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I loved how much more secure Tansy had become since finding her magic. She’d managed to mostly extricate herself from that group of pack-less shifters on her own with her newfound skills. If a nice, handsome wizard were to get involved, she wouldn’t need me anymore.
It wasn’t just my insecurity—and yes, I’d admit I was insecure to myself but not to anyone else—that made me refuse to work with the wizard. It was on principle. I’d never met a wizard I would trust not to backstab me, and even fewer I would trust to be around Tansy.
Tansy rolled her eyes at me. “Okay, I get that a wizard once trapped you and forced you to work for him, but—”
“Not trapped.” I slammed my hand down on the table a little harder than I intended. “Enslaved. He enslaved me. For centuries.”
“Enslaved. You’re right. He was a real douche rocket.” Tansy put a hand on my forearm.
Douche rocket was right. If he weren’t dead already, I’d delight in torturing and killing him over and over.
“The old geezers at the WEC are all twats too,” Tansy continued. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t good wizards out there. Seth helped Grayson find Shelby when she was kidnapped by the WEC, and Sybil mentioned him when we first met. And now, even Desmon is suggesting I work with him.”
Seth and a few of his friends had left the WEC on bad terms. If you asked the WEC, they were excommunicated, but the younger wizards insisted it was their choice due to irreconcilable differences in worldview.
While the majority of the old geezers, as Tansy put it, at the WEC had enjoyed the freedom of pulling strings and basically controlling the world from behind the veil of The Wall, these younger wizards preferred the world as it was now. But that didn’t make them less evil, not in my eyes. Just more modern.
“You entrusted your safety to me, and I consider this wizard a threat. Find another way.”
“Mother is working with a wizard. We know that now. They are trying to find a way to force me to give up my body, even if I don’t want to.” She clenched her hands into fists at her sides. “I don’t think they have it yet, but every day I waste looking for that stupid spell is one day closer to them finding it.”
“That’s bullshit. They can’t do that,” I lied. “She only said that to scare you.”
I didn’t actually know if it was possible, but if it was, then I’d find a way to stop them. Maybe it was time to go on a wizard hunt. Or maybe I could find Dean and kill him, forcing Amrita to use the energy to take over a lesser body before the spell was ready. One that couldn’t talk. I should have killed him when I had the chance. It wasn’t like I didn’t know how to hide a body. No one would’ve found out.
Tansy would know, and she would be angry. She’d also lose sleep, wondering what form the crone would take next. I didn’t want that.
“You’re talking out of your ass.” Tansy was angry now. She knew I was lying. “Just admit it. The big bad demon is scared of the human wizard.”
“I am not.” I stood, pushing the chair back from the table with a screech.
“You are too. Everyone else involved is vouching for this guy, and you’re too chickenshit to take me to him.” She poked me so hard on the chest I worried she’d hurt her finger.
“Seth could backstab us and sell you out. Why would he offer to help?” I asked. “What does he get out of this?”
“Desmon said he was calling in a favor. I don’t think he’d cross a dragon.”
And what if the suave, spell-slinging wizard was honorable and helped Tansy in her mission? She’d be grateful to him. Would she find him more charming and more attractive than a lowly demon? The two of them had magic spells and concoctions to talk about. He’d actually want to hang out with her at a library full of magical books, instead of being there just to be close to her.
Fuck! Why was my brain even thinking about this? I was a demon. I wasn’t supposed to care about shit like this. I was supposed to love ’em and leave ’em. So why was the thought of Tansy asking anyone else, especially a wizard, for help like a punch in the gut?
“You don’t need this wizard to finish your mission. I’m looking around at the EA for a witch who can help.” Too bad the first few promising candidates I’d researched had gotten less and less promising the more I’d learned about them.
The first name had belonged to a witch, but she had the habit of charging part of a soul for the work she did. I didn’t want Tansy to give up any part of her soul; it was what made her so beautiful, and I had no soul to give.
The second person on the list was a succubus who wanted payment in sex. Lots and lots of sex. For a moment, I’d imagined an extended threesome with her and Tansy, but that fantasy had been squashed when I’d realized I wasn’t interested in her, only in Tansy. I also didn’t want to share Tansy, not even with a succubus.
“What are you afraid of?” Tansy asked, her hands on her hips. “That I’ll jump into his bed to get him to teach me the spell?”
“Enough!”I roared. The very idea of her leaving me for a wizard had me seeing red. All rational thought left my brain. I grabbed her by the shoulders. “You are mine.Mine. And I forbid you to go.”
She looked shocked for a moment; then her face turned mean. “Yours? You forbid me?” Her sardonic laughter filled the air. “You don’t own me. I don’t belong to anyone other than myself. You’re fired. I asked Redrock for help, not you.”
She shoved me hard, but I didn’t release her.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” I said through gritted teeth.
This woman was making me feel emotions I’d never had to deal with before. Good ones and bad ones alike. She made me feel uncertain when I’d been so sure of myself for centuries.
