The Devil's Ex

Chapter Nine - Cloud

They arrived in a flurry of brimstone in a tight alley, with buildings towering overhead into the crimson sky. This close, she could feel Luca's hot breath sliding across her skin. Memories of their moments together flushed through her, making her blush. Luca's eyes darkened and his lips twisted into a smirk, as though he could sense her thoughts. "You OK there Jenny?" He purred, leering towards her, making her heart flutter.

They weren't here for this. – Is what her brain kept trying to remind her, but right now Jenny wasn't exactly thinking with her brain... Closing the tiny gap between them, Jenny pressed herself against Luca's hard chest, their lips tantalisingly close. It was always easy with Luca. Always.

They were in hell now though. Someone was hunting them. Her ex-husband could literally be anywhere. Like a bucket of cold water, reality set in, and with a teasing smile, Jenny released her hold on Luca and took a step back.

His faced turned down and confusion fluttered across his brow, but he didn't push, she didn't give him a chance. "Where will the body be kept?"

Getting whiplash from the topic change, Luca straightened his coat as a cool mask of indifference slid across his face. "Over there," he pointed out of the alley, "just behind that store. All the important autopsies happen there."

Jenny stared in the direction he'd indicated, a shiver ruffled over her skin. She straightened her neck and looked away, shaking the tingling sensation from her hands. "It's on consecrated ground."

Luca shrugged, "probably, isn't the whole of hell considered consecrated?"

Jenny feigned indifference, or tried to at least. "Maybe." No. "But the lands been cursed there. Probably to stop people doing exactly what we're about to – resurrect the dead. I'm going to need some supplies. I'll still need a grounding candle, another to trigger the spell and then I'm going to need a blessed blade. I'm hoping you know a shop where..." She trailed off to find Luca staring at her. He was looking at her like he'd never seen her before. "Luca?" She pushed.

Shaking off whatever he'd been thinking, an easy smile coated his face, "sure, there's a shop not far from here. They sell all sorts of candles, no doubt they'll do, what was it? A-a "blessed blade". Yeh, they'll do that."

Surprise rose Jenny's eye brows, "great, let's go."

-

When Luca had mentioned that they sold a lot of candles. He had not been exaggerating.

This was one thing that Jenny had missed; proper magic shops.

Whilst the wiccans did their best to create shops full of magically inspired ingredients, it was often impossible to do so in towns and villages where humans lingered. Sure, spells would ward them off and a glamour put in place could trick them entirely, but that required magic, a lot of it, and not that many wiccans contained that sort of power anymore.

In hell, however, there were no such limitations. Although most demons didn't possess magic, they could perform basic spells with the right ingredients, and so shops such as this one, were common.

Jenny breathed in the heady scent of dust, spice and magic and sighed happily. It had been too long since she'd been in a shop like this. She spent the first few minutes upon entering the relatively unassuming establishment, wandering along the towering aisles, scanning the wide ranging ingredients. Jars of eyes flickered and blinked at her as she passed them, whilst power gurgled around her, like a trickling stream. The air occasionally cracked with the tense magical charge from the powerful objects all gathered in one place.

"This is....amazing," she whispered, mostly to herself, but prompting the shop keeper to come out from behind his large counter and head towards her.