Page 2 of Lessons with the Mothman

"Lost one?" Rafe repeated.

I'd already heard about the event, but I waited for Astraeya to answer, watching the brief parade of emotions that flashed over her features—frustration furrowing her brow, a stubborn moue of her lips, the proud hike of her chin, and finally a wince and slump of her shoulders.

"Marguerite mated," she muttered.

Rafe tilted his head in question and looked to me.

"I didn't know vampires could mate," I said, feigning innocence as I closed another file, adding it to the discarded stack.

Astraeya rolled her eyes. "Vampires don't, but the selkie I paired Marguerite with did."

Rafe snorted. "Monster Smash? More like Monster Match, am I right?"

I pointedly opened another file and left Rafe to suffer under Astraeya's piercing glare. He was lucky he was a gargoyle. A succubus's wrath could snatch years off the average lifespan.

A role-playing request, with somnophilia—standard fare.

"How many matings is that now?" I asked, trying to sound disinterested.

Astraeya sighed. "Five."

Rafe straightened. "Oh."

"My supervisor's starting to think I'm doing it on purpose."

"It's not strictly bad, what you're doing," Rafe said. "I mean, people are happy."

"The mated couples are happy. The abandoned clients, not so much. The cases we can't take because we're understaffed aren't happy. The company losing clients and staff isn't happy," Astraeya said, her voice rising with the tone of the boiling kettle. She huffed a breath as it clicked off and stared balefully at the steam rising out of the slender spout. "But I can't exactly regret accidentally pairing mates together, no."

Do it for me, I thought. Which was ridiculous. Fae didn't mate. But in spite of the absence of the experience thus far in my long life, I had hopes of finding the strange phenomenon of pointed affection that seemed to exist between my friends and their partners. Love, as they put it. A contrary emotion that seemed to change its definition with every individual recounting. A puzzle, one I was eager to solve.

"I understand the complications it causes, but it just sounds to me like you're more than usually good at your job," Rafe said, passing Astraeya a spoonful of caramel.

She hummed as she sucked on the spoon, and Rafe poured the hot water into mugs.

"I havetriedto cool it a bit," Astraeya admitted. "But then Breugger's dad died and they had to go to the funeral, and then Gretchen ended up taking Hank as her client anyway, and you know how fast selkie mating instincts are. They didn't even bother with the appointment—just went directly back to Hank's apartment and didn't let any of us know what happened for weeks."

"Gretchen's having the wedding reception at Nightlight," I murmured.

"I didn't get invited?" Astraeya squawked.

"Strictly speaking, youdidn'tset them up, did you? Why does it seem as though we only get the same requests over and over again?"

"Because that's what Monster Smash Agency is, Elias. Fulfilling a biological need, or a psychological one, or both. We don't cater topuzzles. We cater to sex. Which, generally speaking, isn't all that curious when you really get down to it." Astraeya's fists were clenched at her sides and she shook her ire out like a wet dog, refusing to meet my gaze.

"Not exactly what you expect to hear from a succubus, especially one with a penchant for matchmaking," Rafe mused.

"Sex is sustenance for a succubus. That tends to shake off some of the mystique," Astraeya said with a wave of her hand.

"Food is sustenance to me, but that doesn't mean it isn't also art," Rafe parried.

I tossed another file onto the increasing stack, ready to open the next and be equally unimpressed by its contents, until a flash of neon yellow caught my eye. A small sticky note was dislodged from the back of the folder I'd just discarded, flipped aside by my careless handling and landing face down on the steel countertop. I lifted it, ready to paste it back on the folder it had fallen loose from, eyes skimming the words once without intention, and then again.

Victoria Dempsey. Independent Masters study for NWU. Monster sexuality, looking for interview subjects. Possible demonstrations?

"What's this?" I asked, holding the note up.

Astraeya and Rafe both turned, and Astraeya frowned, her stare blank.

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