Chapter 1
836 Words
Chapter One
Most people would love discovering a hidden supernatural race but Samantha Rain was not one of them. She found they were infuriating at best, downright intolerable at worst. And that was just Lilith she was talking about.
“You couldn’t even wait until I finished my dinner,” Samantha whined, her stomach rumbling persistently. “I was right, this is slavery.”
“Oh, boo-hoo. You can’t seriously be upset about that sad microwave dinner for one,” Lilith countered, her heels clicking rhythmically on the pavement. She mumbled house numbers to herself and turned onto a lawn without warning Sam.
Sam reluctantly followed her partner. “Hey, FishKick makes great ready meals. Well… Great is a bit of an overstatement. They’re decent. Passable. Okay, they’re garbage, but I was hungry.”
“If I take you out for dinner, will you stop whining?”
“Fine.”
“Okay, we’ll do that after this. But you’ll have to get changed first.”
“What?” Sam looked down and plucked at her beige shirt. “You still haven’t told me what we’re doing. And what’s wrong with my outfit?”
Lilith’s eyes glid over Sam’s body, a slight smile playing around her lips. “Everything. But what’s underneath your outfit isn’t so bad.”
“Incorrigible,” Samantha muttered, ignoring the blatant flirting. She tugged on her trench coat, tightening it where the wind had blown it open. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” Lilith replied mysteriously.
With a grimace, Sam studied her surroundings. After years of patrol, her companion still managed to bring her to parts of the city she didn’t know. This neighbourhood wasn’t even that far away from her home and yet, she had no recollection of ever passing through it.
Lilith paused next to a red mailbox and turned to Sam. “How are your people skills?”
“My people skills? I…” She scratched the back of her neck. “Alright, I guess?”
“Good. We’ve had a noise complaint and it’s a rather recurring issue at this household. I guess the neighbours couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Neighbours?” Samantha echoed. “Noise complaint? Why did they call you instead of the police?”
“Really?” Lilith placed her hands on her hips. “I’ll give you a moment to work that out.”
Sam facepalmed herself. “Right… Nox neighbours.”
“Not just that. Nox neighbourhoods.”
“Really?”
“Yes. We like integrating with humans, but not that much.” She patted the red mailbox affectionately and nodded. “Right, let’s get this little spat resolved. I wouldn’t usually bother, but you know… Duties of the successor and all that, blablabla.”
Stunned, Sam fell a beat behind. Even after being dragged around by her new partner in crime for all sorts of obscure tasks, like magnet fishing for hours to find her nephew’s lost toy or the graphic graffiti she had to cover up earlier that week, Lilith’s lack of duty surprised her every time. Almost like she didn’t actually want to take her father’s place.
“Are you coming?” Lilith called, pausing halfway on the stone path.
“Yeah, right behind you!”
Sam caught up with the other woman at the house. A friendly garden gnome with a wheelbarrow greeted them from underneath the trellis covering the porch. By all means, it looked like a regular house and Sam would never have guessed it wasn’t occupied by humans.
For a second, she wondered about all the people she’d ever met and how many of them had been hiding this from her. Maybe some of her friends were Nox? What about the people she served with? The people next door? Anyone had the potential to be more than what they seemed.
“Ready?”
Without waiting for Sam’s reply, Lilith knocked on the green door.
This kind of impatience would’ve got on Samantha’s nerve if she wasn’t already used to it. Lilith would do whatever Lilith wanted, not unlike a spoiled child that had never been taught the meaning of no.
That being said…
Samantha glanced sideways at the beautiful woman. The automatic lights of the porch illuminated the ivy as it surrounded them. The darkness of the night brought out the blue in her eyes and even if she could’ve looked away, Sam didn’t want to. She never believed in magic but with Lilith next to her, it was impossible to deny. There was something magical about her.
Something thudded from inside the house, pulling Sam out of her train of thought. She gathered herself just in time as the door swung open and a large man filled the entrance.
“Yeah?” A deep frown wrinkled his forehead. “Lilith?”
“Hello, Jonathan.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Boss said there was a situation.”
“Really? And he sent you to deal with it?”
“Yes, why else would I be here?” Lilith gestured around. “My Warden and I are here to assist.”
“Tssk.” The man shot her a dirty look and placed both hands on the doorframe. “We don’t need your help. Bugger off.”
Lilith hissed. “Are you denying me entrance to your home?”
“You better believe I am. You’re not welcome here.” Jonathan slammed the door shut, rattling the porch, the ivy, and the gnome with the rake it was holding.
Taken aback, the two women stared at each other for a second or two. It took Sam a moment before she gathered her thoughts and turned to Lilith.
“So… How are your people skills?”
- Writer
