Moss’s laughter didn’t sound anything like he expected from a six-foot-five, green-skinned, muscular, and tusked woman, but he was learning he really needed to stop making assumptions. It was tinkling and contagious, dragging a reluctant smile from him despite himself.
“Of course, platonically, silly. My mate and I are monogamous. You should come for dinner and meet her! We could play board games! Do you like board games? Maybe we could do it every Tuesday. Or whatever day works. Do you want hot chocolate? I know I said coffee, but it’s way too late in the day for that. My treat.”
Liam was surprised to feel tears forming in his eyes as she chattered away. Somehow, he managed to nod his agreement to the chaotic ball of golden retriever energy who was apparently now his best friend. It had been so long since anyone wanted him around. It felt nice. Moss shepherded him to a booth by the window as they waited for their order.
“So, what were you saying about this Rhys person?” Liam asked.
“Oh, he used to live in your apartment. He was nice enough, but I knew as soon as Ayden started pulling strings, it was going to mean good things for us.”
“But you said platonically, right? Isn’t Ayden a sex demon?”
“That’s a common misconception, actually. Not helped by everyone referring to them as lust demons. It just has a better ring to it than desire demon or need demon, you know? Everyone loves to have an incubus in their lives because they just instinctively know what you need to be fulfilled and can’t helpbut give it to you. Half the time, they don’t even know they’re doing it. Not just sex stuff. Anything. I was feeling lonely, and I bet you were, too. Ayden must’ve known we’d be just what each other needed.”
Liam sat back on the bench seat as their hot chocolates were placed in front of them, processing her words. It put his last few days in a very different light. It also explained how Ayden had managed to deliver him his perfect sandwich for lunch without asking.
“That seems kind of like everyone just wants to use them. Who gives them whattheyneed?”
Moss’s face lit up. “See! That’s why we’re going to be great friends! You’re sonice. Incubi feed off the desire around them, so they do get something out of it, but I always feel a little sad for the ones who haven’t found a soul match yet. From what I understand, lust and sex are the easiest energies to absorb when you don’t have a bond with someone, but with the right person, they can feed on all sorts of things. Like being forced to only eat ice cream for every meal until you can finally branch out. Imagine not getting to eatcheese?”
“Yeah, it seems like maybe feeding on lust isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Ayden said that consent can be tricky.”
Moss nodded. “If you’re within a certain radius of them and they’re not locking themselves down tight, you want them. It often doesn’t even occur to people to say no. And incubus instincts can be so strong they don’t really get a chance to consent either.”
The folder on the table seemed so much more important now. With his newfound knowledge, Liam took the time to fill inthe checklist carefully once he got home, noting the additional safeguard listed at the end—pick a colour shirt to wear if you don’t want to engage in a sexual act during the day because a safe word is no use if your mind is fogged by demon power and consent needs to happen before you’re under the influence. He picked white, a colour he seldom wore. Did he even own a white shirt right now? He’d have to check.
He also printed an additional blank copy of the list and dropped it on Ayden’s desk the next morning, along with his completed answers and a coffee with caramel syrup for his boss. He’d managed to extract Ayden’s preferred order from the Monster Mercenaries’ vampire receptionist, who had the convenient trick of being able to read people’s surface-level thoughts. A fact Liam had discovered this morning when he’d been greeted with a somewhat mortifying: “Get it, girl! Not sure why you bothered wearing any clothes at all!”
CHAPTER 6: LIAM
“Good morning, pet,”Ayden said, looking at the documents Liam had dropped in front of him with a curiosity that turned to surprise as he took a sip of his drink. “Thank you for the coffee. Someone’s been doing his homework.”
“Yes. Now you need to do yours as well,” Liam said, tapping the blank list.
Ayden leaned back and pressed his pen to his lip in thought. “I’m a lust demon. No one’s ever asked my preferences before. It’s assumed I like everything.”
“And do you?”
“I don’tdislikeanything, but everyone has preferences.”
“Good. Fill it in and tell me.”
“You’re wearing a green shirt.”
“I am. Reminded me of my new bestie.”
Ayden’s smile stretched into something sweeter. “You had a chance to chat with Moss?”
“Yes, you sweet, irritating, interfering demon. Now get to work.”
Shutting the door between them to remove temptation, Liam sat down at his computer and returned to his task of making the Council’s job ticket system play nicely with Monster Mercenaries’ rosters. Luckily, he’d used a similar platform at his last job, or he’d have been completely lost. Instead, he managed to copy some generic shortcut scripts he’d saved to his personal files and used them to wrangle things into shape. That, of course, generated a large list of errors and inconsistencies he needed to flag and assign for folks to deal with. Luckily, the staff intranet was a pretty good resource for figuring out who did what.
He was so focussed on what he was doing that he barely noticed the time passing until Ayden called out for him.
“Liam, darling?”
As he stood to go lean in the open doorway to Ayden’s office, he realised he hadn’t thought once about finding a way out of the city since he woke that morning. Even before that, if he was honest.
“Yeah, boss?” Liam replied.