“Favorite client?” he asked. “Never try to charm an incubus, Mr. Flynn.” His voice was pure silk and flowed from full lips like a whispered seduction. “It makes you seem insincere.”
“Call me Jason. I assure you, I’d never attempt to charm you, Ryker. It would be like trying to sell an air conditioner to a polar bear.”
Ryker blinked, a ghost of a smile turning the corners of his mouth. He narrowed his gaze on Jason. “What brings you here today? I’ve honored our agreement. Are you unhappy with your rate of return?”
“On the contrary, I’m impressed with your success. Who knew an antique shop for magical artifacts would do so well in the vampire district?” He rubbed the ache at the back of his head. “No, I’m not here about my investment.”
The demon gestured toward the store. “Then what can I do for you?”
“I have a problem, and I think you might have a solution. But I need you to promise to keep this confidential.”
Ryker’s ears bent forward slightly. “We are alone. Your secrets are safe with me. I assure you, I have many.”
“Well, yes. I assumed. That’s why I came to you. I need your help. I have a problem with a dragon fae.”
With a step back and a hiss, Ryker shook his finger. “Dragon fae are not my area of expertise. If you’ve offended the female, I suggest you apologize.”
“How did you know I was talking about a female?”
“Because the only dragon fae to be in this city in a century is female.”
“You’ve seen her?”
“No. But I’ve heard.”
“I had a relationship with her.”
“A physical relationship?”
Jason lowered his chin and gave an almost imperceptible nod. “And now she’s haunting me.”
The incubus’s long, tapered fingers lifted to his mouth to conceal a chuckle. “EvenIwouldn’t risk an affair with that breed of fairy.” Ryker’s barbed tail twitched behind him.
“For your information, I didn’t know she was fae when I was, er, drinking from her teacup. And now she’s possessing women I’m with and saying that every time I have sex I’ll trigger some kind of curse that will make me her slave.”
The demon whistled through his teeth.
“I need a way to break her curse.”
Ryker took another deep breath and let it out slowly. “The only way to break the curse of a dragon fae is to remove her heart.”
“As much as I’d like to do that, first I’d have to find her, and then I’d have to have a plan for removing said heart. That might take a while. In the meantime, you must have a talisman or an enchanted gem that will disconnect her from my… business?”
The laugh Ryker let out was gritty as though his throat were lined with hot coals. “I am not a doctor or a witch… or a witch doctor, for that matter.” He quirked an eyebrow. “I’m a demon, an incubus to be exact. I don’t know the nature of this fairy curse. Only another fae would know for sure. But the fact that she possessed a woman you were with and didn’t simply pop into your penthouse does tell us something.”
“Like what?”
“Like there’s probably a reason she can’t come to you physically,” he said. “She’s cursed you to come to her because she can’t come to you. That’s likely why she used your vice.” Ryker used a matter-of-fact tone when he mentioned Jason’s vice, surprising him. “You didn’t think I was aware of your vice? I feed off sexual energy, Jason. I smelled it on you the moment we met. Your reputation filled in the gaps. My presumption is this curse is attached to your vice.”
“Just my vice?”
Ryker pointed at Jason’s cell phone poking from his suit pocket. “From what I’ve been told, a dragon fae’s curse can act like a computer virus. Every time you click on the link, it runs a program that accomplishes something nefarious in your device. Magic can attach to things, be introduced to a host in various ways. You are both man and beast, but your vice is the lowest common denominator between the two. The dragon fae left you a gift where it counts. Every time you get busy, she gets busy. A curse like that could be used to track your whereabouts, visit you through the body of your partner, influence your mind, even mess with your chemistry. All from the comfort of whatever hole she’s hiding in.”
“Mess with my chemistry?”
“Have you noticed your vice growing stronger? Harder to manage? You’ve got a monkey on your back for sex, my friend, and I’m willing to bet that monkey is about to get much heavier.”
“That’s what she told me. She made my vice worse, but if I indulge it, the curse will make me her puppet.”
