Old Demon and the Sea Witch (Welcome to Hell #9) - Eve Langlais Page 0,18

lot of my power to imbue that locket with enough magic to make it work.” It left me depleted, another reason I’d needed an ocean trip. Some people recharged their magical batteries by resting. For me, being on the ocean revived me the quickest.

“What will you do once she doesn’t need you?”

I snorted. “Anything I want.”

“Alone?”

I eyed him. “I’ve been alone for a while.”

“I’ve been alone forever,” he admitted.

“That’s not a reason for people to be together.”

“You know it’s not the only one.” Shax reached for my hand, and I let him hold it.

The tingles were something I’d not felt in a long, long time. “This isn’t real.” I don’t know if I said it for myself or him.

“You keep saying that. Why?” Shax asked.

“I told you, the devil cast a spell.”

A crowd of people entered the bar suddenly, and the noise level jumped.

Shax leaned close and whispered against my ear, “What I feel isn’t a spell. Get used to it.”

Then he left.

Didn’t steal a kiss. Or cop a feel. Just made a promise. It affected me more than any touch.

Only once Shax disappeared from the room did I dare hiss, “Lucifer. If you’re listening, we need to talk.”

Despite the raucous noise, the dark lord replied as if he stood right beside me. “What do you want to talk about? Is it about your unrequited lust for me? Because I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint. I’m a one-wench demon at the moment.”

I whirled. “For the millionth time, I don’t want to sleep with you.”

“You keep telling yourself that.” The devil winked. I took a moment to ingest his unique style.

He’d changed since our last visit and now sported board shorts patterned with a rather dirty-looking octopus, each appendage in the shape of a male endowment. His white shirt held hundreds of sloppy-looking white spots. The implication proved a bit…in your face.

I glanced at my drink and the condensation on the side of the glass rather than the eyesore. “The love spell you put on Shax is too strong. Take it off. Tone it down. Do something. Because he is driving me nuts.” I stopped short of saying that it made me feel things. Stuff I’d thought myself long past.

“How utterly romantic,” Lucifer crooned. “The way you’re fighting your affection for him. Making this situation unnecessarily angsty.”

“There is no situation,” I growled.

He clapped his hands. “Not yet. But I can see one coming.” He sang the words, and I heard the threat.

I glared at him. “Take the spell off.”

“Can’t.”

“You will!” I shouted, losing control of myself for a moment.

“I can’t remove it because there is no spell.” Lucifer smirked and tucked his hands behind his back.

“You’re lying.”

“For once, I am telling the ugly truth. No spell. My head librarian likes you. Which I think makes him certifiable, but that’s his nightmare, not mine. Deal with it.”

“I thought Shax retired.”

“He doesn’t know it yet, but I refused his resignation. None of those peons under him are ready for that exalted position.”

My lips pursed. “It’s for a keeper of books.”

“Which only shows how little you know,” Lucifer muttered with disdain.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that you’re not as smart as you think.”

“And neither are you, oh paranoid one. Shax isn’t plotting against you.” The man might be many things, but a traitor wasn’t one of them.

“Shows how little you know, because even now, he’s secretly meeting with my wife.” Lucifer leaned close and growled, a thin tendril of smoke rising from a nostril. “And you’re here moping about your task because he still makes your panties wet. Do your job, witch. Find out what he’s up to with my wench.”

When the devil spoke quietly, you moved.

But what to do when I found myself outside Shax’s door? Should I knock? Barge in? What would I say? What excuse could I use?

I wasted time staring at the door. I’d figure something out. I knocked, and it took only a moment before he answered. I shoved past him, drawn by the lingering aroma of fresh flowers on a spring breeze.

I scanned the empty room and noted the perfectly made bed before my gaze turned to Shax and registered the fact that he only wore a towel. And he looked… Wow.

5

Shax: That book on witches really needs a bigger warning about pissing them off.

“Looking for something?” I asked as Dottie stared at me. Kind of gratifying, actually.

Her gaze snapped away from me, and her brow wrinkled. She sniffed. “Am I interrupting?” she asked all too sweetly. “I