Page 33 of Signed in Incubus

Since the fall of The Wall, Desmon had requested that his guards work in their natural forms. Not only were thieves less likely to steal if the guard next to their target was a dangerous monster with sharp teeth and claws, it also added to the otherworldly appeal of the museum. Even those not interested in historical artifacts came to ogle the menagerie of fantastic beasts and monsters standing guard.

Currently, I was in manticore form: the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, the face of a man, and the wings of a wyvern. I crafted my appearance to look identical to Mateo, the real manticore on the other side of the display. He was head of security here and liked to be on site for new displays.

To my surprise, the “new display” this time was one made up of the very weapons Desmon had just purchased from me. He’d even had the stories I’d told him about the weapons written out on little plaques in front of them.

I had no idea people would pay to see the things I’d collected. It reminded me that I still had to choose which pieces in my collection I wished to auction off and which I wanted to keep.

“I heard all this used to belong to you,” Mateo said when we had a lull in the stuffy scholarly types visiting today.

“It did.”

“Never took you for the collector type.”

I shrugged. “I’m not. It just kind of happened over the centuries.”

“I guess that means you’re set when your contract with Desmon ends.”

“Yeah, but I still asked Seth to put in a word for me at the EA.”

I didn’t miss Mateo’s grimace.

“What?” I asked.

“I worked for the EA briefly. I’m not sure you’d like it. I sure didn’t. But that could just be me.”

“Why did you leave?”

“There were way too many rules, and reports to fill out, especially after The Wall fell and they started working with the human police. Working for Desmon is better for someone like me. As long as his artifacts are safe, he doesn’t quite care how I do it, you know? Like, you remember our little misadventure with the locket?”

I did. Mateo had originally been the one tasked to find the missing locket. The mission had resulted in him finding not just the locket but also his mate, Eva. She had owned the second half of the locket, the half that matched up perfectly with the one that was missing.

“Yeah.”

“So, you know how we let the two ifritsdo their thingto get rid of all the evidence? That would never fly with the EA. Well, it would if they deemed it necessary, but we’d be doing paperwork from now until forever.”

I guess something still hadn’t changed from the olden times. Dragons were still above the law. Mountains of gold and other riches usually bought immunity for most things.

But not always. Most dragon hunts started similarly with the dragons overstepping, taking too much from the people around them in either riches or lives, and those living on their land rebelled when they found out their nature.

Even with The Wall, it was hard to explain away a giant dragon raining fire on your village because the villagers didn’t have enough to pay their taxes. Dragons might live a long time but they were still mortal and could be killed.

The Wall was an insidious spell, however, and dragon scales, claws and even skulls slowly morphed over the centuries to resemble those belonging to other creatures. By the age of enlightenment, the old trophies could be explained away easily.

Dragon claw? Nope. Giant Eagle.

Dragon Skull? Nope. Dinosaurs.

Dragon scale? Nope. Anaconda.

And in my case…Incubus? Nope. Sleep paralysis demon.

Sure, sleep paralysis existed, but so did I. But apparently, having sex with sleeping women was a big no-no now, no matter how much their dream selves begged for it. The last time I told someone I couldn’t fuck her because she was technically asleep and couldn’t consent, she turned into a crocodile and tried to eat me. It was only in her dream, of course.

“Anyway, I could use some occasional help here at the museum, so if the EA thing falls through, come see me. It’s perfect if you only want something part-time so you can spend the rest of your time exploring the world these days. Technically, you’ll still be under Desmon’s payroll, just less directly.”

“Thanks.”

That had me thinking of Penny again. She was in the middle of a career change, just like me. Hell, she’d just taken the first step to overhaul her entire life! That was not an easy thing to do. I respected her for that.

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