Not What She Seems

chapter 4



Hunters were the boogeymen of the succubi world. Some of the succubi scoffed at the rumors of Hunters and chalked it up to cautionary tales, while others lived in fear that they might be unlucky enough to cross paths with one. Sylvia had never given it much thought, and Lilith was usually unconcerned with Hunters as there hadn’t been rumors of an active one in decades at least. Since human men could not distinguish between a succubus looking to sap their energy and a willing human sex partner, the succubi went about their business without worry. Until now.

Sylvia had no doubt the news of an active Hunter in Boston would drive many of her brethren into hiding. Succubi had no magical healing powers, no defense against violence except for their cunning and their surprising physical strength. Whoever killed Kayla must have taken her by surprise and overpowered her. She vowed to be on her guard and cautious while hunting. She had no desire to run across the Hunter herself.

The news that a Hunter had come to town worried her, so she concentrated on her newly found Innocent while she took a long, hot soak in her whirlpool tub. She hoped he would call her soon. The longer he waited to call her, the better the chances that another succubus would pick up on his presence and begin hunting him too. To her surprise she found she was touching herself as she dreamt of what having sex with him would be like. Prey never satisfied her sexually, only her Hunger to consume more energy. To think this Innocent might be the one to pleasure her in bed was laughable. He was just a man, like all the others before him. Nothing but a meal.

Once she had cleaned herself up Sylvia dressed for her date. Her client wanted to meet her at a local club before taking her back to his place. She dreaded dates like that. The clubs were always too noisy and crowded for her liking, and she hated spending time outside of the bedroom with her clients in any setting. Clubs were one of the worst places to meet for a date. The presence of so many other energies packed together in a crowded place, like a club, made her feel overwhelmed, but she could get through it for one night. Besides, she really needed the money this date would bring her.

In her closet she headed to the racks that held her slutty outfits, the ones appropriate for a date like tonight. After browsing through her vast selection of revealing outfits, she selected a sapphire blue skin tight dress that barely covered her shapely ass and a pair of matching Coach heels. She didn’t want her Louis Vuitton heels getting scuffed up in the club. It took her another forty five minutes after she was dressed to flat iron her hair and apply her makeup. Satisfied she would be the best looking girl in the club, she grabbed her purse and headed off to meet her client.

~~~

The club was within her territory so Sylvia didn’t have far to go. She walked there, ignoring the catcalls and whistles of appreciation she garnered from both men walking down the sidewalk and those driving by in cars. As usual, multiple men felt a need to let her know they liked what they saw. All of the attention was something she was used to, something she usually tuned out as background noise, but on this particular night every time a leering man stared a little too hard as he passed by, her heartbeat sped up with fear. Someone had hunted down a succubus in her city, and until he had been caught, any man she passed could be the killer.

It was a relief to finally reach the club. As much as she disliked the club scene, she was happy to skip the line, flash a smile and a bit of cleavage at the bouncer, and get inside. She felt safer off of the street. The music was blaring as she made her way to the bar. The bartender ignored a few other patrons waiting for drinks and made a beeline over to Sylvia. She ordered a drink, flirted enough with the bartender to get out of being billed for it, and then sat back to wait for her date to arrive.

A number of men approached her, offering to buy her another drink or trying to make her laugh so she would favor them, but Sylvia politely dismissed each of them. Had she been hunting instead of working there were a few she might have pursued, but since she was on the clock she had to let them go. As she worked to deflect a particularly pushy pair of college students she spied a familiar brunette gyrating in between two men on the dance floor.

“Excuse me, please.” She slid past the co-eds and didn’t even turn around when one of them slid his hand up the back of her dress onto her bare ass when she walked away. She was too focused on the brunette to pay it any mind, which was lucky for the young man.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” she demanded as she yanked Elora roughly away from her dance partners.

“Hi Sylvia, this place is great, isn’t it?”

“Don’t ‘hi’ me, what the f*ck are you doing, hunting in my territory?” She knew Lilith would have given her a heads-up if Elora had a client in her territory that night. It was a courtesy that she extended to all the succubi in her service to help keep the peace between them.

“Oh, this is your territory?” Elora flashed an innocent smile at Sylvia. “Sorry, didn’t realize it was yours. The territory Lilith gave me is way too dull. I thought I’d find some better action here. You want one of them?” She motioned to her dance partners who were watching the two girls with great interest. Sylvia could feel the lust radiating off of them as they watched the two women closely.

“No, I don’t, and you need to leave. You shouldn’t be here like this.” Both hands moved to her hips as she glared at Elora.

Elora just giggled as she slid back onto the dance floor. “I’ll go wherever I please, bitch. I suggest you do the same.”

Just as Sylvia was about to march onto the dance floor and physically remove Elora from both the club and her territory, someone gently grabbed her elbow. She spun around, ready to sucker-punch whoever dared lay a hand on her without permission. The co-ed may have gotten a free cheap feel when he grabbed her ass as she passed by him, but this man wouldn’t be so lucky.

“You Sylvia?” asked the short, fat, balding guy with too many silver chains around his neck. He stank of bottom-grade energy, the worst.

“I sure am.” She stuffed down her fury when she realized this disgusting man was her client. She’d have to deal with Elora later; it was time to get to work. It wasn’t worth losing a night’s pay over it.

Her client was sleazy and talked too much but he kept the drinks rolling before he took her out on the dance floor and proceeded to dance face first against her cleavage. Sylvia rolled her eyes in disgust as she ground against his sausage-like erection. It was going to be one of those nights. No good energy to sap from him but at least the job paid. Maybe he’d be a good tipper.

Over her date’s shiny head Sylvia spotted Elora in the crowd, grinding her crotch against a patron’s very large, very visible erection. She smiled at Sylvia and blew her a sloppy kiss over her prey’s shoulder. Sylvia grinned wickedly and gave her the finger.

“You ready to go to my place and get some real lovin’, dollface?” Her date asked her when he came up from between her breasts for air.

“You got the money, I got the time, honey.” Sylvia replied. She fervently wished that her time with him would pass by very quickly.

~~~

Luckily Sylvia got her wish. Despite his bragging the whole cab ride back to his place about what a great lover he was and how she’d never forget the night she was about to spend with him he lasted only a few minutes in bed before he finished.

“It’s because you’re so damn hot,” he explained sheepishly. “Most of these broads, I last hours, but you’re so smokin’ I just couldn’t help myself.”

Sylvia pretended to enjoy the compliment as she hurried out of there as politely as she could. She tried not to upset her personal prey when she left after feeding from them, but she understood it was especially important to leave a client on good terms once the sex was done. It wouldn’t do to have a complaint go back to Lilith. No matter how desperate she was to get away from a client she had to leave gracefully without any hurt feelings. She wanted to escape her date as soon as she politely could, not only to get away from him, but also so she could deal with more pressing matters. The evening spent with him wasn’t a total waste though. On top of her cut from the service she had made a nice tip. Almost worth the hassle, she thought grimly.

She hailed a cab and gave the driver the address to the service’s office. Lilith would be there and Sylvia wanted to address this new issue of Elora invading her territory to hunt. No one moved in on her territory- no one. The new girl in town would learn that soon enough when Sylvia let Lilith know she was blatantly, intentionally ignoring the territory rules set in place by Lilith herself. A small smile crossed her lips as she imagined the consequences Elora would suffer at the hands of Lilith when she heard she was disrespecting her rules. Lilith’s word was law and she wouldn’t tolerate disrespect.

Sylvia knew the minute she slid into the cab that her driver was gay. Succubi and incubi could accurately sense people’s sexual orientation as soon as they came in contact with them. It was a handy sense that saved them a lot of time they might have otherwise spent approaching gays as marks. It was a nice change for Sylvia to be able to spend her cab ride lost in thought instead of deflecting a cabbie’s advances as usual.

Once she arrived at Atlantic Ave she paid the driver and stood on the sidewalk for a moment to refresh her lip gloss and smooth her hair. It wouldn’t do to meet with Lilith without looking her best. She tried to ignore the grimy-all-over feeling she had picked up from sleeping with her client. Nothing to be done about it now.

She entered the marble foyer of the office building and rode one of the elevators to the top floor. The doors slid open to reveal Enchanted Escort’s home base. Sylvia sauntered across the waiting area and breezed right by the secretary at the front desk despite her weak protests. She threw open the engraved teak door to Lilith’s office without knocking and strode defiantly into the room before lowering herself gracefully onto one of the high end chairs facing the desk.

Lilith was on the phone with a client, writing down a date in her thick appointment book she used to keep track of her girls and her business. Even with modern technology she still preferred handwritten records. She raised an angry eyebrow at Sylvia about her rude intrusion but didn’t miss a beat with her client.

“Of course, of course Mr. Ojala, she’ll be happy to do that for you… for an extra fee, you understand. Yes, Friday 9:00 sharp, she’ll be there. Thank you, Mr. Ojala.” Lilith gently placed down the receiver before turning her attention to Sylvia.

“What is the meaning of this? You storm into my office without an invitation and plop yourself in one of my chairs like an uncouth squatter.” Lilith’s sharp tone matched her impeccable stark white Chanel suit and her perfectly coifed dark hair. Despite becoming the original succubus after being kicked out of the Garden of Eden when she refused to submit to Adam, Lilith didn’t look a day over forty, and a young forty at that.

“I did not ‘plop’ myself down,” she argued, “I sat down. My apologies for interrupting you tonight, but there’s something going on that you need to know about.”

Her tactic to defuse Lilith had worked. Her curiosity was piqued, and she never could stand being out of the loop. Her demeanor changed immediately.

“What is this news? Something about the Hunter in town?”

Sylvia shook her head. “No, why? Has there been another incident?”

“No, there hasn’t, but whatever this is, it’d better be important. I don’t have time to deal with your sniveling tonight. Spit it out already,” Lilith snapped. If it wasn’t a lead on the succubi Hunter she wasn’t really interested.

“I just thought you should know the new girl, Elora, was in my territory tonight, hunting.”

Lilith waved her hand at her dismissively. “Is that all? Fine, I’ll explain the territories to her again tomorrow. Sometimes the dumber ones don’t get it right away.”

“You don’t understand,” Sylvia tried again. “She knew she was in my territory and wasn’t allowed to hunt there- I told her so. She just didn’t care. She said the section that you gave her is dull and she’ll hunt where she pleases. She doesn’t care if she’s encroaching on someone else’s territory.”

“I don’t have time for this childish squabble, Sylvia. There are bigger issues at hand. We’ve got a Hunter in the city, with one girl dead already and more to follow, I’m sure. You’re really wasting my time with this nonsense?” Her eyes flashed angrily.

Sylvia was taken aback. She had expected her to bristle at the news of this infraction. Instead she seemed irritated it had been brought to her attention.

“Mother,” she tried again, “She’s breaking the rules- your rules. Don’t you care that she’s taking my feeds?” Her voice rose shakily as she fought to remain composed in the face of Lilith’s disinterest in her plight.

She softened a bit. “All right, no need for hysterics. I’ll call her and set up a meeting tomorrow. In fact, I’d like you to come too. Keep your afternoon clear. We’ll meet sometime then.”

“Thank you.” She rose from her chair and headed for the door, relieved she would give this some attention after all.

“And Sylvia?” Lilith called after her. “Don’t expect preferential treatment on this one, just because she’s new to the city and you’re my eldest daughter, do you hear me?”

She froze in the doorway but did not turn around to address Lilith properly again. “What do you mean, ‘preferential treatment’? It’s my territory and she can’t hunt there.”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow. There’s more to it than that, you two have to-” The ring of the company phone interrupted her and she waved Sylvia off so she could answer the call.

Sylvia stood frozen in the doorway a moment longer, wondering what the end of that last sentence would have been. Have to what? What would they have to do? In her mind, as she understood Lilith’s rules, it was simple. You didn’t hunt in a territory that wasn’t yours, unless you were on company business. She couldn’t imagine what she was about to say. With a sigh she stepped into the waiting area and closed Lilith’s office door behind her. She would find out tomorrow, whatever it was. She couldn’t wait to see that smug look wiped off Elora’s face when Lilith set her straight.