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

Chapter 14

Prax

Penny and I danced the night away, and it was easily the most fun I’d had in centuries. She moved her body against mine like a nymph to a faun’s flute. Gone was any trace of the sadness that I’d sensed when we first met.

No one else bothered her, though I did notice Gwendolyn-Gina grinning at us from time to time. I didn’t mind as long as she kept her sexual appetite to herself. I wasn’t interested in sharing.

As the night wore on, Penny’s behavior changed, and it did so quite suddenly. When she stumbled and clung onto me, she looked up at me, but her eyes didn’t look quite right. I leaned in and took a sniff. Sure enough, she smelled off as well.

I stopped her as she tried to dance again, swaying unsteadily on her feet.

“Penny?”

“Hmm?”

She leaned against me heavily.

“Are you feeling all right?”

“Yeah, of course,” she slurred.

I looked around for her friends who, true to their word, hadn’t strayed far from us. Lily caught my eye, and I carefully moved Penny over to her.

“Something’s wrong,” I said.

She took one look at Penny. “Where’s her drink?” she asked.

“There.” I pointed to the clear, glowing one sitting on the tiny table we’d been dancing next to.

She’d assured me earlier that it was just ordinary gin and tonic and that the glow came from a substance called quinine in the gin, which fluoresced under black lights. I’d seen witches down stranger concoctions, so I assumed she knew what she was doing, but she’d seen my reservations and insisted I take a sip. Sure enough, it was merely gin and tonic. I’d just never seen it under this so-called “black light” before.

Lily took it, sniffed it, then gave it to me. “Does it smell weird to you? My nose isn’t good enough.”

I smelled it and growled. This was not the same drink I’d tried earlier.

“I think someone put something in it.” Lily looked around.

So did I, casting my gaze about trying to figure out which dead man did it. I immediately thought of the man from before, but he was nowhere to be seen.

By now, Griselda had noticed us talking and was making her way over. She knew something was wrong the moment she saw Penny. “Time to go. I’ll take her home.”

She reached as if to take Penny from me, but I held her close to my body. Penny just giggled softly and leaned into me.

“I’ll get her home,” I said.

Griselda narrowed her eyes at me. “I really think it’s best if she came home with me.”

“Yeah,” Lily agreed. “Girls’ night sleepover party. No boys allowed.”

Not this shit again. “I’m not leaving her when she’s like this,” I said decisively. “She’s mine to protect.”

The two exchanged a look.

“We’ll figure it out when we get home. I’m calling us a ride,” Lily said.

I caught the off smell from the drink again as we made our way to the front door. I scanned the crowd but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Something big bumped into me, almost knocking Penny out of my arms. I let out an angry snarl just as a bright flash blinded me.

What the hell?

Then the flash was gone, and a woman was apologizing profusely for bumping into me. She was a tiny thing: there was no way it could have been her. I let it go. I needed to get Penny to safety.

The air outside was chilly and damp as we waited for the ride Lily had called. Mist hung low in the air, and despite being outside, it felt as stuffy to me as it had been in the room full of sweaty bodies.

“Who would do such a thing?” I seethed as I held Penny up.

“Plenty of men prey on women at clubs. That’s why we chose that first spot where we were dancing. Did you notice? The table was against a thick beam and only accessible on one side.”

“I should have watched her drink better.” I’d been so focused on her.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Lily said soothingly. “I’m just glad you noticed something was off.”

“And I’m glad you didn’t just abscond with our friend,” Griselda added.

“I don’t need to do that. I’m welcome in her home. I made her breakfast this morning. If I wanted to take advantage of her...well, actually, I already have, and she loved it.”

“You got a point, demon,” Lily said.

It wasn’t our ride that found us first, but trouble.

The troublemaker from earlier approached us with two of his friends. He might be human, but his friends were not. The pair of them slowly transformed from average humans to their true forms. They shrank and shriveled, becoming angry goblins.

I’d dealt with their kind before. Goblins might be only three-quarters of the height of a human man, but what they lacked in size, they made up for with violence and anger, and they channeled this anger into raw power. They also had a nasty disposition and never fought fair. Luckily, I was an incubus, and demons never fought fair either.

I carefully handed my little witch over to her friends and cracked my neck.

“Stay behind me. They may be small, but they”re vicious.”

Gigi rolled her eyes. “Classic little man syndrome. Don’t worry. We’re not defenseless.”

They chanted something, and a bubble formed a shield around the three of them. Good. I didn’t need to worry about them accidentally getting hurt during any fight.

The first gnarled-looking goblin lunged at me, his claws out. I knew better than to scoff at the little man-goblin. Goblins were nasty, filthy creatures, and wounds from their claws had a tendency to fester and rot before the infection eventually took over the entire body. Most people underestimated them, believing they’d won the fight only to die of infection days later because they’d failed to treat their wounds adequately.

Luckily, it wouldn’t affect someone like me.

I made myself incorporeal, and the creature passed right through me, slamming into the wall with the force of his charge. I formed a giant fist with my hands, solidified just the fist part, and punched the creature in the face. Damn. He acted like he hadn’t even felt it.

“Watch out!” Penny called as their friend threw something at me. At least I knew she was still partly aware of what was happening.

Knowing I couldn’t dodge in time, I tried to pop out, but an invisible blanket fell over me. Suddenly, I was rendered fully corporeal. The nearest goblin jumped me, its claws latching onto me moments before it bit my leg with its sharp teeth. I roared and kicked out. It went flying.

I turned to face the other two only to see the man, who had far more magic than he’d let on—definitely a wizard, and he must have been shielding his magic from detection—and his other goblin friend advancing on the three beauties inside their magical shield. I was still unable to use my demon powers, but I didn’t care. That male was after Penny, and I was not losing her to him. Penny was mine.

I might not be able to phase out or form claws and teeth right now, but I still had demonic strength. With the wizard focused on the three ladies, I snuck up behind him. He noticed me too late. Before he could cast another spell, I punched him square on the nose. There was a loud crack.

Oww! My knuckles. Without my demonic powers, I couldn’t make them unnaturally hard. And despite the fact that some people thought demons couldn’t feel pain, we most certainly could when we were in our solid forms. Like right now.

I turned my attention to the goblin just in time to see it lift magically into the air. It kicked its feet and screamed like a toddler who had just been told he couldn’t go into the candy shop as the two witches held it aloft. No, three witches. Penny might not be fully here, but she was helping a little. She giggled as she helped her friends carry the flailing creature over to a dumpster in the nearby alley. They dropped him in and slammed the lid shut.

“Stupid demon,” the wizard hissed, still holding his bleeding nose. “You will never be good enough to be ‘the perfect man.’ You’re her plaything, nothing more. That’s what your kind always has been and always will be. She’ll use you like every witch before her and toss you aside when she’s had her fun.”

Strange, I’d always thought that was a good thing before. So why did his words sting now?

“I’m still a better choice than you. What type of loser has to drug a woman to win her?”

He stepped back, shock evident on his face. “What are you talking about? You’re such a horrible protector that you allowed the witch to be harmed. See? I am clearly the better man.”

“Not if you’re fucking dead,” I said, advancing on him.

His cocky look faded, and the color drained from his face. But I noticed his eyes weren’t focused on me.

“What the hell?” Lily yelled from behind me.

I felt it now, too: something big, something not of this world. I whipped around.

The dumpster they’d thrown the goblin into was glowing and shaking. Strong magic emanated from it. The lid suddenly blew off entirely, and a ground-shaking roar came from within. A giant hand with fingers the size of large sausages gripped the edge as a troll hauled itself up and over the side. The goblin clung to its fur, shaking like a leaf.

Even hunched over, the troll towered over the rest of us. He was obscenely muscular with brown fur mottled with green moss. The fur covered much of his body, forming a mantle over his shoulders and covering his crotch. Sharp teeth protruded from his mouth. He cast his beady eyes around, looking for something. Then, his eyes landed on Penny.

“Mine. Mate.”

I knew to pick my battles, and in my current condition, temporarily stripped of my demonic powers, I was definitely unable to take on a beast like that. The wizard must have realized the same because he turned and fled, taking his friend with him. The second goblin, still hanging on to the troll’s fur, dropped to the ground and skedaddled as well.

“Eyes sharp!” Lily called. “Our ride’s here.”

Sure enough, an SUV pulled up, and the window rolled down. The demon driver grinned, showing a mouth full of sharp teeth.

“Looks like you’re in a spot of trouble, friends. Get in.”

The three females were already opening the back door and starting to pile in. This demon was our ride?

“You know this guy?” I asked suspiciously.

“Nope,” Griselda said. “But he’s our ride; the license plates and photos match.”

“But he’s a demon.” I turned to the driver. “I mean, no offense.”

“None taken…incubus.”

The troll was stomping his way out of the alley toward us, and I decided the demon was currently the lesser of two evils. I got into the front seat, and soon, we were speeding away from the bellowing monster.

“Our friend here is newly freed, sorry,” Griselda explained from the back seat.

“Ah, that explains it.” The driver rummaged in the side console and handed me a card that read Speed Demon Cabs—We’re Infernally on Time.

“Give us a call if you need a job. We’re always hiring.”