Page 9

Angelo

“You didn’t tell her?” Fifi asked, staring at me over the breakfast table in shock.

I half-expected her slice of bacon to clatter to her plate and shatter into a thousand pieces. The sasquatch liked to cook it within an inch of its life, crisping the pork until it barely resembled meat anymore. I wasn’t sure how Fifi put up with his cooking, honestly, but she must have found a solution. They’d all but moved in together in the past few weeks, and Roy had been hinting strongly that I should move back into Fifi’s vacated home. Something about keeping me from aiming my dubious charms at innocent gypsies.

I ate the damn bacon and the mountain of eggs the enormous sasquatch piled on my plate before leaving for his day job because the alternative was worse. If I wasn’t feeding my demon half, I needed to maintain the human facade I wore better. That meant no more surviving on coffee or energy drinks between feedings. Food at every meal. At this rate, I might even have to resort to supplements. Dark Ones below, I hoped not. Bacon was one thing. A multivitamin was a bridge too far.

I swallowed the mouthful of rubbery eggs with a grimace. It hit my stomach unpleasantly. It wasn’t what I wanted. If I had my way, my sister would be absent, and Lydia would appear in all her naked glory. It was almost the only thing I could think about. I was hungry. Distressingly so. I hadn’t felt anything like this in all my years topside. The only memory that came close was my father cutting me off from my lovers for two weeks to teach me a lesson about control. I felt the same snarling emptiness from the pit where my demon lay.

“There’s not a lot I can tell her,” I said, petulantly stuffing another bite of eggs into my mouth. “Until we have that footage and get it to Chief Morgan, we won’t know who or what attacked me. I’ve got my money on Andrea, though. That witch who nearly killed you suddenly pops back into your life, and I get attacked the night I try to dissuade you from doing her a favor? That seems like more than just a coincidence.”

Fifi rolled her eyes. “For the last time, it wasn’t Andrea that attacked you.”

“That you know of,” I said, jabbing my fork at her. “She wasn’t in your line of sight the entire time.”

“Yeah, but she was in my line of sight when it happened. I heard you leave. I went to the restroom and she was still using it. I could see her feet in the last stall. Unless she can be in two places at once, she didn’t attack you.”

Well, damn. My gut had been leaning toward Andrea as the culprit. She’d come into town with a man who couldn’t score a date with his own hand. Not only that, but Andrea had connections with monsters outside our Hollow that might be dangerous. Granted, she’d felt human to me but that didn’t really mean that much. She could have a charm that hid her beastly half. Any way I looked at it, she appeared guilty as hell. But Fifi was right. If Andrea had been in the bathroom, she couldn’t have been the one who attacked me. Besides, nothing on her was gelatinous enough. Whatever had attacked me had felt a lot like an octopus tentacle wrapping around my ankle. I had a vague notion it might have scooted its way up my body, but there was no indication it had done anything after that.

Nothing physical, at any rate.

Something had happened. Of that, I was sure. Even after sitting in a strip club parking lot, absorbing the ambient energy wafting from the building, I was still famished. It felt like I’d sustained a serious wound and depleted all my reserves. Except there was no evidence to support my suspicion. I wasn’t even sure how to tell a doctor to start testing for a magical assault.

I stabbed another bit of egg, nibbling the edges instead of popping it into my mouth. I was seriously considering whisking Lydia away on a whirlwind vacation. She needed the break, and I needed to feed. At some point, the mood would be right again. She wanted me. I could sense that any time we were near each other. It was as inevitable as gravity. Yes, she wanted me, and I wanted her. I always had. I’d have her. She’d have me. I just had to be patient.

“So you’re seriously telling me you set Lydia up for a date, but then you didn’t tell her why you canceled?” Fifi continued. “Are you a moron or just plain stupid?”

I scowled. “I still have that pocket thesaurus you chucked at my head. Those are synonyms, sister mine.”

“Yeah, because you’re acting like an imbecile! Poor Lydia. Dating you is going to give her a complex.”

I narrowed my eyes, scowling at her. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“That you’re hopeless and this dating thing is beyond your capabilities.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just that you have no freaking clue how the rules of dating work, do you? You’ve never had to follow them. I shouldn’t even be surprised,” she continued, not allowing me to answer. “You just waltz into a woman’s life, have your way with her, and flee.”

“Because it’s safest that way,” I insisted. “Humans are fragile, as you well know. I have to spread the feedings out so I don’t kill one of them. Do you want me to end up like Euryvos?”

Fifi winced and finally sat back down in her chair. I knew that case still bothered her. Like me, Euryvos had been an incubus, though he’d lived in the Hollow a few decades before I’d moved here. He’d been dating a witch, and things had gone well for a while. Except when she’d become pregnant, the child had fed on her too. It had been too much stress on her heart and she’d died.

I’d been terrified of repeating the same mistake with Lydia before I knew about the demon grafted onto Lydia’s soul. It could withstand me. Koloths were among the toughest customers around, regularly conscripted for holy wars by infernal generals willing to pay their fees. Mortal women didn’t have the same endurance. Keeping one person too long was detrimental to their health, so I had to move on or kill them one dark night when I pushed too far. It was easiest for everyone if I kept it casual and spread the need around. This was the first time I’d held out for someone since my power had come online. Fifi was right—I wasn’t used to this dating stuff. In the past, any romantic notions I might have had had always been pummeled out of my head. If I didn’t want to kill someone, I couldn’t have a relationship. Until now.

Fifi sighed and sipped her coffee with a put-upon expression. “You’re still an idiot. An ignorant idiot, but still an idiot.”

“Stop calling me names!”

“Stop hurting my friends,” she countered. “I like Lydia. I don’t want you to mess things up for her.”

“I didn’t hurt her,” I said, a touch of growl in my voice.

Fifi’s brows lifted, and I realized I’d stood up at some point, my hands bunching in Roy’s checkered tablecloth. I’d torn holes in it with my claws. Except my human form wasn’t supposed to have those, which meant I’d begun to shift into my demonic aspect without realizing it. It wasn’t my husky human voice that drove women wild. The voice escaping my throat was my own, deeper and more resonant. I couldn’t easily pit my energy against Fifi’s, but the demon was still clearly ready for a fight.

I sat back down, abruptly exhausted. What the hell was wrong with me? I wasn’t a teen flushed with hormones and a desperate need to hit something. It had been decades since we’d had a knockdown drag-out fight. It was traditional for young demons to battle occasionally, but neither of us had taken it seriously. Why? Because Fifi had always been lost in human romances, and I’d been too busy feeding on any woman who’d have me. We were getting older now. If I fought her, one of us would get hurt. It wasn’t worth the poke she’d taken at my ego.

“Something is wrong,” I groaned. “I don’t know what. It feels like I haven’t fed in a year, which shouldn’t be the case. I’m sorry for snapping, Fifi. I just...”

Her eyes softened. “You’re hungry. Maybe Lydia...”

“No,” I barked. “I’m not begging her to sleep with me. Not only is it humiliating, it would be a breach of my promise. I told her I’d be patient. I’ll just...”

“Do what?” Fifi countered. “You can barely finish a sentence right now. You need food.”

I stood abruptly, pushing away from the table. The chair legs let out a strident squeal, and a petty part of me hoped it scratched Roy’s hardwood floors. He was pissing me off in absentia. Everything was pissing me off.

“I need to leave. I’ll get a breakfast sandwich on the way to my first showing or something.”

Fifi stood and crossed the room in two long strides to seize me. To my shock, I realized she could hold me. That shouldn’t have been the case. She might be feeding regularly now, but I still had years of surplus left.

Except... I didn’t. All that energy that should have been there—it was gone. Every scrap of life force I’d siphoned off willing women over the years was missing. I staggered, stunned by the revelation.

“I think something fed on me,” I whispered, my hand falling to my stomach. The cut there made more sense if it was symbolic instead of literal. A lot of magic worked that way—substituting one thing for another or making a wound on a poppet to produce results in the real world.

Fifi’s eyes widened. “What?”

“It’s gone. Everything I saved—all that backed up energy that should still be there. It’s all gone now...”

Whatever that thing was, it might have killed me. When it had cut me open and drained my life force, it hadn’t just meant to scare me. It had meant to end me. If I hadn’t been such a manwhore, that kind of theft would have killed me. It would have taken Fifi out quickly since she didn’t have the kinds of reserves I did.

Or used to have.

All color drained from her face. For the first time since I’d brought up the issue, she seemed to take it seriously. She reached for my shirt with shaking fingers and lifted the hem, hissing in surprise and sympathy when she saw the wound on my stomach. It made sense why that location had been chosen. Whatever had tried to end my life had done so by taking every scrap of food that could possibly extend it.

“I thought you were...”

“Being an idiot?” I guessed.

She snorted. “You’re still an idiot, but I didn’t realize it was this bad.” She looked up at me. “But I still think you should have taken Talyiah’s advice and called Lydia. I bet she’s upset right now.”

“I missed a date, Fifi. I didn’t run over her cat.”

“She’ll be even angrier when she finds out you were hurt and didn’t think she could handle it.”

I had to fight the urge to snort. Fifi was being dramatic. Lydia knew I wanted her. That hadn’t changed and wouldn’t change at this point. I didn’t think I could stop after just one taste. I craved her like I craved air.

“It’s not like that,” I said.

“Idiot,” she said with less force this time. “Tell her what happened. Consider it a condition before you come back to work. If you’re as hungry as I think you are, you’re going to end up seducing some poor woman on reflex, and then I’ll be pissed. I wouldn’t forgive you if you added cheating on a friend to your long list of offenses. You worry about Lydia, and I’ll figure out what happened in the parking lot.”

“Then you agree that whatever happened, it’s bad?”

She nodded. “I think it’s really bad.” Then she breathed in deeply. “Now march, Mister. You have some serious ass to kiss.”