A nasty smile curved over Jenks, but it was Ivy who put her palm aggressively on the table and said, “I’m doing it. I want to talk to him.”

I looked up, wondering, but she had turned away. “Come on, crap for brains,” she said, grabbing her purse in passing and heading for the door. “Rachel forgot something, and since I don’t know anything about ley line magic, you’re coming with me to make sure I get the right thing. Anyone else want anything while I’m out?”

Nick’s face went defiant, and I simpered, knowing it was petty but unable to stop myself. “Watch out for the Weres,” I said. Maybe that had been mean, but I was mean. Just ask the kids I kept chasing out of my graveyard. They could play hide-and-seek somewhere else.

“I’m out of toothbrushes,” Jenks said, going to putter with the coffeemaker.

Ivy waited for Nick to shrug into the fabric coat that had been stashed in his truck. “You can use those more than once,” she said, as I’d already told him, and Jenks shuddered.

Clearly aware he was being gotten rid of, Nick yanked the door open and walked out. Ivy gave me a wicked, closed-lipped smile and followed him. “I’m not afraid of you,” Nick said as the door shut and my stress level dropped about six points.

“Here’s your coffee,” Jenks said, setting it down in front of me.

He poured me coffee? I looked at it, then up at him. “Is there Brimstone in it?”

Jenks plopped into the chair beside mine. “Ivy told me to put some in, but I thought you were well enough to decide.”

My blood pressure went right back up, and remembering my reflection in the store window, I hesitated, wondering if I was being wise or stupid. Brimstone would keep me alert for hours while I made whatever charms I needed, simultaneously increasing my blood count to pretty near normal. When I fell asleep, I’d wake refreshed, hungry, and feeling almost as well as before I was bitten. Without it, I’d be spelling while fatigued. My legs would shake every time I stood, and my sleep would end with me waking up feeling like crap.

But using black magic or illegal drugs simply to make my life easier was a lie of convenience—one that would delude me into believing I had the right to flaunt the rules, that I lived above them. I will not turn into Trent.

I exhaled in a long puff. “I’m not going to do it,” I said, and he nodded, his green eyes creased with worry. Though he clearly disagreed, he accepted my decision, which made me feel better immediately. I was in charge of my life. Me. Ri-i-i-i-ight.