All The Wrong Signs

After our run in with Collin, things seemed to change some between Blaze and I. We had come to some kind of silent agreement. We both needed each other.

It hadn’t taken me long before I realized crying in the arms of a demon was probably a bad idea, yet I let him comfort me for way longer than needed. Being in his arms, I felt protected. I knew at that moment he wouldn’t let anything touch me.

Blaze had told Collin last night that I belonged to him. Was it just for show? I’d been doing my own research about demons and I learned that while, yes, they did get bored with things easily, they also became possessive of things just as quickly. Once they determined something was theirs, it wasn’t easy to get it back.

But he had only said that because of Collin. Right?

Sighing, I glanced down at the open laptop in front of me. I’d picked up a couple of assignments, but was finding it harder than normal to focus. Normally once I started, my hands seem to fly over the keyboard. Today, I was struggling with even the simplest of sentences.

“You are distracting me,” I finally said. “Don’t you have something better to do?” Turning around, I looked at Blaze, finding that he was reading one of the books that I had bought from Lakyn.

“Not really,” Blaze said, shutting the book.

“Look, you need help to free yourself, right? Maybe I can help. I am pretty good at looking things up online.”

Sitting up, Blaze shook his head, “so am I, darling.”

I snorted, “you didn’t even know what a computer was a couple of days ago.”

He smiled and damnit if it didn’t make my heart flip. “True, but I’m a fast learning. The man I’m looking for is off grid and has been for his entire life. I can’t even locate my prison because of the spell that has been put on it.”

“There has to be a way,” I argued.

“There does, but I haven’t found it yet,” Blaze agreed.

Standing up, I paced around the room. “So when you are there, you are chained?”

Blaze looked up at me, probably deciding how much to tell me, before he nodded. “The same tattoo you have on your arm is etched into the stone ground. A spell has been placed that keeps me locked inside. I am shackled but I think it’s more for show. Chains can slow me down, but can’t stop me forever.” Blaze laughed, “you want to know the most fucked up part of it. The bitch ass family that has me imprisoned is named Wumbert. What kind of name is that?”

“How did you let someone with a last name like that kidnap you?” I questioned.

The look on Blaze’s face was enough to make me laugh. Oh, he didn’t like that one single bit.

“I did not get kidnapped. I don’t even think it is possible to kidnap me. He found my name in an old book, summoned, and then trapped me.”

“So you’re saying I should have chained you up when I first saw you?” I found it pretty fun to tease Blaze for once.

“You can chain me up anytime you want, little witch.”

Well shit, that backfired, I thought as I turned around to try to hide my beet-red face.

Taking a breath, I shook my head to clear it of the thought of Blaze chained to my bed. “Surely there are tax records. Or birth records.”

“The thing you need to understand is that with enough money, or sway, you can be invisible. The idiot isn’t smart enough to do this alone. He has hired men helping him, so he has to have the resources needed to pull off such an act.”

“What if you just go back? Maybe you can get some information and I can summon you back in a day or so.” I said, turning around.

Blaze laughed, “ha, not happening. You’d leave me there to rot.”

Crossing my arms, I avoided his eyes. “I would not. You helped me, so I will help you.”

Blaze stood up, walking closer to me. “You know, I could help you in so many better ways than what I did before.”

I cut my eyes at him. “Your permission to touch me has expired. Now do you think…”

“You could go back with me. I’m chained to the floor, remember?”

Shaking my head, I knew that was an awful idea. “Not happening. Then we would both be stuck.”

Blaze rolled his eyes, “like I’d risk being stuck for eternity with you.”

“I would eventually die,” I say, smiling up at him.

“Not fast enough.”

I rolled my eyes, “and here I thought you were starting to like me.”

“I don’t have to like you,” Blaze said, winking at me.

“Whatever, I have work to do.” Walking to my computer, I turned. “What is this Wumbert person’s first name? I’ll try to see what I can find.”

“You won’t find anything. If it was out there, I would have found it,” Blaze said confidently. When I sat down in my chair hitting a button to bring my laptop out of sleep mode, he walked behind me. “His name is Kyler.”

Scrunching up my nose at the horrible name his parents had gifted him with, I pretended to work until Blaze grew bored and returned to his book. Once I was satisfied that he wasn’t paying me any attention, I pulled up google and searched for Kyler Wumbert.

Nothing.

Hitting delete, I tried just googling Wumbert. Again, nothing, but surprisingly there were actually people with Wumbert as a first name. Frowning, I tried to look up Wumbert a couple of different ways, but every time it came back with no results.

“Told you.”

I rolled my eyes, clicking off of google and returning to my work. I had typed a couple of paragraphs when I turned around to face him again. “You know you are really no help. You were imprisoned for God knows how long and you can’t even remember shit about the place.”

Blaze arched his brow. “What was there to remember? It was dark. Dirt and rock.”

“Alone?”

Blaze frowned, “no I had a puppy to keep me company.”

“You are such an ass,” I said, knowing my question had been stupid but not liking the tone in his voice. “I was trying to help you, but you can go straight back to hell for all I care.”

“I’d much rather be in hell than back in that hole.”

Turning around, I started typing louder than necessary, felling a childish satisfaction with each click of the keyboard. Writing was a stress reliever for me, so the more I typed, the less loud my typing became. My hands glided over the keyboard as I super focused on the task at hand.

Maybe I should get mad at Blaze more often because I finished my project in record speed. Deciding I could edit tomorrow, I shut my laptop before getting up from my desk. “I’m going to see Lakyn, and you are staying here.”

“What if you run into that son of a bitch who I had to choke the very breath from?”

His words did bring me pause, but I shook my head. “He’s an idiot, but he isn’t stupid.”

“Who is he? And why does he want your dogs?”

Letting out a deep breath, I guessed he did deserve to know who he was ready to murder with his bare hands. “That is Collin. My ex husband. I don’t really know what he wants. He…”

“He what?” Blaze said, waiting for me to finish.

“He blames me for our marriage failing.”

Blaze’s eyes seemed to bore into mine. “And was it your fault?”

“He thinks so.” I didn’t want to talk about it, yet for some reason I wanted to spill everything to Blaze as if he could take my words and make everything better.

I had to remember that Blaze was a demon, not some guardian angel here to protect me. He may be helping me now, but it was only because he wanted something in return.

Grabbing my bag, I headed toward the door, but Blaze’s words stopped me cold. “It’s not your fault he cheated.”

“How did you know?” I whispered.

“I know a lot of things about you. I took your dreams away, but they had to go somewhere, didn’t they?”

Blaze had seen my dreams? He would know, know everything. Shame washed over me. I knew what had happened wasn’t my fault, but it didn’t make it any easier to accept.

“Why are you running from me?” Blaze asked, walking up behind me. He was so close I swore if I moved, our bodies would touch.

“I’m not. I just need…out.”

Chuckling Blaze, leaned down, whispering in my ear. “Hurry home, little witch. I get bored without you.”

Shivers ran down my body and I had a feeling the damn demon knew exactly what he was doing to me. Before I could change my mind and do something stupid like turn around and see what those lips of his felt like against mine, I hurried out the door.