Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 19

Finding them wasnt so easy. No one was at my apartment, and Vincent didnt answer his phone. I drove down to the Cellar, hoping maybe theyd each(prenominal) decided to start drinking mid-day. Nope. The pub was barren, with only a couple bored patrons sitting at the bar.Frustrated, I called Hugh, deciding it was eon to need help from my own resources.Is Jerome back yet?No, the extremely low frequency said. Do you shoot him?Kind of.Kind of?Its a long story.Im in the city for a meeting. You want to hold in lunch and explain? Im practically down the street from your place. Ill meet you in that location, and well go eat.It was the first time Id talked to Hugh since the blowup at Peters over Seth and me. I was still reeling from all that, besides I did kind of want to get feedback from another immortal source. Besides, I was rapidly zip turn out of options.It only took ten minutes for him to show up, but it felt same(p) an hour.Holy shit, said Hugh, spotting the Christmas trees when he walked in. Your apartments a national park.Be quiet.Im serious. You need a ranger working in here.Come on. Lets go.We walked to a deli down the street. Once we were seated with our food, I began explaining to him why I take Jerome. By the time I finished the Nyx story, Hughs mirth had faded.Fuck, he said, biting into an enormous Reuben. That might be worth bugging Jerome after all.Where is he? I asked. other training?Hugh shrugged. Not entirely sure. He was vague about it. Grace and Hiroko insinuated hes having a personality conflict with another demon and went to settle it.Oh, God, I said. Not a duel?I dont know. I hope not. Those crazy bitches seemed pretty smug, so theyre probably hoping for some opportunity to pull a power play out of all this. You know how they are. Stillyou could probably go to them for help with all this.I couldbut if Jerome had some intimacy weird going on, I didnt want to get enmesh with his lieutenants and possibly be used in some way. The dick ens demonesses worked for him but would seize any chance for promotion, and when political tremors shook our human being, everyone was quick to exploit everyone else.Ill obtain out for the angels, I said. As long as I can space out my energy fixes, on that point shouldnt be a problem. If I cant run a risk Carter and friends in another day or so, Ill debate about talking to Grace and Hiroko.I can get a hold of him if you really need it, said Hugh.I smiled at the uneasy tone in his voice. Yeah, but your instructions were to avoid bothering him at all costs, right?The imp nodded.Its okay. Ill wait on the angels. If I have to go to Grace and Hiroko, they can be the ones to decide if its worth interrupting Jerome for. I mean, the cause is pretty solidbut, well, if were upon, and it turns out to be cryptographJeromes going to be pissed that I bothered him based on the word of two humans.Pissed at all of us.Yeah. I idly picked holes in my sandwich with the toothpick that held it to gether.Are you scared? asked Hugh. Of Nyx?Yeah. I am. I dont like the fancy of anything invading my sleep. Certainly not something that powerful. That guy I mentioned Dante is going to try to demonstrate me a charm or something to ward her away.Hugh snorted. No human can acquit a charm like that.Hes a magician. He said he could.Sweetie. Nyx is a fucking deity no, more than that. An uber-deity. A force of the universe that was instrumental in creation. Shes been weakened over time, yeah, but some strung-out, psychic thespian cant make a charm powerful enough to scare her off. There are probably only a handful of humans in the world who could, and to get that kind of power Hugh shook his head. I dont know. Based on what youve told me, Im just not seeing it.Id had my own doubts about Dante, but Id thus uttermost managed to push them aside and keep hoping for the best. Hearing Hugh, I felt all of my misgivings return.Fuck, I said.Silence pilot as we munched on our sandwiches a bit. Rain fell outside, and hungry customers ducked in to avoid it. Hugh watched a cute brunette order at the counter, then he turned his attention back to me.Any idea when Niphons leaving?I frowned. Whenever Tawny gets a victim.Now Hugh frowned. But she did, didnt she?Did she?I dont know. Thats what Simon said. Or at least, he thought she did. He said she was up there dancing with a glow a couple nights ago. Made up for the shitty job she was doing.A couple nights agoNothats impossible. I sawing machine her right around then, and she still hadnt taken anybody. She was so low, I had to kiss her again. Hes wrong.Maybe she got a glow from the kiss. Hugh sounded kind of hopeful. You use a lot of speech?It wasnt that big of a kiss. No glow. Just enough to get by.Huh. He swirled the ice around in his Diet Coke. I guess Simon was wrong. Figured hed be good at spotting that stuff.I would have thought so too. Hughthis is going to sound weird, but I think Tawny may be faking how inept she is.He looked rightfully startled. Why the fuck would she do that?I dont know. I think its to help Niphon. But none of this makes sense. This is the second time Ive comprehend of her possibly getting a fix, but then Ive seen her shortly thereafter, and she was way too low to have burned through so much so quickly.Maybe shes got your problem.I have a lot of problems.Your Nyx problem. Maybe Tawnys losing her energy too.Whoa. Interesting idea. And why not? If Nyx was preying on one succubus, why not two? And it would explain how Tawny was losing energy so quickly. Except If Nyx is taking her energy, that means shes actually getting it to begin with. But Tawny keeps telling me she isnt having enkindle.Huh. A handmaid of Hell lying. Go figure.Yeah, but why? Niphons risking getting both of them in a shitload of trouble if Jerome or anyone else finds out. Hes gambling a lot just to become around and annoy me. And if Hell thinks Tawny isnt doing her job, theyll recall her.Hugh gave me a funny look.What? I asked. Whats that for?You didnt read the book, did you?What book?The succubus manual.You know I didnt.And I even up got you the abridged one, he said, sounding wounded.Hugh, I growled. Whats your point?The point is that as her mentor, youre accountable for her actions. If she cant bag a victim, youre the one theyll call in.What? Thats ridiculous.Those are the rules now.So, what, I get slapped on the wrist for her screwing up?Slap on the wrist? For being a succubus who cant teach another one to have sex? Its so ludicrous, its probably never happened before. I dont know what theyd do. Censure you at the very least. Transfer you to work under a senior succubus.I am a senior succubus.He shrugged.But if shes lyingThen prove it.I rubbed my eyes. This is utterly insane. Why does Niphon hate me so much? He already bought my soul, for Gods sake. What more is there?I expected some smartass remark. Instead, I received silence. I looked at Hugh. What? What is it now? He poi ntedly glanced away. HughI dont know, Georgina. Hugh rarely called me by my first name. I was usually honey or sweetie. Sometimes we make deals, and they seem airtight, but something goes wrong.What do you mean?I worked with another imp when I lived in Dallas. Raquel. She brokered this one deal with a guy who was pissed off when his wife left him because he found out he was sterile. Couldnt have kids. Hugh helpfully illustrated the meaning by pointing down toward his lower torso.I know what sterile means, Mr. Wizard. Get on with it.So, he sold his soul under the conditions that his ex-wife couldnt have kids either. He was bitter and into the poetic justice thing, apparently. Wanted to punish her with what shed punished him over. So, he gave up his soul, and our side gave her some kind of inflammation thing that totally washed-up her fallopian tubes and scarred up her uterus. I dont know. Girl stuff. I had to hold back an eye roll. Hugh might feign ignorance about girl stuff, but he d found time in his years of corruption to go to medical school. He knew more about this than I did.Harsh, I said. But fitting from the guys point of view, I guess.Yeah. Should have been a done deal, but something went wrong. Or, well, right. Her ovaries still worked she was making eggs, even if she couldnt carry a baby. She and her new husband found a surrogate mother. The wife donated eggs, they combine up a Petri dish cocktail, and the surrogate carried the baby. BamThe wife had a child after all, I mused. Wow. Hell gets defeated by science. All those philosophers from the Enlightenment were right.Hugh scoffed at my joke. It was stupid. Someone by which I mean, Raquel should have thought of that when they picked the infection as a way to make that lady infertile. Raquel fucked up. The guy was able to take his grimace back to Hell and won his soul back for breach of contract.Oh, wow, I said. I bet that went over well. Whats Raquel doing nowadays?He grimaced. I think were all happier not knowing.I agreed. But whats this have to do with me? Thats kind of a rare case.Eh, it happens more than youd think. Most of the time, the seller doesnt even notice something got messed up. But if the imp or someone else in authority catches it, Ive seen them move Heaven and Earth no pun intended to fix it.So, youre implying that Niphons here, finagling all this stuff with Tawny, because he did something wrong in my purchase?Hugh spread his hands out. I dont know. All I know is that when an imp shows up and is going to this much trouble over something, the evidence suggests its big. Maybe not a situation like Raquels, maybe not a breach of contract, but something.My contracts long since done, I murmured. Everyone it involved is dead now. If there was a problem, I would have had to bring it up back then.Like I said, I dont know. Maybe Im jumping to conclusions.Could you look? Could you get a hold of the contract?No. Hughs answer came almost before I finished speaking. Ab solutely not.But if theres some wording I didnt know about You think I can just go walk into Hells records and pull a contract Im not involved with? he exclaimed. Fuck. If I got caught, itd make what happened to Raquel look like a promotion.But No, he said again, voice like stone. No debate. I love you, sweetie. You know I do. Youre like my sister, and Id do almost anything for you, but not this. Im sorry. I glared. He glared back. Look, you want my advice? Get rid of Niphon. And Tawny, if you can. Expose them if they really are pulling something here, and Jerome will take it from there.Jeromes not even around Damn it. Why cant you help me with this? You were so quick to help with my love life when you were talking to Seth the other night.Hugh narrowed his eyes. It was probably the best thing Ive ever done for you.Are you insane? Hes walking around talking about that now all worried about how hes going to hurt me and make me miserableGood, snapped Hugh. He should be.I shoved my t rash onto my tray and stood up. See you later. Thanks forwell, nothing.Hugh followed me over to the garbage bins. Youre behaving irrationally. On all of this.Id never treat you the way youre treating me, I said, dump my tray. Im your friend.Friendship has nothing to do with this.It has everything to do with thisHe stacked his tray on the others and looked at his watch. Look, I have to go. Im sorry I cant give you the answers you want. Am I going to see you at Peters? Peter, unable to pass up party-giving opportunities, was hosting a Christmas dinner, weird as that seemed.No. Im going to be with Seth. Unless he breaks up with me because of your keen advice.Hugh bit his lip on some remark that probably would have been uncomplimentary. Shaking his head, he turned around and left.