Page 4 of Signed in Incubus

“I’d love to spend more time with you, and I will, but right now, my boss is calling.” Then, realizing how lame that might sound, I added, “This isn’t a cop-out, I promise. I’ll be back.” I wasn’t sure the dainty chain of magic around my wrist would let me abandon her anyway. For her part, she didn't appear to have noticed it yet.

“I’m holding you to that. But how do you know your boss is calling you? I thought demons couldn’t bring physical items along with them when they phase in and out of existence.”

“We can’t. Unless the item has been spelled specifically for that purpose.” I formed a cell phone in my hand. “This is made out of my soul stuff, and it looks like a cell phone, but that’s it. It can’t receive calls.”

“So, how do you know your boss is calling you?”

“Because I’m getting a summons from his wizard.”

Desmon, the dragon of Darlington, and my boss usually only called Seth in to summon me if the job was time sensitive.

She frowned. “You’re not bound to him, are you? That’s been outlawed.”

“No, I’m not. This is just a summons.” I searched her face, but Penny looked truly unaware of the new thread of magic thatconnected us. I decided it was best to tell her. “I am, however, bound to a witch.”

“You are?” I think the idea of me being bound to another witch disappointed her. Why did I like that?

“Yes.” I looked fixedly at her. “It happened just now when I answered a summons to be the perfect man.” I winked at her.

She looked shocked, then squinted at the air around me. I knew she was trying to see the magical bindings that would connect us if I was truly bound to her. My little witch might have magic, but she didn’t have the sight. I enhanced the magic around us for her benefit.

She gasped when she saw the thin silver strands on my wrists leading straight to her. They weren’t, in fact, just around my wrist now; they curled up my arm, too. Her eyes widened, and the color drained from her face.

“I didn’t mean to… I mean, I never…”

She was extra adorable when flustered.

“I won’t tell if you don’t.” I winked. “It can be our little secret.”

She glared at me. “That makes it sound worse! No, I’ll remove them. I just need to look up how.” She went to a random cardboard box, picked up the box cutter on top of it, and opened it. “I have to find my spell books. They’re around here somewhere.”

I didn’t want her to remove the bindings. Not yet. She was cute, and I wanted to spend more time with her even if I wasn’t the proper target of the spell. But what if I was? If the spell thought I was the perfect man for her, did that mean she was the perfect woman for me?

The idea was intriguing. I’d had more bed partners than I could count; it was part of my nature. But I didn’t remember many of them. What would it be like to find someone who actually cared about me, and wanted to stick around after?

“That will have to wait, my sexy, law-breaking witch.” I pulled her up and landed a kiss on her lips. “I’ll be back.”

Chapter 3

Penny

Shit. I fucked up.Big time.

Not only did I accidentally summon an incubus, I’d also bound him to me. Super illegal! If the EA found out, they’d take away my magic, or worse, lock me up until I was an old crone.

Once upon a time, the Secret Enforcement Agency oversaw everything magical on Earth. After the fall of The Wall, which had hidden the supernatural world from ordinary people, theagency dropped the S since magic and monsters weren’t so secret anymore. But its primary objective remained the same.

Binding imps, demons, ifrits, and the like through magical means had been outlawed for about a century and a half. According to my research, that meant it had been abolished at the same time as slavery in the United States, and the secret magical war had been fought concurrently with the one found in every American history book.

Unfortunately, since some immortal creatures had been enslaved for generations—handed down from father to son—the new law had been nearly impossible to enforce. It didn’t help that The Wall had hidden many bound entities in plain sight.

The Wall had hidden magic from would-be magic users as well as from the outside world. Take my family, for example: to the best of my knowledge, neither of my parents knew about the existence of magic before the fall of The Wall, nor had any of my aunts, uncles, or cousins. Because I didn’t have the gift of sight, I was oblivious to even my own talents for years.

And yet magic was hereditary, so I couldn’t be the only witch in the family. Regardless, if I didn’t unbind Prax soon…which I hadn’t meant to do at all…I’d also be my family’s onlyincarceratedwitch. Imagine the fit my parents would pitch then!

I plopped down in front of the coffee table, glad that the screen was still on the page in the witches’ forum where I’d found the spell. I filtered the reviews, looking for negative comments. No one mentioned anything about demons or incubi or any formof accidental magical bindings. Not shocking; if they had, I probably wouldn’t have used the spell.

But maybe this had happened to other witches, and they’d been too afraid to mention it. I wouldn’t dare to post in the forum “Help! I accidentally summoned a demon and bound him to me!” myself. It would probably just have the EA knocking on my door all the sooner, considering not every witch was a nice one. Some were perfectly content to throw you under a bus to get ahead themselves.

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