Witches Anonymous (2 page)

Chapter Two: Did I Scare You?

As the nice witches filed by me on the sidewalk, some of them sending me more looks of open curiosity, I slunk into the shadows and pulled the Dove from my pocket. Satisfaction was sweet. My first Witches Anonymous meeting was over and I’d survived. More than survived, I’d actually made a new friend. It was like running on a treadmill. Getting on was the hard part, but once finished, I felt renewed. Invigorated, even. Ready for anything the universe could throw at me. Or at least Marcia.

Setting the dark chocolate square on my tongue, I sighed and closed my eyes. Heaven. Pure heaven. I leaned my back against the old brick building and savored the chocolate, fantasizing about the dimpled guy who would soon be taking me for ice cream.
I could get used to this kind of life
…

A hot wind blew across my chest and a deep, seductive voice whispered in my ear, “Amy?”

Goosebumps ran over my skin. I jumped and choked on my chocolate, my eyes flying open to find the Devil standing in front of me. Tall, dark and sexy as hell, he was nevertheless too handsome for his own good. No visible horns or claws, but an insatiable hunger for all things denied him.

Placing one hand on the wall behind me, he leaned in closer and pinned me to the spot with his body. The streetlight’s glow did nothing to soften the blue glints in his raven-black hair. As he smiled down at me, his white teeth gleamed in the shadows of his face. “Did I scare you?”

Straightening my jacket, I swallowed the last of the chocolate and itched to throw a curse at him. It wouldn’t do any good, but it would make me feel better. “Of course not,” I lied. “What are you doing here?”

“Precisely what I was going to ask you. Witches Anonymous, my dear?” His gaze traveled over my body and certain parts tingled in response. “You must be joking.”

I cleared my throat and told my parts to knock it off. “It’s no joke. You and I are done. I never want anything to do with you again.”

He laughed under his breath and one long finger reached out to stroke my cheek. I flinched at the feel of the scorching heat of his touch. “You’ve gone too far to walk away from me, Amy.”

“Get off me and you’ll see me walk away with no trouble at all.”

Luc parted his lips to say something or possibly laugh at my threat, but a man’s voice interrupted him. “Hey, there you are.”

Luc drew back and dropped his arm, taking his luscious heat with him.

My knight in shining leather once again came to my rescue. Adam, the streetlight illuminating his face, hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and narrowed his eyes at Lucifer. “Is there a problem?”

Waving a hand in the air in dismissal, I smiled so hard my cheeks hurt. “No problem.” I skirted around the demon who owned my soul, and hooked my arm through Foster’s. “Let’s go.”

Lucifer spoke a low warning. “
Amy
.”

The tone of his voice was hard to ignore. I pulled Adam away from the building, heading toward the parking lot where a bunch of other men were talking alongside their Harleys.

I felt the shadow of Lucifer’s hand on the back of my neck, ready to snatch me back. Shrugging it off, I kept walking. He wouldn’t do anything in front of all these humans. “See this?” I called to him over my shoulder without meeting his eyes. “This is me walking away. We’re done. Finished. The End.”

A bullet of heat shot through my heart—Luc’s nonverbal answer.

Heart pounding, I scanned the motorcycles and gripped Adam’s arm tighter. “Where’s your bike?”

“Over here.” He pointed to a big, black Dodge truck.

“That’s not a bike.”

He shrugged, pulling out a key fob and hitting the automatic door locks. “Bike’s in the shop.” Motioning with his head, he asked, “What’s his deal?”

“Ex-boyfriend. Thinks he still owns me.”

“Ah.”

The truck sat high on oversized tires. Adam gave me a hand up. I bounced in, wondering if I was really going through with this. I didn’t know this guy from Adam, even if he
was
Adam. He could be a jerk, a serial killer, a Britney fan. And me, Miss Reformed Witch, without my powers.

But as I slid across the seat, I saw Lucifer still standing in the shadows of the building, a faint but distinctive red glow illuminating his body. He was pissed.

Feeling the first flush of revenge, I smiled to myself.
Point to the witch
.

We pulled out of the parking lot, and a sudden weight tugged at the pocket of my jacket. Sticking my hand inside, I found not one, but a dozen Dove chocolate squares.

All of them glowing red.

Chapter Three: Sin City

My first instinct was to throw the glowing candy out the window. Knowing Lucifer the way I did, I figured the chocolates were hexed and some innocent kid or unsuspecting mutt would end up with the Devil in them. So, I kept them in my jacket, silently begging them to disappear, since I couldn’t vanish them myself.

“Your pocket’s glowing.” The dashboard light showed a hint of curious amusement on Adam’s face.

“Uh,” I stuttered, searching my brain for an explanation. “Hand warmer. One of those little packs you break and it gives you heat. These cold nights, you know…” I bobbed my head, “…a girl’s got to keep her hands warm.”

He turned his gaze back to the road, smirking. “It’s fifty degrees outside.”

The chocolate continued to glow. If I didn’t do something soon, it would melt in my pocket and ruin the leather. “I’m very sensitive to cool air.”

A two-way radio on the seat between us buzzed, and a woman’s voice spoke in an urgent manner. “Unit Seven, this is dispatch. House fire reported at 66 Wingate Drive…”

“Hang on.” Before the dispatcher finished with the details, Adam did a U-turn in the street and reached behind his seat to grab a strobe light. Shoving it through the open window, he set the flasher on top of the truck. Then he picked up the radio, confirmed he was en route, and put the gas pedal to the floor. “Sorry,” he said. “Davy’s out sick with a virus and I’m on call.”

“You’re a fireman?”

“Captain. Tonight was supposed to be my night off.”

There was no time for more questions. He wove in and out of traffic, ran stop signs and answered a continuing stream of information coming over his radio. I admired his ability to multitask so effectively.

I also admired the fact he knew how to put out fires. A skill like that could come in handy for someone who messed around with Satan.

Arriving on the scene, I shifted my eyes between the orange and red flames bursting from the downstairs window to Adam, who was pulling up his fire-retardant pants. “Rain check on the ice cream?” he said, setting a hat on his head and grabbing his turnout coat from behind the seat of the extended cab. His crew was just beginning to shower the house with water.

“Sure.” Watching the fire eat the water, I wondered how I’d get home to my apartment. I’d walked to the meeting and there was no cab service in Eden, unless you counted Denny’s Bar, which ran a van for the town drunks to keep them off the streets and encourage the average drinkers to indulge, guilt and designated driver free.

A family of four stood outside, shook up but unhurt. The little girl cried against her mother’s leg. Her fear and pain rippled through the air as the flames rose and fell in the house. Mesmerized by the fire, I continued to watch the scene with a group of other gawkers as the firefighters moved in sync with Foster’s directions. He seemed to think one step ahead of the fire, and within minutes, he had it contained. The little girl’s crying had stopped in the arms of her mother.

I could still feel the heat coming from the house on my face when the air behind me spiked in temperature as well. The candy in my pocket glowed brighter. “You always did love fire,” Lucifer said, running his fingers down my back.

Even in the midst of the oven-like air around me, I shivered under my coat, arching away from him. Keeping my eyes on the house, I hissed, “What are you doing here?”

His breath, hot as acid, touched the back of my neck. “Thought you might need a ride home.”

I turned to look him in the eyes, a thought dawning on me. “You did this. You started the fire, didn’t you?”

A casual shrug confirmed my suspicions. “Job security for your new boyfriend.”

“He’s not my…” I stopped, remembering that I was using Adam to make Lucifer jealous. I wanted to give the Devil a taste of his own medicine. “Are you going to burn down a house every time I go out with him?”

Luc grinned, dark and wicked. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Amy. You should know that.”

Boy, did I. “I took an oath not to use my powers anymore. I’m of no use to you. You want to fool around with Emilia? Be my guest. Lure her in. Turn her evil. I’m not your playmate anymore. Do you understand?”

The grin fell off his face. “Oath or no oath, you’ll do my bidding, witch.”

If I could have vanquished him, I would have. But even in my days of evil witchery, my powers weren’t strong enough to vanquish the Devil. We stared at each other as the crowd around us began dispersing. A tingling heat flared between my legs.

A voice came from far away, snapping me out of the trance. “Amy? You still here?”

I whirled around to see Adam standing behind me. The fire was out and the firefighters were rolling up hoses and patting each other on the back.

Relieved once again to find Adam rescuing me from Luc, I smiled up at him. “I wanted to watch you in action. That was amazing how you guys put the fire out so fast. You’re a talented guy.”

He grinned, a small, embarrassed grin. Then he fixed his gaze on a spot over my shoulder. The wall of heat at my back flared higher. “Funny how we keep running into each other.” He held out a hand to Lucifer. It was still grimy with ash and soot. “Adam Foster.”

The corner of Luc’s mouth curved up with malicious intent. “Luc.” He gripped Adam’s hand. “Smith.”

The handshake lasted a few seconds too long. Even through the soot on Adam’s hand, I saw his knuckles turn white.

“Well.” I grabbed Adam’s coat sleeve and tugged him away from Lucifer. “You must need to get back to the station and do…um…captain things.”

Adam pulled his gaze from Luc’s and looked down at me. “I’ll take you home first. That is…” He shifted his feet and took off his hat. “If you want me to.”

“I’d love you to,” I gushed with a touch too much enthusiasm. As Adam turned to head back to his truck, I looked Lucifer in the eye. “Stop following me, and stop setting fires.” I emptied my pocket of chocolates and shoved them at him. “We’re done. Finished. Over.”

The curve of his mouth sharpened, and for one brief heartbeat, a flame sparked in his eyes. “We’re not over until I say we’re over.” He let the chocolates fall to the ground. “Witch.”

“You live above Evie’s Ice Cream?” Adam pulled into a vacant parking spot in front of my building.

He smelled like smoke and had soot smeared on his cheek. “Yes,” I said, breathing deeply and fighting to keep my hand from wiping off the soot. “I actually own the ice cream parlor.”

The look on his face would have lit up Manhattan for a week. “No way.”

My night manager, Keisha, eyed us through the window as she locked up the front doors. I willed her to be on her way and saw her raise one eyebrow in challenge as she felt my mental hands shooing her toward the back room. Her fists went to her hips and she returned her own mental hand slap before turning to go. She was more of a sister to me than my flesh-and-blood one. “It’s been in my family for generations. The first Evie was my great-great-grandmother’s grandmother.”

“I love your ice cream. It’s the best I’ve ever had.” He held up three fingers. “Honest.”

The boy-scout gesture tugged at my heart. I laughed at his kidlike exuberance. “What’s your favorite flavor?”

“Sin City Chocolate. I like those little pieces of dark chocolate mixed in with the vanilla ice cream.”

A man after my own heart. “Would you like to come in and have a dip?”

I could see it in his face, he was tempted. Really tempted. For more than just ice cream. “I would, but I have to get back to the station and fill out the paperwork on tonight’s fire.” He sniffed at his shirt. “Besides, I stink.”

I was more than a little disappointed. I’d obviously misread the look in his eyes; the heat coming off him was from the fire, nothing more. What was that guy always saying on TV about guys being into you? If they made an excuse, even a legitimate one, not to come inside your place, they
weren’t that into you
. “I understand. Another time, maybe?”

“How ’bout breakfast tomorrow?”

Not that into me, huh?
My confidence rebounded. “I’d love to.”

“I’ll pick you up at eight.”

I opened the truck door. “Excellent.”

Avoiding Keisha, I went up the outside stairs to my apartment. Smelling like smoke myself, I showered, fed my cats, Cain and Abel, and snuggled down in bed to dream about my new firefighting friend.

This thing with Adam was going to work out perfectly.

I woke from dreaming about Adam in his fire suit to the feel of a hot body next to mine. A body too big to be one of my cats, and much too hard. And then there was the hand cupping my breast through my Snoopy sleep shirt.

Frantically, I tried to clear the cobwebs out of my brain and get my bearings. Had Adam accepted my offer last night? Had we enjoyed more than a scoop of ice cream?

An image of him waving goodbye to me from his truck surfaced, and with it, a chill spread down my spine. With sudden clarity I knew who was sleeping in my bed. I jerked away from Lucifer, tumbling to the floor in my haste.

I have only one vice in life—lust. I lust for sinful men, dark chocolate and designer shoes. For ten years, Lucifer satisfied all my desires and then satisfied them some more.

The embodiment of lust, he made me choose bad over good, dark over light, hell over heaven. I simply couldn’t resist his wicked ways.  Until he slept with Emilia, that is. Just thinking about him touching her, kissing her, the same way he’d touched and kissed me made me shake with disgust. Betrayal was one thing. Betrayal with my sister…well, that was more hell than I bargained for.

He rose up and peered at me over the side of the bed, his hair mussed and his eyes full of enchanting lust. “Good morning, Amy. Dream of me?”