Chapter Nine
~Katarina~
Dragon’s breath did it feel good to feel full again.
She smacked her lips with pride as she sank into Sera’s front seat.
Her best friend immediately noticed as she too sank into the driver’s seat.
Dropping off the Bug at school was part one of their shenanigans for the day, part two was packing up her office at work, part three… well she didn’t have a part three yet.
“Alright, hold up, are you…did you feed? On who?” Sera gasped, slightly scandalized but mostly impressed. Katarina would know that tone anywhere.
“Um, the boys? They, uh, helped a girl out,” she let out a nervous giggle. What am I? A horny teenager being busted?
“Noooo, shut up.” Sera twisted as if to demand more, but someone honked behind them, and she grumbled.
Katarina shifted to fasten her seatbelt as Sera pulled away from the curb.
“Tell me they tag teamed you. Tell me you got put in a fluffy, buff man sandwich and fed like a queen of the hells. Please! I gotta know.”
Katarina let out a strangled sputter, shaking her head. “No-no, not like that.”
“Aw come on! Look, I know, I’m only on team pussy.
I’m a vampire lady-a-holic, but you have got to help a gnome out.
I live my best dick dreams out through you vicariously and you haven’t had any fun frolics in six years.
” Sera’s teasing left Katarina wheezing for air, tears streaming down her face.
Her stomach ached as she tried and failed to claw her way out of the weird crunched position in Sera’s front seat.
“Mercy!” Katarina pleaded.
“Is for the weak! And you, my good friend, need to be dicked down by a massive fucking mechanic and his even bigger boss! I mean, come on, their tree trunks make whirlpools ask if it’ll fit.”
“Sera!” Katarina shrieked as they almost didn’t stop for a red light. Her best friend cackled as the brakes screamed in terror.
“My bad,” Sera whispered, giggling nervously.
Katarina finally dried the tears off her face, and they pulled into the parking lot of Boggins, Mums and Munn.
While her friend parked, she prepared herself to go inside.
All fun and games till I have to actually face my coworkers.
It took her a minute to put her hand to the door handle.
When she did, she hesitated, blurting out.
“I almost kissed Jessie then, this morning, Nik and I made out. I may have sucked the soul out of him a little.”
“So you’re…full-full?”
Katarina shook her head, glancing at Sera over her shoulder.
Her best friend was sat, arms folded in her lap, one expectant eyebrow up on her face.
Katarina would rather discuss her hunger with Sera than face her coworkers.
Unfortunately for her, she would have to do both it seemed.
And maybe she had enough gumption after that morning to face both.
Maybe getting ravished by Nik and tasting Jessie was what she needed to get her spine back. A part of me I haven’t felt in a while.
“Not yet,” Katarina grinned playfully, winking at Sera. I’m just getting started.
“Atta girl! That’s my bitch right there!
Go on, let’s get your stuff before I lodge HR complaints.
” Sera pumped her arm before the pair tossed themselves out of the car.
The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the tall tower of a law office she worked for glimmered.
She was an accountant at Boggins, Mums and Munn, at least for the next hour while they cleaned out her desk.
What happened after that was completely up to her managers.
Quitting outright was maybe not a great idea? It was simply her only option. Gill had seniority over her, an actual law degree, and was a favorite among the partners. She was an ant compared to him and the reality was he would get away with everything.
Katarina squared her shoulders as she pushed through the front doors. The scent of soap and paper floated around her. The main secretary, a werewolf woman in a pencil skirt that Katarina wished she memorized the name of, perked up with a smile. “Oh! Kat! Welcome in, I thought you were on PTO?”
She grimaced, “I am.”
The secretary frowned, her fangs popping out of her lip. “Did they call you in?”
Katarina shook her head, the silence engulfing the pair as Sera stepped up alongside her with an empty file box on her hip.
It was obvious to everyone in the foyer what was happening and she felt about ten eyes land on her in concern.
Katarina pulled her badge out of her pocket, Sera holding hers, and the pair of them headed for the elevator.
Even the ride up, despite the music crackling over their heads, wasn’t enough to pierce the oppressive quiet bubble around them.
Katarina’s heels clicked against the marble floors as they marched down the accounting hallway to the back offices.
She prided herself that she didn’t stop to glance at Gill’s plaque on one of the doors as she passed it.
Instead, she headed straight into her office she shared with one of the other accountants at the firm. Sera plopped the box onto her desk and the pair stood back to study the walls around them.
George, her office partner, walked up beside them, clearly stopped short of asking what was going on when his gaze fell on the box. Instead, he let out a low, “Oof.”
“Self-inflicted, I’m afraid,” she whispered, throat raw and scratchy as she turned to the gray-bearded lizard.
He was mostly iguana with long, silver droops for a beard that were so silvery they almost looked like hair.
George had the most grandpa eyebrows, with a bush of gray fuzz that defied gravity.
Her favorite part about him was he drank tea obsessively.
If she didn’t have a cup of coffee or water on her desk, she’d find a steaming mug on it full of whatever new tea he’d found at the shop on 6th street.
Katarina would miss staying late and poring over accounts with him.
“Well, I did tell you that you would do great things, Katarina.” He turned to her with a soft smile on his face. His tongue jutted out to lick his eyeball thoughtfully before he hummed. “It never had to be here.”
“Thanks, George,” she chuckled sadly, shuffling to her desk.
“I think this occasion calls for an oolong, you ladies stay here, I’ll brew us up something nice.
” George bowed his head, sauntering from the room.
His tail flicked left and right when he was on a mission and Katarina almost lost an ankle to it as he left.
She spared his desk, cluttered and full of memories, a last glance before accepting her fate fully. This is for the best.
“Think of it this way, you’ll have more time home with Bug?” Sera shrugged as she scraped Katarina’s collection of pens out of the top drawer.
“I gotta find something new, and fast.”
“Why?” Sera huffed, furrowing her brows. “I thought the car parts were more than enough to cover a new one?”
“Yeah, but that won’t cover expenses. And I gotta find a place. And Bug’s gonna need new shoes soon...and...and...”
The pair stopped to stare at each other. Sera arched a brow at Katarina who sighed.
“One day at a time,” the succubus exhaled. “I gotta get through this, and my bank tomorrow...and then I’ll worry about that.”
Sera patted the side of her thigh affectionately and they returned to scraping her good stationary, pens, and tools into her box.
She left all the files she worked with on top of the desk.
While marching into her manager’s office was going to suck, it would be better served if she could leave immediately after.
Years at the firm and she wasn’t going to let their favoritism bite her on the ass on her way out.
“Oolong tea,” George announced as he returned with three mugs.
Sera took hers with an appreciative smile but gave it a moment to cool off.
Katarina, however, clinking her mug with George, gave it a quick blow, then let the boiling hot water splash over her tongue.
He hummed, nodding as he grew lost in thought.
She stood there, staring at her scattered things on the desk, and took another sip.
“Why oolong?” she asked, glancing at George.
“It always makes me feel more fearless. Like I can challenge the gods in the sky or a dragon in its lair.” George flashed her a tired smile.
“It’s the caffeine,” Sera muttered to herself as she finished packing up Katarina’s pictures on her desk.
All except one, that she handed the frame over to the succubus.
She stared down at her and Gill’s wedding photo.
Without another thought, she popped the back off, tore the photo in half, and left Gill’s part on her desk.
Katarina put the frame in her box and stuffed the ripped part of her somewhere in her pocket.
The photo wasn’t important, but a good frame is a good frame. Sera snorted, rolling her eyes.
“See! Fearless,” George chuckled as he walked back to his desk. “You’re gonna do great things Katarina! I can feel it in my dewlap.”