Page 61 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
“You best be thanking him,” my familiar warned me as I narrowed my eyes. “Why on earth any sane person would allow a guy who dyed his flaccid cock purple into their family is beyond me. You should be groveling for their acceptance.”
I scowled at him as Spectre chuckled. He’d brought himself a drink, too. A beer, I think. He picked it up and guzzled half of it with a tired sigh, letting his head fall back so that he could look up at the stars. It was just past six, but black as pitch outside. Torches flickered with flame around the edges of the deck railing to keep the mosquitoes at bay.
It was nice here, peaceful and quiet. Not sure how I felt about that. I need to talk to Angelina, I thought, thinking of my bestie and wishing I could just hit the bar to play some pool with her. Thing was, I was far too weak to go out. On top of that, the very instant I stepped outside the wards of this property, I was dead meat.
Not that I believed that Monster guy when he said that he—rather than the covens’ bargain with one another—was what had been keeping me safe from being summoned by Lulu. I mean, I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to owe the guy any favors if you know what I mean.
I glanced at my naked wrist. Grace had released me from her summons, and it was as if a weight had been lifted from my chest. My magic—and my body, my will—they were all mine again.
But it made me nervous, too. We were trusting that Monster guy, and I didn’t know him for shit. What I did know was that when Argent looked at him, he watched him with a hatred and a distrust that he didn’t even level on my stupid ass.
“I’m going to welcome you, Hex Sorciere,” Spectre continued in his low, husky voice, the one designed for recording rooms and dark stages in smoky clubs, for underground sensations that go viral when exposed to the light. Huh. “But I’m only going to do it once. Just remember that.”
“Grace is pregnant with my baby,” I offered up, just to hear myself say it aloud. It was surreal as fuck. I … I couldn’t help feeling immediately protective, instantaneously thrilled.
Also, terrified. Equally terrified.
I put my face in my hands again.
“So it seems,” Spectre replied carefully, and I dropped my hands away from my face to study him. When we looked directly at each other, I could feel it. That stupid, cocksucking zing thing, that tug on my pinky that told me the red thread of fate connected us as surely as it connected me to Grace. Now, in this body, in this life, I was a straight man, but that didn’t mean Spectre and I weren’t soulmates.
We were; I accepted that.
I sighed and turned away, looking out toward the yard as that big spotted familiar of Grace’s, the serval, Bastet, picked her way across the grass with something in her mouth. Connard perked up at the sight of her, sitting up and wrapping his tail around his paws as she hopped onto the table and dropped a dead bird onto the surface of the glass.
“Bast, come on—” Spec started to challenge her and then paused, standing up quickly from his chair and making his way around the table to look at the bird. It was an owl, I think. A small one anyway, no larger than a sparrow. “What the fuck is this?”
“A demon,” a deep voice said from the direction of the back door. Monster stepped out, and I shivered. The man was creepy as hell, won’t lie about that. He moved over to the dead bird and then poked it with a single finger, turning the body over so that we could see the eight eyes dotting its feathered face.
Sick.
“I found it testing the wards,” Bastet offered up, batting at the dead animal with a paw. “But it wasn’t setting them off.”
“Category one, nearly useless,” Monster replied easily, a deep frown carving its way onto his face. “A spy only and nothing more.”
“From Cabal Ungeist?” Bastet wondered aloud, just before Graceley came out onto the deck, Argent and Caine on either side of her.
“A demon from Cabal Ungeist?” she queried, coming over to look at the dead bird while I swallowed hard and looked away. It was too much for me right now. She was too much for me.
“No, from our father; he’s watching us.” As soon as Monster said that—our—I cringed and gritted my teeth. Without looking at any of them, I reached out and picked up the beer that Spectre had brought me, downing nearly all of it in a single go and then swiping my arm across my lips with a tired sigh.
