The Brimstone Deception

PRAISE FOR

THE DRAGON CONSPIRACY

“I'm at a loss for words here, since I have no idea how to fully convey how much I loved
The Dragon Conspiracy
 . . . With Makenna's typical sarcastic narration, nearly nonstop action, and plot twists which completely surprised me,
The Dragon Conspiracy
left me aching for more.”

—All Things Urban Fantasy

“[Shearin's] skillful ability to combine scary and heart-stopping chills with laugh-out-loud humor is part of what makes her books such addictive gems.”

—
RT Book Reviews

“With
The Dragon Conspiracy
, Lisa Shearin has gotten even more awesome! . . . [It] contains all of Shearin's trademarks: witty dialogue, a winning protagonist, and a plot that doesn't quit. I can't recommend Shearin's work enough.”

—Tynga's Reviews

“A fantastic ensemble . . . A fun and thrilling urban fantasy adventure with characters I'd love to go out and have a drink with.”

—Bea's Book Nook

“Lisa Shearin has painted a wonderful picture of New York and all of its supernatural inhabitants . . . A fast-paced, fun read with all kinds of supernatural goodness and great world-building.”

—Wicked Little Pixie

“Funny, frightening, fast-paced . . . Imminent disaster has never been more fun.”

—38 Caliber Reviews

“A fast-paced urban fantasy, pack[ed] with action and interesting characters and surprises in most every turn.”

—Ami's Hoard

PRAISE FOR

THE GRENDEL AFFAIR

“Lisa Shearin always delivers a great story. Fresh and exciting, humorous and action-packed,
The Grendel Affair
is urban fantasy at its best.”

—Ilona Andrews, #1
New York Times
bestselling author of
Magic Shifts

“Throw Stephanie Plum,
The X-Files
, and tequila in a blender and experience it all explode in your face with murder, mystery, the supernatural, tea-drinking dragons, and a hot partner who always has your back (and he might have a little more if given half a chance). Nonstop action, hilarious klutziness, romance, and lethal Lotharios everywhere. What could be better?”

—Rob Thurman,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Nevermore

“In Lisa Shearin's SPI Files series, seer Makenna Fraser brings Southern sass, smarts, and charm to the mean streets of Manhattan as she battles monsters and other magical beings. An action-packed mix of monsters, magic, and mayhem that will keep you turning the pages.”

—Jennifer Estep,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Dark Heart of Magic

“One of the best parts of being an author is getting to read books like
The Grendel Affair
before they're published. One of the most frustrating parts is sitting here asking, ‘When does the next one come out?' before book one is even in print. This was great fun, with engaging characters and plenty of fast-paced action. But seriously, when does the next one come out?”

—Jim C. Hines, author of
Revisionary

“One of the strongest parts of this book is the humor. It is deadpan and had me laughing out loud.”

—Fiction Vixen

“Light, bouncy, and just fun to read, this book is the perfect antidote for doom and gloom.”

—Bookyurt

PRAISE FOR THE RAINE BENARES NOVELS

“Dazzling wit and clever humor. It's gritty, funny, and sexy—a wonderful addition to the urban fantasy genre . . . From now on Lisa Shearin is on my auto-buy list!”

—Ilona Andrews

“An enchanting read from the very first page . . . [Shearin is] definitely an author to watch!”

—Anya Bast,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Embrace of the Damned

“Exceptional . . . Shearin has proven herself to be an expert storyteller with the enviable ability to provide both humor and jaw-dropping action.”

—
RT Book Reviews

“Lisa Shearin's fun, action-packed writing style gives this world life and vibrancy.”

—Fresh Fiction

“An exciting, catch-me-if-you-can, lightning-fast-paced tale of magic and evil filled with goblins, elves, mages, and a hint of love interest.”

—Monsters and Critics

Ace Books by Lisa Shearin

The Raine Benares Novels

MAGIC LOST, TROUBLE FOUND

ARMED & MAGICAL

THE TROUBLE WITH DEMONS

BEWITCHED & BETRAYED

CON & CONJURE

ALL SPELL BREAKS LOOSE

The SPI Files Novels

THE GRENDEL AFFAIR

THE DRAGON CONSPIRACY

THE BRIMSTONE DECEPTION

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

THE BRIMSTONE DECEPTION

An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Shearin.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

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penguin.com
.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-61845-5

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Ace mass-market edition / February 2016

Cover illustration by Julie Dillon.

Cover design by Judith Lagerman.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

I
wasn't sure this qualified as a first date.

Yes, I was having lunch with one of the richest and most eligible bachelors of not only Manhattan but also another dimension. We were in a trendy new restaurant in Tribeca, with a celebrity chef in the kitchen. Two nights ago, I'd played a big part—along with said inter-dimensional bachelor—in saving the lives of the supernatural citizens of the tristate area.

That was three causes for celebration: hot guy, great food, still alive. Yay, me.

The fly in my fancy soup du jour, so to speak, was twofold.

First, on the other side of the restaurant, and unfortunately with a clear view of our table, was my partner, Ian Byrne. My name is Makenna Fraser. Ian and I work together at a worldwide organization fighting the forces of supernatural evil. Ian thought that my date, Rake Danescu, deserved a spot near the top of our most wanted list.

Second, I was still considered a newbie and my partner
was the protective type. Actually, that was part of his job. Protecting me, that is. Right now, those protective urges were getting on my last nerve. I'd had more than one near-death experience during the last few days, and was way overdue for some R&R. Having Ian only taking his eyes off of me long enough to stare crosshairs onto Rake's forehead was taking the rest right out of my relaxation. We'd recently decided that a healthy mentor/mentee relationship shouldn't also be a romantic relationship. I had to admit that took a lot of the tension—sexual and otherwise—out of our workday, which was good for focusing on the bad guys and not my partner's mighty fine backside. But right now, Ian was putting plenty of tension right back in. He wasn't jealous—at least I didn't think he was. I think he was being protective of his still relatively new partner.

“I knew you were reluctant to accept my invitation,” Rake murmured, “but I assure you a bodyguard wasn't necessary.”

I sighed. “I didn't tell him.” It was a coincidence that we were all here at the same time. A really unpleasant and awkward coincidence.

Rake smiled slowly. “You didn't tell him? Oh, I like this devious side of you.”

“I'm not being devious. My personal life isn't anyone's business but my own.”

“I don't think he agrees with you.”

“Doesn't appear that way, does it?”

Rake peered around a waiter to see who my partner was having lunch with, and to provoke Ian even more, he made a leisurely show of appreciating the view. I thought I heard Ian growl all the way from our table. Kylie gave Rake a smile and finger wave.

They knew each other.

Of course they did. They were both breathtakingly beautiful supernaturals.

Rake Danescu was a goblin. Kylie O'Hara was a dryad.

Kylie was a friend and coworker. Different department, same secret organization.

Interspecies dating wasn't frowned on by most supernaturals. Heck, dryads didn't have much of a choice. All dryads were female, and they all came from trees, so their intraspecies dating pool was more of a puddle. Unless they were lesbians or had a thing for botanicals, dryads had to hunt elsewhere when looking for love. Kylie had dark hair, green eyes, was five foot nothing, and like her sisters down through history, could probably get any man she wanted with the crook of one dainty digit.

Ian had had a crush on Kylie since she started at SPI. Though “crush” sounded like something out of high school. Let's say he admired her from afar, because getting close would violate one of the personal rules my stoic partner wouldn't allow himself to break—no workplace romance. I'd told him numerous times to just ask her out already. But in the end, it wasn't my doing that resulted in them being here together, it was the same near-death experience that had gotten me here with Rake. When Death does heavy breathing on the back of your neck, you reexamine your life. My partner decided that life was too uncertain to throw away potential happiness.

I smiled. The rule of “no workplace romance” was presently being bent until it squealed in Café Mina's corner booth. I wondered which of his “thou shalt nots” my partner would take out for a reexamining look-see next.

“Kylie O'Hara, a lovely girl,” Rake said. “Though I always thought she had more discerning taste.”

I gave him a look.

“What?” The goblin was all innocence, which was no mean feat for any goblin, let alone Rake.

“You know very well what. Ian doesn't trust you as far as he can throw you.” I stopped and thought a moment. “Actually less than that. Night before last, the two of you were at each
other's throats, and now here you are having lunch with his partner and making goo-goo eyes at his date.”

“Goo-goo? That must be a droll, human term that I'm unfamiliar with. But if its meaning bears any resemblance to how it sounds, I assure you I have never made ‘goo-goo eyes' in my life.”

“It sounded better than undressing her with your eyes.”

Rake lowered his voice to a soft rumble. “Do I detect a hint of jealousy?”

“In your dreams.”

“You and Miss O'Hara battling, with me as the prize for the winner . . .” His dark eyes turned from teasing to full smolder. “That would be a dream worth remembering. I assure you, dearest Makenna, you are the only woman I am interested in undressing.”

I took my napkin out of my lap and calmly placed it on the table.

“Are you required to check in with Agent Byrne every hour?” Rake asked, as I scooted my chair back to stand.

I didn't even need to glance at him to know he was smiling and enjoying himself immensely. But I did need to look at him to make sure he completely understood what I was about to say.

“You know I don't. Now wipe that grin off your face.”

He actually batted his eyelashes at me. “What grin?”

“The grin that's telling Ian, ‘I'm up to no good with your partner, and there's nothing you can do about it.' 'Cause I can guarantee you he
will
do something about it. Then I'll have to do something about the two of you, and no one here wants to see that.”

“On the contrary, everyone here would
love
to see that, myself included. And now you've piqued my curiosity. We goblins are rather like your domestic cats in that regard. Once aroused, our curiosity must be satisfied.” The gleam in his dark eyes said that satisfying his arousal in regard to me had nothing to do with curiosity.

That
was Ian's problem.

Tall, dark, sleek, and seemingly made for sex, goblins had a reputation for . . . let's just say they had a reputation. A well-deserved one. Add to that Rake being the owner of Bacchanalia, Manhattan's most exclusive sex club, and Ian's concerns were justified, as Rake hadn't even tried to hide his interest in me. In fact, I think Rake had turned teasing me and antagonizing Ian about teasing me into his newest hobby.

I pushed my chair back and stood. Rake, playing at being the perfect gentleman, stood with me.

Ian needed to understand that I was a big girl and as such was totally aware of who Rake was and what he wanted. And he wasn't getting any of it until when—or if—I decided I wanted it, too. Not that it was any of Ian's business, which was another thing he needed to get through his head.

“I'll be back in a minute.”

Rake smiled fully as he took his seat. Anyone watching saw an unwholesomely handsome man giving his date a dazzling smile. I saw all of that plus a pair of fangs. I was a seer. It was a rare ability that enabled me to see through wards, spells, shields, and glamours that supernaturals used to disguise themselves from the humans around them. Only about half the people in Café Mina were human; the rest were a mix of supernatural races.

So I knew exactly what Rake Danescu was, in more ways than one.

“I shall eagerly await your return,” Rake all but purred.

I sighed. “Yeah.”

I started across the restaurant, to the accompaniment of Rake's low chuckle.

Ian's date glanced up from her menu with a quick grin that, in the language of girlfriends everywhere, said: “I'm so happy for you!” Or if expressed in a single sound—“Squee!”

Ian was not happy—for me or anyone else—and he most certainly was not fighting back an urge to squee. The only urges Ian was fighting were violent ones, and he didn't appear to be fighting very hard.

“Stop it,” I told him.

Two words. One directive. I didn't believe in beating around the bush.

“I haven't done anything,” he said. The “yet” was unspoken.

“Neither has Rake.”

“He wants to.”

I resisted rolling my eyes. “So does every other red-blooded man with any woman they're attracted to.” I left “yourself included” unsaid. I paused. Goblins had red blood, didn't they? For the sake of my argument I'd go with yes.

“Every other red-blooded man hasn't enthralled you,” Ian noted.

Kylie did a combo groan and face palm.

“
Enthralled?
I'd ask you to please tell me you're kidding, but I know you're not.”

“Rake Danescu is a dark mage, one of the best.”

“And I'm a hick from the North Carolina mountains ripe for the pickin'.”

“I did not say that.”

“Oh yes, you did.”

My first night on the job, Rake had magicked himself a look inside my mind. It hadn't been personal, merely business. Okay, maybe it had been a little personal. From what I understood, it'd be easier the next time. I'd been with SPI for well over a year now, and Rake hadn't tried it again.

The combativeness went out of Ian. “Mac, I'm simply worried that—”

A man screamed.

An immaculately groomed guy in a really nice suit who'd just come back from the men's room was staring in total and complete horror at his waiter. The guy was human; his waiter was not.

I could see that. The man shouldn't have been able to.

The two other suit-clad men across the table from him were staring at this guy like he'd lost his mind. They looked like a
trio out for a business lunch. The screaming guy had a tablet next to him on the table. Yep, business lunch. If those were his clients, the screamer wasn't making a good impression.

Everyone else in the restaurant saw the waiter as what he wanted them to see—a hot-beyond-belief, twentysomething, out-of-work actor waiting tables to pay the rent. I saw what he really was—an incubus.

Somehow the businessman, who'd now progressed from screaming to babbling, saw what I was seeing.

The incubus's features were vaguely humanoid, but more closely resembled a creature out of a bad 1950s horror movie, with translucent skin and a slit suction cup for lips.

The man stood so quickly his thighs hit the table, nearly knocking it over on the two men with him, who scooted back to keep from taking soup in the lap. One guy wasn't so lucky with his drink, shouting a word people generally tried not to say at a polite business lunch as he grabbed a napkin and blotted the front of his pants.

The hysterically babbling man didn't notice.

I noticed his right hand was clenching a steak knife.

“He can see them,” I whispered quickly to Ian.

Ian didn't answer. He didn't need to. He knew what I meant.

The man spun, taking in the supernaturals all around him, both diners and restaurant staff.

Then he spotted the one closest to him.

Rake.

Oh no.

Before Ian could stop me, I sprinted the short distance back to our table, stopping in front of Rake, trying to block the man's view. Fat lot of good that did since the goblin was now on his feet, ready to defend himself if necessary. Rake was a head taller than me, and other than the gray skin visible on his hands, from the neck up was everything that said “goblin” to anyone who could see past Rake's human glamour. To me,
and any other supernatural or enlightened human with a pulse who could see past that glamour, Rake was gorgeous. But I could see where silvery skin, pointed ears, and fangs could be disconcerting.

The man's eyes widened in disbelief. “What . . . what are you?”

Ian stepped up like the former cop he was, his voice low and calm. “Sir, I need you to put down the knife.”

The man quickly turned and saw the reassuringly human Ian.

“Do you see them?” His words came in a rush. “Can—”

“I see that you have a weapon, and you need to put it on the table next to you and step away.”

Kylie was on her phone, no doubt calling headquarters.

The man spotted a couple sitting at the table behind us. Kelpies. Everyone else saw a nice, middle-age couple. He saw vaguely human creatures with green skin, gills, and a mouthful of sharp teeth.

“Monsters!” he shrieked.

He staggered back, stumbling and catching himself on a bananas Foster serving cart. He stayed upright, the cart didn't. Flames ignited the closest tablecloth, and were fed by the spilled rum.

People screamed, shouted, and ran for the exits as the sprinkler system went off.

I heard a siren outside. Someone must have already called the police. Now we needed the fire department, too.

Rake stepped up close behind me, his lips at my ear. “I promised you'd never be bored on a date with me.”

“This wasn't what I had in mind.”

All signs of playfulness were gone. “Neither did I.”

With his hand at the small of my back, Rake steered me toward the restaurant's kitchen, away from the fire and the crowd surging toward the front doors. In a panic, people tended to go with the obvious, even if it wasn't the closest or safest. Leave it to Rake to know the back way out of a building he'd never been in before.

Ian and Kylie were right behind us.

I turned my head toward Ian. “Where—”

“He dropped the knife and ran out the front,” Ian told me. “First one out. Right into the waiting arms of my former brothers in blue.”