Kanesha did do a pretty good job of keeping up. Or maybe I was sending her energy somehow. I certainly wanted to, but I wouldn’t know how to actually do something like that.

Maybe wanting to was enough.

They’d taken the kid to a sketchy part of town. Not that Portland seemed to get that sketchy. We found ourselves opposite a row of brownstones that seemed to be well kept but cheap, mostly split into flats.

“Ben thinks he’s in number 32.”

“Ben?” Kanesha was amused.

“I can’t keep calling him the dog and I can’t be bothered to come up with something Norse.”

“So you go with something Jewish?” she teased.

“Shut up, we’ve got a kid to rescue.”

Then I sensed it. Demonic presence. It hadn’t been there a moment ago, but rather seemed to flow inwards, to resolve itself into a striking young man.

Minor incubus. I realized I wasn’t particularly attracted. Maybe being in love helped protect one.

Maybe he wasn’t turning his charms on me. “I was warned about you. Stay out of this.”

My lips quirked. “Sorry. Can’t.”

“Because some government dweeb asked you to?”

“Because you involved children.” That had crossed a line, I thought.
“He’d be almost a man, some places.”

“Don’t give me that. Let the kid go.”

“Oh no. We have to get Mr Immune somehow.”

My lips quirked. “Immune, eh?” What kind of person was immune to an incubus or succubus?

I’d figured he was gay, but they did have the sex change option, so that wouldn’t be it.

Maybe he just didn’t have much of a sex drive.

“Immune. Unlike your girlfriend there.”

“You’ll have to try a different form on me,” Kanesha quirked. Then she seemed to realize something and laughed.

I wasn’t sure what was so funny.

“Okay. Look. I can’t stay out of it at this point. Are we going to fight or are you going to at least let the kid get out of it?”

He examined his nails. No, her nails. No doubt trying to distract Kanesha with that shift. She’d gone dark skinned too.

Kanesha grabbed my hand. “Don’t let me.”

“You know it’s fake. What we have is real.”
Then the succubus, now, started to walk towards us. It was almost impossible to ignore the way she was moving.

I kept my left hand in Kanesha’s and grumbled about lack of weaponry. But I did manage to wait until the succubus was within range…

…and plant a punch on her perfect face.