Not What She Seems (5 page)

Sylvia stood frozen in the doorway a moment longer, wondering what the end of that last sentence would have been. Have to what? What would they have to do? In her mind, as she understood Lilith’s rules, it was simple. You didn’t hunt in a territory that wasn’t yours
, unless you were on company business. She couldn’t imagine what she was about to say. With a sigh she stepped into the waiting area and closed Lilith’s office door behind her. She would find out tomorrow, whatever it was. She couldn’t wait to see that smug look wiped off Elora’s face when Lilith set her straight.

Chapter 5

Upon deciding it wasn’t worth the cost to take another cab home Sylvia rode the T instead
and ignored the few feeds around her that she might have indulged in on any other night. Despite barely getting any energy from her sleazy date earlier, she was still satisfied from last night’s double feed and the knowledge that a succubi Hunter was on the loose somewhere in the city made her cautious. She didn’t need to feed so she wouldn’t. Better safe than sorry.

Back at
her apartment she took a shower to rinse away the filthy feeling her date had left behind. She tried to relax under the hot spray, still feeling stressed by the conversation with Lilith. It had not gone as she had expected it to. She longed for a distraction from the thoughts racing through her head about Elora, Lilith, and their meeting the next day to resolve her problem. She suspected Lilith had something up her sleeve, something she wouldn’t like. Their impromptu meeting earlier had not inspired any confidence on Sylvia’s part.

Clean once more
, she slipped into a soft terry robe and towel dried her hair before remembering the perfect distraction and checking her cell phone to see if Mason had called yet. He hadn’t. Sylvia bit her lower lip thoughtfully as she considered how she should go about trying to ensnare the Innocent when he did get around to calling. She was still confident he would.

Research, she decided, would help give her an edge for the game. She didn’t need to know anything about
the vast majority of her prey aside from the fact they had penises seeking a vagina and she had a convenient one for them to plunge into, but an Innocent, especially one of Mason’s age, would probably be different. Her fantastic looks alone would not necessarily guarantee her a romp in his boudoir. She needed to get a sense of who he was in order to glean her best angle of pursuit with him.

She decided there was no better way t
o start gathering information than good old reliable ‘Google’. With any luck, there weren’t a lot of ‘Mason Kent’s around his age online. She bypassed the first bunch of links the search engine brought up, which were all of the popular social media sites. She would come back later to scout out his Facebook page to see if there was anything interesting for her there, but in the meantime all she wanted was some general background on him.

The next link interested her greatly and she was not disappointed when she opened it. The article
was a few years old and detailed the death of a Mr. Elwood Kent, a gemstone importer worth double-digit millions. The article mentioned that he had left his company, and his vast fortune, to his grandson- a Mr. Mason Kent.

“Jackpot!”
Sylvia couldn’t believe her good fortune. She had found a very virginal, very rich Innocent in Beantown, and if she played her cards right he was hers for the taking.

His name next appeared in an article
mentioning Harvard University and the graduating class of the previous year. There he was, Mason Kent, MDiv, Salutatorian.

“What does that
mean
?” she muttered to herself as she opened up a new window to look up the unfamiliar terms.

It didn’t take
long to find her answers. Salutatorian was the honor given to the person who ranked just below the valedictorian, labeling them as the person with the second highest GPA in their class. Second in his class at Harvard? Sylvia was impressed.

“
So Mr. Innocent’s a rich smarty pants,” she mused aloud.

She looked up the meaning of t
he degree MDiv and gasped when she found it. Master of Divinity. Sylvia’s Innocent had a background in religion and theology. Was he training to lead a congregation in the future? That would explain the virginity part, but she knew there were other professional fields someone with such a degree might choose to pursue. If he was planning on joining the Ministry she was screwed. She’d never get access to him below the belt if he was saving himself for God.

With her h
ead in her hands she stared at the screen. That would be just perfect, to finally come across an Innocent only to discover he was saving himself for a higher calling. No matter, she told herself. Until she knew for sure what his intentions were she would move forward as planned with the hunt. All she needed to do now was to wait for his phone call. Even if he was planning to join the Ministry it was possible she could still seduce him. Her kind had brought down many clergymen in their days. Sylvia wasn’t ready to give up on him yet. He was too valuable a prize.

The computer screen went dark as she shut it down. She decided it was
time to turn in for the night since she needed her rest for her confrontation with Elora the next day. She had to be mentally sharp to deal with both her new nemesis and her unpredictable Mother at the same time. She suspected it wasn’t going to be easy, or pleasant.

~~~

Her cell phone chirped the next morning, and Sylvia blearily rolled over to grab it off her nightstand. A text had come in, saying nothing but ‘2:00 sharp.’ As it was noon already Sylvia dragged herself out of bed and went to get her morning coffee. Lilith hadn’t left her much time to get ready for their meeting.

She arranged her hair
in a knot on top of her head with a few loose curls cascading down gracefully to frame her face. She painstakingly arranged it to look like a hasty ‘thrown up’ arrangement instead of the time consuming project it was. She wanted to look her best while putting forth the appearance of not making much of an effort. A pair of chocolate suede pants paired a white sweater and beige heels completed her casual in-control look. A bit of dramatic eye makeup took it up another notch. She admired herself in the mirror and liked what she saw. She looked well put together without going overboard, like she was trying too hard.

On her w
ay to the office she ran into a tasty upper grade energy to flirt with on the T. She ignored his lower grade friend despite his sneering glances at her. He was of no interest to her, but his friend certainly was. It only took a few looks through lowered lashes and a few coy smiles to get him to approach her. Sylvia threw out all of the right signals and the man asked for her number, which she gave him without hesitation. She would have liked to set up definitive plans with him but her stop came up all too quickly.

“I’ll call you,” he promised as he typed her number into his cell phone.

“I sure hope you do,” Sylvia replied, using the crowded subway car as an excuse to mash her breasts against him as she slid by to exit the car. In her experience that was all it took. If her looks alone didn’t reel a man in, physical contact with her D cups would. If she was lucky that upper grade would call her before the Hunger struck. She wasn’t worried about it because she had some time before it rose up within her again.

As she ascended the stairs to the street level her ce
ll phone rang its generic tune.

“Well, that was fast, miss me already?” she teased, assuming it was t
he man with whom she had just shared a train.

“Perhaps.
It’s too early to tell if I should miss you or not,” the male voice on the other end of the line replied.

Sylvia almost dropped her phone when she recognized the caller. It
wasn’t the man from the subway. It was Mason.

“Hi Mason, I’m
really glad you called.” She did her best to act as if her comment had been meant for him, trying to hide how flustered she really felt. This was not how she pictured her first real conversation with him- out on a busy sidewalk, flustered and stressed out by her upcoming meeting with Lilith and Elora.

“Of course I did
… you owe me a coffee, remember?”

Sylvia laughed out
loud and felt a little bit startled when she realized it wasn’t forced. Mason’s voice was warm and engaging, and she found she enjoyed his teasing tone. It was so real, so sincere. She wasn’t used to that from the men she usually came across who were hell-bent on getting in her pants. They were usually downright cocky, so full of themselves because they thought they were something special if they could so easily bed a woman like her. Little did they know how easy that was to do, if a man had the right kind of energy or she was hungry enough.

“I know
, I know… when would you like to meet? I don’t like to have debts hanging over my head, you know, and this debt to you is really keeping me up at night.” He probably had some time open soon, if he was already calling her. She was hoping to prod him into a date in the near future without sounding too pushy.

“Do you have any time tomorrow afternoon?”

“Let me see…” Sylvia paused on the street and let the silence gather for a moment to give the illusion she was checking her schedule. In reality she knew she had nothing going on, but even if she had something planned she would have changed it to meet with him. No need for him to know that, though. She didn’t want to come across as desperate. “Sure thing, how’s 3:00 for you?”

“3
:00 would be great. Can we meet around Harvard Square somewhere? Maybe the Au Bon Pain, if that works for you? I have classes before and after and it’s a bit easier for me if I stay near the campus.”

Sylvia frowned. Her plan had been to get him to her territory, not meet in someone else’s. It was unlikely she’d get him into bed on their first meeting
anyway, so she conceded. Maybe if she let him pick the meeting place this time she could pick the next time.

“Sure, right by the T station? It’s a date,” she threw out brazenly, waiting to gauge his reaction to
that label.

“It’s a date, then.
Looking forward to it.” Mason said goodbye and Sylvia stood staring at her phone as she became overcome with the possibilities of the next day. She had done it; she had snagged a date with an Innocent. While she was aware that it was unlikely setting up an official date would be the hardest part of getting him to bed, it was a start. With a sigh she tucked away her phone and braced herself for the meeting.

As she entered to door to the reception area
, Sylvia saw Lilith’s office door was closed. It wasn’t unusual for her to demand privacy while she dealt with clients but Sylvia knew she best sit in the waiting area until she called for her. After she had barged into the office the night before there was no need to push her luck. Lilith might have allowed it once, but she was willing to bet she wouldn’t allow it twice.

Deborah, the unattractive, mousy secretary, looked
visibly relieved to see her take a seat to wait. Sylvia smiled coldly at her. She had always felt a bit sorry for Deborah. While most succubi were drop-dead gorgeous an unlucky few were not. Each individual succubus was beautiful in her own way, appealing to a large number of men whose taste in women matched her looks, but she doubted too many men were drawn to Deborah’s overweight, pimply, too-bright red hair look. Sylvia heard from an incubus long ago that she was stuck hunting the desperate drunk men who wanted to take home a woman, any woman, at the end of the night. No upper grade energies for her. Her looks didn’t attract the opposite sex without a serious pair of beer goggles. Looking at her made Sylvia feel grateful she had the willowy blonde looks she had been graced with. She had never been forced to resorting to taking home a heavily intoxicated man for a feed.

“Ms. Lilith, Sylvia has arrive
d,” Deborah informed her over the intercom. “Shall I send her in?” Deborah listened to her reply before smiling brightly at Sylvia. “Lilith will be with you shortly.”

Sylvia nodded curtly as she picked
absent-mindedly at a nail. She just needed to get through this meeting, set Elora straight about who could hunt where, and then maybe she’d stop for a mani-pedi on the way home. She had to look absolutely stunning for her date with the Innocent tomorrow and her last manicure was starting to chip. That wouldn’t do.

The chirp of the intercom snapped Sylvia out of her train of thoughts.

“Miss Lilith will see you now,” Deborah informed her as if she didn’t have ears of her own. “You can head on in.”

Sylvia rose and gave Deborah a curt nod as she passed by her desk. She pushed open the teak door and entered Lilith’s office, r
eady to set Elora straight on how things worked in her city.

Chapter 6

To her surprise
, Elora was already in Lilith’s office, seated across from her, sipping a latte and looking all too cozy with the boss. Lilith looked flawless as usual in a Hermes belted mini dress that showed off her perfect figure, while Elora looked like she had come straight from the club. She was still wearing the same outfit from the night before. Sylvia huffed and sank into the seat next to her since there was nowhere else to go. She and Elora refused to acknowledge each other and both focused on Lilith instead.