Page 50 of Incubus with Benefits
And who had put her up to this?
She continued around the building, looking through the windows, but found nothing as they were all covered in reflective film. Then she looked up at one of the third-floor windows, and despite being indoors, I ducked as if I thought she could see me right through the walls. A hooded figure approached, and she turned to greet him. They clearly knew each other.
This had to be the guy from the video. His face was also obscured here, like the pixels there decided to glitch, or the lens was dirty, exactly where he was. I recognized magic when I saw it. There were spells to prevent faces from being photographed. It hadn’tbeen obvious before because he’d used something to cover his face, sparing the stress on the spell.
Suddenly, she looked up at one of the cameras, the one we’d hidden inside a broken light. Then, like they finally realized they were being watched, the two left quickly.
I looked up to see that Julian had already returned and was standing behind me, watching the screen. He was topless and sweaty like he’d puffed right back home after a match.
“I was so focused on Alfonzo the researcher that I hadn’t even considered Krista. No wonder she looked so panicked when she first saw me there. She probably thought her goose was cooked.”
“We’d both missed it, and I’m guessing Nathan might have too. I think it’s time we talked to him about this.”
“I agree. I don’t think Alfonzo put her up to this. He looked like he barely tolerated her. And they didn’t know I was listening. He just wanted her gone. My question is, who the hell is she working for? Because clearly she’s not working alone.” I sighed. “Now I have more questions than ever. And I don’t feel any closer to the answers.”
And whoever was involved had substantial magic. They hadn’t been able to break through the combined magic of me, Penny, and Gigi. But it had been close. Not to mention we also had Mrs. Kim’s magic on our side too.
“You did good, Vixen. This is one more piece of the puzzle. Don’t sell yourself short.”
“It wasn’t me,” I admitted. “Shadow noticed her first, didn’t you?”
Shadow preened, and I swore she could understand us. She was a lot nicer to Julian now that he’d welcomed her into his home and given her a nice, big garden to call her own. I wasn’t even sure she wanted to go back to my place. What would even happen when we got back to my place? Would she go back to living her stray cat life?
I knew I couldn’t force her to stay indoors if she’d been an outdoor cat her entire life until now. But I also knew how dangerous it was for cats who roamed the streets. I wanted to keep her safe, and that felt almost impossible where I lived without confining her to my tiny apartment. It didn’t seem fair.
Here, she had access to the rooftop patio and all of Julian’s third-floor apartment.
“Still up for that dinner tonight?” Julian asked, completely unaware of the moral quandary in my head.
Oops, I’d almost forgotten. We’d planned on trying that Brazilian steakhouse tonight.
And even though Julian had insisted on paying this time, it still had me thinking about how expensive eating out was and how little money, as in none, was going into my bank account in the near future.
He frowned. “You’re upset.”
Not wanting to go into my financial worries, I kept it to the basics. “Coven application got rejected, and Steven has been bad-mouthing me on industry forums.”
“Want me to kill him? Offer’s still open.” He winked.
“Nah, too risky. You’ve already got cops looking your way,” I said, pretending to take his offer seriously. “He’s from a family of witches, so it’ll just make things worse.”
“Aww, damn it. Then maybe some good meat will cheer you up.” He waggled his brows suggestively, making me laugh.
I closed my laptop and got ready for our first official date. Though did that make us more than friends with benefits? I didn’t know. The line was so blurred now.
“It just might.” I sent him a saucy smile. “Who knows, I might get hungry for more than just steak.”
“I’ll give you anything you’re hungry for, Vixen. Anything.”
Chapter 23
Julian
RodízioNocturnewas...theatrical,to say the least.
From the moment Lily and I stepped through the velvet-curtained entrance, it felt less like a restaurant and more like we’d wandered into a live-action roleplay event. The servers wore tailored black suits with blood-red silk cravats, their skin unnaturally pale. They more glided than walked. Every interaction felt rehearsed, dramatic, and like they were delivering lines.
The general vibe? A bunch of actors pretending to be vampires pretending to be actors pretending to be vampires. I still hadn’t decided if vampires were actually real. Either they were phenomenal actors pretending to be vampires being bad actors, or they were actual vampires trying to pass as bad actors to throw us off. Honestly, I respected the commitment.
