Bill

I was still dressed. Or well mostly dressed. I had managed to lose my socks and tie. Lose isn’t exactly the right word, more like misuse. The remnants of the tie were still around my ankles, and the socks, which were previously around my wrists, were shreds around my head.

Izabella was a taste of earthly delights I’ve not had in years. To her word, she stayed until breakfast. She left me tied up and sated, and literally not caring one wit about whatever she was planning on stealing from the history department archives.

Most of the night her mind was either thinking about interesting ways to have me, or thinking about a particular artifact that I knew I had locked in a vault. I knew because I put it there for safekeeping. It was a demon artifact. It made people a bit mad you see. It might have actually started the lycan disease, but no one knows for sure. Not even me. Once I had seen it at a friend’s house in Uruguay, I knew I needed to make sure it was in a safe place.

I paid my friend an obscene amount of money for it then erased his memory of it. He’s the only one that knew it existed. He found it on a dig somewhere in the jungle. I didn’t ask and he doesn’t remember. The fact that Izabella knew about it, kept thinking about it, kept trying to placate me so she could slip away was curious.

It was Saturday. No one would be at the University. I did the one thing I normally never did anymore. After putting myself to rights, I moved through the undershadows and arrived inside the vault, just in time to watch Izabella break-in with a rather clever device. It managed to break the combination on the vault and short out the internal defenses. I imagine she also took care of the cameras, and the trip alarms near the door, or she would have been caught by now.

I stood next to the pedestal the artifact rested on. She came around the corner and the smile on her face vanished. I was amused to some degree.

“Oh, come now, you didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?”

“I had hoped.”

“Oh, but part of you didn’t. Part of you would have rather stayed in bed with me this morning, yes?”

“What the fuck are you?”

“A demon.”

“A… wait… seriously?”

“Is there a god? Not really. Are there things which humanity manifests from the best and worst parts of themselves, yes. Angels. Demons. We exist. Magic exists. Even heaven and hell exist. Realms created by the metaphysical forces of billions of different souls. It’s all pretty fascinating really.”

“Is this a history lesson, Professor?”

“Why, do you need one?”

“Not really.”

“Oh, but perhaps you do.”

“How so?”

“This artifact is likely the reason we have werewolves. How do you know about it?”

“That’s for me to know.”

“Ah, but see, I went to a great deal of trouble to hide its existence. Even the wolves don’t know about this and most of the staff here have no clue that its something more than a fancy clay sculpture thought to contain a skull of someone important or a sacrifice. It was actually a sacrifice of someone important, but I digress….”

“Are you going to give it to me?”

“Why would I do that?”

“The possibility for more sex?”

I opened my mouth to refute and yet, I didn’t. I didn’t even want to. This woman fascinated me beyond my better reasoning and logic. Still, the last thing I wanted was the possibility of more shifters being created.

“As enticing as that sounds, I must decline. Is this the only thing you were sent to steal?”

“Yes.”

“Could I convince you to take something else?”

“Like what?!” She shifted her hip and stepped her foot out.

I couldn’t tell if it was a preemptive move to strike or agitation. Her inky-black hair was in a tight bun at the back of her head. She was dressed, not in black, but a blue so dark that one could mistake it for black in the right light, with gloves and shoes to match. The outfit was tailored for such excursions. I had images of peeling her out of it and pressing her to the nearest wall.

“Well, how about this coin?” A twist of my hand and a gold coin appeared. Old, Roman, priceless. I had thousands and thousands of them.

Her eyes widened at the sight of it. “That,” she pointed at the coin, “in exchange for leaving the artifact behind?”

“Well, this,” I twisted the coin in my fingers, “and another date.”

“With a demon?”

“What have you got to lose?”

She lifted a beautiful, black eyebrow at me.

People and souls. I swear. “I’m not that kind of demon.”

“What kind are you?”

“One that could be extremely helpful in your line of work if you leave this here, and take this to your employer instead,” I tossed the coin to her.

“And a date." She caught the coin easily and quickly inspected it before she looked at me again.

“Actually, the date is optional, but I had hoped you’d consider it.”

“What are you doing later this evening?”

I smiled. I really needed to send Shelby a thank you gift. What does one get for an amazonian witch woman as a present for steering you to one of the most intriguing people you’ve ever met in your long, long life?