Strictly Incubusiness

by Vanessa Mulberry

  “Give me a bit of peace so I can smoke this?”

  Kai shifted to the front end of the cart and leaned against the back panel, craning his neck to look at the pipe.

  “Been a long day, has it?” he asked. “Been hauled out of your home and accused of a crime you didn’t commit? Sounds stressful.”

  Tynan ignored him. The demon was guilty, the whole palace was in agreement, from the princess to the scullery boy: Kai had killed the Reclusive Prince. Tynan wasn’t going to feel sorry for a murderer. At this stage, they all protested their innocence, and some of them even believed it. That tended to come apart when the details were brought up.

  Kai waited and when he appeared to realize no response was forthcoming, turned his attention to the pipe. “So, you’re a smoker?” Pause. “That’s not good for you, you know.” Pause. “Does all sorts of damage to your lungs.”

  It probably would have done, if Tynan was a mortal. But as he wasn’t, he took a deep draw on the pipe, blowing the smoke out the corner of his mouth and into Kai’s direction.

  Kai coughed delicately and carried right on. “I saw it once in the surgical theater at the Physicians Guild open evening. The doctor cut open a corpse’s chest and showed us how black the lungs were. Said it was from sucking on a pipe.”

  “I’ll live,” Tynan grunted.

  “You might not.”

  “I’ll take the chance. Keep talking about it, and you’ll be doing the same.”

  There was a moment’s silence, and then Kai said, “Gives you mouth ulcers too, and big tumors.”

  “Didn’t I make myself clear enough? Shut up.”

  Tynan sensed rather than saw Kai slumping down into the cart, but he felt it when Kai repositioned himself with his head against Tynan’s back.

  The weight of his head was heavier than Tynan would have expected, as if he was leaning back, using Tynan’s back as his pillow. There was a jacket, a waistcoat, and a shirt between Kai’s head and Tynan’s skin, but it was enough to make Tynan shiver. He wasn’t used to that sort of contact, and he wasn’t about to accept it now. Kai wasn’t smart enough or even tempting enough to distract him. That’s what Tynan told himself, anyway.

  “Off me,” he growled, pulling forward to get away from Kai. “These little distractions aren’t going to work. I’ll kill you before I let you go.”

  “Really? Because you seemed quite keen to lecture that bloke Bradrick on the ethical practice of bounty hunting.”

  They were at the city gate now, and the cart came to a stop while they waited for the bottleneck to clear. Tynan turned around and looked at Kai. That was a mistake.

  Kai looked edible, which was weird given that Kai was the one who existed by feeding on the life force of other people. His thick black fur coat was hanging off one shoulder, giving Tynan a glimpse of chest, nipples, and that deliciously tight stomach of his. His hair was falling about his face just so, and those pretty purple eyes were looking up at Tynan, betraying something of a challenge.

  “None of this is going to work,” Tynan said, taking the pipe from his mouth and pointing the stem of it at Kai. “Do you understand me? You won’t grind me down to the point that I’ve gotten so good at blocking you out that I don’t notice you’re missing. You won’t persuade me to fuck you and let you go because you’re oh so good at it. You will travel to Belmon where you will stand trial, be found guilty, and then punished.”

  He turned back and moved the cart forward down the queue. Kai was silent. Tynan took a drag on his pipe.

  “There’s research that it’s one of the leading causes of impotence too,” Kai said as if Tynan hadn’t spoken at all. “But that’s by the by. Smoking really will take years off your life, no matter what you think.”

  The clay bowl crumbled in Tynan’s hand as he crushed it in frustration. The tobacco was smoldering, but his hands were rough, and he didn’t burn. He tossed it to the ground and muttered, “The same could be said about fucking an incubus.”

  Kai sat up and poked his head over the wood again. Tynan kept his eyes straight ahead this time.

  “Come on, that’s not fair. I only take a couple of weeks at the most, and I never see the same man twice. I do it precisely because they do more damage smoking their pipes than fucking me.”

  “What are you, the spokesperson for the Physicians Guild? Shut up about the bloody pipe.”

  Kai slumped back down again. “I don’t lie about the damage I do. I feed on people, plural. I’m the tenth mug of beer, I’m the pipe—best enjoyed in moderation—and I make sure my customers do that. I’ve not done anything wrong.”

  The cart moved on, and they were through the gate. Outside Aurumnia’s walls was just as crowded as within them, with rows of houses and shops fanning out around the circular city. They were on a straight path out of Aurumnia, and they could be on the North road to Belmon within fifteen minutes.

  But Tynan wasn’t stupid enough to get on that road now, not after that threat from Bradrick. There were two options open to him.

  He could head east to the coast, and then circle back to Belmon and approach from the north rather than the south. It would take weeks, but it would get him there with the least likelihood of meeting Bradrick on the way. But that would mean weeks in Kai’s company, and Tynan didn’t fancy that. Every day would be one more temptation to fuck Kai, and one more excuse to. Kai would grow hungry at some point. Tynan didn’t need a moral dilemma like that.

  The second option was the forest, which was dangerous but would be a much shorter route. Forest bandits weren’t so well organized, or so sly. They’d have less chance of making a successful grab for Kai and Tynan would have a better chance of getting his money. Anything that got him one step closer to that little cottage on the shores of Harmony Isle was good enough for him. The sort of money Kai was worth would get Tynan the luxury lifestyle too.

  He turned the cart and took them along the wall of the city.

  “This isn’t the way to Belmon,” Kai said. He sounded different. Frightened.

  “Don’t worry, we’re still going to Belmon. We’re taking the scenic route.”

  “Oh. Through Death Wish Forest?” Kai asked, totally relaxed again.

  Tynan gripped the reins a little tighter. “Through Death Wish forest,” he said.

  Chapter Three

  Death Wish Forest had a PR problem. If it had access to the spin doctors, ad execs, and influencers that Sunny Glade Woods (formerly known as The Hell Mouth) enjoyed, it too could have been a leafy vacation spot for Aurumnia’s wealthy elite, despite its many dangers. But no one had been clever enough to buy up the land and turn it into a resort for playboys, so it remained a place marked out for general fear, threats of abandonment by abusive parents, and the location of the beast-man known as Wolfram the Disemboweler and his pack of hellish wolves.

  It wasn’t that bad during the day. In fact, on sunny Sunday afternoons, minor royals often enjoyed outings there. It was the best place in the kingdom to collect wolf pelts after all. But beyond them, few people from the cities went there.

  Kai was one of the exceptions. He was a demon, and he didn’t give a crap about silly names and stories. He went where he damn well pleased, and when he needed a place to lie low for a bit, it had pleased him to go somewhere humans told him not to.

  He spent six months in the forest and quickly found there were genuine dangers. Bandits, wolves, and the odd tricksy pixie. Kai could deal with them. He could outrun bandits and wolves no problem, and being half-pixish himself, the fae usually left him alone. But that was in daylight, without iron shackles on his arms sapping his strength and this stupid bastard of a human to protect.

  Kai shifted around to the side of the cart so he could look at Tynan’s back. He was a big boy. He might be able to defend himself, should it come down to it, but Kai wouldn’t be able to help him if they got into trouble.

  Not that he had to help Tynan. Tynan had arrested him on a false charge. Tynan had called him an annoying little
shit. But Kai was used to being arrested, and to being called an annoying little shit. He wasn’t used to leaving men for dead, even if he hadn’t exactly met them in the most auspicious circumstances. That was pretty much the only rule he lived his life by.

  And, grumpy as he was, Tynan seemed like he might be a decent sort of man if they’d met in the saloon. If there was a bounty on Kai’s head, then the bloke was just doing his job.

  There was one other thing about Tynan that Kai kept turning over in his mind. Tynan had threatened Bradrick on Kai’s behalf. Kai was a sex worker and an incubus—two things that were usually open to abuse and derision. No one had ever stood up for him like that before.

  “Thanks for what you said to that guy earlier,” he said.

  “Huh?” Tynan replied, no doubt surprised to hear Kai speak after a record twenty-minute silence. “What guy?”

  “That Bradrick guy.”

  Tynan’s back tensed up. “I like abusers even less than murderers.”

  “How do you feel about innocent incubi?”

  “Never met one.”

  So much for that then. Tynan was a prick, plain and simple, and Kai needed to hang onto that fact. Any notion that Tynan was hot, or a decent man, or even someone worth being respectful too, was the heat talking. The gnawing urge to get the plug out of his ass and get a man in it instead.

  But prick or not, Tynan was the only human around, and Kai was going to need sex sooner rather than later. He’d missed his lunch, and he was getting hungry.

  “Do you think I’m guilty?” he asked. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get anything if Tynan did.

  Tynan glanced back at him. “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t just take the job, I investigate first. The evidence points to you.”

  As far as Kai could see, the only evidence Tynan could have on him must have been gathered in the last hour. “Have I given you any indication that I would deliberately kill a man?”

  “You’re saying it was an accident?”

  Word twisting bastard. “I’m saying I didn’t touch him,” Kai growled. “I’ve never even seen the Reclusive Prince. Hardly anyone has. The clue is in the name.”

  Tynan snorted. “Witnesses put you in his palace for the six months prior to his death. In fact, they put you in his bed.”

  That couldn’t be right. Kai had been living in a palace for six months before the Reclusive Prince died. But Kai hadn’t been living with him. Had he?

  “I was living with Timothy. Is he the Reclusive Prince? I thought he was just a minor royal. He was never at court.”

  “How did you meet him?”

  “Timothy’s dead?” Kai didn’t know what to make of that. He felt like he ought to care, to show some sort of sadness that might convince Tynan he was innocent, but he didn’t feel anything at all. “It was his birthday. At least, he said it was. I was the present.”

  Tynan kept his eyes on the road, but Kai could see he was nodding his head. It seemed he really did know a bit about Kai’s past. It would be interesting to see where their version of events diverged.

  “You fucked him?” Tynan asked.

  It might have been Kai’s imagination, but it looked like Tynan was breathing heavily again. “He fucked me.”

  “Go on.”

  Kai could give him a blow by blow account, but it had been eighteen months, and he could barely remember how it had gone. He wasn’t going to make anything up and incriminate himself. So he told Tynan what he did remember. “The dick was average but the snacks afterward were top drawer. Have you ever eaten swan? It doesn’t taste good but you will feel like a king while you do it. Timothy gave me a beautiful apartment in the palace, loads of flash clothes and a good wage. I wouldn’t fuck him again, but he liked having me around and said he’d always wanted a pet. And he had a lot of guards and visitors and stuff. I wasn’t going hungry. We had six good months, and then I took my money, came to Aurumnia, and set up the brothel.”

  “And you left Timothy dead?”

  Timothy had been alive when Kai left him. He’d been bellowing obscenities because they’d just had a big argument about Kai leaving, but he’d been alive. “No. No, I didn’t. One turn, I told you. That’s all anyone gets.”

  “I never said that’s what killed him,” Tynan said, which was a completely ridiculous remark to make in Kai’s opinion. How else would an incubus kill someone?

  When Kai made no comment, Tynan sighed and continued his questioning. “So you run off, he’s dead, and that’s a coincidence?”

  “He was alive when I left him. And I didn’t run.” Not the whole way, at any rate.

  “I heard the guard chased you to the balloon port and you only got away because the air show was on and there was nothing to follow you up in.”

  “Timothy didn’t want me to go. His lover had died not long before,” Kai mumbled, hoping he wouldn’t be asked to elaborate on that. “I had been bored of the palace for a while, and I’d fed on everyone that would have me—which was a lot of people, by the way, I’m considered eminently fuckable. I didn’t have anything else to stick around for. It was time to go. Timothy knew that in his heart, even if he didn’t want me to leave.”

  Kai had never been quite sure why Timothy had wanted him to stick around, especially after The Incident. But he’d ranted and raved, and said he had big plans, and… Kai had lost interest when the insults started.

  “You were friends?” Tynan pressed.

  “Not exactly. He was a client. I’d make nice with him because it was my job. But I didn’t dislike him that much. I certainly didn’t want him dead.”

  They crossed a bridge over a small stream. Tynan stopped the cart and hopped down onto the ground. They’d not been traveling long, and the sun was high in the sky, but he took the reins and led the horse and cart off the path and amongst the trees, along the edge of the water.

  “Where are we going?” Kai asked.

  “We’re making camp.”

  “Now?”

  Tynan shrugged and didn’t bother to look back at him, which still irked Kai.

  “It will get dark earlier in the forest,” Tynan said.

  “Not this early.”

  “Are you in a hurry to stand trial for murder?”

  “I’m in a hurry to be proven innocent. I’m a small business owner—I had to fuck a lot of people to get the money for that brothel, and you are ruining my investment. I can’t leave the place for too long.”

  That was a full blown lie, and it was the first he’d told Tynan. Kai had thought this was a case of mistaken identity, but if Timothy was dead, Kai wasn’t sure he could defend himself, despite his innocence. He had to get away from the Northern Lands entirely if he wanted to keep his head.

  Tynan finally gave him his attention. He stopped the horse, went to Kai and looked at him—really looked at him. Stared into his eyes. Frankly, it was a bit creepy. “We’re making camp here,” he said, and that was that.

  Chapter Four

  Tynan looked through his notes, hoping to find something that would consolidate what was happening in his mind. He’d picked this case very carefully, even with the lure of such a large reward. He couldn’t afford to let another acquisition go, innocent or not. Not if he wanted to stay in the Guild, at any rate. They’d given him the final warning last month when he registered his interest in this bounty. Lose Kai, and his career was finished.

  Tynan had an unnatural advantage as a bounty hunter: an innate sense of guilt or innocence that helped him sniff out the fugitive, should he meet anyone that was hiding them or covering for them. Having Ostus, the god of justice, as his father had certainly helped this aspect of the job.

  It also ensured he always did the right thing when it came to acquisitions. He’d let men go in the past if he believed in their innocence. Justice meant losing out on a reward payment now and then. Tynan believed in right and wrong for the most part, but he dabbled in the gray areas. The law couldn’t always be
trusted, and he did his best to make sure he brought in the guilty for trial and that the falsely accused went free.

  But it didn’t always work, and he could never simply rely on his instincts. That was why he investigated. When it came down to the accused’s perception of their innocence, that could never be taken as fact. Rapists often blamed their victims and felt no guilt at all. Others blamed themselves for circumstances beyond their control.

  Everyone in the palace had blamed Kai for the Reclusive Prince’s death. Tynan had left convinced of his guilt. So why didn’t Kai feel like a killer?

  Perhaps it was his general affability, annoying as he was. Maybe it was that way he had of making you think about fucking when you ought to be thinking about the fact he was a demon that fed on life force. It could not be his innocence.

  The notes were clear: Kai was well liked. Several people referred to him as a good time. Yes, they agreed he could be annoying, but he was harmless and good fun. They liked him. At least until he disappeared and the prince turned up dead.

  But even though they all said he was guilty, no one had made much effort to find him. The guard had, supposedly, been searching for Kai for almost eighteen months, and it was only recently the reward had been offered for his capture. Even that was because of pressure from the Northern Straits, not because anyone in the royal family seemed to give a damn about a dead prince.

  Tynan had assumed it was incompetence that had failed to bring Kai in, but something told him that assumption meant he hadn’t asked the right questions when he should have done. Now he was beginning to wonder if something else was going on.

  This wasn’t the time for speculation and he focused on what he knew. Kai had lied when he’d said he wanted to return to the brothel. Was that incriminating? Tynan wasn’t sure. But whatever it meant, Kai did not believe himself responsible for the Prince’s death. That confused matters.

  Tynan put his notes aside and watched Kai constructing a makeshift shelter. The iron weakened him, and he probably only possessed the strength of an average human now, but was still quite capable of manual labor even with the chains.