Hellcat (Murder and Mayhem #2)

1. Gabe

Alexa play: skins by The Haunting

S hemhazai’s green eyes flashed as the pretty server dropped off our bill at Turner’s Seafood restaurant. Her phone number was scrawled across the receipt, and her cheeks flushed at the flirtatious look Shem gave her.

“Thanks, sweetheart,” he purred in that tone he used when he was doing depraved shit to me behind closed doors. I smirked and shook my head in amusement as I took a sip from my wine.

We’d been here for several hours, waiting for the crowds to die down so we could get a chance to meet with Bridget Bishop’s ghost.

Bishop was rumored to haunt the building, and our lovely server had promised us a private tour of the second floor once they had cleared the guests out for the night.

“Let me just do my cash-out, and I’ll take you up,” Anna said shyly, and Shem gave her a panty-melting wink as she scurried away.

“You’re such a ham,” I drawled, leaning back in a wooden chair, swirling my wine lazily as I eyed up the handsome chaos demon that sprawled in his seat across from me .

He lifted a shoulder and ran an elegant hand through his mop of dark hair.

“Witches love me.”

I barked out a laugh. Anna was definitely a little witchy, with her gemstone-encrusted fingers and pentagram earrings.

Most people we’d come across so far in Salem were.

The whole town had fully embraced modern-day neo-paganism, which made it the perfect hiding spot for Hecate, the mother of witches.

“So are we actually waiting for her to come back to give us a tour, or are we just sneaking up there ourselves?” I asked, and Shem smirked at me, his green eyes twinkling with mischief.

“Why? Worried I might go home with her?”

I scoffed at Shem’s lazy attempt at making me jealous. This was his way of testing me. Even though we’d spent several months getting to know each other, he still liked to poke me with little challenges.

After Art had betrayed him, Shemhazai had been… difficult, to say the least. Flirting with and then flaunting his casual conquests in front of me was his way of trying to keep me at arm’s length.

It wasn’t very effective.

This little human girl wasn’t a threat to me. As far as I was concerned, no one was. Shemhazai could bed the entire town of Salem, and it wouldn’t matter. Shem’s body wasn’t what I was after, though it was a nice perk.

I wanted his mind and his heart. If he needed to play these games to make himself feel safe, I would play.

And I would win.

Lilith had told me over Yule that once Shemhazai gave his heart to someone, it was forever, and he had been burned enough times that he now kept it under lock and key.

I was a patient demon.

And I was immortal.

I had all the time in the world.

“Go home with her if you wish.” I smirked, leaning over the table, my gaze falling to his full, perfect lips.

Heat curled in my abdomen as I remembered how those lips had tasted when I’d had them clenched between my teeth the night before.

“When she leaves you frustrated and wanting more, you know where to find me. ”

Shem’s eyes twinkled, and he snatched up my chin between his fingers, causing all the tiny hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.

“So cocky , little bird,” he purred, and I grinned.

“ Cocky. Such an interesting choice of words.”

Shem huffed out a laugh and let me go before tossing some human cash on the table and getting to his feet.

“I suppose I can skip the appetizer and jump right to dessert,” he said with a wink. “She wouldn’t have put up enough of a fight to make it interesting, anyway.”

See?

It was all a game.

Feeling pleased with myself, I drained the rest of my wine and followed him toward the front of the now-empty restaurant.

The restaurant was nautically themed and made up of warm mahogany shiplap, industrial Edison bulb light fixtures, and distressed rope accents.

Next to the host stand was a sectioned-off staircase that Anna had informed us led to the second floor.

This floor was reserved for events, but it was also where Bridget was most commonly sighted.

We easily slipped past the rope blocking off the staircase and ambled up, taking in the antique crown molding and ancient chandelier that hung in the middle of the ceiling.

I slipped my hands into my pockets and watched Shemhazai do what he did best. His hellcats manifested in the shadowy corners of the empty room. Their glowing red eyes warred with the cooler tones of the full moon’s ivory light spilling through the large paneled windows that lined the space.

“Come out, come out, wherever you areeee,” he crooned as his shadowy hellcats roamed through the midnight-soaked room. They poked and searched every nook and cranny until a very irritated yet regal woman manifested before us.

She was dressed how most Puritan women of her time would have been, with a white linen shift and a full petticoat.

Though shockingly enough, she was wearing a bright red bodice.

My eyebrows rose in surprise at the daring choice of color.

As one of Yahweh’s messengers, I’d lived through the late seventeenth century and knew how much of a slap in the face that bodice would have been to the men who governed the town at the time of this woman’s death.

“There she is,” Shem purred, his green eyes flashing in the moonlight. His gaze rolled over the spirit, his lips tilting up at her choice of attire much the same way mine had.

“I knew you were a bad bitch, Bridget, but damn. You’re looking like the world’s first femme dom.” He tilted an imaginary cap like some sort of western gunslinger and winked. “Nice to see you again.”

She narrowed her eyes at Shemhazai and folded her arms over her bust, her sharp gaze cutting right through us.

“I don’t typically covet the praise of demons— yet… praise is praise, I suppose,” she drawled.

I snickered at her aloof attitude and glanced at Shem, who seemed to be loving every second of her defiance.

“What brings Chaos to my door? Haven’t you caused enough strife here? Leave us to rest in peace.”

Shem laughed. “There’s never enough strife as far as I’m concerned, sweetheart. The witch trials were just the tip of the iceberg.”

Bridget’s eyes flashed in anger, and Shem’s grin widened.

“You started a massacre!” she snarled, and he lifted an elegant shoulder.

“Not the first, nor will it be my last.”

“Tell me what you want and get out,” she snapped.

Shem chuckled darkly but conceded.

“We’re looking for Hecate. I have reason to believe she has hidden herself here in a mortal body. Any idea where we can find her?”

“You are even more arrogant than I gave you credit for. If the mother has hidden herself from you, what makes you think I, of all women, would be the one to betray her?”

Shem’s hellcats advanced, and Bridget’s eyes narrowed further as her posture stiffened.

“I am the harbinger of chaos, Bridget, but I serve the Queen of Death and Decay. As a dead woman, I’m sure you understand what that entails?”

Bridget, to my shock, rolled her eyes.

“I am protected. Even you cannot take me to Hell, demon. Hecate has blessed this earth, and her daughters have been granted free reign over their afterlives. ”

Shemhazai hissed in frustration, but Bridget just shrugged, glancing at me with a wry yet amused smile painted on her delicate lips.

“You’ll have your work cut out for you with this one,” she said knowingly, her milky gaze slamming back to meet Shem’s green eyes. “Seems he’s used to getting his way.”

“Tell me where she is!” Shem snapped, but Bridget just laughed before fading into the ether.

“Good luck, demon of chaos. May you have as much success as I did while I was alive.”

“Bitch!” Shem snarled, his hellcats chasing after the whisp of spirit as she melted into nothing.

I chuckled, and Shem glared at me.

Shrugging, I turned to head back down the stairs. “Anyone else we should visit while we’re here?” I shot over my shoulder to my pouting cat demon.

“Ugh, this whole town is haunted. I’m sure we’ll find someone,” he grumbled as he trailed after me down the stairs.

I didn’t let him see my smirk as we spilled out into the night. It didn’t go unnoticed by me that whether he was aware of it or not, he was following me.

Would you look at that?

I bit back my grin as I meandered down the sidewalk beneath the full moon, doing my best to beat back the eruption of butterflies that rushed through me at the fact that Shemhazai, ruler of chaos and general of Hell’s armies, was nipping at my heels.