Succubus on the Run

by Jenny McKane

  Sunny hadn’t been on a date since her senior prom, and even then, it’d been with Taylor Norville, a boy she’d known all of three minutes from the drama club. Yeah, Sunny hadn’t really been at the top of the high school food chain, so when the new kid asked her to prom, she’d jumped at the chance. Like all of her other romantic encounters though, prom had been a major let down and a rush of obnoxious hands creeping all over her and her stupid dress. Sunny shuddered at the random memory and remembered she’d been stewing about Gideon and all his unfriendly females. Was it like some sort of requirement to be a total bitch to hang out with Gideon and have that level of rapport with him?

  She stopped there. Sunny knew she shouldn’t concern herself with Gideon and his harem. She’d practically been warned away from Gideon by Michael, hadn’t she? Sunny gave herself a little pep talk as they continued on--stay focused, kill the sex demon, pay her tuition. Her goals were simple and stressing about how hot Gideon’s women were…was not one of them.

  Lisette lived in a gorgeous condo that was as meticulously groomed and styled as she was. Standing nearly face to face with Gideon, she wore her sandy blonde hair swept up and away from her perfectly contoured face.

  “Gideon,” she purred and planted kisses on both sides of his cheeks.

  He returned the embrace and let Lisette take him by the hand and lead him further into the home, neither acknowledging or dismissing Sunny as she stood awkwardly inside the door. Assuming Lisette wouldn’t want the door left wide open and deciding she was not just going to stand outside and wait, she pushed the door closed and followed the two of them into the living room of the condo.

  It was like the set of the latest designer DIY show had come to life--immaculate white couches and white rugs with gold trimmings everywhere. It was pristine, just like Lisette herself. All porcelain skin and bright, sunny hair.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure, love?” Lisette drawled, as she lowered herself on the sofa. Gideon remained standing, and Sunny stayed back by the hallway. Their hostess still hadn’t so much as looked in Sunny’s direction. “Have you missed me?”

  Yuck. She was sure laying it on thick. Gideon didn’t seem to be buying it, either.

  “You know why I came here,” he said, as he rolled his neck from side to side. “I told you I’d come back for it as soon as I could.”

  Lisette pouted and finally cast a glance at Sunny. It wasn’t friendly--it was assessing.

  “And who is this? And why did you bring her to my home?”

  Gideon looked back at Sunny briefly before turning back to Lisette.

  “She belongs to Michael,” he said simply. “And she should have stayed in the truck.”

  The burn of embarrassment was harsh and swift, and Sunny swallowed hard. Seriously? Where had that come from? He didn’t tell her to stay in the truck. What the hell?

  “Always so kind,” Sunny said, the hurt probably evident in her voice. “My name is Sunny, and I didn’t choose to be here for what it’s worth. But I’m not a pet you leave in the truck either, so fuck off, Gideon.”

  Lisette observed the back and forth between them with eyes like a hawk, like she didn’t miss a single detail. What she saw seemed to please her, and her demeanor changed in an instant. She popped to her feet and stalked directly over to Sunny, linking a long, slender arm through hers and pulling her into the living room. Sunny didn’t miss Gideon’s not-too-subtle eye roll, but she really didn’t care.

  “Never mind him,” Lisette said, as she pulled Sunny along. “He’s a beast. You’re adorable.”

  Sunny’s eyes flashed over to Lisette. Was the woman messing with her? Sunny had rolled out of bed and grabbed a pair of ripped jeans, Converse low-tops, and a ratty, old zip-up sweatshirt. She looked more homeless than adorable, and more than anything, Sunny hated disingenuousness. It made her skin crawl, and she’d rather be ignored than be bullshitted. So, no, she wasn’t buying the whole “adorable” thing, and she wanted to know what Lisette was after.

  “Lisette,” Gideon growled. “I’m out of patience today. Give me my box and cut the shit.”

  Sunny felt the woman stiffen at the tone, but her calm mask never faltered. She was good.

  “Such barbaric manners,” she sighed dramatically to herself. “You also promised to visit with me a while when you came to retrieve your item, but it seems like that won’t be happening, will it?”

  The pointed look she gave Sunny made it clear that Sunny was some sort of third wheel. Lisette spoke to Sunny next.

  “Have you known Gideon long?”

  Sunny shook her head.

  “It’s best not to get too attached to that one,” she said as she released Sunny’s arm and walked to an armoire in the far corner. It looked like it was made of simple wood, but a control panel popped up along the side, and Sunny frowned as the woman typed in a security code. The thing slid open automatically, and from where she stood, Sunny could see a few guns hanging on the far wall of the cabinet along with all sorts of strange, violent-looking weapons. From inside another locked drawer that required a fingerprint to unlock, Lisette drew out a small, black, rectangular box.

  With a sigh, she closed the cabinet back up and locked everything back into place.

  “He’ll only break your heart,” Lisette said sadly to Sunny as she walked past, back toward Gideon.

  “Stop with the theatrics, Lisette,” Gideon said, not bothered at all by her words.

  Sunny couldn’t take her eyes from the two of them, as Lisette seemed to do whatever she could to get Gideon to react and Gideon wouldn’t so much as give her a shred of emotion.

  Gideon tilted the box’s lid back and checked the contents before nodding.

  “Thank you for keeping it safe,” he said simply.

  Lisette sighed. “I’d do anything for you Gideon,” she said, sadness in her tone.

  “Except help free me from my bonds, right?”

  The bitterness was palpable in his words, and Sunny felt so uncomfortable she looked at her feet and suddenly wished she’d stayed in the damn truck after all. Lisette stood still a moment longer than necessary before speaking, her eyes searching Gideon’s face.

  “I was just as stuck as you,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “You know that, don’t you?”

  Gideon’s laugh was short and humorless.

  “You don’t expect me to believe that, do you?” Gideon said, as he motioned for Sunny to follow him. “Your type is never powerless, Lisette. You’re the queen of miracles when you need them.”

  Gideon effectively dismissed Lisette, and Sunny followed him out the front door.

  “Please don’t leave mad.” She was suddenly behind them, pleading. “I never betrayed you. I kept the box safe this whole time.”

  Sunny swore the woman sounded desperate. That the farther Gideon got out the front door, the more frantic her words were becoming. She knew Gideon guarded his secrets something fierce, but this was getting good.

  “Goodbye, Lisette,” was all he said with a noncommittal shake of his hand over his shoulder. “Try not to get yourself killed when she finds you.”

  Chapter 9

  Sunny laid low for the next four days. On Thursday in English class, she sat next to Liam like she always did and copied off of his notes. She was exhausted from the night before, when she found it nearly impossible to sleep on the floor of Gideon’s apartment. After class, instead of returning straight back to Gideon's apartment, Sunny had found herself in the financial aid office, begging for a three-week-long extension on her payment that was coming due. The woman who helped her had a pinched face and a sense of humor as dry as talcum powder, but with enough perseverance and a little batting of her eyelashes and fake tears, Sunny had convinced her not to kick her out of college for non-payment on the upcoming due date.

  It wasn’t the miracle she had been looking for, but it was a start. It meant that she had a little wiggle room in her calendar, and a chance to get another part-time job to come up with th
e next payment.

  That was how Sunny found herself sitting across from Kitty Carlisle, a nearly eighty-year-old widow with hair the texture of raw cotton and nearly the same color. Kitty owned a yarn shop called The Little Lamb, and Sunny’s Great-aunt Charlotte had suggested that Sunny pay a visit to her old friend when Sunny had mentioned that she was looking for a new job.

  “What happened to your job at the station?” Lottie had asked.

  Sunny didn’t want to lie, but she couldn’t exactly tell her great-aunt that the half demon, half angel she was paired up with had sabotaged her. She went with a half-truth. “The hours were killing me.”

  They were, too. In addition to nearly the same pay, working at The Little Lamb boasted hours that were more flexible and more akin to living mortals, and so far, Kitty seemed to be a pleasant boss. Mr. Jenks had been a nightmare. Kitty Carlisle seemed like a sweet, old woman, who had hearing issues. It could be an employee -employer relationship made in heaven.

  “So, you don’t knit?” Kitty Carlisle asked for the fourth time.

  Sunny didn’t like to lie. “No,” she said with a sigh. “But I’m a fast learner, and I love color.”

  That was true, as Sunny was an art major and had said so repeatedly.

  Kitty was having a difficult time, though, getting past the no-knitting thing. She kept glancing around her yarn shop fitfully. Sunny was almost certain she was not going to get the job, and she didn’t understand why Kitty kept asking interview questions. After a while, it seemed like Kitty was enjoying the company, and probably had no intention of hiring Sunny at all. Most likely, she didn’t get any visitors during the normal work day and sitting with a bored college student was better than watching the paint peel off the walls.

  “What do you do for fun?” Kitty continued.

  Sunny tried not to groan. Fun? She hadn’t had fun in almost two years. She didn’t even remember what it felt like. She was so young back then, what did she do for fun when there was time for it? She loved to paint. That was a good, neutral subject matter.

  “I paint,” Sunny said. “I paint for my major in school, and I paint for fun. That’s about all I do.”

  “Well,” Kitty replied, “I guess it’s a start. I’m not one for drawing or painting, but I love to express myself with yarn and knots.”

  “How long have you known my Aunt Lottie?” Sunny asked. Lottie was not very detailed about her relationship with Kitty.

  “Oh, Charlotte and I go way back,” Kitty said, not really saying much at all. “A couple decades, maybe?”

  Funny. Sunny didn’t remember her aunt ever mentioning Kitty Carlisle. Then again, Lottie had shown up in a dark time in the Bonnard household. Sunny and her older brother Samuel had been raised in a small town about two hundred miles outside of Seattle by their parents, Angela and Bernie. Angela had been a school nurse, and Bernie was an accountant. They had gone on a weekend trip together when Sunny was thirteen years old and Samuel had been seventeen. There had been a freak accident at the golf course, something to do with lightning and a freak thunderstorm.

  They had never come home. Instead, forty-eight hours later, their Great-aunt Lottie, the sister of Angela’s mother, had shown up with a suitcase and had taken over. It was what they had needed, though nobody would have admitted it at the time. Lottie had forced Sunny and Samuel to move forward in their grief at losing their parents. When Samuel had gone off to college just a year later, Sunny and Lottie had become very close.

  It was in that time while Samuel was away at college, that the Solomon ring had found its way to him. She was still learning the backstory behind a ring like that, but what she understood was that it was a family heirloom. It marked her and her brother as descendants of King Solomon himself. It wasn’t exactly an honor, as she found out. More like an indentured servitude that bound whoever wore it to the will of the archangels for as long as they required it. And, it appeared they required quite a bit of servitude.

  Samuel had disappeared eighteen months ago. Michael had refused to list him as deceased, and was not forthcoming, but wouldn’t give Sunny any details about what sort of assignment Samuel was away on. She had lost contact with her brother about the same time. Two days after she got her college acceptance letter to the small community college she was at now, she also received her Solomon ring from the archangels. Nobody had warned her.

  Michael had simply shown up outside of her high school the day before graduation and explained the situation as quickly and succinctly as he could. It was as though it was a bother to even waste his breath catching up a simple-minded human on something so simple. In essence, she was his servant. She did what he asked. There was no end to her contract, though Michael promised with good work and a good track record, she would eventually be allowed to go about her own life. All of the hunters that succeeded were eventually allowed to go about their own lives. That was what Michael had said, anyway. And while he hadn’t exactly given her a reason to doubt him, she was starting to believe there was so much more to the servitude that the Solomon ring required than met the eye.

  But that was a thought for another day. She had a job to score, and an old lady to impress. Currently, said old lady was going on about the merits of Merino wool yarn. It seemed boring. It seemed like something she was enthusiastically passionate about, and something they were going to spend a lot of time discussing. Sunny swallowed hard and attempted to plaster the fakest smile she could muster on her face. She could play this game. She could not only learn how to knit, but learn how to speak intelligently about it. How hard could it be?

  “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  The question had to come out of left field. Sunny blinked but didn't answer immediately. Did she have a boyfriend? What does a lady as old as Kitty Carlisle remember about boyfriends?

  “No,” she answered instead. “No boyfriend. Not a whole lot of friends either at this point, I’m afraid to say. I'm a little busy trying to make my tuition payments and keep my grades up.”

  “Nothing to be ashamed of, I guess,” Kitty said. “Friends are a pain in the ass most of the time, and girls especially are known for stabbing each other in the back.”

  Whoa. That got a little serious suddenly. Was Kitty carrying around the remnants of an age-old grudge? Just what kind of life had this old woman lived? The thought made Sunny smile. She hoped that she lived long enough to own an obnoxious yarn shop and pester young students someday. It sounded like heaven.

  “Are you safe? Do you have a nice place to live? Is there heat?”

  Kitty was leaning forward on her elbows, awaiting the answers. Was she serious? These questions seemed a little odd for a standard job interview. She attempted to answer them the best she could.

  “Mostly. No, but hopefully soon. And it isn’t cold enough to put it on yet.”

  Sunny waited while Kitty processed the answers in her head.

  “Do you run with a bad crowd?”

  If she only knew, Sunny thought to herself with a little smile.

  “Not really,” she said a little quietly. “I try to make good choices. I don’t always, but I do try.”

  “Are you responsible?”

  Well, at least this was a more reasonable job interview question. Sunny fired back with the most standard interview mumbo-jumbo that she could manage. Yes, she was trustworthy. Yes, she was a people person.

  “I’ve never been fired from a job,” she said. Technically, that was still true. Mr. Jenks was more than likely about to fire her, but thanks to Gideon, she had technically quit first. So, no, she had never been fired. At least not yet.

  “Life’s not always going to be about making money and working,” Kitty continued. “Someday you’re going to have to make a little time for you to have fun before you’re too old.”

  Sunny smiled.

  “Are you too old to have fun?” She wasn't teasing, merely asking Kitty where she was at life.

  Kitty had a devious grin on her face.

  “Me?” sh
e asked. “I’m only getting started, young lady.”

  Yes, Sunny loved this woman. It was going to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

  “What’s that ring on your finger? Is it some sort of family heirloom?’

  Kitty pointed to the Solomon ring. It was an unusual piece, that was for sure. It was a large garnet with delicate silver filigree work swirling around it in all directions. It wasn’t the silver or the ring itself that held the power, but the garnet stone. Rumor had it that the stones that the Solomon bearers wore in their rings had come from the crown of King Solomon himself.

  Sunny subconsciously slid the hand that bore the ring onto her lap.

  “It’s a bit of an heirloom, yes.” She faltered a bit and didn’t notice that Kitty’s eyebrow had raised a bit. “I got it soon after I turned eighteen. I think it’s been in my family for a long time. I never take it off.”

  All true. Again, Sunny found sticking to the truth a lot easier than having to be creative all the time.

  “It’s lovely, dear,” Kitty said as she leaned forward to peer over the table onto Sunny’s lap. “I have a feeling there’s quite a story to go with it though. When you have a moment, you should look into its origins. I bet you’ll find an answer or two about your origins in it.”

  Sunny frowned. What was she talking about? Did Kitty somehow know there was more to this ring than met the eye? Sunny shook it off and tried her best to change the subject before Kitty got too nosy again.

  An hour later, Sunny was walking out of The Little Lamb Shop with a new schedule that fit her college classes perfectly and a bright, shiny outlook on life. Knowing Gideon, the bright shining outlook wasn’t going to last long, so Sunny decided to enjoy it as long as she could.

  If only she had known how right she was, Sunny probably would have dragged out her morning a little longer to enjoy the freedom of a peaceful afternoon.

  Chapter 10

  She got the job.

  Friday afternoon as she sat on the floor, trying her best to study for next week’s math test, she got a text message from Kitty herself. Sunny laughed, thinking Kitty didn’t look much like the texting type.