Page 28 of Signed in Incubus

“Something’s wrong,” I said.

She took one look at Penny. “Where’s her drink?” she asked.

“There.” I pointed to the clear, glowing one sitting on the tiny table we’d been dancing next to.

She’d assured me earlier that it was just ordinary gin and tonic and that the glow came from a substance called quinine in the gin, which fluoresced under black lights. I’d seen witches down stranger concoctions, so I assumed she knew what she wasdoing, but she’d seen my reservations and insisted I take a sip. Sure enough, it was merely gin and tonic. I’d just never seen it under this so-called “black light” before.

Lily took it, sniffed it, then gave it to me. “Does it smell weird to you? My nose isn’t good enough.”

I smelled it and growled. This was not the same drink I’d tried earlier.

“I think someone put something in it.” Lily looked around.

So did I, casting my gaze about trying to figure out which dead man did it. I immediately thought of the man from before, but he was nowhere to be seen.

By now, Griselda had noticed us talking and was making her way over. She knew something was wrong the moment she saw Penny. “Time to go. I’ll take her home.”

She reached as if to take Penny from me, but I held her close to my body. Penny just giggled softly and leaned into me.

“I’ll get her home,” I said.

Griselda narrowed her eyes at me. “I really think it’s best if she came home with me.”

“Yeah,” Lily agreed. “Girls’ night sleepover party. No boys allowed.”

Not this shit again. “I’m not leaving her when she’s like this,” I said decisively. “She’s mine to protect.”

The two exchanged a look.

“We’ll figure it out when we get home. I’m calling us a ride,” Lily said.

I caught the off smell from the drink again as we made our way to the front door. I scanned the crowd but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Something big bumped into me, almost knocking Penny out of my arms. I let out an angry snarl just as a bright flash blinded me.

What the hell?

Then the flash was gone, and a woman was apologizing profusely for bumping into me. She was a tiny thing: there was no way it could have been her. I let it go. I needed to get Penny to safety.

The air outside was chilly and damp as we waited for the ride Lily had called. Mist hung low in the air, and despite being outside, it felt as stuffy to me as it had been in the room full of sweaty bodies.

“Who would do such a thing?” I seethed as I held Penny up.

“Plenty of men prey on women at clubs. That’s why we chose that first spot where we were dancing. Did you notice? The table was against a thick beam and only accessible on one side.”

“I should have watched her drink better.” I’d been so focused on her.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Lily said soothingly. “I’m just glad you noticed something was off.”

“And I’m glad you didn’t just abscond with our friend,” Griselda added.

“I don’t need to do that. I’m welcome in her home. I made her breakfast this morning. If I wanted to take advantage of her...well, actually, I already have, and she loved it.”

“You got a point, demon,” Lily said.

It wasn’t our ride that found us first, but trouble.

The troublemaker from earlier approached us with two of his friends. He might be human, but his friends were not. The pair of them slowly transformed from average humans to their true forms. They shrank and shriveled, becoming angry goblins.

I’d dealt with their kind before. Goblins might be only three-quarters of the height of a human man, but what they lacked in size, they made up for with violence and anger, and they channeled this anger into raw power. They also had a nasty disposition and never fought fair. Luckily, I was an incubus, and demons never fought fair either.

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