by Dakota Brown
The vampire grinned at me, certainly knowing exactly what was going on in my head. His extra senses could pick up on so much that a normal person would have missed.
"Have a good breakfast?" Mal asked when I stepped away from Aaron to go get a glass of water from the kitchen.
"Yeah, delicious," I answered.
Aaron sat in the armchair he preferred, and I brought him a glass of water, as well.
"Thanks, Chris."
"Sure, mate."
"So, what are you up to for the rest of the day, Aaron?" Mal sank down onto the couch.
I curled up on the other end, not completely sure I'd keep my hands off of Mal if I got too close.
"I've got to deal with the insurance company some more." Aaron sighed. "Why, what's up?"
"Thought I might see if you wanted to learn to use a sword. Could come in handy."
Aaron raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, sure. That sounds really interesting."
My heart skipped a beat. Wouldn't that be delicious to watch.
Mal shot a sly smirk my way before he turned his attention back to Aaron. "We can start this afternoon. I need to head into the shop for a little while, anyway."
Mal co-owned an occult store with a woman named Olivia. I was supposed to go hang out with her at some point soon, but I'd been avoiding that. She was pretty awesome, but I still felt weird about it. No idea why. Olivia did most of the work at the shop but Mal did spend some time there.
"That sounds great, Mal. Thank you," Aaron said.
"Cool. I gotta head to the restaurant for a bit. You boys have fun and I'll see you in a few hours."
I got up, telling my ovaries to shut it for a while, and headed back outside.
The trip to work was short and did nothing to curb my desire, but the flashing red and blue lights at the shop cooled my ardor pretty fast. What the hell now?
Chapter 2
Price
There was an ambulance, a fire truck, and a cop car all crammed into the parking lot. It looked like some sort of medical thing, as a few paramedics were crouched over someone prone on the ground.
I parked quickly and hurried over.
"What happened?" I didn't see Billy and thought that was strange. Normally he would have been around for something like this.
My phone vibrated and I pulled it out. It was Billy's number.
"Who are you?" The paramedic gave me an appraising look.
"Owner. Just got here."
"We're not sure. We just got here a few minutes ago. Seems like the guy passed out at the doorway."
"Oh." Oh, shit. The wards.
Billy ran outside, keeping me between him and the unconscious guy on the ground.
Yeah, that guy was probably possessed or something.
"Hey, Boss. Yeah, so that guy just kinda acted like he bounced off of nothing then passed out on the ground." He twisted his hands together. Billy knew what that meant. So did the rest of my staff. That's probably why they'd been hiding inside.
I nodded and knelt next to the unconscious dude. Mayhem was at my side and he must have done something because the paramedics didn't question me as I murmured a reveal spell, just in case it was one of the delinquents from last month sporting a demon imbued charm. I didn't have the normal components of the spell, but it worked, anyway. The spell tugged my hand toward the guy's wrist. Bingo. I yanked the bracelet off, though the host didn't react.
Since the last time I'd done this had put me in pretty close contact with the demon inside the charm, I'd increased my personal wards with Mal's help to prevent that from happening again. I could feel the demon squirming around inside the charm, but it couldn't contact me otherwise unless I allowed it.
The paramedics, oblivious to my interference, got the guy on the stretcher and rolled him toward the ambulance.
"Thanks, Mayhem."
The Pomeranian shaped hellhound wagged his tail.
I slipped the charm inside a silk lined bag and shoved it in my jacket pocket. Right next to the holy water.
Now I wished I'd gotten a chance to find out the easier way to get Prince Ezra's demons out of these charms. He'd said he had a better way, but I hadn't had the time to follow up on that conversation. Maybe I'd just ask Aaron to melt the thing. His angelic nature put a serious hurt on the charms, and it was easier than sacrificing a crystal to the cause. Especially since I didn't have any handy. Of course, I seemed to recall Aaron saying it hurt like a bitch, so maybe I should have Mal bring some crystals home with him. Then we'd have options.
"So, that's it then?" Billy asked once the paramedics had left. "Just take a bracelet off of him and he's good?"
"Yeah, this is one of the creeps sporting a demon in a charm. I'll take care of the actual demon when I'm done here."
"It's safe?"
"The bag I put it in is sealed with a containment spell. It'll stay isolated in there until I can release it later. Send it back to hell and all." I shrugged.
Billy shook his head. "That is so cool."
"Naw, it's bloody scary is what it is."
"You're not scared," he pointed out.
"Got a good poker face. Come on, let's look at that paperwork you wanted to show me."
He nodded, not questioning me further. "Oh, Chris, the new shirts came in. I've been handing them out."
"Great. Any of the customers freak out yet?"
Billy chuckled and shook his head. "Think we'll get a few, but most everyone loves it."
"I'm sure I'm going to hell for a lot of things I've done, but this might be the icing on the cake."
Billy shot me a concerned look. I shrugged in reply.
I followed Billy inside, hoping that the containment spell on the bag I'd put the charm in worked as advertised and I wasn't about to get zapped by my own wards. Fortunately, I'd done my job and I passed inside to the blessed air conditioning with no issue.
The smell of marinara, garlic, and yeasty dough chased the dry desert scents away, lifting me up and making my stomach grumble as if I hadn't eaten a huge breakfast not that long ago.
I waved to a few of my staff and caught a few curious looks from some of the customers who probably weren't regulars as we went through the dining area and into the kitchen.
The cooks worked with a cheerful banter and other than a quick wave, I left them to it. The restaurant was busy with the early lunch crowd.
"Hey, where's Sabian. We haven't seen in him in a while and were concerned."
I used to have a rule about not bringing people I was seeing around the shop. Part of that was my questionable taste in men, and part of it was that I knew nothing would be permanent, anyway, so why have them come around. That had changed with Sabian, Mal, and Aaron and I was pretty sure the staff had figured out that I was seeing all of them, and that the guys didn't mind. Especially since we all ate here often enough together as it was. Well, Mal just drank whatever struck his fancy, being a vampire and all. Sadly, pizza didn't agree with him. His one shortcoming so far.
"Sabian had a family emergency. He will hopefully be back soon." I crossed my fingers that soon would be tonight as we headed into the office I shared with Billy. He was doing more and more of the administrative stuff I hated, and I'd given him an appropriate raise to make up for it. He said he didn't mind. I couldn't understand how he liked doing it, but as long as it got done and Billy was happy, that was the important part.
"Here." Billy tossed a shirt at me.
It was my size, one of the V-necked cuts, and black with a pepperoni pizza on the chest and an upside-down pentagram emblazoned on the pizza.
I laughed. "These are perfect. Hang on a sec, I'm going to throw this on real quick."
Yep, definitely going to hell, but at least I was going to look unique doing it.
I slipped out to the bathroom, did a quick change, and came back.
"What do you think?"
Billy grinned approval. "It's great, Boss. Okay, here are the numbers."
He thrust some paperwork at me,
and I did my best not to let my eyes glaze over.
∞ ∞ ∞
When I got home, I got the eye candy I had not so secretly hoped for. I wasn't sure what I'd done to deserve a man, or vampire, like Mal in my life, but he had not failed on his promise to teach Aaron about swords.
And Aaron was as fine a sight as Mal, just in different ways. Muscular, but tall and lean, his dark skin glistened with a sheen of sweat. He'd even shed his shirt in the relative privacy of my front yard and the white wing markings draped down his back just begged me to run my fingers, or maybe my tongue, over them. The eyes on his pecs and biceps were a little creepy, but still pretty awesome.
Mal was showing Aaron what I gathered were the basics and he seemed like he had picked it up quickly. They flowed through a few positions before Mal called a halt to the lesson.
Sometime during my admiration of the eye candy, I'd managed to get parked and get out of my car, and they both came over to me. Mal hung back and I pulled Aaron down for a kiss before going over to Mal and doing the same with him.
"Having fun?" I asked Aaron.
"Yeah. Mal's a good teacher." Aaron grinned at the vampire. "He puts up with my fumbles."
Mal shrugged. "Aaron, you've never held a sword before. You're doing quite well. Better than most, in fact. You may have some innate abilities from your angelic blood that give you an edge with a sword."
I chuckled.
Mal gave me a long-suffering look. "No pun intended."
Aaron grinned and nodded, accepting Mal's assessment.
"I still need to talk to my folks about that one," Aaron muttered.
"Good luck with that," I replied.
Aaron hunched his shoulders.
"Oh," I added as we went inside, Mayhem on my heels. "I got another demon charm we need to get rid of." I'd forgotten to text Mal about bringing crystals home. Damn it. "I'm going to go put it in the basement. We'll have to take care of that before we try to summon Sabian back."
Neither of them replied right away and I headed for the basement. Since I'd dug up all of my occult tools, the basement looked a little different than it had a few weeks ago.
Mal had put some heavy-duty wards on the workspace and it had a quiet quality I'd not been able to achieve on my own. Though I knew the vampire had centuries of practice under his belt, it bugged me that his wards were so much better than mine. Still, I was grateful.
Aaron had found a few antique bookshelves and a workbench for me somewhere and they fit right into the workspace. I'd happily placed my collection of books and tools on the shelves and in the cabinet Mal had turned up with.
I scanned the workspace, making sure I didn't notice anything out of place, then stepped over the silver circle inlayed into the concrete floor. I had sealed the concrete so that I could easily draw on it and remove the markings later. Sealing it also made up for some of the porous nature of the material and made it safer to work. I tugged the bag out of my pocket and opened it, cracking the seal on the spell. I'd have to reset it, but it had done its job quite well.
As soon as the seal opened, exposing the demon imbued charm to the protective circle, I felt the protections snap to life. I shook the charm, a simple solid circle of silver, out on the workbench and left it there. I could pass through the circle with only minor disruption because I no longer held the charm.
"I'll be back down to set you straight in a few, demon," I said, not knowing if the creature could hear me, and hoping it wanted to go home.
Throwing the bag on the other work bench, the one outside the protective circle, I made a mental note to recharge it. I did have a couple more that I'd prepared and now that I knew they worked like a charm–ha ha–I would make others. I took one of the intact pouches and put it in my pocket in case I needed it and headed upstairs.
Mal, bless him, had started something for dinner and I thought I heard the guest room shower running. Aaron, cleaning up.
I headed for the kitchen.
Mal had not put his shirt on, and he was standing in front of the oven, cooking something delicious smelling on the stovetop.
There was no way I could sneak up on him, so I didn't hesitate to come up behind the vampire, slide my arms around him, and press myself against his muscular back.
He rumbled in pleasure, trapping my hands with one of his.
I leaned against him for a few moments, just taking in his scent, spicy incense combined with the scent of old books, and let it soothe me.
"Ready for tonight?" he asked quietly while he stirred whatever he was cooking.
"Yeah, I am." I was surprised to find that was the truth. I'd recovered from getting blasted with Ezra's energy during the fight and, while I'd done a few small things like the spells on the bags, I hadn't really stretched my magical muscles since then. It was time.
I'd also almost managed to admit to myself that whatever I was doing was magic. I still shied away from that label, but it was getting harder to deny that I had magical talents. The ability to perform an exorcism wasn't innately tied to magic, I didn't think, but because I had that extra something running through my veins, it made me better at it.
When I'd gotten into the occult as a teen, I hadn't really thought about magic as anything other than something out of a fantasy novel. I wondered what some of my old crowd would think if they knew. Sure, I'd learned a few spells over the years, and I'd even called it magic, but I hadn't really thought of it in those terms, if that made any sense.
Mal took one of my hands from his waist and kissed my wrist. "You're thinking awfully hard."
"Sorry, just want my incubus back," I replied. "Guess I'm nervous."
He nipped at my wrist gently and I groaned in response as my body, already hot and bothered from being wrapped around my vampire, tightened in all sorts of interesting places.
"Hungry?" I managed, voice gone hoarse.
"Mmm, maybe later," Mal replied. "Just teasing you right now."
"It's working."
"I know." The certainty in his voice was so intoxicating.
"I can't just get a quicky, can I?"
"Not if you want dinner to turn out better than your last attempt at cooking."
"I hit the wrong button on the toaster. I can cook, Malak."
He chuckled. "I believe you, my dear exorcist. You do own a pizza parlor, after all."
"I make a damn fine pizza," I grumbled into his back, whimpering as he bit me again. This time I felt fang. "Fuck, mate, you're going to have to deliver if you're going to tease me like that." I nearly dropped my free hand down to the front of his pants to tease him back, but I thought I heard the door to the guest room open.
"I intend to," Mal answered, voice low. He released my hand and I slowly unwrapped myself from the vampire. "Dinner," he whispered softly, "then some demon summoning, then some hopefully celebratory sex. I'm sure Sabian won't mind."
I laughed and headed for the cabinet where the dishes were so I could set the table. Mayhem trotted along behind me, my constant shadow these days.
Aaron came into the kitchen just as I was putting out plates for both of us.
"Anything I can do to help?" he offered.
"Think I've got everything," I said.
Mal brought over the pan and set something creamy looking on a hot pad. He put a bowl down for Mayhem, too. Obviously not food for a regular dog but so far our hellhound seemed happy to eat whatever we were having for a meal.
"Mal, why do you know how to cook?" Aaron asked once we were all seated.
Mal joined us as usual, a mug of coffee cradled in his hands.
"I enjoy it." He shrugged. "I guess I got into the habit years back when I was looking after a friend of mine for quite a while. He was human but couldn't cook for himself. Since my sense of smell is so good, I can tell when things are done and spiced properly and all of that. It's nice to have people to cook for."
"Well, yay for vampire senses of smell, because this is delicious."
"Yes, thank you," Aaron a
greed with my assessment. "I haven't eaten this well consistently, since, well, since I moved out of my parents' house when I was eighteen."
Mal ducked his head as if embarrassed by the praise. "You're welcome."
"Speaking of my parents," Aaron continued hesitantly. "I kind of mentioned I was seeing someone, and they want to meet you, Chris. Any chance I can talk you into coming down to Albuquerque with me sometime soon? You're welcome, too, Mal. I didn't exactly tell them about you, but I'll have to at some point."
I chuckled. "Going to bring the whole lot of us down then? Sabian, too, assuming we get him back properly tonight?"
Aaron shrugged. "Sure, why not."
Shaking my head, I took a drink of my tea. "Your parents must be a lot more accepting than mine ever were."
"It's more that if they don't accept it, then they'll just have to deal because it's my life, not theirs." Aaron hunched his shoulders for a moment as if he wasn't as comfortable with that declaration as he made it out to be, but he also seemed like he'd stand by it.
"You gonna tell them about the angel thing?" I grinned.
Aaron smiled in reply. "I may hit them with that revelation another time."
"Shock them with me first?" I winked. "Angel thing will be easy to deal with after that."
Aaron shook his head. "Don't sell yourself short, Chris."
"Eh, I'm used to it," I deflected.
"So, will you come?"
"Yeah, mate."
Aaron shifted his gaze to Mal, who raised his eyebrows.
"You want me to come?" Mal leaned back in his chair, still holding his coffee.
"Yes. If nothing else, from the purely practical aspect of not wanting my parents to run across the two of you together and getting the wrong idea. They do come up this way now and again, and it's completely obvious you two are into each other whenever you're together. Besides, I like you."
Mal's eyes glinted with amusement. "Then I'll come. Just try not to make it a dinner get together. That can get awkward."
"Deal. We're also having a work picnic in a few weeks if you both want to come. Might be boring, bunch of scientists talking about work at a picnic, but you're welcome. I know it's a food thing, but it's a lot easier to get away with not eating at a large picnic."
