Page 11 of January Blues
“No, but I hate wasting time, and this will not work. Maybe if I had months to work on him—“
“Fine. Seduce him. Shouldn’t be hard with how he’s been looking at you. Why don’t you bring him his lunch and sit with him?” My eyes narrowed with suspicion. That had been far too easy. “What? Why are you looking at me like that? You wanted to change the plan. We are changing it. Just hurry up and get this done!”
I’d lost count of how many times I’d killed Austin off in my mind. Part of why I hated him was because he brought out something in me I didn’t like. The other part was that he was an absolute shit stain of a human.
Life in my realm was simple, just how I liked it. I wasn’t a violent demon by nature. Being a sub-species of incubi, I fed off intense emotions. Any emotions would do, and I could gorge myself in the human realm with how freely their emotions ran. Demons were far more controlled; I didn’t need to feed as often in my home realm with the ambient magic it held. I used less magic at home, too. Here in the human world, everything was so difficult. So loud and overbearing. I needed to use my magic to dampen my senses just to survive here. Not to mention, being forced into this form was taking its toll.
Cody’s head rose when I tapped on the frame of his door. “I brought your lunch. Would you like some company?”
His gaze was searching for a second before he answered. “Thanks, Quill. Please, that would be lovely, but would you mind closing the door?”
I did as asked before taking a seat across his desk from him and arranging our food. The office was blessedly silent, and I took a moment to enjoy the peace before scanning Cody’s emotions.
They were blocked. I couldn’t read him.
“Is everything okay?” I asked him, curious about his mood and why he would be closed off to my reading. He smelled different from before. There was a hint of spice in his scent that signaled magic.
“Oh, uh. It doesn’t matter.” He brushed my inquiry off.
“No, you look troubled. What’s wrong?”
We sat silently, just looking at each other for a long moment. Then he broke. “I’ve been feeling off recently. Not sleeping well. Lots of bad luck things happening. Yesterday, though, I performed magic that would usually be beyond me.”
“So you’re a witch?” In this guise, I was fully human. I had to pretend to think that he was, too. The cuff Basil had forced on me blocked me from detection to shifters and witches. The elves and fae may have been able to see through my disguise, however, none were a part of Mars Acquisitions. Basil might have been a dickhead, but his spell work was impeccable.
“Apparently.” He gave a little chuckle, the light warming his light brown eyes. “I’m a member of the coven because my cousin is the High Witch. The easiest spells are out of reach for me. Poppy’s wife was ready to help me with the blessing spell. It’s one of the most basic magics a witch can perform. We let children do it to welcome new babies, that’s how simple it is. Zinna, Poppy’s wife, was about to boost my well, because normally it’s so low I’d have struggled with it, but I didn’t need it. The magic was there and just ready for me.”
“Wow! That’s great news.” It really wasn’t. Perhaps this was the reason that he was managing to block all my attempts to break him down. Then there was the reason for this sudden swell of magical ability. There had to be a reason for it. That could hamper my plans for Cody.
“Maybe.” Cody didn’t seem as enthused as I expected about having magic.
“Why wouldn’t it be good? You have a coven. I assume you had some magical training?” I wasn’t sure why I cared. Except I did. This wasn’t just getting to know Cody, so I could make him fall in love with me. I genuinely wanted to know what was going on in his head. Even with him focusing on how he felt, he was still blocking his emotions from me.
“Sure. I have all that. It’s just—“
“Just, what?”
“It’s going to sound stupid. I’ve been singled out all my life because of my lack of magic. I was born into a powerful family. All my life, I’ve been the anomaly. My parents refused to send me to healers, preferring to ignore my issues. Now suddenly I have magic and that just makes me stick out again.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Sorry, I’m not very good company today.”
“It’s fine.” This was my opening. “Actually, I’ve been wanting to get to know you better since we first met.”
“You have?” He sounded so confused.
“I have. Is that so surprising?” I teased.
“Well… you are you and I’m me.” He grew flustered.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you look—“
“Do you find me attractive, Cody?”
His face turned three shades of red before he spluttered. “Yes. You are so out of my league.”
