Page 21 of Oracles Always Win

Nelson’sconcern was valid.

Undernormal circumstances,I’ddemand a record of the bar’s permits.Aplace needed to be registered with theSupernaturalCouncilto serve food or drink with magical properties, andIdidn't see the necessary permits on the walls.Thedocumentation was supposed to be posted just like any fire or alcohol permit, although they were spelled so only other supes could read the notifications.Butthey weren’t here.I’dchecked.IknewNelsonandIsaacwould have done the same.Afterall,Itrained them.

Basedon whatJakehad said, and the casual way he'd admitted to serving the drink,Ididn't think the kid—Igrimaced,Ishouldn’t think of him as a kid, not whenIwas keenly interested in seeing him naked—even knew what he was doing or that he was breaking at least four different supernatural regulations.

Whythe hell hadn’t the hellhound in the local police confiscated theWitch’sMilkafter the grandfather died?WhatifJakehad served it to a human?And, more importantly, did he have more magically enhanced drinks behind the bar?

Atthe moment, it appearedJakewas just as haphazard with the care and monitoring of enhanced drinks as he was with the magical items that’d been left to him.Thosesame magical items that had been stolen.Theones we’d been hired to find.TheonesJakedidn’t seem to care about, if whatVansaid was true.

Seeingso many messy things tangled around this one person was enough to make me crazy.Thisinn was just one red flag after another, but we wouldn't get anywhere by busting the local bar owner on our first day in town, nor was that the case we were here to investigate.Still,Icouldn’t let this slide, either.Nomatter how cute the bartender was.

I’dhave to askVanhow the magic-infused drinks were being monitored.Icouldn’t imagine him turning a blind eye to the situation without there being a system in place to protect his people—even the humans.Thehellhound’s innate moral compass wouldn’t let him.

Mydecision to ignore the infraction a little longer had nothing to do withJake.Orhis cute as fuck face.

Nope.

IfDavinawas here, she’d be whacking me on the back of the head and telling me to smarten up about now.AndmaybeIshould.Itdidn’t matter how many timesItold myself to focus on what we’d come here to do, the cute bartender continued to distract the hell out of me.

Ihad no idea whyIcouldn’t stop myself from thinking about him.Itwasn’t like he was going out of his way to fall in my lap like the seductive succubus had.Basedon our conversation and the way he stammered at my suggestions,Ihad the senseJakedidn’t normally kiss random strangers or make plans to take them home later.

And, ifIthought about the situation for more than five seconds,I’dprobably also decideIshouldn’t get involved with him until he had his shit figured out.Itwouldn’t be fair to him.

Ofcourse, a little voice inside my head had to point out whateverImight do withJakewould be little more than a fling, so would it matter if he didn’t knowIwas a supernatural being or understand what that meant?IfIwas any other kind of supe, it probably wouldn’t.Butmost supes didn’t want to get too close to a demon who wasn’t grounded in a location.Untethereddemons tended to go insane and kill people.Andthat risk tended to kill—pun intended—most people’s interest.

Ourcurrent investigation didn’t help the situation either.Myteam andIsuspected a demon was involved with the trafficking ring we’d stumbled upon a few weeks ago.Becausewhat was worse than having one demon in the area?Twodemons.

ButIwasn’t prepared to listen to any of those reasons to stay away fromJake.Itdidn’t matter if it was the right thing to do.Myinstincts were driving me right now, and everything in me was fixated on that cute bartender.

"Let'sleave it for now,”Isaid, answeringNelson’squestion. “Ihave a feeling there is more going on here than what we can see."

"Whywould we do that?"Isaac’seyes took on a darker brown lustre, showing his centaur.

"Isthis because you’re attracted to him and want to get your dick wet?"Nelsonchallenged, holding my gaze.

“Holyshit,Nel.”Isaacwhistled and brayed out a loud laugh. “Ican’t believe you said that.”

Istared atNelsonsteadily.Ididn’t bring my power forward.Therewas no need.Nelsonknew better than to ask me shit questions like that.Evenif they were true.

"Okay, boss."Nelsonaverted his eyes after several long seconds. “Iwas out of line.”

“AsIsaid, there is something more going on here,”Isaid. “WhenItried to read the bartender,Icouldn’t.Hewas muffled somehow.Itisn’t natural.”

“Ishe casting a spell to disguise himself?”Nelsonasked.

“No.Idon’t sense that kind of active spell work around him.Ineed to think on it a bit more.It’sstrange.”Ishook my head and glanced back atJake.Theguy was busy pouring drinks and looking everywhere in the room except at our table.

“Acurse then?”Isaacgrimaced. “Nasty.”

“Possibly.I’mnot sure yet,”Iadmitted.

Nelsonwatched me carefully asIspoke.Thenhis eyes went back toJake.

“Soit’s more than just sex,” he said, mostly to himself.

Afterthat, the three of us didn't say much.Wepretended to watch the afternoon baseball game on theTVmounted on the far wall, but it was just a ruse to let us listen in to conversations.Thechatter was a low hum around us, butIexpected none of the supes were letting their guard down.Nottoday.NotafterI’dconfronted that troll.

Supescould see my horns, but most wouldn’t know what that meant since there weren’t a lot of demons wandering around anymore.Inthe past,I’dbeen mistaken for a lot of things, including a ram shifter in a partial shift.Davinahad laughed her ass off at that one.Butunveiling my power?Thathad been a mistake, so early in our investigation.Butwhen the troll had attackedJake, my urge to protect him had nearly overwhelmed me.