Page 83 of The Succubi's Choice

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Almost as soon asLundy leaves, Katya comes over, with much more paperwork and information than Lundy would ever think to bring.

She blinks at Miri when Miri lets her in, with the practiced head tilt of someone who knows better than to remark on an appearance change.

“Lundy called me, said he’s sorry to have caused you pain,” Katya says instead of a hello, only casting Jacqueline a sideways glance. “I strongly don’t think he wants you to die.”

“I’m sure he feels that way about all his wards,” Miri replies back, and Katya nudges over some of Jacqueline’s grading papers to put down an even bigger stack of paperwork.

“He also said we have someone operating in bad faith inside my Organization, and I’m hoping you can tell me who,” Katya says, sweetly, before opening a binder.

Miri knows this is just Katya’s way of dealing with it, of ignoring all the stress of being in a wedding halfway across the world and processing someone betraying some of her strongly held ideals, but man is this a headache.

Not that she’s actually having a headache, for once in her life, but it’s definitely something she didn’t want to think about.

“Whatever her name is, Vincente is working with her,” Miri says, taking the chair at the table and grabbing the other binder. “And plenty of other foot soldiers were totally okay with manhandling me, though a few were scared of touching me.”

Jacqueline doesn’t even pretend to still be grading.

“And now your charm is superpowered —"

“It’s not superpowered, it’s unpredictable —"

“And they’re making you play footsie with an Archdemon.” Katya cranes her neck, looking over their little doorway. “Can I call someone in to do some runes for you? Make sure no one gets in?”

Miri and Gabriel exchange a glance, and this one is full of him warning, and she’s been his roommate long enough to know that changing things without discussion first is a bad idea. “I’ll think about it.”

Katya squints at her, decides it’s not worth the fight, then moves on. “You still have the gun? Did they catch it on you?”

“No, and I didn’t have it last night and I was safe,” Miri says, her mouth moving on automatic before realizing the issues with what she just said, and then deciding to double down. “The Archdemon found out, he was angry about them hurting me. Wanted to do something to make up for it.”

Katya blinks, resting her head in her hand, as if weighing the worth of the argument. “Alright,” she says, her tone making it clear she does not, in fact, find it alright. “You have to consider the possibility that he planted them to do that, if he knows one of the people there.”

Again, Miri and Gabriel look at each other, and Gabriel’s face is asking her if she believes this bitch.

“Well, he was very kind,” Miri responds. “But, noted.”

“My concern is mostly with Vincente,” Katya says, again turning back to her books. “I have here all the records of everyone he could have brought with him and their resumes, and I’m going to do some cross checking of my own.”

“They don’t have employee IDs that correspond with shifts?” Jacqueline pipes up, applying logic to a logic-less situation. “Couldn’t you see who was on duty?”

“According to our records, no one was on duty for that hotel,” Katya says, and the two of them are going to get along in such a way that Miri feels tired just thinking about it. “Either it was volunteer —"

“Doubt it,” Miri mutters.

“Or Vincente payed them out of pocket, which is another labor violation for our records but not really the issue here.”

“Is there a union for them?” Jacqueline asks, because of course that’s where her mind goes. “You can inquire there.”

Miri flips through one of the binders, and all the faces are such generic white man goons they all blend in together, until the one with the heavy brow crosses her vision.

“Him,” she says, pointing. “He’s the one that almost knocked me out.”

Katya looks, before doubling back and looking up to Miri. “They gave you a head injury?”

And that hasn’t really been brought up, and Miri doesn’t know what to do with that. “Yes?”

“Didn’t put that on your paperwork,” Gabriel mutters from the couch. “That could have been important to know.”

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