Page 33 of Handcuffs and Hexes

Seth had just gone over to Desmon’s to work on that Breach problem about ten minutes ago.

“I can call him, and...”

“No, don’t bother him. I’ll be fine. Mike doesn’t have magical help, and he’s still alive.”

“He didn’t catch the full brunt of the magic,” I reminded her as I dug into the back of the cabinet and produced a tiny plastic container of pills. I read the expiration date. “It’s like a decade expired. I think this one came as part of a first aid kit, but we never used it.”

She stuck out her hand. “I’m willing to risk it. I think I read somewhere that medicines don’t really expire, they just get less effective.”

I opened the bottle and shook out two pills. Or at least I tried to. The red coating on the pills had melted and reformed, making them all stick together in one big mass.

“Maybe it’ll be better if I go out and pick some up for you.” I showed her the abomination in the bottle.

“Yeah. Maybe.”

I quickly ran to the pharmacy downstairs and returned with a new bottle.

“Why don’t you just pop downstairs to buy it and pop back up?” Hazel asked, holding her hand out for the bottle.

“I can’t carry anything if I dematerialize completely,” I explain. “Here. Watch.”

I held the bottle of painkillers over her lap, then slowly dematerialized, turning smoky, starting from my body and slowly extending it out through my shoulders to elbows. As the smokiness enveloped my wrists and hands, the bottle of pills dropped into her lap.

“Oh!” She picked up the bottle and opened it, fishing out the cotton ball that held the pills in place. “So you won’t be able to carry anyone or anything in your dematerialized form.”

“That’s right,” I said. “Unless it’s specially spelled to come along with me. Seth specially spelled my cell phone and my wallet for this reason so I can carry them around on my body inside a pocket of soulstuff. Way back when I was a young demon, it was easy to con unsuspecting men out of their goods and wares with fake coins.” I formed a coin out of my soulstuff and passed it to her. It stayed in her hand for a second before disappearing. “But that doesn’t quite work anymore with cards. Not that I worry about affording anything. Seth promised me everything I wanted, even though all I wanted at the time was him.”

“At the time? What about now?”

“Well,” —I winked at Hazel as I handed her a tall glass of water— “now I wantyoutoo.”

She rolled her eyes like she thought it was a joke. “Ahh, so you’re the one behind all this.”

“Nah, Seth spotted you first.” I sat down on the couch and pulled her down, nestling her next to me. “You should hide that bottle of pills. Seth isn’t going to be happy about it.”

“Why not? Is he the anti-science type?”

“No, nothing like that. He just likes to be useful. And if I recall correctly, he asked you right before he left if you had a headache, and you said no.”

“I wasn’t going to bother him about it.”

“But that wasn’t the full reason, was it?”

She sighed. “No. I want to get back to work. I hate sitting by the sidelines when everyone else’s helping out.”

“That’s one thing you and Seth have in common, always needing to help. Stubborn too.”

“I’m not stubborn,” she said stubbornly.

“Sure you aren’t. But seriously, you should ask Seth for something sometime,” I suggested. “Even if it’s something small like jewelry or dinner.”

She wrinkled her nose as if the idea offended her. “I don’t think so. I’m not comfortable doing that. I’ve always been someone who provided for myself. I mean, after Dad passed anyway.”

“It’s not about being demanding. It’s about giving Seth purpose.”

That caught her attention. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, at first when he promised to give me everything I wanted, I reacted much the same way as you are now. Worse, even. I thought maybe the offer was out of some misplaced guilt that his family had enslaved me for generations. Besides, I didn’t want much. Just my freedom. And him. Two things he already gave me.

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