A smidge of voodoo cockt.., p.1
A Smidge of Voodoo (Cocktails in Hell Book 7), page 1
a smidge of voodoo
S.E. Babin
Copyright © 2024 by S.E. Babin
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover by We Got You Covered.
contents
Foreword
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Also by S.E. Babin
About the Author
foreword
Thanks so much for loving Violet as much as I do!
If you spot any typos, please do me a solid and send me an email at authorsebabin@sebabin.com. We’re only human around here (unfortunately) and make mistakes. I’d like to know so I can correct them asap.
Feel free to drop me a line there too, any time. I don’t have a PA, so I personally respond.
Happy reading!
chapter
one
The angel’s presence brushed against my senses. I stilled in the act of wiping down the counters, mentally checking the bar’s wards before relaxing. To my relief, the new additions held. Since Lucifer came back from his captivity, he had a much less relaxed view of security. Not that he was ever relaxed about it.
Before it happened, he allowed angels to access his bar whenever they wanted. Now, even his own kind couldn’t come in. Not unless he allowed it. This included him, which seemed like overkill, but Lucifer brushed my concerns away, telling me he’d rather be safe than sorry. Each time he had to enter or exit, Lucifer had to manually open and close them. Unfortunately, this included me too. I was a mutt, but I had angelic blood thanks to my shit bag of a dad. Even I couldn’t access the wards unless I took the time to dismantle the spell we’d crafted together.
Eventually, we’d key them to our blood, but it would require more effort and more magic than either of us wanted to expend right now. We had to save every drop of our power that we could. The ball would drop soon, and none of us wanted to face it unprepared.
The angel settled a few minutes before I went to him, and I took the time to make some necessary precautions and calm my nerves before seeing him again. I wrapped my new magic around me and tightened it like a second skin. It was not time for him to see what I was becoming.
Michael knew I would go to him tonight, just as I knew I would be the last thing he saw when he eventually drew his last breath. It might not have been foretold, but I would ensure it.
To keep everyone I loved alive, I had to.
"How'd you get out of the building?" I asked once the door shut behind me, clicking the lock into place. He was the only one who managed to escape the chaos of the "peace talks." We had no intention of making peace that day.
We only wanted to make a point.
My father sat on the roof of Swan's, his powerful legs swinging casually as if he wasn't a mass murderer, and I wasn't actively trying to destroy him and everything he stood for.
An outsider watching from afar might call this a bonding moment, but I itched to force a knife through his back with the hope it would puncture his heart.
He laughed. "You aren't as powerful as you think, daughter."
I shuddered. Even knowing I shared half his DNA didn't make his presence any more tolerable. "No one else got out."
"No one else thought you'd actually murder them in cold blood." He sounded almost proud.
I settled myself a few feet away, cross-legged, the frigid bricks sending a chill through my body. I wore a pair of well-loved skinny jeans and a long tunic sweater. Comfort was king these days, and Swan's patrons didn't care what I looked like. My hair flowed loose over my shoulders and down my back.
"Then they don't know me at all."
"No," he agreed. "They do not."
I sat there for a while, wondering why my father wasn't doing anything. Did he really just want to talk?
"What's the end game here?" I asked, breaking the tense silence.
He appeared to contemplate my question for a long moment before lifting the edge of his wing. "Everything," he said simply.
I repeated the word under my breath. His answer didn't surprise me.
“You want everyone to bow to you.”
Michael’s lips lifted in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Everyone and everything. We cannot continue to exist without a leader.”
“We already have a leader.”
He studied me. “Do we? Where is God, Violet?”
“Hell if I know. I’m not an angel.”
My father sighed. “You are an angel. That’s the problem.”
It wasn’t a problem while I’d been in hiding for all those years. “Why are you here?”
“I’ve thought a lot about your mother and you. While I would have come after you again had I known of your earlier survival, I’ve realized you have certain skills that would benefit my cause.”
I blinked at him. “You want me to come to the side that wipes out all the humans and paranorms?”
He lifted a hand, the simple gesture somehow condescending. “I don’t want to wipe out anyone. God created humans in his image.” One side of his mouth lifted in an odd smile. “If you believe the stories.”
“Err. The stories? Like all the religious texts in the world?”
Michael shrugged. “Those texts are fallible. Just like man.”
I was debating theology with my psycho father, who was one of God’s most loyal followers. Supposedly.
“What do they really say?”
My father laughed. “Only God knows.”
“Then how do you know it changed?”
“Because He said it did. He is disappointed in humanity.”
“Everyone is disappointed in humanity,” I muttered.
He laughed, and I wished it didn't sound so welcoming. “That’s my point. Help me remake it.”
I shook my head. “You want to destroy everything and start from scratch instead of fixing what you messed up.”
Michael’s eyes flashed. “I messed nothing up.”
“Then who did?” Would he really blame God? Was it God’s fault? Was it no one’s fault? Was it the humans' fault if God had made them in His image? I rubbed the spot between my brows. This was all so very confusing.
I tried another tactic. "If He's so disappointed in everyone, then why isn't He doing something about it?"
"You don't understand anything about leadership, Violet."
I bristled.
"A CEO doesn't get involved in issues. He sends trusted agents to take care of the issue."
"Then why is Lucifer his most favored?"
It was Michael's turn to bristle. "God is unwell."
I threw up my hands. "God is either missing, gone, unavailable, or unwell. Which one is it?"
Michael smiled and rose to his feet, his tremendous wings spilling from his shoulders. I was far enough away to anticipate a strike, but I was close enough for the motion to sweep my hair away from my face. "Why can't it be all of them?"
I stood up and took a few steps back. "We can still work this out."
"There is nothing to work out. Either you join me, or you will perish."
The way he said it, so emotionless, gave me pause. He didn't want me to join him out of love or care or because of my relationship to him, he wanted me for my powers. Chires and Callie quivered against my hips.
I brushed a hand over Chires' sheath, calming him. "You don't think you can lose, do you?"
My father snapped his wings out, the glorious spread so large the feathers almost touched my nose. "I have not existed for so long by losing." He turned to study me. "Five days, Violet. Decide. Join me or die."
Without waiting for me to respond, Michael launched from the roof, straight into the sky.
"Remember what we discussed?" I whispered to Chires.
"Let me loose," he growled.
I unsheathed both daggers, put all my focus into both, and waited for Michael to right himself toward a steady path. The second he did, I held both arms out and shot two beams of Hellfire straight at my father.
They tore through his pristine wings like a laser. Michael dipped and lurched, a roar of outrage tearing from his throat. But that wasn't the only surprise I had waiting for him.
Lucifer waited on a rooftop half a mile away. As Michael struggled to heal himself, he lurched and wobbled his way right toward him.
As soon as I heard the angel's first outraged shriek, I smiled and headed back inside Swan's.
None of us expected to kill him tonight. We were neither prepared nor fully trained.
But we could certainly get a head start on trying.
chapter
t
Four months had passed since the night of the angel massacre. We'd yet to see the fallout from our actions, though we all know it would happen when we least expected it. I'd trained with Mom several times a week and had slowly released my block against hurting someone. It helped that Mom held nothing back when she trained and beat the ever-loving shit out of me when she noticed me holding back.
Humans leaned toward a gentle sort of love.
My mom leaned more on the if you don't get your shit together, we will all die, and here let me bite you one more time to get you to see that, you stupid idiot.
It was good to be loved, I guess.
A swirl of darkness coalesced by the Earth door. I poured a glass of whiskey and pushed it toward the end of the bar just as Lucifer stepped out of the darkness and into the bar. He winked as he picked up the glass and headed straight over to Mom's table.
Not dead. Wounded and angry, but not dead. What did he say to you?
Lucifer's words whispered through my mind, the link between us stronger than ever.
He gave me five days to join the dark side, but he didn't even offer me cookies.
No cookies? Lucifer's cool amusement slid through me. What kind of monster is he?
A cocky one. He's adamant we're all going to perish in a rain of death and destruction.
Ah. Ever the optimist.
I couldn't shake off the hinky feeling the meeting had given me. Why didn't he try to attack me?
You think of him as purely evil, and he is not. He is a master strategist and rarely loses. You've embarrassed him more than once and surprised him more than that. Instead of continuing to fight you, he's better off trying to recruit you. If you come to his side, his victory is assured.
I snorted at that one. I hardly think it's assured.
Lucifer merely made a mmmm noise. I'm going to have a drink with your mother. She's going to tell me all about your training session today.
I shot him a glare. The training session consisted of two viper bites, a bruised ass, and a cut that went from my ankle to my thigh. Not my brightest moment.
His teeth flashed white in the low light of the bar, and he waved his glass at me.
Mom's laugh sounded over the music, so I shot her a glare, too.
A rainbow tentacle slid over the staircase, slick and moist, wrapping around the banister. My hands stilled from wiping the glasses, the cloth forgotten as I watched. Dave didn't often let his tentacles come out, and when he did, everyone stopped to see what world of hell might come raining down upon them.
Oh. Wait. Arms. Dave rarely let his arms come out to play. He was sensitive about what we called them. As he should be. If they aren’t tentacles, then they aren’t tentacles, right?
A female screech of elation sounded from the top, close to my apartment, followed by the sight of a bare-chested Dave with his other human arm wrapped around Clara's waist swinging her up and over, a whirl of pale skin and dark hair, before gently settling her on the ground.
I let out a huff of breath, my heart pounding in my chest, carefully not staring at the etched outline of Dave's quite glorious eight-pack. She stood on her tiptoes and brushed her lips over his, the gently rounding swell of her stomach pressing into his hips.
Dave and I locked eyes. While amusement lurked there, a careful sense of wariness he never let Clara see also shimmered, matching my own.
Clara was always a little weird, a little wild, a lot bloodthirsty.
But lately…
Lately, she'd been a hot damn mess.
And not in a good way.
She seemed feral. More than usual. And I'd caught her staring at my neck in a way that made me think she was hungry. It was completely freaking me out. The crimson flash that sometimes rolled over her eyes when she was vamping out came more frequently, but it came when she spoke to me when it never had before unless she did it on purpose.
She was more sexual, scarier, more violent, a little more unhinged.
And, honestly, it was scaring the ever-loving hell out of me.
Clara's hands gripped both sides of Dave's face, unfamiliar, red-tipped claws sinking just at the edge of his skin, close enough to harm. She deepened the kiss, pressing into him. Dave didn't mind public displays of affection, but as our eyes locked, I noticed a flash of despair before he closed them and focused his attention on her.
My heart grew another crack.
This was more than hormones. Whatever this was felt sinister.
I didn't know how to fix her or even if I could.
What I did know?
I would die trying before I gave up on her.
Clara stirred the virgin espresso martini and frowned at it. "No vodka?"
I pointed at her stomach. "Bambino. No booze for you until you pop the squid baby out."
"Technically, then, this isn't a martini. It's just espresso."
I shrugged. "Coffee is good for your red blood cells." I had no idea if that was true, but Clara rarely listened to logic, so she didn't care either way.
"I don't have red blood cells," she muttered around a mouthful of drink.
I thought about it for a moment. "You do. They probably don't work, though."
Clara snorted. "Then why the hell didn't you put booze in this?"
I wiggled my finger at her. "You know the rules."
She sighed. "Only a few months left." Her hand curved over her stomach possessively. "I can't wait to see him."
"Me too." A child would change things around here, but I couldn't help but smile when I thought about their baby being cooed at by an army of demons.
"Clara?"
She glanced up. "Hmm?"
"Are you okay?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Why? Has Dave said something to you?" She pushed the drink away. "I swear. Being a pregnant vampire is already weird. I'm not allowed to have some hormonal blips before Dave loses his mind?"
I stared at her. She never criticized Dave. "He hasn't said a word to me. I swear. But I've noticed some things that make me worry. All I want to do is help you. That's all. I have no idea what it's like for you, but if you need anything, you know I'm here, right?"
A thread of crimson rolled over her irises. My hands tightened on the glass I was polishing. Defending myself from her would break my heart, but I would do it. Her nostrils flared, and the edge of a lethal fang slid down the edge of her lip. With a huff, she stood and walked out of Swan's, slamming the door behind her.
Gary, ever sensitive to the mood at Swan's, struck up Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me. Tears swam in my eyes, and I blinked them away. Even though the bar felt like one big family, I was still at work. Crying would come later.
Dave settled onto an empty stool and reached over. I put my hand in his and he squeezed just once. "It isn't hormones," he said quietly. "Not everything. I sense something inside of her. A presence that shies away when I try to grasp it."
"A spell?"
"Maybe. But it feels parasitic."
"Great," I muttered. "I'll ask Baba when she gets in."
"I appreciate it." His gaze landed on the door. "She's been going out at night."
"Has she ever done that before?"
Dave shrugged. "Not without me."
"I'll find out what it is," I swore to him. "When the bar shuts down, I'll talk to Lucifer." I passed a Hydration Special over to him along with the small charcuterie board Clara had abandoned. That right there would have told me something was wrong if I hadn't noticed anything before. The woman was a living Hoover and never left extra food lying around.
He nodded. "Thanks. I plan to return to the waters tomorrow to ask my people if she can be helped. Will you keep an eye on her for me?"
"Of course." Easier said than done, but I'd do my best. Clara and I had never been at odds before, so this felt off. Like wearing someone else's shoes.
Dave tossed down the rest of his drink and slid off the stool. “Dark things are coming. The waters churn with anticipation.” He tapped the bar once and disappeared into a violent rush of water, seeping through the cracks of the flooring and out the bottom seam of the door.
It always weirded me out when he did that.
I stood there for a moment, thoughts whirling. Clara and Dave were my closest allies and my closest friends. Losing either one of them was not an option.
I motioned to one of the demons helping me out part-time. She nodded and took the towel from me, picking up the glass shining while I took my apron off and headed over to Lucifer.
