Page 54 of Incubus with Benefits
That had me chuckling.
“Is it really safe, though?” I asked.
“Oh yeah, totally. The succubi and incubi here are on their best behavior. If one of them doesn’t play nice, we all hear about it. As for everyone else? Be an asshole one too many times, and no one will touch you. Do something really bad? Julian will whoop your ass if you’re a dude, and bootcha if you’re not. And if I leave with someone here, they’re going to make sure I’m safe and don’t go missing because if I did, all eyes would be on them.”
She really did make it sound ideal.
“Okay, then what happened to those two witches?”
Jordan frowned. “Yeah, I heard about them too. But I’ve never actually seen them in these rooms. I’ve seen them downstairs,but never on the second floor. That’s why I’m going to ask someone here to get me home later. If I leave with one of these guys,” she motioned around the room, “then at least I know I’ll be safe.”
I sensed no lies from her. Jordan really believed that any one of these demons was safer than being alone. But it made sense. It must have been difficult for Julian to get this place licensed. I understood that up here, where it was private and by invitation only, the rules were different, but any negative stories coming out of here would get both the normal dancehall and the Upstairs sex club shut down fast.
I looked up to see Gina walking toward me, a frown marring her beautiful face. She had a hand up by her ear like she was listening to something.
The bass from the club downstairs had cut off mid-track, and I caught the distant echo of shouting. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“Lily,” she said, her lips tight. “We gotta go.”
I hesitated for a moment, but Gina grabbed my arms and started ushering me toward the door. As we moved, I heard the sharp crack of glass breaking, followed by someone yelling for IDs. A hush fell on the room as every soul braced for what was to come.
I looked back toward the people in the room. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but something told me to trust Gina. Even if Julian had acted all jealous with her the last time, he’d still asked her to watch over me. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t trust her implicitly.
“Okay, okay, I’m coming. But tell me what’s going on.”
“It’s Julian,” she said, practically dragging me up the stairs.
As we reached the door to Julian’s home, I could hear the pounding of footsteps on the stairwell below. She didn’t use a key. Instead, she phased her arm right through the door to unlock it and let herself in.
The second we were alone, she started pacing his living room and looking more distraught than I thought a succubus could be. Her human disguise flickered at the edges, like she was too rattled to hold it steady, before it disappeared completely, showing her in her horned demon form.
“Spill it, Gina. What’s happening?”
But even as I asked the question, I already came to my own conclusions from the red and blue lights flashing in the window.
“It’s Julian,” she said. “He’s just been arrested.”
Chapter 25
Julian
Thebenchintheholding cell was hard, the air stale, and the fluorescent lights overhead buzzed like they were trying to drill into my skull. I didn’t know how long I’d been here, but it was long enough to memorize the cracks in the tile.
And the worst part of it? The cell was demon-proof. That meant I couldn’t phase through the bars or pop off and head home.
An officer finally approached, clipboard in hand. He didn’t look at me when he spoke.
“You’re lucky,” he said. “Some woman’s here willing to post your bail.”
They’d set the bail ridiculously high: almost a quarter of a million dollars. They probably thought I wouldn’t be able to post it, forcing me to stay behind bars. They thought I’d rot in here long enough for them to dig through Delerium and twist whatever they found into something damning. But between me and Gina, we had more than enough. And if push came to shove, I was sure that Prax would help too. He had a fortune of his own.
“Of course,” the officer added, flipping the page, “there are conditions.” He listed them off in monotone.
I already knew what they were. I was to be fitted with an anti-demon restraint. No phasing, no teleportation. I was basically grounded and on house arrest with daily video check-ins.
The conditions were unusually strict, and I had a feeling they were trying make an example of me. This was about optics, about showing the community that they were doing something about the missing women.
Delerium had always been a target, but now it was a symbol of their investigation. And I was the headline they needed to prove they were cracking down. Never mind that they had no evidence. Never mind that I’d cooperated. They wanted a body in a cage, and mine was convenient.
