S and Murder (Hannah Graves Spin-off One)

Three

Three:

Ren was waiting for me a discreet distance from the door to Sara’s loft. I had not been here in about a year. She had once been the main person I fed on and made vigorous love to. That had all changed so suddenly when she discovered the extent of my one-woman debauchery parades. Without a clearer explanation of why, I was rampantly shagging half of New York City, she was understandably distraught.

Sara was the nearest I believe I have come to love in my young life. I greatly adored her, and I even made love to her when I was not feeding. For a succubus to have s*x and not feed, is a great compliment to the person. If you can make us see you as more than food, you have done something—or so it seems to me.

Part of me wonders if I can even experience love the same way a human or a Ren might. With no true roadmap to base me upon or measure myself to, I am left to fly blind.

Ren was a tall and broad man, with silver-blonde hair and dark-green eyes. He was intense to stare at for an extended period.

He was about six-two and looked like he could bench-press four of me at once. He was like human wrestlers on the TV. Only, he was a lot deadlier, and his phase-shift was a high-level dragon-kin type bipedal beast with a wide seven-foot wind out the back of his left shoulder.

“My partner is expecting you at the station soon. What exactly did you tell him?!”

Ren demanded of me the moment he was sure we were alone in the sub shop directly across from Sara’s building. She was a painter, and she had been renting a loft in Manhattan for several years. She was a trust fund girl and worth an exceptional fortune last, I had heard. The issue for us now, was pretty, dead, rich girls make the news and they make a lot of noise.

Ren looked like he had not slept since the Regan administration—which I am told was a while ago.

“Hey now, he literally rang me right after you hung up, so I was not expecting to dodge the call. Besides, how might it look, ex-girlfriend on the lam. Your copper mates would have my t**s in cuff before you could even boil water in the kettle.”

He seemed to glare at me, almost like he was willing me to death with his mind. Ren was not known for being a petty or vindictive man, but I seemed to bring out the very worst in him.

“Fair enough I suppose, it would have looked pretty bad for all of us, and then I would have to hunt you down for the humans, not just for the King.”

I felt my lip twitch in amusement.

“One of these days, I am going to hear how the alpha male you are got roped into serving a king who does not even rule his people.”

Ren’s look was far from amusement, and there was the flash of unmistakable ire behind his silence.

“That’s not your concern, tell me now what I need to expect when we end up downtown. Which is where we are heading, before we go to Hidden. Right now, you need to come clean with me, if there is anything I need to know to keep our people off the radar, now is the time to confess it to me.”

Ren said in his stern but fair tone, and I gave him a skeptical look and shook my head.

“I told you I have several alibies, but I did spend the evening not in Manhattan at all, so there is that too. You will find that I was eating all night, and I spent a very delectable night with one of my morsels. She can corroborate where I was until you called, and you can use GPS data from my phone to support this, and I will even turn said phone over to you, assuming you have a way to erase the digital trail you left when contacting me?”

I said, and he gave me this withering look that bespoke his profound annoyance with me.

“I’m not sure whether to be impressed with your layered defense or terrified at what this might mean when you truly are committing a crime and planning to get away with i8t in advance.”

I gave Ren a hurt look and said, “Mate, I am not planning a crime, unless you count being the unicorn between a married couple. Is that illegal here in New York?”

I asked him, and Ren’s look told me he knew what a unicorn was, and he was annoyed I mentioned this around him. He was from a very starchy mate-for-life type of species. Nothing wrong with that, just makes them very testy when you are pushing at their invisible boundaries about s*x or reproduction. This was more than likely the root of Ren’s profound lack of amusement towards me. I was fairly sure he was terrified I was going to corrupt his daughter’s mind someday, because we have met, and she would be my type—if she were into women that is. However, no changing a woman’s mind once she is about two-hundred-years-old. She is already set in her ways and seeking out the right male eternal mate for herself now.

Genevieve Daily was Ren’s daughter’s name, and she was a treat every time I did run across her. As more of the younger immortals, she was a lot more relaxed and open-minded to the other species which also lived on earth. Unlike Ren himself, Gen had been born here, which is more than I can say for myself. I was confirmed to have been dropped off in some small spacecraft. I have not wrestled more details than that from any source.

“I merely told him that I was shagging and doing my usual. I also told him I had not spoken to nor heard from, Sara in about a year. I did, however, manage to glean plenty from him. Not so tightlipped when an attractive young bird is gabbing to him on the mobile.”

Ren’s lip twitched downward in disgust and I sighed.

“I wish you hadn’t done that, because he is going to be more dogged than usual if he feels like he might have tipped a potential suspect off.”

I waved my wands defensively.

“Can’t you like, I don’t know, backdate some CI papers for me, and just vouch for me?! I mean, that plus my phone, and my alibies, equals no problems, right?!”

I said, and Ren gave me a look that said I was stupid, even if he did not articulate it himself.

“What, pray-tell, would a college girl with no family, and no contacts in any particular realm of interest, wound be supplying me?!”

I huffed and exclaimed, “I don’t know, like college drug sources I cross paths with at parties! I mean, you had to have worked with narcotics at one point, right?!”

I asked it rhetorically, but Ren answered anyway.

“Yes, but that was under my previous alias since I was seen to have been shot five times in a raid, and no mortal could have survived that degree of trauma where it had impacted.”

I could almost see a bit of a phantom twitch of pain at the mere mention of his previous life. I could not yet imagine that pain, seeing as I have evaded the business end of any weapons to date. However, live long enough, and surely that will change!

“I need to get in and see the body. I need to read the chi flow before it is too late! You know how this works, after twenty-four-hours, the chi and chakra points are completely dissipated! In any dead body, mortal or immortal.”

Ren seemed to think about this for a very long moment, then he huffed again.

“Sometimes, I am not sure why we keep you around. You are more noise than Hidden needs right now.”

I snorted and pointed at him in accusation.

“You technically are responsible for bringing me into this one. I was not at all anywhere near Sara for a long bloody time, until you drug me into this earlier this morning. I had no food, no caf, and I was already being chucked down yer fecking rabbit hole because I f**k and suck chi.”

I said crassly and Ren looked at me like he was about to strangle me.

“If you were my child…”

I waved him off and said, “I’d likely have already beat ye fecking senseless by now! As it stands, yer still on thin ice with me, pal! I might not have fought a dominant Nix before, but I am willing to give her a crack if you keep this shite up.”

I said, declaring my intent clearly. He could see the determination in my gaze. I was a woman of my word and I would let this go to blows if that is what it took to convince Ren to back down. Besides, I did not like how he just assumed I was likely to ever, ever kill again. I may not have perfect control now, but I have learned from the incidents that brought me down this path in my life.

“We will go see the body, and you will change your outfit before we go to the station. Also, do not allow the camera to catch your face going in.”

He instructed me, and I rolled my eyes and said, “Yes, da, anything else ye need to tell me before we go about our spy-craft? It’s not my first rodeo, mate. I will be keen as mustard.”

Ren looked a lot less than convinced of this. However, what he did not realize, was succubae seemed to be one of the most adaptable creatures. We are adept at being subtle, and sneaky, so we can feed unencumbered by some righteous zealot trying to burn or decapitate us. Although I am not sure what really kills a succubus, I am assuming decapitation works, I mean a reason it was in the Highlander, right?!

“You are one fowl, little wench.”

Ren growled in a dangerous tone. His eyes slit like a dragon’s vertically. That was a pretty good indicator that I was pressing him close to his limits. Ren and I have been backed up to this proverbial point multiple times before. One day, I feared we were going to cross and one of us was going to die. Despite our turbulence, I did not wish him dead, nor did I particularly wish to be murdered by6 him.

“I’d smell a lot fresher if I could get home and take a bleeding shower, but we both know how my morning has unfolded!”

My voice carried a bit more than I intended as my temper rose, and an older couple gave me the skank eye (I invented that one, I think. Like the stink eye, only worse.)

“Keep your voice down, girl!”

Ren growled and I leaned in closer and growled in a low and almost feral tone of my own.

“I don’t appreciate your s**t, Ren. I am not a criminal. I was a f*****g orphan, and considering everything, I would say I have done a pretty bang-up job so far. Perhaps if you King had just let me live in Hidden, none of that nasty business would have happened in the first place.”

I said in a lethal tone, and his eyes seemed to become deeply contemplative. Finally, Ren seemed to surrender for the time being and he seemed to relax noticeably.

“Let’s just get you in and out without incident and clean this exposure mess up, and fast!”

Ren ardently implored me since he knew better than to try to command me right now.