Page 18 of Warmongers and Wands
The whole thing began to give me a bad feeling. He was a war demon. He stirred up strife and violence and discord. He probably would do that murder-for-hire thing. I was pretty sure demons didn’t bat a leathery wing when it came to being summoned to kill. Had one of Adelaide’s relatives decided to do away with a few family members or some powerful supernatural residents?
But how would that have worked with the wards around the town? Lucien could do pretty much nothing inside the town limits. Would a war demon have any power at all in the town? Although I guess lopping off someone’s head wouldn’t take too much demon power.
The wards. They hadn’t always included Heartbreak Mountain. They’d been expanded over the centuries to allow for supernatural residents who didn’t want to live in the town proper, and to include what had become the werewolf compound. Maybe at the time of Hadur’s summoning, this part of the mountain hadn’t been inside the wards. Maybe a witch two hundred years ago had been desperate enough to take care of some threat that she’d turned to demonic help.
But this would remain a mystery until I could get back to town, back to our family home, and back to all the journals and spell books that kept our family, and the town’s, history. I needed to find out who Adelaide was, what was going on in the town during that time, and exactly where the wards began and ended during that time period.
“What powers do you have right now? Besides heating water for baths and making a raccoon your familiar?” I noted that demon-heated water didn’t seem to ever grow cold. Now that was a trick I could get behind.
“I have my full powers inside this summoning circle. There has been some degradation over the last century, so I believe some of my power may go past the circle’s edge.”
“But if so, why wouldn’t we have sensed it?” I asked. My sisters and I maintained the wards. I was particularly sensitive to any weaknesses or breaks. How the hell could a magical space have existed smack in the middle of our area and us—me—not notice it?
“I don’t know, my witch.”
I shivered at the “my witch” thing and gripped the edges of the trough, preparing myself to exit the bath.
“Do not try to get out without my assistance,” Hadur warned. Then he spread a fluffy pink towel across the floor, stacking two lime-green ones by the side. I made a mental note about Diebin’s interesting choice in colors, then braced myself for the pain of being lifted from the tub.
It wasn’t as painful as I’d imagined, probably because Hadur’s warm hands on my wet, slick body were sending me back into erotic fantasy land. He held me upright until I got my balance and was able to lean on a nearby chair. Then he picked up the towels and got to work.
Being naked and gently dried off by a gorgeous man ranked up there in my top five life experiences. Top three, actually. No, actually this was my top life experience, although I was hoping that the towel-drying moment would soon be knocked out of the top spot by something more orgasmic. As in an orgasm that wasn’t self-induced, or self-induced with the aid of a battery-operated device.
Once I was dry, Hadur carried me to the bed, covered me up with the cozy pelts, then got to work putting clean and dry strips of fabric on my wooden splint. That pretty much ended any sexy-times impulses on my part. By the time he was done, all I wanted to do was lay very still and hope the pain went away. Or at the very least, diminished to a more tolerable level.
“You think Diebin could pick up some more Tylenol next time he makes a Walmart run?” I asked. “Or possibly get behind the pharmacy counter?”
“I will ask him, but communication isn’t always clear with Diebin. He often returns with something completely different from what I asked him to bring.”
Hence the Tiger Beat magazines, no doubt. “I’ll take my chances,” I told him, wishing I’d been the sort of woman who’d kept pain relievers in her purse. I really didn’t have much of anything in my purse, or much of a purse at all. I tended towards the minimalist when it came to accessories, probably because most of my day was spent in front of a forge. Half the time I left my purse at home and ended up with just my phone and a wallet hastily shoved into the side door pocket of my truck.
“We don’t have much in the way of choice for dinner.” Hadur headed over to the shelves beside the fireplace. “No animals came into my circle today, so there is no fresh meat. Diebin was supposed to bring some back this morning, but I believe he ate it before he returned.”
Damn that raccoon. “So, what did he bring instead?”
“This, and this.” Hadur held up a scented candle and a pack of playing cards. “Oh, and this.”
Ugh. Another Tiger Beat magazine. “So, what are our dinner choices?”
He set down the candle, cards, and magazine and looked at a line of cans on the shelf. “We have chili, tuna, tomato soup, or something called chicken a la king.”
“You’re joking.” Call me weird, but I had a secret addiction to that horrible, disgusting chicken a la king. “Do you have any more bread from breakfast? Can you make more toast? Because I would kill for some chicken a la king on toast right now.”
He gave me the side-eye, then pulled a can off the shelf. “I live to serve, my witch.”
“Keep talking like that, and I’ll be putting more than chicken a la king in my mouth.” I grinned and leaned back against the pillows, the ache in my leg nearly forgotten.
It was oddly domestic, me half-dozing on the bed in the cozy cabin while an incredibly hot guy cooked me dinner. Diebin came back, dragging a plastic shopping bag full of who-knows-what just as Hadur was pouring the chicken a la king over my toast. The raccoon dropped the bag, bounding excitedly over to the plate.
“This is not for you,” Hadur scolded in a tone that made me shiver a bit. “You ate all of our bacon this morning, so you have to eat cat food tonight instead.” The demon turned back to the plate, mumbling something about how cat food probably tasted better than this stuff.
He brought the plates over, lit the pumpkin spice candle which still had its clearance sticker on the side, and we ate. Hadur may have preferred cat food, but I thought dinner was amazing and settled back with a contented sigh to watch the demon clean up the dishes and pans. A girl could get used to this. All I needed was a glass of wine. And maybe a not-broken leg.
“Let’s see what Diebin brought us tonight,” Hadur said, picking up the plastic bag.
I came to attention, crossing my fingers and hoping for bacon. Or Tylenol. Or maybe bacon and Tylenol.
The bag held a travel-sized Yahtzee game, a spatula, the salt half of a blue ceramic salt and pepper shaker, and something from the cosmetics section.
