Shamelessly Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 2) (14 page)

I watched the stupid slut scurry out of Trevor’s house, like
I’d known she would. Glancing over at Zahrel, I was tempted to send him back to
his prison and kill Trevor’s demon whore tonight. I only hesitated because the
last time I’d acted hastily, I’d missed my chance to get Trevor. If I sent
Zahrel back and failed to kill the whore, I might be forced to summon a
different demon and start from scratch. I didn’t know the names of any other
imprisoned demons.

At least, I could be satisfied with the fact that the bitch
wouldn’t be anywhere near my Trevor tonight. She’d be too busy scrambling to
try to fix the mess I’d created.

“I should take Trevor tonight,” I mused.

“How do you plan to do that?” Zahrel asked with a wheezing
laugh. I looked over to see the sooty outline of his form.

“I’ll go into his house and knock him out. Then we can load
him into the trunk of my car and leave,” I explained. It would be simple
enough. While he might be annoyed at me for showing up at his house like this,
he wouldn’t turn me away. It would be easy to get to him.

Zahrel said nothing, and I was furious to realize he was
probably silently laughing at me. Trevor would have wards on his house to
protect him, and I had no clue what they were, since that was a detail he’d
never shared with me.

“It bothers you that you can’t kill her,” Zahrel stated.
“Would it help if we tortured the next kill a little tonight?” he asked, fading
in more so I could see his black lips curl into a smile.

I hesitated because I’d never expected to feel my panties
getting wet from thoughts of torture. It seemed wrong, something only a truly
sick person would enjoy. The kills were necessary, a way to get to Trevor. I’d
be lying if I didn’t admit to loving every second of my first kill and
anticipating my second, but it was okay to enjoy something I had to do.
Torture? That was something I couldn’t justify, no matter how tempting it was.

The wheezing laugh floated through the car, settling around
me like a blanket, as I felt the evil enticing me. My breathing grew shallower,
and I was aroused to the point of pain, not from sex, but from the sheer power
of holding someone’s life in my hands.

“Why are you trying to deny yourself the pleasure?” His
voice flowed along my skin.

“Torture seems like too much,” I explained, shivering from
excitement rather than nerves or fear. I wanted him to convince me it was okay.

“What if I told you torture will make the death of our
sacrifice more potent?” he asked.

“More potent?” I wondered if he was lying. “Is that true?”

“Does it matter? I’ll tell you it does if that will ease
your conscience, but we both know you’ll regret not doing this,” he pushed.

He was right. I needed someone to punish. If I couldn’t
punish Trevor or his slut, our next sacrifice would have to pay for their sins.

I was ready to drop by the time I finished the rewrites and
walking everyone through the scenes involving Lindsey. In that time, my anger
at Lindsey had shifted to concern. There was no denying she was a crazy bitch
who’d probably wished I’d die on the spot when she’d seen me with Trevor, and I
could definitely see her entertaining some nasty revenge schemes. Still, I was
having a hard time imagining her blowing off the show and jeopardizing her
career over Trevor, no matter how obsessed she was with him. That would take a
special kind of crazy. I’d been there the day Lindsey had auditioned for the
show, and I’d heard her speech to our casting director, so I knew how much she
wanted to be a successful actress. Working on
Night High
wasn’t her
dream job—a fact she’d been very upfront about. Lindsey wanted to be in movies,
and she figured this was a good place to start. Then, I got to wondering if
maybe I’d been wrong about her devotion to the show. It was possible she
figured she’d gotten what she needed out of
Night High
and could easily
blow us off now.

“Tasha!” I called out to one of the witch actresses who’d
seemed to be good friends with Lindsey.

“Hey, Mel!” she greeted me with a warm smile. Tasha was the
only witch actress who didn’t talk about me behind my back, to the best of my
knowledge. She had told me I was being mean a couple of times, and she’d been
right both times. I couldn’t complain since she’d brought chocolate for her
confrontation. Natasha Spelling, known to me as Tasha, was friendly and sweet
with everyone. Best of all, she thought my portrayal of witches on the show was
funny as hell. She reminded me a lot of my sisters, and I kind of hated her for
being pretty, talented, intelligent, and incredibly nice. The witch seriously
needed a flaw.

“Can I talk to you about Lindsey?” I asked her.

“Sure,” she replied. “I’m still having trouble believing she
disappeared like this when she knew how big her role was tonight.”

“Did she say anything to lead you to believe she was
quitting the show?” I asked. “I mean, after she had her melt down over me being
with Trevor?”

Tasha considered her answer before shaking her head. “She
was seriously pissed about Trevor turning her down, and she went on some long
rant about finding another job. Still, I seriously doubt she’d walk off the
show. I know for a fact she couldn’t have gotten a new job this soon. Then again,
she’s been totally obsessed with Trevor lately. The way she was talking last
week, I thought they were getting back together. She even told us that if she
didn’t show up again, it would mean Trevor had whisked her away for a romantic
getaway. Those were her words, not mine.”

That was creepy, and it had me wondering if I’d been wrong
in thinking Lindsey valued her career as an actress. Maybe she’d gone off the
deep end where Trevor was concerned, which still had me concerned. That kind of
obsession could easily become dangerous.

“Have you talked to her since last night?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Lindsey only talks to us here. I don’t
even have her number.”

“You never spent any time together outside of work?” I
asked, surprised to hear that Lindsey didn’t hang out with the other witch
actresses. It seemed like a good way to network and make more connections. Some
of them had actually been in movies, and Tasha had an uncle who was a famous
producer.

Tasha shook her head. “I hope you don’t think less of me for
admitting this, but I try to avoid her,” she admitted, a blush staining her
cheeks. “She can be really mean sometimes.”

I almost laughed at the way Tasha was apologizing for not
wanting to hang out with Lindsey, as if she had to be friends with everyone.
Even my sisters weren’t that nice.

“Do you know if she has any friends from the show? Is there
anyone she spends time with outside of work?” I asked, because I wanted to find
out what was up with Lindsey. I was beginning to wonder if it had been a mistake
to keep her lines for next week’s filming.

“No one,” Tasha replied. “You have to understand that
Lindsey is from a much higher-ranking family than any of us. Also, most of us
live in this area, while Lindsey lives up north, closer to you.” After letting
out a sigh, Tasha continued. “She’s also very unpleasant with most of us, so no
one wants to hang out with her.”

I nodded. “Would you do me a favor and let me know if you
hear from her? I know it’s unlikely with what you’ve said, but I’m kind of
worried something might have happened to her. After talking to you, I’m willing
to admit that she might have decided to flake on tonight, but I’m still
worried.”

“You’re so sweet, Mel,” she cooed. “That’s why we all love
you so much.”

I snorted. “I know I’m a bitch, so you don’t need to pretend
you all love me.”

Tasha giggled. “We all know you act tough, but in the end
you look out for all of us, even when you’re having an extra mean day. That’s
why everyone is always going to you with their problems. Even though you might
grumble and complain about us bugging you, you still help us.”

On those words, Tasha walked away, and I headed out to the
parking lot with some of the actors. The vampires had already left, so it was
me, four witches, and three werewolves. When we got to the parking lot, the
werewolves started scenting the air. I’d spent enough time around werewolves to
know not to ask what they were doing. Trust me when I say that you don’t want
to know what a werewolf smells most of the time.

One of the werewolves growled and looked around. “There’s
someone watching us.”

The other werewolves nodded their agreement. Looking around,
I saw that there were plenty of humans in the parking lot already, along with
two demon security guards, so there were definitely people watching us.

“There are several people around,” I reminded them, trying
not to sound condescending. It was best to avoid challenging any werewolf’s
dominance. The werewolves on the show knew I outranked them when we were on the
set, but they had trouble accepting my dominance outside. When it came to
magic, I was stronger, but I had nothing on them physically.

None of the werewolves seemed satisfied with my answer, so I
decided to remind them of the importance of getting home. “Don’t you have a
pack meeting tonight? If so, we should leave, so you can get some rest before
then.”

They all nodded and hurried to their cars. The wolves
shouldn’t have had to work this late before a pack meeting. With any luck,
they’d go home and get some sleep. Otherwise, we’d hear from their pack leader.
It was a pain in the ass employing werewolves because you also had to negotiate
with their pack, but we refused to turn away good actors and crew members
simply because they came with an added complication. We could legally get away
with it. Unlike humans, the preternatural community didn’t have any laws in
place to prevent discrimination, but the network still avoided it.

Sliding behind the wheel, I wished for a spell to make my
car drive itself home. I hurried out of the lot before Claude figured out I’d
left. He’d stayed behind to talk about some edits he wanted made to the filming
tonight, and I’d gotten the impression he wanted me to stay as well. At this
point, nothing could keep me from sliding into bed for a few hours of sleep
before my morning meeting with the other writers. I’d already messaged them to
let them know we were meeting in the San Francisco office. I’d been the one up
late cleaning up this mess, so they could come to me. It was a good thing I
loved my job, or I might be tempted to hunt Lindsey down and kick her ass.
She’d better have a damn good reason for making me come in tonight.

It had been nearly four in the morning when Melina collapsed
into bed beside me, grumbling about driving to her own home before remembering
she was staying with me. The fact that she’d driven all the way over here after
making that realization still made me smile, because it meant she wanted to be
with me, and not just for the sex. After falling into bed with me, still
wearing most of her clothing, she’d been asleep in less than a minute.

I was winning her over, and it wasn’t taking nearly as long
as I’d expected it to.

“How can you be smiling at this wretched hour?” Melina
grumbled, shooting me an adorably sleepy glare.

We were both on our sides, facing each other in bed, and I
did my best to reposition myself so she wouldn’t notice my foul morning breath.
Based on her minty breath, she’d used my mouth wash when she’d stumbled in to
use the bathroom after the alarm on her phone had gone off.

“I’m not sure most people would consider nine a wretched
hour. On a normal day, I’d probably already be at my office,” I pointed out.
“Although, you definitely need more sleep than you got. Why’d you set the
alarm?”

“I had to schedule a writer’s meeting to work on the scripts
for the rest of the week,” she explained. “Lindsey couldn’t have picked a worse
week to pull her disappearing act.”

“Has anyone on the show talked to her?” I asked, annoyed
that Lindsey’s crazy games were causing so many problems for Melina.

“No one’s heard from her, but apparently, she was telling
the other witches that the two of you were getting back together,” she replied.

“I can’t believe she’s still hung up on me,” I said. “It’s
been six months, and it wasn’t that good while we were together. She was always
trying to make me into the perfect warlock. She wanted me to stop talking to my
friends, especially Allie, and move far away from everyone I knew. She had this
crazy idea that we’d buy our own island and live there alone.”

“Hearing that makes it a little easier to believe she’s gone
off the deep end where you're concerned,” Melina remarked thoughtfully. “That
kind of obsession is dangerous and doesn’t go away.” Before I could respond,
Melina continued. “Instead of talking about your crazy ex who is making my life
a living hell this morning, why don’t you head into the bathroom and do
something about your dragon breath? Then you can help improve my mood this
morning.”

I flashed a wicked grin. “How much time do we have?” All
sorts of ideas were running through my mind, but I wanted to know what my time
constraints were.

Melina’s brow scrunched as she worked through her schedule.
“I need to be showered and out the door in thirty minutes.”

I let out a frustrated groan, knowing there was no way I
could do all the things I wanted to her body before she had to leave. Still, I
could definitely put a smile on my witch’s face before she headed out the door.

“How about if I run my tongue all over that delectable pussy
of yours until you scream my name, and then you can shower while I fix you a
breakfast sandwich to eat in the car?”

“Are you offering to pleasure me?”

“Believe me, honey, the pleasure will be all mine,” I
drawled.