Page 7 of Incubus (The Incubus Saga #1)

Sasha answered his motel room door the next morning wearing nothing but low-hanging sweatpants. He flashed a grin at Nathan and Jim. “Come in,” he said, “I’ll only be a minute.” He disappeared inside, leaving his door open for them to follow.

They entered to see Sasha quickly stripping off his sweatpants down to a pair of grey boxer briefs. He crouched on the floor to dig through his duffle for clothing, not seeming to feel any shame over being so undressed in front of them.

Jim promptly closed the door, but since he was smirking again, Nathan jabbed him in the side for good measure.

Sasha’s room was very similar to Nathan and Jim's room down the hall, except that it had only one bed with a brightly colored comforter glaring garishly at them from the center of the room.

“I know we don't have much to go on, but I have some ideas for how we might spot the next victim,” Sasha said, choosing a pair of jeans from his bag and tossing them onto the bed. “I can fill you in once we're downtown. Sound good to you?”

“Sure,” Nathan said. “We just need to stop at our friend’s place for a quick trade.”

“Leslie Schuester, right?” Sasha said. “I actually know him pretty well. We can stop there first and move on to downtown afterward.” Sasha found what he deemed a suitable white T-shirt from his bag and added it to the bed beside his jeans.

As he stood from the floor, Nathan’s eyes were drawn to the low rise of Sasha’s underwear, revealing an intricate tribal tattoo.

The edges of the design were sharp but winding, almost Celtic, and they were the darkest black Nathan had ever seen, as if brand new, though there were no signs of scarring or redness.

The tattoos were perfect, wrapping around Sasha's hips and dipping down to where they disappeared beneath the elastic of his underwear.

“Enjoying the view?”

Nathan jumped at the sound of Sasha’s voice. He hadn’t realized how much he was staring. “Just, uh…admiring the ink work, dude. Exactly how far down does that thing go?”

Sasha was pulling on his jeans. As he clasped them closed, he let his hand linger near the zipper. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” he said with a teasing grin.

Grabbing his T-shirt from the bed, Sasha headed for the bathroom.

This gave Nathan a clear view of how the tattoo wrapped low around Sasha’s back.

There was also a separate tattoo with the same black tribal design spreading over Sasha’s shoulder blades like wings.

Then they were gone, hidden by white cotton.

As Sasha disappeared into the bathroom, Nathan's eyes landed on Jim. “Shove it,” he hissed in response to Jim's amused expression.

Jim held his hands up in defense. “I didn’t say a word."

Leslie Schuester lived in one of the more expensive apartment buildings by Lake Calhoun. Nathan and Jim had traded with him enough times that they knew the layout of his building well and had no trouble getting to the twenty-second floor to reach his skyrise apartment.

“So you know Schu, huh?” Nathan asked Sasha as they made their way down the hallway.

"Our paths crossed a few years ago," Sasha said. "He's a good guy. Good for intel occasionally too. Fewer doorways mean less monitoring, so the Midwest can be a pretty big target for rogue fae. I pass through here a lot.”

“I bet Schu loves that you hunt these things," Nathan said. "There aren’t too many traders I know of who hate fae as much as I do.”

“ Dark fae,” Jim said, moving ahead of Nathan to knock on Schuester’s door. “Schu doesn’t hate all fae, Nate. That’s just you.”

Nathan frowned. Jim sounded so disapproving, but if fae didn’t exist then Jim wouldn’t be a changeling. Dark fae weren’t the only ones to blame for that.

He offered Sasha a shrug in excuse for his brother's naivety, but Sasha didn't seem all that bothered. He was definitely different from the seals Nathan and Jim had encountered in the past.

“He’s not answering,” Jim said after a few silent moments. “He buzzed us up, didn’t he? What if something’s wrong?”

“Don’t be paranoid,” Nathan said, pushing his brother away from the door and knocking louder.

“Just because one apartment we went to turned out to be a murder scene doesn’t mean we’re bringing that around with us.

I’m sure Schu’s fine. Probably just in the john or something. Yo!” he called, and knocked again.

The door opened, startling Nathan as it creaked slowly inward until about a foot of space was visible inside the apartment. There was no obvious figure standing there who might have opened it.

Jim looked at Nathan with panic in his eyes.

“Shhh,” Sasha said, bringing a finger to his lips as he came up between them. “I think I know what’s going on. Guess we’re being invited in, hey, guys?” he called out, and pushed on the door to walk inside.

As they entered, Nathan caught a glimpse of a small pink blur vanishing around the corner to their left. Grinning knowingly now, he watched as Sasha flattened himself to the wall and started slinking toward the bend at the end of the entryway.

The apartment had two floors, with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and several other potential areas to hide. But Nathan, like Sasha, knew that their disappearing pink friend had not gone far.

“No one here, huh?” Nathan said, calling out as Sasha had before. “Well, if we’re not wanted then I guess we better head on out!”

A muffled giggle was all the confirmation Nathan needed.

“Gotcha!” Sasha said, leaping around the corner and scooping Kathryn Schuester up into his arms. She was a petite six-year-old, and almost always dressed head to toe in pink.

“No fair!” she said, giggling and squirming in Sasha’s hold. “You cheated.”

“Hey now, you gotta work on your ninja skills, Kitty Kat,” Sasha said.

He set her down and she immediately ran over to Jim, clinging and peeking at Sasha from around Jim’s long legs. She had dark curls and big brown eyes that she batted defiantly.

“Kitty!”

Leslie Schuester’s Scottish accented voice preceded him, rushing down the stairs like he was ready for a fight. He relaxed when he saw who was at the door, but tensed again when he noticed how close his daughter was to Jim.

“Oh. Hello,” he said, failing at offering a pleasant smile. “Sorry it took me so long. I heard ya, but I’d forgotten to turn off the wards. I didn’t want ya gettin’ caught in any of my fae traps. Kitty, don’t bother the boys,” he said, gesturing for the girl to untangle herself from Jim’s legs.

“It's fine. You know we don’t mind,” Jim said, though he carefully nudged Kitty toward Sasha again. He had always been understanding of Schuester's nervousness around him. Few people would be as accommodating to someone they knew was a changeling.

Sasha hoisted Kitty back up into his arms. “It’s good to see you guys. I’ve been in town a while now. Sorry I haven’t stopped by. If Kitty gets any bigger, I won’t even be able to lift her. You keep getting prettier every time too,” he said to her.

Kitty’s obviously returned affection for the redhead helped ease Nathan's mind a bit more about working with a seal. He shared a look of relief with Jim.

Schuester joined them at the mouth of the entryway.

Unlike Sasha’s Crayola red hair, Schuester’s was a natural ginger dusted in white, with pale skin, and even paler grey eyes hidden behind black, thick-framed glasses.

He was in his mid-40s, older than most to have such a young child, and with a heaviness about him that often aged him further.

“The boys brought us a fun gadget to play with, right?” Schuester said, plucking Kitty from Sasha’s arms. “Come on in. You boys need anythin’ to eat? We still have some breakfast left.”

Nathan’s ears perked at the mention of food.

“Thanks anyway, but we can’t stay long,” Jim said. “We’re helping Sasha with a case. We just stopped by to show you the goggles we told you about from Wade.”

Jim had a messenger bag slung over his shoulder.

He pulled out the amethyst goggles and set them on the coffee table as the four of them and Kitty gathered in the living room.

The upstairs level was open above them, making the apartment appear even more spacious.

It did not look like the apartment of a family man, despite the periodic littering of dolls and assorted toys on the floor.

There were old sci-fi movie posters covering the walls, and Dungeons & Dragons books lined up on shelves in the corner.

There were also Schuester’s fae artifacts, but those he kept upstairs.

“I thought ya were kiddin’ when ya mentioned helpin’ Sasha over the phone,” Schuester said.

“I can vouch for him, but the last thing I ever expected was for you boys to partner with a seal. Whenever other seals ask after ya, I'm accustomed to pretendin’ we've never met.” He smiled as friendly as he ever managed and turned to regard the goggles. “Well now…these are a little ostentatious, aren’t they?”

“They’re pretty!” Kitty said, hopping on the cushion beside him.

“They turn invisible while you have them on,” Nathan said. “Jim tested them out.”

“I didn't get the chance to test them on actual fae, but they should work," Jim added. "You won’t offend me if you want to test them out on me first.”

Schuester’s mouth twitched again into a semblance of a smile. “Appreciated. The idea of havin’ somethin’ around that can see through glamours for any fae or changeling is pretty amazin’.”

“That’s what those things do?” Sasha asked.

Nathan nodded, though he hadn’t tried the goggles on himself.

“I have my wards,” Schuester said, “but that only keeps unwanted fae out if I don’t know they’re comin’. There isn’t much I can do if I let one walk right through my front door without knowin’ it. This way I’ll know if there are any monsters around,” he said to Kitty.

The girl’s eyes widened with apparent excitement. She never seemed afraid of unexplainable or mystical things, only curious.

Nathan focused his attention on Schuester as the lanky man began pulling the goggles over his head.

“Oh, sorry,” Sasha said, reaching into his jeans and taking out a vibrating cell phone. “It’s my aunt. I need to take this quick.”

“You can use my bedroom,” Schuester offered.

“Thanks.”

Sasha left the room just as Schuester finished adjusting the goggles over his eyes. They vanished the same way they had for Jim.

Schuester looked around the room at first, but when his gaze focused on Jim, his pale eyes instantly widened. “They work,” he said, and pulled the goggles off again.

“What is it?” Nathan asked. “Jim doesn’t even know how to use glamours. I figured you wouldn’t see anything.”

“I’ll definitely take these.” Schuester stood, as if maybe he hadn’t heard Nathan.

“Cash, I assume? You boys would make this easier on me if you ever got a bank account.” He tried to smile but his expression fell flat.

He started rummaging through the pockets of a jacket hanging on a coat rack by the balcony doors.

Eventually, he retrieved a bulky wallet.

“These are worth a little extra. I know they would be just as useful for ya to keep.”

Jim was already getting up from the sofa to accept the exchange, but his expression was tight, like he wished he could look at himself in the mirror with those goggles on just to be sure he didn’t have any hidden horns.

Instead he said, “We appreciate it, Schu. Money sort of…got away from us these past couple of weeks.”

Nathan was grateful for Jim’s discretion, but he was still bothered by whatever Schuester wasn’t saying.

He tried to focus on the good of the situation, watching as bill after bill was piled into Jim’s outstretched hand.

Schuester was giving them at least a couple thousand.

They could make that last for months if they had to.

“All set?” Sasha asked, coming up behind Nathan from the bedroom.

“Just about. How’s your aunt ?” Nathan looked back to regard Sasha curiously.

Sasha’s eyes dropped to the side. “Don’t ask,” he said. “She’s the only family I have, so she checks in a lot. She’s never really approved of my choice of profession.”

“I’ll bet. Guess I forget that seals can have family too.”

"Not often," Sasha admitted. "It's a lonely life." His blue eyes fell upon Nathan a little more heatedly than Nathan felt comfortable with, but it wasn't quite predatory this time, just appreciative, as if to say he liked what he saw.

Nathan felt his cheeks flush.

“Come on, Kitty,” Schuester said, returning to lift the girl from the sofa. “The boys need to get goin’.”

“Catching monsters?” Kitty asked.

Nathan's attention was gratefully pulled away from Sasha's stare. The way Kitty said ‘monsters’, ignorant of the actual danger, made the idea of what they were about to do solidify a little heavier in his stomach.

They filed back to the entryway, offering a few short goodbyes. Nathan was the last to exit. He was closing the apartment door behind them when Schuester’s hand caught the edge of it and stopped him.

Schuester was no longer holding Kitty, and his face looked grave through the remaining crack of visible space into the apartment. “I don’t know how much longer he has,” Schuester said, whispering almost too softly for Nathan to hear. “Be careful.”

“Wait. What do you—” Nathan tried to speak, but the door shut in his face.

“Nate?”

Sasha and Jim were already halfway down the hallway.

Nathan stepped back from the door. “I’m coming,” he said. He turned to look at his brother as the heaviness in his stomach deepened, unsure if he should be worried or just relieved they no longer had those goggles.