Page 10 of Hexes From Exes

“Jesus,” she groaned under her breath, trying to think of anyone who might know each other. The major problem, she realized, is that ‘ex’ was a loose term. Was it a man she met at an event who thought she wanted more, when really, she just wanted to network? Was it a guy she grabbed a drink with who thought it was more than that? Or were they truly exes, men she’d dated and slept with?

“Can you give me any clues?” she asked.

“No,” he said quickly. She sighed and sent a total of five messages to five different men. At least one of them had to be one of the exes, they were the most likely to have stooped to that level, or ones that were especially angry at their breakup. Maybe she was creating her own sort of bias by scheduling dates with the worst of the worst of her exes, but it made the most logical sense that they’d be the ones to hire him.

“Lucky for you my calendar is empty the next few months, summer is a slow season for sales, and we don’t really ramp up for the holidays for another month or two. So, how will you be joining me on my dates? Disguised as a waiter? Bartender? Hide under my bed?” she asked as she set down her phone. He gave a half-hearted shrug. “I have my ways, I will be there and not interrupt.”

“Good,” she said.

They stared at each other across her desk, neither of them blinking.

“How do I get ahold of you when one of them agrees?” she asked.

“My number is in your phone under Rick,” he said causally. She blinked and grabbed her phone again, scrolling to the contacts. Sure enough, there he was. Rick, with a Phoenix area code.

When she looked up to ask him how he’d done it, he was gone.

Chapter Five

“Wow. Summoned? That’s pretty cool.”

Rick visibly flinched at the sound of Cass’s voice interrupting his mindless scrolling on his laptop. He still hadn’t brought it to IT, and now it was taking more than a minute to open any page he visited. Normally it would enrage him, but he wasn’t looking at anything in particular today. He was just trying to look busy for Herschel and the rest of the team. They were all dealing with petty revenge squabbles and kept trying to interrupt him to ask about his plan with his latest case. Seems that Zed couldn’t keep his fucking mouth shut.

Adding Cass to the mix was enough to make him want to crawl back into bed.

“Yeah,” he said lamely, trying to level his stare at his ex and not look like a totally lovesick demon dog. It was hard not to. She was gorgeous. Her long black horns protruded from her forehead and swirled upward, making her look even taller than she was. She had slanted black eyes with short lashes and a wider, oval face. Her hair was a mix of black and deep blue, which fell down her back in a straight curtain. Her skin was a beautiful deep navy blue and so soft, especially compared to his scaled skin. Despite its texture, it was strong, impenetrable even. She had to have a degree of protection given her line of work - Magical Investigations. It used to be a lot more dangerous back when demons were still possessing people and running amok, before the council really cracked down on errant members of Anathamea and regulated the portals.

Still, it made him sleep better at night knowing she could fend off any human weapon with that skin.

“Yeah? That’s all you have to say?” she asked. She was leaning casually against his cubicle, arms crossed over her chest, her black eyes fixed on him. Rick noted a few others in the area were lingering nearby, clearly trying to eavesdrop on whatever was being said between the two. Cass’s eyes slid to the front of the office.

“Wanna go for a walk?”

He really didn’t, but if he sat much longer, he was afraid he’d become one with the chair. “Sure,” he said.

He followed Cass out of the office and onto the streets of Anathamea. It was a typical day. The fires of oblivion kept it a perfectly warm temperature, pleasant at 110 degrees. The fires were burning particularly bright that day, making Rick’s eyes burn. He wasn’t spending as much time outside as he probably should. Cass eyed him up as he flinched away from the sun and chose to stroll under the eaves of a nearby building, finding some shade.

“You okay?” she asked. The concern in her voice made his heart flutter.

“Yeah, yeah, doing great. You?” he returned.

She sighed and turned on him, stopping them both in the middle of the sidewalk. “You don’t have to pretend with me, Rick. When I said we could still be friends, I meant it.”

“Yeah, it’s just not that easy for me,” he said, his voice tight.

Rick had anticipated the end of their relationship well before it happened. Cass was growing apart from him, sometimes at dinner they just sat in silence with nothing to say to each other. He thought she was seeing someone else but after the breakup, she remained single. He’d had to admit that they were just no longer compatible, and no matter how hard he tried he just made their distance worse.

“Is it easier if I send someone else to the department?” she asked quietly. She was referring to the fact that the two departments interacted fairly regularly, especially in situations where a revenge demon was personally summoned. The Department of Magical Investigations was tasked with charting the flow of magic and investigating any leaks. “Leaks” of course were ways that magic was stolen from the community, or instances where demons kept magic to themselves. It also investigated summonings, or any work of magic by humans.

Magic was a hot commodity that was growing weaker and less available as time went on. Even a few decades ago Cass’s department didn’t exist - it didn’t need to, magic was abundant. It was why the younger demons were so frail, why newer demons didn’t live long, and why Rick had to ration his own magic shares whenever he was on an assignment. He had a hunch that they’d start to pull away the magic enchantments that made them look human if it got too dire. That’s why his assignments were so important - they upped the magical currency in the realm.

“No, no it’s fine,” he said, waving his hands. “This assignment is just…well, it threw me for a loop, I guess.”

“Oh?” Cass asked. “You’ve always been so good at your job, why is this one any different? And you never gave me more details – Zed said you were summoned?”

“I think by that weird human witch thing, you know? What’s her name? Sunflower?” Rick said, snapping his claws as he tried to remember.

“Poppy? Yuck,” groaned Cass. “And she’s not a witch, her coven threw her out. Apparently, she’s been implicated in stealing some demon literature and artifacts, and there’s a whole investigation out on her. You got the name of the person who summoned you?”