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He swung out of his seat and swaggered over to the jukebox, where he plugged a quarter into the slot and chose a song. Turning back to me, he held out his hand as he nodded to the dance floor.
Feeling like I was walking in a fog, I joined him as the industrial wailings of Yoko Kanno's "Lithium Flower" started. Roz took my hand and led me to the floor, pulling me close as the beat enveloped us in a frenzy of electronic thunder. He wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned his head down to burrow close to my neck. The smell of his cognac-soaked breath, the feel of his pulse as it raced through his fingers, intoxicated me as he swayed to the music, pulling me along with him, grinding his hips against mine.
"Why are you here?" I whispered, knowing he could pick up my words even though they were buried by the music.
"Queen Asteria hired me to come here and help you. I'm a bounty hunter. I specialize in vampires and greater demons."
There was something off about him, though, and I tuned in, trying to pick up on his energy. And then, I knew. "Not Fae. You're a minor demon."
He cocked his head. "Do tell?"
Studying his face, I could sense the charm oozing through every pore in his aura. Very few demons could pull off a glamour like this dude. As I ran through the categories in my mind, it hit me. "You've got to be kidding. Queen Asteria hired an incubus to help us?"
He snorted. "You have a problem with that?"
I pushed him to arm's length. You don't tempt the devil when you're trying to retain some control. As a vampire, I was immune to a lot of charm, but an incubus—and this one in particular—well, I didn't want to count on my self-control. I hated to think what he could do with Camille, and I was determined to squash that possibility in the bud before it had a chance to flower.
"Other than the fact that you're a demon—"
"So are you." He was quick on the ball, all right.
I raised my hand to stop him before he could continue. "Other than the fact that you're a demon? Well, you've already instigated a disturbance in my bar and you haven't been here twenty-four hours, yet. Have you?"
He shook his head. "Nope. How'd you know?"
"You still smell like Otherworld." And he did. I could smell the scent of starberry flowers and usha trees on him. He must have come in from a portal near the southern regions. "Well, this is just dandy. So is Roz really your name, or is it a ruse?" I motioned him to follow me back to the bar.
He obeyed but I caught the edge of his lips curling in smug satisfaction. Incubi weren't always evil; therefore, if Queen Asteria thought he had some redeeming qualities, he probably did. But they always managed to encourage havoc wherever they went. They could charm the pants off just about anybody, straight or gay. Including a number of husbands who let them get away with murder, or at least with screwing their wives. Incubi were hardwired for giving and taking pleasure.
The incubus stared at me for a moment, then shrugged. "My name's Roz, short for Rozurial."
"Why do you hunt your own kind?" I was suspicious of a demon who hunted other demons, although I suppose I could technically be accused of the same thing.
"I'm out to protect myself, and I like money," he said. "Besides, I don't hunt down my own kind. I only tend to track greater demons and vampires. I've been in the business seven hundred years, crossing between Otherworld and Earthside in search of one vampire in particular. I finally located him back in OW, but when I broke into his nest, he was gone. His trail led me to the Elfin Queen. She listened to me—under a truthseer's scrutiny, I might add—and then sent me to you." His somber expression made me feel like I was balancing precariously over the abyss.
I knew the answer to my next question before I even asked it. It was one of those moments where, against all better judgment, I had to find out for sure. "What vampire are you talking about?"
Roz leaned across the bar and in a voice as cold as my skin, said, "Do I have to spell it out for you? D-R-E-D-G-E… the scourge of the land."
I leaned against the bar, and for the first time in a long, long while, I felt faint. Queen Asteria had warned us that the Elwing Clan might be headed our way. Now it looked like she was right. Why else would she send this bounty hunter to us?
"Are you sure he's crossed over?"
"He and a few of his mangy crew, led by that nature freak you dumped on the Queen's doorstep." At my look of surprise, he held up his hand. "I know all about the situation. And I also know that Dredge captured you. I know what he does to his victims, Menolly. Except you, he turned. My sister, my mother, and my brother, he tossed aside when he was done with his fun. Seven hundred years ago, he sucked them dry, tore them from limb to limb, and then fed what was left to a pack of hellhounds. I was hiding in the attic, watching through the floorboards. I was seven years old. I saw everything."
He was telling the truth. I could see it in his face, I could hear it in his voice. Dredge had destroyed his family.
"You weren't an incubus then, were you?"
Roz shook his head. "No, but that's another story, for another time."
"Then we have something in common." I straightened my shoulders and glanced out the front windows into the dark, snow-filled night. "Do you know where he is?"
"Not yet," Roz said. "But I intend on finding out."
"Don't you dare kill him," I said. "Don't you dare dust him without letting me be the one to plunge that stake through his heart. Your family died, and I understand your pain. But they're with your ancestors now. I'm still here, and I know exactly what Dredge does to his playthings. I can never forget it." I thought for a moment. "Who was the dude you were mixing it up with earlier? Luke said he just vanished."
Roz grinned sheepishly. "Local vampire. His daughter's still alive and I slept with her, thinking I might be able to get a lead on where the sub-cult clubs are but all I got was a bad bruise when her father showed up in her bedroom. She doesn't know he's a vampire, turns out, and he was keeping watch over her. Kicked my butt and then followed me to kick it some more and warn me that if I ever touch his daughter again, he'll summon a Protector so fast that I'll be sucked into the Subterranean Realms and never be able to get free."
