Succubus Takes Manhattan by Nina Harper Read Free Book Online

for eternity.
    Marduk looked pale and drawn, and he had finished the second drink already. “I must find out who is doing this, Lilith,” he said, using my old name. “Satan has not demanded an accounting recently, but She will. And if I do not find the thief before She does, then I will be held accountable.”
    No wonder Marduk was scared. I looked around for the waiter with the drinks, but he had disappeared. If I were Marduk I would need a lot more than alcohol to keep me sane.
    “I appreciate your offer, Lilith,” he said, his words thick. I suspected that those two gin and tonics were far from his first drinks of the evening. “But you see, I need someone who is a brilliant auditor. I may look up one of our business residents. Do you think Ken Lay would be able to trace the problem? If I offered a reduction of his sentence to a less horrific pit of torment?”
    For the first time ever I actually felt pity for Marduk. Old-fashioned and stuffy he might be, but he was in trouble. It sounded like no fault of his own, but Satan would surely hold him responsible for the missing funds. No one would want to be Marduk now.
    “Ken Lay is a great idea,” I said, partly because it was better than anything else I could come up with and partly to reassure him. “If you like, I will try to target some more financial and banking types. Once I deliver them, you can recruit them. Would that be helpful?”
    Marduk patted me on the shoulder. “Thank you, Lilith. That is a kind and thoughtful offer, and will be useful too. Yes, indeed, if you can target prey with financial acumen, that will be helpful to me. I knew it would be good to talk to you. You do your father and your House credit.”
    I bowed my head deeply, and he put his hand on my curls in blessing. For a moment he was a god again, and I was a princess of the royal house of Babylon.
    And then I had a brilliant idea. “I do know an accountant who might be able to help,” I said hesitantly. “He’s a ceremonial magician, so he’s used to demonkind. And it might be useful to have one under our thumb rather than the other way around. But could I just give a reference without a delivery?”
    Marduk looked at me curiously. “I have accountants. Is this one as good as Ken Lay?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know, truth to tell. But he is an accountant and if it’s useful . . .”
    Marduk studied me. “I will think on it,” he said. And then another waiter passed by with a tray of what appeared to be whiskey sours, and Marduk followed after.
    Poor guy, he certainly needed the drinks.

 
    chapter
SIX
    I’d learned plenty for Mephistopheles, probably more than he’d imagined I would. Certainly I had learned more than I’d expected. While it looked like the plot was deeper than the group of fanatics who had attacked me and my friends last month, I was relieved to think that Marduk was not to blame. For all he was an old-fashioned stuffed shirt, he was a fellow Babylonian.
    And he hadn’t been a bad god, either. He’d been responsible and responsive to his worshippers and had regularly delivered aid and miracles.
    And he was being set up to take the fall for someone else in the Hierarchy. This sounded more and more like a power grab at the level of the high lieutenants, which meant that no junior sex demon was taking out her jealousy on us. On the whole, I didn’t know if that was better or worse.
    Worse, probably. A junior sex demon I could best without thinking of it. Someone on Marduk’s level would be much more difficult. And someone on Marduk’s level who had managed to steal from the Treasury without Marduk knowing it was threatening indeed. This demon could do far more damage than any three disgruntled sex demons.
    I was thinking so hard about what I’d learned from Marduk that I barely realized that I was at a party. I wanted to sit down with Mephistopheles right away and go over the problem. He, no doubt, would have some insights. Especially since it was