Page 62 of Filthy Fae

“Well, then I’m doing it to trap the demon and catch the assholes who framed Zane and me. If we don’t do it, and the incubus manages to complete his mission, her brother will die, someone will get away with framing me, and fae will kill everyone in our pack.”

“No fucking way,” I growled.

“I don’t need you to babysit me, Scar,” Zee said. “I enjoy fucking strangers, and I’ll be wearing charms. It’s none of your business.”

“I wouldn’t have a problem with it if you were doing it for your own enjoyment, Zee. That’s you’re business. Having public sex to save the pack is something else entirely. That is way over the line of duty. No.”

“I’m a fucking adult.” Zeezee slammed the van door.

Nancy nodded toward the van. “This whole thing was Zeezee’s idea, and it’s a good one. We need to give him enough energy for a feeding, but also be able to catch him while he’s locked in. If he goes and sees only strippers, he might not get enough energy to feed on and leave. I’m figuring you’re as committed to keeping the incubus alive as me.”

“You want to keep him alive?” Jane asked.

Sparking her lighter, Nancy lit her cigar and puffed on it before exhaling a cloud of smoke. “Only way you’re going to find who conjured him, and the only way I’ll find my brother. Whoever arranged this has no problem killing people to tie up loose ends, so they’ll keep Morte alive as long as the demon.” She sucked on her cigar and blew down, filling the air with the scent of vanilla smoke. “You guys will be hard pressed to find anyone else who can kill the incubus, and I’m not going to do it until he leads me to Morte. Lucky for you, I’m planning to do that tonight. But I’ll need your sister.”

“How do you kill an incubus?” Aaron asked.

“You can’t.” She pointed her cigar toward us, sending gray ash raining to the dirt. “If you try, it’ll explode into acid, burning through the floor and earth until it reaches the nearest source of groundwater, and then it’ll travel upstream and through pipes.”

I stood as the implications of her words hit home. “Which would make the pipes burst. The first time I saw the incubus was at my apartment. He attacked me, ran around in circles, and burst into acid. Later that night, the pipes came apart in Zeezee’s apartment. Meaning that’s where the incubus probably went next.”

Nancy’s brows rose. “An incubus is like one of those missiles that latch onto one target. The demon arrived looking like my brother and attempted to have sex with Zeezee and her mate—”

The van door swung open again, and Zeezee leaned out, glaring. “The incubus was after Zane. I’ve been trying to tell you since you arrived. He came as her brother and approached me while I was having sex with Zane and a fae woman, and then abruptly walked away. He tried three more times, and then the people started tearing each other apart. One of the humans ripped out my earring. Another one tried to rip off Zane’s ring. That’s when he changed and fled. I managed to push my way out with one earring on when Nancy drove up to the party. She was going to go in, but I explained what happened. I jumped in the car with her, and we ran to get supplies. By the time we got back, everyone was dead.”

“The demon went after Zane and you, specifically?” I asked. “And it kept going after you. It could still be trying to kill you, and you’re going to go put on a sex show for it?”

“Nope.” Nancy puffed on her cigar. “The incubus has changed targets. We tried to use Zeezee as bait, and the incubus had absolutely no interest in her. He was probably trying to touch Zane so he could impersonate him.”

“Shit,” I whispered, as realization smacked into me. “Zane was supposed to have sex with the queen of the fae at that party. The incubus was going to impersonate Zane and have sex with the queen.”

Nancy’s jaw dropped, and she let out a groan. “Your sister forgot to mention that detail. Damn it. It all makes sense now. This was a political hit. From what I understand, fae royalty are almost impossible to kill. A full feeding from an incubus would kill just about anything.”

I’d suspected that Nancy was behind the note to the queen. It was the one thing that didn’t add up after hearing her story. From the shock in her reaction, it seemed we had two parties with the foreknowledge that shit was going to go down that night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t lay blame on Nancy or my sister for any part of the massacre. Someone had gone to great lengths to kill Queen Titania and frame my pack for it. Nancy and Zeezee were right. We needed to find whoever was responsible for this before it was too late.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lance

I was just about to snap. My brothers, Scarlet, and Mack sat in a circle in the living room.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked. I jerked around to glare at the group, making the raw skin of my healing neck wound scream out in pain. “You three want to do what?”

When Scarlet had asked for what she called a “family meeting,” I’d been a little charmed by the idea. Family meeting. It brought to mind the image of kids sitting around the table with Scarlet, my brothers and me. Yeah, Mack was in the image too, whether I wanted him there or not.

What the sweet image did not include was Scarlet, Mack, and my stupid brother proposing that they do a live sex show in front of an audience at a seedy strip club. Well, the proposition was that Mack and Scarlet do the show while Aaron watched.

“This is a joke, right?” I growled as Scarlet leveled me with her gaze.

She sat between Mack and Aaron. Mack had an arm around her back while Aaron wrapped a hand around her knee, both silently showing their support.

Darrel leaned forward on his elbows. “Scarlet, I need to understand. Why would you do this?”

Scarlet swallowed hard, her gaze darting between us. She licked her lips, seeming uncharacteristically nervous. “I know this is a decision that we need to make together, all of us. We need to trap this demon and figure out who framed my pack in the assassination attempt against the queen before my packmates start dying. The hunt is on, and after the fae attack yesterday, I know for a fact that my pack will be wiped out. I’m not letting my sister do this for me. My pack. My responsibility.”

Darrel nodded slowly. I was about to tell her how not fucking okay I was with her reasoning when my brother said, “I’m going to be honest with you, baby. I don’t have a problem with your decision so much as I have a problem with the reason you’re doing it. I’m not going to stop you, but the idea of you having sex in front of a crowd for the sake of your pack doesn’t sit right with me. That doesn’t seem like consent to me, and I’m never going to say I’m okay with that.”

Scarlet nodded. “Yeah, I know. That’s what I told Zeezee when she announced that she wanted to do it. Now it’s confession time.” Scarlet bit her lip, her gaze darting between us, and damn if the honey scent of her arousal didn’t fill the room. Her cheeks flushed, and I could see the barest shadow of her nipples poking through her shirt.