Richelle Mead: Succubus Shadows

“Why are you alone?” I asked Beth. She was a long-time employee and a good one, answering my question without even looking up from her customer’s order.

“Gabrielle’s on break, and Doug isn’t…feeling well.”

Memories of the vodka competition came back to me. I grimaced, feeling both guilty and smug. “Where is he?”

“Over in erotica.”

I felt my eyebrows rise but said nothing as I turned away and walked across the store. Our small erotica section was bizarrely stuffed in between automotive and animals (amphibians, to be precise). And crammed in between the two shelves of the erotica section was Doug, sitting on the floor with his head resting facedown on his knees. I knelt beside him.

“Hair of the dog time?” I asked.

He lifted his head and brushed black hair out of his face. His expression was miserable. “You cheated. You’re like half my size. How are you not in a coma?”

“Older and wiser,” I said. If only he knew just how old. I took hold of his arm and tugged it. “Come on. Let’s go to the café and get you some water.”

For a moment, he looked like he’d resist, but a valiant effort soon followed. He even managed not to stagger too much as I led him to the store’s second floor, which was half books and half coffee shop.

I grabbed a bottle of water, told the barista I’d pay for it later, and started to drag Doug to a chair. As I scanned around, I nearly came to a halt, causing poor Doug to stumble. Seth was sitting at a table, laptop spread open in front of him. This was his favorite place to write, which had been nice when we dated and now was…awkward. Maddie sat with him, purse in hand and light coat on. I recalled that we started at the same time today. She must have just arrived.

They waved us over, and she gave her brother a chastising look. “Serves you right.”

Doug took a long gulp of water. “Whatever happened to sisterly love?”

“I still haven’t forgiven you for the time you shaved my dachshund.”

“That was like twenty years ago. And that little bastard had it coming.”

I smiled out of habit. Doug and Maddie’s bantering was usually must-see TV for me. Today, Seth held my attention. It had been easier to ignore him last night while in the throes of alcohol, easy to pretend I’d grudgingly accepted him moving on to Maddie. But now, in the cold light of sobriety, I felt that old ache stir within my chest. I swore I could smell the scent of his skin, his sweat mingled with the woodsy apple soap he used. Sunlight from the café’s large windows infused his messy brown hair with copper, and I could perfectly recall what it had been like to stroke the lines of his face, the smooth skin of his upper cheek and stubble on his chin.

Looking up to his eyes, I was surprised to see his attention on me as the siblings continued their playful bickering. I’d almost convinced myself last night that he only thought of me as a friend, but now…now I wasn’t so sure. There was something warm there, something considering. Something I knew shouldn’t be there. I suddenly had a sneaking suspicion that he might be remembering the handful of times we’d had sex. I was thinking of it too. My powers had been shut off when Jerome disappeared, and Seth and I had been able to have “safe”—by which I meant, no succubus side effects—sex.

Except for one. He’d still been dating Maddie at the time, and cheating on her had tainted his soul with sin. That was worse than if I’d sucked his energy away. As of this moment, Seth was a Hell-bound soul. He didn’t realize that, but regret for betraying her was part of what had spurred him to a hasty engagement. He felt he owed her.

The guilt forced me to look away from him, and I noticed then that Maddie and Doug had stopped their arguing. Maddie was glancing over at the coffee counter, but Doug’s eyes were on me. They were bloodshot and weary, with heavy dark circles. But in the midst of that miserable, hungover look…there was a glint of something puzzled and surprised.

“Work time,” said Maddie cheerfully, standing up. She poked her brother’s shoulder, making him wince and turn his attention from me. I was glad. “You going to survive your last couple hours?”

“Yeah,” he muttered, drinking more water.

“Go count inventory in the back,” I told him, standing as well. “I don’t want customers thinking our staff can’t hold their liquor. They’d be over at the chain stores so fast, it wouldn’t even be funny.”

Maddie’s lips quirked into a smile as her brother wearily rose to his feet. “Hey, Georgina. Do you mind if Doug and I switch shifts on Tuesday? I need to go run some wedding errands during business hours.”

Doug cut her a look. “When were you going to ask if I minded?”

“Sure,” I said, trying not to wince at the word “wedding.” “You can work the night shift with me.”

“You want to come along?” she asked. “You said you would.”

“I did?”

“Last night.”

I frowned. God only knew how many promises I’d made and had now forgotten, thanks to vodka and weird magical forces. Vaguely, I recalled her showing me wedding pictures. “I think I have some errands of my own to run.”

“One of the places is right around the corner from you,” she urged.

“Maddie,” said Seth hastily, clearly as uncomfortable with this change of topic as I was. “If she’s busy—”

“You can’t be busy all day,” Maddie begged. “Please?”

I knew it was disastrous, knew it would be courting heart-ache and trouble. But Maddie was my friend, and the pleading look in her eyes did something to my insides. It was guilt, I realized. Guilt over how Seth and I had betrayed her. Her expression now was full of such faith and hope in me—me, the best friend she had in Seattle and the only one she believed could help her plan this wedding.

Which is why I found myself agreeing, just as I had last night. Only this time, I had no alcohol to blame. “Okay.”

Guilt was probably the worst culprit of all when it came to stupid behavior.

Iworked until closing that night and didn’t get home until around ten. To my surprise, I found Roman on the couch eating a bowl of cereal while the cats competed for who could take up the most attention on his lap. Honestly, they seemed to love him more than me lately. It was a betrayal of Caesarean proportions.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, sitting on the armchair opposite him. I noticed then that the last of the party untidiness had been cleaned. Somehow, I suspected mentioning that would result in him never cleaning again. “I figured you’d be out chasing Jerome’s succubus.”

Roman stifled a yawn and set the empty bowl on the coffee table. Immediately, both cats sprang off his lap to get to the residual milk. “I’m on break. Been following her all day, though.”

“And?” My natural curiosity aside, I was uneasy about the idea of Jerome’s authority being called into question. The arch-demon might annoy me sometimes, but I had no desire for a new boss. We’d come dangerously close to a leadership change when he’d been summoned, and I hadn’t been impressed with any of the candidates.

“And it was incredibly boring. You’re much more fun to stalk. She went shopping for most of the day. I didn’t even know stores would let you take that much shit into dressing rooms. Then, she picked up a guy at a bar, and, well, you can figure out the rest.”

I rather liked the idea of Roman suffering while Simone had sex. “Figured your voyeuristic tendencies would be into that kind of pornographic display.”

He made a face. “It wasn’t good porn. It was like the nasty, kinky porn they keep in the back of the store. The kind of stuff that only really sick people go after.”