“Lighten up.” I elbowed him in the shoulder, then continued reading. “ ‘Magick for The Wheel must be charged with fluids from sexual arousal …’ ” My voice tapered off. “Oh.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

I read the rest of the entry to myself. The person doing the tandem spell—that would be Lon—had to receive Heka-rich sexual fluids from the recipient of the spell, me, to jump-start a series of lost memories. A magical sigil and incantation were provided.

It wasn’t the first time I’d run across sex spells: they were just as common as electricity-kindled spells. They just aren’t convenient for your average on-the-go magical needs.

“Do all the memory spells require that?” I asked.

“I don’t think so. I just noticed it on the last couple of retrieval ones.”

“Uh, maybe I could just get myself, you know, privately …?” I suggested. I regretted it immediately, and felt my face flush with warmth. What the hell was I going to do? Ask Lon if he had any porn I could borrow and hole up in his library’s washroom?

“Did you read this part?” He pointed. I read.

The spell instructions claimed that “shared sexual arousal” between the participants was required so that a tight “energy link” is formed. Otherwise, the process would be too jarring and “memory leak, further loss, or permanent damage” could occur.

“Oh, well,” I said, “it was worth a try.”

He looked at me challengingly with his arms crossed over his chest. “Don’t think I can arouse you?” I froze. Maybe he was joking. “Or is it that you’re afraid you can’t arouse me?”

“Uh …” The word arouse coming out of his mouth made my nostrils widen. I took a long step backward. Must get out of range ASAP.

“Too late,” he said with a dark smile.

I gritted my teeth and made a face. “Goddammit,” I mumbled under my breath.

“It’s not a sex spell that requires … completion,” he said. “We don’t need to have sex, just stimulation.” At that moment, I truthfully wasn’t opposed to either, but I didn’t want him to know that. I stepped back again. “And we just need your fluids, not mine.” He moved forward again, thwarting my attempt at retreat. “It’s up to you.”

“Why is it up to me?”

“Because … your memories, not mine.”

“Oh, that’s right.”

“Your sexual fluids, not mine.”

For the love of God, would he please stop saying that?

“Don’t find me attractive?” he challenged playfully. “Not young and hip enough for you?”

“I … uh …” My heart hammered. “Jupe told me that you thought I was too young for you.”

He stepped forward again, dragging the open book along the edge of the desk. “Hmm … I don’t recall saying that.”

“Memory loss is the first sign of aging.”

“I’m not the one with memory problems, am I?”

I laughed nervously.

“Come here.”

“No.”

“Come here … please?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

I took a hesitant step toward him.

“Closer.”

Again.

“Closer,” he commanded in a low voice.

Screw it, I thought, and complied, this time boldly positioning myself so close, a piece of paper couldn’t slide between us. I lifted my face toward him, daring. He put two fingers on the side of my chin and gently tilted my face sideways and down to the desk.

“Here’s the spell. It’s in Latin,” he said in an even, professional tone.

I glanced down at the book, eyes scanning over the page but not reading. His hand came into view as he pointed to the incantation words, tapping on the page.

“Yep,” I said, discreetly licking my lips.

“You need to be thinking about that memory you’re missing when I say the spell.”

“All right.”

“As for the mutual arousal, a kiss would be easiest,” he suggested. “Have you ever kissed a demon?”

“Yeah …” A couple, actually. Same as kissing a human, in my experience. Humans dated and married Earthbounds every day, with or without the human half of the pair realizing exactly whom they were dating. As I said before, Human-Earthbound unions produced human children, so unless their demon mate had an exceptional knack that was impossible to ignore, they could live out their entire lives thinking that they were in love with another human. Myself, I dated an Earthbound once; before anything juicy happened between us, I found out that his knack was the ability to seduce. Umm, no thanks. At least the guy had been honest about it. I remembered this, then told Lon the first honest thing that came to mind, “I’ve kissed an Earthbound, but I’ve never kissed a man with a mustache.”

Lon found this extremely amusing, and we both fought back laughter. A quick joy spread over me. It was so pleasant to be enjoying his mood, no grunting or growling or trying to guess what his motives were. And it was exhilarating, being so close to him; my heart kicked wildly inside my chest.

Then he stopped smiling, and his eyes slowly blinked and drooped lower. He gingerly brushed my hair away from my face with the tips of his fingers.

I craned my neck to meet him halfway. Warmth flooded between my thighs before our mouths even made contact.