Page 3 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)

Nathan stared at the jukebox in the corner of the Gatehouse bar distrustfully.

He hadn't really given it much thought when they were there before, because they hadn't spent much time downstairs.

But, with the Gatehouse empty while Alex worked on some much needed repairs to the old building, they were free to roam about the place without worry of running into seals.

The jukebox was…digital.

“It doesn't bite,” Alex said, smiling as she walked up to the jukebox and started fiddling with the touch screen.

“It works more like a playlist on a laptop or phone. You program in the songs, and people can just come over and look up the artists or titles they want by typing them in. Much more for variety.”

Nathan huffed as some familiar Guns N' Roses began to play. Other than the touch screen, the jukebox looked like any old model, but Nathan still eyed it with natural contempt. He had never been one for technology, probably because they were on the road most of the time and were usually broke.

"It's nice to have the place to ourselves," Jim said, perched beside Sasha on a stool at the bar. "Since we mostly came for Nathan to recover, we’re happy to help if you need anything done around the place."

Nathan turned away from the nefarious machine and smirked at Jim’s casual attempt at conversation. Jim was trying . And with Alex , which gave Nathan hope, regardless of whatever might be stirring up within Jim to bring out those amber slit eyes.

“I appreciate it. There’s just some painting and a little hauling down here, and minor construction on a couple of the rooms upstairs that I could use some help with,” Alex explained, situating herself back behind the bar.

“Nothing you boys won’t be able to handle.

You’re welcome to stay as long as you need.

I have the place locked up for a good week before any new lodgers are scheduled to come through.

Word spreads pretty fast when I'm not open for business.”

Nathan snorted. “I'll bet. As for me—”

“And the recently shot and injured will be on hunting duty,” she cut in.

“Uhh...what?" Nathan blinked at her as he approached the bar. "Hunting duty? Wanna clarify that?”

“It’s a raccoon,” Alex said, half smirking.

“At least I think so. Something keeps swiping bits of food, stealing small things, moving things about. I wouldn’t pay it much mind if it wasn’t so constant, and if it wasn’t for a few of the more trigger happy and twitchy older seals.

Sounds too much like brownies when you give details like that.

But I saw it. No bigger than a cat, definitely had fur, and more afraid of me than the other way around, believe me. It’s a raccoon.”

For some reason, the more Alex said it was a raccoon, the less Nathan believed that was true.

“So I’m playing Animal Control. Great,” he said, quickly smiling when Alex tossed a raised eyebrow his direction.

“Couldn’t be happier to help,” he added, even though he had been hoping to spend most of his time on a couch or bed somewhere watching TV, while his tender chest wounds healed.

“So, rooms?" Alex asked. Their things were still piled by the door. "Being you're the only ones here, you're welcome to each take your own. Three?” she asked, already digging around for keys behind the bar counter.

“Nah, two’s fine,” Nathan said without thinking. His heart stopped in his chest at the same second he spoke, realization hitting him as Alex's eyes narrowed.

“Two?” she questioned. “Don’t you and Jim get sick of each other? Or do I not want an answer to that question.”

“That’s not what he means,” Sasha broke in, the smile clear in his voice as he slid off his stool to stand next to Nathan.

Nathan hoped Sasha was coming to the rescue, to help dismiss the whole ‘two rooms’ idea so they wouldn’t have to explain the finer details of their relationship to Alex.

“He means one for Jim…and one for us.”

So much for that idea.

Nathan swallowed, smiling sheepishly at Alex as she blinked back at them. Enough people knew about him and Sasha now that it shouldn’t really matter, and Nathan did want to share a room—and a bed—with Sasha again, but he was still getting used to the idea in public.

"Come again?" Alex asked, her face entirely stoic and unreadable.

Nathan glanced at Sasha’s face just above his shoulder, and the incubus looked down at him, those intense blue eyes questioning in a way that made Nathan feel like a jackass for having hoped Sasha would lie. “Yeah,” Nathan said, still looking at Sasha, “just…two rooms.”

“Two it is,” Alex acknowledged, setting two keys on top of the bar’s counter with a clink. If she was still skeptical or at all freaked out by this development, she didn’t let on—at least not yet.

The incubus smiled sweetly at Nathan and grabbed the keys from the countertop. He tossed one back to Jim, who was very unsuccessfully trying to hide a smirk. They started for the door to pick up their things and haul everything upstairs.

Nathan felt a little trapped being left alone in the bar with Alex, who he could feel staring at the side of his face as he stared after Sasha and Jim's retreating forms.

“Sasha?” Alex started in as soon as the others were out of earshot. “You and Sasha? You and the male seal and incubus , Sasha Kelly? I’m just clarifying here in case I’ve, I don’t know , lost my mind . If I didn't think him being a guy and a seal wasn't enough, an incubus —”

“Okay, you can shut up now,” Nathan cut in, shifting uncomfortably as he plopped himself down on a stool. “It’s hard to explain, okay? And…we kind of were already at the making out stage the last time we were here.”

Alex smiled knowingly at him and leaned over the counter. “So let me get this straight...or maybe ' straight ' isn't the right word…” She smirked.

“Hey, I'm not …I mean, I’m…well…”

“You’re not what ?” Alex prompted, knowing Nathan well enough to understand exactly what juvenile thoughts were racing through his head.

“No offence, Nate, but unless you’re full of it or this is some really bad joke, what would you call sharing a bed with a hot guy?

Male bonding? Maybe in the literal sense… ” She was clearly enjoying herself.

Nathan decided to settle on a scowl and avoid giving her any additional ammunition. “So speaking of him being an incubus…he knows you know, right?”

“Of course.”

“And you found out… how , exactly?”

The briefest flicker of what Nathan took for embarrassment and maybe a little panic crossed Alex’s face before she turned away and promptly picked up a box from behind the counter.

“Oops, better get this into the storage room before I trip over it.” Then she was out from behind the bar and heading for the side hallway before Nathan could protest.

He tried anyway. “ Alex …”

“Story for another time, Nate!” she called back as she disappeared.

Nathan’s scowl deepened. He was going to hold her to that.

Nathan had hoped he could postpone any raccoon hunting until tomorrow, but Alex pushed an honest to god raccoon trap into his hands after dinner before he could try and slip off to his room.

He wasn’t all that tired, even with a few more doses of his various medications in his system, because he had spent the majority of the afternoon sleeping and, to be honest, he was kind of restless. That didn’t mean he wanted to go foraging about in the attic for some damn raccoon though.

The attic was definitely the last place Alex had thought to renovate. It was dusty, filled with boxes and other storage, and had only one overhead light which was a bare bulb activated by a string. For a brief moment, Nathan wished Walter was with him so he could have his Spirit Guide scout ahead.

The smart thing to do would be to investigate around a little, see if he could find where the raccoon nested—since the thing would more than likely be hiding—and then set up the trap near there.

Nathan had some scraps of meat in a baggie to use as bait.

Part of him just wanted to set up the trap and get the hell back downstairs.

His biggest phobia was heights but he wasn’t too keen on tight spaces either, and the attic’s ceiling was so low, Nathan had to crouch.

“Here, kitty, kitty,” Nathan whispered under his breath.

Hunkered down low as he moved along the floorboards, which creaked in ways that made Nathan’s stomach flip for fear of falling right through the ceiling, he squinted at the meager light given off by the single bulb.

There was definitely a lot more clutter off to Nathan’s left, so he headed there.

It looked like some of the boxes had been arranged into a makeshift fort.

Are raccoons always this ingenious?

Nathan was almost afraid the raccoon would still be in the nest when he peered over the boxes, and he really didn’t feel like getting his face scratched off right now.

First inspection showed no creature, thankfully, but Nathan was surprised by how otherwise organized the little nest was.

There was a blanket, bits of leftover food and wrappers from candy bars, and a tiny treasure trove of things Nathan could definitely imagine were stolen from seals.

What unsettled him the most was the bowie knife he would have been glad to take as his own.

There was also a lighter, a watch, a few necklaces Nathan assumed were Alex’s, and various other sparkly metal things.

Nathan set to work getting the trap situated inside the nest. His movement unsettled some of the boxes around him, however, and he gave a great sneeze when too much dust wafted up around him.

It was then that Nathan heard scuffling.

He jerked his head to the right and he could have sworn he saw something furry scuttle across the floorboards back behind a few of the more distant boxes.

At least it was only about the size of a cat, like Alex had said, but Nathan was positive it didn’t have a tail.

“Here…kitty, kitty…” Nathan whispered again, a lump in his throat now.

He was at a big disadvantage and, again, he really didn’t want to have his face scratched off any time soon by some rabid fuzz ball.

“Don’t run, little fella…I’m your friend.

I just wanna play, huh?” Nathan carefully finished setting the trap up and left the bag of meat open.

If he could just lure the…whatever it was back to the nest, he still had a chance at capturing it.

Nathan wasn’t sure if it was better to crawl or crouch, but he figured he would be able to see over most of the boxes better if he stayed on his feet. It made his chest ache a little to be scrunched like that, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

“Come on, little guy, Alex may not care what I do with ya, but I promise we’ll just go for a little ride out to some nice patch of woods somewhere. You’ll love it.”

Nathan jerked his head to the left this time as he heard scuffling over in another corner.

“I’m not here to take your stuff or anything,” he went on, inching in that new direction. “Go ahead and check. All there.” He felt a little silly for talking like the creature could understand him, but he had always had a way of attributing anthropomorphic characteristics to things.

Suddenly, Nathan heard scuffling from behind him, back where the nest was, and there was a large snapping of the cage door. Maybe the thing could understand Nathan; it certainly seemed to have taken the bait.

Slowly, Nathan snuck his way back over to the boxes that enclosed the nest and peered over. The trap had been triggered, all right, but there was no sign of anything furry and cute inside of it. “Damn it,” Nathan cursed. This thing was good.

Too good, it turned out, because Nathan barely had time to turn around when he heard scuffling again just behind him, and then the thing was already latched onto his leg, taking a painful bite.

The Gatehouse wards went off, but only slightly, admitting a faint BOOM and disrupting Nathan’s footing.

He cried out from the shock of power and the pain caused by the creature’s teeth, stumbling forward before falling flat to the wooden floor with an eruption of dust as he landed.

Nathan coughed and gasped heavily, but more from the explosion of pain throughout his chest. Every one of his wounds had been impacted in the fall; he’d be lucky if he hadn’t ripped any stitches, and he definitely wouldn’t be moving easily for a while.

It hurt so much that Nathan could barely shove himself over onto his back.

He took painful gasps, his hand ghosting over his shirt. Suddenly, Nathan realized that, although the creature was no longer biting him, the Gatehouse wards had not dislodged it from his leg. There was barely enough light to see by but Nathan risked a glance down his body.

Dimly, he could make out large bat-like ears, sharp little teeth formed into a growl, and round beady black eyes.

It was almost entirely covered in fur, more the size of a large teddy bear than a cat, in reality, and though Nathan couldn’t be sure, the paws gripping his leg made him almost think the thing had opposable thumbs.

“What the fuck?!” Nathan cried, shaking his leg furiously.

The creature skittered off of him back into the maze of dust and boxes, and Nathan immediately scrambled to his feet and painfully made for the pull-down door and ladder.

Maybe it was more scared of Nathan than the other way around, but it was pissed about him trying to capture it.

And another thing—that was sure as hell no freaking raccoon.

Great , Nathan thought, grimacing as he landed back down on the floor below. So much for a vacation .