Sure, my parents have “lost” things over time but that’s the downside of renting out your property. Dad just laughs and calls himself a masochist. Someday I hope to have the same humor he has, the kind that only kindles after a long life of ups and downs. I just need a big up-up first before a big down… at least, another one.

  I plug the steam cleaner into the outlet and roll the bulky machine toward the circle. Though the sweet smell remains, there’s far less of it, overpowered now by the crisp noon air coming off the lake. There are enough fluffy white clouds in the sky to keep the temperature perfectly temperate—a common brag of those who live or vacation at the lake during the summer.

  Leaning down to turn on the steam cleaner, I flick the switch and gird my loins, then drive it straight into the circle. Releasing the water from the machine, the hum of it fills my ears as a clean lemony scent wafts up, replacing the rest of the cloying sweetness quickly. The red paint bleeds and spreads as the carpet soaks and I run the machine back and forth.

  My parents came into their wealth before I was born, and sometimes I wish I’d known them before they had it. All my life I’ve been grilled to appreciate everything I have, what I’ve been given, and I do, fiercely, but it’s hard knowing I’ll probably never be remotely as successful as they are.

  My mom knew who she was before she hit puberty. From the time she was just a kid, she stayed awake all night, asleep all day, always wanting to be under the moonlight. As for my dad, he was the son of a disgraced politician who moved to Cobbin Lake to get out of the limelight. The day they met, they fell in love, or so they’ve told me. Mom’s magic grew and she rose up in the leadership of her coven, and Dad started his own business. They’re still at both to this day, even though they’re technically supposed to be retired.

  My eyes water and I reach up to swipe them with the back of my hand. It doesn’t help though, and when they water some more, I stop the machine and rub my sleeve over them, blinking the wetness out, thinking I must be crying. It’s like that on occasion—sneaks up on me out of nowhere, a heavy, hopeless feeling that needs to work itself out through tears.

  Wanting to get this over with, I try to stop only to realize I’m not crying at all. Something else must be wrong. Maybe the chemicals from the steam cleaner irritating my eyes?

  With my left sleeve now soaked, I wipe them with my right as I head for the bathroom. But just as I reach the faded boundary of the summoning circle, an awful itch forms in the back of my nose and the uncontrollable need to sneeze overwhelms me.

  I stumble backward several steps from the force of it, and water drains from my eyes as I scrub viciously at them with my shirt. Heading for the bathroom again, another sneeze overcomes me, and I find myself back inside the circle.

  At least I think I’m back in the circle. I can barely open my eyes to look around.

  Just as I’m about to focus on something through the blurry, stinging tears, an even more violent sneeze overtakes me, making my stomach wrench and my body bend forward, yet it still drives me backward.

  “What the…!” I sneeze again.

  Blinking rapidly, I pull my shirt off to mop up my face. This time I approach the outer edge of the circle slowly, sweat beading down my brow, my body racked from the sneezes. My bare feet shimmy through the faintest edges of the red, where the water has spread out the most, and just as my toes touch the diffused border, I feel a prickling in the back of my nose.

  I take a quick step back.

  “Help me—” comes a deep, rumbling voice from somewhere behind me.

  I spin around. Wildly patting my eyes dry, I make out a large dark form on the floor in-between blinks. I throw myself backward only to end up violently sneezing my way forward again, toward it. “What the hell!” Suddenly angry and over everything, I turn on the man—body—thing—that I can’t see because the excessive salty tears won’t let me. “I don’t know if this is your idea of a joke but screw you for putting pepper spray in the air! Who are you? What are you doing here⁠—”

  “Stooop shouting,” the man grunts up at me. Just as I’m about to get a clear look at his face and why he seems so oddly shaped, my eyes cascade like a waterfall. I release a cry of frustration.

  “I—Stop shouting?” I demand. “I’m trapped! And I can’t see you! My eyes…” My shirt’s soaked and—shit! I stumble back and turn around to throw my shirt on. “Who are you!?”

  “That circle is not meant for your kind. It is meant for mine,” the voice explains. “The sigils you’ve broken are now wet. That is why your body is reacting against you.”

  I hear his words but panic and logical sense battle over what’s going on. Pulling my hands away from my eyes, I brandish them in front of me to warn him back. “Your kind?”

  I couldn’t have summoned him.

  “Yes, my kind. Shouldn’t you know this? I’m here because of you. But… help me and I may answer more of your questions.”

  “How do I help you? And I sure as hell didn’t summon you!” I’m not that kind of witch—I’m not even a witch!—let alone have that kind of power. I squint, trying to get a good look at him again, but the water only obscures things further. I feel wet from my shins down, but I push the odd sensation away as a side effect of whatever is happening here.

  Freezing, I hesitate, realizing if he’s speaking the truth, then he’s a…

  “Demon,” I whisper under my breath, my hands back at my eyes to try and clear them.

  “I do not know what you speak of, human, but I am not whom you think you are referring to. I am going to die without your help. I need water!”

  “Die?” Demons don’t die. “Who are you then? Why can’t I leave the circle?” I swipe my face furiously, feeling my skin become increasingly raw. “How are you dying?” God, I hear my mom’s voice coming out of me. “Why the hell won’t my eyes stop?!”

  “Help me first,” he demands.

  “Help you? I can’t even help myself!” I drop my hands again.

  Screw this. I turn and charge out of the circle.

  My foot is barely hovering over the reddest part of the remaining outline when I’m launched straight back into the middle. This time the sneeze overtakes me midway, and as I try to catch my body from falling to the ground, something swoops in front and around me. The demon!

  Grabbing me, he hauls me down upon him and cushions my fall. I’m too overcome by shock to react at first, but the smell of something wet yet… enticing, touched by the lemon carpet wash, hits me, making my entire body squirm inward. Feeling a strange, unknown man’s naked body against mine…

  He’s definitely not a man.

  Men don’t have tails.

  Caught between what I think is his torso and the tail, I blink the water from my eyes, frantically using my hands to push off and away from him. “Let me go! Let me go!” What is he!?

  “Please, I need your help.” His voice is softer than before, abruptly dark and luxurious sounding, throwing me off guard. “I do not aim to harm you. I believe we are both… confused by my being here.”

  “Then remove your big slimy fishtail thing and release me!” Because whatever has me is wet and silky, his body smooth, slick, and velvety under mine. The water from my eyes drips on him, all over my hands, adding to the wetness, and I slip pushing off of him.

  He lets out a grunt when I land on something hard and bulging.

  The tail lets me go and I lurch back on my hands and crawl away. Putting as much distance between us as possible, I swear I see a grin on his face before my eyes are overtaken by more tears.

  “You are released. Now that I have given you what you wanted, you must give me what I want in return.”

  “And what is that? I never agreed to that,” I blurt out before thinking, scared and deeply regretful that I texted Mom I didn’t need her help to clean the house. I’m on my own in this until I can find a way to get out of the remnants of the summoning circle. “Never mind you’re dying and I’m trapped, how can I possibly help you?”

  “That’s right, I’m dyyyying.”

  Rubbing my sore eyes, I try for another look at him once more, to no avail. Frustrated, I run my teeth across my lower lip and pull it in. “I don’t care either way. If I help you, what do I get if we’re talking exchanges? My freedom?”

  “That’s better. You’re getting it, little witch. I like that. I like you. Everything should always be an exchange. It’s funner that way, I think. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  “I’m indifferent,” I snap.

  “Is that so?”

  I gape, astounded he could be so cool about all of this, especially if he is what I think he is. He’s just as trapped as I am if I really did summon him. “I don’t need to have an opinion on everything. I want out of this circle, and you out of the house and my life, that’s what I want. And for none of this to have ever happened!” Now that I know the long lower dark half of him is a tail, I catch glimpses of his large fins, recognizing them despite the blurriness. And with the mention of water sigils…

  “That’s all? Surely you can do better than that.”

  My brow furrows and water streams down my face. “Anything?”

  “Anything,” he agrees.

  I turn my face away and think about it for a minute before I give him my answer. “The exact same thing I wanted before.” Except this time I say it with the conviction I lacked the first time.

  He takes a moment to answer. “I swear you were going to say something else.” He coughs.

  “Are you okay?” I ask, keeping one eye on the vague mass of his lower half as he shifts around across from me, not sure if I should be more wary…or less. “Are you actually going to die?”

  I don’t know what’s worse, him alive and here, or a corpse needing to be disposed of.

  “I need water, and I will eventually perish in this realm without it.” His voice is weak and raw. It’s deeper than any man’s voice I’ve heard before, though underneath the roughness there seems to be a teasing tone. “Give me water, please, before that happens. My kind needs constant access to water. It hurts,” he whines. “I am useless to you without it.”

  “I can’t get out, as you know.” I turn to squint toward the bathroom, considering. “I could try a running start⁠—”

  “Your tears, your wet shirt, they will be enough. Quick! Before I waste away.”

  I’m about to tear my shirt off and throw the damp material in the direction of his annoying blobby face just to shut him up but catch myself. I’m smarter than that. “What are you really? A mermaid?” If I’m making sense of his tail correctly, it’s long, much longer than I’d expect for a mermaid.

  And black. It’s very black.

  “You ask me this now? Right before I am about to die? Insensitive.”

  “You don’t seem like a mermaid to me.”

  “That’s because I am not a mermaid. My sister does not like competition. Alas, neither do I, and would be willing to die not to see her again…”

  I frown at him. “Sooo this circle is a real demonic summoning circle, isn’t it?” I pause as it dawns on me that saying it out loud has given the question an edge of… hope.

  Hope.

  What kind of hope could a demon bring? Otherworldly? Am I seriously considering this?

  God damn it. My parents would be proud.

  “It does not matter what I am if I am dead.”

  I rest my head on my knees, sick of the water draining from me. It’s so much. I can feel myself growing weaker and more tired by the minute. “You don’t sound like you’re dying.”

  “Oh? You’ve heard dying before? Pray tell, what does dying sound like?”

  “I’ll get you water,” I grouse, indicating me and the unnatural amount of it my eyes are gushing, “Once I know what it is I’m talking to, and don’t say merman, because what the hell?”

  “What do you mean by that?” he asks, his voice back to being deep, snarky. “You have not yet been able to look at me, yet you make insulting assumptions. You should be more careful how you speak to one of my kind. Most of us have no patience for morals—I mean, mortals.”

  I climb to my feet dizzily as I notice him shift a little closer to me. “One of your kind?” I echo.

  He slides the length of his tail behind him and lifts his upper body higher off the ground. “You ask a lot of questions, even for a human.”

  “Of course I have a lot of questions.” I stand a little straighter to make it harder for him to meet my gaze head on. He can’t seem to rise to my height, which gives me a surge of confidence. “There’s a strange being in my parents’ house and he’s telling me he’s dying. Well, it seems like I’m the one with all the power here. If you need me to save you because you can’t even stand⁠—”

  I’m yanked forward, quickly surrounded by his tail rounding the back of my hips. It fans out into a shapely but dark serpentine mass of fins above me and to my left as he pulls me close. Caught tight against his chest—his firm chest—his hands—which happen to be wet and big—grip me and he drags me down, turning us both over until my back is flat on the ground. With his tail sliding behind him, there is nothing left between the wet carpet and my back, and I shiver at the cold that spreads across my skin as my clothes absorb the water from the steam cleaner.

  “What are you doing?” I gasp, heart hammering with sudden fear.

  Ignoring me, he presses closer, leaning his face above mine and skimming the back of his fingers down my wet cheek, taking the tears away.

  I can barely see him, but I can make things out in blinks. Still, I’m too afraid to move as he closes the short distance between our faces and pries open my eyes.

  I jerk back instinctively, and when my eyes next close, he opens his mouth and licks the water flooding out of them. Stunned, my insides curl, my toes clench hard, as my entire body locks on to the feel of his tongue on my face and the almost overpowering humid sensation of his body. He’s big. Much bigger than me. Smashed between him and the floor, it feels like I could drown. As hard as it’s to see clearly right now, it’s becoming just as hard to breathe without a gasp taking over every inhalation.

  My lips part wide in shock as he drags his tongue across my eyelashes repeatedly.

  “I don’t need to be given something I can easily take, woman. I just like to play when the chance presents itself.” He drags his tongue over my eyes again.

  I can’t say anything, unable to pull my own tongue off the roof of my mouth. Taking in his words, all I can do is wait for him to say something even more threatening. Like he’s going to do more than lick me, he’s going to kill me too.

  Except he doesn’t.

  Instead, he moans as he laps gently but eagerly at my face. And when his lips open and press to the skin around my closed left eye and he sucks, the sensation jolts right through me. All at once my senses come tumbling back.

  I wriggle out of his embrace and claw my way over his tail. Reaching the steam cleaner still within the circle, I yank out the tank and uncap it, then toss the remaining soapy water at him as he rises from the floor to come after me.

  He laughs as I turn to launch my body over my parents’ bed and roll to the other side. My body succumbs to the most brutal sneeze of my life as I’m falling. The force of it jerks me back toward the circle, but the bed holds firm at my back and keeps me safe. After a moment, the painful pulling sensation fades away and my eyes clear of water.

  I draw in a deep breath and then let out a much longer groan.

  Wiping the remaining tears off my face, a gut-wrenching thirst overtakes me before I can jump to my feet and run. I try to stand but end up swaying, incredibly woozy and lightheaded. Pain bursts behind my eyes, enshrouding my mind with an excruciating headache. I rise with my arms spread out for balance, stumble to the bathroom, and drop over the sink. Lifting the faucet lever, I purse my mouth under the cool water that sputters out. Gulping it down like never before, my thoughts remain scattered, and once my belly is full, I slip to the bathroom floor and press my back against the cool wooden cabinet, curling my arms around my legs and pressing my head into my knees.

  Experiencing the worst hangover of my life, I moan sadly. If the merman drags himself in here to kill me, I’d be better off. I’d welcome it.

  Eventually, I pull my phone from my pocket, but the screen comes out streaked with water. No! Realizing it’s been soaked, I quickly swipe my finger back and forth over the screen, cursing under my breath. When the screen remains black, I try turning it on and off. When that doesn’t work, I spew a litany of curses.

  Dropping to the floor, I knead my palms into my temples as I continue to listen carefully for any sound of the demon. I consider calling out to him to see if he’s still there or if he’s returned to wherever he came from, but decide against it and instead fish around under the counter for the painkillers I know my parents keep stored below.

  Grabbing the Aleve, I take three and drop my head back to my knees. As I wait for the pills to work, I drift my fingers over my eyes to touch them where he’d licked me, curling my toes once again.

  If I summoned him by accident, I need to unsummon him or complete the ritual I started to get rid of him.

  As I wait for my headache to alleviate, a plan forms.

  Chapter 3

  A New, Very Curious Curiosity

  Sepher

  She’s enticing, and unexpected.

  Her hair struck me first. Long dark brown locks held entirely away from her face by a band at the back of her head. Some strands had fallen forward in our tussle and hung around her ears to make curls that wisped their curves. Her pale skin looked softer than the sands of the abyss. Her eyes were light brown, almost amber, and framed by small lashes that scratched my tongue nicely. I love them already, anxious to lap more of her taste into my mouth.

  As a Duke of Hell, being called to this world is not something I ever expected to happen.