shut with a smug smile and handed it back to me. “All taken care of.”
“What are you thinking?” I exploded. “My boss can’t think I’m skipping work for a boob job!”
“If it makes you feel any better, she said she wasn’t surprised. Besides, how else do you plan on explaining the new, improved you?”
As she spoke, a small elderly woman in an apron and powder-blue dress entered the kitchen and my protest died in my throat as I watched her prepare a plate of bacon, eggs, and sausage for Remy.
My stomach rumbled at the sight. Remy picked up a piece of bacon and nibbled on the end. “You hungry?”
“We just ate not too long ago.” But I
“Your metabolism’s different now that you’re immortal.” She leaned in, whispering, “Besides, if I have the servants cook three meals a day for me, they think I’m normal.”
“You have servants?”
Her brows creased together. “Uh, yeah. You didn’t think I was the housework type, did you?”
Well, no. I leaned in, trying to keep my voice low. “But what about the whole undead thing? The vampires?”
She rolled her eyes and took another bite of bacon. I was tempted to steal it off her plate; it smelled amazing and I was starving. “First of all,” she said, “quit saying that we’re undead. It makes me think of zombies. Second of all, no vamps or any other weirdos can come here. I’m warded, remember? The best witches in town crawled all over this place. Priests too, so stop worrying about that part. Third of all, it’s not like I do anything unusual except have a few male guests now and then.” She shrugged once again. “Ethel just thinks I’m a bit of a loose woman.” Remy took another bite of bacon and beamed at me. “So do you want breakfast?”
Of course, I did. I turned to Ethel. “I’ll have what she’s having, please.”
Remy grinned at me. “Well, well, aren’t we proper and polite? I bet you turned in your homework on time and made straight A’s through school.”
I ignored her and poured myself a cup of coffee.
Remy wouldn’t be deterred. “Any boyfriends? Or did dating interfere with work? And how about sex partners? I’d be guessing fewer than three.”
She’d be guessing two too many, if you didn’t count Noah, but I wasn’t letting her know that. I returned her ambiguous shrug and dug into the food Ethel placed in front of me.
“Oh, come on. Are you still mad about the job thing?” Remy gave me an incredulous look.
“I’m a little mad, yeah,” I found myself saying. “Do you know how hard it is to find a decent docent position in this city?”
“A decent what?”
“A
Remy’s bright blue eyes looked over-bright in her honey-colored face. “Sounds boring as all hell. Don’t worry, I imagine you’ll still have a job in a few days-which gives you plenty of time to figure out what your situation is.”
I stirred four cubes of sugar and some creamer into my coffee and slurped it. Delicious. “Uh, situation? What do you mean, other than the whole succubus thing?”
Remy polished off her breakfast with a few quick bites. “Well, you’ve got a lot of things on your plate right now: first and foremost being the fact that someone took the time to drain you dry and then left you in Noah’s path. It could have been coincidence, but I’m not a big believer in that sort of thing. That means the vamps have an agenda, and we need them to make the first move so we can figure out what they’re up to. Not to mention I’m still expecting one of the others to make an appearance. They usually do.”
I took a bite of the most blissfully crisp bacon in my life and sighed with delight. As I ate a few more slices, Remy continued to stare at me. “Oh,” I said, realizing she was waiting for me to respond. I had to think back to what she had said. “What ‘others’ do you mean?”
“Angels and the like. If we’re unlucky, a demon or two.”
I choked on my bacon. “Do we have to see all those?”
“I’m hoping not, but you never know-especially with a new succubus. You’re like an ever-flowing goody bag to them, so they’re drawn to our kind.”
I wrinkled my nose at her. “So in other words, I’m now catnip to the scum of the world?”
“Scum of the Heavens is more like it.” Remy jumped up and grabbed my plate as I was buttering a biscuit. “Come on, we’ve got to leave soon if we don’t want to be late.”
I crammed the biscuit into my mouth and watched longingly as she removed my plate. “Why is it,” I muttered around a mouthful of food, “that we can’t be late to
Remy winked. “Trust me, all right?”
I sulked. “I hate it when you say that.”
“That’s why I say it. Now go and get dressed like a good little succubus.”
I slammed out of my seat. “Fine. But we’d better be making a doughnut run on the way, or someone’s going to be cranky.”
Remy laughed as I trotted upstairs.
Since I didn’t know what Remy did for a living, I didn’t know what I should wear. Since she was dragging me against my will, I opted for casual and slid into the hot pink Juicy sweatsuit we’d picked up yesterday. It was comfortable, hugged my new body like a second skin, and bold printing across the fanny pronounced my ass was “Juicy” indeed. With my new looks and my new friend, it felt more like I was playing a role than being myself, and I decided to dress for the part. I stepped into some matching sneaker pumps and grabbed my purse.
Remy met me at the bottom of the staircase. I was relieved to see she was wearing something similar, except her jumpsuit was a dark blue and she wore a shirt under it that had a pink star across the chest. “Let’s get going, shall we?”
She drove, naturally. I didn’t own a car, and Remy didn’t seem like the public transportation type. I had to admit that I didn’t mind riding around in the posh little BMW.
The drive downtown was relatively short. Perhaps because it was so early in the morning, but the traffic was clear as could be. Remy was as wide awake as me, and since neither of us had slept in days, I supposed that the not-sleeping thing had some truth in it.
We pulled up in front of a nondescript building on the corner of Sixth and Main, in the business district. The windows were clean, the shades open, and I could see people moving around inside what seemed to be a busy office. Surprised, I turned to Remy. “You work in a corporate office?”
“Not exactly.” She winked at me and slid out of the car.
The sight of two beautiful women walking into the office didn’t cause even one head to turn. It bugged me; I knew how damn good I looked. But the suits sat in their desks, answered their phones, and ignored us. Bizarre.
Remy waved at the receptionist as she walked to one of the back rooms. “We’re heading for the studio.”
I followed close behind her, curious. “Is that why you looked so familiar to me? Are you an actress?”
“Something along those lines, yeah.” She gave me a very blue-eyed look and I realized that Remy would need to feed her Itch, and soon, or we could have some problems.
She pushed through the double doors ahead of me and was immediately greeted by a man with a headset over his ear. “Remy baby, how are you?”
“Good morning, James. I’m lovely. How are you?” She gave him a kiss on the cheek, her hand sliding into his. “Is everything ready for the shoot?”
“Ready as they’ll ever be.” He gestured to the set in front of us, which looked like a bedroom in the final stages of preparation. Stage hands rushed everywhere, fluffing pillows and straightening the covers, and securing microphones in out-of-the-way locations. I watched with interest, wondering what they were taping. Soaps, maybe?
