Demon Heart

by Rhys Lawless

  Great. All I needed was for two familiars to gang up on me.

  “Oh, but Caleb, you have to. I can help you,” Hew said. “This has been going on non-stop since that night. We need to find out what the hell is happening. If we caused—“

  I raised my hand and Hew stopped talking.

  “You didn’t cause anything. If it was anyone’s fault, it was probably mine. It was me Christian sacrificed to tap into the ley lines.” I said the thing I’d feared to say aloud since the day after Christian’s demise when that energy blast had woken both Wade and me.

  Lorelai dragged a chair over from the next table and plunged herself on it to put her arms around me.

  “Honey, is that why you don’t want to look into this? It’s not your fault. That douchebag was a manipulative piece of shit, you couldn’t—“

  “I couldn’t have stopped him? Yes, I know. How do you think that makes me feel? I couldn’t stop him from killing the high council members, and then I couldn’t stop him from finishing his work. He might be dead, but the damage is done.”

  I’d gone through the events of that night over and over every day and night, and I’d tried to imagine what I could have done differently.

  I could have not sacrificed myself to save Wade, but then he would have killed me anyway, or the witch Danielle would have finished me off, or Winston. It’d been an impossible situation, and I knew I’d done the only thing I could think of then, but now, I felt like shit about what had happened since. Whether or not I could have done things differently, it didn’t matter. I’d still failed.

  “Hey,” Hew shouted and snapped his fingers in front of my eyes. “Don’t do this to yourself, all right?”

  “Do what?” I asked and refocused on him.

  “Torment yourself about how you could have done things differently. There’s no point, all right? Look at Winston. He chose to remember everything, but he didn’t let all the things he did in the past dictate who he is. Instead, he’s turning over a new leaf and trying to change the future, not linger on the past. And trust me, the things that monster made him do are atrocious.” He took a sip of his pumpkin soya latte, letting out an orgasmic moan and winking at Lorelai. “This is magic, right here,” he told her.

  “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to find out what’s going on,” I admitted while Lorelai and Hew stroked each other’s egos, and they both turned to me.

  “Excuse me?” Lorelai screeched. “I’ve been bugging you for two weeks to do something, and he convinces you within a second? I can’t even begin to understand how I feel about this.”

  I gave her comment an eye roll.

  “I didn’t say I was convinced. I said it’d crossed my mind. There’s a difference.”

  “Even so, you need to do something about it, and Hew can help you.”

  “I don’t,” I was quick to answer. “It’s not my responsibility.”

  Hew reached out for my hand on the table and gave it a gentle squeeze. His index touched my bare wrist over my gloves, and his fear and compassion struck me to my core, and I had to pull back before they rendered me completely useless.

  “Look at it this way,” Hew said. “Would you rather the high council helps out those witches after everything they’ve done, or would you prefer it was someone they can genuinely trust and who can help them?”

  He had a point. Who could guarantee the council didn’t have an agenda still, and what would happen to those new witches whose powers they thought were useless? They might not have a dhampir to sacrifice them to, but who’s to say they didn’t have a dozen other catastrophic uses for them? After all, they’d committed an atrocity once, they could do it again.

  “We’ll see.” Was all I managed to say. “I don’t know if I have the energy to get involved in any of this crap again…but I’ll think about it.” Hew and Lorelai high-fived. “You guys are so immature.”

  Instead of taking offense, Lorelai pinched my cheek and gave me one of her silly grins.

  “Whatever,” I said. “Do you mind if I head? I promised Annabel I’d give her a break for a few hours, and I’d like to surprise her.”

  Lorelai looked around at the empty tables and huffed.

  “It’s going to be a struggle, but I think I’ll manage.”

  “Thank you.” I kissed her and ran to the office to grab my jacket.

  “Say hi to both for me,” she said before I left her alone with Hew.

  Gods only knew what a mistake I was making leaving the two to scheme and plot.

  As expected, Annabel had been more than ecstatic to have an afternoon off without Nora. After everything I’d put her through, I owed it to her. We’d worked through Nora’s teething terrors together, and her terrible twos, threes, and fours, and we’d been more than happy when she’d finally started to settle and become somewhat a normal kid, and because of me, we had to go through this crap again.

  I knew we weren’t married, but I wouldn’t blame her if she ditched my ass. Of course, that was assuming she didn’t care for Nora. And Nora had been her best friend for a long time, so I knew she wasn’t abandoning her any time soon.

  There was a knock on the door and when I went to open it, I found Wade standing outside with that sinful grin on his face and a carrier bag around his shoulders, and I had to stop myself from attacking him with my mouth in front of the entire high street.

  Instead, I did the best next thing and grabbed his jacket, pulling him inside, and closed the door with my leg while my lips showed him how much I’d missed him.

  “Can we do this every time I knock?” Wade asked, the grin now plastered on his face for good.

  “Sure. I can’t promise I’ll always be this gentle, though,” I told him, and in response, he spanked my ass, the slap audible even over my jeans. “Stop it. Nora’s upstairs, and she’s awake, so don’t get me riled up.”

  He pouted. Why did he have to pout when I was desperate to do things to him? I couldn’t help myself. This man had been denied to me for years, and I’d only just found him again, both physically and mentally. I couldn’t help myself for feeling crazy in love with him.

  I made the pout disappear with another kiss and then, linking our hands, led him upstairs. When we entered the apartment, the first thing he did was walk over to Nora’s crib and cooed at her.

  “Has she slept?”

  I laughed.

  “Hah, does she ever? She seems hellbent on us not getting any sleep. Ever. I can’t decide if she’s doing it on purpose or not. Annabel says she wasn’t like this when she was one before.”

  “Oh, no. Is Nora being a little nightmare?” he cooed and lifted her out of her crib.

  I was going to stop him because I’d just made her calm down again, but for some reason, she was absolutely fine in Wade’s arms. She didn’t even wince. Instead, she actually started giggling when Wade made silly faces at her.

  “See, I told you. She’s doing it on purpose to get back at me,” I said, my point proven.

  “I think you’re just being a drama queen,” Wade replied, and I put my hands on my hips, which made him smirk.

  I let my hands drop and pursed my lips.

  “Hey, you don’t get to call me that, newbie gay,” I said. “You’ve only just learned the bloody word.”

  Wade turned Nora to face me and came closer.

  “Nora, Daddy is being evil to me. We hate him now,” he said and laughed at his own joke.

  “You’re not even her dad and you’re making dad jokes now?” I crossed my hands in front of my chest.

  Wade pierced me with his eyes.

  “Evil!” he spelled out and pouted again.

  No, not that pout. I fucking hated loving that pout.

  “Okay, you’re her surrogate dad, I guess. In a way.”

  Wade put Nora back in her crib and grabbed my hips.

  “She made me promise to help you take care of her, so you can fuck off.” He gave me a kiss and then let me go before I could do bad things to him.
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br />   I couldn’t help myself in his presence. How could I? Those killer blue eyes and that naughty smirk did it for me every time, as did the sweet torment he put me through every time he touched me.

  He put his messenger bag on the floor and sat down on the couch.

  “Any luck with jobs?” I asked him.

  Wade had been trying to replace the void left by the force for weeks now.

  He’d tried security jobs, too, but considering he couldn’t exactly put down witch hunter on his resumé, it hadn’t taken him far.

  “What do you think?” he asked, and I joined him on the couch.

  “Do you want me to help? I asked before, and I’ll keep asking until you say yes,” I said, only realizing too late how that had sounded.

  Let’s just hope he focused on my offer for help and not on how much that sounded like a proposal.

  “It’s fine. Really. I can do this. I don’t need to get a job straight away anyway. I’ve got enough in savings to last a few months.”

  I knew he wanted to take control over his life after spending eighteen years under someone else’s rule, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take my offer of help.

  “Okay. But you know I’m here for you, yeah?”

  He nodded and leaned in for a kiss. His lips traced over mine, his breath raising the hairs at the back of my neck. I deepened our kiss and inserted my tongue into his mouth, and like a hungry monster, he pushed his tongue into mine to explore, making our teeth clash with the force.

  My dick tightened in my jeans, and I desperately needed to let it loose. I put my hand over Wade’s crotch, and I felt his hardened cock respond to my touch.

  Don’t do this to me, he begged.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  He opened his eyes and glanced at the crib.

  “It’s fine. We can go to my room,” I said and picked up a spell from the table.

  “What about Nora? We can’t leave her on her own.”

  “We’re not. She needs her nap, and this should help.” I crushed the spell over her crib.

  Indigo dust clouded over it and then a projection of the universe and its infinite stars swallowed up the room and took Nora’s attention. She tried to grab a galaxy floating but then got distracted by the shooting stars.

  “She’ll be down in two minutes, tops,” I said.

  “That’s handy,” Wade said. “I’d still like to make sure, though.”

  I rolled my eyes. He was sweet, I gave him that, but when you’d been through this rollercoaster once, you knew the tricks to help you not go crazy. He’d never been a dad, and it showed.

  “She’s okay,” I told him and tried to caress his cheek alluringly, but it didn’t do anything to get his attention off Nora. “Serious boner killer. She’s never going to go to sleep if you keep staring at her.”

  At that, he turned to look at me, and I nodded reassuringly.

  “Trust me. She loves this projection. It’s her own personal lullaby.” I extended my hand to him.

  His shoulders dropped and he grinned.

  “If you’re sure.”

  “Absolutely.” I dragged him into my bedroom.

  Once inside and with the door semi-closed, I threw him onto the bed and climbed on top of him, attacking his mouth in an effort to reawaken my boner and his.

  It only took a literal slip of the tongue and a gentle touch on his abdomen, and we were both back where we’d left off.

  He grasped my butt cheeks and squeezed over my jeans. I ground my crotch over his, and he panted in my mouth.

  I want to fuck you, he said, and I responded by unbuttoning his trousers.

  Let’s, I replied and pulled everything off him so he was naked from the waist down.

  I massaged his chest as I sat on his dick, grinding it against my jeans. He placed a hand back on my butt cheek and with the other hand, grabbed my jaw and urged me down to his mouth.

  You’re a tease, he said.

  That’s the point, baby. I let his tongue into my mouth again.

  The hand grabbing my jaw moved down to my neck, and he squeezed, making my cock pulse in the confines of my underwear.

  “Take it all off,” he ordered with a sexy groan, and I obeyed.

  I dismounted him and slowly unbuttoned my jeans, and then slid them off.

  “Too slow,” he said and pulled my T-shirt off, then he yanked my underwear down to my ankles and pushed me head-first into the bed.

  He opened my legs and before I knew it, I felt the moistness of his tongue tickle my rim.

  You’re killing me.

  It’s torture, isn’t it, he said with way too much snark to go unnoticed.

  His tongue pushed against my hole, and he moved his face up and down to lubricate me.

  Fuck me already, I said, and he slapped my naked butt so hard a little yelp escaped.

  Silence, witch. He spat on my hole and then used his tongue to spread the spit.

  It’d been like this since we’d destroyed the crystal that had bound him to Christian, and I couldn’t say I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe a little too much considering we fucked every time we were together.

  It was different than before. Five years ago, he hadn’t been as kinky with me. I didn’t know if it was because he’d been scared to let that sideshow, or because he hadn’t discovered that aspect of himself yet, but now? He was unashamedly dominating me every time, just the way I liked, and he enjoyed our empathic connection way too much for his and my own good.

  If death by orgasm was possible, I didn’t think we had a lot of life left.

  I felt something thick and hard prodding at my hole, and I let Wade’s cock in me with a moan, which he silenced immediately by pressing my head on the mattress.

  God, I hate you.

  No, you don’t.

  You’re right. I don’t hate you. I love you, I said, and I felt him slowing down.

  You— he started saying but was cut short when something hot scorched my back and I lost connection with Wade.

  I turned over just as the magical dust settled over the bed and set it on fire.

  “What the fuck?” Wade exclaimed.

  I didn’t have time to think it through. I burst the door wide open and reached for one of the crystals on the coffee table. I grabbed the sapphire blue and returned to the bedroom, flicking it over the bed.

  “Extinguish,” I shouted, and the blue sand sprinkled over the fire and the flames disappeared. My bed, or whatever was left of it, was covered in blue foam.

  I looked at Wade, and he stared at me sheepishly.

  “What did you do?” I asked him.

  He shook his head.

  “Nothing. One moment we were…you know, and the next I cough and this”—he pointed at the bed—“dust comes out of my mouth and sets the bed on fire.”

  I bent down and picked up my underwear to slip back on and then threw Wade’s at him.

  “You coughed magic dust?” I asked again.

  “I think so.”

  “How is that poss—“

  I didn’t manage to finish my sentence because it dawned on me.

  “Do you think it has anything to do with the spells you’ve used in the past?” I asked.

  Wade raised his shoulders and shook his head.

  “I don’t know. Wouldn’t the spells flush out of my system? I’ve been using for years.” He put his trousers back on.

  “Well, you never know with magic. But even if it’s still in your system, you shouldn’t be able to activate the spells. Only witches can. Unless…”

  “Unless what?”

  I walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, where Nora was fast asleep, and looked at the table of spells I’d been sorting out before Wade had arrived. It was a good thing I’d decided to do that, or we might have burned down the whole house. Lady Luck had definitely been on our side on this one.

  Wade followed me and watched as I pulled an envelope from my bookcase.

  I opened it and read some of the rep
orts I’d collected from the newspapers and some Graham had dropped off, hoping to lure me into the case.

  “Caleb, what’s going on?” he whispered, glancing at Nora.

  I closed the envelope and got close to him.

  “I think the ley line surge is affecting you too. I don’t know why now, after all these weeks, but it seems the ley lines activated a spell you’ve consumed.”

  It didn’t make sense, but if I’d learned one thing as a witch, it was that things rarely made sense when magic was involved.

  “What?” Wade exclaimed and looked at Nora again. “It can’t be.”

  I hugged him, but his body was rigid.

  It’s okay, I said, hoping to calm him down.

  “It’s not okay. What if it happens again?” he said and pulled away from me.

  “It won’t.”

  “How do you know that? What if it happens again when I’m holding Nora, or when I’m with you, or when I’m out in public? I nearly burned you alive. I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you or anyone else.”

  I grabbed his hands and gave them a squeeze, forcing him to look at me.

  “We’ll figure it out. Okay? I’ll help you figure it out.”

  I guess I didn’t have a choice in the matter anymore. I had to look into the case Graham, Lorelai, and Hew had been begging me to for weeks.

  I had to if we were to make sense of what was happening to Wade.

  Four

  Wade

  Why was this happening to me? Had I not been through enough? I’d had my childhood stolen and held ransom at the hands of an evil creature. I’d been made to forget I’d fallen in love once upon a time with a man and then had those memories replaced with those of an asshole partner that had got himself killed. I’d been made to kill Sarah and to think I was in love with her. I hoped the last part wasn’t true, but I would never know the truth. Not with the crystal that had once controlled me destroyed. It was a small price to pay for not remembering everything else.

  Wasn’t all this enough? Did I have to suffer again? And not only suffer myself but make those around me suffer too?