Page 9 of Hexes From Exes

It was a quick transition, one that made her ears pop as the pressure in the room dropped momentarily. One second, he was a red scaly demon man, the next he was… a human man.

Not just any man, though. If you’d seen his demon form, you would have understood they were the same. He was still a head and a half taller than her with the same broad frame he had in demon form. He wore a tailored suit that hugged his thick thighs and large shoulders and complimented what she was sure was a plush ass. His eyes were a hazel that weren’t a far cry from the yellow she’d been looking into just moments before. His skin was a light brown, his hair black, loose, and wavy. He was by no means a model, but he wasn’t bad to look at either.

“Fun trick,” she said, taking a step back. Their closeness was even more overwhelming to her now that he looked like a human man and not like a demon.

“It’s uncomfortable, but it will do as we go forward with our task. I cannot be seen around in my natural form, it’s forbidden.”

“But I saw you,” she argued.

“Yes, because we are in business together,” he replied, his voice patronizing.

“Not at first, you just showed up in my office and threatened me,” she argued back.

His jaw snapped shut and his eyes narrowed. “I did no such thing. I was informing you of the curse.”

“Do you normally do that?” asked Stephanie.

“Well…no,” he allowed.

“Exactly. You’re breaking your own rules and then get mad at me for not knowing them,” Stephanie said.

“Maybe if you listened and let me speak, you’d become informed and prevent yourself from…”

Her office door opened then and in stepped her assistant Jennifer, who paused at the threshold with a look of surprise on her face. She gave Rick one long, appraising look and smiled at Stephanie.

“Miss Porter, I’ve got the final report from R&D,” she said, her gaze darting to Rick again.

“Wonderful, Jennifer, I’ll take those. Head home, it’s getting late.”

Jennifer took her own liberty with that statement, handing Stephanie the papers and trying to suppress her smile before she turned to leave the office. Great, Stephanie thought. Now here comes a rumor about me fucking people in my office after hours.

“I was unaware there was anyone else in the office,” Rick said, rubbing his jaw.

“Did you not scope the place out? Are you new at this?” Stephanie asked.

“No, I have been doing this for decades,” he shot back, testily. “In fact, I’m one of the most successful revenge demons in my office.”

“Your office?” Stephanie inquired. “Do you have cubicles? A break room?” The idea of a bunch of demons sitting around a coffee machine waiting for it to brew while lamenting over whatever human they were cursing was too funny to her.

“Why are you smiling? Yes, I work in an office, just as you do.” He sounded indignant, like her questions were offensive and not completely reasonable for a human to have. “And you’re avoiding discussing our deal. Have you reached out to your exes and coordinated these dates?”

“I didn’t realize I was on a timeline. I don’t remember agreeing to one,” she said, leaning against her desk.

A muscle in his jaw ticked his annoyance. Stephanie wondered vaguely if he was supposed to kill her as part of the punishment, and maybe if she pushed him too far, he’d just end it and forget their deal. She had no idea how deals with demons worked, so she decided to let her questioning ride for now.

“I can send some messages. I have an idea of a few people who might stoop to hiring a demon to do their dirty work,” she said, shuffling back behind her desk to grab her cell phone and start scrolling through it.

“Stoop to hiring a demon? Dirty work? It was once a great honor to be able to summon a demon, it’s not every human who gets to interact with our kind,” he said, following her around the desk to watch her scroll on her phone.

She tilted her phone away from him. “Some privacy, will you?”

He scoffed and made his way back to the seat across from her, plopping down to watch her with unnerving intensity.

Stephanie pulled up her contacts and scrolled until she found the first alphabetical possible person that may have cursed her… Chad. He was immature enough. She sent a quick ‘Hey, how are you?’ message. A few other guys jumped out at her on her contact list, and she sent them similar inquiries.

“Wait - you said exes. You mean a group of them got together to do this?” she asked.

Rick nodded. “Yes, it was a group,” he confirmed.