Page 47 of Hopelessly Teavoted

Vickie rolled her eyes. He looked ever so slightly disheveled, as though he’d cleaned up quickly and missed a few spots of hair left angled a few degrees away from perfect.

“You owed me three souls, Victoria, darling. That’s two.” The timbre of his voice stroked velvet against her ear, a sensory overload as grating as it was seductive. He was trying to distract her from asking about what had delayed him.

“Fine. Thanks for showing up, I guess.” Vickie glared at Lex, who closed his eyes for a moment, cocked his head as though listening, and then straightened and nodded.

Victoria couldn’t bear to look at Azrael now. She could feel his anger simmering even without touching.

“Ah yes, beautiful. It seems she supplied the greater Vermont area with drugs. Her dealing led to five overdose deaths, one dreadful beating, two executions—at her own hands, I might add—and several assaults. She was not a nice woman, pet. But she didn’t know who her boss was. Some volunteer youth pastor, maybe?”

“That’s what she said,” Vickie started.

“I’ll fucking kill you,” began Azrael, lunging unwisely. “Cursing me. Literally objectifying me, and then waltzing in here late and throwing around sobriquets.”

“Objectifying would be so hard to resist when you look like that.” Lex blew him a kiss and smiled wickedly. “As for killing me, you could try, handsome. I’d wager you can’t do it, but I might enjoy the attempt.” He winked.

Looking between them, Lex smiled widely now.

“Oh, come now, nothing’s permanent. Victoria could still find the third soul in time to meet the terms of the bargain, and I’m sure a pair of clever witches like you and your sister can figure out a way around the teeny-tiny complication of turning to ashes on Halloween.”

Azrael swallowed and didn’t meet Vickie’s eyes.

“Oh,” said Lex, running a finger across Azrael’s jawline. “But you’ve already figured it out, I surmise.” He winked, grinning evilly. “What’s the holdup, then, lovers?”

“Stop it,” said Az, but he was blushing.

“What does that mean?” She looked from Lex to Az.

“He means the soul seal. The soul seal could circumvent the curse.”

“Bingo,” said Lex, reaching for Az again. This time he was quick enough to duck.

“My dearest pets, it seems the two of you have more truth-telling to do, on top of a villain to catch. I’ll pop back in if I can find anything helpful. In the meantime, be good.”

He winked again and withdrew a closed fist from his pocket.

“No!” Azrael moved to snap, but before his fingers connected, Lex vanished in a flash of musky smoke that smelled of bergamot and ginger, and covered them, once more, in brown dust.

Vickie turned to Azrael and sighed.

“More gravedirt.”

“Vickie,” he began, the bags under his pleading eyes heavier than before.

“We’re in a fucking mausoleum,” she said. “With the corpse of a soulless killer. Let’s clean up and get out of here. Help me with the coffin.”

Az swallowed, eyebrows furrowing, but he complied, snapping to lighten the weight. A few sweaty moments of lifting later, the last remains of Tina Rosehill on this earthly plane rested back in her crypt.

Azrael raised his hands—those big, strong hands that she had loved the feel of so much on her body and her face and wound between her own fingers—and snapped. The plate sealed back on, and another snap replaced the bolts holding it in.

“Come on,” he said. “We need to go.”

“Do you want to talk about it now, or wait until you have the option to dissemble?” It didn’t fit the perfect story they had wanted to pretend. But there was no such thing as perfect, only real. And her reality was that she wanted to talk about it.

“I do want to talk about it.” He looked at her, expression weary. Ash and dirt lingered in his hair and streaked down his left cheek, and yet, he was still impossibly good-looking.

“About the soul seal.” He hesitated. “I know it’s soon. But I want to do it. And I’m done pretending.”

“I’d still like to be able to call a pretend, in the meantime,” she whispered. “But it’s not off the table. Forever, I mean. Forever is not off the table.”

“It’s just a lot,” he offered. “I know.”

“A thing I’d want to do, but maybe later, unforced.” She paused, shutting her eyes. She did want to be honest, though. “If it were later. If we had more time.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I get that.”

She held her arms together, hugging herself. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I love you more than I ever have. Like my heart is shattering into a million glass fragments that can’t ever be put back together.” Az frowned. “Devil dammit. I don’t want to pretend, Vickie, gravedirt or not.”

He threw his head in his hands. He loved her. Still.

“I feel everything, Azrael. But I’m not ready to give up pretending. Things are complicated, right? I want more, but I’m afraid. That’s my truth. I’m afraid of getting hurt again. Do you understand? You haven’t even been back more than a few months.”

“I’m trying to,” Az said slowly. “I’d wait forever if that was an option, but if we let Halloween pass, well, there’s no sealing a dead man. But I think we can figure it out. Maybe we should go home.”

“Oh, shit,” she said.

“What?”

“You work at a high school, Az.”

“Yeah.” He did not sound thrilled. “Yeah. I am really not looking forward to another uber-honest week with teenagers. It will wear off a little bit by tomorrow, but I’m absolutely going to be planning a film study for tomorrow and Friday now.

As little talking as possible. Fucking devils, always meddling. ”

“Az,” said Vickie, her voice small. “This could get worse before it gets better. We still have no idea who we are even looking for. And if you have to talk to Chet, if he turns out to just be an asshole, unconnected, but you’re stuck being honest…”

“Right. Avoid my boss when I get back. Noted.”

Vickie hoped she was wrong, but the fiery doubt swirled, along with the betrayal.

The pieces weren’t fitting, and now that they had destroyed the last relic she was willing to use to talk to the Harts, she had no one to advise her.

Lex had toyed with them both. But Azrael had broken her heart back in college, using that same gravedirt trick.

She was pretty sure, as terrifying as it was, that she would be interested in binding their fates together for good.

She just wished she had more time to think about it.

And most of all, she wished she could do what she wanted without it killing him.