Page 23 of The Succubi's Choice

Defense is a complicated subject between them, as Katya carries a gun everywhere and it’s not legal for Miri to own one.

“Well, it’s not another demigod, I can tell you that,” she says, glibly, as they pull up to the dusty strip mall.

The only other car is Lundy’s peeling family van, idling right in front of the building, as if it’s been there for too long. At spotting, it, Katya inhales a quick sucking breath between her teeth.

“I’ll be fine,” Miri says, again, as Katya grasps her arm tighter. “If I swear it’s not a big deal, will you believe me?”

“Swearing does nothing to you, that doesn’t fool me,” she replies, automatic.

There are several creatures who are beholden to formal swearing, so many people who have knowledge of not-normal people think that they all do. The first week Miri and Katya worked together, Miri exploited that belief mercilessly, and it was hilarious.

As she pulls right up next to the van, Lundy swings his door open and takes a ginger step out, holding his side.

Katya slams her door open, tumbling out with all the force of a bulldog faced with a threat. “Miri, get the door,” she commands, already halfway across the parking lot and under Lundy’s arm, leaning his weight against her, bad shoulder be damned.

Instead, Miri sits, her hands gripped tight over the frayed plastic leather of the steering wheel. Watching as Lundy leans against Katya, the sweat trickling down his chin and down the collar of his polo shirt. The tilt of his torso and the fingers pressed so deep into his side that the indentations form around his hand.

“Miri!” Katya snaps, and Miri scrambles out, feet hitting the pavement with a jolt, hands shaking around her keys.

“What happened,” she blurts out, opening the office door with a fumble of movement. “What happened and why are you here?”

Katya breezes through the office with him and into the tiny medical room that smells too much like human antiseptics. “Go get the BP cuff,” she commands, and Miri follows automatically.

As she grabs it, Lundy seems to shake awake. “I’m okay, I’m okay,” he says, but he allows Miri to slip the blood pressure cuff over his arm and calibrate it to human. “Miri, stop, I’m okay.”

“Oh fuck off,” Miri snaps back, watching as the underfunded machine switches settings. “What the heck happened?”

He gives an obvious look to Katya, who’s unfurling a set of equipment. “A sting went poorly,” he says, wincing. “I’m not...I’m not that injured. I don’t need that!” He points to Katya, who’s pulling out an IV with deft hands.

“Then why’d you come here?” Katya asks, crisp, setting aside the IV.

Again, the significant look to Miri, because he is nothing if not amazingly unsubtle.

Stone-faced, Katya stares at Lundy, until he visibly wilts and relents.

“Miri, we had a sting against your ‘buddy’,” he does the air quotes, then winces at the movement and resumes clutching his side. “Moments before you saw him. He should have been visibly injured.”

“No injury I could see from across the street,” Katya reports, in that precise way of hers.

“Did they give you medical treatment?” Miri asks, her whole body slowly starting to go cold, starting from the palms of her hands, where she clutches the blood pressure cuff, and tingling up her arms and dripping down between her shoulder blades.

He nods, firm, so she sets aside the cuff within a thunk.

“And what, he just came to see me?”

With another obvious glance at Katya. “Asked about you, too. Said he wanted to see you, before we...shot him.”

“I won’t pry into business I’m not privy to,” Katya starts, and Miri knows by that statement that she’s absolutely gonna fucking pry, “but isn’t there all sorts of bylaws forbidding using succubi as bait for...for all the ethical reasons?” Katya’s not looking at her, instead focusing all of her formidable glare on Lundy.

Thankfully, Lundy nods. “If you think they gave me a choice on this, you’re sorely mistaken.” The hard edge of his voice echoes Katya’s, as if protecting her is some sort of human pissing match. “You can bring it up with Vincente down at headquarters.”

Katya takes a deep breath, like she’s a snake rearing up to strike, and Miri realizes that, above all else, Katya is angry. Angry that rules aren’t being followed, that a fellow agent got hurt, and that she still doesn’t know what’s happening.

“They sent me here to bring you home securely,” Lundy says, finally looking directly at Miri.

“I bet,” Miri says, the coldness slipping down her legs, seeping into her toes, and filling her shoes. “I take it I’m not hunting today.”

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