Drained: The Lucid by E.L. Blaisdell, Nica Curt Read Free Book Online Page B

particular about company policies and regulations. Each active agent was mandated to have a portfolio of at least five marks. None of the company-suggested members had struck her as particularly interesting, but of the user profiles that Josh had acquired, one had stood out. The woman had not provided a photograph, but Riley had been intrigued and found it endearing how she had answered each recommended profile question.
    Riley gingerly crept toward the end of the hallway to a lit opening. “Hello?” she called out. “Is anyone ho—”
    Her words were cut short when a messenger bag swung around the hallway corner and struck her in the face.  She stumbled backward in her stilettos.
    “Holy fuck!” Her hands immediately flew to her stinging nose. “I think you broke me.”
    “Eat it, you demonic asshole!” came a feminine snarl.
    Riley ducked and dodged as the messenger bag continued to attack. She retreated through the hallway until she reached the front door. She grabbed an umbrella from its stand in hopes to ward off her attacker.
    “What the hell is your problem?” Riley demanded, umbrella raised to shield her from further attack.
    The woman in front of Riley lowered the messenger bag and cocked a hip to one side. Her positioning was more an offensive stance than a feminine pose. “Intruders are my problem. And since you seem to be one, you ’ re my problem.”
    Riley blinked a few times and shook her head. “Something’s wrong here. This isn’t a fantasy.”
    “No, really?” The woman narrowed her eyes. “I’m guessing that not too many people would fantasize about beating someone with a messenger bag and then sleeping with them. However, I could be wrong.” Her eyes flashed. “Care to try me, Demon?”
    Riley stepped backwards, umbrella still raised, and fumbled for the door handle of the front door. “This is crazy.”
    Riley threw herself outside and stumbled down the concrete front stoop. She’d never had problems in high heels before, but her new mark had left her completely disoriented. Although she should have flashed out of the dream realm, Riley instead followed a row of glowing streetlamps until she reached a small, abandoned park at the end of the street. She paced back and forth on the concrete, her heels clicking on the sidewalk as she stole glances at the darkened home.
    “Think,” Riley said to herself, mindlessly tossing the umbrella away. “What just happened?” Minutes passed as she thought back to her training and employee manual. “You were assaulted by a client and, to add insult to injury, turned down,” she admitted to no one in particular. “This can’t be a fantasy. No one in their right mind would think a bag to the face is foreplay. Right?”
    She stopped pacing and ran her hands through her loose brunette hair. “No. You go back in there and show her the time of her life,” she ordered herself. Realizing that her body had a slight tremble, Riley took a few calming breaths before turning on her heel and storming back to the home. “In your decades of work, this will be your best mark. Yes,” she said with a nod of finality.
    The front door was as far as she got before she came to a stop. Her hand never quite reached the door knob. “If you go back in there, she might have upgraded her weapon.” She tested the bridge of her nose, still tender from the mark’s assault. In all her decades of being a succubus, she’d never been attacked. A little light BDSM wasn’t unusual, but it had never taken the form of a bag to the face.
    Her hand hovered over the doorknob. The hesitation came again. “Screw it.” She relented and pressed a combination into her wristwatch. Within a few seconds she flashed out of the dream realm.
    Back in her apartment, Riley found herself in her bed, back where she was supposed to be.  She groaned and rubbed her face, flinching at the soreness of her nose. Glancing at the blue digital numbers of her alarm clock, she could at