Soul Stripper by Katana Collins Page A

stopped, silencing Lucien’s office. Within seconds, the clicking resumed.
    “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Lucien stood in the doorway, arms crossed. He sniffed the air, his mouth tightening at the scent. “I smell peppermint—Jules has been here, hasn’t he?” We nodded, and he looked over at Kayce and smirked, running a tongue along his bottom lip. “You come here to finally join my group of girls?” Lucien had been trying to get Kayce to strip ever since the two first met.
    “Yeah, I was thinking of starting next week—right after you go fuck yourself.”
    I stepped between them, my hands up like a crossing guard. “Okay, you two. Could you settle this another time? I have actual problems here.”
    “That makes two of us, Monica,” Lucien said quietly, and ran his hand through a head of damp hair.
    I paused, taking in the fact that Lucien looked more stressed than I’d ever seen him. His eyes drooped, and his olive skin lacked its usual luster. “What’s going on? What was the meeting about?”
    He sighed. “I can’t tell you too much—just, well, you know the missing succubi I mentioned?” I nodded as Kayce looked on in confusion. “There’s quite a bit more to it than that. They aren’t missing—they’re dead. Some sort of serial killer here in Vegas is putting all his effort in killing my succubi.”
    “They were murdered? How do you murder a succubus?” I’d never thought of it. I mean—we were immortal .
    “It’s not easy, but there are ways. The main way is to strip the soul from the body.” He cleared his throat and shook his head. “You know, I really can’t tell you any more. Sorry, ladies. Thanks for stopping by, though.” He walked to the door and held it open for us.
    Both Kayce and I stood there, our eyes narrowing. “We came here for a reason, you know,” Kayce said, daggers in her voice.
    “Oh, right,” he said, eyes rolling. “I forgot—your ‘problem.’ ”
    “Look, asshole.” Kayce went nose-to-nose with Lucien. I sat down in the chair by his desk, my brain starting to throb like something I hadn’t felt since my mortal days. “Monica lost her powers. She can’t teleport, no shapeshifting, and no extra strength. She can’t even sense other immortals. And based on the fucking blood dripping down her finger and stitches in her leg, I’m guessing that she could be in some danger here. We could use a little help from our ArchDemon asshole.”
    Lucien’s face softened and he walked over to where I sat. “You lost your powers?”
    I nodded and pulled up my jeans to show him the stitches.
    “Shit.” He stood abruptly and paced around the room. “Shit, shit, shit.” He just kept muttering profanities under his breath. “I just assumed when Drew called that you were blowing off work last night.”
    Kayce was one step behind him with each pace. “Lucien—it’s nice to know you’re concerned, but the bad language isn’t offering her any solutions.”
    “Just shut up!” he yelled, and put a hand in Kayce’s face. His voice boomed, the blow of power knocking her back, reminding her just who the boss was when it came down to it.
    He knelt back down in front of me. “Monica, listen to me. You have to be very careful. This is the trend with the murders—a succubus gets her powers taken and her mortal body is murdered. It’s as close to death as we can get.”
    I swallowed. “Where does the soul go?”
    He shook his head back and forth. “I don’t know. So far, it just seems as though the girls cease to exist.”
    “Who’s powerful enough to pull off such a strong spell?” I asked.
    “That’s the problem. We can’t find this guy because it has to be an immortal with extreme power to create a vessel to strip an immortal soul. But based on the crime scenes, we’re having a lot of trouble linking the actual murders to anything arcane or immortal. Once the soul is stripped, the murders themselves could be committed by a human.”
    I sat