Jillian Cade by Jen Klein Page B

I yelled. “What are you doing?”
    He jogged back toward me. “No gas stations nearby,” he said.
    â€œI’m not following.”
    â€œTodd has to have gone somewhere after buying the flowers but before he met Corabelle at the restaurant. I was thinking maybe he stopped for gas or something. I wish we’d checked to see how full his tank was at the tow yard.”
    â€œAnd still not following.”
    Sky sounded overly patient. “He wasn’t hellsick here, but he was by the time he met Corabelle for breakfast. He had to run into the succubus somewhere in between Howard’s Flowers and the restaurant. I’m trying to figure out where.”
    I shook my head. “Maybe it’s the florist herself. Did that occur to you? That little smack-talking chick back there. Maybe she’s your succubus.”
    â€œDon’t be silly.” Sky’s voice was mild. “She’s obviously not a succubus.”
    The ridiculousness never ended. “And how do you know that?”
    â€œEasy. I didn’t want to sleep with her. Not even a little.”
    My fists sprang to my hips. “That’s it?” I squawked. “ That’s your litmus test? If you—you, Sky Ramsey—think a girl isn’t hot enough to screw, she can’t be a succubus?” I was more than offended; I was enraged. But part of it was anger with myself: I couldn’t stop my mind from flashing back to the moment Sky had called me beautiful.
    Did that mean he wanted to sleep with me? I had never done The Deed. I hadn’t even gotten close. It wasn’t that I wasn’t curious; it was that I’d never been curious enough to actually let some dumb teenaged boy paw all over me. And, let’s be honest, it wasn’t like I had dumb teenaged boys knocking down my door. Not that any of this mattered. My virginity had zero to do with the case.
    â€œSuccubi make men desire them,” Sky said in a matter-of-fact tone. “It’s how they operate. Once they kiss you, you’ve got the taste for them. It’s like a personal signature from that specific succubus. It’s not impossible to break the addiction, but it’s not easy. Todd seems like a nice guy. If it happened at the gas station, the succubus could have been at the next pump or something. Todd makes a little small talk with her, and—bam!—suddenly he’s under her spell. It takes a lot of willpower to look away from the eyes of a succubus.”
    â€œBut what about the kiss?” I asked.
    Sky shrugged. “All she has to do is lean over and kiss him. Easy. The question is, where did this happen?”
    I considered. Yes, Sky was insane for believing that Todd had been zombified by succubus slobber, but clearly something weird had occurred, because the guy was MIA. It couldn’t hurt to trace Todd’s steps back from his disappearance. I motioned toward my car.
    â€œGet in,” I said. “I have an idea.”
    *
    Moments later, we were heading north on Sepulveda. Sky was beside me, one finger skimming over the surface of his phone. Corabelle’s voice was in my ear.
    â€œIt’s just east of the freeway,” she said through my headset.
    â€œWho got there first?” I asked her. “You or Todd?”
    She gasped. “Do you think he was cursed at the restaurant?”
    â€œThat’s what we’re trying to find out,” I said, slipping back into Umbra Investigations mode. It felt weirdly comfortable to lie again. Familiar. Easy. “We’re trying to place the time and location of the cursing.”
    â€œTodd was first,” said Corabelle. “When I got there, he was already sitting in a booth, staring out the window. He didn’t stand up when I found him, and he didn’t kiss me. He always kisses me.”
    I was silent. Maybe there was someone at the restaurant—a waitress or another customer—whom Todd didn’t want