Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

The door opened and I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Jackie?” Remy asked. “What are you doing?”

My eyes flew open in surprise. “Remy! You’re free!” I leapt up from the booth to hug her.

She stood there silently, letting me hug her without moving. I pulled away questioningly. “Remy?”

She moved for the door leading out, ignoring me. As she reached for the doorknob, I glanced back and saw Zane in the doorway that led downstairs, watching us. I scowled at him and turned my back. The sooner I was out of his presence, the better. “Remy,” I said again. “Where’s Noah? Is he coming?”

“No,” Remy said, her voice soft and exhausted. “He’s not.”

Fear trickled through me. I turned to Zane in disbelief. “He’s not? Why not?”

“You a little slow on the uptake, Princess?” Zane looked me up and down, then gave a small shake of his head. “He offered a trade to the queen. Himself for your friend.”

I went numb. “He did?” I turned to Remy, seeing Noah’s protective smile in my mind. The way he held my hand to reassure me. His gentle caresses. “He gave himself to her?”

“I told him not to,” Remy said, her normal ebullient personality vanished. “He wouldn’t listen. At first she wanted you in exchange for me. Her plan was to get a new succubus under her wing to train as she liked. She knows she can’t do much with me, since I have a long-standing agreement with my master. But you’d be perfect for her plans.” Remy’s bleached eyes met mine, and I realized what she’d been through.

The fear that had been trickling through me turned into a full-blown panic attack. “Me? Why does she want me?”

“She doesn’t. At least not now.” Zane strode forward, shutting the door behind him. “Once your friend Noah heard that, he offered himself in your place. Nitocris didn’t waste any time-she’s waited centuries to get her hands on another angel, even a fallen one.”

I was going to be sick. “What do we do now?”

Remy snorted angrily. “We go find the damn halo and bring it back to her.”

I put a hand to my forehead, trying to will my racing thoughts into order. “Right. Halo. Crap, we can’t give it to her, Remy.” That would be disastrous all around.

“That’s why you’re going to give it to me,” Zane said, his mocking voice close to my ear. “I’m coming with you. Queen’s orders.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Excuse me?” I stared at Zane. “You’re not coming anywhere with me, jerk-off. Got that?”

“You don’t have a choice,” Zane said, and I felt his hands encircle my neck.

I froze, but he only began to rub my shoulders, as if trying to relax me. Relax? Ha! I skittered away from him, shooting him a scathing glance.

“If I don’t come back with the halo, the queen’s going to destroy your friend. If she catches wind that you’ve abandoned me, left me behind, or worse, conspired with the Host rather than her, your friend bites it. Understand?” He leaned toward me, that arch smile pulling at his mouth.

“Yeah, I got it. Let me guess, the queen has spies everywhere, right? This is like a bad B-movie. I’m waiting for Bruce Campbell to come rushing through the door, trailed by zombies.” I rubbed my forehead, feeling the onset of a headache.

“Your friend is very flippant, Remy. She must get that from you.” Zane sounded amused. Did nothing get under this asshole’s skin?

“Trust me, Jackie was like that long before we hooked up.”

I would have been offended if I hadn’t heard the thread of amusement in her voice. It sounded like the old Remy I knew, not the shell-shocked, exhausted one who had emerged from the dark depths.

“I can’t take credit for anything except her taste in fashion,” she added.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t take too much credit in that,” Zane murmured. His lighter flared, illuminating the hard angles of his face as he lit another cigarette. “So what’s the plan, girls? Lead and I’ll follow.”

“Back to my place,” said Remy, her jaw set grimly. “We’ll get some equipment and do some research in the daylight hours, dumping you in my basement until the sun goes down.”

“You sure do know how to sweet-talk a man.” Zane chuckled, then took a drag on the cigarette. “I can hardly wait.”

“I’ll bet.” Remy sounded disgusted. “Let’s go.”

The ride back to Remy’s mansion was an interesting one. She wasn’t talking to me. At all. I couldn’t tell if she was mad and blaming me for what had happened to Noah, or if she was pissed that we had a vampire hitching a ride with us.

Zane had given me the passenger seat and had taken the back without asking. Which was good, because I didn’t want to play second fiddle to him. He sat back there without a word the entire time, and his presence alone put me on edge.

I sat silent myself, Noah’s capture still sinking in.

A soft snore punctuated the uncomfortable silence. I turned around and stared. Zane was slumped over in his seat, legs sprawled out. His mouth hung open, and another loud snore escaped.

Remy glanced in the rearview mirror and breathed a deep sigh of relief. “He’s out. Daylight’s finally kicked in.”

I frowned. “So daylight doesn’t kill them? I guess I’ve seen too many Dracula movies.”

She fiddled with the knobs on the A/C for the millionth time, a sure signal that she was stressed. “They don’t die as soon as day hits, no. Just like Noah’s kind-the Serim-don’t turn to dust as soon as the moon comes out. It’s a gradual process that puts their bodies in hibernation until the next cycle that evening-or morning, depending on your company.” Her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror again, watching Zane snore peacefully. “He’s going to be out for the next twelve hours or so, which gives us plenty of time.” She flashed her turn signal and exited onto an unfamiliar street.

Uh oh. “Time for what, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Remy shot me a look. “To work on getting that halo for ourselves, of course.”

I held my hands up in the air. “Whoa, Nelly. I don’t want any freakin’ part of that thing, understand? I just want to get Noah back.”

The car cruised down one street and then another while I waited for Remy to respond. She said nothing, her hands tight on the wheel. We seemed to be heading steadily toward the slummy part of New City. Graffiti lined the brick walls of run-down shops, and I noticed a lot of unsavory types hanging out on street corners or by Dumpsters. A police car cruised silently past us in the other direction.

“Um,” I tried again, rolling up my window like the chickenshit I was. “So why are we visiting the projects?”

She stopped at the curb by a run-down strip mall. Remy turned off the car and pulled the keys out of the ignition, handing them to me. “Meet me back here in two hours. I need to get a few things.” She opened the driver’s-side door and hopped out, glancing around and then crossing the street in her high heels from last night, fearless as ever as she approached a seedy pawnshop, complete with hoodlums loitering at the front door. One of them nearly fell over at the sight of Remy sashaying to the door.

“Remy!” I slid over into the driver’s seat and rolled down the window. “Remy! Where am I supposed to go with a freakin’ you-know-what in the backseat?”

She turned on the sidewalk and glared at me, shaking her head. She mouthed “research” and disappeared inside.

Crap. I rolled the window up again, fast, and turned to check on Zane. He snored on, apparently unable to hear how much my heart was hammering in my throat. Damn it. What was I supposed to do for the next two hours?