He had the right idea, though. While Tanya investigated Red Flowers, maybe I should start working out who her next target might be.

Which meant working out, first, who she might already have collected. I needed an in to one of those parties.

I wasn’t famous enough to be invited right off the bat, I mused. And I wasn’t willing to use my looks and sexuality to get in, not when I had a girlfriend. Well, maybe my looks.

But I needed to somehow. I could, I supposed, see if I could get in as a caterer or waiter, but I didn’t have the skills to pull off either, not really. I’d worked retail, but I hadn’t waited tables, and they used the best people for that kind of thing.

Heck, I’d never even been to a really high end party, I only knew about roving waiters with appetizers from fiction. Yeah, I know that’s not that high end, but it makes the point. My idea of a party was quite different.

Hrm. Maybe I needed to not do this as me. I had, after all, practiced looking different. The succubus would see through it. So would any other supernaturals. But normal people? They’d have no reason to consider it. At the very least I needed to be a bit older. Not so much jailbait.

That I could do with makeup, but a different identity seemed wise. Then again, wasn’t that being just what she was? Did intent change things that much? I wasn’t sure, and I knew what my dad would say.

He’d say get in there any way I could and ethics be…

Well, he didn’t exactly have ethics. Okay. Step back. I had a source for who her targets might be without doing anything crazy like that. I just had to swing by a certain warehouse.

When I did, it was quiet, but not empty. There was a young black man apparently keeping the place warm.

“Hey. Where’s Mr. Wilson?”

“Working. What do you need?”

I leaned towards him a little. “I need to know who our succubus friend has already compromised.”

“Oh…well. I…I can probably get you that list, yeah.”

He seemed uncomfortable, so I pulled back. Maybe he thought I was hot. Maybe he was just not entirely sure about the protocol of civilian experts, or whatever they were calling us. “Have any thoughts on who she might go after next?”
“You thinking of…”

“I might be able to get some protection on him you can’t.” I slid into a seat. At that moment, I heard the door open. “I don’t want  to get you in trouble, but…”

Finally, he blurted, “Are you really a goddess?”

I wasn’t entirely sure how to answer that.