Signed in Incubus: A Paranormal Monster Romance (Possessive Monsters Book 6)

Chapter 4

Prax

I quickly read through the file on the senator I was supposed to pick up and drive to the airport. This wasn’t a job for Desmon, but for Red Rock Protective Services. Whenever Desmon didn’t have work for me, he either sent me off to help the Red Rock brothers or to play guard at the museum with Mateo. I’d worn a lot of different hats in the last few months.

According to the dossier, Senator Davis and his wife were here for their daughter’s wedding, but the wedding had fallen through at the last minute when the groom-to-be didn’t show up. Poor woman. I guess that just went to show that being rich didn’t solve all your problems—just a lot of them.

Another demon had been booked to take the job, but his mate had fallen ill, and he couldn’t make it, so they’d called on me. Or rather, they’d called on Desmon to call on me. The job was easy enough: pick them up from their hotel and drive them to their daughter’s place for a quick visit before hurrying them to the airport so they didn’t miss their flight.

Unfortunately, they were late for their pickup by almost half an hour, and they’d had so much luggage with them it was ridiculous. They had only been in town for a few days for the wedding! It had taken me forever to load up the luxury armored SUV since it was explicitly stated in the instructions that I was not to use my superhuman strength unless I absolutely had to.

While the senator and his wife, like everyone else, knew monsters and supernaturals existed, Boston wasn’t quite as open-minded as Darlington. There, monsters still tended to hide what they were. That was why Redrock chose a demonic type for this job. We could take on human form very well when we wanted to.

First stop: their daughter’s house. I wasn’t surprised at the beautiful home in one of the newly built gated neighborhoods. It had a perfectly manicured lawn and a BMW parked in the roundabout driveway. I got out of the SUV and checked for danger. I doubted anyone was lurking in the spiral-trimmed bushes, but I made a show of it anyway.

I followed behind as they made their way to the main entrance. A few moments later, the double doors opened.

“You again!”

Penny stood glaring at me from the other side of the door, her hands on her hips and a shocked look on her face.

“That’s no way to greet us!” her mother huffed as she and her husband bustled inside. Wow. They hadn’t even noticed that Penny had been looking at me, not them.

Pennywas the poor woman who had been stood up at her own wedding? Who in their right mind would give up someone like her? No wonder she’d cast the love-finder spell. She deserved much better.

Since I’d popped directly into her living room guided by the summons, I hadn’t even recognized her home at all from the outside.

Her parents walked into the house, frowning at the moving boxes scattered around the living room, and made their way to the couch. The coffee table was still askew.

“I can’t believe you let this happen. Everyone’s laughing at us now.” Her mother’s angry words caught me by surprise.

“At you?” Penny eyed her mother up and down. “I was the one who got stood up.”

“Don’t you know how bad this looks on our family? On your father? It’s all anyone is talking about.”

On them? Her daughter got stood up, and she’s worried about how bad it looks on her father? She just won the Worst Mother of the Year Award from me.

Penny inhaled and exhaled slowly, and I could see her trying to reel in her emotions. “It wasn’t my idea to make the wedding such a big deal. I just wanted something small and intimate. You’re the one who invited all your friends. Well, surprise, now they all know I got dumped at the altar.”

Her mom threw her a withering look of disgust. “Why is it always about you, Penelope? You’ve always been so selfish. Why can’t you be more like your cousin?”

Penny threw up her hands. “Whatever. Sure. It’s my bad, okay? What do you want me to say?”

Her mother gasped. “Penelope! Where are your manners? We are your parents!” She turned to her husband. “Say something, Douglas! Your daughter is out of control.”

The senator sighed. “You’re lucky it’s not an election year, young lady. Hopefully, everyone will forget about this nonsense by then. But if you want to keep this house, you’d better fix this problem you created.”

“Not sure how you want me to do that. He’s the one who left, remember?”

“You must have done something wrong. Maybe you sassed back to him, like you are to me now. Men hate that.” He gestured to the disaster area of a room around them. “And what is all this mess? Did Travis see this? You should’ve cleaned it up before he came by.”

I couldn’t stop the low, angry growl that rumbled in my throat. It had all three of them turning to me. But I was representing Redrock Protective Services and doing a favor for Desmon. As much as I wanted to tell the senator off, I held my tongue and managed to turn the growl into the sound of a throat being cleared.

“I have been tasked to bring you here for a short visit and then take you to the airport in time for your flight, Senator Davis. Traffic is bad at this hour. If we don’t leave now, you risk being late.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but I planned to drive extra slowly if I had to.

The senator turned back to his daughter. “Fix this problem, Penelope, or else you’re moving home where we can keep an eye on you.”

Her mother sighed heavily. “Men get cold feet all the time,” she said. “You can convince him to come back and go through with the marriage. We’ll tell everyone it was all just a big misunderstanding.”

The hell they would! The idiot had his chance, and he fucked it up.

Penny was mine now.

“I’m sorry. I’ll try my best,” Penny said meekly.

She’d clearly been dealing with her parents for long enough to know what to say to deescalate their wrath, but there was no way she’d actually marry the man who’d stood her up if I had any say in it.

“Sir, we really must go,” I said, keeping my tone as neutral as possible.

I opened the front door for them, in an effort to get them away from Penny as fast as I could. I hated how much her mood had dropped in just the past few minutes.

With twin sighs that clearly stated just how disappointed in her they were, the two walked out to the armored Redrock SUV.

I didn’t head straight back to Penny’s place after dropping the SUV off at the Red Rock garage. Instead, I made a pit stop at Seth’s apartment. I had one more thing to take care of before I could return to her.

Seth was the wizard who had contacted me on behalf of Desmon for this job. It wasn’t Seth who answered, however, but his demon lover.

“We’re not interested,” Liam said the second he saw me.

“Wait.” I transformed my foot into a doorstop and shoved it in the door before he could close it on me. “I’m supposed to be here. I have a meeting with Seth. It’s business.”

The possessive demon narrowed his eyes at me. “Fine. But I’m watching you.” Then, as if to better make his point, he grew an extra pair of eyes on the back of his head and kept them on me as he headed back into the apartment.

I followed him in.

Like me, Liam had once been imprisoned by a family of wizards. Except one of the wizards, Seth, had broken the spell and freed him. Now, the two were inseparable. It was a mutual obsession, a love that beat all odds, and something I coveted.

Seth was a rarity amongst wizards in that he dabbled in witchcraft as well. The witchiness had come from his mother’s side. He was the type of witch who replenished their magic through sex, and Liam was more than happy to oblige, even though he wasn’t an incubus but a normal demon. Their arrangement would have been ideal for me as an incubus, and I’d even tried to get in on it, but Liam had shown surprising possessiveness when it came to Seth. He wasn’t about to share his prize.

I wasn’t sure yet how Penny replenished her magic. How amazing would it be if it were also through sex. Just the thought of her on her knees in front of me, begging for my—

“Prax. You’re just in time. I was about to feed Little Bit.”

Little Bit was Seth’s ball python. It was currently wrapped around Seth’s arm, and the wizard was trying to coax it back into its enclosure. On the other side of the room was a tray with a pre-killed meal next to a pair of tongs.

“It’s already dead. Don’t snakes have an instinct to hunt?”

Seth shrugged. “Little Bit might be a little bit spoiled. I’ve never fed her live meals, so she doesn’t know anything else. Besides, rodents fight back. I dunno. I think it’s inhumane.”

I gawked at the wizard. How could anything as natural as hunting to eat be inhumane? But then again, his reply was something I was coming to expect in this century. People were much more knowledgeable now but somehow also infinitely out of touch with nature.

“Since you’re here, Prax,” Seth said, “I’m guessing that means you’re considering accepting my offer to get into that cave of yours.”

Desmon had offered to help me set up an appointment with an appraiser to see how much the things I’d hidden away before being bound to the wizard were worth these days. The problem was that while I could get to the riches on my own, I couldn’t remove them from their tomb and get them back here.

Seth had offered to help me bring my collection out via a portal, but I hadn’t trusted the wizard at first. I’d kept the location of my collection a secret from those who’d held me prisoner for centuries, and I wasn’t about to give that information away now that I was free.

But I had gotten to know the wizard over the last few months and was willing to trust him with the location of the smaller of the two caves at least. After that, we’d see.

Way back when, it was easy to form whatever I needed, including coins and paper money, with my soul stuff. Small pieces of me could survive on their own for a short while before they puffed into smoke to rejoin my body. Usually, by then, the “coins” were in someone else’s purse, and the fools were none the wiser when they disappeared.

But that was impossible now with payment methods like credit cards and cell phones. I could make my hand look like any device, but it wouldn’t have reception. Same with credit cards. It would look exactly like one but wouldn’t transmit the right data to the chip reader. Cheating my way through society was a lot harder these days.

My kind didn’t really need food, shelter, or anything else to survive, but I did enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and wanted to explore everything this new century had to offer. And that meant I needed funds. Hence, my need to access the treasure in the cave.

“Yes. Let’s do it.”

“If you’re not busy now, we can do it right after I’m finished here.”

I hesitated. I really wanted to return to Penny, but this was important too. I’d told her I’d be back, but not when. Perhaps I could return in the morning and make her breakfast in bed?

Yes, that would work.

“Name your price, wizard. Make it a set amount, though. No percentages.”

Seth laughed. “No charge.”

I cocked my head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “What’s the catch?”

He spread his hands. “No catch. I’m just doing a friend a favor. You know what those are, right? Friends?”

Did I? I’d had dalliances, lots of them: men, women, and monsters I’d spent time with. And associates: other incubi and succubi I’d hunted with. But now that I thought about it, never friends.

“Besides,” he continued. “I want to know what’s inside a centuries-old incubus’s chamber of delights.”

I assumed a female shape, morphing my form into that of the most voluptuous woman imaginable. “If it’s my chamber of delights you want,” I said in a sultry voice, “let me show you.”

I puffed into smoke and laughter as Liam threw a jealous fist at the spot where my face had been. It was much too easy to get that demon to react. But he didn’t need to worry. My eyes weren’t on his wizard right now, not when there was a delectable witch waiting for me at her home.