Shamelessly Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 2) (7 page)

I watched Melina hurry out of my kitchen like she had hell
hounds chasing her, and it took everything in me not to chase her down and drag
her to my bed, or any other surface for that matter. I hated the idea of her
leaving when things were going so well between us, mostly because I was
insecure when it came to what we had. I knew Melina was attracted to me. I also
knew she liked me. I even knew we were right for each other after testing our
magic. What concerned me was whether Melina would decide this was a huge
mistake while she was away from me. Bet or not, she didn’t have to stay here,
and we both knew it. She was here because she was also curious about our
feelings, or at least the attraction between us.

I found Mr. Whiskers in the bedroom at the far end of the
hall. It had already been nearly empty, only a sofa and a television in there,
so it hadn’t taken much to set up this room for him. I’d managed to get a
sizable cat tree delivered from a pet supply company. They’d also sent an
assortment of cat toys. While it had cost me quite a bit more than I would
normally spend, it had been worth it. This was much easier than trying to
transport all of Mr. Whiskers’ things today. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I’d
also hoped to impress Melina with my thoughtfulness.

“Hey!” I called out when I found him sitting on the sofa,
pressing buttons on the TV remote with his talons. “I had no idea you knew how
to work the television.”

“He gets into everything,” Melina said from behind me, and I
turned to find her dressed in yoga pants and a very well-worn Misfits t-shirt
which had skeleton hands groping her impressive breasts. At my raised eyebrow,
she looked down at her clothes and grinned. “I don’t want anyone to forget I’m
not working tonight. If you think my familiar is needy, you should see how some
of those actors behave when I’m around.”

I had seen that, and it still surprised me that Melina was
the go-to-witch for everything. Aside from the fact that she wasn’t known for
being sweet-tempered with any of the actors, she was the head writer. Her job
didn’t involve keeping the actors happy. In fact, I’d always thought they
should be kissing her incredibly fine ass so she’d give them the best parts.

She laughed at my perplexed expression. “I see you are
wondering why they’d all go to someone as bitchy as me. It’s the same reason
I’m rushing off to the studio now.”

I nodded my understanding. “This show is your baby. I’d
probably be rushing off to the office if one of my clients had an emergency.”

She gave me an almost shy smile and walked over to her
familiar.

“I need you to stay with Trevor while I go to work for a
little while,” she began, and the condor stopped playing with the remote to
look at her. “I shouldn’t be gone long.”

There was a pause, and I knew he was talking to her.

“No, Trevor is not going to order anchovy pizza for you.
Don’t even think about trying to get him to spoil you like that. I’ll fix your
dinner when I get home.”

She paused again and one hand went to her hip.

“You do not need pizza,” she insisted.

Her stance relaxed, and she stroked his head. “I’ll miss
you, baby. Be good for Trevor.”

She walked toward me, looking like she wasn’t sure what to do.
“Thank you again for watching him. It will save me a lot of time since I don’t
need to get him ready to go.”

“No problem,” I replied with a one shoulder shrug. Reaching
out, I slipped an arm around her waist, pulling her close. “I’ll see you in a
couple of hours.” I brushed my lips against hers and reluctantly released her.

“Right, a couple of hours,” Melina replied. “I really wish I
didn’t have to leave.”

Her comment made me grin. “Hearing you say that made my
day.”

She rolled her eyes before hurrying toward the front of the
house. I’d already given her keys and the security code, so I knew she could
get back in no matter what time she got home. I was sure she’d get distracted
with other issues as soon as she got to the studio.

Looking over at Mr. Whiskers, I found him watching me
expectantly. While I couldn’t understand what he said, I got vague ideas of
what he was thinking when we were together. Right now, it seemed he was
wondering if I’d buy him pizza.

“How about a small anchovy pizza?” I asked him. Sure, my
house would stink while he ate it, but it all seemed worthwhile when he bounded
off the sofa and bent forward to rub his head against my legs. “It’ll be our
little secret, right buddy?”

His head bobbed up and down in agreement, and I decided pizza
sounded good. “Maybe I’ll get pepperoni for me.”

If I wasn’t mistaken, he was doing his version of wrinkling
his nose in disgust, which made me laugh. “I feel the same about anchovies, so
we’ll have to agree to disagree when it comes to pizza toppings.”

Pulling out my phone, I placed the pizza order and prepared
to settle in for the first night with Melina in my house. While technically she
wasn’t here, it was nice knowing she was coming home to me at the end of the
night. It was also nice spending time with Mr. Whiskers.

“I missed you,” I told him and settled onto the sofa with
him at my side. “Let me show you how to use the television in here.”

Leo was nowhere to be seen as I made my way into the studio
and headed straight to my office. While I knew it might be faster to hunt him
down, this was my day off. If he wanted me, he could find me. Besides, it was
less likely anyone else would notice I was here and bother me with problems
this way.

My office was its usual cluttered mess, with papers stacked
high on my desk. If it were up to me, my office would never look cluttered. I
fucking hate clutter. I’d been worried about seeing Trevor’s place for the
first time, knowing I’d have had to back out on our bet if his house was messy.

The usual reason for my office mess had to do with the age
of some of the actors and staff working on the show. While I did everything
electronically, some of the much older members of the preternatural community
weren’t comfortable with computers. We had more than a few who had lived long
before electricity, and they were still reluctant to embrace most modern
technology. That meant paper memos and scripts still went out. Those could be
an annoyance, but this stack didn’t even fall into that category. With an
annoyed sigh, I lifted the stack of papers from my desk and walked them to the
blue bin in the hallway. These were all memos from Leo regarding the complaints
from the Council of Witches about our portrayal of witches on the show. Leo
thought we should give in and make some changes to appease the council. I
thought most of the council members needed to pull the sticks out of their
asses and stop worrying about a television show whose target audience was
humans. I’d written the witches as ditsy cheerleaders. After being berated in
front of the council about six months ago, I’d agreed to make some changes and
add more depth to the witches on the show. Now, they were slutty, ditsy
cheerleaders. I’m not good at taking orders.

Overall, I loved my job, even if I worked more hours than
I’d ever expected to when I’d filmed the pilot episode of
Night High
five years ago. It had taken me a year to get that pilot picked up, and I still
had trouble believing I was getting paid to write. Since I was already here, I
decided to log into my computer and check my emails. I figured Leo was probably
pouting because it had taken me longer than ten minutes to get here. He always
forgot I couldn’t teleport to Los Angeles. I had to drive to the closest
transport tube, which was in Oakland. The transport tubes were one of the best
contributions demons had made to the preternatural community. I had no idea how
they worked, but they made it possible for me to get from Oakland to Los
Angeles in an hour with good traffic.

“I will not work with her!” Malik St. James waved his hands
in an overly dramatic manner as he glided into my office. He was graceful, with
a delicate build that most would call pretty. That was common with vampires and
why we used so many of them on the show. He had a boyish face, stunning blue
eyes, and bronze skin, thanks to the modern miracle of spray tans. His
naturally blonde hair was dyed black with purple streaks, and he sported
several facial piercings—lip, eyebrow, and nose. Most would think he was
dressed for the show, but Malik always dressed this way. He even dressed this
way when attending the opera, of all things. Apparently, when you’re a big shot
actor who’s also starred in several movies, you can get away with wearing
whatever you want in your private opera box.

Close on his heels was the hottest new actress on
television, Cat Devereaux. Cat was dramatic in a different and scarier way than
Malik. I liked her. She was just over five feet tall with the lean muscular
build of a runner, and she could kick just about anyone’s ass. Her reddish
brown hair was a long mass of curls that hung past her waist. She had no
piercings, no tattoos, and preferred jeans and a t-shirt. Her clean-cut, girl
next door look was a startling contrast to Malik’s bad boy good looks.

“I will stake his skinny ass if he doesn’t stop calling me a
bitch,” Cat growled—literally growled—meaning she was close to changing. Cat
was a werewolf, and even though I’d never met her parents, I loved them for
naming their werewolf daughter Cat.

Now, I knew why Leo had called me. Malik and Cat needed to
learn to play nice, and they listened to me more than anyone else. They
probably figured it was stupid to piss off the woman responsible for writing
their rolls.

Taking a deep, calming breath, I did my best to resist the
temptation to send one of them crashing through a wall. They might be scary
preternatural creatures, but my father was a high-level demon. I was scarier.
Still, I didn’t want to deal with a hole in my wall. That would make it easier
for people to barge into my office, and there were still a few people who
knocked before entering. “We have talked about this already,” I reminded them
through clenched teeth.

“I don’t work with dogs,” Malik muttered.

“I don’t work with mosquitoes,” Cat snapped.

That was a good comeback, and I might have laughed if I
weren’t ready to lose it with both of them.

“Well, apparently, I work with children!” I snapped back at
them. “Sit down.” They must have finally figured out I wasn’t in the mood to
deal with them because both sat in chairs at opposite ends of my office. “We’ve
gotten countless letters and even done focus groups. There is no denying that
the fans want to see Dante and Maxi as the next super couple on the show.
Either I can write that story or I can kill off both characters. Which should I
do?”

I couldn’t really kill off either of their characters, but I
was hoping they didn’t know that.

“Sorry, Mel,” they both mumbled in unison.

“It’s hard working with her,” Malik grumbled. “She is such a
drama queen.”

“I’m a drama queen?” Cat gasped.

“Deal with it,” I snapped. “I’m not here to help smooth
things over. You don’t like each other, and I don’t give a flying fuck. You’re
actors, so act like you’re best friends while you’re here and then bitch about
each other when you leave.”

“Isn’t this your day off?” Cat asked.

“Yes, it is,” I told her with a strained smile.

“Then why are you here?” Malik asked.

“I assume Leo called me in to deal with your spat,” I
explained.

Cat shook her head. “We didn’t talk to Leo about any of
this.”

“You’re the first person we’ve complained to,” Malik added.
“Everyone’s been running around stressed out about something.”

“They canceled rehearsal for two scenes, but I’m not sure
why,” Cat explained. “None of the actors have been told what’s going on. Leo
must have called you about that stuff. We haven’t even seen him tonight.”

“There was a human hanging around the set, and we were told
to pretend to be human until he leaves,” Malik added thoughtfully.

I let out a frustrated sigh. “Leo said it was an emergency,
and I needed to get here right away. He made it sound like the studio was on
fire.”

“Charlie stocked all the restrooms today,” Malik assured me.
Malik’s mention of the bathrooms meant no one had forgotten my reaction to
being called in to deal with a toilet paper emergency.

Charlie was one of the maintenance people, but he also took
care of most of the custodial work, so we could avoid having too many outsiders
around. He was one of the few humans working on the show, and he was also Malik’s
boyfriend, which boggled my mind every time I saw them together. Charlie was
most comfortable in his well-worn jeans and old country music concert t-shirts.
I had a feeling, when he wasn’t at work, he wore cowboy boots rather than work
boots. His dishwater blond hair was usually messy and on the long side. Charlie
was also quiet and preferred to stay in the background. Yet, it was no secret
to the public he was involved with Malik. I figured he must truly love the
annoying vampire to put up with all of that.

“If you see Leo, tell him I’m leaving in ten minutes and
turning my phone off,” I told them before waving to the door so they’d know I
wanted to be alone. We were not discussing their argument anymore. I wondered
how long their characters had to date before I could write in a dramatic break
up.

“Sure thing, Mel,” Cat agreed as they both headed out of my
office.

I scanned my emails for anything important. Emails were
something I also checked from home, but I’d been too busy to do that today, so
I figured this was a good time. Glancing at the clock on my computer, I saw it
had been nine minutes since my warning had been issued. I began logging off my
computer and getting ready to make a break for it.

“Mellie Mel!” Leo chirped in an overly cheerful voice as he
waddled into my office. “The kids aren’t having issues, are they? They told me
they’d stopped by your office.”

“They’re fine,” I assured him, figuring he wouldn’t listen
to a word I said about the issues with Malik and Cat, so why bother? Honestly,
there was nothing he could do. Those two needed to learn to work together like
adults.

To say Leo was disturbing to look at would be an
understatement. I’d heard humans say he looked like a portly older man with
thinning white hair and rosy cheeks. Humans rarely saw a demon’s true form,
which was often a good thing. In Leo’s case, he was just shy of four feet tall,
with legs that were unnaturally short for his round frame. His feet were always
bare, probably because it was hard to find shoes when you had three long toes
that curled upward. His face was a strange mix of human and pig, with a snout
and beady red eyes that never blinked. His mouth was wide and looked relatively
normal, unless he stuck out his short back tongue, which he did often to lick his
blood-red lips. On top of his head was a tuft of white hair mostly covering his
short horns. As always, he had a cigar sticking out of the corner of his mouth.

I waited for him to tell me what he needed, and then waited
some more, until I finally lost my patience. “Why am I here, Leo?”

“This is your office, Mellie Mel,” he replied, before
puffing on his smelly cigar and letting out a hacking cough that filled the
room with the brimstone scent of his breath.

My glare must have gotten through to him because he finally
decided to stop being an ass and tell me why he’d insisted I come down here.
Apparently, he’d figured out I was getting ready to leave if he didn’t get to
the point soon.

“One of the actresses was murdered,” he said as if it was
nothing to worry about, and it probably wasn’t to him. “Police already cleaned
up and got statements from the people who were working at the studio this
morning, but some detective wants to talk to someone high up on the show. I’ve
had one of the interns keeping him away from rehearsals while he looks around.
I need you to talk to him.”

“Why couldn’t the shade come to me?” I demanded. Detectives
weren’t always shades, but they usually were, so I felt safe with my
assumption.

“He’s a human,” Leo explained. With that, he disappeared in
a puff of smoke. He couldn’t actually vanish into thin air, but Leo had been
puffing on the cigar enough to create a smoke screen, and the man moved like a
cheetah when he wanted to. His great speed was the only thing that had
prevented me from causing him serious physical harm over the years. Especially
on days when he dropped shit like this in my lap.

“What the fuck, Leo?” I shouted, storming into the hall with
every intention of tracking down the bastard. There was no sign of smoke in the
hallway, so I wasn’t sure which way Leo had gone, and I knew he wasn’t going to
answer my calls.

“Ms. Blackwood?”

Turning, I found the man I assumed was the human police
detective. He was probably a couple of inches taller than six feet, with brown
eyes and soft brown hair that was sprinkled with grey. He looked as annoyed to
be there as I was, and that actually improved my mood some. Misery loves
company.

“That’s me,” I replied with a forced smile.

He either didn’t notice my annoyance, or chose to ignore it.

“I’m Detective Giovanni. I was told you would be the person
to speak to.”

“About?” I asked before quickly adding. “Let me rephrase
that. I know you’re here about a murder related to the show, one of our actors.
Not to sound like an idiot, but I’m not sure what I can do for you. I just got
here. When my producer called me in, I thought he needed me to deal with a
toilet paper emergency.”

The detective’s annoyance morphed to confusion. “Toilet
paper?”

“Yeah. Long story,” I told him. “Who was killed?” I was sure
it looked bad that I wasn’t freaking out about a murder, but I’m one of those
people who doesn’t react right away to bad news. It takes time to sink in with
me. Also, it was hard to react when I didn’t even know who’d died. Things still
felt unreal.

“Amber Tate,” he said curtly, and I got the feeling he was
pissed about having to explain this to me.

I racked my brain, trying to place the name, until it
finally came to me. Amber was a human who’d joined the cast earlier in the
season. We didn’t have many humans on the show, because none of us wanted to
pretend to be human at work. There were a few humans who knew about the
preternatural world, like Amber. She’d been a goth girl, playing a vampire, and
I had to admit that I’d barely spoken to her in the time she’d worked on the
show. She’d been a good actress, and I’d given her more lines in the next few
episodes. “What the hell happened?” I demanded. There were a couple of reasons
I was suddenly pissed off. First, I’d just realized I was going to be forced to
rewrite big chunks of the next few episodes. Second, I felt bad that I wasn’t
having a stronger reaction to this poor woman’s death.

“You seriously don’t know anything about what happened?”

I was beginning to wonder how many times I would have to say
that before he believed me.

“Yes, I know exactly what happened,” I replied, my voice
dripping with sarcasm. “That’s why I told you I didn’t know in the beginning of
our conversation. I like asking questions that I already know the answer to.”