Chapter One
Noah
“I heard he’s here to test whether a human department would work.”
“Really? Isn’t Sam proof enough of that? He’s been here five years.”
“Sam’s a special case. I mean, he somehow got Gideon Bailey to settle down. He’s clearly not a regular human.”
I roll my eyes at my computer screen. Sam’s not human at all, which Gossip #1 seems to realize as soon as the words are out of her mouth.
“Not that he’s human… anymore. Does anyone know exactly what happened with that? I would swear he was human for five years, and then six months ago, he suddenly became a felid shifter? How is that possible?”
Hah. You have no idea. Lucky her.
“Anyone who knows is keeping it quiet. All we’ve heard is the official story—that Sam has been a shifter all along but a birth defect resulted in latency. That was corrected by a team of doctors.”
It’s a weak story. I told Sam and the others that, but it’s not like they had many other options. The truth was deemed too risky.
The gossips are quiet for a moment, then Gossip #1 says, “Nobody really believes that, right? Latency in shifters isn’t possible. The shifter gene always dominates.”
Shows what you know, honey. Although… I guess in the end, it did, since Sam’s not human anymore.
“Well anyway, I don’t think he could be here to start a human department. He’s too young for that, even for a human. Is he even an adult yet?”
Jesus fucking Christ. They’re not even bothering to lower their voices. And do they seriously think I’m a child? I mean, I know I’m young, but would I be working here full-time if I wasn’t an adult?
“Why else could he be here? Unless… do you think he’s a spy for the lucifer?”
“What would he be spying on? He doesn’t talk to any of us, just comes in, does whatever it is he’s been told to do, then leaves. And anyway, if the lucifer wanted to spy on any of us, he’d just use the magic.”
As if her words conjure it, I feel the magic—the fabric of existence—brushing up against me. It’s the weirdest thing ever, and I say that as I sit with a demon at the next desk and a vampire talking on the phone over by the window. I never felt it before in my life until—
The sensation of the magic around me sharpens… thickens, almost. Like water brushing against my skin. Man, this is eerie shit.
Pissed off and creeped out, I spin in my swivel chair and look right at the gossipers. I recognize them—they don’t even work in this part of the office. They’ve literally just come here to gape at me and speculate.
“I can hear you, you know. I’m human, not deaf. Take your disruptive selves somewhere else.”
The one on the left looks abashed and takes a small step back, as if preparing to leave, but the other one sneers. “Perhaps you shouldn’t be eavesdropping on private conversations, human.”
A hush falls. Everyone who’s close enough to hear is suddenly straining to listen while at the same time trying to look casual. Part of that is because Gossip #1—whose name I think is Nikita—just used the word “human” like it was a slur, and CSG has a pretty strict nondiscrimination policy.
The other part is because I’ve been an asshole to them all before and they know what’s coming.
I get up and look her up and down. I’m pretty sure she’s a succubus, but it’s hard for me to tell the difference between species sometimes—most times. Still… some insults work across all species.
“Look, I get that someone with limited power like yourself might not have sensitive hearing, but those of us who have more power or are human don’t have that problem, so when you shout, we all hear you.” I raise my voice a little, as though to make up for her hearing loss. “And I know everyone under—” Fuck, at what age do members of the community start to look old? “—a thousand must look like a child to a mature woman like yourself, but I can assure you that I am an adult. I’m also trying to get work done, so maybe you can fuck off back to the dementia society and leave us in peace instead of wasting time with stupid gossip.” I drop back into my chair and spin to face my monitor, my skin crawling with awareness as I ignore all the eyes on me in the dead silence.
My only warning is the sudden brush of the magic against me, and then my chair is being jerked around and Nikita is looming over me, her otherness now sharply defined. Most members of the community can pass as human—you’ve probably walked past hundreds of them and never known. Maybe you even live near one, or work with them. But when they embrace their innate selves, it’s so incredibly clear that they’re not human, even if not much seems to change on the surface.
She’s definitely a succubus—there’s a magnetic attraction to her features, even with the vicious glare she’s giving me, and I can tell she’s dialed up the pheromones from the way my body reacts. I’m not even into women, but my dick is still standing to attention. It’s purely physical, though, and I feel a sick sense of disgust that she’d do this without my consent—weaponize lust because of a petty office squabble.
At the same time, I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to be able to think this clearly. Isn’t there supposed to be some kind of mental euphoria with a succubus whammy? That’s meant to be part of the attraction—or so my sketchy research has told me.
“What’s going on here?” The sharp voice cuts through the tension in the room like a whip strike, and Nikita stumbles back from my chair. There’s a sudden flurry of people doing their jobs.
I look over at the man striding toward me. His habitual wicked grin is missing, and there’s a grim set to his face that makes him look seriously fucking scary. Or maybe that’s just because I know he’s a centuries-old vampire and a member of the deadly senior team that reports directly to the lucifer.
“Well?” He comes to a halt about two feet from me and looks between me and Nikita.
I keep my mouth shut for once. Andrew pisses me off anyway, so why would I voluntarily want to talk to him? Plus, I’m no snitch.
He raises a brow at me, then rolls his eyes when I set my jaw and turns on the succubus trying to edge away. She freezes and starts to stutter excuses. It’s hard to tell what she’s saying, what with how jerky and broken the sentences are, but I can’t really blame her for being terrified. If I remember right, she works in the accounting department, and she’s currently being faced down by the community equivalent of a Navy SEAL or Green Beret—or whatever those scary military types are—while knowing that she just broke a whole bunch of rules.
Andrew finally loses patience. “Go back to work,” he orders. “Someone will speak with you later.”
She literally runs away. If I wasn’t so annoyed by the fact that Andrew’s in my space, I’d have enjoyed watching that.
Meanwhile, Mr. Big Bad Vampire is looking around the open-plan area at all the people trying so hard not to meet his gaze. “If it turns out that she was attempting to use her abilities to intimidate Noah, which is what it looked like, and you all were just watching, there’s going to be serious disciplinary action. So you may want to very carefully consider your next steps.”