this demon-possessed man allow me to get that close. He’d know I could control him physically even though I was failing to control him magically right now.
As if reading my mind, he said, “I can feel your grasp sliding right off me. Frustrated, are you?” His fingers made small circles around his belly button.
“Gross. Would you stop that?”
“Am I distracting you?”
“Yes, and not in a good way. About my not being able to control you—why is that?” I asked, hooking my thumb into the pocket of my scuffed leather pants, much duller and clearly thicker than this guy’s.
He giggled and put his hands out. “Because my human host invited me in. He implored me. We have a partnership. When you try to take control, he blocks it. You can’t control humans, just demons…”
His voice trailed away, as if that had been a question.
I didn’t comment. He was fishing for information. He might have a hunch of what I was, but clearly didn’t have all the info. Good. Best I didn’t reveal my hand.
“Usually a human host won’t allow their possessor free rein like that, not if they have any kind of say,” I said, seeing magic curl beyond me as the mages’ spell weaving changed potency. They weren’t even applying it to the spell yet. They were just brainstorming, trying to come up with the right recipe that would counteract the centuries-old spell. If it was taking them this long, that spell was exactly as good as this succubus said.
“This human gets to take over when things are hot and sticky, if you know what I mean.” He threaded his fingers through his thick mat of chest hair, getting tangled and pulling some hair free.
“Ugh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little,” Penny mumbled.
“I’m trying not to look at him,” Emery replied.
“Fine. Well?” I reached into my pouch for one of the throwing stars. If I plastered my magic over it, surely I could make a nice little hole in that spell. Unraveling shouldn’t be too hard after that. “What’s the gossip? I can pay you for it.”
“We got company,” Emery said, and I could hear the annoyance in his voice.
There was just one faction of people that seemed to annoy him like that. The thorn in all our sides.
I groaned and turned, finding exactly who I thought I would.
“Charity, Devon, lovely to see you.” I gave them a placid smile.
Charity was the type of fae known for their battle prowess and fantastic ability to stick their noses in everyone's business. Since she and her kind joined the shifters in the Brink—the human lands—they’d become an incredibly effective unit at finding “wrongdoers” and bringing them in. They were like some sort of super cop patrol that constantly tried to move in on my bounty gigs. Usually I'd just let it go because I didn’t really need the money—I was deft at stealing funds from my rich elder vampire companion—but this time…
This time it was on.
“What brings you to this lovely winery? Finally letting down your hair?” I moved between Emery and Penny. I murmured, “Get that spell torn down and then secure him. After that, if I’m rumbling with these busybodies, t join in and help end it. We take this mark. There won’t be a compromise this time.”
“Don’t kill anyone. We don’t want Roger on our asses,” Emery said.
Roger was the pack leader of the entire North American territory and respected the world over. He was incredibly organized and powerful and had a standing hatred for vampires. Usually that hatred extended to those fornicating with said vampires—me, for example—but given I’d known Roger for years at this point, before I’d even met the vampire I was currently shacked up with, and given Roger and I had helped each other through the years, we maintained a shaky sort of truce.
Might just need to end that truce.
Charity, a fit brunette with a wicked sword, stopped about twenty feet away, giving me plenty of space. She wasn’t a fool. Devon, the large black wolf beside her, stopped at her side. The others fanned out, a few fae and a few animals, one being an enormous were-yeti that I didn’t get along with. Randomly setting him on fire every time I saw him at the bars apparently got on his nerves. What a party pooper.
“How’d you get here so fast?” Charity asked, annoyance in her voice to match Emery’s.
I noticed the werelion padding out to the side, lazy and