Page 51 of Wicked Succubus

My phone pings, I look down at my hand, seeing a message from Radnor. I go to open it when a movement catches my eye.

Easton is at the door, and I immediately walk to him and ask, “Where’s Zelyah?”

“Oh, so this is the fellow Zel went on a date with.” Rhett scoffs, and the way he stands taller and crosses his arms, it’s clear he wants to take Easton down.

“I lost her,” he says, and a look of guilt washes over him. I want to wring his neck. He shouldn’t be with someone like Zel. He can’t handle her. She’s too wild. There is no one who can handle her. No one but me, comes an unwanted thought.

There’s a killer on the loose, and Zelyah is nowhere to be found. Zelyah detached herself from the agent, and now she’s not answering her phone. She has a habit of disappearing right before the bodies drop. If she isn’t the murderer, she’s out there with a serial killer on the loose, and with her fitting the killer’s victim preference, Zelyah might be in danger. She has no powers but her annoying mouth, which only gets her into more trouble.

“We can assume Zel got rid of the FBI agent because he was boring her,” Killian pipes up with a grin on his face. Easton growls, and I have to step between them.

“I hate them as much as you do.” I turn toward Easton. “But they’re helping me with this case, and they already have more information than I’ve had since this started.”

My phone rings, and I’m hopeful it’s Zel, but when I look at my phone, Radnor is written across the screen. As soon as I pick up, he says, “Did you get the picture?”

“I haven’t had a chance to look at it,” I respond as all eyes turn to me.

“I finally got into Trisha’s head.” He sounds exhausted. “It wasn’t easy, but I kept going at it. She’s out cold now and will be for the next week. Anyway, I had someone draw up the description, and I sent it to you.”

I immediately pull my phone back, and with shaky hands, I open my messages. Everything’s coming together now. No other women will be sacrificed or have to suffer such a horrible death. I can’t wait to bring him in so no one will ever get hurt.

“What is it?” Rhett asks, bringing me back to reality.

I shake my head, clearing my thoughts. “It’s a picture of the killer.”

My body sags with relief as I say those words out loud. We finally have a face, and we know we’re looking for a human. I can run it through our recognition software to see if a name pops up.

“Let us take a look.” Killian reaches for the phone.

“Radnor, good job. I’ll keep you in the loop.” I hope he takes a rest, but knowing him, he’ll probably go off and party. He’s not looking to settle down any time soon.

“Later, Coop,” he says as he hangs up.

I hand the demons my phone. They take a look at the picture and shake their heads. “We haven’t seen him before, but we’ll keep an eye out when we do our own hunting,” Rhett says as he takes in every detail of the man from the drawing Radnor sent me.

“Truthfully, I thought he’d be older. He only looks to be in his early twenties. What a shame.” That’s true. Humans have a short life span, and if we decide not to kill him, he’ll end up in prison for the rest of his life.

Killian hands me my cell, and I take a look at it again. We’ve got the best artist around, and with Radnor’s description, I know this picture matches the human well.

“Everyone gather around.” The supernaturals make their way over to form a circle around us. “We now know the killer is human and what he looks like.”

Everyone cheers. When the crowd calms down, I say, “I’ll be emailing this picture to all of you, so if you don’t get an email, let me know.”

“Let me see,” Easton asks as I finish my speech. I hand him my phone, and he takes it.

His eyes widen as he gasps loudly, and everyone stops what they are doing.

“Do you recognize this man?” He’s staring at my picture extremely hard. My body jumps with excitement at the possibility.

It takes him a while to drag his gaze up to meet mine. “This is the guy who was talking to Zel at the bar.”

Oh, shit.

Chapter 27

Rhett

I’m going to slit this man’s throat. FBI agent or not, he lost Zel, and now none of us can find her and warn her how close the killer is to her. I’m already getting frustrated with Easton. First, he takes Zel out on a date, which enrages me, and then he loses her. If Easton hadn’t taken her out, she wouldn’t have been kidnapped.

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