by Renee George
I blinked. Rapidly. My legs quivered as stripped out of my clothes, walked across the room to the shower, and reached in to turn on the hot water. I felt a slight tickle on my hand and looked over in time to see a black spider about the size of a dime but might as well been the size of an elephant, crawling onto my thumb. I jumped away, screaming while shaking my hand as if I’d poured scalding oil all over it.
The door shattered in at the hinges as Jared barreled into the bathroom. The spider dropped on the tile next to my feet. I screamed some more and crawled up Jared like I was scaling an oak with low branches. My whole body shook violently.
Jared was grabbing me and trying to hold on, all the while, asking me, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong? What can I do?”
When I stopped screaming, I pointed to the offending creature, and with a shaky voice, I said, “Sppi-i-i-i-d-der!”
Jared located the hairy little beast, and with quick, clean efficiency, he stepped on it. “There,” he said. “It’s gone now. You’re all right.”
I slid down his back and around into his arms and started bawling like a baby.
Jared kept patting me. “You’re all right, honey. It’s all right.”
When I finally got control of myself, I leaned back to look at him. He grabbed toilet paper from a roll on the sink and began wiping my eyes on my nose. “There, there,” he said. “You’re all right now.”
I hiccupped. “Thank you.” When I noticed his gaze had averted from me, I realized I was naked. I touched his cheek and turned his face down to me. “My hero,” I said then raised up on my tip toes and kissed him.
His pale blue eyes darkened to the color of a midday sky. “I should let you wash up.”
“Yes, you should.” Impulsively, I kissed him again. “Do you want to scrub my back?”
“Oh, honey, do I ever.” He growled possessively as he scooped me up and carried me into the shower. He turned the water on while wearing everything but his boots. I laughed, allowing the carefree moment to ease my worries.
Jared stripped his shirt off, then his pants, underwear, and socks. My stomach dipped as I saw him for the first time without clothes on. And let me just say, the man was not disappointing. Not one single long inch of him. I stepped into his arms again, his erection pressing against my stomach.
He stared down at me, his hand sluicing the shower spray from my face. “If I’d known all it took was killing a spider to get your attention, I’d have filled the house with them.”
I smacked his arm. “Don’t you dare! I swear on my honor that I will spike you like a demon.” When I was young, we got word that a girl in town had been bitten by a brown recluse and died. I must have been seven or eight at the time. Since then, I’d had an unnatural fear of the eight-legged monsters, poisonous and non-poisonous alike.
“I wouldn’t dream of it, honey. I promise.” He slid his hands down my arms. “God, you’re so beautiful, Charlotte. You’re funny. You’re generous. And you’re kind, except to spiders, of course.”
I shivered. “They don’t deserve my mercy.”
“No,” he chuckled. “They surely do not.”
I still feared he only wanted me because of who I was, not what I was, but I didn’t want to spoil the moment by asking. Instead, I splayed my palms across his finely furred chest and turned my chin up to him. “Are you going to kiss me?”
“If you want me to.”
“I do,” I said, meeting his mouth for a kiss. “I really do.” I felt his shaft moved against my stomach. It excited me and frightened me.
His lips parted over mine, and I slipped my tongue in, tasting him as he had tasted me. I could still detect the sweet taste of gooseberry jam, and it made me hungry for more Jared. He slipped his hands down my back and cupped my bottom. I moaned into his mouth as his fingers gently but firmly dug in. A throb began to take shape between my legs. I ached for him to touch me there, to ease the pressure, to give me relief.
He let go of my rear with one of his hands and guided my fingers down to his rigid length. I gasped, feeling slightly numb as my fingertips slid over the silky shaft.
“Is this okay?” he asked. “I don’t want us to do anything you’re not ready for. We can take our time. As much time as you need.”
“I don’t want to wait,” I told him. I knew, even if I could only have Jared for a few weeks, a few days, or even a few hours, I wanted to give myself to him, body and soul. So, no matter what happened between us down the road, I would never regret a single moment I spent holding him, kissing him, and yes, “Make love to me, Jared.”
He turned off the water, lifted me in his arms and took me to the bedroom. He laid me on the bed and dipped his lips to lick a bead of water from my breast. The throb grew more insistent. “Quit teasing me,” I told him.
“Dear, Charlotte,” he said. “I want you more than I want air to breathe.”
“Then take me.”
“I don’t have any condoms.”
“I’m a minion. I cannot get pregnant.”
He slipped onto the bed next to me. “That makes it all less complicated.”
I giggled. “Less complicated is not my middle name.”
“Your middle name is Corrine,” he said, cupping each breast as he licked the tips, turning both of them into excited little nubs.
“You remembered,” I said a bit breathlessly as he kissed his way down past my navel. My voice went up an octave. “What are you doing?”
“I want to make sure your first time brings you as much pleasure as it brings me,” he said as he spread my thighs with his fingers.
“Oh my,” I said, fanning my hot face. My body jerked as his lips wrapped the aching bundle. “Please.” My words and my body begged him for release, and when it finally came, or I should say, when I finally came, my whole body shuddered with ecstasy.
After, Jared crawled up the side of me, his clever finger rubbing the sweet, post-climax ache away. “I want to be inside you, Charlotte. I want to make love to you, make you come over and over until you are spoiled for any other man. Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Yes,” I said, tangling my fingers in his hair. “God, yes.”
Jared moved on top of me as he had the night before, his knees parting my thighs. When the tip of him brush against my opening, I raked my nails into his back. He entered me slowly, every painful inch was a testimony to his patience and force of will, as he waited for me to adjust to his size. And when he was finally seated deep inside me, I cried, because, for the first time in my life, I finally felt real, whole, and at home.
An hour and twenty-five minutes later of multiple climactic lovemaking, we’d hopped into the shower for a quick hose down and cuddled in bed, both of us exhausted. A hard knocking at the door roused both Jared and me from a half-sleepy, satisfied daze.
“Oh, shoot. It’s Olivia.” I looked at Jared’s digital alarm clock. It wasn’t quite time for her to arrive, but close. “That girl is either late or early,” I complained as I slipped on my undergarments. I chose a pale-yellow skirt with white strips and a white blouse to compliment it. Jared was already in his jeans and T-shirt, pulling on his boots by the time I finished. I giggled as we acted like two scoundrels caught in the act.
Liv would be happy for me, I knew she would, but I wasn’t ready for her to know that I’d had sex. And Eliza, don’t get me started, that girl would never let me hear the end of it. The hard knocking came again. This time followed by a “Taney County Sheriff’s Department. Open up! We have a warrant for the arrest of Charlotte Madder. Come out peacefully, and there won’t be any trouble.”
“Out the back,” Jared said, and I followed him to the back door. Unfortunately, there were two more uniformed police waiting there. They surrounded the house. They were carrying shotguns and rifles, and I saw two of them out front carrying a black metal battering ram.
“I’m going to turn myself in, Jared. I don’t want you getting in trouble for me.”
“If you go, I go.”
I caressed his sweet, honest face. “You can’t break me out of jail if you’re in custody too.”
He didn’t smile, but he did nod his acknowledgment.
“Good. Now when Liv gets here, she’ll know what to do. She’s had to get herself out of a pickle or two in her day. Let her help you.”
He nodded again. “I love you, Charlotte.”
I wanted to say it back, but I knew how a life with me would turn out for him. I couldn’t, no, I wouldn’t do that to Jared. I went to the door, and after one last glance back I Jared, I walked out and gave myself up
Chapter 13
The scrapes on my knees burned after they’d made me shower down at country lock-up. It had been a while since I’d had any pain mild or otherwise that last longer than a few minutes. Why wasn’t I healing? Once again, the correctional officers had put me in solitary. According to the deputy who logged my arrest, I was being held for the suspicious disappearance of Roger Willis. An anonymous tipster had called in and said that they saw me dragging Roger’s body out from behind his restaurant. There had been no mention of Jared, which I thought was even stranger than my unhealed knee scrapes.
To make matters worse, the mattress, covered with a thin white sheet, bore the distinct scent of urine. Yuck.
“Poor, Charlotte!” Kobal exclaimed when he appeared next to me on the bunk. “How sad you look.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “You wouldn’t happen to know a guy who called in a tip would you?”
“Of course. I’m a demon. I do devilish things like mess with people who make me angry,” he said jovially. “And you, oh, you dear Charlotte, have angered me like no one else.”
“And this is my punishment? Calling the police on me?”
“The police are just the warm-up act. The grand finale will be when you are rotting in a prison cell for premeditated murder and no chance for parole.”
“But I won’t age. Don’t you think that will look suspicious?”
He rubbed his hands together with malicious glee. “That is the piece de resistance! I’ve made you mortal again. I’ve stripped you of your minion blessings.”
“You’re freeing me from my bargain?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. In here, you will fail to deliver on your end of the bargain, and when you die a lonely, pathetic woman in a maximum penitentiary, I will be waiting to embrace you. In Hell.” His eyes flashed, the first sign of his true rage. “Because you are mine, Charlotte. And when you cast me out earlier, you broke my all-access pass bargain we made. I gave you life, and I can take it away any time I want.” He gestured nonchalantly. “I just choose to let nature do the work for me. Now you and your new beau can live unhappily, never, not even in the after.” He laughed.
Then he was gone.
“Jerk!” I bellowed and hit my fist against the wall. “Ow.” My knuckles were bleeding and with my new human status, they wouldn’t magically heal.
I had a long time think about everything that had happened to me in the past two days. Everything with Jared, Roger, Aloysius, Temperance, and Kobal. Of course, since they didn’t have a clock in solitary confinement, I wasn’t sure exactly how many hours had passed, before I curled up in the fetal position, pee smell and all, and cried myself to sleep. I had experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows all in the same day. Somehow, while it was balanced, it still seemed ultimately unfair. A bang and the creak of the metal door to my cell roused me awake.
A female guard with broad shoulders and narrow hips, gestured for me to get up. I swallowed spit down my dry throat. “Where are you taking me?” I imagined to a police interrogation room. I mean, two nights ago I was arrested for being crazy and ranting about demons. Last night they’d taken me in as a femme fatale murder suspect. I imagined I’d be placed under hot lights, the air conditioner turned off, and possibly deprived of sleep until I confessed.
The guard tongued an upper molar, then picked it with her fingernail, before spitting a tiny brown-beige chunk on the floor. “Almond,” she explained. “The raw ones are supposed to be good for you, but the damn things stick to my teeth.”
“They can be difficult,” I said as if talking about something important. She ushered me out of the room, keeping one or two paces behind me. “Now, where did you say I was going?”
“Out processing,” she said. “I can’t say more than that. The deputy will explain after you get all your stuff from holding.”
I felt the numb weightlessness that happens when your body goes into the shock. The last time it happened to me had been when Dr. Jenkins informed my sisters and I that our father had died. It had been so surreal and unexpected, that I just shut down. I was doing the same thing now. Stop it, I told myself. Hold it together. Chin up. You are a free woman. Try not to act like a guilty one.
It took about half an hour to process me out of the correctional facility before I was handed over to Deputy Bob Robertson. “We went out to see Mrs. Willis this morning, and she told us that Roger went on a trip to Vegas. He does that every now and then. Anyhow, she got a hold of him, and he gave us a call.” The deputy looked embarrassed. He tipped his hat to me. “I’m sorry, ma’am, for the misunderstanding, but you understand, after the other night…”
“I held up my hand. I do understand. Thank you, Deputy.”
Apparently, I’d been in jail overnight because the sun was still low in the east. I shielded my eyes when I walked outside, and the yellow glare made it difficult to see. Two big arms swooped me up in an embrace. Olivia and Eliza grouped in with Jared, and soon they were all smothering me.
“Ease up,” I said, gently. “I bruise now.”
“What?” Olivia asked.
I kept my arms around Jared’s waist. I needed his warmth to hold me together before I fell apart. “Kobal has taken away my minion abilities. He's made human now.”
Eliza clapped. “Congratulations, sister! That’s good news.” She gave me a queer look and said, “Isn’t it?”
“Until I die, then it’s hello Hell.”
“Oh,” she said. Then her eyes widened. “Oh! Charlotte that’s awful.”
“I may be out of prison, but Kobal wants me miserable and alone. He’s going to figure out a way to make it happen.” I waved off their concern. “How’d you guys manage to pull off the Roger Willis bait and switch? I know it wasn’t him who called the police.”
Olivia gave me a sly wink. “We went to see his sister-in-law, the one who left the message on the DemonsAreAmongUs.com forum. She helped us convince her sister that her life would be better served acting like Roger decided to run off with a showgirl than have to face a trial over his disappearance. Frankly, she wasn’t that hard to convince. She was downright relieved when I told her he wouldn’t be coming back.”
“And what about the call from Roger in Vegas?”
“I still have Aloysius’s cell phone. It’s a Las Vegas number,” Jared said.
I smiled and hugged him to me. “I’m really lucky to have so many smart people in my life.” We all walked out to where the vehicles were parked. I saw my old Chevy pick-up next to Jared’s truck, and it lightened my mood. “You got it back for me,” I said to Liv. Eliza handed me the keys. “It’s was all Mr. Tall, Dark, and Magic there.”
I leaned into Jared’s side and handed her back the keys. “You keep driving it.” I had my ride home.
“If it had been up to me, you would have rotted in that cell, you stupid cow,” Aloysius said.
I groaned. Maybe if I pretended like I didn’t see him, he’d go away. After all, if I wasn’t a minion anymore, there was no good reason for me to see Aloysius. Jared walked to the passenger door and didn’t seem to hear the offensive old goat.
“I know you can hear me,” he said, waving his hands in front of my face. I blinked when he poked a finger in my eye. Damn it! “Get out of my face!”
Jared stepped back. “I’m sorry—”
“No,” I said. “It’s your pesky ghost. He won’t quit mess
ing with me.”
“Al,” Jared said with a timber of rage in his voice. “Leave Charlotte alone.” For emphasis, he added, “For good!”
The ghost’s face bloated up like an inflatable balloon before he popped out of sight. “He’s gone.” I sighed my relief. We got into the truck. Jared started it and followed after Liv and Eliza. “I know he can’t do me any real damage,” I said, “but that guy is mentally deranged.”
“Yeah, I told him to leave me alone earlier. I guess I didn’t send a clear enough message.”
“Hmm. Doesn’t it seem like he’s obeyed you every time you tell him to do something? Like go away. And if you told him to leave you alone for good, maybe that’s why he showed up for me. You are a necromancer, so there is some power over the dead.”
“I don’t think it works that way.”
“But you don’t know, right?”
“I’ve tried to get him to break the binding but he won’t.”
“Or can’t,” I said. “What if he has to do what you say unless you’ve asked him to do something he can’t perform? Like undoing magic that you created.”
“Great, Jared the Ghost Boss. It’ll be my new stage name.” He reached over and squeezed my hands. “It’s awful good to see you, honey. I didn’t sleep a wink last night.”
“I slept the sleep of an exhausted mortal,” I told him, “but I know what you mean. I missed you, too.”
“Good,” he said. “That’s progress. While you were in the clink, I took the time to retrieve my half of Al’s wand. How would you like to help me rob a grave tonight?”
I grinned. “You plan the most romantic dates.” I laughed. “I would love to go out with you to rob a grave tonight. Should I dress casual or formal?”
“You look good in any color, but black is the preferred dress code for the event.”
“I will be guided by your wisdom,” I said as I scooted close to him, enjoying the scent and heat of him. He put his arm around me and turned onto the highway as we headed home.