Deception of the Demon Girl

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Fuck it, I’ll accept cash.”

  “Reika, please!” The tone of his voice went through a shift. He was getting worked up. He was right where I wanted him. He’d do anything to protect this place, and if he’s smart, he’d give me the intel on Giovanni. “Look, I can’t pay you right now,” he finally said. “I can barely afford to pay Nick.”

  “I’ve noticed,” I said, looking back into the pizza preparation area. “Just one cook for lunch? Used to be three or four of us.” I held the photo of Giovanni to his face again, a reminder of what I came here for; a reminder I wasn’t going to leave without what I wanted. “Just tell me everything you know about him, and I’ll say fuck it to the last paycheck, deal?”

  “His name is Giovanni Mancini,” Mario said, leaning forward, keeping his voice down like Giovanni’s identity was a big deal.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “He works for … some powerful investors in my business.”

  “Keep talking.”

  “Remember when I said business went to shit after you and Ryan left? I was serious. Your face was in the news for a bit, then your apartment explodes, then some sick fucker cut up Ryan’s body and left it on top of that hospital.”

  That sick fucker was me by the way. Lucifer possessed Ryan’s body, I didn’t have much a choice when he tried to kill me.

  I gave Mario a smirk. “Guess my fifteen minutes of fame rubbed off on this place.”

  “People started talking, ya know?” Mario continued. “They were saying shit like I hire freaks and people that do bad things outside of their shifts, bad things that might end up coming into my business. You and Ryan, you scared off my business, people stopped coming by. I got desperate. Real, desperate, if you catch my drift.”

  “You cut a deal with this investor, Giovanni.”

  “Giovanni’s fucking loaded, and as it turns out he and his sister liked my food. They didn’t want to see this place shut down. Guess you could say, they … made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

  “So cliché.”

  “It’s the truth, Reika. They hooked me up with free ingredients, you know, the stuff that ‘fell off trucks.’ It barely cost me anything to make pizzas. High profits meant I stay in business, but in return, they wanted their cut … and free lunch.”

  That’d explain why Alice went to me first. She and her brother were the rich, extorting the poor and middle-class. Giovanni must have been caught up in some big-time gangster shit, and a lot of the criminal world here in the city, had been making offers to demons to join them, the Russians being the top recruiters.

  “Giovanni’s gone missing,” I said, putting the photo into my coat’s inside hidden pocket. “His sister, Alice, wants me to find him.”

  “Giovanni? Missing? No way, he was here today for lunch.”

  “Is that a fact?”

  “Comes here every day and will be here tomorrow.”

  “Does he come alone?”

  Mario shook his head no. “Normally he’s with his friends or his sister. But today though, it was a different crowd, they all had like Russian accents or something like that.”

  The Russian Mafia, I fucking knew it. I thanked Mario for the tip … by allowing him to keep my last paycheck. I went to collect Emily, who had surprisingly inhaled that pizza, the crust too. She must have really been hungry, unlike me. Having two men at once, to a succubus, was like having a supersized meal at McDonald's.

  “Yo, Reika,” Mario called out to me as we went for the exit. “This talk didn’t happen, right?”

  “Of course not. Enjoy my paycheck.”

  I gave Emily the update as we went back for my car. She suggested it was a trap. She was probably right. Why would Alice claim Giovanni was missing when he wasn’t? Probably because they were in with the mob.

  Drop the case, tell Alice to get fucked, and walk away, that’s what I wanted to do. But I couldn’t. Alice knew where we were, if this was a set up to kill me, she could have easily done it already. Just pull out a pistol and pop me while I was sitting at my desk. But she didn’t, what she did do, however, was resist my lure and charm, and had that weird rose in her handbag.

  The thought about handing the rose off to Charles crossed my mind, too bad the NYPD paranormal labs were off-limits to me now. Gabe found out about the email I manipulated Charles into sending me. We haven’t been on speaking terms since then, not even when Gabe got hit was those tough paranormal cases that required my assistance.

  In order to move forward with this case, I was going have to do some illegal things.

  Chapter Seven

  The greenhouse Alice worked at was closed for the day, while the darkness of the night fell onto the city. The cold early November air brushed against my face, the winds passing by me picking up the edges of my trench coat like rustling autumn-touched trees in Central Park, not far away.

  I walked away from my discreetly parked car. Emily was behind me, barely making any sounds with her footsteps as we approached the greenhouse, and its closed sign hanging on the front door. Shit, like we gave a fuck if they were open or not.

  The two of us did some information digging about the greenhouse, before our arrival. It was bought out by Giovanni and Alice’s parents, and given to her as a gift. One of many high-ticket financial investments their family made throughout the city.

  Wasn’t sure why the greenhouse was given as a gift at first. Usually, rich girls get showered with ponies, Ferraris, big screen TVs, trips to anywhere on the planet riding first class, at least, that’s what I’d be doing. But a greenhouse? Yeah, that was odd, until I snapped a few photos of Alice, prior to the place closing for the night. The grin on her face when she was handling the garden inside was of a woman in complete bliss. Plants, flowers, and trees, this was her place of Zen if there ever was such a place.

  The front door to the place wouldn’t budge when I went to open the door, naturally, the place was closed. But hey, can’t fault me for trying right?

  That’s when I turned to my Bakeneko partner. “Emily, you’re up,” I whispered to her.

  She laughed. “Do you even need to say anything?”

  I stepped aside. She stepped forward with her thief’s tools, pulled out from her fanny pack. The keys to the city.

  She fiddled with the lock, sticking the shiny metal picks into its hole. Two clicking sounds signaled the completion of her work, and the door opened. The two of us entered uninvited, using small flashlights to light our path as the warm humid air trapped inside hit us. It was like we walked into a warm summer afternoon, all trapped within the confines of the greenhouse.

  The security cameras were no worry, as a quick switch to my air attunement gave me access to my electronic disruption talent while covering my body with lightning and winds that accompanied me. A quick flash of lightning went off at the snap of my fingers, turning the cameras into paperweights on the ceiling in a spray of yellow sparks.

  Our search continued, looking for signs of anything paranormal and demonic or just straight up fucked up. This was Alice’s domain and she was a walking reflag that needed to be checked out. Nothing out of the norm was discovered during our walk past the rows upon rows of tables holding soil filled containers with various plants and flowers growing from them.

  Emily brought my attention to a bunch of flowers and roses in the corner, shining her flashlight on them. They all had the same mysterious energy as with the rose she jacked from Alice.

  “Yep, these are like the rose,” Emily said while touching the flowers, then went to stroke some green leafy plants on the opposite end. “And these are normal.”

  I popped my scanning talent at that point, hoping it’d hook me up with a couple of more clues. No such thing was found, other than the obvious, that the flowers were full of an energy signature that suggested magical talents were involved in their creation yet weren’t displaying any signs of Umbral.

  I managed to recreate the white silhouettes of figures moving about
in the greenhouse, the last actions of those inside before it closed for the night. I saw Alice’s silhouette spending a lot of time working on the flowers. She too had a strange level of energy bled away from her when she touched them.

  “Seems Alice is the only one that takes extra care of these plants,” I said, commenting to myself, watching as Alice’s silhouette walked to the back office.

  We followed behind, shining our flashlights on what Alice went to grab when she had entered. It was a clipboard hanging on the wall. Curiosity compelled Emily to yank it off and flip through the pages, my flashlight made it possible to read in the dark.

  “Looks like a delivery plan,” Emily said as she skimmed through the contents. “This place doesn’t just sell plants; they also supply them to their clients throughout the city.”

  She was right. I saw a printed list of addresses, phone numbers, product numbers, and shipping dates. “Any idea who?”

  “No one major,” she revealed after flipping through two pages. “These are all orders placed online, to be shipped to personal addresses.”

  “Sounds like nothing important.”

  “Actually, they all want the flowers.”

  “If Valentine’s Day was coming up, I’d say so what.”

  “But it’s not,” she said. “Matthew Turner, Gerald Luther … any of these names rings a bell? Because those two and others’ names on this list want flowers very desperately.”

  I grabbed the clipboard from her, pulling out my phone to snap a few pictures of the pages. I was going to put it back where Emily found it when something on the pages caught my attention. I ran my finger down the page, closely looking at the times each order had been placed.

  “All these orders were made at the exact same time …” Online orders, all placed at the exact same time, for flowers to be shipped to various households throughout the city? What were the odds of that? I flipped to the last page, viewing the most recent order. That order left me stumped. “Big order to the docks as well, all flowers.”

  Emily shrugged as I placed the clipboard back on the wall. “Shipping overseas, I guess.”

  “Doubt anything here would survive the trip.”

  “Depends on where it’s going,” she said. “But you’d think the delivery address will be its final destination, right?”

  “Yeah,” I grunted, moving my flashlight about to search and highlight for other clues. “But according to that, it’s going to the docks itself, no place else.”

  There was little else to see during our quick B and E session, so we bolted, shutting and locking the door behind us. Nobody would suspect a thing, unless Alice had the same talents I had. In that case, we were fucked. I leave a trail of Umbral energy everywhere I go when I use talents.

  We made it back to our office slash first safe house. I wasn’t in the mood to drive downtown to the big penthouse tonight. Emily got out of the car when I pulled up, I didn’t.

  Rolling down the window I said. “I’ll catch up with you later.”

  She leaned forward, giving me a perplexed glare through the opened passenger window. “Eh? What’s up?”

  “Go watch some Netflix, I’m gonna get some food.”

  “Food!” Emily’s face lit right the fuck up. “Thank fuck, that means you’re finally hungry?”

  I gave her a nod and prepared to drive off. “It’s been a week since I ate real food, kinda miss it.”

  My car pulled into the parking lot of a dank- and sad-looking bar, and not the 7/11 Emily would have expected me to roll up to.

  Like I said, I was hungry, just not that kind of hungry, if you catch my drift.

  Chapter Eight

  I ditched my trench coat getup for something more captivating, a long-sleeved button up top, black skirt, and stockings, all covering up my Yakuza bodysuit of tattoos. I went into the bar acting calm and cool, ignoring the looks of the rugged biker men shooting a game of pool in the back. I thought about slipping into the washroom to touch up my makeup but said fuck it when I checked the time on my phone. He was going to be here soon like he was every time during evenings like this.

  I pulled up a chair near his favorite spot at the bar and waited. Who is he you ask? He’s Ricky Belmont, the subject of one of my past clients. A month ago, I was contacted by a woman who claimed her house was haunted by evil spirits. I didn’t find anything out of the norm, making it a pretty easy case and pay.

  What I did discover by accident was the restraining order she had on Ricky. He tried to slip her a few date rape drugs into her drink when she came to this bar. Being the PI and vigilante I am, I followed his ass around town. I learned where he worked, slept, when he got off work and when he came to this bar, looking to prey upon unsuspecting women. Ricky was pretty confident in what he did, which suggested he’d done this a hundred times in the past and got away with it. Ricky was a sexual predator. Not cool. You don’t pull that shit in my fucking city.

  I could have dealt with Ricky right there and then, but I decided to wait, keep him around for one of those nights. Ricky was my equivalent to a frozen pizza you’d keep stashed in the freezer when you didn’t feel like cooking.

  He took a seat in his usual chair, which I left for him, and caught him glancing at my figure. I glanced back, smiled then hit the succubus lure talent. I instantly had all eyes at the bar on me, his especially.

  “Hey,” I said to him with a playful and sensual tone of voice.

  Ricky’s face turned a shade of red, cute. “Yo, how you doing?”

  I looked at him with bedroom eyes, fluttering my eyelashes, and gliding the tip of my index finger around the rim of my drink. “You’re kinda hot. You know?”

  “You say that to all the dudes here?”

  Seriously, why am I wasting time talking? I stood up, and touched his crotch, his junk was hard, and he totally didn’t object to me doing that or the kiss I planted on his lips. We held that position for a bit, me pushing to get my tongue into his mouth, as my hands cupped his head and my succubus charm tickled his brain.

  By the time I moved my face away from his, he was convinced we were lovers, and always had been. But in reality, the hunter just became the hunted. My lure was the trap the held him in place, my kiss and my hands running through his hair sent the magic of my charm into his head.

  After that I dragged him out the bar by the hand, every second my lure was active drained my Umbral energy. I had to act fast. The women at the bar better send me thank you notes for this. I was about to remove a sexual predator from the ecosystem.

  I showed him to my car parked in a darkened alley, pulling his button-up shirt open, popping all the buttons of it in the process. Not like he’s gonna need it again. We were in the backseat at that point, my hands quickly shedding my top and then bra off my body. He looked up at me, lying back first across the backseat, shocked at the aggressive nature of my hungry succubus half that had just been unleashed.

  I was little disappointed at the size of his cock, figured a rough asshole like that would be a bit bigger, whatever, succubus me didn’t care for size, unlike human me. Since he showed me his, it was time I showed him mine by removing my skirt and panties. All I had left on were black stockings over my legs. That’s when it happened… when I lost control.

  Evil giggles left my mouth when I forced him to sit up on the seat while I sat on his lap keeping my back to his chest. Succubus on top, always, it’s a cardinal rule. My left hand guided him in me, while I slipped my right index and middle finger into my mouth. I rode him up and down from there, keeping him lubricated with my lust as I twirled my hips periodically. I felt his chest against my back, as the back of my head blocked his view of my face … and my eyes that began to glow blue.

  He tried to speak, something about me slowing down? The fuck if knew, I told him to shut the fuck up, then grabbed both his hands, forcing them to hold onto my breasts. The erotic movement of my hips stopped when I took a moment to quiver and moan, the feeling of a lightning bolt jolting my body struck
suddenly. The glow in my eyes brightened, visible from the rearview mirror I stared at. The Yakuza tattooed woman in the mirror riding a stranger was so fucking hot, I had to touch my clit and lick my fingers.

  “Any last words?” I asked him.

  “What …?”

  I’ll take that as a no, his loss. Most last words uttered by men were along the lines of ‘oh, fuck, I’m going to cum!’

  “Arg,” he groaned with ecstasy. “I’m gonna cum!”

  And that he did, roaring loud enough for anyone walking past the alley to hear, not that I cared, I had a calculated task to perform. Aroused souls were the best during the peak of a climax. I had to time my ability to consume his soul at the right moment. Too early and I only got a nibble of it. I had to devour his aroused soul right at the height of his climax, that’s when you can sap all of it. Feeding off of women was a different tactic of course, but that is a topic for another time.

  His hands holding my breasts went limp, falling to our sides. The rising and lowering of his breathing chest pressed against my back couldn’t be felt. Ricky was a dead man, and his soul tasted like a frozen pizza warmed up in the oven. Not the best, but it kept me fed for another day and fully restored my Umbral levels.

  I grabbed my enchanted dagger and carved my name into his chest, splattering sticky crimson across mine. This was done to make sure a demon that got smart couldn’t possess his body, now contaminated because of my demonic side.

  I stood for a minute, looking at his body, ignoring his blood dripping from my nipples like raindrops. Warm red lines ran down my tattooed thighs, staining my black stockings when the red drips got that low. My back started to tingle, something inside wanted out. I felt the flesh on the left and right half of my back rip open. A pair of succubus wings sprouted and grew from my back and stretched out in the limited space within the back of my car. My evolution was nearing its completion.