Succubus Dreams Page 0,102

and an old coat, not really concerned with high fashion today. I also hadn't bothered to shape-shift my hair. I'd simply brushed it into a high ponytail. Most telling of all was my face. I wore as much grief as Vincent. There was a hollowness to my eyes that startled me. It counteracted all the other beauty of my features. Glancing back at Maddie, I realized she was the hot one today.

When we finally hit the road to the airport, traffic was as horrible as I'd expected. I-5 was at a standstill, and with my luck lately, there was probably an accident up ahead to compound the rush hour and holiday mess. Sighing, I settled back into my seat.

"Okay," I told Maddie, desperately needing distraction. "What's the report? What adventurous things have you done? I'm pretty sure you've more than met your quota."

"Well," she began. "There's the new clothes, of course. You've seen a lot of them, and I own more lingerie than I ever have in my life. I was always kind of afraid of it, but there's so much cute stuff out there, you know?"

"Yup. I sure do."

"I got a bunch of high heels too. I'm still kind of learning to walk in them, but I'm doing okay, I think." She groaned and looked like the snarky feminist writer she was. "I feel like...well, like a girl."

I smiled and looked at the cars ahead of me. All the variables were in place for an accident, so I had to be careful. In this kind of stop and go, people tended to cease paying attention and fall into a lull. That was how cars got rear-ended. It was also an oddity that Seattle drivers had trouble driving in the rain.

"You seemed fine in the heels to me. What else have you done? Other than shopping?"

"I signed up for a judo class."

"You did not."

"I so did," she said, laughing. "It was the craziest class I could think of. Besides, I can finally get back at Doug after all those years he used to pull my hair."

"Well-deserved," I said. I moved over to the farthest lane, with the futile hope that it might move a fraction faster. "Anything else?"

"Mmm...well. I started looking for my own place."

"That's a good idea."

"And checking out flights to some places I've always wanted to see."

"Another good idea."

"And I slept with Seth."

I nearly drove into the median.

"What?" I said, jerking the wheel back to my own lane. Maddie had her hands stretched out protectively. "Did you say Seth?"

"Yeah..."

"Seth Mortensen?"

She sounded incredulous. "Of course. Who else?"

It was one of those things that was so ludicrous, I couldn't even fully react. It was like saying, "Hey, did you notice the earth just exploded?" It wasn't real because all the rest of the data in your known world said it was impossible. My brain wasn't going to bother processing it yet. Wasted cells.

"How...I mean, what..." I shook my head. "Explain."

I could see by her face that she was dying to. This was what had been bursting in her in my office yesterday.

"Well, two nights ago, I ran back to the bookstore after closing because I'd left something. I saw Seth out in the parking lot. He'd been out somewhere and was coming back to get his car."

"Somewhere" was my apartment. That had been the night of the fight.

"Anyway," she continued. "He looked kind of down, and I remembered what you'd said about taking risks. Plus, he still owed me the date, right? So, I asked him out for a drink, and he said sure."

I tried not to drive into the median again. "He didn't drink, did he?"

"No, not alcohol. But we stayed out really late, and we had a great time. You can't even imagine how great he is to talk to. He comes across as shy, but once you get to know him..." She sighed happily. "He thinks like I do too...wants to do all sorts of things, go places...Anyway, the place finally closed, and he asked if I wanted to go hang out at his place for a while."

I couldn't even look at her now. "Seth...asked you back to his place?"

"Well, if we went back to mine, we'd have to hang out with Doug, and we just wanted to talk more. And we did...except, well, after a while...we stopped talking. And one thing kind of led to another." She exhaled, like she still couldn't believe it herself. "I never do things like that. Not so soon. But, well,