Shadow & Smoke

Chapter 8

By the time I rushed into to work later that day, I was desperate for some caffeine. It was one thing that I'd forgotten inventory earlier and left Jane to do it alone but more than that, I hadn't gotten anywhere with Malachi at home, either.

Malachi—or Kai as he encouraged me to call him—refused to leave. I didn't know what I expected considering he'd been stalking me in the shadows for months. Even if he did leave, would he really be gone?

I still had more questions than answers. So far, I still didn't know what Malachi was. He sure as hell wasn't human—at least not completely. He looked human and a delicious one at that—but that was beside the point. One second, he could be smoke and shadow, the next a beautiful man.

Since I was stubborn as fuck and refused to promise him shit, I never did get that last question. Instead, he just taunted me until I finally forced myself to go into work. I figured since I made Jane do inventory on her own, I'd let her leave early and close the store in her place.

"You look like you could use this." Jane smiled as she returned to the bookstore with two large lattes in hand from the coffee shop down the street.

"You're an angel. Thanks again for taking care of everything this morning. I really needed to oversleep."

"It was only a couple of shelves." She shrugged as she gathered her things and got ready to leave for the day. By then, it was only an hour until closing.

"Enjoy your night." I waved as she left and I headed over to check on a few customers to make sure they were doing okay as they browsed.

"That's actually the second book in the series, Michelle." I mentioned to the lady who owned the local patisserie in town. She was looking through one of my favorite romance books. Handing her the right one, I explained, "You'll want to start with this."

"You're the best." She smiled and headed towards the register with her books. "I'm a quick reader."

We made small talk about her business and how things were going for her. I chatted up the book series and she was buying and suggested a few others once she finished the those. After she paid and left, I moved on to the other patrons.

"I thought I'd find you here." A familiar voice said from behind me as I restocked a stack of books. Turning around, I saw Eli standing there with a coffee in his hand. "I figured since I woke you up so early this morning that I should at least bring you caffeine. I stopped in earlier and Jane mentioned you were coming in to close up."

Eli and I both looked at the coffee I already had in my hand from Jane and started laughing.

"Jane beat you to it." I joked. "But believe me, I can use the extra energy."

Taking the coffee, I thanked him and tossed the first, nearly empty cup that Jane had given me. I was going from not being able to sleep because I was being taunted by a shadow-man to not sleeping tonight because I had too much coffee.

"I know the store is closing in a bit." Eli said, "Let me buy you dinner."

Under normal circumstances, Eli's friendly invite to dinner wouldn't have been of any concern. He was a good guy and we'd hung out before as friends. It wasn't weird or anything. But recently, things had changed—and my mind was possibly on the fritz. Not to mention, I had a shadow-creature haunting me and getting all possessive when it came to other men.

I have so many fucking questions.

"Dinner..." I stammered, "That sounds awesome but I actually have plans."

Eli evaluated the expression on my and I couldn't tell if he believed me or not. Regardless, he let it go and offered a raincheck. It wasn't until he said goodbye and left the bookstore that I noticed I wasn't alone like I thought I was.