Incubus with Benefits (Possessive Monsters #10)

Chapter 1

Lily

I stood in the lobby, clutching a pathetic cardboard box filled with the few things I’d kept at my desk, and tried to process the fact that I’d actually been fired. Fired. After everything I’d done for them.

The security guard blocked my path, arms crossed like he thought I was going to charge through him to beg for my job back. I wasn’t. No fucking way! Not after the way they’d betrayed me. My pulse rushed in my ears, the rage starting to build now that I was over the shell-shocked part.

Calm. Breathe.

The last thing I needed was to turn a situation where I was one hundred percent, beyond a doubt, entirely in the right, to one where I was being carted off in handcuffs like some crazy lady.

Grinding my teeth, I turned and stormed out, my heels making a sharp clack-clack-clack on the lobby’s tiles. It wasn’t until I hit the sidewalk that I realized I hadn’t even called a ride. Great. Just great.

I wasn’t going to wait around awkwardly, so I kept walking, too furious to care, heading in the general direction of home and hoping the movement would burn off some of the very righteous fury. As I stomped down the street, I replayed the meeting in my head.

When my boss called me to the office this morning, I thought that it was to congratulate me on a job well done.

Hell, I deserved it. I’d led our team through a nightmare of a rushed project.

My team and I worked like machines, pulling several all-nighters and consuming enough caffeine to fuel a small army.

We’d pulled out not just a deliverable product, but a damned good one, in record time.

So imagine my surprise when she accused me and my team of stealing someone else’s work. First, I thought it was a joke. Like, seriously?

You know how people say they felt like they were punched in the gut when they get bad news? Well, I’d never experienced that before until today, when I realized they really thought we stole the work!

I’d tried reason at first, trying to stay calm, logical, and professional. “We have records,” I’d told her. “Every step of the process is automatically saved in the system. You can see who did what, when.”

She’d waved a dismissive hand like I was wasting her precious time. “That could be faked,” she said. “Besides, I saw the code. It looked too similar.”

I might have lost it just a wee bit at that point. “It’s code!” I’d snapped. Then, trying my very best to keep my voice from going up a whole damned octave, I’d said, “There are only so many ways to write it before it stops working altogether.”

It was then that I’d noticed the tight expression on her face, like she had no choice in the matter. “I’m surprised, honestly,” she said, like that made any of this better. “You’ve been vital to the company for so long. But there’s nothing I can do.”

Nothing she could do? That was rich. How about checking the records in the freaking system?

Then she’d hurled the final insult. “You might be able to talk to Steven about dropping the whole thing.”

Steven. Smug, arrogant Steven. Also known as the manager of the other development team, who thought he could get all grabby in the break room.

Also known as the guy I’d turned down twice, telling him I didn’t date coworkers.

Also known as the big boss’s nephew. Truth was, I wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole dipped in bleach.

I’d known right then and there that it was his words against mine, and I was losing no matter how much proof I had.

I wasn’t even given a chance to defend myself more than that.

By the time I was back at my desk, someone had already packed my few measly belongings, and security was waiting to escort me out.

The city pavement was unforgiving, and apparently so was the universe, because I’d barely made it to the donut shop two blocks from the office when my heel snagged in a crack in the pavement.

A blur of flailing limbs, airborne office supplies, and a very undignified shriek later, I hit the ground hard, scraping my elbow, but saving my face from the same fate.

My mug, the one I’d made myself in that pottery class a few years back with Witch Better Have My Coffee written on it, lay in three separate pieces. My peace lily was upended on the sidewalk with its chubby roots in the air.

But that wasn’t the thing that had me wanting to cry.

My shoes! I’d splurged on this particular pair of Louboutins after my promotion to lead developer.

They were my armor in a male-dominated industry, my rebellion against the stereotype that software engineers were all hoodie-wearing, hygiene-optional trolls, because we weren’t.

I yanked the heel free from the crack and nearly cried at the scuff marks. And after all the extra work I’d done to protect the gorgeous red soles from the grind of daily life. The pain in my ankle was nothing compared to the heartbreak of seeing luxury leather marred beyond recognition.

Gathering my scattered belongings, I limped to the nearest bench and pulled out my phone. There was no way I was hobbling the ten-plus blocks home like some pathetic, modern Cinderella.

A few taps on the Speed Demon Cabs app and I was on my way home. That was the best thing about their ride service; it was always quick and efficient. Some people still had qualms about getting into a car with a demon, ifrit, or incubus, but I’d never had a bad experience yet.

The moment I was alone in my condo, I screamed into a cushion as loudly as I could, then collapsed onto the couch. After a few deep breaths, I called Penny.

Penny, Griselda, and I were best friends, and together we made up what had to be the smallest coven in the world.

Not that it was official or anything. We didn’t even have a name, because we couldn’t decide on one.

But we did have a weekly meeting, which usually just meant we hung out together, and we were listed as coven sisters in the Let’s Talk About Hex forum.

“You will not believe the dumpster fire that was my day,” I said the moment she picked up.

“It’s not even noon. What happened?” Penny asked.

“I got fired. Fired! For stealing code. From Steven.”

“Steven? Steven Steven? Grabby hands, won’t take no for an answer, Steven?”

“Yeah. That Steven. First of all, he doesn’t even deserve the job. The idiot thinks JavaScript is a type of coffee. His whole team complains about him. But apparently, being the boss’s nephew means you can accuse people of anything and get away with it.”

“Fuck him,” Penny growled. “And fuck the whole freaking company too. You’ve been there for years. Didn’t you work all last weekend to finish that project?”

“Yup.” We were supposed to have a girls' night out, but I’d canceled to get the work done.

“Do we need to put a curse on Steven? Or the company? Cuz I’d totally be in.”

Now that was an idea. And with Penny and Griselda, the curse would be a doozy too, especially now that Penny, who used to be the “special-ed witch,”—her preferred words, not mine; she said she was stealing the description back and owning it so no one could use it against her again—had found her incubus lover.

Prax now acted as an amplifier as well as a power source for her magic.

“Don’t tempt me,” I said. “But I kind of care about the people I used to work with.”

I wondered what was going to happen to my team. Were they going to hire someone new to replace me? I felt the anger bubble up again and made a little growl.

“Now, Steven on the other hand…I should turn him into a toad!”

“That very witchy of you, but I’m pretty sure that’s illegal now.”

“A gnat!”

“Also, illegal. I love you, Lily, but I’d prefer not spending tomorrow busting you out of jail.

I know what we can do,” Penny said. “It’s Thursday.

Let’s go to Delerium and dance it out. We’ll make up for the lost night out last weekend.

And celebrate the fact that you’re now free from your nine-to-five. ”

Delerium was Darlington’s premier night club, serving both the human and magical monster community since forever. Since Penny moved to Darlington full-time, she, Gigi, and I have been going a lot more, mostly because Penny’s sexy hunk of an incubus mate, Prax, was friends with the owner.

Julian was sin incarnate. An incubus who oozed with irresistible sexual energy, he was a successful business owner to boot, something I really looked up to. And from what I’d seen of him so far, he was a decent person, demon or not.

The last time I’d been at Delerium, Julian had joined us to dance, and we were grinding up the dance floor together, the heat of his body and perfectly timed movements promising the most carnal of desires.

But then he’d had the audacity to invite me up to the club’s private rooms like I was one of his incubus groupies.

No, Hey, did you want to go grab some dinner? Not even a freakin’ coffee date! The nerve!

I might have laughed in his face.

The thing was, I wasn’t the type to scoff at one-night-stands. I had a few under my belt. It was the expectation, the cocky way he’d said it, like there was no flipping way a silly human like me could ever resist his incubus charm that had set me off.

“Does your silence mean yes? Or no?” Penny asked. “We can also go to that new magical rage room that just opened up. What’s it called? Lemme Smash?”

I imagined channeling all my energy and flinging it at a monitor with Steven’s face on it. Yes. That sounded perfect, but I might want to dance it out first. Besides, I wouldn’t mind flaunting my body at the sexy incubus again and reminding him of what he couldn’t have.

“They both sound good, but let’s go dance.”

“Great! We can go to Delerium tonight.”

We set a time, hung up, then messaged Griselda, the final witch in our little trio of BFFs, with the shitty news and our plan.

Unlike Penny, whose magic tutorial business allowed her the freedom to set her own hours, Griselda’s coffee shop meant that she wasn’t able to join us at the rage room, but she was all for dancing tonight since Fridays were now her days off.

A motion at my balcony door had me glancing over to find the stray cat, still a kitten really, who’d been coming around our building recently, eating from the bowl of food I’d left out for it.

At first, the bigger cats had eaten everything, so I’d placed the bowl inside a dog crate with bars just big enough for the smaller black cat to fit through. I was glad it worked.

I wondered if she’d let me pet her.

Armed with a piece of chicken from last night’s leftovers, I went out to try my luck.