My human half was in a panic at the changes to my body. The succubus’s half was the opposite. My dinner was finished, it was time for dessert. I went seeking it, against the wishes of my human half.
Standing naked next to my car, wearing bloodstained black stockings, I made an evil grin as my newly grown wings continued to take shape and flap for the first time. The sounds of two college girls were heard walking in the distance. My glowing eyes widened with excitement, then shut with regret. Ricky was the predator, not me.
I had to repeat that thought five times, before I was convinced enough to jump back into the car, resting my forehead against the wheel. It took a lot of coaxing, but eventually, I got the willpower to end my succubus lure, restoring me back to normal as my eye glow faded. My wings shrank and retracted back inside me five minutes later, the tearing of the flesh on my back sealed up as if nothing had happened.
“What the fuck have I become?” I murmured to the dead body in the backseat, dripping blood everywhere.
I returned to the office, holding a bag of snacks and microwavable items found at the nearest 7/11. My phone’s text tone whistled as I entered, it was a confirmation message that the Yakuza cleaners will take care of the mess in the backseat of my car in the morning. Thank fuck for that, I didn’t need the grilling from Emily.
“Took you long enough,” Emily said, keeping her eyes on the TV.
“Yeah, I …”
“You did something more, didn’t you?”
I grimaced at her tone. Did Emily detect my recent rump? She had a knack for sensing things I couldn’t. I quickly moved to the kitchen, hoping to dodge the question, it didn’t work. Emily crept up behind me, searching for answers I wasn’t going to give her.
“Reika, fucking seriously?” she said and braced myself. “You went drinking without me?”
“Uh, yeah, that’s it.”
Emily threw her hands up in frustration. “Just for that, you’re making dinner!”
She left me alone with my thoughts, the seemingly never-ending internal ramblings in my head of how drug addicts felt keeping their habits secret from friends and family.
Consuming the aroused souls of those in the middle of an orgasm was my drug.
Chapter Nine
Emily and I woke up nice and early, making plans to return to Mario’s pizza joint, just in time for lunch. If what he said was true, then Giovanni—the man that was missing but wasn’t—should walk in for his daily lunch. If he didn’t then perhaps Alice was telling the truth.
My nerves were on edge as we approached my car. I wasn’t sure if the Yakuza cleaners had gotten around to disposing of the shanked to fuck up body and cleaning up the blood. Emily running to the car ahead of me in the parking garage didn’t help, fuck me.
She didn’t freak out when she got to it, that was good sign number one. Good sign number two appeared when we got in and took a seat, everything was nice and clean. My secret was safe, and there was one less scumbag dishing out roofies to young women. What happened last night was a good thing. I told myself that over and over as we drove back to Hell’s Kitchen and erased all memories in my head that I was seconds away from charming others into my car.
I’m not a predator, Ricky was. Right.
Right?
My phone’s screen revealed the time to be 11:58 by the time we parked outside of the pizza joint. I double checked my appearance in the rearview mirror, no makeup, long black-haired wig, low key as fuck appearance, and a pair of shades.
For a split second, I saw the image of me riding Ricky’s hard cock in the backseat via the mirror. Blue glowing eyes looked at me, while succubus wings grew out from the naked back of me in the mirror.
I let out a small scream, turning my head to face the backseat. Everything was as it should be. I was seeing things.
“What’s up?” Emily asked. Fuck me, she was going to suspect something.
“I left my katana back at the office.”
I covered that one up pretty well eh? And it was the truth; I really did leave it behind. Here’s hoping this stakeout wasn’t going to turn violent, as I was going into it unarmed.
I waltzed up to Mario alone and ordered a pizza slice, using a fake as fuck voice. He didn’t suspect a thing, therefore nobody else should either, especially the Russians Giovanni might be hanging out with today.
The pizza I paid for was decent and had that delicious aroma that made anyone that didn’t order, crave a slice. I’ll give Nick credit for that, he’s gotten better. Too bad I couldn’t eat all of it, as I wasn’t hungry for obvious reasons. Hell, the whole act of eating physical food felt weird. Having to bite off a piece of food, chew it, make sure it’s small enough to swallow then repeat, fuck I’d almost forgotten how to do it.
I had to force myself to eat half of it in order to keep up the image that I was someone here for lunch. Even then, it wasn’t that enjoyable. And its pizza for fuck sakes, that’s always enjoyable to eat, unless you’re a succubus, then the consumption of aroused souls was much tastier, not to mention the powerful orgasms that came with it. The rush of the sex, the transformation of my body from one woman to another, and the thrill of the risks involved, that shit was better than pizza, it was better than eating real food, period.
Just thinking about my meal last night made me moist down below. My inner succubus wanted out again, she wanted to show the city her determination to become the ultimate sex Goddess.
Then it didn’t when three men arrived, dressed in black coats wearing gold chains.
Giovanni was one of them, visible from the corner of my eye. I kept silent, forcing the half-eaten slice of pizza into my mouth before it got cold. Giovanni and his two friends took a seat near the window, stretching their arms across the chair like they owned the damn place. The group spoke to each like they were conducting business and the two men with him? They had Russian accents.
I tried listening in when they got to an interesting topic, something about a shipment. And then Mario had to ruin it, showing up with their pizzas like he was their fucking servant. The three increased the volume of their voices when Mario retreated back behind the counter.
“… so, for the exchange?” Russian number one said.
“One cooler should do it,” Giovanni said, his accent was just like his sister’s, a classic New York one.
“We can provide more if you need,” added Russian number two.
“Maybe another time,” Giovanni mumbled. “Right now, we should start small, experiment with the, uh, market and grow from there.”
They were making it all sound like a legit business deal, cute—
One of the Russians took notice of my eavesdropping eyes.
I quickly lowered my face to my half-eaten pizza, acting as if I was looking out the window they sat ahead of. Giovanni might not have known who I was, but the Russians? Guns will come out if someone pulled off my wig and shades. As much as I hated this place when I was working here, I’d rather not have to blow it to fuck up with my talents, which was all I have to work with. Kanata, guns, dagger, and wrist blades, I left all that shit at home, because I’m smart.
Who was I kidding? The uncool actions I was seconds away from unleashing last night made me forget. So much for scrubbing the guilt from my head, huh?
The two Russians exchanged a few words in their language. Both of them locked eyes on me if I were to guess from what I saw at the corner of my eyes. They knew something was up, why else would they stop talking? One of them stood up, slowly walking to my lonely self in the corner, nursing the cold pizza.
I continued to keep my face down. Hopefully, Emily was outside still and watching. I had a feeling I was going to need some backup soon.
The sound of a phone ringing stopped the Russian. It was Giovanni’s phone. He took the call, waving the Russian back to the table. Talk about being saved by the bell.
“Oh, hey,” Giovanni said as he finished the call. “It’s coming to the docks now, we should get goin’.”
>
It was just me and my cold pizza after that, the three men had gotten up and left, climbing into their car. I gave it five seconds before I did the same, following them out into the parking lot, only to see them drive off, becoming part of the never-ending sea of traffic in the city.
Did I mention I sensed faint traces of Umbral energy from their car? There was a fourth person with them in the car, a demon. Giovanni either faked his disappearance, or the demon and the Russians put him up to it. None of that explained Alice and her laundry list of weird shit about her.
A tabby cat came meowing at me from behind, it was Emily, earning her fifty percent. I let her into my car, tossing a blanket over the cat that leaped up onto the passenger side chair and a pile of clothes I pulled from the backseat. By the time I sat on the driver’s side seat and turned the car’s ignition on, there was a naked Bakeneko under that blanket, getting changed.
“Please tell me you got the plate number,” I said, pulling out of the parking lot.
“Plate, car color, and model,” Emily said, now fully clothed, as she tossed the blanket into the backseat.
The plan worked. I kept my eyes on the road, searching for the car and plate Emily told me, following them until I sat idle at red lights.
“They said something about the docks,” I said.
Emily smirked. “How much you wanna bet it’s the same docks we saw listed on that clipboard last night?”
“There’s a demon in that car too.”
And the closer we got to it, the more I sensed the faint, but noticeable traces of Umbral energy. The afternoon traffic was starting to pick up, we and the car we were following hit every fucking light on the way to the docks. It was going to be a long ride, so I went for the radio hoping the music will keep me calm, relaxed, and focused. The news was playing instead.
“… in other news,” the reporter on the radio said calmly. “The search continues for a missing family today. It’s just one of several reported cases of missing people in the city for the last week, including students reported missing this morning after a stroll in Central Park.”
People missing, and here I thought I helped with that problem last night, by removing a sexual predator. Then again, people like Ricky wouldn’t be targeting entire families, like what was mentioned first. This was freighting news. And where did that group of students go missing? Central Park? The greenhouse wasn’t far from the park.
“Matthew Turner,” the reporter continued, “head of the FBI’s new paranormal division had this to say.”
“We are taking these cases seriously, with the co-operation of the NYPD—”
“Hold the fuck up,” I blurted, my voice drowning out the radio’s news report in the process. “The FBI has their paranormal division operational?”
“Guess so,” Emily said, shrugging.
“When the fuck did this happen?”
“Probably around the time Gabe stopped calling you for help.”
It would make sense. Why get help from the vigilante PI when the FBI can now provide it. The FBI must have picked up some really talented personnel to join that team. The NYPD paranormal team worked because they had Gabe and his secrets, Charles and his Wiccan connection, and the on-again-off-again, and probably off forever help of me.
The radio news report continued. Emily and I listened in closely, my hands reaching out to up the volume of the speakers. “Is it true some members of your team have gone missing as well Turner?”
“I cannot comment on rumors like that at this time,” Matthew Turner said.
Matthew Turner.
Where have I seen that name before? I went for my phone, tapping and scrolling through the screen with one hand, searching for the picture of the clipboard we found last night. Emily had the guts to yank it from my hands before I found it.
“Eyes on the road,” she said, tossing my phone into the backseat.
With both hands on the wheel of my car, I continued driving forward and politely informed Emily to, “Get fucked.”
The car Giovanni rode in came to park at the shipping docks. We’d park next to him if it wasn’t for the security gate that shut and locked, keeping us out, and the other things that came into my vision as I scanned the area with a pair of binoculars.
What sort of things you ask? Well, the armed gunmen for starters.
Chapter Ten
I counted at least four men dressed like the dock workers patrol the docks with assault rifles in hand. There were probably more, but it was damn near impossible to tell, the place was a maze of big ass red and blue cargo shipping containers, and towering high cranes that pulled them off or on to boats. Case in point, the four men I was tracking walked behind the containers, while two others came into view, they were also packing heat, something I wish I was.
Wasn’t able to tell what happened to Giovanni, the demon and two other Russian men he was with. They exited their vehicle and went strolling into one of the administrative offices of the docks, part of the main central building, likely to receive the goods from the greenhouse.
I tapped into my stores of Umbral energy, freshly replenished after last night’s fun. My body attuned to the element of earth, sending rolling rocks to orbit me, and slithering jungle vines across my arms like they were pet snakes. In the palm of my hand sprouted a small stick growing out from it like my hand was the Earth itself.
It wasn’t just any old stick; it was one I was mentally one with. Whatever the stick saw, I did, whatever it felt, I did as well. It was like a portable camera that beamed its images into my head. Guess you can say, I’ve been branching out with my earthen powers like that. I officially named this talent, earthen empathy. Hopefully, this trick doesn’t make me a tree hugger.
I got out of the car with Emily, handing her the stick I created. She looked down at it and winced then faced me with a puzzled look spread across her face. “What the fuck do you want me to do with this?” she asked.
“I’m in sync with it,” I said, pushing it into her hands. “Get in there and scout the place out.”
“With a stick? You know I don’t have hands as a cat, right?”
“You got a mouth.”
“I’m a Bakeneko; I don’t shift into a dog!”
“Today, you’re gonna act like one.”
She groaned, pouted, and protested, but in the end, she knew I was right. If I walked into these docks, I’d be shot on sight, concealed identity or not. But Emily as a cat? Who would shoot a cat? Hell, who would even notice her among the crates, containers, and shipping pallets?
Emily stood back, moved her fingers to forge the correct ninjutsu mudra gesture, and then vanished into a pile of clothes on the ground. A tabby cat leaped out from the clothes and made a dejected meow at me as I tossed the stick.
“Fetch!”
She hissed at me and then went running after the stick, picking it up with her mouth, and then slipping past the security gate after finding an opening small enough for her.
I saw everything the stick in her mouth did when I closed my eyes. It felt like my body was stuck in the jaws of a cat. It was not a pleasant thought to have when you shut your eyes. Since I was one with the stick, I was also able to speak using it, directing Emily where I needed her to go. The catch was, Emily couldn’t reply, she was a cat now, one that had a stick in her mouth.
“Show me where all the guards are,” I asked her.
Emily got the message, and I saw her dash across around within the restricted areas of the docks, hiding behind pallets and crates, keeping to the shadows like a cat chasing a mouse. Two men with assault rifles came into view, she trotted behind a container before they stopped her. The titling of her head moving up gave me a nice glimpse of a man standing on top of the lifting crane holding a sniper rifle, classy. These guys weren’t fucking around.
“Anything else? Where are the other guys?”
She looked left to right after darting out from her cover but saw nothing else. The sound of a door shutting, however, w
as heard. Right, the administrative office. Emily ran over to it out in the open, while the sniper up top didn’t suspect a thing from the tabby cat. There was a stack of wooden pallets near the door to the office.
“Take a peek inside,” I told her. “We might be missing the deal already.”
She leaped on top and then turned to face the door, giving me the better look at the small window on it. I saw the armed men inside escorting Giovanni and probably the demon deep inside into a connecting warehouse part of the building.
Another five minutes went by with Emily running back and forth through the maze of cargo crates. We both concluded there were only four men outside, including the sniper. The rest must have gone inside with Giovanni. I’d ask her to go in, but that’d require her to return to her humanoid form. She’d be a naked cat girl that might get called out by the sniper. Meanwhile, it still wasn’t safe for me to enter either. Then again, the security fence was going to be a challenge unless I busted out the talents. That’d only draw more attention to me. I needed that gate to open, after that, I could handle the rest.
“Make a distraction, I don’t care what it is, I need to get inside.”
Keeping to the shadows, Emily moved out into the open eying one of the patrolling guards. She ran next to him then stopped, standing up on her back legs while clawing his ankles with her paws. She bolted quickly when he tried to kick her. What a fucking dick, trying to kick a cat. The armed gunman spoke into his hand radio and then went chasing after the tabby cat, hiding within the maze of crates. Laughter erupted from the other men with him, probably mocking him for wasting time chasing a stray cat.
Boxed into a corner, I felt and saw the stick Emily had been holding in her mouth hit the ground. After that, she shifted back into her humanoid form, made a quick ninjutsu mudra creating a pair of flaming kunai in her hands. She stood ready, making her body enter a defensive martial arts stance, not giving a shit she was naked as her tail wagged in anticipation.
Deception of the Demon Girl Page 5