Incubus Kingpin Teaser #1
“Shoes, wallet, keys, and belt in the container,” the bored-looking security guard said to me, just as he’d said to the person before me, and as he would say to whoever was next. “If you have any electronic devices, bags, etc, place them in a separate container.”
It was like going to an airport, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of cruel amusement to go along with my simmering anger. The x-ray machines and metal detectors were there to catch possible threats, and the numerous guards on display were no doubt meant to be intimidating. But even in my human form, I could have made my way through to the reception counter behind them, or even into the offices beyond, and nobody would have been able to stop me.
Sure, the guards were heavily armed with tasers and guns. But I could rip them apart with my bare hands without breaking a sweat.
It would be easy.
Every time I seduced someone new, Azrael grew in power. In gamer terms, it was like gaining points which I could then dump into any of my own character attributes I chose.
I was no longer the puny, overweight weakling I had been for most of my life. Now, I was tall, as good-looking as any TV star, and stacked with layers of hard muscle. But that was just the beginning. Azrael had pumped up my reflexes, my speed, my durability, and a bunch of other important things.
If I wanted to, I could have killed every last one of the guards before the first shot was fired, and they would be dead before they even knew what had hit them.
Even though I wasn’t going to do any of that, it felt nice to know that I could. Instead, I offered a ghost of a grin to the guard at the metal detector.
“Sure,” I said, and began taking off my shoes.
I made it through without any problems and collected my various items on the other side, with the guards never realizing that they had just admitted the most dangerous weapon they had ever seen. With the same sardonic grin playing on my lips, I made my way to the reception counter and waited my turn.
“Next,” said one of the reception staff, an older woman going to fat, and I stepped up to her.
She gave me a slight double take, not in recognition so much as appreciation of my fine features. That was another attribute I’d dumped a load of points into. But she was professional, and had no doubt served handsome men in the past. She kept it together.
“Name?” she said.
“Simon Kingman.”
“You understand that within the walls of this building, you are subject to BDA rules and regulations. You are required to provide any and all information requested, including access to any social media and email accounts you may have. This includes your logins to the Ascender communities. Providing this information does not indemnify you against any illegal activities uncovered. Do you so agree?” the woman asked. She spoke in a tone that suggested she had said the same thing thousands of times in the past.
I could tell that my grin had grown brittle. This was the very reason I had never expected to visit this place. Everything about me was, in their eyes, highly illegal.
“Sure,” I said blithely, hoping she would not ask for access to any such accounts on the spot.
“Excellent. Now, Mr. Kingman. What can I do to help you?” she asked.
For much of my life, I had dreamed of the day when people would start calling me “Mr.” In a world where status was critical, I’d spent many years at the very bottom of the lists. And it had been obvious. The only times I had been called Mr. Kingman were when Chad, my roommate, had been pulling my chain.
But now, it felt natural. As if it was nothing more than my due. Which it was. The reception woman hadn’t tried to access my status, but if she had, she would have seen that I was doing very well indeed.
My illegal status had recently topped fifty, and, through an odd twist of fate, I was doing reasonably well on the legal side as well.
So the “Mr.” was more than appropriate.
“I’m here to see Maggie White,” I said.
At this, the receptionist took a moment to type in the name and glance at the screen.
“Take a seat in the waiting area,” the woman said. “Maggie will be with you in a moment.”
“Go on,” Azrael whispered. “You know you want to.”
“No,” I said.
It was an interesting experience, sitting in a comfortable seat with my back to the wall, watching people come and go as I waited for Maggie to arrive. Mostly, they were just normal people. Members of the public wandering in with some business or other. And the people who met them, the BDA staff, were mostly just bureaucrats. Administrators. Part of the machine that was dedicated to keeping people in their place.
But within this building, there were Agents as well. And in the short time I’d been waiting, I saw four of them.
They traveled in pairs. Dark suits, communication devices in their ears, and weapons of some description causing bulges beneath their suits. No doubt they also had dark glasses, ready to put on the moment they stepped outside.
These were the Agents that the Ascender communities were afraid of, and quite rightly so. More than one Ascender had vanished without a trace, taken by an Agent to who knew where.
And there was me. An Ascender working his way through the status listings. Sitting there in the middle of the BDA waiting area, with my demon prompting me to give them a show.
It was enough to make my heart beat faster than usual. Enough to make me tap my foot in impatience and dig my nails into my palms.
“Do it,” Azrael whispered. “What’s the harm? How will anyone stop you?”
“You know what the harm could be. We don’t yet know where Piper is.” I had no intention of leaving without her. “Now shut up for a moment. Leave me in peace.”
I said none of this out loud, but simply thought it to my demonic companion. And he accepted it with good grace, laughing at me, but no longer pushing for me to change.
Not that it wouldn’t have been fun. Just going full demon and messing the place up for no reason. Imagine it, people running and screaming as the walls came down around them, the security guards trying to shoot even though their puny weapons would have been unable to pierce my demonic flesh. The carnage I could create…
It would have been beautiful.
“Mr. Kingman?” said someone, interrupting my musings.
Probably for the best, I thought, and turned my attention to an older but still attractive woman in a dark suit. She was smiling at me with something more than normal professionalism, as if we shared a secret that others weren’t privy to.
As we did. I could see a succubus within her, just as she could see Azrael within me.
I stood in one fluid movement and shook her hand. “Maggie,” I said, but it wasn’t a question. I knew this was her. “It’s good to meet you.”
“And you too,” she replied. She studied me for perhaps a moment longer than professionalism demanded, but couldn’t really say anything more in so public a setting. “Follow me, if you would,” she said, and turned away.
Maggie White wasn’t the only one of us who was curious about the other. Try as I might, I hadn’t been able to seduce anyone working for the BDA directly. They at the bureau seemed to screen their candidates well, and it turned out that there simply wasn’t anyone who worked there that I could easily meet.
At first, it was frustrating, but Sandy had come up with a solution.
I didn’t need to seduce a BDA staff member and awaken their inner demons myself. I just needed to be the first link in a chain.
Sandy had reached out to our existing network, looking for connections, and I played my part.
It turned out, Maggie had a part-time lover who taught at one of the universities. Tara George, a young woman looking to level up in life, was one of his students.
As soon as Sandy had found that connection, it was simple. She arranged for me to meet Tara, and from there it was a matter of time. Tara seduced Maggie’s part-time lover, awakening an incubus within him, as well as delivering the message that he was to pass the gift on.
Effectively, Maggie was a third generation convert.
And that wasn’t my only connection. There were two other people within the BDA who were effectively working for me. The others were just randoms, people who weren’t part of the plan, but Maggie White was key.
I followed her to the elevators and was surprised to see yet another guard stationed in place at the door. He was a big man who looked at me with a wary eye. Yet he addressed his question to Maggie rather than me.
“Ma’am?” he asked.
Maggie didn’t even look his way. “To the secure facilities, level B-XVII,” she said.
The guard hesitated. “Level B-XVII is restricted–” he began.
Maggie glanced at him. “Use my authority. Maggie White, access code 7198 Delta,” she said.
“Ma’am?” the guard said, glancing at me.
Maggie looked at him. “Mr. Kingman is my guest. Please afford him the same courtesy you would afford me. If you like, you can note it in the log, but again, it’s on my authority. Level B-XVII,” Maggie repeated.
The guard accepted this without further question, and I found myself wondering exactly what Maggie’s position in the organization actually was.
“Yes, ma’am.” With that, the guard used a swipe card and tapped a sequence of numbers into the keypad beneath the elevator numbers. Only when that was complete did he finally select the button which said B-XVII.
The elevator began with a lurch, and we dropped down to what I imagined was the seventeenth floor below ground.
“Now do you understand why going full demon isn’t the best option?” I silently asked Azrael. “We would never have found her otherwise.”
I felt the demon’s grudging agreement. “Even so, it would have been glorious,” he responded.
At this, I saw Maggie White’s smile grow broader. Her succubus could hear every word that Azrael said in my head.
Within just a few seconds, we reached the level Maggie had specified. The elevator door opened, and we stepped out into a long concrete hall with many doors all along it. And still more guards, stationed at the landing, staring at us with expectant expressions.
Keep an eye out for Incubus Kingpin: Rise of an Incubus Overlord 3, releasing this week. And, if you haven’t checked out the other books in the series, now is a great time!
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