Page 38 of Hell and Hexes
Chapter 15
Sylvie
Monday morning, I forced myself out of bed early and made omelets with the remaining eggs and cheese while Eshu did his best to distract me and get me back to bed.
“I can’t,” I protested as he pulled my rear end against his erection. “It’s Monday. I’ve got clients, then the werewolf meeting, then we need to go out with Adrienne to head off any potential attack on Clinton’s compound.”
“I’m looking forward to tonight.” Eshu wiggled against my butt. “And I like your sisters. Well, except for the eldest one that wanted me to eat outside with the raccoon.”
“Well, we’re going up the mountain tonight with the one who talks to the raccoon,” I told him. “Adrienne communicates with animals and can get them to do her bidding.”
With Adrienne, it was less controlling animals and more that they liked her and happily did as she asked. I really didn’t know if she actuallycouldmake an animal do something against its will or not.
“And what is my role in this adventure, beyond admiring my beautiful witch?” He kissed the side of my head.
This was so embarrassing. I hated to ask for help. He’d offered freely to assist me with the luck charms, but this was different. We’d only begun this…whatever the heck it was we had together, and I didn’t want him thinking that I was using him in any way.
“I’m still weak, and I’m not sure I’ll have enough strength to power a hex.”
There. Hopefully he’d offer and I wouldn’t have to actually ask.
He reached around me to flip the omelet, still keeping the other arm around my waist. “You will always have the strength you need. Whatever magic you decide to do, it will be sufficient.”
“What if it’s not?” I countered. “I’ll be out there with Adrienne in a potentially dangerous situation. What if I can’t cast a spell, or it’s weak and ineffective?”
“Your spells will always be sufficient.”
There was that word again. Sufficient. I really didn’t like that word. Sufficient didn’t give me any wiggle room, any buffer. And I didn’t believe that anything I did on my ownwouldbe sufficient.
“But what if they’re not? What if I can’t do it and the werewolves attack Adrienne and me?”
He flipped the omelet again. “Then I’ll save you. You first, and if your sister hasn’t been killed and eaten by the werewolves, then I’ll save her too.”
“Werewolves don’t eat people.” He was going to make me say it. He was going to make me come right out and ask. Ugh, this was so embarrassing. “Can you…would you please let me have some of your energy like you did with the charms? Just in case?”
“There is no need for that. Have faith, Sylvie. Trust.”
Trust in what? Myself? Him? Divine intervention?
“Sometimes the path is twisted,” he continued, “and you may fear you’re going in the wrong direction, that you won’t reach your destination. But remember that whatever direction you travel, it’s always correct, and the destination you arrive at is the one you’re destined for.”
This was the wise, serious Eshu. I think I liked the laughing, frivolous one better—the one with the near-constant erection.
“So that’s a ‘no,’ right?” I turned to face him, putting my hands on his chest and looking up into his dark eyes.
“Trust. Act intuitively. And have faith that your future will find you.”
He leaned down and gave me a soft kiss, and as I pressed myself against him, I realized something. He was right. I needed to have faith that my luck would always be there for me, to catch me and make sure that even though I might fall, I wouldn’t land on hard ground. Eshu might be there for me or he might not, but no matter how twisted the path, as he said, in the end I’d reach my destination. That destination might not be the one I set out for, but it would be the correct one for me.
Maybe my magic wouldn’t fully return. Maybe it wouldn’t be the same. But either way, Iwaslucky, I was alive, and I was in the arms of a demon—or whatever—who lit me up inside.
We ate breakfast, lingering over coffee as we chatted about my family, game night, what music we liked, then I managed to resist Eshu’s attempts at a sexy shower, and got ready to head to the office.
“Call in sick,” he urged, pulling me to him as I grabbed my purse and keys.
“I called in sick for two weeks while I was on Cassie’s couch,” I told him, pushing his roving hands from my breasts. “I need to be at work, especially today. Aren’t you expected somewhere as well?”
Didn’t the demon have work he was supposed to be doing? He’d been in and out of Cassie’s place several times a day delivering and receiving messages, so I assumed he had messages to deliver to the wrong person.
