Page 12 of Nightmares and Numerology

Ask me if I cared.

“It should only take a second.”

Fifi shot me a glare. I half-expected her to march to the door and slam it just shy of my nose. We’d always had a prickly relationship. Partly my fault; I could admit that now. I ought to have been more accommodating of my sister’s strangeness. I still questioned her sanity, settling down into domestic bliss as a sasquatch’s main squeeze, but to each their own, I guess. Their bizarre and borderline crazy own. Honestly, though, would it have killed her to find another demon? At least there was some dignity to that. Sasquatches were just... brutish. I shuddered to think how large her children would turn out.

Fifi finally seemed to realize that I wasn’t going to back down and sighed, pushing away from her desk with a polite smile aimed at Andrea. Her eyes promised me an ass-kicking, though.

“I’m sorry about this, Andrea. I promise I won’t be long.”

Andrea’s smile was only a little more convincing than Fifi’s. She was going to have to work on that poker face if she wanted to be a politician. She should have taken lessons from our father, who was inscrutable unless he was trying to wring something from one of his victims.

“Of course. Business first,” Andrea said. “I think I’ll slip away to the ladies’ room while I wait. Nature calls.”

Fifi stalked out, holding the door open long enough for her client to sashay toward the back before closing the door behind her. She was in my face seconds later, nose inches from mine, with one knobby finger pressing like a stern ruler against my chest.

“This better be good, Ang. If you’ve just come to mock me about—”

“I’m not here to mock you,” I interrupted. “I wasn’t planning to speak with you at all tonight. I thought you’d be home having a romp with your boyfriend at this hour. Why are you still here?”

Fifi shrugged helplessly. “Do you remember that witch I told you about a year or two ago?”

I blinked slowly at her in response. Honestly, did she expect me to keep track of all her friends? She had too many platonic friendships to remember them all. It was odd for most succubi to make friends at all; other women were competition for prey, after all. But of course, my oddball sister didn’t think that way.

“You’ll have to be more specific,” I said finally. “I barely remember what you said this morning over coffee, let alone remembering any acquaintances you’ve made in the last year.”

Fifi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “The one who encouraged celibacy?”

“Oh, her?”

Fifi nodded. “She contacted me again and asked for a favor.”

“And?”

“And Andrea appears to be a friend of a friend of hers.”

“Okay, what sort of creature do you think Andrea is?” I asked, figuring maybe Fifi had picked up on something I hadn’t.

“She strikes me as human, probably a grandchild of a witch, not one herself.”

A chill raced down my spine at those words. I’d worriedabout Fifi’s safety more than I liked to admit. Starving herself had been one of the most reckless stunts she’d pulled in recent memory. The fact she’d planned to amputate her demon from her human shape, leaving her frail and sickly, was bad enough. Knowing what I did about Indigo, I suspected (but unfortunately couldn’t prove) that the witch in question was working with the Ring Wraith wannabe I’d met at the auction. Ah yes, Murrain. That was the name.

“Why are you still in contact with that witch?” I demanded. “She was trying to mutilate you.”

Or possibly kill her, all to gain Fifi’s essence for some nefarious plot. I’d heard enough from Lydia to be horrified at the thought of something like that happening to Fifi. We might not get along well, but she was still my sister.

Fifi rolled her eyes. “She was trying to help me. That makes her well-meaning and wrong, not dangerous.”

She’d probably think differently if she’d seen Lydia wake in a cold sweat. Whatever Indigo had been up to was worse than she wanted to admit.

But I hadn’t come here to argue with Fifi about the witch’s intentions. I had more important things to worry about, like getting Rodney and his girlfriend and my sister out of here.

“Why are you in the office so late?” I asked.

Fifi swayed, taken off guard. I think she’d been expecting more pushback. The change of topic seemed to throw her.

“It took a while for Andrea to check her fiancé out of the hospital. You know how lengthy the discharge process can be.”

I snorted. “So he’s conned another woman way out of his league into keeping him?”

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