Hex on the Beach by Kelley Armstrong

Chapter Eight

Ihad to do something! Maybe I could use my powers to send out a text message to get Denise some help?

As quickly as that hope flared, it died. Even if I could use enough of my borrowed telekinesis to do that, anyone I called would be stricken by the contagious spell mere minutes after they got here. I might already have condemned Denise. I couldn’t condemn anyone else—

Shadows suddenly swirled between me and Denise. In seconds, a tall, extravagantly handsome man with short black curls, deep brown skin, and walnut-colored eyes appeared. Never let it be said that demons failed to make a memorable entrance.

I stared at Ashael as he brushed imaginary lint from an expensive-looking peacock-blue suit. Then, red lit up his dark brown gaze as he glanced at Denise, at me, and then back at Denise.

“Got into a bit of trouble, haven’t you?” he said with an appreciative whistle.

Denise groaned and sat up.

I was so shocked that I barely noticed Ashael pull out his cell phone and say, “Don’t wait up,” to whoever was on the line.

Had Ashael done something to Denise so she could move again? If so, thank God! Or thank…whoever, since he was a demon.

“Whole…body’s…stiff,” Denise said with a moan.

Ashael’s snort managed to be elegant. “Of course. From what I see, you’ve been doused with a powerful immobility spell. You wouldn’t be able to move at all, except for those brands. Magic doesn’t work on demons, and you have enough of our power in you to avoid being a living mannequin like your friend over there.”

I wasn’t even insulted. I was more stunned that Ashael knew that Denise was demon-branded. That was a closely guarded secret. Only me, Bones, Ian, Denise’s husband Spade, and Denise’s relative Nathanial knew about it, or so I’d thought. And how had Ashael known we’d been hit with a spell?

“Good thing both my natures protect me,” Ashael went on. “Now I know why you sounded so desperate. Anyone else you called would only end up stricken by the contagion in that spell.”

How could he know any of this?I mentally raged. How?

“Can you get…this spell…off us?” Denise ground out.

He paused. “Yes and no.”

Always a bargain with demons, and those bargains rarely ended without a lot of regret on the bargainee’s part.

Denise gave him a baleful look. “Do the…yes part.”

Ashael came closer. “Are you sure? Neither of you will enjoy what it takes.”

That sounded ominous. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.

Denise must have read my reluctance from my expression because she said, “Do me first, then.”

Wait! That wasn’t what I meant at all!

Ashael’s lips twitched. “If only I had a dollar for every time I heard a woman say that…”

“You’d be rich?” Denise finished, managing an eye roll.

His grin widened. “Richer.”

With his sin-wrapped-in-seduction looks, I didn’t doubt it, but that wasn’t what grabbed my attention. It was the haze of light that now glowed from Ashael’s hands, and how his gaze had gone from red highlights to twin beams of silver.

Holy shit. This must be Ashael’s other side. I’d never seen it before, our previous contact being very brief, but I’d seen it from his half-sister, Veritas. And she’d almost leveled a house with that otherness after a mere mood swing.

“If you consent,” he said to Denise while power thickened the air, “give me your hands.”

Denise stretched out her hands. As soon as Ashael clasped them, that glow from his hands increased, and Denise screamed.

I didn’t even have to concentrate. Every single bottle from the bar suddenly slammed into Ashael. Glass, alcohol, and then blood covered him from all the flying, cutting shards.

His gaze slanted my way in annoyance, but he didn’t let go, and the glow from his hands only intensified. Denise screamed again, and then bit her lips as if to hold back another scream.

“I’m okay,” she gritted out. “I know what he’s doing.”

Her words were no longer garbled from a half-paralyzed tongue. She also wasn’t slouched over anymore. Now, she was sitting upright, even if her face was pinched with pain.

“How much more?” she asked with a gasp.

“Just a bit,” he replied as more light poured from his hands. That light began to absorb into Denise’s skin, until her whole body started to glow.

“Almost done,” Ashael said in a soothing way.

White sparks came off their joined hands. Denise squeezed her eyes shut, breathing hard while the air filled with the strangest power. Not the skin-tingling energy that marked the auras of strong vampires, or the icy brushes of power that heralded grave magic. This was something I’d never felt before.

Ashael released her hands. Denise fell back. He caught her, lowering her to the floor across from where I was positioned. For a moment, our eyes met, and I stared at her in disbelief.

Were those flashes of silver in Denise’s gaze now?

Then she blinked, and all I saw was Denise’s normal hazel eyes. “Wow, that feels weird,” she murmured.

With that, she stood up, moving as normally as she had before the spell had infected her.

Ashael scanned Denise and then nodded as if satisfied.

“That should hold you, but this power upload is only temporary. To make it permanent, we’d need to strike a deal, and despite what you know, I doubt you’d want to go that route.”

“I don’t,” Denise said, adding “no offense,” with a wry smile at him. Then, she glanced at me. “Don’t worry, Cat. His power upload only hurts for a few minutes—”

“I’m not doing that with her,” Ashael interrupted. “She has nothing in her to increase the way you did.”

That sounded insulting, but more importantly, did it mean I was beyond help even from a half demon, half demigod like Ashael?

“I can, however, give her something to weaken the immobility spell so she can move again,” he went on.

If my hands could have shot out to indicate consent, they would have. Do it! Whatever it is, bring it on!

“But she won’t be good for much after that, and it’s very important that you kill whoever hexed you both,” he finished.

“Why won’t Cat be good for much?” Denise asked, echoing my own thought.

His smile was as bright as sunshine. “She’ll be too high.”

I stared at the demon. Now I knew what he intended to give me to counter the spell. His blood.

Demons weren’t just the inventors of magic; they were the walking embodiment of it. That’s why spells didn’t work on them. Their blood also had a unique effect on vampires, and by unique, I mean that vamps who drank demon blood ended up more wasted than a frat boy after a drinking contest.

Still, being wasted would be an improvement over my current state. Besides, Ashael was only half demon. His other side was of an indeterminate celestial nature, so maybe his mixed blood wouldn’t get me as trashed as straight demon blood would. Even if it did, Bones had once managed to win a fight to the death while sky-high on demon blood.

If he could do it, I could do it.

I stared at Denise, hoping she could intuit my answer.

She sighed. “I don’t like this, but…Cat says yes.”

Ashael rolled up his sleeve while grabbing one of the broken bottles I’d telekinetically hurled at him. Then, he came toward me with a wolfish smile.

“In that case, my lovely redhead, I hope you’re thirsty.”