Page 5 of Demons and Debts
The human prospect pushes himself off the wall and glances at Carrie. Sie’s still feeding from her lust, and he looks a little disappointed since he sometimes gets to have a little fun with our contracted girls once we’ve had our fills.
‘You prove yourself with this and that’s it. You’re one of the Iron I’s,’ I tell him.
Dreyson’s face lights up at the promise. ‘I won’t let you down, Vic!’
‘Keep it professional though, huh?’
He nods, looking a little surprised that I’d spell it out, but he’s a ladies’ man and this one is off-limits.
I pull on the chain that’s still wrapped around the girl’s fingers. She looks up at me and then at her hand as if she can’t quite bear to let it go. Maybe she does know what it is, she’s just so desperate that she’ll give it up anyway.
‘What’s your name?’ I ask.
‘Jane,’ she whispers, letting out a small breath and dropping the necklace.
With a mental high five to myself, I pocket it immediately and go back to my game without another word. As far as I’m concerned, we’re done and when I look back after taking my next shot, she and Dreyson are gone.
2
JANE
It’s almost dark when I get outside the bar, and the storm clouds are rolling in. A droplet falls on my nose and I sigh as I zip the jacket higher even though it won’t do me much good. At least the diner isn’t too far a walk.
I check my watch. Twenty minutes ‘til my shift starts. Enough time to get there and changed if I powerwalk. I rub my wrist, the one the barman took to seal the deal. His touch was like a brand. Must be an incubus thing, or maybe it was the magick that now binds them to fulfill their end.
I frown as I think about what I’ve given up. That necklace was the last thing I had of my mom, but I don’t remember her she’s been dead for so long. I hadn’t actually thought it would be so hard to let it go.
‘What did you say your name was, sweetheart?’
The human they’ve sent with me, Dreyson, is at my back and he sounds too close. I spin around as I take a step backward and my foot slips off the edge of the curb. I stumble and he gives me a what-the-fuck-is-your-problem look which I outwardly ignore as I give him a quick perusal.
He’s in his twenties like me, about 5’9” with a buzz cut and a tattoo creeping up the side of his neck that I can’t make out. Some girls would call him cute, I guess, and it looks like he knows it from the shit-eating grin he gives me as he looks me over in return. I get a feeling off him I don’t like, but help is help.
‘Jane.’
I turn and begin walking.
‘Where you goin’?’ he asks, sounding puzzled.
I sigh. ‘Work.’
‘Gail’s you said, right? Hop on my hog. I’ll take you.’
I glance over my shoulder at him and then his bike with a grimace and shake my head.
Not getting on that thing and definitely not with you.
‘Nope. I’ll meet you there. Shouldn’t be seen arriving together anyway.’
There’s a pause before he speaks again and when he does his tone has dropped a few degrees.
‘I could make you.’
And there it is.
His voice is low, menacing, but it has none of the power in it that I felt inside from his boss. He’s pretending to be one of them. An incubus. I’m not even surprised. Just another human trying to lap up the dregs the supes leave at the bottom of the cup. I don’t usually blame people like him. If I know anything it’s that life is hard down here in life’s basement. But I wonder how many times he’s done that to girls who don’t know any better. What a prick.
I turn and level him with a hard stare. ‘No, you can’t.’
