Page 31 of Demons and Debts
Vic lets out a sound of disgust and goes back to his laptop. Guess I’m dismissed.
I return to the kitchen, half-expecting her to be gone, but she’s still there and it looks like she’s on her second or even third bowl of cereal too.
Is this bitch going to eat the whole damn box of my favorite cereal?
I checked the pantry earlier. There aren’t any more, only some wheat bran shit. Stan isn’t bringing more of thegoodcereal for six whole days. My eyes narrow at Jane before I see that she’s not alone. Carrie is lurking in the doorway that leads to their room in the basement.
Ok, that sounds bad, but, seriously, they’ve got their own little apartment down there with skylights and a nice bathroom and everything. It’s not like we keep them in a dungeon or something.
When Carrie sees me, she blinks, her eyes widening just a little as she comes closer. I know what she wants, what they always want, and I can smell her arousal from all the way on the other side of the kitchen.
‘Do you need me?’ she asks breathily.
I shake my head. ‘Sorry, Sugarplum, I don’t have time right now. Maybe later, hmm?’
She pouts at me and glances at Jane. ‘New girl?’
I shake my head. ‘Not exactly.’
Carrie leaves as silently as she arrived, floating away like a feather on the breeze.
‘Are you done?’Eating all my cereal, you fucking monster?
She nods, thank fuck, and I put the box away, high in the pantry and behind the nasty cereal. This bitch is not getting any more of the good stuff if I can help it!
I don’t speak to her again, leaving her in the kitchen alone now that I’ve protected the last of my multigrain goodness as I go to the library to begin researching what we can do to help Sie with his issue before he goes starving-incubus-psycho (technical term) on us all.
7
JANE
As soon as Theo and his ‘Sugarplum’ – who I’m pretty sure was the same blond girl from the bar the other day – are both gone, I’m on my feet and striding to the doors at the back of the kitchen that lead out into the massive, manicured lawn that sits at the edge of what, even in the daytime, looks to be a deep, dark forest of twisted trees and probably secret pools where you aren’t allowed to touch the water on pain of death and shit.
Seriously?
Like why couldn’t they live in a normal rancher or even a duplex? No, it had to be an actualmansionwith what I can only assume is geometric parquet flooring from the Roaring Twenties and original oak paneling from the days of Yore.
Yeah, I know enough to know it’s old, but not much else.
Fucking supes though.
I don’t try the door. Not yet. I need to explore the house first, maybe learn what I can from ‘Sugarplum’ and her human-food buddies to maximize my chances of escape.
I leave the room, going down a wide hall with more pretty flooring and what must be an actual crystal chandelier hanging down from a twenty-foot molded ceiling.
I thought these guys were just an MC like their human counterparts seem to be – street thugs who do a ton of shady shit that’s about as far from my daily life as you can get – but I’m getting the feeling they might be a littlemorethan Shar led me to believe.
The front door opens, and a massive guy walks into the foyer I’m standing right in the middle of. As soon as I see him, I turn tail and run back into the kitchen before he notices me.
I’m not scared! It’s just, I recognized that one. That’s Sie. I was in his room and, after the things he said to me last night, and that girl half-comatose on his bed, I think I’m well within my rights to not want to be near himat all.
Back in the kitchen, I look around as I hear heavy footsteps coming down the hall behind me. There’s nowhere to hide.
My eyes dart around and settle on the alcove ‘Sugarplum’ disappeared through. I lunge for it, finding a door that’s open. I close it quietly behind me and find a set of stairs going down.
This must be where they keep the human foodstuffs, I think as I descend slowly, listening intently for the door above to open.
But it doesn’t.
