“Give me a moment to get some drinks to this bachelor party I’ve got going in the event room and then I’m all yours.”

  “Okay,” I told him, smiling as he filled a tray full of pints of beer and assorted shots, then hoisting the tray up on one hand, walked off to deliver it to the party. I could hear their raucous cheers greeting him as he pushed open the swinging doors that closed off the room. It sounded like quite the rowdy crowd. I figured that was pretty usual for bachelor parties. I’d never had to tend them when I’d worked here because Roy never wanted me to. Knowing men’s… overwhelming attraction towards me (which had everything to do with my succubus powers), he’d always kept an eye on me… well, and them.

  Luckily, Poppy had developed a potion for me whereby I was able to tone down my seductive powers, so now men treated me just like any other attractive woman they came across. Well, as long as I wore the potion, that is. On the days I was in a hurry or didn’t dab enough on, I’d pay for it. Regardless, my life had become significantly easier since I’d met Poppy—that was for sure.

  I sat, sipping my tea as I waited for Roy to return.

  “So, what’s up?” he asked as he leaned over the counter in front of me. I couldn’t help but notice his massive arms. Roy was enormous in general, owing to the fact that he was a sasquatch, and his arms were no different. His biceps had to have been as big as my head. I tried not to notice them but it wasn’t easy.

  “You seem pretty busy tonight,” I started, figuring maybe I should come back another time.

  Roy nodded. “My backup bartender called out sick, on top of my missing server, and on one of the busiest nights we’ve had for a while. I’m slammed, but we can talk while I make drinks.”

  “Okay,” I said, beginning to tell him my story about Rhea. I’d barely even started when someone called out to him from the other side of the bar.

  Before Roy could respond, one of the guys from the bachelor party emerged from the event room. “Hey bartender, we’re going to need another round, maybe two.”

  “On it. Two more rounds coming up,” Roy replied before turning back to me. “Sorry about that. Go on with your story while I fill up these pints.”

  I began telling him the story again, but a woman then appeared on the stool beside me and ordered a martini. Roy finished loading the pints on a large tray and lifted it up to his shoulder, holding his hand up to stop me from continuing. Not that I hadn’t already stopped, owing to all the interruptions thus far.

  “Give me just one minute to deliver these drinks and I’ll get right back to you,” Roy told the woman beside me. Then he looked at me. “And you too, Fifi.”

  I nodded and then sat there in silence, waiting to have his attention again when he returned from dropping off the latest drink order, but he was already on his way toward the end of the bar, setting down the large tray to pour some shots. He retrieved another tray and poured a few pints of a darker beer before hoisting both trays back up on his shoulders and heading toward the bachelor party. A few moments later, he returned but before I could say ‘boo’, he disappeared into the kitchen, returning moments later with a fresh cage of clean glasses to put behind the bar. Not that he was going to put them away now—he didn’t have the time.

  It was hard to miss how his muscles rippled against the tight t-shirt he was wearing, and I was apparently not the only one that noticed.

  “Wow. He’s a burly one, huh?” the woman beside me said with a smile, glancing in my direction, before she returned her attention to Roy, watching him disappear into the kitchen again. “Look at those arms and that back, the breadth of those shoulders… wow. And… my God, what an ass.”

  “Yeah, he’s a good looking man,” I answered, swallowing my irritation with another gulp of iced tea. I wasn’t sure why I was irritated—I mean, women noticed Roy all the time. As one of the most handsome men in Haven Hollow, he was hard not to notice.

  No, my irritation wasn’t owing to this woman’s obvious appreciation of Roy’s assets (he was, after all, only my friend). At least, I hoped it wasn’t.

  Roy left again, then returned moments later with a groan, digging out some towels from beneath the bar and laying them aside to make the woman’s martini. All the while, she leaned over the bar and undressed him with her eyes.

  But his attention was on me.

  “Listen, Fifi. I want to hear your story, but I just can’t right now,” he said as he turned from finishing up the woman’s martini to look at me. “These guys in the bachelor party are Neanderthals. I gotta get back there and clean up an unfortunate reaction to chugging beer, if you get my drift.”

  “Do you need some help?”

  “Absolutely not. You’ve done your time working this bar. I’ve got some reinforcements called in. They should be here soon. I just need to hold it down until they arrive. Enjoy your tea. It’s on the house.”

  He sat the martini down in front of the woman beside me before heading off in the direction of the event room again. I noticed how she watched him walk away. She had no way of knowing that a mundane, as we called people without any supernatural powers, like herself would never get the kind of attention she seemed interested in from a sasquatch like Roy. Not that Roy was some sort of supernatural snob—he wasn’t at all. He just wasn’t much of a dater. The only person I’d ever seen him show an interest in was Poppy, and he’d been nursing a broken heart where she was concerned for some time now.

  But, back to the Martini woman. She was attractive enough and probably even smart, intelligent, and maybe even funny—but she was much too frail for someone like Roy. Not that she was weak or timid looking—she was just human. Yes, it could have been argued that Poppy was human too, but as a powerful gypsy, Poppy still possessed magic. So she wasn’t a mundane in my books.

  I sat on the stool for a while, stirring my tea with a straw between sips, as I hoped whoever Roy had called in would arrive soon to free him up. And not just so I could have a few minutes of his time—he needed a break. Roy was one of the hardest working people I knew.

  As I sat there, he continued running back and forth between customers at the bar, the surrounding tables, the bachelors in the back room, all the while making drinks for servers that needed them for the dinner tables.

  A few moments later, two men escaped the party and came to linger around the bar, looking me up and down appreciatively. I was used to that. Most mundanes had little control over their desire for me—even less control when I wasn’t doused in Poppy’s toned-down repulsion potion. I probably hadn’t put enough of it on this morning. Dammit.

  “Hi,” the Martini woman said to them, apparently not so intent on Roy after all.

  But, unfortunately for her (and for me), neither man so much as spared her a look. Instead, they were staring at me like I was a tiny mouse and they were two big tomcats. Ha, little did they know what a succubus could do to them, but they were in no danger from me. I had no interest in that side of myself, just as I had no interest in either of them.

  “Damn, you’re fine,” one of them said in a slurred southern drawl, obviously not a local.

  “You both, back to the party or out of the bar. Leave the women alone,” Roy roared at them as he reappeared behind the bar.

  “Dude, you’re killing my game,” the drunk guy laughed.

  “Trust me. You’re on the wrong playing field, friend,” Roy shot back.

  “Wrong playing field?” the other guy said, looking at me with renewed determination. “You like the ladies, baby?”

  “Hey!” Roy yelled at them. “Get going!”

  “Alright. Alright. We’ll move along,” the other guy said, pulling a card from his pocket and laying it in front of me with a little wink before going out the front doors with his friend in tow.

  “Sorry about that,” Roy said, picking up the card and tossing it in the trash behind the bar.

  A part of me wondered what made Roy think it was up to him whether I kept the guy’s card or not. For all he knew, I might have wanted to feed off the drunken fool. Then again, why did I even care? Roy was completely right to know I had no interest in hooking up with some drunken stranger to feed or to do anything else. It had been a long time since I’d had sex and I didn’t plan on breaking my abstinence anytime soon. Not until I found the right man, anyway.

  And as to the right man, I’d been fairly convinced that man was Marty Zach—a null of a human, which meant he was immune to the charms and abilities of the supernatural. Which meant he wasn’t under my succubus power and accepted me for me, just Fifi. But, that trail had somewhat soured lately because word on the street was that Marty and Poppy were now together.

  At least that’s what Roy had told me—and when he’d told me, he hadn’t sounded happy about it. Poor guy.

  But back to the situation at hand. I shrugged and took a sip of my tea. Roy knew the effect I had on men. He knew what I was, and he also knew I wasn’t interested in whatever details were on that guy’s card, but still, it seemed a bit much for him to take it upon himself to discard the guy’s number without asking.

  I couldn’t help the feelings of irritation that welled up within me. Maybe this was just a sign that it was time for me to go home. I’d had a long day and maybe it was one of those days that would be best left alone.

  “Hey, Fifi,” I heard from behind me.

  I almost knocked what was left of my tea over when I half jumped out of my seat and turned to see Marty Zach taking a seat beside me.

  “Marty, you about scared me to death.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” he answered on a laugh that made him seem like he was all of twelve years old.

  “Don’t be sorry,” I said as I gave him a smile and tried not to notice how his dark blue shirt matched his eyes. “Hi,” I replied, hoping my voice didn’t crack.

  Marty made me nervous. When he was anywhere near me, I always felt self-conscious and anxious. A true succubus wasn’t supposed to feel like this (and my mother never would have—she had any and all humans eating out of the palm of her hand), but I wasn’t like other succubi and never had been. For as long as I could remember, I’d done nothing but fight that side of myself. And a whole lot of good that had done me…

  I stopped to wonder if maybe the reason I was always so nervous around Marty was precisely because I couldn’t use my powers on him. I had to be solely myself. I couldn’t turn on the charm to overcome the fact that I wasn’t a very good conversationalist or bat my eyelashes to keep him from noticing how I fidgeted nonstop whenever he was around me.

  Yet, Marty wasn’t the only one to be immune to my charms. So was Roy. But, with Roy I was never nervous. Maybe that was simply because we knew each other as well as we did? Or maybe it was owing to the fact that I didn’t have a crush on Roy? I wasn’t sure. Roy was just Roy and, as such, he was kind of in his own category of men—a category of man I absolutely admired, but it was the sort of admiration you had for a mountain—awe.

  But, back to Marty—I was fairly sure I was nervous around Marty, because I was so attracted to him. He was not only handsome (in a mundane sort of way), but also kind and smart. And he was funny too. I felt like he might be the only chance I had at a normal relationship, but he treated me like a sister. It was a real bummer.

  And as to Poppy? Well, like I’d mentioned earlier, Roy had said she and Marty were together. But, the last time I’d gone to her shop to pick up my repulsion potion, maybe a week ago, we’d discussed Marty and she hadn’t said anything about them being together. Poppy was pretty tight-lipped about her personal life in general, but I would have thought that if she and Marty were a thing, she would have at least mentioned as much?

  “What are you doing here by yourself, Fifi? Did someone stand you up?” Marty asked, jarring me from my thoughts.

  “Oh, no. I just came in to say hi to Roy but, he’s pretty slammed,” I told him, remembering the last time Marty had seen me here alone was because I’d been waiting for a date who never showed up.

  “Yeah, doesn’t look like tonight’s the best night for a visit,” he said, nodding in the direction of the event room doors.

  “What are you doing here by yourself?” I asked. Usually I didn’t see Marty in the Half-Moon, not unless he was having dinner. He wasn’t much of a drinker. And it wasn’t a big secret that he and Roy didn’t really get along well—something that had only started once Poppy came on the scene.

  “I just finished driving Lorcan around all day and wanted to pop in for a quick drink,” Marty answered.

  “Ah,” I said and then grew quiet, not sure what else I could say or should say. As I mentioned, I wasn’t exactly the greatest at making conversation. I turned to see Roy standing between two men wearing t-shirts with “groom” and “best man” printed in big black letters across the front and back.

  “I thought it was just brides and bridesmaids who wore those shirts,” Marty said, laughing.

  I looked at him and smiled. “I think it’s a joke.”

  “Oh,” he answered with another chuckle. Sometimes Marty could be a little spacey.

  As the best man started yelling obscenities at the groom, both Marty’s and my attention was suddenly theirs. The best man’s face was flushed crimson red with anger as he tried to take a swipe at the groom and was hauled up by his collar by Roy, who was holding them both at arm’s length while he tried to talk some sense into them. Others from the party spilled out through the doors and took the groom back inside while one of them stayed to take over from Roy, no doubt trying to talk the best man down from whatever had happened between the two of them.

  “Some people should not drink,” Roy groaned as he returned to the bar and, seeing Marty, scowled, before turning back down toward the other end to refill drinks. As I watched, he glanced toward the event room to make sure the trouble had settled down.

  “Okay, so I’m obviously not Roy, but I’m a pretty decent listener and it seems like you’ve got something on your mind, Fifi,” Marty started, looking at me with those kind eyes of his. “You want to go somewhere that’s not quite so noisy... someplace we can talk about whatever’s bothering you?”

  “Oh, thanks, but I don’t want to put you out and I’m sure you’re tired after working all day.”

  “You wouldn’t be putting me out, silly. And we’re friends, right?”

  I nodded as my heart dropped. Friends—the only thing we ever would be. Even if Poppy hadn’t been in the picture (and I still wasn’t sure if she really was), Marty hadn’t ever given me the impression that he had any sort of romantic feelings for me.

  Not that you ever let him know you have romantic feelings for him, the succubus inside me piped up. The last thing I needed was her constant judgment over my every action.

  “Right,” I said. “Friends. Right.”

  “Then lending an ear is the least I can do.”

  I hesitated for a moment because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell Marty what was going on. It wasn’t as though we knew each other that well. And what would he think of me if I started telling him some crazy story about disappearing women in my office? He might well not want to have anything else to do with me ever again. Yet, Marty did work with the paranormal as a hobby. He had a local ghost-hunting business and as I understood it from Poppy, he dealt with a haunted house every month or so. And if Rhea really was a ghost, Marty might be exactly the right person to help me figure things out.

  “You know what? That would be great,” I told him, finishing my drink and following him out the door.

  Chapter Three

  “This is very nice,” I told Marty as I sat down in the passenger seat of his black hearse. He closed my door for me and then started over to the driver’s side.

  I never imagined I could find a hearse cozy, but this one didn’t possess the coldness of most, not that I’d ever actually ridden in one before. Most people only rode in this kind of Cadillac once. I’d seen inside other hearses though, and they were usually pretty austere. Not this one. It was fitted with soft seat covers and the comforts you’d usually find in the likes of a travel camper.

  “Yeah, she’s a beauty—a ‘39 Cadillac Series 70 in mint condition. Lorcan bought her brand new.”

  “In 1939?”

  I was surprised. If that were true, the car had never been used to transport dead bodies, unless you wanted to count a vampire as one. That was one of those questionable designations, depending on whether one viewed Lorcan’s kind as living or dead. He seemed alive to me, but not all would agree.

  “That would be my guess, but he never said directly.”

  I’d already known that Marty and Lorcan had the agreement whereby Marty would drive Lorcan around during daylight hours, so Lorcan would never be pinned down to one spot for too long. The vampire was hopelessly paranoid about being caught off-guard by his enemies. Who those enemies were? I wasn’t sure. Whether they were just in his head? I wasn’t sure about that either. Lorcan was an odd sort. Odd but likable. Regardless, this agreement Lorcan had with Marty allowed the former to rest in peace until nightfall.

  From the looks of it, Marty had left much of the original interior of the hearse alone. The deep red velvet seats and wood paneling seemed antiquated and were likely factory installed.

  “It’s actually a lovely old vehicle. I’m surprised,” I said as Marty took a seat behind the wheel and fired the old thing up. For as nice as the interior was, the engine definitely revealed its age.

  “You thought it would be creepy, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” I said, blushing a bit at the admission.

  “A common misconception, but I find that most people appreciate the hearse more than are appalled by it. Anyway, where would you like to go?” He asked as we just sat there and I realized he had to warm the old thing up because it was spluttering and spitting like a ticked off cat.