Not What She Seems (3 page)

Chapter 3

The next morning Sylvia awoke to the ring of her cell phone. It was the office.

“What?” she mumbled as she rolled over to check what time it was. Eleven in the morning. It felt too early to get up, and it was definitely too early to go to a job. Clients almost never called for her services this early in the day. If they called to book a future appointment with her, Lilith would usually alert her the night before the date was scheduled to happen.

“Good morning to you
too, Miss Sushine,” Lilith admonished, “I just called to let you know I heard back from Elora and she came in this morning to sign on with Enchanted Escorts. She’s a real doll, I’m sure she’ll get lots of calls for her services.” Sylvia heard the unspoken part of that sentence ‘… and she’ll make loads and loads of money for me and my business.’ She knew Lilith was really only ever interested in her own bottom line.

“That’s great,” Sylvia rolled her eyes. Why Lilith had chosen to call so early with this news was anybody’s guess.

“I’ve given her a territory and some cash to get started. She’s apartment shopping today.”

“Um
-hmm.”

“I thought you’d be excited by this news, Sylvia.” Lilith was taken aback by her nonchalance over the
Elora issue. “With her settled down and part of the service you don’t have to worry about her stealing your clients anymore.”

Sylvia sat up as rage snapped her awake. “She didn’t ‘steal’ my cl
ient, Lilith, she just got there first and didn’t know how this all works. I’m sure she didn’t realize she was hunting in someone else’s territory and shutting down a business deal on top of it.” As the words left her mouth she wondered why she was defending Elora. She didn’t even like her. Perhaps it was herself she was defending instead.

“Yes,
I’m sure that was all. She didn’t really
take
your client, it was simply a mistake.” Sylvia knew from Lilith’s tone she was not really trying to soothe her but looking to rub the insult in her face instead.

“Is that all? When can I pick up my money from last night?” Sylvia demanded.
She was done talking to Lilith and she didn’t care where the conversation was headed. In a way Elora’s blunder in succubi etiquette had been a favor to her. If she had gone on her date with the client she would have missed out on the second mid-grade she had sucked dry last night.

“Tomorrow’s fine, dear, don’t be so snippy. I just
wanted to let you know you don’t have to worry about competition from Elora any longer; I’ve taken care of that for you.” Before she could come back at Lilith with a snarky reply the line went dead.

Sylvia put down the phone and lay
back down on her bed in a huff. This was so typically Lilith. Nothing made her happier than taking others down a peg or two. It was really getting old.

The
Keurig was calling her so she rolled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen to brew herself a fresh cup of coffee. As she sipped it the memory of the Innocent she had spotted the night before came back to her. Who was he, and where had he come from? How had another succubi not gobbled him up yet? Once one of her kind got hold of him he would no probably longer be an Innocent. With his virginity gone and his untarnished energy sullied he would be reduced to an upper-grade, more likely a mid-grade energy level. For a man like that to remain in this city and stay an Innocent, he either had incredible luck to not fall directly in the path of one of her sister succubi, or he had incredible will power to resist their charms. While Innocents were more resistant to the succubi’s power than most men, they were not infallible. Sylvia enjoyed her caffeine uptake while she dreamt of being the one to bring the Innocent down.

Still feeling full from her two mid-grade feedings the night before
, she debated hunting that evening. She finally decided against it. It would be good to have a night off, and maybe she’d get called for a date through the service. The money could be nice even if she didn’t need to feed. It was decided then- she would use the day to run some errands, then take the night off unless work called. If she ran into any prey worth feeding from in her travels around the city she might indulge, but she wouldn’t go seeking another feed. Last night’s surprise double feeding had given her options.

Once her coffee was finished Sylvia showered and dressed. She threw on a baby pink Juicy Couture
velour track suit and tossed her blond hair up into a sleek ponytail. She threw on a light layer of makeup and paused to appraise herself in her full-length antique mirror. Yup, she definitely had it, even dressed down. While she didn’t plan to hunt, she was bound to turn heads wherever she went today. She applied some lip gloss to complete the look before putting on her sneakers and grabbing her purse.

Out on the street she ignored the appraising looks of the men she passed.
Nothing out of the ordinary to see, just the regular mixture of lower grade energies out and about. She made her way to the T station and rode a few stops before arriving at the local Whole Foods. She wandered lazily around the store, picking up necessities she was low on, like coffee and toilet paper. Feeling generous she gave the lanky, pimple-faced bag boy a big smile. It was probably the most attention he had ever received from such an attractive female, she mused to herself. He had upper-grade energy but she knew she couldn’t touch him because he was outside of her territory. Still, it was fun for her to see what kind of response her attention could elicit from him. She maintained eye contact with him while he flushed crimson. She grabbed her bags, lightly brushing his crotch intentionally with her hand as she did so, and sashayed out of the store knowing full well she had just given the young man masturbation material for a few weeks at least. What a shame he wasn’t hers by rights. Feeding off of him would’ve lasted her a week or more.

As she headed bac
k to the T station the handle of her canvas shopping bag gave way and her purchases spilled out on the sidewalk. Sylvia cursed as she reached to pick up all the little K-cups that had spilled everywhere. Nearby men who had witnessed her misfortune scurried to help her clean up the mess. None of them would miss out on a chance to interact with the hot young blonde in distress.

Sylvia ignored them, not even looking directly at them, only mumbling a “Thanks” whenever one of the
m handed her another one of the pesky K-cups.

“Damn
Keurig, I knew I should have stuck with my other brewer,” she muttered to herself.

“I don’t know, there’s something to be said about a fresh
cup every time, isn’t there?” a friendly voice asked her. “Though it’s true this would be easier if it were just a can of coffee grinds that had fallen out of your bag.” A sturdy masculine hand passed her a few more of the missing K-cups. There was something in that voice that made her want to know who it belonged to.

Sylvia straightened up to see who had spoken and came face to face with Him. The Innocent, the one she had seen at the T station the night before. While
succubi took little pleasure in the physical appearance of their prey, even she couldn’t help noticing how good looking he was. He stood a bit taller than she at about six foot one, with neatly kept brown hair and bright blue eyes that were almost a turquoise hue. His lush lips curled into an easy smile, revealing startling white teeth. Dimples broke up the five o’clock shadow covering his rugged face. Her initial guess about his age seemed to be right; he appeared to be in his mid-thirties. How a man that good looking had still remained a virgin all those years she couldn’t even begin to guess.

She simply stared at him in wonder for a minute before rememberi
ng her purpose. “Thank you. I think I’d never catch them all if I didn’t have help!” She smiled her sweetest smile and flipped her ponytail back over her shoulder. It was widely known among the succubi community that catching an Innocent was a difficult task that required caution and skill. Most men only needed a little flirting, a little body language giving them the green light and they were the succubus’ for the taking but not the Innocents. Sylvia knew she had to walk a fine line between showing her availability to him and driving him away by being too aggressive and bold.

“It’s no problem.” T
he man smiled as he passed her more of the spilled items. The other men around him glared at him. They were openly jealous that he had managed to attract Sylvia’s attention while they had all failed. He paid them no mind. “Mason Kent, at your service.” He offered his hand to Sylvia confidently.

“Hi Mason
, I’m Sylvia.” She grasped his hand and shook it briefly, taking care not to hold it for too long. She didn’t want to scare him off. “I’m sure this is holding you up from whatever you’re doing… I’d love to make it up to you. Maybe we could grab a coffee sometime?” She prayed the invitation wasn’t too bold. She needed to get him out of this territory and into her own. She couldn’t hunt here, but there were no rules against inviting a man for coffee. If she could get him into her territory she could work on the hunt.

He
considered this for a moment. “I’d love that, Sylvia, but I’m afraid my schedule’s rather busy. May I take your number, give you a call when I’ve got some free time opening up?”

“Of course.”
She wrote her cell phone number on the bottom of her grocery receipt and ripped it off to give to him. “My schedule is rather flexible, so just let me know.”

“You bet.”
Mason grimaced as he glanced at his watch. “Well, looks like we caught all of the K-cups. I’ve got to be going, I’m late for class. I’ll call you soon.”

“Thanks again,
Mason. Looking forward to it.” She was calm on the outside but frantic on the inside. This hunt would require great patience and willpower on her part, she reminded herself. True, she didn’t have his phone number, but she had to take him at his word that he would call her when he was ready. She’d get him into her hunting territory and do whatever it took to have him, she vowed. This Innocent would be hers. She only hoped no other succubi in the city would set her sights on him in the meantime.

~~~

Back at her apartment she absent-mindedly unpacked her things, distracted by thoughts of the mysterious Mason Kent. He had mentioned he was late for class- was he a college professor? A late-in-life student? Sylvia didn’t know why she cared as she never took the slightest interest in her prey outside of getting them to bed. For some reason this man intrigued her. Perhaps it was the fact that he had made it to his age not only a virgin, but also as a man of moral and ethical purity. It was hard enough to find an Innocent in his early twenties, one in his thirties was a true rarity. She could only imagine how the energy she planned to take from him would fulfill her.

Her daydreams of corrupting the Innocent Mr.
Kent were cut short by a call from Lilith.

“You must turn on channel 7, right now.”

“Okay, okay, what is it? A new escort service in town competing with us?” Only Lilith would be rattled by that news but Sylvia decided to indulge her anyway. She grabbed the remote and turned the television on to the channel Lilith instructed her to watch.

The two women sat in silence for a moment as Sylvia watched the blurb on the news.

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

“Yes. Of course they’re not releasing all of the details, but I’ve already hit up my sources within the police department. I
t is what I thought it might be, and she didn’t have a date last night, so I have no idea who did it.”

“Are you certain?” Sylvia’s blood ran cold.

“Rose petals soaked in holy water, then stuffed into her orifices, and an apple shoved in her mouth? If that’s not the mark of a succubi Hunter I don’t know what is,” Lilith snapped. “Good thing Elora’s here, now that Kayla’s gone she can take over her clients. I’m letting all of the girls know about it, of course. You’ve got a request for tonight. I just want you to be very careful.”

“Of course.”
She only half-listened as Lilith gave her the details about her date for the evening. Once they were done speaking she hung up the phone and just stood there, too shocked to move.

The news channel had covered the story of a young lady found dead in an alleyway, strangled to death
. Sylvia recognized the victim as Kayla, one of the city’s succubi. As Lilith had confirmed through her sources Kayla’s murderer left a unique calling card at the scene, with the holy water soaked rose petals and an apple in the victim’s mouth. There was no mistaking what kind of perpetrator would do something like that. A succubi Hunter had come to Boston.

Chapter 4

Hunter
s were the boogeymen of the succubi world. Some of the succubi scoffed at the rumors of Hunters and chalked it up to cautionary tales, while others lived in fear that they might be unlucky enough to cross paths with one. Sylvia had never given it much thought, and Lilith was usually unconcerned with Hunters as there hadn’t been rumors of an active one in decades at least. Since human men could not distinguish between a succubus looking to sap their energy and a willing human sex partner, the succubi went about their business without worry. Until now.

Sylvia had no doubt the news of an active
Hunter in Boston would drive many of her brethren into hiding. Succubi had no magical healing powers, no defense against violence except for their cunning and their surprising physical strength. Whoever killed Kayla must have taken her by surprise and overpowered her. She vowed to be on her guard and cautious while hunting. She had no desire to run across the Hunter herself.