Page 14 of Devil Bound
He shrugged.“Not really, but I thought you might enjoy them.Or there’s always the natural history museum.Have you been?”
Hubcaps.I distinctly remembered the conversation starting out on the theme of hubcaps.Why the fuck was he checking to see if I’d done all the touristy basics?
“It’s where elementary school children go for class trips, and they’re noisy.”
“Hmm.Well, I heard something about a special anatomical collection they are showcasing.No minors allowed.”He licked his lips again.“You are no minor, Nelly.”
Anatomical collections were bad.Really bad.There were too few necromancers for us to have a standardized curriculum, but the Collegium was one of the few institutions for the study of magic that kept their own dedicated jars stuffed with bits and pieces of the dead for us to work on.I had thrown up so much when working with those specimens.I remembered one in particular, half a face in a jar, and I could already feel the bile.
The Devil bent down.“You look pale all of a sudden.”His eyes sparkled with excitement even as I tried thinking of anything but food or dead things.“Are you perhaps feeling sick?”
I couldn’t help myself.I giggled like a schoolgirl on a trip to the museum of natural history.
Lucifer made some kind of dark, primordial noise.“You sound like you’re sick.You should lie down, Nelly.Let me help you.”
I took a quick step away from him and grabbed a bag of beetroot chips on a whim.
“I’m good.Look at the time.I really need to go.I have a seminar to get to.A work thing, you know.Good luck with your tires.”
“Hubcaps.”
“Whatever.”I paid for the chips and a black coffee, then hightailed it out of there.
It was possible I’d been thinking about this the wrong way.Why pretend to be sick when all I needed to throw up where the new shrink could see was a fond memory of my days at the Collegium, when I had a half face blink at me through the hazy formaldehyde it had been kept in for decades?
My resolve died when Christine told everyone it was time to go and “meet the new doc.”I’d have been fine with the embarrassment, but Christine was a good boss who tolerated no necromancer jokes in the unit.
With a sigh, I dropped the beetroot chips in the trash and followed everyone to How-To-Talk-About-Your-Feelings class.The necromancy really was the easiest part of my job.
7
Lucifer
Approximatelythreeyearsago.
Trony had gifted me a little notepad with skulls and bones all over when she’d returned from a recent book hunt, and as I paced in front of my bedroom window in the quiet hours of the morning, I finally figured out a good use for it.I smiled and teleported to my office, where I sank into my desk chair, pulled out a fountain pen, and started writing.
Getting Nelly to go to a cemetery with me hadn’t worked.Getting him to go anywhere with me hadn’t worked, and he had gotten into the nasty habit of running away from me whenever I got too close.
Yet at the same time, I’d seen him cast looks at me, his eyes like empty cups, waiting to be filled.I’d read a Chinese novel similar to our situation.Both characters were secretly right for one another, secretly pining for one another, but the timing needed to be right for them to actually get together.One of them needed to open his heart to the other.
Nelly was going to have to do that, and I was going to have to help him with it.I wroteflour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cane sugar, chocolate.The shopping list was going to be my alibi.
March hadn’t quite realized that it was about time for spring to arrive.The equinox was almost here, and with it, the one-year anniversary of our meeting.
It had snowed the day before yesterday, and the roads were a slushy mess with some spots frozen over, while elsewhere, melting-slick icicles had dropped off houses and street signs.The last time Nelly had gone grocery shopping was over a week ago—nine days, to be precise—and he usually didn’t go longer than eight.
My books were in the passenger seat, and I had stolen Trony’s purple shopping basket with the bat-winged cats on it.My list was in my inside pocket.It was eleven o’clock, and after a long case, Nelly finally had a day off.It was only a matter of time until he left his apartment to grudgingly do his shopping.
I watched the entrance of his building, my eyes occasionally drifting to the flower shop on the opposite corner.I’d considered outright buying the place more than once, but flowers weren’t my thing.I’d need staff or Trony, and both came with their downsides.
“Come on.You need fruit, Nelly.You’ll get scurvy if you don’t eat fruit.”
I’d left an apple on his desk once.I’d written “Scurvy deterrent” on a Post-it and stuck that to it.Then, through the homicide unit’s glass walls, I’d watched as he picked up the fruit with a frown so sharp I’d have loved nothing better than to cut myself on it.
He’d looked around, all suspicious, but I was hidden, my magic not something he’d have been able to see through.He’d looked guilty at first.Then he’d eaten the apple.Watching him eat food I’d set out for him, it was…arousing.
So arousing that I was looking forward to doing it again, but for that, I would have to bake, and I would only bake once I could buy the ingredients in front of Nelly’s eyes—a hint, a clue for him to think back on later when he was ready to give me his heart and realize the depths of his desire.
