Cursed-epub by Ann Mayburn

voice as she imagined Sean—checking her, those long fingers stroking her body like an instrument. “Good, um…yeah.” Her cheeks also flooded with heat as they stared at each other in the charged silence.
    Kell snorted. “If you two are done blushing at each other like a couple of schoolgirls, we need to find that charm.”
    She considered giving Kell the finger. “What would it look like? Could it be clothing or jewelry or something like that?”
    “Probably jewelry, you would have to wear it all the time.”
    She shook her head. “I don't wear any jewelry. You don't walk through my neighborhood wearing anything that might invite a mugging.”
    Looking confused, Sean held up her hand. “What about this ring?”
    She stared at her hand then back at Sean. “What ring?”
    “This ring, right here.” He ran his finger over the knuckle by her middle finger.
    Very carefully, as though she was speaking to a slow child, she said, “Sean, I'm not wearing a ring.”
    Kell frowned at her and said in an equally slow voice, “Yes, you are. Sean is touching it right now. It's a plain white circle, kind of looks like bone…er, ivory.”
    “No, I'm not wearing a ring.” She jerked her hand away from Sean. “What's wrong with you guys? Don't you think I would know if I was wearing something on my hand?”
    Sean took her hand and knocked it against her empty bottle on the table. It produced a chinking sound, like metal hitting glass. “Not if you've been put under a spell or hypnotized not to see it.”
    Beginning to cry, her voice shook as she said, “Son of a bitch.” She rubbed away the tears before they could fall from her cheeks. “Can we please get this done? No more explanations. I just want it out of me.”
    “Yes.” Sean stroked away a stray tear with his thumb. “I'm going to need you to stand in the middle of the room and follow my directions. I put the succubus to sleep at the club. She's in a state of limbo inside of you right now. We're going to wake the succubus up and draw her into the ring.” Sean moved over to the counter above the fridge. “You should be able to see the ring and once the ring turns black, I want you to place it in the center of the circle of salt that I'm going to make.”
    She padded across the deep carpet and watched Sean spill the salt into a perfect white circle on the dark green carpet. Stroking her finger, she tried to feel the ring that they said was there. “Okay, what should I do?”
    Kell spoke up from his laptop. “It might sting when you force the succubus out. You need to help Sean by not letting it deceive you. It will probably lie to you and try to manipulate you into letting it stay.”
    Placing his big hands on her shoulders, Sean gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. Her whole body warmed from head to toe at the soft press of his lips. The kiss was both comforting and distracting.
    “I swear I will not let anything hurt you, my harmony,” he whispered against her forehead.
    “Your harmony?”
    Sean smiled and just gave her a wink. Once he was on the other side of the room, he grabbed a black case from behind the couch and set it on the table. Whistling a complicated tune, he pulled out a beautiful sword.
    “Please tell me you're not going to use that on me,” she said in what she hoped was a strong voice. Inside she shook like a scared Chihuahua.
    Kell stood and handed Sean a simple silver flute. “No, we need a blessed instrument to destroy the ring. Sean just happens to have a sacred sword, blessed by the high priests and priestesses of over forty-eight different religions.”
    “Well, isn't that handy?” she said faintly as Sean sliced through the air with a simple twist of his wrist.
    Handing the sword to Kell, Sean held the pipe to his lips. “Enough chitchat. Let's get this done before the sun rises.”
    Unsure what to do with herself, she crossed her arms and toyed with the sleeves of Sean's T-shirt as he began to play a simple melody on the