I wasn’t the only sister that had problems with his sudden inclusion, but I was the only sister who’d confronted Cassie about it. We’d had an emotion-laden, but productive conversation, and in the end, I’d realized that although their relationship seemed inexplicably sudden to me, it was a deep and forever connection as far as Cassie was concerned.
Just as I had lectured her about treating me like an adult and respecting my judgement on when I felt able to return to work and go back home, she’d done the same with me about her relationship with Lucien. Respect went two ways, and during our conversation, I’d realized I needed to accept what Cassie and my other sisters might call a significant relationship—one significant enough that the “other” should be considered family and included in our weekly dinners.
Lucien had been savvy enough to ease his way into the family. He’d been friendly and polite, sitting quietly during conversation until he felt welcome enough to contribute. He’d paved the way, and when Bronwyn had brought Hadur in, we’d welcomed him with open arms. Of course, part of that was because he’d rescued her from her wrecked truck and taken care of her. And Bronwyn, was…Bronwyn. She was feisty and funny, and she didn’t trust easily. The warm glow in her expression when she’d looked at Hadur had told us all we needed to know. If Bronwyn wanted to bring a warmonger to our family night dinner, then we’d eagerly accept him.
And Nash had been an easy-yes as well. He’d resurrected me when I’d died. And it was clear to anyone with eyes in their head that he adored Ophelia. Plus, Nash had the sort of calm, kind, gentle personality that made him welcome anywhere. Who would have thought a reaper could be so agreeable?
Three demons. Well, two demons and a reaper. It was a good thing Cassie had a giant dining room table that could accommodate our growing family.
Cassie was in the kitchen, kneading a huge quantity of ground beef in a big stainless-steel bowl. Beside her, Adrienne stood peeling potatoes and dropping them into a pot.
“I’m here early,” I announced. “What do you need me to do?”
“Addy could use some help with the potatoes,” Cassie instructed. “But first hand me that can of tomato sauce, please.”
Meatloaf. Most of us would have bought some pre-prepared stuff from the grocery store and shoved it in the oven, but Cassie was old enough to remember making meatloaf with our grandmother and she knew the recipe. Ground beef. Eggs. Spices. Tomato sauce. Onions. Peppers. And rice for some inexplicable reason. It was super tasty, and every bite reminded me of home and family.
“Can you open that second one so I can pour it over the top?” Cassie asked me.
I used the old-fashioned hand-cranked can opener, handed it to her, then put the eggs back in the fridge before joining Adrienne at the sink. Lucien came in before I’d gotten more than one potato peeled, walking over and giving Cassie a kiss that had Adrienne telling the pair of them to get a room.
“Thought you were going to miss tonight’s dinner,” I said to the demon. “Cassie mentioned there was some trouble in hell you were dealing with.”
Lucien made a growling noise and threw his hands upward. “I’m ready to blast the whole third circle into nothingness. What a bunch of boneheads.”
“If you do that, will there just be a hole in hell?” Adrienne asked.
“A hell-hole,” I teased.
Adrienne grinned. “Or maybe it would be a spot you need to jump over, where you tell the newly arrived ‘oh, that used to be the third circle, but we had to nuke it because they were dicks’?”
Cassie laughed. “Or like the thirteenth floor in some buildings? Hell will just skip from the second circle to the fourth, and if people ask about the third circle, you just shudder and tell them ‘it’s bad luck to have a third circle’?”
“Or maybe just name it something else, like circle two-and-a-half,” I joked. “’We don’t talk about the third circle, man. Nobody talks about the third circle.’”
“What’s going on anyway?” Adrienne asked. “I thought you guys had a pretty tight grip on things down there?”
“Instructions for the third circle went to the fifth instead, and a message that was supposed to be delivered two weeks ago just now got there.” Lucien shook his head. “Basically, Eshu screwed up, which he seems to do a lot.”
I hid a wince at Eshu’s name, bending my head to concentrate on the potatoes.
“So fire him,” Adrienne told him.
“I can’t.” Lucien shrugged. “No one can. He’s the only one who can be in both hell and heaven. He can go anywhere, talk to anyone. He doesn’t technically report to us, so there’s nothing we can do except complain about him—which does absolutely nothing.”
“I thought he was a demon?” Cassie looked at Lucien in surprise. “I thought he was a demon or an angel who had some sort of diplomatic immunity?”
Lucien wobbled his hand back and forth. “Technically, he’s neither. We’re the same—angels and demons. It’s just who we report to, our duties, and some after-the-fact traits that make us a tiny bit different. Eshu’s kind of like us, but not. And during the split when my father told my grandfather to get bent and headed out on his own, Eshu didn’t take sides.”
“So he’s Switzerland,” Adrienne commented.
“If you mean a frivolous, silly, slacker Switzerland, then yes.” Lucien shook his head. “Eshu was different even before the split. He’s really old. I think he might even be older than my grandfather.”
“He doesn’t seem that old,” I mused.
“That’s because he never really grew up,” Lucien said. “We can’t fire him. We can’t punish him. All we can do is yell at him, which doesn’t seem to make one bit of difference. And we need him. He’s the messenger.”
The messenger. The communicator. The one who walked freely between heaven and hell and the mortal realm. Who was this demon-not-a-demon? I’d caught a glimpse of someone brilliant and powerful and wise for a moment in my kitchen last night before he’d returned to his playful, chaotic self. Which was the real Eshu?
Perhaps both were the real Eshu.
All I knew was that I’d been sad to return home from my office to find him gone. He’d found my stash of mini peanut butter cups and ate them all, leaving the wrappers on the counter with a note thanking me. I wasn’t sure if the thanks was for the candy, or the sex, or maybe both, but the house felt empty and quiet without him there. It felt less alive. I felt less alive.
“We’re here!” Bronwyn shouted from the living room.
Next thing I knew, the kitchen was jam packed with people. Bronwyn and Hadur had brought a couple of pies for dessert. Aaron was carrying what looked like a case of wine. Babylon had a salad in her hands, and Glenda had a bag with French bread sticking out of the top. Ophelia and Nash brought up the rear, squeezing into the tiny space and offering to help.
“Here. I’ve got this.” Nash took the peeler from my hands with a smile. “I’ve been prepping potatoes all week at the diner, so I’m a bit of an expert. You and your sisters go relax. Get started on Aaron’s wine.”
Aaron held up a bottle in one hand, flipping a corkscrew in the other as if he were a ninja. “Nash is right. Let the guys cook for once. You gals into the living room.”
“I’m not leaving my meatloaf in non-Perkins hands,” Cassie announced. “Let me get it in the oven, then you men can take over.”
Bronwyn, Adrienne, Babylon, and Ophelia headed out while Glenda and I started pulling wine glasses from the cabinet.
“Your aura looks amazing,” Glenda whispered to me. “What did you do?”
I shot her a puzzled look. “Drank your smoothies? Moved off Cassie’s couch and back into my own house? Went back to work? Ate pizza and had game night?”
“As much as I’d like to claim credit, that aura isn’t from my smoothies. And I doubt it’s pizza.” She hesitated, a fistful of glasses in each hand. “It’s…red. Red and black, but the black isn’t a bad sort of black. It’s shiny, glossy, reflective. I’ve nev
er seen you this powerful.”
“Why thank you.” I simpered and curtsied, but Glenda’s compliments gave me a surge of hope that things might actually go well tomorrow at the meeting. The luck charms were charged, and if my aura really was so outstanding, then maybe I could start off the week by getting the werewolves to come to a peaceful, mutually beneficial agreement.
“Powerful, but…unstable.”
Crap. I didn’t like the sound of that one bit.
“Be careful, Sylvie. I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m no oracle, but I think whatever you do might end up having unexpected results.”
Yeah. I really didn’t like the sound of that. Turning around to grab two opened wine bottles from Aaron, I was shocked to see Eshu walk into the kitchen.
“Something smells amazing!” His voice was cheerful, and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Crazy demon. There wasn’t anything to smell yet. Cassie hadn’t even put the meatloaf into the oven.
“And wine! Is this for me?” He took a bottle from Aaron, then reached out to boop me on the nose. “You, I will share with. I share my offerings with no one but you, couch-witch.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Lucien snapped. “It’s Sunday. It’s supposed to be my day off. This better be urgent if someone is sending me a message during family dinner night.”
“I’ve got no message for you, son of Satan. I’m here for dinner and this freely given offering of wine. Is that meatloaf? I love meatloaf!” Eshu walked over to where Cassie was forming the loaf. She glared, putting herself between our dinner and the demon.
“Lucien? Are you inviting your co-workers to Sunday family dinner? Because I have a problem with that.”
Lucien’s eyes widened and he raised his hands. “No! I would never do that, Cassie. Eshu…just shows up sometimes.” He turned to the other demon. “Get out of here. Go to hell, or to heaven, or New York or something, but get out of our house.”
Eshu tried to peer around Cassie’s shoulder at the meatloaf. “I go wherever I will. There is no place forbidden to me, no rule I must follow, no law that compels me to abide.”
“Oh, you are going to follow my rules, or else,” Cassie snapped. “Lucien? Get him out of here or I will.”
Fire sparked on Cassie’s fingers. Lucien’s eyes turned coal black. Eshu ignored all the warning signs and kept trying to look at the meatloaf over Cassie’s shoulder. I threw up my hands and dove between them all, shielding the silly not-demon from their wrath.
“Whoa, whoa. Family dinner night. It’s the one time we get together to relax and not incinerate uninvited guests.” I pointed to Cassie as she was clearly the angrier of the two. “Put the meatloaf in the oven. I’ll…I’ll talk to Eshu and straighten this out.”
My sister blinked, the fire abruptly extinguishing from her fingertips. Then she tilted her head as she regarded me. “Sylvie, you’re always the peacemaker, but just let me handle this one.”
I waved her off, pushing Eshu backward from the kitchen. “Nope. You’re in charge of meatloaf. The guys are handling the rest of the dinner. I’ve got this.”
Before she could reply, I had Eshu out of the kitchen and into the dining room. My other sisters peered at me in surprise. I ignored their curious stares as I wrestled the bottle of wine from Eshu’s hands, putting it on the table before shoving him toward the tiny half-bathroom beside the staircase.
“That wine is an offering to me,” Eshu complained. “It’s mine. No one better touch it. Except for you, couch-witch. You are welcome to all my offerings. And my giant cock. You’re always welcome to that.”
I looked heavenward, shaking my head as I pushed him into the bathroom and shut the door behind me.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, poking him in the chest. Cassie and Lucien had heard Eshu proposition me for the two weeks I’d recovered on the couch, but none of my other sisters had and I was pretty sure they were all dying of curiosity on the other side of this door.
Well, except for Ophelia, that is.
“It’s family dinner night.” He pulled me into his arms and kissed me.
I’ll admit for a split second I forgot about the awkwardness of having my casual fling show up for family dinner night and wondered if said family would notice my absence for ten or fifteen minutes. Maybe twenty minutes. How fast could we do it, and what positions would we manage in this tiny powder-room?
I put a hand on his chest and reluctantly pulled away. “Eshu, it’s family dinner night. Family.”
“I know. And it’s meatloaf. I love meatloaf.” He tried to kiss me again and I did my best to evade him.
“We’re not…you’re not.” I grimaced, wondering how the heck I was going to say this without hurting his feelings or sounding like a callous witch. “Eshu, we’re friends. We’ve slept together once. That’s not a family-dinner level relationship.”
“Not once, eight times.” He’d given up and instead was now trailing kisses down my neck, pulling me tight against his rather impressive erection. “Unless you’re talking actual sleep. In that case, I’m not sure if the few hours we got here and there even qualifies as once. I’d like to sleep with you though, my couch-witch. After lots of sex, that is.”
I was seriously ready to throw caution to the winds and screw this guy in the bathroom. The meatloaf and my family could wait. I wavered, then firmed up my resolve.
“Eshu, lots of sex in a twenty-four-hour period does not mean you get to just show up at family dinner. You’re not family.”
“Lucien, Hadur, and Nash aren’t family,” he argued, still kissing my neck. “And neither is that raccoon hanging out by the back door that your one sister slips food to throughout the evening.”
“They’re in a long-term relationship with my sisters,” I argued back. “Well, except for the raccoon, and as you’ll notice, he’s not inside with a plate set at the table. You and I don’t have a long-term relationship. We’re friends who had a whole lot of sex last night and this morning.”
“I think that qualifies.” He pulled back, his dark eyes searching mine. “But if you don’t want me here, if you are embarrassed by what we have with each other and don’t want your family to know. If you want me to go, then I will.”
I felt like a total jerk at his words. And it was true—I was a bit ashamed of what we had together. I was having a hot-and-heavy casual sex thing with a not-quite-a-demon that Cassie and Lucien disapproved of. If I were my own client, I’d be having a serious discussion right now about my need for my eldest sister’s approval, and why I felt it was important for me to hold on to a false persona of not being the sort of woman who brought a silly, frivolous demon into her home and had no-strings-attached sex with him all night long.
I saw the hurt in his eyes, but I also saw a devilish gleam there and had been a therapist long enough to know what that meant.
“Eshu, emotional manipulation does not establish a good foundation for a relationship. If you truly want something going forward with me, whether that’s a friends-with-benefits deal or something more, then you need to be honest and open with your emotions.”
He grinned and rubbed himself against me. “My couch-witch is brilliant. And beautiful. And sexy. I love meatloaf. I want to stay and be part of your family and enjoy Sunday dinners with you all. But if you truly think it’s best for me to leave, then I will. I only ask that you slip me a plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes out the back door like your sister does with the raccoon.”
I burst out laughing, something warm and electric sparking inside of me. I lov—liked this guy. I liked him a lot. Screw it. We’d never allowed casual boyfriends at Sunday night dinner, but Lucien, Hadur, and Nash hadn’t exactly been with my sisters very long before they started attending. Technically Nash attended uninvited that first night when he appeared to take my soul and ended up resurrecting me.
I was making a judgement call. And if anyone had a problem with it, they could address it with me tomorrow, after we’d enjoyed meatl
oaf.
“I’ll set a place for you at the table.” I snaked my hands around Eshu’s neck. “Can’t have you eating outside with the raccoon, can I?”
He caught his breath, then slid his hands down to my ass, lifting me off my feet and against him as his lips claimed mine. My legs wrapped around his hips, pushing hard against him as he spun me around, then took a step forward and pressed my back against the narrow wall. My fingers stroked his neck as he held my rear with one hand and snaked the other up the front of my shirt.
There was a bang on the door, and I shrieked into his mouth, letting go of Eshu’s neck. Thankfully, he seemed unbothered by the interruption as he continued to hold me upright and against the wall, fondling me through my bra, his tongue dancing with mine.
“Sylvie?” Glenda called out. “Are you guys done in there? I’ve got to pee, and I don’t want to have to go all the way upstairs. Heaven knows what sorts of kinky stuff Cassie is keeping in that bathroom.”
I broke off our kiss, resting my forehead against Eshu’s shoulder while I tried to catch my breath. It wasn’t easy since he was completely ignoring Glenda and still caressing my boobs.
“Just…just a second,” I called out. Then I pushed Eshu’s hand out of my shirt, tugging the hem down as I lowered my legs to the floor.
“She doesn’t have to pee that bad,” Eshu told me, trying once more to hike my legs up.
I swatted his hands away. “Stop. Later. At my house, after dinner.”
“Eight times?” He bent down and nibbled my ear.
“Twelve,” I promised him.
“Sylvie?” Glenda banged on the door again.
“Coming!” I shouted.
“I wish,” Eshu muttered.
Hell and Hexes Page 11