I've been silently sulking for the past twenty minutes while the two men in the front seats keep talking. I don't pay much attention to what they're saying but I'm still listening to the sound of Joshua King's voice.

I'll never admit it out loud but his voice is truly beautiful; deep-timbered, smooth, and sexy. I wonder if he could sing. I bet he could've easily gotten a job as a DJ or for commercials with that voice. He could've easily become a model or a movie star for his good looks.

I let my mind adrift after a while but my ears perk up when I hear Otto ask, "So, what's the plan? There must be more than just a few succubi in this city. How's your girl going to help us catch the one who stole the Grimoire?"

Succubi? Did he really say succubi? This is the second time I heard the word succubi or succubus being mentioned today. Joshua was the first to have brought it up to me this afternoon.

I don't know much about them but I read somewhere that succubi are supposed to be female demons who seduce men and sleep with them to steal their souls or suck their energy. But that's just folklore. A myth. They don't exist.

Maybe I heard wrong. Otto didn't say succubi...did he? I lean forward to hear them better above the sound of the engine.

"We'll go to the club where they met last night and let her scope the place out. She will point the succubus out to us when she sees her," replies Joshua.

"Yeah, because you don't know what the succubus looks like since you're too busy thinking with your other head to realize that she was using another girl's body," Otto snickers.

"Errr...succubus?" I try to ask them but my voice is drowned by Joshua's voice when he says, "You're one to talk! I wasn't the one who fell into that stupid trap in Rome. An amateur would have known that it was a trap from a mile away."

"What do you mean succubus?" I try again.

"Dude! That was ancient history!" protests Otto. "You don't need to dig out my old mistakes every time you messed up!"

"Ancient history? Bud, that happened less than ten days ago. My gorgeous ass is still smoking from the gunshot for trying to save your ugly ass."

"What gunshot? You didn't get shot! And I saved myself---"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" I yell, waving my hand around to get their attention. These two are nuts and I'm certifiably crazy for agreeing to go anywhere with them. "I'm trying to ask a question here!"

Two heads swivel around and suddenly two pairs of eyes are staring back at me. They turn to look at each other before Otto quickly turns to face the road and Joshua returns his attention to me.

His pale blue eyes are full of amusement. The corners of his lips curl up, one higher than the other, into that sexy lopsided smirk. "Are you done sulking, beautiful?"

"I don't sulk," I tell him. "I contemplate."

One of his dark eyebrows inches up. "Contemplate huh?"

He looks at Otto and they both chuckle and I hate to feel as though they're ganging up on me. It's like having two annoying brothers and they're not even my brothers.

"Yeah, I'm a deep thinker," I tell them flatly. "And you both suck!"

Joshua laughs and I hear Otto snicker in the background. My death stare doesn't have any effect on Joshua King, so I meet Otto's stare in the rearview mirror with a scowl and he coughs and quiets down.

"So, what do you mean by succubus?"

"The blonde you met last night," Joshua answers, finally. "She's a succubus and she took over...or borrowed your body to seduce me." He pauses. "You do know what a succubus is, don't you?"

"I read that it's a type of demon or something," I reply. "I don't know much about it but what I know for sure is that it doesn't exist."

"So you don't think demons and angels exist?"

"Oh, I don't just think," I tell him. "I know that demons, mermaids, unicorns, and dragons don't exist."

His eyes quickly flicker toward Otto before they return to me. "So you don't believe in demons and angels, and heaven and hell..."

A memory of my younger self on my knees on the hard wooden floor while my grandmother towered over me flashes in my mind.

"I renounce Satan, demons, and all creatures of hell," I recited.

"Say it like you mean it!" she barked. "And two thousand more times of that or no supper for you tonight."

I blink the memory away and try to squish it out of my mind. I'd bleached it out of my mind if I could.

My gaze locked with Joshua's. His eyes are penetrating. They gleam in the dim light as though he could see the brief reel of the memory in my head. His voice has a new quality to it, sinister almost, when he says, "What if I told you that you were a part demon, Damaris Hall? What if I told you that your father was a hell dweller?"

My heart stutters, my breath stops, and ice flows through my veins. A sense of dread is like a heavy rock in my gut. "I'd say you're lying," I whisper, unable to tear my eyes away from his intense stare. "I'd say you're crazy and full of shit."

His eyes narrow then he blinks and the spell is broken. "Is that so?" He grins and that playful, sexy, easy-going guy is back.

I swallow and take a deep shuddering breath before I ask, "And why would a succubus use my body to seduce you?"

"Because she knew that King wouldn't be able to resist you," says Otto.

"Because she wanted to steal from me," Joshua growls over Otto's reply. Then he casually turns around to face the front. "We're stopping at Angela's Buns," I hear him tell Otto.

I sit back and look out the window on my side, mulling over everything I just heard. My day was crap...mostly. My thoughts are jumbled and messy...not that much different from the condition of my bedroom.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. But there is one thought that bothers me the most- demons.

No, demons aren't real. My grandparents were crazy and I left them and all their craziness behind when I left Maudlin, a small town in the middle of nowhere. And I shouldn't take what Joshua King said seriously. He doesn't know me.

Otto pulls over in front of a building with a small neon sign that says Angela's Buns. It's a diner. What a funny name for a diner.

I must have passed by this place more than a few times but I've never really noticed it, let alone thought of eating here. The sign looks kinda tacky and the building seems unimpressive.

But the last meal I had was the stale granola bar this afternoon and if they're paying for my food, who am I to complain?

I rush toward the diner without waiting for the two men. I hear Otto mutter something behind me, followed by Joshua's chuckle as I push the door of the diner open. The smell of grease, fat, and fried food hits me all at once. It makes my stomach rumble and my mouth water. I don't care if they're talking about me or laughing at me as long as I get to eat.

When they finally join me at the table, I'm already staring at the menu. "What's good here?" I ask them without taking my eyes off the list of food.

"Burger and fries are good, everything else is crap," grunts Otto.

I lower the menu slightly to stare at him over the top of it. Why did I sass him again? His eyes are very dark, almost black. He has a square jaw, a strong Roman nose, and thin firm lips. His hands are possibly bigger than my head. The man looks positively scary. It's easy to forget how big and scary he is when you're in the back seat of the car, listening to him arguing with Joshua.

A skinny teenager comes to take our order and all of us ask for burgers and fries, plus a tall glass of milkshake for me.

Forty-five minutes later, we're back in the car.

I have to admit, the burger was probably the best I've ever had and my stomach thanked me for it...or them. I ordered more than one burger and I ate almost as much as the men. Hey, free food! Need I say more?

We arrive at the Lemon and Lime about twenty minutes later and Otto manages to find a parking space just a few blocks away from the bar. He turns the engine off but they both aren't in a hurry to exit the car.

Joshua turns sideways to look at me. "I don't think the succubus has realized yet that we've figured her out and that we're hunting for her," he says. "So, I suggest we go in separately so as not to alert her that we have you assisting us in identifying her." His eyes are steady on me, daring me to argue.

"Good plan," mutters Otto before I could say anything, and since I vowed not to antagonize Otto, I keep my mouth shut.

Joshua watches me with raised eyebrows as though he's still waiting for me to disagree.

After a while, he mutters, "If I knew you'd be this agreeable after a meal, I'd have fed you a long time ago." He gets out and patiently waits, holding the door open for me.

My eyes widen. Not one of the boyfriends I had ever opened a car door for me. I scamper out while telling the butterflies in my stomach to stop fluttering and my heart to stop melting over a stupid little gesture from Joshua King. It's nothing. It's probably out of habit for him as a womanizer.

*Succubi is the plural form of succubus.