Succubus Revealed Page 0,41

late and hadn't wanted me waiting around for him. We were both conscious of how little time we'd had together recently, though, so he told me he'd join me for tomorrow night's bowling practice. As a general rule, he tried to avoid immortal goings-on, but I think he had a morbid fascination with the idea of bowling for Hellish honor.

"Thank God," said Roman, when I walked in the door. "I thought you were going to stay at Seth's. There's soup on the stove."

"No, thanks," I said. "I already ate."

"Your loss," he said. Judging from the way the cats were circling him for handouts as he settled down on the couch with a bowl, I guess they agreed with him. "How was it?"

My mind was still on the Mortensens, and for a moment, I thought that's what he meant. Then I remembered his single-minded focus and knew he was referring to Las Vegas.

"Surprisingly good," I told him, sitting down in an armchair.

His eyebrows rose. He hadn't expected that answer. "Oh? Tell me about it."

I did, and he listened attentively while eating his soup. When I'd finished the weekend's recap, he grilled me on nearly everyone I'd met there, immortal and mortal alike. In two days, I didn't have that much life history to report but gave him what I could.

"Well," he said, "isn't that lovely." He made no effort to hide his sarcasm.

I sighed. "You still think this was part of some greater conspiracy ?"

"I think it's terribly convenient that this seemingly routine transfer is fulfilling every possible wish you might have."

I scoffed. "Aside from the fact that I'm being transferred in the first place. That's hardly something I wanted."

Roman straightened up, and the cats ran for his abandoned bowl. He ticked off points on his right hand. "Well, let's do a tally, shall we? When I first met you, I asked what your dream job would be. What did you say? A Vegas dancer. And wow! Look what conveniently falls into your lap. And who put it there? In a city full of conniving, backstabbing succubi, you were fortunate to find one as levelheaded as you, complete with the same sense of humor and interests. Funny thing . . . did you even run into any other succubi that entire weekend? In a city packed with them?"

"Roman - "

"No, no, wait. There's more. How'd you meet this wonder succubus anyway? Through your closest immortal friend, who just happened to have been coincidentally transferred to Las Vegas, hired on by your favorite boss of all time. Are you following this fantasy so far?"

"But why would - "

"And," he continued, "lest you grow homesick for the wacky idiosyncrasies of your friends back here, Vegas is ready to supply you with new ones. A zany drunken imp. Seth 2.0. If you'd stayed longer, they probably would have unearthed an angel and a couple of vampires for you. And let's not discount the fact that you're going to Las Vegas in the first place! The single easiest place for a succubus to get by."

"Okay, I get what you're saying." I threw up my hands in exasperation. "It is perfect. Maybe too perfect. But you're missing one fundamental point. Supposing this is true, that someone has set up the most perfect scenario for me ever, a situation designed to keep me happy, why would they do it at all when the thing that would make me the most happy is to stay in Seattle? Why bother with this alternative? Why not leave me as I am?"

Roman's eyes gleamed. "Because that's the one thing they don't want you to have. They want you out of Seattle, Georgina. They want you out, and they don't want you to complain or look back."

"But why?" I protested. "That's what I can't figure out."

"Give me something else to work with," he said. "Hell's not that good. Even the most picture perfect setup has to have a flaw. Was there anything, anything at all this weekend, that felt disingenuous? That smacked of a lie?"

I gave him a wry look. "I was in Las Vegas, hanging out with servants of Hell. Everything was disingenuous."

"Georgina, think! Anything that seemed legitimately odd. Any contradiction."

I started to deny it but then paused. "The timeline."

He leaned forward even more. "Yes? What about it?"

I thought back to my first hours in Las Vegas. "Luis and Bastien both went out of their way to act as though my transfer and Bastien's had been in the works for a