Page 11 of The Succubi's Choice

He pullsinto the underground parking lot in the heart of downtown LA, throwing the minivan into park before huffing out a breath. “We’re going to go in, and you are not to say no to anything until you talk to me first.”

“Cause that’s fair,” she shoots back. “What the hell?”

He gives her a thin-lipped smile, before unclipping his seatbelt. “You’re gonna want to say no, just...ignore the instincts a bit. Please.”

She doesn’t move. “What do I get out of it?”

“What do you want?”

“To hunt at night again, this daytime bar hopping is the worst.” She throws him a grin, wide and entirely false. “Get that for me, and I’ll think about whatever the heck this is.”

His eyes narrow further, but he only hesitates for a second and she knows him well enough to know that she got him exactly where she wants him to be. “Done.”

“Perf!” She unclips herself, smiling wide again. “Let’s see what the government wants of me.” She swings out of the minivan, sweeping the crumbs off of her seat.

Her handler sighs, but it’s the weary sort of sigh he always has when he deals with her.

It’s not like the two of them don’t get along, and it’s not like the two of them don’t respect each other, just...the constant form of slightly adversarial authority doesn’t sit well with Miri. Some people, some not-normal people, adore the structure and relative freedom that comes with the handler system, love the ability and the guide to live with the rest of humanity.

Succubi generally live well with humans out of sheer social ability and, you know, preying on them, so the whole handler system tends to be annoying to them. Or so she’s told— she’s not actually allowed to talk to other succubi too much. The Organization got shifty when they thing about others talking too much.

After ten PM, the Organization building is mostly empty, there’s only a ghoul walking briskly next to his handler, but otherwise the fluorescent lighting just bounces off of brisk white tiles as they stride through the hallways, and Lundy looks like he’s gonna jump out of his skin.

“How’s Jamie?” She asks, gentler than she usually would. “Isn’t this past his bedtime?”

“It’s so past his bedtime I put him to bed before getting you,” Lundy snaps back, before scowling. “I had to call our neighbor to just sit in the house so he’s not asleep alone. My ex would freak out.”

“Ah, so you didn’t want to come get me.” She needles him, and he gives her a dirty look. “Why not wait for the morning?”

He doesn’t say anything, which means they didn’t give him much of a choice to come get her, which is even more interesting.

He pauses in front of a door with a giant copper frame, one of the official interrogation rooms, and she just gives him a sidelong look, not approaching it.

It’s not like she’s super affected by copper, but most non-natural people are, and the room is mostly for intimidation for wayward creatures. It’s a room that’s a show of force, and one that she dislikes on principle.

It’s a copper knife that killed the Demigod recently, and it’s a copper gun she illegally keeps.

“Lundy,” she says, as gently as she can. “Care to tell me what’s going on?”

He unlocks the door with a key attached to his belt and a quick passcode, opening it wide, and a blast of cold air hits her in the face. Because of course it does.

They stare at each other for a long second, before she sighs and strides into the room. Crossing the copper threshold sends an electric current down her spine: wholly unpleasant and wholly unnecessary.

In it is a large copper desk and at it sit two men that Miri has never met before, wearing pressed suits and deep frowns. They nod at Lundy, who hangs back at the edge of the room, gesturing for Miri to take a seat.

“So this is friendly,” she says past the lump in her throat. “What’s up?”

One of the suits wrinkles his nose at her casualness, so she privately swears to keep it up as long as she can. “You are one of eight non-normal people actually employed by the Organization,” he starts, as if she didn’t already know that information, “and we think we may need your support.”

There’s also seven non-normal people higher ranking than her in the Organization, so that just feels wrong. “Shouldn’t this request go through Katya, then? You know, cause she’s my boss?”

The other suit calmly blinks at her, somewhere between zen and contemplating strangling her. It’s tough to tell. “We’re not exactly going to let her into this loop.”

There’s a pen on the big copper table, so Miri picks it up to fiddle with, clicking it in her hands. Behind her, Lundy twitches, because he hates that sound and knows she knows it. “Dude, she single-handedly stopped some rogue demigods from taking over like...the entire world. Why wouldn’t you let her in on this one?”

One of them winces at that statement, which means she’s struck a chord, which only makes her more intrigued. Not happy, but intrigued. She’s always been way too low level to actually be included in any inter-office politics, so she’s of course going to grab onto this opportunity and then tell Katya over wine some time.

Lundy coughs, politely, from behind her.

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