"At least you have someone to talk to about your problems," she pointed out.
I sighed and lifted my head. "Yeah, just when I'm getting them all handled." I glanced under my desk at the doll in the bag. "Or I will after work today."
Ann followed my gaze and her eyes widened. "Is that the doll?" she whispered.
I nodded. "Yep, the one and only little me."
She scrutinized my face. "So are you-um, are you using it right now, or no more troubles?" she wondered.
I shook my head. "No more troubles. Actually, I don't really feel all that uncontrollable today. It's almost like me accepting David's help kind of-I don't know, kind of lifted all the emotional and sexual strain inside me."
Ann smiled a knowing smile. "Maybe it's because you know you love him now."
I blushed and turned away from her. "It's not like that at all. I'm just-well, just making sure he makes up for doing this to me," I argued.
She giggled and patted me on the back. "Even if you do become this sucky-thing, never stop being a terrible liar."
"Succubus, and I am NOT in love with David," I corrected her.
She pressed her lips together, but her eyes danced with mischief. "All right, but could I ask just a teensy favor from you? Pretty please?"
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Let me guess, you want to see the training tonight, too?"
My friend clasped her hands and fervently nodded. "Please? I promise I won't say a word!"
I snorted. "Don't make promises you can't keep." Her lower lip trembled and I rolled my eyes. "Why not? The more the merrier. At this rate I might charge admission and become a millionaire overnight."
Ann clapped her hands and bounced up and down. "Yay!" Her joyous scene caught the attention of the rest of the floor. People stood and peeked over the tops and entrances to their cubicles to see what the fuss was about.
I wheeled over to Ann, grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her back into reality. "A little less happy, a little more quiet," I hissed.
She sheepishly grinned. "Sorry. Anyway, I'd better go. See you later!" She gave her farewell and swept from my cubicle.
Ann left me with a conundrum that had been started by Mo. Was I really in love with David? Could it be that that was what my succubus had wanted all along, my acceptance of his love? Could I have been foolishly stubborn all this time and not seen what my true feelings were in all my panicking and anger?
"Nah. . ." I muttered as I got to work.
The work day flew by like a restful dream, and a few minutes before five Ann appeared at the mouth of my domain. "Tiffany told me you were going to practice with David tonight at six, right?"
I rolled my eyes. "Was there anything she didn't tell you?" I wondered.
She tilted her head back and furrowed her brow for a moment before she shook her head. "I don't remember, but if there is I wouldn't know," she pointed out.
The clocks on the floor showed thirty seconds till five. I stood and snatched the handles of the doll bag. "Yeah, the practice is at six, but first I have to do some errands. I'll meet you at my place some time around then," I told her as I swept past my friend.
"See you later!" she waved to me.
I'd told David I wanted to practice at six. That gave me just an hour to do what I needed to do, and that was return the doll. I drove to the cemetery, and wasn't surprised when a slinky form slunk from behind one of the first gravestones I came upon.
"You made good time," Mo commented as he trotted alongside me.
I snorted. "You know I was speeding," I quipped.
"Eager to see David?" he teased.
"Eager to get my money back," I countered.
"Uh-huh, and I'm a mouse," he returned.
"Don't look in the mirror or you might try hunting yourself," I teased.
We came to the brush path and I pushed through the mess to Magnus' clearing. The old man sat outside, in the snow, atop a towel. He wore only a loincloth that left little to the imagination. His eyes were closed and he was perfectly still. He was either meditating, or had turned into a human popsicle sitting out in this snowy weather. I stopped two yards short of him and cringed when I saw how blue was his exposed skin. There was also the problem of seeing his pasty, nightmare-inducing skeletal frame. My eyes flickered down to Mo and my voice lowered to a whisper.
"You don't think he's-"
"-dead? Not likely," Magnus spoke up.
I started and stumbled back so my rear fell into the snow. "Did somebody forget to tell me it was Scare the Liz Day?" I yelled at my evil companions.
Magnus opened his eyes and chuckled. "Nervousness is a sign you're hiding something from yourself," he scolded.
"Or maybe it's a sign everyone's trying to drive me to a nervous breakdown," I countered as I stood and brushed myself off. I held out the bag with the doll. "I wanted to-"
"-return it? This devilish thing already told me," Magnus commented as he nodded at Mo.
I whipped my head to Mo. "Are all of my friends gabbers?" I growled.
Mo took a seat in the snow and shrugged his tiny shoulders. "I wanted to convince Magnus to return your money."
"No refunds if the product works!" Magnus spoke up.
I rolled my eyes and tossed the bag at him. It fell into his lap and nearly toppled him backwards as he did me. "You two are really impossible, you know that?"
Mo raised his tail in the air and sauntered over to stand beside Magnus. The pair glanced at each other, and then looked to me. "This cat here told me what you decided, too," Magnus added. His eyes looked unblinkingly into mine. "You sure you made the right choice?"
"You mean about the training?" I asked him.
"About the incubus," he rephrased.
I shrugged and folded my arms. "I don't know. Maybe I'll go see Madam Curie and find out what her fortune tells me. She hasn't been wrong yet."
Magnus wrinkled his nose. "That old bat and her cards always stealing business. . ." he muttered.
I smiled and moved so I stood in front of him. I leaned down and pecked a kiss on his forehead. My quiet voice broke through the astonished air. "Thank you for the help. I really couldn't have gotten as far as I did without it," I told him.
I moved away and saw that Magnus' face was aglow with a bright blush and his eyes were wide. He shook himself and narrowed his eyes. "Well, don't mention it to anyone. I don't want people coming by with every sob story in the book thinking they can get a discount because I've gone soft."
Mo snorted. "That will never be a concern of yours," he commented.
"Quiet, you devil," Magnus growled.
I smiled and shook my head. "You two would make a perfect married couple," I teased.
"Perish the thought!" Magnus insisted.
Mo's tail twitched. "Insulting. . ." he mumbled.
I laughed and stepped towards the path. "Well, you two behave. I'm not going to be coming around here every day now to supervise your fights."
Magnus drooped a little. "I have other curiosities and useful items you might be interested in, so don't be a stranger. I'll. . .I'll even give you a good price," he choked out. That was how I learned Magnus cared about me.
"I'm not going to be gone forever, just not everyday. I promise I'll come back soon to prevent you two from killing each other," I swore. I waved goodbye and slipped into the brush.
Chapter 2
I made good time on my errand, and it was a quarter to five when I arrived home. A soft snow fell as I stepped out of my car and onto the sidewalk. The dark night was quiet and the streets were deserted. That's why movement down the street caught my eye. I turned and noticed a figure striding away. They were in a hurry, and in a few seconds they disappeared over the horizon of the street. I shrugged and walked into the lobby of my apartment.
"About time!"
I yelped and spun around. Tiffany stood behind me with a big grin on her face. "Don't you have anything better to do than scare me?" I growled.
"Stop your yammering
so loud! This isn't a public restaurant!" Ackerman snapped from behind his desk.
Tiffany swooped over to me, turned me towards the elevator, and latched her arms around one of mine. She pulled me into the open doors and slammed the button for our floor. I wriggled free from her grasp and scowled at her. "In any other setting this would be called kidnapping," I told her as the doors shut.
She shrugged. "Good thing we're not in another setting. Anyway, what's the whole thing with this training stuff? What are you going to be doing?"
I shrugged. "If I knew that then I don't think David would need to teach it to me."
A sly smile slipped onto her lips. "Jumping into something without knowing exactly what's going on? That doesn't sound like you." She paused and tapped her chin as we rode the elevator to our floor. "Actually, it does sound like something."
I rolled my eyes. "I'll bite. What's that something?"
"It sounds like you just wanted to get close to him," she teased.
I leaned against the back of the elevator and folded my arms across my chest. "You're the third person to suggest that to me today."
She blinked at me. "What? That it doesn't sound like you?"
I shook my head. "No, that I want to be around David."
"Sounds like you surround yourself with great minds and we're all thinking alike," she quipped.
The elevator door opened, and I pushed off from the wall to follow Tiffany onto our floor. "Maybe, or maybe my whole world is full of nuts and I'm the only sane person in it," I suggested as we walked down the hall.
Tiffany pondered that suggestion for a moment and then shook her head. "Naw, you're just as nuts as the rest of us. You talk to a cat, remember?"
It was at that moment that said feline made its appearance through my door. My shut, tightly locked door. I envied his ability to travel from place to place so quickly, just like David. Mo sat himself on the carpeted hallway and we joined him at my door. "I am a spirit," he corrected her.
"You are so cool!" Tiffany squealed. My friend swooped down and scooped him into her arms. She rubbed their noses together, and when she pulled away I saw Mo's face was a picture of horror. "Are there others like you I can adopt?"
He pulled his ears back and glared at her. "This city needs only one spirit."
"Yeah, but doesn't a spirit need a girlfriend?" she countered.
His tail twitched to and fro. "City spirits are not pets," he scolded her.
I glanced over my shoulder and expected Ackerman to be standing near the elevator door glaring at us and a pink slip of eviction in one hand. "He's downstairs," Mo spoke up.
"We're just lucky he is," I commented as I passed my enraptured friend and the captured feline.
"There's no luck when I know where everybody is," he reminded me. I rolled my eyes as I unlocked my apartment door. Tiffany followed with Mo, who jumped from her bone-crushing hug and landed on the back of the couch.
Tiffany plopped herself on one of the couch cushions and shrugged. "All right. I guess I'll just have to be lucky like Liz and find myself a nice demon to fall in love with me." I tossed my purse into her face. It was a bulls-eye hit between the eyes, and she scowled at me. "Well, you are."
"Yeah, real lucky to be turning into a succubus against my will," I pointed out.
"Yeah, but you've got a bunch of guys falling over you for a date," she argued.
"No, they're falling on me for some sex. There's a difference," I countered. I dropped into the cushion at the opposite end of the couch and pulled out the locket.
Tiffany scooted closer and looked at the trinket. "Sure is a nice thing. And you still don't know what's inside?"
I shook my head. "Nope, he won't tell me."
"And that's how you call him, right? Rub it like a lamp and out pops the sexy genie?" she guessed.
"Pretty much."
"Lemme see it."
"There's still ten minutes."
"Guys like when girls call them early."
I rolled my eyes. "You don't know that."
"The guy's madly in love with you. He won't mind."
A buzzing noise from the door made us both start. I jumped to my feet and went over to the speaker that connected the stoop intercom to my apartment. "Hello?"
"Liz! I'm so sorry I'm late! I meant to be here sooner, really! You haven't started without me, have you?" Ann's voice crackled back over the old intercom.
Tiffany strode up behind me and pressed the button. "Nope, but if you don't get your butt up here we will."
I buzzed her in, and in a few moments Ann arrived. She lay her coat over the back of the couch and brushed the snow out of her hair. "There's almost four inches of snow out there already," she informed us. Her eyes fell on Mo who was still seated on the back of the couch. "Is that-?"
"The talking cat extraordinaire, yep," Tiffany confirmed as she seated herself on the couch. She looked over the back at me. "But less talk about snow, more rubbing that locket," she insisted.
I rolled my eyes, but somewhat obliged as I walked over to side of the coffee table. Ann took a seat on the couch and kept one eye on me and the other on Mo. I raised the locket and inched my hand closer to the shining gold. My two human friends watched with wide eyes and baited breath. Even Mo stopped twitching his tail, but his eyes were on the front door.
A knock came from that very door.
Tiffany threw her arms into the air. "Come on! Really?"
I dropped my arms and raised an eyebrow as I glanced at the entrance. "Yes?" I called.
"Delivery service," a young man's voice replied. The tone was unusually flat.
I furrowed my brow, but pocketed the locket and walked over to open the door. My friends turned and looked over the rear of the couch. On the other side of the entrance stood a handsome young man of twenty-five. His blond hair was cut short and his skin was unblemished with hard work. He stood erect at a height a smidgen taller than mine, and he had muscles in all the right sizes and places. He stared straight ahead without blinking and his stance was very stiff, almost unnatural. The stranger was dressed in street clothes without any sort of identification as to his delivery service employer.
I waved my hand in front of him, but there was no reaction. Not even a blink. "You okay?" I asked him.
"He will be fine," a voice piped up. David stepped out from behind the young man and smiled at me. "That is, after we are finished with him."
"Finished with him? David, what the hell's going on?" I questioned him.
"Nothing you need worry about," he assured me. He grabbed the young man's shoulders and guided him past me and into my apartment.
I reluctantly shut the door behind them and scrutinized my unexpected guest. He walked like a zombie, looked like a zombie, and talked like a zombie. "David, what did you to do him?"
"Merely a little dreaming," David replied. He stopped them in the middle of the floor between the kitchen and living room. David released the stranger and stepped away from the man. The man didn't move an inch. I could barely see him take breaths. My friends jumped to their feet and gawked at my handsome lover and the stranger.
Ann walked to the rear of the couch and just a foot away from David. She set a fist on her hip and wagged a finger at him. "You have some explaining to do, young man! You tricked me into giving you that date with Liz!" she scolded him.
He smiled and bowed his head. "I did, but nothing I told you was untrue. I truly wanted to meet a woman just like Liz."
"That's pretty low giving her that curse and then sticking yourself into her life like that," Tiffany spoke up.
David's smile faltered a little. "I admit I have much to apologize for and that is why I have brought my new young friend." David patted the young man on the shoulder. "He will help me train Liz."
I moved so I stood in front of the stranger. I waved my hand in his face, and he didn't even twitch. "How? He's like a zombie."
"Now, yes, but even a male zombie can be susceptible to the wiles of a succubus," he tol
d me.
Ann raised her quivering hand. "There aren't really any zombies, are there?" she squeaked.
David chuckled and shook his head. "None that I'm aware of."
"Not on my watch. . ." I heard Mo murmur.
"So how's a guy going to help Liz?" Tiffany spoke up.
"A very good question, and one best answered by a demonstration." He turned to me and held out a hand. "If you would step over here, Liz, we will begin."
I frowned and pointed at the stranger. "David, did you kidnap him?"
David waved away my question. "I am merely borrowing him from his life. He will be returned when we are finished," he promised.
I looked to Mo and jerked my head towards the stranger. "There's no APB put out for him yet, is there?"
Mo shook his head. "No, and his roommates won't notice him missing for quite some time."
I sighed and returned my attention to David. "All right, what do I do?"
"Stand in front of him," David commanded me. I walked over and stood so I faced the zombie man. My friends scurried back onto the couch and leaned over the back like this was some form of theater entertainment.
"I swear to God if I hear one word about popcorn. . ." I warned them. They shook their heads, but the twitching of their lips told me they were amused.
David stood behind and to one side of the stranger. "Good, now focus your eyes and concentrate on his looks. Study his soft, smooth skin, his muscles, everything that makes him a male."
I narrowed my eyes and scrutinized the guy. He was cute, I gave him that. Not quite my type with that blond hair and blank expression, but not bad. Maybe a little coaxing could get out a wilder side to him that'd be worth the fun. A little teasing here, a little playing there, and he would be jumping me for a chance in bed.
Which, coincidentally, was exactly what he did. He sprang at me so fast that I only had time to yelp before he crushed me to the ground. His eyes were wild with lust, and his lips were everywhere. His hands weren't far behind, and I had a hard time keeping them at bay.
"Liz!" I heard my friends yell.
The frenzy lasted two seconds before he stiffened. His eyes took on the blank expression and he climbed off me. My friends rushed to my side and Tiffany glared at the stranger and David. "What the hell did you do to her?" she snapped at him.
David shook his head. "I did nothing. She attracted him to her."
I sat up and rubbed the back of my bruised head. "Lucky me. . ." I grumbled.