Even my friends from group therapy stopped by. Tyler had rented a car and everyone had stuffed themselves inside, but there was one person I was hoping to see one more time before he disappeared down the rabbit hole in New York City.
The man in question popped up less than an hour later. Brenna and Nick appeared hand in hand from the forest. Brenna donned a white sundress while Nick wore his usual goth garments, minus his coat.
My mouth dropped.
Hell had officially frozen over and the damned were ice skating in the fields.
I stole a glance at Aggie and we shared a girlish giggle.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked her.
“Looks like Nick is finally getting comfortable with Brenna.”
Pack members swooped in to greet them warmly. The white wizard and the earth witch were given two seats of honor at the main table. Nick sat next to me, while Brenna took the spot on his other side.
“Thanks for coming, Nick,” I said.
“I wouldn’t have missed it,” he replied said with a smile. “Brenna kept saying we’d have to show up, or the Stravinskys would roll up to New York to find us.”
“We’ve much to celebrate,” my dad said from the other side of the table. “My daughter’s free from Diana and you’re one of the many souls I wish to thank.”
Other pack members nodded. Before Nick and Brenna could refuse a meal, the Stravinsky women placed generous plates of food before them.
“We just came to say hello and hang out.” Nick eyed the pile of food on the paper plate.
Not a single person had washed their hands or wiped off the table from the last person who’d eaten at his spot.
“I happen to be hungry,” Brenna said. She pushed the meat aside and dug into the vegetables.
“You don’t have to eat,” I whispered to Nick.
Thorn offered him an unopened bottle of sweet tea and Nick accepted it with a grateful nod.
“How you holding up?” Thorn asked Nick.
“Good.” For once, Nick sat among friends without his shield—his black trench coat and fedora hat. He took a drink of his tea, and I even spied a sheen of sweat forming on his brow. “Been a long morning.”
The two men made small talk about the upcoming baseball game between the Yankees and the Mets. Their conversation stretched out, and yet the sweat gathering on Nick’s neck, shoulders, and chest. Was he really that hot…or was something else going on?
A couple minutes later, I finally touched the top of his hand. “You okay?”
His mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. “There’s something I wanted to do when we got here, but now I don’t know what to do,” he whispered.
I gave him a smile. “You made it here, Fenton and you’re amongst your friends. It’s okay to just be.”
He drew a deep breath. “Just be…”
To my surprise, Nick got up and stood behind Brenna. He reached into a pocket of his jeans and withdrew a tiny golden box.
A couple heads turned toward the gazebo. Whispers erupted when Nick bent down on one knee and extended the golden box toward Brenna. She turned around to face him when she noticed everyone else had quieted and many mouths had dropped open.
“Nick…” she breathed. “What are you doing?”
Nick briefly closed his eyes before he said, “Brenna Bourdon, will you honor my family and my name by marrying me?”
Aggie squealed while an astonished Brenna sat there.
The earth witch’s lower lip began to tremble. “Yes, Nicolas Fenton. I will honor you and your family, and I will marry you.”
Whoops and hollers started in the gazebo, then spread to the other tables. The cheers grew louder when Nick opened the box, revealing a breathtaking gold ring with emeralds. While putting it on her finger, he fumbled a couple times.
“Don’t drop it, boy,” Uncle Boris said with a chuckle.
“I won’t.” Nick’s right hand wouldn’t stop shaking so he grasped it with his left.
“I never thought he’d ever ask,” Brenna wiped away a tear. “I didn’t expect this.”
“Finding love is the best kind of surprise.” I stole a glance at Thorn and he winked at me.
Now that my welcome home cookout had turned into an engagement party, the mood lifted even higher. Mom turned on some Russian pop music and the more inebriated family members danced. Aggie and Erica got up to bust a move. I tried to watch, but when Aggie shuffled over to get me to join, I didn’t want to give up Sveta.
My little darling had dozed off, and like all aunties, I wanted to spoil her as long as possible. And well, nobody needed to see my horrible dance moves. I settled into the seat and my gaze swept over my family, new and old. Life was good.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and something told me not to check it. So far, I’d received congratulatory messages from my family in Russia, but a tickle on the back of my neck sounded off in warning. If it was my cousin Yuri though, I’d feel bad.
I whipped out my phone to see a message from an unknown name: You and I still have unfinished business, Natalya. Come to Ramneil Pawn & Market tomorrow at sunset.
The demon had finally called in her debt.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
With the night demon’s text message weighing down the phone in my pocket, I headed to Ramneil Pawn & Market the next evening. I had to park in the shared lot next to The Bends. It almost felt like a crime to amble over to the other building.
The inside of the empty store was just as decrepit as I’d remembered it. The place had closed over a month ago and not much had changed. After the attack on The Bends, most of the supplies in here had been used to constrain Wilhelm. Now they were stacked and crammed haphazardly into any nook or cranny. The very idea that I’d have to somehow bring all this together as a new store for the undead and any wandering spirits up the Parkway left me baffled.
“What do you think of the place?” The midnight demon stood behind me, making an unexpected appearance as usual.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. “I thought you wanted to talk about my debt.”
She ignored my question. “This store has good bones.”
“Good bones on a corpse, if you asked me.”
“There is a lot of potential in this location, even without Diana’s supernatural influence.” She strode around me toward the center of the cavernous room.
Now that Diana no longer hunted nearby, the supernatural creatures drawn to her presence would go away, but the humans and their cold cash would remain. And I preferred boring humans any day.
“I can see why Bill set up shop in town, all those years ago,” the night demon said. “I prefer the river side, to be honest.”
“You do have a boat. Don’t you need to be close to the water?”
“For some of my customers, yes. My sister likes the water too.”
We grew quiet for a bit and I took in her face. What was the night demon hiding from me? Did she sell me off to someone else?
The building yawned, not from magic, but from an oncoming summer shower. My whole body was weary, but work was work and if I had made this place happen, I’d put one hundred percent into it.
I stood straighter and asked, “Should I come back to tonight or tomorrow to clean up?”
Mademoiselle Midnight glanced me, and the starlight in her hair briefly flared like a supernova. “Yes…I do need to finalize things.”
My gaze swept over the furniture. Maybe we could save a couple displays. Some of them would need to be drop-kicked like a bad habit into a dumpster. Trashing them might feel good.
Mademoiselle Midnight spoke again. “The offer to buy the place from Bill was impossible to resist. Who wouldn’t want an opportunity to one-up a goblin like him. And I must admit, you were one of the best employees I ever had.”
Good employee or not, I didn’t want to be here. “I’ll sort out the trash then.”
Her grin widened. “I was prepared to move here and setup shop, but then I had a visitor a couple days ago.”
I faced the midnight demon and tried to hide my shock.
“It was your grandmother,” the madame said. “We had the most delightful conversation until I had to rest for the day. She listens and speaks well.”
I nodded as the madame continued. “She told me about her family. In particular, her siblings who were long gone. She described them so well—I could see their faces and even imagine their voices. And her aunt Lada! Now, she was quite the spunky thing. Back then was so different before modern machines and the Internet. We spent time with people. We cherished them. Now we exist until those who are most precious to us are taken away.” She sighed and the smoke trailing from her peplum shirt shimmered from white to soft chartreuse. “Not long after Svetlana and I chatted, I realized I couldn’t stay in South Toms River. My place should be with my sister.”
Fear pricked my spine. I took a step back. Did that mean I had to go north with her?
“What about the shop?” I dared to ask.
She gave me a coy smile.
“I think I know someone,” she said. “She’d make a great owner.”
“Excuse me? Did you say owner? How would I own this place when I owe you the debt?” That demon had lost her mind. I’d taken her jade beads, swallowed them like M&M’s, then I never saw them again.
“There are some things that are more valuable than money in this world. It’s time. My place is to wander the Earth with my sister for all time. Your place is here, not bounced back-and-forth from shop to shop to pay your debts. You’ll make it your own, and with that, you can move forward into the future.”
The words “Are you sure?” came to mind, but only a fool would say such things. I’d never imagined saving up to own my own place. I thought I’d work at The Bends until I was grandma’s age. That place, including Bill, Erica, Quinton, and everyone else, were just as much a part of me as my family. And yet as I walked away from the night demon to survey the room, the possibilities of what I could do here left me heady—almost as excited as the day I had returned home from my first day at The Bends of the River Flea Market.
“Is it a yes?” the night demon asked.
I didn’t hesitate. “With those kinds of terms, I think it is.”
“What do you plan to sell here?” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “You’re not going to put me out of business, are you?”
“Maybe.” My heart swelled with joy at the possibilities. “I think I should sell hope. We all need a lot more of that these days.”
The End
Also by Shawntelle Madison
Historical Fiction
The Fallen Fruit
Coveted Series
Collected (Prequel Novella) #0.5
Coveted #1
Kept #2
Pocketed (Novella) #2.5
Compelled #3
Cursed (Collection of Short Stories)
Flea Market Magic Series
Thrift Store Trolls #1
Deceptive Dime Store Demons #2
Lowdown Pawn Shop Leprechauns #3
Ferocious Flea Market Dragons #4
Heroes Run in Packs Series
Hadley Werewolves
Windham Werewolves
McGinnis Werewolves
Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance/Fantasy
Bitter Disenchantment
Repossessed
Taming the Viking’s Dragon
At Your Service Series
Bound to You
Surrender to You
About the Author
Shawntelle Madison is a Web developer who loves to weave words as well as code. She’d be reluctant to admit it, but if pressed, she’d say that she covets and collects source code. After losing her first summer job detasseling corn, Madison performed various jobs, from fast-food clerk to grunt programmer to university webmaster. Writing eccentric characters is her favorite job of all. On any given day when she’s not surgically attached to her computer, she can be found watching cheesy horror movies or the latest action-packed anime. Shawntelle Madison lives in Missouri with her husband and children.
Shawntelle Madison, Ferocious Flea Market Dragons
