Succubus Takes Manhattan Read Online Free PDF Page A

again.
    I shrugged.
    “You will regret this,” she shot at me before dematerializing in a haze of blue smoke, faintly scented with crumbling parchment and stale chalk.
    Awful, awful, doubly awful. I wanted my friends. I definitely did not want to go to a party where Nathan would be present. How did Nathan get invited to Hatuman’s anyway? I thought it was Hellspawn-only, no humans need apply. Even then, I was only going because Marduk would be there and I needed to talk to him for Meph.
    Life felt pretty sucky just then, so I did what any reasonably smart, hip New York woman would do. I called my best friends.

 
    chapter
FOUR
    If I’d looked at my e-mail, I wouldn’t have been so shocked. I could have prepared, could have decided on my story or whether or not I would pick up my phone. But I didn’t look at the e-mail, figuring that there would be time while I puttered around my apartment and got dressed to meet Desi. So when the phone rang I thought it was Des running late, or at worst a telemarketer.
    I didn’t expect Nathan, not in a thousand years.
    “Lily, I’m really sorry to disturb you,” he started off.
    “I thought you didn’t want to talk to me anymore,” I blurted out.
    Silence hissed on the line.
    “No, Lily. I think about you all the time. I wish we were still together. I keep trying to wrap my head around . . . what you showed me. I keep wondering if I could ignore it somehow, or maybe I’d get used to it. Or maybe it’s not so bad. But that’s not why I called.”
    “So you can’t get around it,” my voice must have sounded bleak. Maybe as bleak as his.
    “I’m trying. But I called you about our old friend Craig Branford. Who has resurfaced as Richard Bowen, in Huntington, Long Island. Which is where he was from, if you’ll remember,” he started out.
    “I don’t know why you couldn’t just send me this in e-mail,” I said softly. Just hearing his voice, so very close on the phone, brought back the stabbing misery I thought had abated.
    “I did,” he said, and his voice was tight. “But I think he’s planning to move against you again, possibly very soon. Maybe as early as sometime this week, though I’m not sure.”
    “That’s not much information,” I told him. “How do you know? I thought that case was closed anyway. You weren’t getting any money for it.”
    There was a moment where I could almost hear him deciding how much to tell me. There was something going on here, I was sure. Invisible threads woven around me, Nathan and Meph and this weirdo fanatic. I just couldn’t figure it out.
    “We’ve got another contract to trace his movements and contact the client if he does or says anything that would make us suspect that he is planning to move again. The client in this instance suggested that I call and warn you. I don’t think he wants you involved.”
    “Who is this client?” It no longer sounded like a jealous wife.
    Nathan shook his head. “I’m not at liberty to say. Just let me reiterate that this client does not want you involved.”
    “And you?” I asked, the words out of my mouth before I realized that I’d spoken.
    “I . . . Lily, I’ve been trying to just get on with my life. I can’t. I think about you all the time, and then I think about, well, you know, and I’m sliced up all over again. I didn’t know whether I was thrilled to have a reason to call you again or whether I am just being stupid. I want to talk to you every day, and then that image comes back and . . . I’m confused.”
    “Thank you for warning me,” I said coldly. “Do you have any more specific information as to what he might try this time? Or should I just be paranoid? And do you know anything about him or any of his minions traveling to Venice?”
    Okay, I admit, I was being mean. But I was hurting too much to be more careful.
    “Venice?” he asked. “I can look into it, but the records I have now don’t show any European connections.”
    I heard him swallow on