Dancing With The Devil, Witches Anonymous Step 5(12)

Strong, unseen hands caught me and extracted me from the swirling force. I opened my eyes to find Luc holding me, his dark hair falling over his shoulders and his eyes once again vulnerable. He was no longer glowing or shimmering, but there was enough heat coming from his body, I flushed all over from our skin to skin contact.

One of his fingers skimmed my bangs out of my eyes. He glanced at the sigil on my forehead. “Did the Mark do that?”

I wasn’t exactly sure what that was and all I wanted to do was curl up in his arms. My voice came out soft and slow, like I was drugged. Maybe I was. “Do…what?”

He raised his gaze to the other angels.

From my position in Luc’s arms, I couldn’t see their response, but Z’s voice was clear enough. “Had to be you, boss. It wasn’t the Mark.”

Luc lifted one elegant brow, a silent command for Z to explain.

A heavy sigh and a pregnant pause followed. I shifted slightly so I could see Z out of the corner of my eye. He raised the hand that was tattooed with the familiar looking sigil. “I reversed the Mark’s effects when I held her hand by the pit.”

A muscle jumped in Luc’s jaw. It was a fine jaw and my gaze traced over the strong line. “You used your curse on her?”

Z glanced at Cephiel, back to Luc. “How else could we keep the Mark from backfiring? It wasn’t like you were here to close the gates of purgatory.”

The muscle jumped again, but Luc dropped his attention to the floor. “How much time do we have?”

“Five minutes? Five hours?” Zayfeer shrugged. “I’ve never used it on another Fallen before.”

Fallen? My ears rang. Maybe I’d misheard him, but I could definitely feel an unknown danger hanging in the air. I caught Luc’s chin and forced him to look at me. “What curse? How much time until what?”

He set me on my feet, took my hand. “Let’s go upstairs.”

Cephiel stepped forward. “I don’t believe that’s a good idea.”

“Shut up, priest.”

The hole was closed, but the shop was still a disaster. Mikayla frowned as I followed Luc past her on our way to the back stairs that led to my apartment. “Will someone tell me what’s going on?”

“Luc,” Zayfeer called from behind us. “I have to agree with Ceph on this one. Not a good idea, my friend. If it wears off at the wrong moment, you could, uh, lose some important…body parts.”

Luc hesitated in the doorway. Looked over his shoulder at the angel. “We were never friends, Xavier, and we never will be.”

A minute later, Luc and I stood in my living room. The damage to the floor had disappeared just like it had in the shop. Cain flew out of the kitchen mewing a hello and Luc patted him on the head.

Then, without a word, the Devil drew me into my bedroom.





Chapter Eight – More Than A Feeling





A new wave of lust and heat hit me full force as Luc and I faced each other, him still beautiful and naked, and me covered in black tarry demon blood and green goo, my hair a tangled mess and my legs shaking.

His eyes…there was that look again. A vulnerability I’d never seen before and one that made me nervous. “What’s wrong? What were you and Zayfeer talking about downstairs?”

“Sshh.” Luc touched my shirt and it dissolved. Just bam, no more shirt. Sort of handy. A flick of his fingers and my jeans dissolved into a pile at my feet. “We don’t have much time.”

“I don’t understand.”

His attention zeroed in on my mismatched bra and panties. The bra was a bright lemon yellow and the panties had a cartoon cat on them wearing a witch hat. Another touch of his magical fingers and my bra dropped to the floor. His gaze locked on mine; he drew his knuckles across one exposed nipple. “I don’t have time to explain everything.”

He inched closer, our bodies a fraction of an inch from touching. Even so, his magic licked over my skin, letting me know exactly what he planned to do to me. “You’re going to have to trust me.”

In case your mother never warned you, trusting the Devil is akin to selling him your soul. I’d done that once—given him my soul—and it was just as bad an idea the second time around as it had been the first.

Since joining Witches Anonymous, I’d been working on making better choices. Trying hard to stay away from people and situations that made recovery from my wicked ways impossible.

But I couldn’t stay away from Luc. He was the one drug I would never get out of my magical system, no matter how long I stayed clean.

Leaning forward, I kissed his lips, then stood my ground as I searched his face for any sign of deceit. None existed. “I trust you.”