Succubi Unplugged - #4

I woke up in one of those drunk post-nap stupors, taking in the industrial aroma of urine and rotten food like a Pennzoil milkshake. My eyes flicked open. There were cardboard boxes and miscellaneous crap stretched and scrunched along the alleyway like broken men. My head was resting against something soft.

"Hmm, you seem alright now," something purred above me. A voice like that only belonged to one of two things, and I felt too much like shit to be dead.

I grunted as I sat up, taking a sidelong glance at an attractive redhead in her mid-twenties, hair cut short and everything else long. I thought it was funny how all demons chose to have blue eyes.

"I knew I should have had that donut," I said as my head pulsed.

"Sal mentioned you had problems like that," she replied.

"Eh, only several of them regularly knock me out. So you’re my nameless contact?"

"Not quite so nameless. I’m Tryst."

She was waiting for it, but I just laughed in my head; I mean, she had kinda saved my ass and all. I awkwardly reached out and jiggled her left thumb and forefinger. "Daniel. How long was I out for?"

"Awhile. You were going into shock so I gave you a zap to tide you over. After I phoned Sal and he gave me the assignment info, he told me you were used to dropping off. I kept funneling energy through you and here we are."

"Nice here," I said as I stood up; it felt like I was bench-pressing with my veins. I walked out to the street, pausing to brush my coat off under a wisp lamp that had just fizzled.

"Thanks by the way; I appreciate it," I mentioned as I looked back at her.

She nodded and remarked, "I like humans and I don’t mind adding a few drops of hospitality to business." She seemed nice enough but somehow edgy.

After some more small talk I got around to leading her inside coffee shop, Hudson’s, near my place and showing her the fungus sample. She seemed as puzzled as I was about it. She started talking about stuff I already knew, then stuff that wasn’t even pertinent. Somewhere around her impressions of the city and her last male meal I mentioned the meeting the bureaucrat was setting up.

She nodded to me and said, "Since you’ll need some distraction and lean time with the Druids, it’d be in your best interests for me to come."

"That was partly why I asked for Sal’s help in the first place," I said, "The only problem is they’d pick you out just as easily as I can, so I’d have to ward you off and you’d have to leave your doctorate in mind games behind."

The corners of her mouth turned up a little. "Next to you Druids don’t know anything about demons; trust me," she said with a smirk and an upturned eyebrow, "They’ll assume I’m your apprentice."

"Or actually my associate," I rejoindered, "I had planned on us posing as paranormal detectives in-the-know."

"What a charming male fantasy," She clicked.

I ignored the fact that Tryst reminded me of a bad ex I had. I did, however, charm her with another male fantasy when I conveniently forgot I had my wallet. After she called up a yellow cab, I whisked Tryst up to my office and ticked through the phone message summary Ren had left for me. She had one line circled in red with some exclamation marks. It was still on my machine. Just then the power went out as darkness crashed my pad. I shivered as the temperature dropped suddenly, shrugging it off while I hit the play button. A familiar monotone leaked out.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Leister, yes," the chubby voice croaked, "Taking your request into consideration, our…patron has arranged a meeting for you-and only you-with an acting sector chief engineer in an area of The Grove’s grid that is suspected of having been disturbed. Under, uh, penalty of law I cannot divulge information on the criminal investigation underway…" The voice suddenly lowered and sounded odd, "But who is within the law is suspect, after all. Our patron suggests that you mention the murder to him…"

The bureaucrat mentioned that the meeting was in a few days at some time, the location and something else about a number and contacting him about something, but I wasn’t paying attention anymore. Murder? In The Grove? It had to be an inside job; a landscape and its Druids aren’t soon parted and every blade of grass may as well have been a sensor.

"To him," Tryst rolled around, emphasizing the last word, "I don’t think we’ll have a problem with you having your apprentice along, no."

I turned my head to smile and nod, but I was taken aback by the woman before me. Her black jeans and white crop-top had smoothed into a sumptuous royal blue cloak with a smoky amethyst clasp, a sumptuous black velvet gown pooling underneath that now matched her raven hair.

"Paranormal enough?" She asked with a calm smile.

"You’ll do," I replied.