Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

CHAPTER TEN

Uriel’s next words shattered my hopes.

“It’s a temporary reprieve, I’m afraid. The effect should last about a week, but I think you’ll enjoy it in the meantime.”

“Hell, yeah,” I enthused, wincing at his grimace. “Oh, sorry. I keep forgetting who I’m talking to.” I stared at my forehead in the mirror. The spot where he’d kissed me glistened like it had been covered with glitter. I touched it, but it didn’t rub off. “Gosh, I don’t know how to thank you.” It was true-grateful couldn’t begin to describe how I felt at the moment. Not having to track down Noah in the next few hours sounded pretty darn great. Going to him for sex would have been humiliating, and I didn’t have any other likely candidates.

“You could do me a favor.”

Uriel’s slightly wheedling tone made me look up from my mirror. I’ll give him credit-his face was perfectly neutral, not showing a hint of any sort of interest, but I knew it was there, all right. I wasn’t born yesterday. Reborn, like maybe two days ago, sure.

“A favor?” I was reluctant to ask, since I knew that I probably wasn’t going to be too keen on the idea, but the tingle on my forehead reminded me that he’d already made a gesture of goodwill toward me. The least I could do was hear him out.

Uriel shook his head and smiled. “Nothing quite so dire as that, my dear Jacqueline. I promise.”

I felt bad for doubting him. “Sorry. I’ve been a little touchy for the past few days, as I’m sure you know.” I couldn’t resist sneaking another peek into my mirror to look at my wonderfully washed-out eyes. “Ask away.”

“I’m not sure how much Noah has told you about our kind. As an angel, I am bound to sacred grounds. I cannot go where the ground is not blessed, or is unhallowed.”

“So you can’t leave this church?” He nodded and I promptly stopped feeling jealous of his beauty. Wow, that really sucked.

“As one of the fallen Serim, Noah can visit both hallowed grounds such as this church, or ‘neutral’ territory like your city. He cannot visit unhallowed ground or someplace blessed by the darker side of nature. Do you understand what I am saying?”

Oh, I understood all right, and I was scared. “I’m thinking you want me to go visit some voodoo temple or some graveyard, and I’m not interested.”

His lips thinned into a narrow line. “You exaggerate as to what I ask. What I meant to say before I was … interrupted”-he leveled his best “I’m an angel of God and you’re not” look at me-“was that I need to know some information, and I cannot go where I need to find it.”

Information? That didn’t sound too bad. Besides, I was starting to feel rather guilty with the kiss burning on my forehead and all. “What information is it?”

“There are vampires in this city-the more extreme version of your friend Noah-who have chosen a darker path. If you have not already encountered them, I suspect you will very shortly.”

Vampires? Oh dear. Remy had mentioned we were supposed to avoid them. “I don’t know …”

“Vampires are immoral creatures, as you can imagine, and they are stirring like a black horde through this city. They follow a queen, an unholy demoness who they adore and worship. I believe she is planning something foul against our kind, and I must find out what it is.”

“Whoa there,” I said, putting both hands in the air. “What the heck am I supposed to do against a flock of vampires and their demon queen?”

Angels have amazing poker faces, I must say. He didn’t show any outward signs of annoyance with me other than a slight compression of his lips again, but I knew he was frustrated.

“You will not have to go to anywhere dangerous. The vampires you wish to question congregate at several nightclubs in the city. All you need to do is get the information I seek. Do this for me, and you will receive another kiss, a longer-lasting one. You would be free from your obligation for a month, possibly longer.”

No wonder Remy called them dealers. “Visiting a few nightclubs doesn’t sound too bad.” Something about this deal bothered me, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. “Don’t vampires eat people?”

Uriel’s lips slid into a faint smile. “Jacqueline, the vampires would never hurt you.”

I doubted angels could lie. “What makes you say that?”

“Your kind fascinates them. You will not be harmed but welcomed.”

Welcomed by vampires? Somehow, it didn’t sound enticing. “While I’d love to help you, I don’t know how I’d get the information you’re looking for. I doubt the queen’s going to confess her deep, dark secrets to me over a few martinis.”

His soft smile became a bit strained. “A succubus has ways of getting information. You can find it in their dreams. That is the private territory of your kind alone.”

“Dreams?”

“Yes, dreams. You need only to control the dreams of a sleeping being and you can manipulate their subconscious. Have you never heard the tales your kind tell of succubi?”

“You mean succubuses tell stories about other succubuses?” Jeez, my “kind” needed to get out more.

“No.” I could hear his teeth grinding. “And the proper plural is succubi. I meant that humans tell stories of succubi-”

“But I’m not human anymore-”

Uriel put a hand to his forehead, as if being with me were the most stressful thing in the world. “Never mind. If you will not help me, I suppose we will not find what the evil in the city is up to until it is too late, and then the fate of all mankind will be upon your head, not mine.”

Guilt shot through me like a cannonball. “What do you mean? People are going to die?” I asked as he stood and I tugged on his hand. “Don’t go. I want to help, I do.”

“Do you truly?” He turned those brilliant blue eyes upon me again, his gaze the benevolent, yet ready-to-be-disappointed parent. “Do you wish to help us prevent a tragedy?”

I couldn’t speak around the knot of anxiety in my throat, so I nodded.

He leaned in and pressed his cheek against mine in a surprisingly tender gesture. “Then go and return here when you can tell me what they seek.”

Then he vanished as if he were never there. He didn’t even leave behind a feather or a faint smell in the air. There was nothing to remind me that I had just spoken with-and irritated-an angel.

I sat in the pew for a moment, my thoughts boiling, and then flipped open my compact again. In the mirror, the faint gleam of the kiss still shone.

So it did happen. Now I just needed to go find some vampires.