Page 89 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
“You went over to see your fiancée after having sex with Grace,” I repeated, just so Hex could hear how stupid that sounded. “Is it so hard for you to imagine why she’s upset?”
He said nothing, getting his lights untangled in record time and helping me twist them around the tree. Once we were finished with that, I made him help me with the stockings.
We were one short.
“I don’t need one,” he explained when he saw me offering up a sympathetic look. “I’m just … observing this year.” Hex sighed and shifted uncomfortably. Liar. He didn’t have to say it, but I imagined one of the reasons he was afraid of joining the family was that he thought he wouldn’t be able to fully integrate into our well-established unit.
Even inked demon playboys don’t like feeling left out.
I knew that since, well, inked vampire playboys don’t like it either. It had been hard enough for me to join the family with Argent and Caine ahead of me in rank. As Third Wife (heh), I’d had my fair share of challenges. But I sure as spells hadn’t had to deal with a litter of kids on top of everything else.
Lucky for Hex, he had a soulmate like me to help ease the transition. I wouldn’t call myself a nice guy per se; I once tore a dude’s throat out at a concert for making a snotty remark. Blood had sprayed the crowd, but mostly they’d thought it was part of the show …
He’d lived … I think. Or maybe not? It was hard to remember, and he looked like a date rapist anyway. I decided it was best not to dwell on the memory.
“It can’t be easy to go from being a bachelor who parties and fucks and does whatever the hell he wants to an unwilling fiancé who can’t get it up to a guy with a new girlfriend and a kid on the way.” I smiled wryly, and Hex offered up a similar look.
“Right. Thanks for bringing the ‘can’t get it up’ thing up for the millionth time. No, it’s not easy. It’s weird as fuck. I feel …” He paused again and glanced in the direction of the kitchen before looking back at me. We were the same age and, while easily old enough to have a life like this, we were both young, too. I got it. “This is a lot all at once. My grandmother …” Hex stopped again and shook his head. “Never mind. I don’t want to talk about that.”
“We might’ve slept for weeks, but reality for us is that all that shit on Halloween only happened a few days ago.” I moved over to the front door and dug around in the canvas shopping bag hanging from the coatrack. It was still stuffed with a bunch of items I’d asked Grace to bring me back from the shop yesterday.
One of those things, I hung on the fireplace alongside the others.
Hex blinked at the white and silver stocking before looking over at me, and I smiled.
“Like I said …”
“You’re going to be nice to me, right,” Hex agreed with a smile of his own. He glanced toward the window again and paused, looking annoyed. “What in the actual fuck is that guy doing here?” he asked, and I turned in time to see Monster approaching the front gate.
It swung open as soon as it saw him, and I frowned.
The house liked Monster. Usually, I trusted its judgment. Not on this one.
A broom fell and, rather than inform Grace, I headed out the door to meet up with the man before he could get to the front steps.
“What in the flying faerie fuck do you want?” I asked him, taking note of the large tome tucked beneath his left arm. He wasn’t wearing a glamour leading me to assume that he’d walked through a spell circle to get here.
Or else … he’d strolled through some Seattle suburbs looking like an expert cosplayer, dropping men and women alike from the sheer scent of his aphrodisiac? Much as the idea of that amused me, I hoped it was the former.
“Calm yourself, neck-sucker,” he hissed, lifting up the book to run a nail across the front cover. I shivered and took a small step back. Even from here, even outside in the cool December air, I could feel his pheromones calling out to me. Dangerous stuff, that. I wasn’t much into dudes (although I’d play with Argent on occasion), but when that aphrodisiac hit, nothing else in the universe seemed to matter. Holy bats, no wonder Grace struggled to resist this shit; the guy isn’t even trying. “I’m simply here to discuss the spell.”
“We’re busy today,” I explained, and Monster laughed. The sound was malicious; that was the only way to describe it. His laugh was like a fine blade, forged in the fires of Hael’s cruel courts. I’d once thought my people were the worst. Then I’d met Argent. Then I’d joined Coven Apothecary and learned about Hael.
