Page 10 of The Succubi's Choice

“Do you guys want to go out?” Miri blurts, and she’s rewarded with twin bewildered looks from the two scholars. “Or, just...nevermind.”

Jacqueline gives Gabriel a look, before slowly pulling away from their almost cuddles. “That’s not really my scene,” she says, primly. “Did something happen?”

And she’s so concerned that a smidgen of guilt worms itself into Miri’s stomach. “No, just...” Thankfully, her phone rings, rescuing her from having to justify her actions, so she springs to her feet, refusing to feel grateful for it. “Oh hey, it’s Lundy,” she says, more out of a way to conveniently get away than anything else, before striding into her room and closing the door behind her.

He’s already talking when she clicks answer on her phone. “—waiting for the answer and I don’t know how much and —“

“Hi Lundy.” Miri flops on her bed, already mostly covered with her laundry that she has yet to put away. “I take it everything’s not cool?”

There’s a suspicious, staticky pause on the other side of the phone, before the background noise dies away. “Miri,” he says, his voice even more gravelly than it usually is, and it makes her sit up.

“What’d I do?” She asks, staring out at her room out of a lack of anything else for her eyes to focus on.

Lundy usually didn’t call unless shit was bad, and the last time he sounded like this was when she drove someone part of the way to go kill a Demigod. He was...very unhappy then.

He sighs, his voice weary and staticky. “Can you meet right now?”

She blinks at the pile of laundry. “I mean, sure?” She responds, doing the mental calculation of how much time she’ll need for sleep, but the itching under her skin tells her that sleep will be a long time coming. “Need me to drive?”

“I’ll get you,” he says, then abruptly hangs up the phone, leaving her staring at the room.

“Well, fuck?” She says, to the room at large, before swinging her legs off her bed and riffling to find a clean pair of socks and searching her memories for things she could’ve done to get her in trouble. She’s careful, way more careful than most succubi.

By the time she swings open her door again, Gabriel has his arm back around Jacqueline and she’s not quite cuddling back, and it’s so cute it makes her heart hurt for a brief second.

“Lundy wants to meet, sorry guys, I’ll be out late.”

Jacqueline wrinkles her nose, because she doesn’t really understand who Lundy is and why Miri’s beholden to him, and if Jacqueline hates anything it's not truly understanding things. “It’s like...nine thirty.”

“Bureaucracy,” Miri responds, as glib as she can, before picking up her purse and shooting a tight-lipped smile to Gabriel, before sweeping out.

* * *

It takes lessthan two minutes for Lundy to drive up in his minivan, which means that he was already close by when he called, which is unfair. Granted, part of the deal for her to exist in society means that he has to have GPS trackers on her phone and all that, but still. Unfair.

He idles at the curb, before she unfolds herself and stands, a bit glad that she is still able to make him not notice her when she really wants.

“Bit late for an actual trip, right?” She says the moment she climbs into the minivan, brushing off the crumbs and Goldfish Crackers that inevitably decorate the seats.

“Bit late for you to get in, isn’t it?” He responds, just as quick. “And you’re...” he gestures at her, still in her work uniform. He wears an identical polo shirt.

“Katya needed a buffer,” she responds, as Lundy starts to drive, pulling away from the small apartment complex and driving the familiar streets towards downtown LA. “Did you know there was a banshee nest in Sherman Oaks? But like, the bad part of Sherman Oaks?”

“Of course,” he says smoothly. And this is the game they play, never letting the other know they could’ve been without information. “Run by a nice fellow, likes fountain pens.”

“Did I do something?” She abruptly changes the subject, hoping to catch him somewhat off guard. “I hunted today but I was very careful and it wasn’t fun.”

His lips thin, almost disappearing behind his gray mustache. “Yes I got your report, it was fine.”

“Good,” she says, watching the 101 freeway out of the window. “And Katya was with me when I had to use my charm later, she can sign off.”

“She already did,” he says, and his voice is so carefully neutral that the hairs on the back of her neck stick up. “She’s very protective.”

“I’m useful,” Miri says, a sudden shiver going down her arms.

Lundy’s lips thin even more, and he doesn’t say anything else the entire drive down.

* * *

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