Lechomancer Read Free

had they?  Glancing at the clock radio by her bed, she realized she needed to leave, or she would be late.  She found a red scarf, and tied it around her neck to cover the bruise.  She finished getting ready, deciding to figure out what had happened later.

Chapter 2: The Rite of Devotion
     
    There was something different on Lisa’s second day at the public library.  Her boss, Josh, a thin bald man with a full beard, was much more helpful than he had been when she was interviewing.  Margery, who had been passive aggressive through all of the previous day just gave her some space.  Tammy and Linda, the two other junior librarians hadn’t talked to her, but now they seemed afraid of Lisa, instead of dismissive.
    She found she liked it.  Lisa felt like she was the most important person in the building, and everyone else needed to be careful around her.  Usually, she was the one who kept to herself, ensuring she didn’t offend anyone.  Not today.  Most of the patrons of the Library were students from the University a few blocks away, borrowing books not in the school’s collection, and she found herself smiling at the cuter guys, feeling braver and more certain than she ever had before.
    Lisa wanted to attribute her newfound confidence to her clothes.  The low cut blouse that made the college boys nervous when she leaned forward, and the grey short that accented her cute little ass.  Every reflection she passed confirmed she was pulling off sexy librarian for the first time in her life.
    At her desk, she saw the book, and knew it wasn’t just the clothes.  It had to be the book.  It had given her the strangest … dream.  She told herself it was a dream.  Under the red scarf tied around her neck were bruises which hinted she hadn’t been alone, that someone had pleasured her, and choked her, and left her feeling charged, and alive, scared, and horny.
    She sat down, with her hand sliding up to the scarf.  She shook her head.  It had to have been her imagination.
    Then she saw the title of the book had changed.  Yesterday, it had been in Latin, Princeps Incubi.  Now it read The Incubi Prince.  Lisa swallowed.  She flipped open to the middle of the book.  The words had changed.  Now they were in English.  The page she was on described a ritual, one which could change a person’s object of obsession. 
    Disturbed, Lisa closed the book, stuffed it under a stack of papers, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the stacks, restocking books, avoiding everyone.  But she kept thinking about the book.  She tried to stay focused on work, but she kept wanting to see what else the book could do.  Object of obsession?  That was an odd phrasing.  Was it talking about a love spell?  What kind of book was it really?
    By three, she couldn’t take it anymore.  Lisa returned to her desk.  Hers was at the back of the room, beside Josh’s, behind Tammy and Linda and Margery’s.  She pulled the book out from its hiding place, and opened it right to the beginning.  Each chapter had started with a pencil image of a handsome man, teasing and undressing a beautiful woman.
    Today, that woman was missing.  In her place was an unmistakable image of Lisa.  She flipped to the start of each chapter, and watched the handsome man tease her, play with her, satisfy her, all with half a smile on his face.  She wanted to close the book again, to hide, but she returned to the first pages, where the drawing showed her, fully dressed, in the exact grey skirt, white blouse, and scarf she was wearing that day.
    She started skimming through the first chapters.  The book described that, if she wished to gain his favour, to call his powers for his own ends, she must please Erostopholes, the Incubi Prince.  She must perform the Rite of Devotion, to begin the path.
    “Rite of Devotion?” she muttered to herself.  She glanced up, and through the window, she saw the man from the book, the one who had been in the bed last night,