Sinfully Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 1) (7 page)

The rest of my night was surprisingly uneventful, which was
a relief since I was more than a little distracted after my encounter with
Dylan. In my personal opinion, I should have been free for the remainder of the
three hours Dylan had paid for, but Marcos didn’t see it that way and had me
clean up one of the messier rooms. Marcos might run a sleazy sex club, but it
was a clean, sleazy sex club.

When Marcos insisted I get right back to work, I hadn’t been
surprised, but I was surprised when he didn’t give me a hard time about Dylan.
He didn’t mention him at all, which was just plain weird. At the very least,
I’d expected him to ask questions, since I’d noticed the security cameras in
the room were off while Dylan was in there with me—a major security breech on
Marcos’ part but no real surprise. That meant Marcos had no idea if Dylan had
gotten what he wanted and left, or if I’d refused. Dylan didn’t seem like the
type to share that information with Marcos. Based on the pissed off looks my
boss had shot me all night, I was assuming he thought I’d turned Dylan down. It
was hard to say since I’d thoroughly cleaned up after us, including replacing
the bedding and releasing the special air fresheners Marcos had to mask the
smell of sex in the rooms.

My closing chores were also a big clue that Marcos believed
I hadn’t followed through with Dylan. I was the last person at SpellBinders,
and was pretty sure I’d need to burn this dress after handling some of the
worst clean-ups I’d ever seen. Seriously, I did not want to know all the fluids
I had on my shoes—which were going in the trash as soon as I got home. It was
nearly three in the morning when I was walking to my car, and the streets were
practically deserted. I was exhausted after my lack of sleep the previous
night, and regretted my decision to send Dylan home. While I knew he would have
distracted me at work, my nerves were on edge after hearing about Marissa’s murder,
and it would have been nice to have someone walk me to my car. According to
Marcos, the police were convinced the murder had nothing to do with her job at
SpellBinders, so I probably shouldn’t be freaking out, but I couldn’t help but
wonder how they’d know if it was related to the club or not. Marissa’s
customers from that night all had alibis, but there is no way the police had
questioned everyone who’d been at SpellBinders, or every customer she’d had in
the month she’d worked there.

As I continued along the quiet street, I couldn’t shake the
unnerving feeling that someone was following me. The hair on the back of my
neck stood up, and I was jumping at every little sound.

“Stop!” I told myself quietly. “There is no one following
you. You are just being paranoid, probably because you’re overtired.”

Except, then I heard footsteps approaching from behind and
picked up my pace. Paranoia or not, I was getting to my car as fast as
possible. As my feet moved quickly across the sidewalk, the footsteps behind me
seemed to be moving faster, too, which made me suspect I wasn’t being paranoid.

Someone was following me! Oh, Goddess, it might even be
Marissa’s killer, and here I was alone. There weren’t even any drunken humans
trying to make it home from a night of partying. Okay, there was still a chance
it wasn’t the killer, but someone was definitely following me, and I’d pissed
off at least one customer tonight. My phone buzzed in my hand, and I was
tempted to ignore it, but I figured if I was being chased, it might be nice to
have someone on the phone with me to call the police if anything happened.

“Hello,” I said without looking at the Caller ID.

“Hey, it’s Dylan. I just wanted to make sure you were okay,”
he said. “I kind of expected you to be home by now.”

“Someone is following me,” I blurted, not at all worried
about sounding paranoid.

“Where are you?” Dylan asked urgently, not even questioning
my sanity for a minute.

“On my way to my car,” I said. My car was only about a block
away, but I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. Whoever was following me seemed
to be toying with me for some reason.

“Why aren’t you at home?” Dylan asked.

“I got off work a little late,” I explained quietly and gave
in to the temptation to look over my shoulder quickly. A man in a black hoodie
was following me.

“Where are you
exactly
?” Dylan repeated a little
impatiently.

“I’m turning the corner at 11th and Howard, heading toward
10th,” I said.

“Which side of the street?” he asked, and I could hear his
fingers working on the keyboard of a computer. I had no idea what he was doing,
but I decided now wasn’t the time to ask.

“Right side,” I said. “He’s moving faster, Dylan. I need to
call the police.” Fear nearly made it impossible to move my feet forward. I was
suddenly terrified that I was going to meet the same fate Marissa had.

“Give me a second,” Dylan said, concentrating hard. “Don’t
worry, sweetheart. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

There was a flash of light followed by guttural cursing
behind me. Then I heard someone running in the opposite direction. It sounded
like my pursuer was leaving, but I wasn’t taking any chances, I kept walking
toward my car as fast as I could. If it weren’t for my shoes, I’d be running,
but I was certain I’d fall if I tried to run in them. New rule: I was wearing
running shoes to and from my car every night.

“Are you okay?” Dylan asked.

“Yes,” I said with a tremor in my voice. I didn’t stop
moving until I was safely locked in with my key in the ignition, and then I put
Dylan’s call on speaker and started driving toward the Bay Bridge. Getting out
of this area was my top priority.

“Talk to me, sweetheart,” Dylan coaxed gently. “I need to
hear your voice. Tell me you’re still there.”

“What did you do?” I asked, because I was pretty sure Dylan
had been responsible for the flash of light behind me.

“I hacked into the security cameras outside one of the clubs
you passed so I could see the asshole following you,” he said.

“No one could hack into the feed that fast,” I said because
I’d met a hacker or two and knew it took longer than that.

“Fine, another witch created a spell to give me access to
the feeds for every security camera in San Francisco. Before you ask, it was
for a very ugly case, and no, it’s not legal. I used the images on my computer
screen to set a small fire,” he explained as calmly as if he were describing
what he was wearing, rather than remotely setting a fire.

“A small fire?” I screeched, more from hysteria than
anything else. This whole thing had me freaked out—the person chasing me, the
fire, and even my time with Dylan earlier. My ability to act rationally was
gone. Now, all I had was a serious case of the crazies. “Whoever was following
me took off because you set a small fire?”

Dylan chuckled. “He was the one who was on fire.”

“Oh,” was all I could say. “Thank you. I’m not really sure
how you got my number, but I’m glad you did.” I’d planned to give Dylan my
number when I called him later, but for some reason, I’d wanted to be the one
to call him. My reason was kind of stupid, but so far, I’d felt out of control
with Dylan, and I needed to have control over one thing. Apparently, I’d have
to find something else to control. “So, how did you get my number?” I asked,
assuming Trevor had given it to him.

“Marcos sold it to me for five-hundred dollars,” he
explained.

“That slimy little toad,” I muttered, wondering if I could
find another job if I punched my current boss in the junk.

“He may be a slimy little toad, but he also inadvertently
saved your life,” he added. “If I had to guess, I’d say you just had a near
run-in with the creature who’s killing succubi.”

Succubi? Did he just say succubi, as in more than one?

“Wait!” I said. “I thought it was just one of us. Marcos
told me about Marissa, but he didn’t say anything about other killings.”

“You don’t keep up on the news, do you?” he asked.

“Not really,” I admitted, somewhat embarrassed by how little
I kept up on current events.

“It should take you about twenty minutes to get to my
house,” Dylan said. “Should I call the police? Or, would you prefer to call
them yourself after you get here?”

Just when I was getting the warm fuzzies for him, Dylan had
to get all bossy again.

“I’m not going to your house,” I practically snapped. The
stress was making me a little bitchy already, and I wasn’t in any mood for his
bossiness. “I can also call the police in the morning.”

“Fine,” Dylan said with a resigned sigh. “I’ll meet you at
your place in thirty minutes, and I’ll contact the police before I head over
there to arrange for them to meet us.”

“I’m not giving you my address just because you said you’re
coming over,” I insisted before letting out a frustrated sigh. “This whole
thing with you buying my phone number and then calling right when I was in
danger is freaking me out some.”

“I can see why it would freak you out,” Dylan admitted.
“Would it help if I told you Marcos offered to sell me your address for a
thousand dollars, but I refused?”

“It helps with my decision to punch him in the nuts when I
see him again,” I muttered. “I’m probably going to regret giving you my address
because we both know you’re going to show up acting all bossy and piss me off.”

“Probably,” Dylan admitted. “I’m bossy and arrogant on a
good day, and if you don’t give me your address, I might wake Trevor up to tell
him what happened so we can both go to your house.”

I hesitated before making a decision. “I’ll pull over for a
minute and text you my address.”

“I’ll see you in thirty minutes,” Dylan said before hanging
up on me.

“Stupid, annoying, overbearing warlock,” I muttered as I
pulled to the side of the road to give the bossy warlock who was seriously
complicating my life the address to my apartment.

Pretending to be calm was not easy when I was this pissed
off, but I really needed to get my shit under control. At the moment, I was
pissed at the son of a bitch who’d been following Allie, which brought me to
the other thing I was pissed about. Why didn’t Marcos have one of his no-neck
security guards walking the succubus employees to their cars, especially while
there was a killer going after them? No way was I buying that Marcos didn’t
know about the other murders. The police definitely would have mentioned it to
him since one of his own employees had been murdered.

While I’d given Allie a hard time about not paying attention
to the news, I was just as guilty. I hadn’t heard a thing about the murders
until I got home and found myself listening to the news, more out of boredom
than anything else. Five succubus murders in the last two weeks was hard to
miss. After catching the tail end of the story about the most recent murder, a
murder I hadn’t known about until that moment, I’d scoured the internet,
looking for as many details as I could find. While the police weren’t revealing
much about the murders, the press indicated that they appeared to be
ritualistic.

Watching Allie walk up the stairs, still looking fragile and
shaken, I wanted to hit something, but I reined that impulse in quickly. She’d
been through enough tonight, and I didn’t want to make things worse. There was
also the fact that she might refuse to go home with me if I acted like an ass,
and I had every intention of bringing her back to my place where I could keep
her safe.

“The police will be here in about twenty minutes,” I said as
I took Allie’s keys from her shaky hands to open the front door. “I asked them
if this could wait, but they wanted to interview you now.”

Allie just nodded and walked past me. “How many murders have
there been?” she asked. “Marcos only told me about Marissa when he insisted I
come in to cover her shift.”

“Five. With any luck, the killer won’t be up to grabbing
number six tonight.” I locked the front door and crossed my arms in front of my
chest to keep from reaching out and grabbing her.

“This might have nothing to do with the murders,” she
pointed out, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than me.
“This could just be some random guy who decided to follow me—maybe even a
human.”

“You’re right,” I said.

“But you still think it was the killer, right?” she asked in
a small voice.

“I do,” I admitted, even though I really wanted to believe
otherwise. Hell, I’d gone through all the other possibilities in an attempt to
ease my own worries, but I didn’t think it was an unrelated event. In all
honesty, my suspicions might be the result of me reading about the killings
before calling Allie. It was possible I was being paranoid, but I’d prefer that
to risking Allie’s safety.

“How did you do that thing with the fire?” Allie asked,
still looking a little shaky, not that I blamed her.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I can cast spells from a distance
as long as I can see the person. That’s why I needed to know where you were so
I could use a nearby security camera’s feed. Fire is the element my family has
the most power over, meaning it’s easiest for me to use in spells from a
distance.”

“That’s right,” Allie said, as if I’d just triggered a
memory, which was impossible since we’d just met. Then again, she’d obviously
heard of me before. “You were some superstar with spells in high school.”

What the fuck? How would she know that? Then I realized
Trevor had likely told her about my spell casting skills, even though it seemed
strange that he’d been talking to her about our high school days. “I can’t
believe you heard about that. Can I take this to mean you’ve been asking Trevor
about me?”

Allie’s cheeks flushed. “Not exactly.” There was definitely
something she wasn’t telling me, but I could wait until later to find out what
that was. “I’m going to change before the police get here. I don’t want to be
interviewed wearing these clothes.”

“You look fine, sweetheart,” I assured her as I gathered her
in my arms.

She inhaled and let out a shuddering breath, clearly
affected by my scent and our proximity. I’d like to say her scent was doing the
same to me, but the truth was, her clothes reeked, and I probably didn’t want
to know what had caused the smell.

Try as I might, my reaction to her smell must have shown
because she laughed and pulled away from me “Maybe I should have started by
saying I’d rather smell less like I just cleaned up after a demon orgy.”

“You aren’t joking, are you?” I asked.

“Goddess, how I wish I was. Let me change, and then maybe
you can use your nifty fire powers on my clothes,” she said before pulling away
and heading toward her room.

I wanted to follow her, but I decided it would be best to
give her some space. Mostly, I figured it would be smart if I let her change
without me ogling her like some perverted stalker, which I kind of resembled at
the moment. My transition from the guy who never went crazy over any girl to
perverted stalker had been pretty quick. I’d tracked Allie down at her work,
obtained her phone number illegally, and then I’d waited on her front porch for
her to get home. One could accuse me of lurking in the shadows. Yep, I was
seriously turning into the creepy stalker she’d accused me of being. What next?
Snooping around in her panty drawer? That reminded me that I still had her
panties and had no intention of returning them. It was definitely time to admit
I was a creepy stalker.

Allie had asked Trevor about me, so maybe she had a thing
for the stalker type.

That reminded me that I wanted to know exactly what Trevor
had told her, so I sent him a quick message.

ME: What did you tell Allie about me?

While many people were asleep at this hour, I knew Trevor
wouldn’t be, and I was right because he responded right away.

TREVOR: Nada. Haven’t talked to her since the two of you
left together.

I decided to clarify my question, even though I thought it
was obvious what I was asking.

ME: How about before I met her last night?

There was a longer delay this time.

TREVOR: I don’t think I ever mentioned your name before,
except maybe to tell her we worked together. She probably knows plenty about
you, anyway. You were big stuff back in high school.

When Allie had mentioned knowing stuff about me from my high
school years, I’d assumed her information was coming from Trevor. Allie was at
least a couple of years younger than me, meaning we most likely wouldn’t have
had many mutual friends, so we could have attended the same high school without
ever meeting. She was also a succubus, so she’d probably looked pretty
unremarkable back then. That thought made me feel like the biggest dick in the
world. I wouldn’t be here now if Allie wasn’t hot. Yes, I liked her for reasons
beyond that, but I had no idea if I’d have even given her a chance to show me
how awesome she was had she not been one of the sexiest women I’d ever seen. At
the moment, I envied Trevor’s ability to see beyond what was on the outside.

“Who are you?”

I turned to find myself face to face with a woman in a sleep
shirt and spelled satin wrist cuffs. The cuffs tipped me off to the fact that
she was a succubus.

“Name’s Dylan,” I said, giving her my best smile. “I’m a
friend of Allie’s.”

“Allie doesn’t bring her
friends
back here,” the
irritated little succubus responded. “At least not since that Chad guy broke up
with her.”

“Leave Dylan alone, Delilah. It’s been a rough night,” Allie
interrupted as she emerged from her bedroom wearing sweatpants and a baggy
shirt. Her makeup had been scrubbed off, revealing a line of freckles across
the bridge of her nose.

Fuck me! I suddenly wanted her even more.

Delilah shrugged. “I guess he’ll be a good distraction for
you.”

Allie looked like she wasn’t sure what to say, so she
settled on introductions. “Delilah, this is Dylan. Dylan, this is my roommate,
Delilah. The police are going to be here any minute, Delilah, so you don’t have
time to harass Dylan.”

“The police? What did you do, Allie?” Delilah asked.

“Almost got herself killed,” I grumbled because I was still
angry when I thought about Allie being in danger.

“I guess someone is killing succubi,” Allie explained to her
roommate. “It’s also possible he tried to kill me tonight, but we don’t know
that for sure.”

“Really?” Delilah squeaked, looking panicked, which was a
smart reaction considering her unsafe living arrangements.

Allie just nodded.

“Maybe we should both stay with my parents until they figure
out who the killer is,” Delilah suggested. “Why stick around here and be a
target? Plus, this place has shit for security.”

“That’s a great idea,” I chimed in, just as the doorbell
rang.

“You should go,” Allie agreed. “I can’t leave or I’ll lose
my job.”

Allie’s reaction meant her friend’s parents lived in the
demon realm. Demons could only leave there twice a month, which was why so many
demons lived in the human realm. While it wasn’t as safe for them here, their
movements were less restricted. From what I’d heard, the demon realms also
weren’t the nicest places to be.

“It’s just a job,” I said.

“Maybe for a rich warlock like you,” Allie snapped. “For me,
this is how I pay my rent and avoid fucking every guy I meet to survive.”

And, now she was really pissed at me. I certainly had a
knack for saying the wrong thing to Allie.

Opening the door, I found a short, stocky man in a wrinkled
brown suit. Actually, he was a shade, like most police officers. It always
threw me off when shades chose to look like this. A shade didn’t technically
have a body. That left them with two options; either they borrowed one, or they
created the illusion of a body. Since borrowing one was illegal, the police
created their own bodies. It used more magic, and they were limited on the
amount of time they could maintain that body, which resulted in shade police
officers needing to take long vacations after each case. Still, it took just as
much energy to maintain this body as it did a more attractive one.

“I’m here to take your report,” the shade said with a fake
smile that revealed coffee stained teeth. No introductions were made. Then
again, shades weren’t known for their social skills. “Who got chased?”

Allie stepped forward. “That would be me.”

“Where were you at?” he asked.

“I’d just turned off of 11th onto Howard,” Allie answered.

“Strange place to be at that hour,” the shade said
thoughtfully. “Most clubs are closed by then. You a prostitute?”

“Asshole,” Delilah muttered, and by the sharp look the
officer gave her, he’d heard. I was beginning to like Delilah.

“I work at SpellBinders,” Allie said, sounding embarrassed.
“It was my night to close, and my boss assigned me extra work, so I got out
late.”

“The last victim worked there, too,” the detective said, and
I got the impression he was talking more to himself than us. He seemed to be
working something out in his mind.

“That’s why I was at work,” Allie explained with a slight
tremor in her voice. “The owner needed me to cover Marissa’s shift, but he told
me her murder didn’t have anything to do with the club.”

“Tell me what happened,” the detective prompted her.

“Like I said, I’d gotten off work late, and I was walking to
my car when I felt like someone was following me. At first, I thought I was
just being paranoid after what had happened to Marissa. Then I heard footsteps,
and the person behind me kept moving faster when I did. That’s when Dylan
called. I never would have walked to my car alone if I’d believed Marissa’s
death had anything to do with SpellBinders. I didn’t even know about the other
murders until after this happened.”

Allie’s hand shook slightly when she reached up to push her
hair back, and I could tell she was having trouble talking about what had
happened.

The detective’s wrinkled face softened. “We have no reason
to believe any of the killings are connected to SpellBinders, but we can’t rule
it out if the killer was indeed after you tonight. Did you happen to get a good
look at the person following you?”

“No,” Allie said with a frustrated sigh. “Yes, that would
make things easier, but I only looked over my shoulder for a minute, and it was
too dark to make out much. Based on the build, I’m pretty sure it was a man. He
had on dark clothes and a hoodie, which made it impossible to see his hair or
face.”

“I recorded some surveillance footage from a security camera
outside one of the clubs,” I offered, pointing to my laptop, which was sitting
on Allie’s coffee table. I’d brought it along, knowing the police would want to
see the footage. “It’s grainy, but better than nothing.”

“How exactly did you get this footage?” the detective asked
casually.

“I used a spell to hack into the feed,” I explained with a
shrug. “Don’t try playing the hard ass cop with me. You know as well as I do
that human cops are the only ones who care about something like that, and I
needed to hack into the system to cast a spell to save Allie. If I hadn’t, she
wouldn’t be here now.”

“Let’s see what you’ve got,” the shade said.

I opened my laptop and played the video file for everyone in
the room.

The detective actually laughed when he saw the ball of flame
ignite the sleeve of Allie’s attacker’s jacket. I’d watched this video twice,
and I was still disappointed that the fire had extinguished so quickly. I
really wanted that bastard dead.

“Handy trick,” the shade muttered. “I’m going to need this
video file.”