Chapter 1 #2
He glances at the booth where the woman is now letting out a series of strangled moans and a couple of the guys nearby chuckle.
‘Try your luck in a couple months, sweetheart.’
I cant my head at him as I try to work out what he ... Oh! … ME? My eyes widen. ‘Oh! No.’
‘No?’ he asks, the menace in that one word making me glance at the nearest exit, which happens to be past him. ‘Too good for us, human?’
‘I mean that’s not why I’m here,’ I mumble, mortified that he’d assume I thought I was better than anyone. Is that really the vibe I give off?
‘Gonna have to speak up, little girl,’ the other one by the wall says and I glare at him.
I’m not a loud person and my voice never seems to carry all that far.
‘That’s not why I’m here,’ I say more loudly, putting the effort in to be heard.
The one with the dark beard walks forward slowly until he’s right in front of me looking down his nose at me as I’m forced to tilt my head up.
Shit, he’s tall. He could probably break me in half.
Sharlene was right. These are the kind of men I need at my back.
I’m not leaving here until they work for me.
***
Vic
As I stare the girl in front of me down, I can’t help the frown that creases my forehead.
She’s not the usual type we get in here; the townie girls looking for the quick high they’ve heard we can provide while we feed.
If the girls who try their luck here could be bothered to do their research, they’d know we aren’t allowed to just take humans in off the street to snack on anymore.
There’s an extensive process now. Interviews. Contracts.
This one’s older than I first thought when I noticed the sneakers and the faded jeans.
I’d have put her at around eighteen when she came in, but she’s probably in her twenties.
Her brown hair is scraped back into a ponytail and her matching eyes don’t stay on mine, constantly moving.
I stifle a snort. Yeah, she knows what we are and she’s afraid she’ll get ensnared by one of us.
I glance over at Sie in the booth, just making sure our wildcard isn’t still starving enough to lunge at this one, but it looks like Carrie, the blond contracted to us who he’s playing with at the table, has taken the edge off.
He’s watching the one in front of me, but he’s got his needs under wraps for now.
He smirks at the little brunette, doing something to make Carrie scream her release without even looking at her.
I sigh, Carrie’s sexual energy sating me a bit just from my proximity to the action.
When I look back down at the human girl before me, her wide eyes are locked on Sie’s, and I can tell my lieutenant is imagining fucking her.
Interesting. He hardly looks at humans at all these days. I practically have to make him feed.
‘What do you want from us if it’s not a good, hard fuck?’ I ask and grin at the shock she’s trying to hide.
She pulls herself together quickly though and gives me a level stare.
It almost appears as if she’s looking directly into my eyes, but she’s actually looking at the wall past me to the side of my head.
She thinks the eyes are the only way I could capture her.
I bet she’s never had direct contact with an incubus before. Her knowledge is second-hand at best.
Silly little human.
‘I want to hire you,’ she says.
I wasn’t expecting that, but I don’t let my surprise show.
‘What kind of dumbass problems a girl like you got?’ Korban sneers from his place by the wall.
She doesn’t answer him, hardly even notices him. Instead, she looks at me – well, almost. She’s still avoiding my eyes.
‘Stalkers,’ she says, and I hear a couple of the other guys chuckling low.
I don’t laugh with them. The others here might not understand what a stalker can do to a woman, supe or otherwise, even if he never touches her, but I know how life-destroying it can get.
Not that I give a shit about this woman per se.
‘A stalker, huh?’ I look her up and down and I see her shiver a little. ‘What do you have to pay with?’
I’m surprised that the first idea that pops into my head is that she has no money and she’ll have to pay us with her body, and I push away the thoughts of her on her knees before us. We aren’t allowed to do that shit anymore, I remind myself.
‘Stalkers,’ she corrects me. ‘As in more than one.’
That gives me pause. The others too.
‘How many?’ asks Theo.
He’s sitting in the booth waiting for his turn after Sie’s had his fill of Carrie.
The girl in front of me glances over at him, and I notice she takes pains not to look at Sie though he’s still watching her. I wonder if he’s going to be a problem.
‘I don’t really know, but there’s a group of them.’
Probably some of the frat assholes from the local college.
‘Payment?’ I ask again.
She hesitates.
Korban pushes himself away from the wall and takes his shot, grinning from beside the pool table. ‘You didn’t come to the Iron Incubi without something to trade, did you, princess?’
‘No,’ she says quietly, and her shaking hand begins to unzip her oversized jacket.
Fuck.
I’m standing here with bated breath, hoping for a glimpse of what’s underneath like a teenage boy. I swallow hard and turn away, pretending to ignore her while I play my turn. Yellow to corner pocket.
I miss, but everyone’s eyes are on her anyway.
‘Your body’s the payment?’ Korban asks as he slides closer, and I shoot him a warning look.
Feed from her before she’s signed an agreement, and the supe authorities WILL find out. Unlike some, those are the rules we have to live by, and, in return, the cops mostly leave us alone. Besides, we have three girls living at the house already. We don’t need another.
But she looks baffled for a second at his words, not afraid. And then she lets out an incredulous laugh.
‘No.’
She pulls out an amulet and all of us look just a tiny bit disappointed.
How does this girl have us all practically salivating over her?
It’s not usual, not even when we’re hungry and that realization is enough to make me want to flip the kill switch on whatever this is.
She looks, smells, feels like a normal human, but something isn’t right.
She draws the necklace over her head and holds it up.
‘We don’t deal in jewel—’ I begin, getting ready to shut her down and get Paris to boot her out the door.
And then I get a good look at the blue, iridescent stone set in a cage of silver hanging from an iron chain.
Even Dreyson, one of the human prospects, takes a step forward. ‘Is that a—?’
An orc stone.
‘So what happened?’ I interrupt. ‘You go to the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong outfit or something?’
I sound bored, but I’m looking at this girl with new eyes.
Does this little human have any idea how much that bauble in her hand is worth in our world?
I’m guessing not and I hide the gleam in my eye. We’re about to get the payday of the year and all I need to do is send one of the prospects to take out the trash.
‘Something like that,’ she says. ‘Doesn’t matter where I go. They find me. They do …’ Her eyes get a faraway look in them. ‘Bad things.’
Her head gives a little shake. ‘I work over at Gail’s. My friend Sharlene said you might be able to help me. Can you?’
I hold out my hand and she lets the dull, cerulean gem fall into my palm. I feel the hum of power as it touches my skin and I know I’m right. How the fuck did she get an orc stone?
‘We don’t usually do this sort of thing,’ I begin and see Theo rolling his eyes in the booth, ‘but we’ll take care of your little problem for you.’
Her hand clenches the thick chain hard as I curl my fingers around the pendant. Her eyes are suddenly boring into mine.
‘You’ll keep me safe, get rid of the group who wants to hurt me to the best of your ability. In return, you can have this necklace, and only this necklace, as payment. The terms are final.’ She says the words clearly. ‘Who will bear witness?’
I give her a slow smile and watch a blush climb up her throat to her face. She’s not unaffected by me even though I’m not using my power, and she’s not stupid for a human either. She’ll make this official through all the right magickal channels.
Unfortunately for her, those ancient laws were written by the fae.
They’re sly as fuck and, holy shit, are there some fun loopholes.
As I look at her, it strikes me as weird that she seems to know some basic rules about our world, but not others.
I frown. Is she a cop? They’ve tried to infiltrate us before with human prospects, but not in ages.
But I’m not going to stop the deal. That orc stone is worth calling in some old favors if we get any trouble from Johnny Law.
‘I’ll witness,’ Paris says from behind her. He’s left the bar unattended, and I give him a look, but there’s no one here to serve anyway.
She jumps a little as he clasps her wrist and mine in his hands and he looks at her oddly for a second before he closes his eyes and says the binding words that make the deal unbreakable … for her anyway.
‘It’s done,’ I say. ‘Dreyson, go with her and see to her little problem.’
I’ll let the others know my suspicions about our new client on the DL later. Until then, Dreyson won’t do or say anything in front of an outsider anyway.
The human prospect pushes himself off the wall and glances at Carrie. Sie’s still feeding from her lust, and he looks a little disappointed since he sometimes gets to have a little fun with our contracted girls once we’ve had our fills.
‘You prove yourself with this and that’s it. You’re one of the Iron I’s,’ I tell him.
Dreyson’s face lights up at the promise. ‘I won’t let you down, Vic!’
‘Keep it professional though, huh?’
He nods, looking a little surprised that I’d spell it out, but he’s a ladies’ man and this one is off-limits.
I pull on the chain that’s still wrapped around the girl’s fingers. She looks up at me and then at her hand as if she can’t quite bear to let it go. Maybe she does know what it is, she’s just so desperate that she’ll give it up anyway.
‘What’s your name?’ I ask.
‘Jane,’ she whispers, letting out a small breath and dropping the necklace.
With a mental high five to myself, I pocket it immediately and go back to my game without another word. As far as I’m concerned, we’re done and when I look back after taking my next shot, she and Dreyson are gone.