Chapter 45
AVA
I wake up again, my body entirely on top of Valen’s where we lie on the couch with his arms wrapped around me. At some point, Pom Pom jumped up with us and lies by our feet. Pushing my hair out of my eyes, I yawn and look around. Light is barely peeking in through the windows.
“Good morning,” Valen says, his voice hoarse and deep from sleep. I love when I get to see him like this, unguarded and adorable.
“Morning.” I give him a small smile. I’m still a little sad that we fought, but I understand his frustration.
My stomach rumbles and Valen grins. “Should I make my mate breakfast?”
“Please, no.” I gag, thinking of the rubbery scrambled eggs he made me the other morning. Very thoughtful, but my stomach didn’t agree. He’s gotten a lot of recipes down, but those give him trouble for some reason. “I’ve got it covered, big guy.” I pat his chest and roll off.
After a quick breakfast—cereal for me and a tumbler of blood for him—I shower and get ready for work. When there’s a knock on the door, I expect to find Celine or Zavier, but instead it’s an irate Luna with a smug Levi.
“We have to figure out how to get him off me,” she shrieks, storming inside the apartment. Levi strolls behind her, though he has to pick up his pace, so she must be getting far away enough that she’s tugging on the bond. It’s odd how sometimes you can see it and sometimes you can’t.
“I really don’t get the rush,” Levi says lazily. “I’m quite a joy to be around.”
“Ugh!” Luna turns on the demon. “You’re insufferable!
” To me, she says, “I can’t go any farther than what?
Six feet from this man? I made him sit his ass outside the bathroom to shower, and what did he do?
Waltzed right in to pee. Did you know demons pee?
Because they do!” She holds a finger up in annoyance.
“And if that wasn’t bad enough, he shakes off his dick and turns around to grin at me in the shower and says, ‘Nice tits.’”
I swear the tips of his hair flash a brilliant shade of blue for a moment before settling back into blond. “I don’t know why you’re so offended,” he drawls. “It was a compliment.”
“I like my privacy,” she snipes.
“You saw my dick. It’s only fair I saw your tits.”
She gapes at him. “I didn’t ask for you to whip out your dick while I was showering. I asked you to sit outside the bathroom like a good little demon.”
He adjusts his black button-up shirt where it opens at his chest. “First off, good and demon aren’t usually associated together. Second, there’s nothing little about it, and you know that.” He smirks, sliding muscled arms across his torso.
Valen snarls in the corner and I frown. I know how he feels about demons, so there’s no way he’s happy about Levi being back here.
“The only thing I can do is take you guys to see Jade. I can’t promise she can help if Cyfrin couldn’t do anything.”
“Anything is better than nothing,” Luna sighs. “Let’s go, dog.”
Levi cocks his head at my puzzled expression. “She’s taken to calling me that since I’m leashed to her. It’s kind of kinky, if you ask me,” he explains.
“Oh, shut up,” she gripes.
“Valen, you stay here,” I say.
“Fuck, no,” he growls. “I’m not letting you go anywhere with a demon.”
“He’s shackled to Luna. There’s not too much he can do, right?”
“You’d be surprised,” Levi purrs. “I’m very good with my fingers and tongue.”
Valen’s nostrils flare. “I’m. Going.” He bites out the words.
I nod in understanding. After calling in sick to work, we all pile into my car. My heart gallops in my chest. I just know Jade is going to kill me when she finds out what I’ve done.
Jade looks up from the magazine she’s flipping through when we walk in and arches a dark brow. “A witch, two vampires, and a demon walk into a stationery store, but I’m not sure what the punchline is.”
“Dracula has to get his stationery somewhere,” Levi says lazily, eyeing Valen. “Pencylvania.” He grins.
Valen, my normally calm, sweet, and reserved vampire, looks like he’s two seconds away from punching him.
Cocking her head to the side, Jade asks, “When did your motley crew befriend a demon?”
I lower my head in shame. “I summoned him,” I whisper.
“You what?” she asks, stepping out from behind the counter. “I didn’t catch that.”
I lift my chin and meet her eyes. “I summoned him.”
Her mouth drops open and her eyes ping-pong from me to Levi.
“And we’re chained together,” Luna says, lifting her arm. The chain glimmers in the early morning light.
“How the fuck did you summon a demon?” Jade asks me and I curl in on myself.
“I … uh … took some photos of spells from your books. It was supposed to be a protection spell, but I must have done something wrong, so now we have Levi. He’s like Luna’s pet.”
“Woof, woof,” Levi barks and winks at Luna.
“I…” Jade presses a hand to her forehead. Pointing at me, she says, “You’re a giant pain in my ass.”
I cover my face with my hands. “I’m sorry.”
She holds up a hand and flips her hair over her shoulder. “I don’t believe you.” Jade steps around all of us and flips the sign to closed and locks the door. “This might take a while.”
I bite my lip. “That sounds ominous.”
She looks me up and down. “Good.”
I follow her like an unruly school-aged child who’s being reprimanded by the principal. The other three fall into step beside me.
Luna and Levi sit down on the couch on opposite ends. Valen’s nostrils flare as he stares down the demon. Levi just grins and tips his head like he’s greeting an old friend.
“Give me your phone,” Jade demands, hand outstretched to me.
“What? Why?”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m assuming the pictures you took are on your phone?” She makes a gimme gesture with her hand. With a sigh, I hand my phone to her. “Now show me which spell you used.”
I move to her side so I can peer down at the screen. “That one.” I point.
She clicks on the photo and zooms in. “You fucking idiot.”
“Hey!” Valen bristles on my behalf.
“It’s okay,” I tell my mate, sensing his annoyance. “She’s not wrong.”
“You thought this was a protection spell? Did you not read the whole thing?”
“Well … yeah.” I shrug. “It says use for … oh.”
Jade shakes her head and deletes the photos—going the extra step to permanently delete them.
“There’s a reason I haven’t let you perform spells yet. Your magic is young, untrained, and volatile. That spell isn’t a good one—it’s too open ended, so in this case, you ended up with a demon.”
Levi wiggles his fingers. “Nice to see you, Jade.”
She shakes her head. “Shut up, Leviathan.”
“You two know each other?” I ask in surprise.
“I know a lot of people.” Jade sighs, handing me my phone back.
“Is there anything you can do to uncuff us?” Luna asks desperately, lifting her arm in the air. The glimmering golden chain shines brightly for a moment before vanishing.
Jade shakes her head. “Sorry, but that’s something only you two can do.”
Luna shoots her head to the left to glower at Levi. “How?”
Jade stares down Levi, and he gives a subtle shake of his head. Gathering her hair back in a ponytail, she secures it and says, “That’s for you two to figure out.”
“And if we don’t?” Luna asks, pure panic in her voice.
“Then it’s a good thing you’re both immortal so one of you won’t be forced to drag around a corpse.”
Luna whimpers. “This is the worst.”
“Oh, come on, darling. You could’ve been chained to someone ugly. At least you got me.”
Luna glowers at the demon. “You think highly of yourself, don’t you?”
Levi gestures at himself lazily. “Of course I do.”
“See?” Luna turns back to Jade. “This is impossible.”
“I’m sorry,” Jade says, though I’m not sure how genuinely sorry she actually sounds.
“But even if there was something I could do to undo this, I wouldn’t be able to.
This is old magic, ancient. It’s something I’ve only read about.
I thought it was a myth, but obviously not. ” She waves her hand toward the two.
“Elaborate,” Luna demands.
But Levi shakes his head again and Jade shuts up. “You three need to go. Ava and I have a lot of work to do.”
I gulp. “We do?”
“Yes,” she says, pulling items and books off her shelves. “I wanted to take things slow with you, because like I said, your magic is volatile at the moment, but you’ve shown me that you refuse to do that. So today begins the accelerated program. Buckle up, buttercup.”
I can tell it’s on the tip of Valen’s tongue to protest, so I shake my head. “Go,” I tell him. “I’ll be fine.”
He follows Luna and Levi out to the front, and I instantly miss his presence.
Jade holds up a finger for me to wait and heads after the others. A moment later, I hear the door click locked once more.
She returns, smoothing her hands down her jeans. “Let’s get started, shall we?”