Page 59 of Demons and Debts
‘Why?’ I growl, feeling defensive.
He puts his hands up. ‘Just wondered. You seem a little better tonight than you have lately.’
I snort and leave him with the crazy girl, but I wonder if he isn’t right in his assessment. Maybe I don’t feel so on the edge.
Going back downstairs, it looks like Callaghan and the others have been rounded up and I smile darkly. The two prospects I chose for that particular mission are big guys known for not pulling their punches. Both of them have sisters too. Callaghan and his cronies are going to regret trying to take what's ours before they’re kicked off the property for good. I'll talk to Vic about them tomorrow. I've been letting things slip, I realize. I'm Vic's lieutenant and somewhere along the line I stopped acting like it. It’s time to remedy that.
The house girls aren't at the party. They tend to stay away from the other supes if they know what's good for them.
I go down to their rooms. Their basement apartment is always open for us. I find all three of them there and though they’re relaxed at first glance, as soon as they notice me, they all tense up, looking wary.
What I heard Callaghan say upstairs about our girls has me wondering if he and others have been making free with them too. I want to know the truth.
‘I'm not here to feed,’ I say.
The blond one, I think her name is Carrie, stands up while the other two stay behind her, cuddling together on the couch and looking at me in equal parts fear and eagerness.
Carrie raises a brow at me.
‘I need to know something,’ I say, staying where I am. I was serious when I said I don’t want to feed right now, not from them anyway.
‘What is it?’ Carrie asks, thinly veiled suspicion in her voice.
‘Just had a problem upstairs with some of our guests thinking it’s ok to touch our contracted humans. Anything like that ever happen to you girls?’
They look at each other, incredulity written on all their faces.
‘Do they think it’s ok totouchus?’She laughs, and it’s a brittle sound. ‘We’re the house whores, Incubus. What the fuck do you think?’
She looks away and so do the others.
‘That stops now,’ I mutter. ‘From now on, anyone not me, Theo, Paris, Korban, or Vic evenlooksat you with anything but the deepest respect, and you tell us.’ I swear under my breath. ‘If you’d bothered to read your contracts properly, it says your favors are strictly ours. No one else has a claim to you outside the Club.’
Carrie sneers, looking back at me with hatred in her eyes. ‘Like contracts with humans matter to the supes,’ she snaps and then thinks twice and takes a step back as if she's afraid I'm going to retaliate.
‘It stops now,’ I say again, and turn around, not bothering to say anything more.
I return to the party and grab a beer. I think about going back up to Theo, but I can't stomach it. I don't want to be around the female anymore, so I'll go back out onto the deck and drink alone in the dark, hoping that my actions tonight have donesomethinggood for this Club.
12
JANE
Isit in the closet for a long time with my earbuds in, trying to block out the errant sounds of the party downstairs. I'm not shaking on the outside anymore, but I’m sure as shit shaking on the inside.
All the awful places I've lived, all the times I've walked home in the dark and in the span of a week, it happens twice. Two times I’ve been attacked and there hasn’t been a damn thing I could do to save myself. I’m a fucking damsel in distress.
Move over Sleeping Beauty. Ugh!
Theo’s left me alone, I think to go get me a drink or some meds or something. I stopped listening after I heard what Sie said about me. I don’t know why it hurt. Maybe if they think there’s something wrong with me, Vic won’t want me for their little MC anymore. They’ll let me go and I can save Shar and the kids and all will be right with the world again ... at least until my stalkers catch up with me.
I stand up, shaking off the last of the fear. I need to get out of here and there's no time like the present. I sneak out of the room and down the back stairs again. The party’s quieter now, and the kitchen’s deserted. The doors to the deck are still wide open and I make my way quickly over to them. Freedom is so close, but I freeze in the middle of the kitchen. What if they're still out there? What if they catch me again and there’s nobody to stop them?
I’ve decided to forget for the moment that the incubus who saved me is the one I’m most afraid of here, that he took me back to my room and was practically a gentleman. I didn’t get that vibe off him in his room the other day, that’s for sure. I mean I was rocking in the corner like a crazy woman though. Maybe that shit doesn’t get his supey dick hard.
I can’t stay out in the open like this, I remind myself. I push through the fear and go out onto the deck.
I can hear the sounds of a fight in the woods, and I wonder if that’s where everyone’s gone. Works for me if it gives me a window of opportunity.
