Page 15 of Incubus
“What is it?” Nathan asked. “Jim doesn’t even know how to use glamours. I figured you wouldn’t see anything.”
“I’ll definitely take these.” Schuester stood, as if maybe he hadn’t heard Nathan. “Cash, I assume? You boys would make this easier on me if you ever got a bank account.” He tried to smile but his expression fell flat. He started rummaging through the pockets of a jacket hanging on a coat rack by the balcony doors. Eventually, he retrieved a bulky wallet. “These are worth a little extra. I know they would be just as useful for ya to keep.”
Jim was already getting up from the sofa to accept the exchange, but his expression was tight, like he wished he could look at himself in the mirror with those goggles on just to be sure he didn’t have any hidden horns.
Instead he said, “We appreciate it, Schu. Money sort of…got away from us these past couple of weeks.”
Nathan was grateful for Jim’s discretion, but he was still bothered by whatever Schuester wasn’t saying. He tried to focus on the good of the situation, watching as bill after bill was piled into Jim’s outstretched hand. Schuester was giving them at least a couple thousand. They could make that last for months if they had to.
“All set?” Sasha asked, coming up behind Nathan from the bedroom.
“Just about. How’s youraunt?” Nathan looked back to regard Sasha curiously.
Sasha’s eyes dropped to the side. “Don’t ask,” he said. “She’s the only family I have, so she checks in a lot. She’s never really approved of my choice of profession.”
“I’ll bet. Guess I forget that seals can have family too.”
"Not often," Sasha admitted. "It's a lonely life." His blue eyes fell upon Nathan a little more heatedly than Nathan felt comfortable with, but it wasn't quite predatory this time, just appreciative, as if to say he liked what he saw.
Nathan felt his cheeks flush.
“Come on, Kitty,” Schuester said, returning to lift the girl from the sofa. “The boys need to get goin’.”
“Catching monsters?” Kitty asked.
Nathan's attention was gratefully pulled away from Sasha's stare. The way Kitty said ‘monsters’, ignorant of the actual danger, made the idea of what they were about to do solidify a little heavier in his stomach.
They filed back to the entryway, offering a few short goodbyes. Nathan was the last to exit. He was closing the apartment door behind them when Schuester’s hand caught the edge of it and stopped him.
Schuester was no longer holding Kitty, and his face looked grave through the remaining crack of visible space into the apartment. “I don’t know how much longer he has,” Schuester said, whispering almost too softly for Nathan to hear. “Be careful.”
“Wait. What do you—” Nathan tried to speak, but the door shut in his face.
“Nate?”
Sasha and Jim were already halfway down the hallway.
Nathan stepped back from the door. “I’m coming,” he said. He turned to look at his brother as the heaviness in his stomach deepened, unsure if he should be worried or just relieved they no longer had those goggles.
Chapter 7
"So,doyouguysthink you’re briefed enough about the case?” Sasha asked.
While Nathan simply nodded, Jim reached between the front seats of the car for the notes Sasha had given them. “Last victim, Miranda Jensen, twenty-five, waitress,” Jim listed off, continuing with the description of how she had been found and then reading further into the police report’s details. “As victim number five, Jensen continued the pattern of recent killings by her age, profession, and coloring, brunette with blue eyes. Hmm…all the victims were waitresses with dark hair and blue eyes. Does an incubus usually have an MO like that?”
“Sometimes,” Sasha said, “but this sounds more like a serial killer. If it is an incubus, he’s got an agenda. Wouldn’t be killing otherwise.”
“What do you mean?” Nathan asked. “I’ve met plenty of dark fae who kill without reason.”
"An incubus is not a dark fae."
"They're not?" Jim asked, turning to look at Sasha in the back.
Nathan glanced up at the rearview mirror. It was strange seeing Sasha there in place of Walter.
"Iron is the best weapon against them, like any fae,” Sasha said, “but an incubus or succubus is different from either side alone. They're both. Part light fae, part dark—the only fae I know of that are like that. Most of the time they're harmless. They can feed from having sex with someone without anyone getting hurt, but get a cruel one and they take so much energy from a person that it kills them."
One thing Nathan could be grateful for having a seal in their company was that Sasha was clearly more knowledgeable about fae than either him or his brother. The thought of there being a type of fae that was both light and dark, however, was a little unnerving. Especially one that fed on sex.
