Page 355 of Castings & Curses

Her ocelot scowled at her from within. Of course, she knew.

The lipstick grew warm in her hand, and the memories of that last night played over in her mind as if it were yesterday.

“You look sexy in that shade of red.” Kate entered the room with a small object in her hand. The florescent glow of the bathroom lights brought out the silvery blue in her eyes and the chestnut waves of her hair.

All ready for their night, Kate was a knockout in her blue slip of a dress.

“Thanks.” Devi zipped up the side panel on the dress and adjusted her cleavage. Her breasts filled out the top portion of the crimson velvet bodice to a tee. Her long, silvery white hair was styled in old fashioned, large curls and parted down the middle, letting her shiny locks flow in waves down her back. One glance at her girl and her pulse pounded in her throat. “Are you sure we have to go?”

Her animal agreed. She could still taste her, and the scent of her was everywhere.

They needed to talk about what happened earlier, but Devi was struggling to find the words.

Kate laughed, her lips curling up into a guarded smile. “You just want me all to yourself.”

She wasn’t wrong.

If they went out tonight, she would be sharing her and that was something she didn’t want to do. Her body was still flush with heat from their earlier lovemaking and the unforgettable moment when she’d slid her teeth into Kate’s neck, just under her hair.

The warm bloom of the mate bond had flooded through her, and when she’d pulled away, she found Kate’s eyes closed.

A single tear slipped down her cheek.

“I won’t hold you to it, you know,” she whispered. “I know you don’t want this.”

The denial had been on Devi’s lips, but she tasted the lie for what it was before it escaped.

Kate deserved more than that. She deserved someone who wasn’t tied to demon magic, as much as she fought it.

Instead, she rose from the bed and shut herself in the bathroom and let the shower drown out her tears.

It wasn’t fair.

Why did everything have to have rules and consequences?

Why couldn’t she just love who she loved and have a life without all the bullshit?

If they came out publicly as a couple, she would be bound to Kate as a familiar and as much as signing her a death sentence if Gambian found a way to escape the box she’d sealed her in.

She had just started her job on the force and found her path to freedom.

Devi’s eyes met Kate’s in the mirror. She’d hit home and Kate immediately frowned.

Cops and witches didn’t get along, let alone them knowing she was a familiar. It was well known Devi’s family were hereditary familiars to some of the highest witching and demon families and it had taken her a long time to help them see her as a cop, not a supernatural freak they had to worry about.

What was she going to do?

Take her mate to every crime scene?

Call her when things got tough so she could funnel her power?

Keep her with her twenty-four hours a day to make sure some random demon didn’t hand her over to Gambian just out of spite?

Fuck no.

She was no one’s battery. And that was the argument that started and ended it all. And she couldn’t stand by and watch while Kate’s life was destroyed by something that wasn’t in her control.

“I’m sorry Devi. I know your mom is still really pissed at you for quitting the coven. And I hardly ever see you anymore between you moving to the city and the yarn shop.” Kate wrapped her arms around Devi and kissed her on the cheek. “I thought going tonight would be good for us. You used to love thumbing your nose at what everyone else is expecting.”

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