In-Between Work and Play (The Jocelyn Frost Series Book 1) (9 page)

The squeaks
caused me to cringe.  Stupid sneakers…  They announced my presence as I walked
into the Psychology Department about twenty minutes after I left my condo. 
Granted, sneakers and red pencil skirts weren’t a good match, but at this
point, I really did not care. 

I nearly broke
down into tears at least three times on my way into the building.  Everything
inside of me hurt.  I’d never lost anyone close before, not that we were super
close, but I couldn’t help feeling some sort of connection to her.

Poor Lucinda.
She would never again complain about her lack of family.  Or to how hard it was
to work in the Postal Department during yule time. 

Maybe I should
have called my mother and told her I was coming home for a few days. It would
have been so easy just to curl up on her couch and cry my eyes out.  But I
couldn’t.  With Lucinda’s death, I knew the regulars at the Demigoddesses
Anonymous meetings would be devastated.

They would
surely need some closure and a shoulder to cry on.  It would have been best if
I scheduled them for individual appointments to tell them what happened in
person. I couldn’t trust the Enforcers to announce it, and I wouldn’t want them
to find out at next week’s meeting or, worse, from the newspaper.

I shifted the
weight of my duffel bag on my shoulder.  Despite the cool, white marble floors,
entering the third floor felt like walking into a sauna. Hot beams of sunlight
streamed through massive windows, which made me squint.  I suggested investing
in blinds several times, but no one wanted to fundraise or sponsor any events
to get them.

A few feet away
from my door, I stopped to dig the keys out of my purse.  Muffled laughter
filtered out into the hall and was coming from my office.  My heart hammered in
my chest.  What should I do?  Should I go in and find out who’s in there? Or
run screaming for help?

I nearly dropped
my purse, I was shaking so badly.  Then the door clicked outward, which was
likely due to a change of air pressure inside the room.

“Ah, that’s
better!  I really don’t know how she stands the smell of that thing.” Inez’s
soprano chords vibrated out into the hallway.  My heart dropped into the pit of
my stomach.  “Go on, now, give it if a try.  See if it’s a good fit.”

I inched closer
until I was standing just outside the door.

“What do you
think?” A high-pitched tenor proudly asked.

“Perfect!”  Inez
sounded pleased with herself. “It suits you nicely.”

“I really can’t
believe my good luck.” I could picture Mr. Hunky Intern grinning from
ear-to-ear. “You have no idea how hard it is to land a full time job in the BCW
without being drafted.”

“Tell me about
it.” The image of Inez lounging on my chaise popped into my mind.  “Now, you
know we’ll have to post the position.  There will be interviews and everything
that goes along with the hiring process, so don’t be discouraged by that.  The
job is yours, we just have to cross our ‘t’s and dot our ‘i’s to make it legal.”

“If you don’t
mind me asking, why is Jocelyn leaving?”  Did I detect concern in his voice?

Inez didn’t
respond right away. “Oh, you know how it is with human half-breeds.  Their
biological clocks start to tick and, before you know it, they are doing everything
they can to pop out a kid or two.  Raising a family has always been one of Ms.
Frost’s ultimate goals.  It’s so much easier to do that nowadays by working in
the education department.  She said that she couldn’t care less about having to
change dozens of diapers a day as long as she could spend every available
second with her baby.”

“Huh, I didn’t
even know she had a boyfriend.” The wheels from the desk chair squeaked. “I’ll
just have to remember to congratulate her the next time I see her.”

“Oh, no! Don’t
do that, this is all hush-hush for right now.  It’s a silly superstition
amongst the humans to keep their pregnancies a secret until the end of the
first trimester.”

I’d heard
enough.  That… that bitch was lying about me!  It was bad enough that she
wanted to fire me for no good reason, and now she was making it sound like I
wanted to leave?  Where the Helheim did she get off!?

Pushing off the
wall, I jiggled my keys to make it sound like I was just arriving.  “Oh! 
That’s odd…”  I tried to sound confused as I pushed the door open the rest of
the way.

The look on
Inez’s face was priceless.  I brought out the lost, innocent, puppy look, which
I mastered in high school.  “Ms. Cannas?  Zack?  Were you looking for me?”

Zack was still
standing behind my desk, acting like it already belonged to him.

Inez recovered
first.  She swung her legs over the side of the chaise lounge in order to stand
up. “Jocelyn, I’m surprised to see you here today.  I received a call from the
Enforcers’ Office stating that you would be out for a few days.  I hope
everything is all right?”

I shook my head.
“No it’s not, but that’s beside the point.  I came here for my clients.”

“I see,” she
sounded displeased. “I brought Zack up here to help out while you dealt with
the Enforcers.”

I raised my
brows. “Really, aw, that’s so sweet of you and Zack.”  Could I fake sincerity
at the drop of a dime?  Yep!  I turned toward Zack. “You know, most of my
clients are mythos women, right?”

“Mythos women. 
Great! I love mythos women!” He started to count off with his fingers, “Dryads,
nymphs, demigoddesses…”

“Gorgons,
succubae, sirens, harpies, to name a few.  You see, Zack, the niche I fill here
is dealing with all of these misunderstood women who experience self-esteem
issues arising from not feeling pretty enough or because their daddies
abandoned them.  Some of them have even consumed the very men they love by
accident.”  I gave him a pointed look. 

I wanted to
explain how most of them would never talk to a male about their problems; but
that would have been like slapping him across the face, so I held my tongue. 
Zack walked around my desk, and his warm, brown eyes shifted a confused look
toward Inez before looking back at me.

I rolled my gold
ring between my thumb and index finger. “I’ll pull the patient files of the
women who might be a good match for you.  I’m not sure how many are scheduled
for this week, but I’ll bet there are a least one or two.”  My lips lifted,
giving him an innocent smile.  See? I could work with others.  “I have some clerical
things you can help with, as well.  Does that sound good?”

He ran his
fingers through his golden brown hair. “Yeah… Yes, I can do that.”  He shifted
his shoulders toward Inez. “Unless you wanted me to do something else first?”

“Yes, there are
several things you can do for me.” Inez gave me a thin smile.  “I’ll reschedule
your post observation interview for early next week.”  She raised a brow,
tacitly beckoning Zack to follow her out of my office.

It took every
single ounce of my willpower to keep my emotions wrapped up tight as I watched
them leave the room.  Shifting my weight, the strap from my duffel bag slid off
my shoulder.  I let the bag fall where I stood.  What else could I do?  Look
for a new job?  Doing what?  Jobs were tight in the BCW, so I’d have to move to
Erda, or one of the smaller BCW sites. 

Slumping down in
my desk chair, I massaged my temples.  I had so much to do, but I couldn’t
figure out where to begin.  Maybe I just needed to make a to-do list in order
to determine my priorities.

“Wait a second,
that can’t be right.”  I sat straight up.  The desk clock read
three-thirty-seven.  I expected it to be about eleven-thirty, not
three-thirty.  Digging through my purse, I found my cell phone.  It, too, read
three-thirty-seven.

I reviewed the
day in my mind.  I left Dex’s place about a quarter-past-seven, then I went
home and got ready for work.  The clock on my sound system read
eight-twenty-two when I turned it off.  So, between being knocked out with a
concussion, and the Enforcer’s mental probe, I lost seven hours?  What the
Helheim?  I wanted to cry.  True, it wasn’t as bad as what happened to Lucinda,
but still, seven lost hours…

“What did you
do?”  Carmine’s babbling brook of a voice drew my attention to the door.

“Excuse me?”

The elf strutted
into my office after closing the door behind him.  His wide, confident gait
filled the space in only three steps.  “I’ve never felt Inez harbor such a
venomous mood.”  Huh, Carmine was an empath.  News to me. 

“She’s really
pissed?”

“That’s putting
it lightly.”  Carmine studied my face, or perhaps he was trying to read my
mood?

“Good.”  I
leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

“Good?  I
thought you wanted to keep this job.”

“I do.” I looked
up into his ruby-red eyes. “But you know what, Carmine?  She already promised
Zack that my job would soon be his job.”

Carmine turned
one of the accent chairs in order to sit down in front of me.  “Explain.”

I repeated
everything I overheard prior to entering my office.

“That’s it? 
You’re not leaving anything out?”  He leaned forward, pressing his palms
together.

“That’s it. 
It’s as verbatim as I can say it without having it recorded.” I shook my head. 
“I had a feeling she didn’t intend to renew my contract, but seriously, lying to
someone like that is pretty ridiculous.”

“I agree.”  His
eyes drifted from mine before lowering toward my waist. “You’re not…”

“No!  I’m not
pregnant.”  I touched my stomach.  My head shook. “Believe me, I’m not even
seeing anyone right now.  There is no way in Helheim that I’m expecting.”  I
gave him a sharp look.  “And even if, in the far future I decide to have a
family, I wouldn’t give up this job.  I love working with my clients.  I need
them just as much as they need me.”  Wow, did I just say that?  I guess I did. 
Was that what was eating me up over the past couple of days?  Fear of losing my
clients because they were all I really had?  I didn’t have much of a social
life, not to mention a home life.  So, yeah, they were my life.  And I already
lost one of them. 

Grief poked its
ugly head into my defenses.  No, not now. I would mourn Lucinda in time, but
not right now.  I needed to find out what she was doing in my condo before I
could properly analyze our relationship.

“I understand.” 
Carmine pulled himself up to his full, six-foot-six height. “I’ll keep my ears
open.  If I hear anyone spreading rumors, I’ll set them straight.” 

Sighing, I gave
him a nod. “Thank you, Carmine.  I appreciate that.”

With a slight
bow, the light elf took his leave. 

It was a
struggle, but I put in a good four hours of work.

At least, my
four-thirty patient was a fairly easy case.  A gorgon who normally talked about
the same issues each session.  If she weren’t venting about her controlling
mother, she complained about a particular co-worker, whom she called the
ass-hat. He seemed to only flirt with her whenever he needed a set of fingerprints
run.  Since she was unwilling to try any of my suggestions, I basically just
offered her a sympathetic ear. 

After updating
my to-do list, I pulled a frozen dinner out of the mini-fridge to microwave. 

“Please tell me
you’re not going to eat that for dinner.”  Humor colored Dex’s voice.  Boy was
I glad to see him. Just having him present lifted my spirits.  It was so much
easier pushing my melancholy thoughts aside with him in the room.  I just
wanted to throw my arms around him and forget this day ever happened.  But that
wouldn’t have been right.  I only met him a few days ago, and for all I knew,
that might scare him away.

“Your eyes are
glowing again.” He placed a stack of books and papers on my desk.  “Mind if I
sit?”

“My office is your
office.”  I slid my feet out of my slippers and into my pumps before closing
the closet door.  “I’m sorry I didn’t stay longer this morning.”

Dex took a quick
look around before he sat down in the same accent chair that Carmine occupied
this afternoon. “No problem.  I knew you needed to get going.  Was your
supervisor upset that you didn’t have anything to present to her?”

I sighed as I
sat across from him.  “About that,” I moistened my lips, “my post observation
was postponed.”

Dex leaned
forward. “That’s good, right?”

I shook my head.
“Not really.”  Part of me still wanted to vent about what happened to Lucinda,
but I just didn’t feel ready to say anything yet.  The pain was still a bit too
raw, and besides, I’d only known him for about three days.  I had no guess, at
this point, why Lucinda was killed.  A part of me actually believed the killer
broke into the wrong apartment because there was no reason to break into
mine.    So, instead of saying anything, I waved my hand toward his stack of
papers.  “Tell me what you found.”

His brows
creased as if he wanted to say something, but at the last second, changed his
mind.  “Well, most of it had to deal with increasing fertility or creating
sterility.”  He tilted his head to the side. “It’s only in the last century or
two that planned parenthood became a popular concept.”

“Naturally.  But
hasn’t healing magic improved?  So…”

“What about sex
magic?”  The corners of Dex’s mouth lifted.  “I looked into that.  Apparently,
nothing has been updated in centuries, since the mechanics never actually
changed.  Although, I did research the improvements in healing magic, which
were due to scientific revelations.”  He picked up one of the books and flipped
to a page to show me a spell.

After studying
it for a moment, I managed to come up with several observations regarding how
it was modernized. Leaning back in my chair, I said, “Okay, so do we just make
up spells and hope they work?”

“Not exactly,
how much do you know about the classifications of magic and the different forms
it can take?”

I winced. “Not
much.  I can throw out some names.”

Dex planted his
elbows on his knees. Using his hands to add emphasis to his words, he
instructed me to concentrate. “Picture the world we know filled with
opposites.”

“Light and dark.
 Life and death.  Ice and fire.  Earth and Air. Order and Chaos.”

“Good.  Now, not
everything is as simple as each of those concepts.  Some of them even blend
together under certain circumstances.  Anyway, they are all needed to fuel the
Nexus, which sustains the In-Between.”  His pupils dilated as he spoke.  This
stuff really seemed to excite him.

“What does this
have to do with contraceptive magic?”

“I’m getting to
that.”  He inched forward on his chair. “Since most of the life magic that’s
practiced in Erda is dedicated to growing crops, they use sex magic to help
power the Nexus.”

“Sex magic is
part of life magic?”  I closed my eyes. “Of course, that’s why there is no
contraceptive spells coming out of that department.”  I gasped. “Oh no, does
that mean that contraceptive magic is part of death magic?”  My heart sank at
the thought.

“I’m afraid
so.”  He linked his hand with mine. “Don’t be discouraged, Joce.  You’re not
aiming to cause miscarriages, or anything like that.  You just want to
neutralize either the sperm or the egg before they coalesce.”

I blinked as my
eyes moistened. “So, now what?”

Dex stood,
pulling me up to join him. “Now, I take you out to dinner.”

“Dinner?”  My
stomach rumbled at the sound of that.  All I’d had to eat since this morning
were a couple of candy bars.  Maybe he had more bad news, and sensed that it
would be beyond my ability to cope with anymore at the moment.

“If that’s okay
with you?”  His thumb massaged my knuckles.  “Or we can stay here and microwave
frozen dinners?”

“Helheim, no.” I
tilted my head towards him as I gave him a small smile. “Unless you want to
spend the rest of the evening alone with me here in my office?”

“Tempting, very
tempting.”  He flashed me that sexy smile of his. 

I pouted my
lips. “Well, then, let me get my purse.”

Cool breezes
greeted us as we exited the Psychology Department.  They were a treat after the
heat wave we endured.  Twilight made the horizon glow while welcoming the
stars, which were popping out overhead.  For the first time all day, I felt my
tense muscles starting to relax.

Salvatore’s was
a quaint, little Italian restaurant, and it was about a half-mile walk from my
job. On our way there, Dex and I talked easily about our favorite movies.  The
conversation distracted me enough to think of something else besides Lucinda’s
death and my impending layoff. 

The place was
pretty busy with the early evening crowd.  The nocturnal sort started to filter
in for breakfast, while it was lunch for midday risers and dinner for everyone
else.

“No way! It’s an
animated series now?  I can’t…” I blinked several times as I stood there
staring at Dex.  The waiter kindly cleared his throat, indicating for me to sit
down.  Dex grinned from the other side of the cozy, candle-lit,
red-and-white-checkered tablecloth. 

“Breathe.” He
placed a hand on the small of my back to guide me to my seat so the waiter
could hand us our laminated menus. 

“Uh-huh…”  I was
just finding out that my favorite late 1980s movie was made into an animated
series, which only added several more reasons for my crappy day.  “Are there
all new actors doing the voices?”

“There are some
original voices.  But obviously, Candy passed away in the nineties so they had
to replace him.  There’s also a new Dark Helmet and Lone Starr.”  He shrugged.
“I haven’t had a chance to check it out.  Maybe we could watch it together?”

A small smile
perked up the corners of my lips. “I’d like that.”  I nodded. “I’d like that a
lot.”  I wondered what his birds would think upon hearing their names coming
out of the TV.

Dex gave me
another coy smile. “Good, then it’s a date.”

Oh, no, he
didn’t! He just used the word “date.”   I never expected him to actually ask me
out.  Most guys, after learning I was a demigoddess, lost interest immediately,
disappearing faster than cocks exposed to subzero temperatures.  That’s why I
gave up dating during my first year as a therapist for the BCWs.  Sure, I went
out with guys in college, but never had a second or third date with them.  By
that time, they usually figured out I wasn’t going to spread my legs, and
dumped my ass before moving on to the next easy lay.

“You, mister,” I
picked up a breadstick and pointed it at him, “know that is a dangerous word to
use.”  I grimaced when I realized the breadstick looked like a well-endowed
penis.   Would he make that connection?  I stuck the end of it in my mouth. 
His eyes dilated while watching my lips, like a hungry dog waiting for table
scraps.

 “It is?”  He
forced his gaze to shift and perfectly copied my innocent look.

I vigorously
nodded. 

“Why?   Because
if we start to date, it will lead to sex?”  His eyes spoke volumes about all the
different positions he wanted to try with me. 

“And you’re okay
with turning me into a baby factory?”  With any other guy, I would have been
appalled, but since I made that instant connection with him, I wasn’t.  True, I
didn’t want to shoot several kids out of my vagina each year with the higher
risk of having multiples, but it could be worth it with the right guy?  Maybe? 
Ugh!  What was I thinking?  I was so not ready to be a mother. 

“And aren’t we
on a quest to find a contraceptive method to prevent that?”  Damn it, he was
answering my question with another question.

“Don’t you
realize that we might fail?”  There!  Two could play this game. 

“Don’t you
realize that we might not?” The edges of his lips curled up in a mischievous
grin while his eyes lit up with laughter.  We sounded ridiculous, arguing about
what we already knew.  Despite that, the pressure kept growing between my
legs.  If he didn’t know that I wanted him before, he definitely knew it now.

A throat was
being cleared over my shoulder.  I turned to find a tall, lanky, fairly
human-looking man, with more grey hair poking out of various places than I’d
seen for a long time, staring at us.  “May I take your drink order?”  Based
upon the way his amber eyes started to glow, I would have definitely ventured
to say he wasn’t human.

Shoot, I hadn’t even
looked at my menu.

“Red or white?” 
Dex asked. 

When I didn’t
look up from my menu, he kicked my foot under the table.  “Hmm?”

“What type of
wine do you like?”  He motioned toward the waiter. 

Oh, well,
normally, I didn’t drink, but today was different.  So, why the Helheim not? 
“I’ll have a glass of chardonnay.”

“I’ll have that
as well.  Let’s make it a bottle.  We can always take home whatever we don’t
finish.”  Dex turned his luminescent, green eyes from the waiter back to me. 
“Do you know what you want?”

I chewed on my
lip as I looked over the dinner choices.  Should I choose something guaranteed
to add an inch to my hips? Or select a stupid salad?  My stomach growled. 
“I’ll get the chicken parmigiana.” 

“From which
menu, ma’am?”  The waiter cocked one side of his salt-and-pepper uni-brow.  I
guess the serving size depended on the menu?

“Oh, the dinner
one. Sorry about that.”  I handed him the menu when I finished looking at it.

“And you, sir?”

“I’ll have a
grilled eggplant sandwich from the lunch menu.” He held up the menu for the
waiter.

With a slight
bow, the waiter turned toward the kitchen.  I could almost see a tail trying to
poke out from beneath his pants.

“Please tell me
there isn’t a full moon out tonight.” I shifted my eyes from the waiter’s ass
back to Dex’s face. 

His expression
relaxed after a few seconds as he thought about my answer. “We have two days to
go.”

“You sure?”  I
took another large bite out of my breadstick.

Dex nodded. “My
father’s a moon god.  I’m sure.”

I blinked. Shit!
I should have remembered that about Thoth.  Note to self: stop sticking my foot
in my mouth around Dex.  “That’s why you ordered off the lunch menu?  You’re
nocturnal?” 

Dex shrugged.
“Depends on my work schedule.”  The corners of his lips lifted. “You don’t know
a whole lot about the Egyptian Pantheon, do you?”

 “I know the
basics.”  I took another bite out my breadstick so that I wouldn’t embarrass
myself further. 

Dex broke off a
piece from his own breadstick. “Depending on whom you ask, my father’s the god
of the moon, magic, hieroglyphics, and wisdom, or at least, a combination of
those different things.”  

The waiter came
back with a bottle of wine.  Hair covered his knuckles.  His long-sleeved dress
shirt was cuffed so that only his fingers could be seen.  I imagined he did
that to hide the excessive hair.  Hopefully, he wasn’t the one plating our
meals.