A Thief In The Night

Bewildering Infatuation

Bill

I was still dressed. Or well mostly dressed. I had managed to lose my socks and tie. Lose isn't exactly the right word, more like misuse. The remnants of the tie were still around my ankles, and the socks, which were previously around my wrists, were shreds around my head.

Izabella was a taste of earthly delights I quite enjoyed. While Nathan had been an adequate lover, he was never that talented in bed. Things had become routine, truth be told. Or maybe that's what I wanted to think so that my guilt from moving on didn't try to reach up from my stomach and choke me.

To her word, she stayed until breakfast. She left me tied up and sated. And I literally did not care one wit about whatever she was planning on stealing from the history department vault.

Most of the night her mind was either thinking about interesting ways to have me, or thinking about a particular artifact that I knew I had locked up. It was a demon artifact. It made people a bit mad you see. It might have actually started one of the various strains of shifters, possibly lycan, but no one knows for sure. Not even me.

I had seen the artifact once, at a friend's house in Uruguay. Right then I knew it needed to be in a safe place, away from itchy fingers and prying eyes.

I paid my friend an obscene amount of money for the artifact then erased his memory of anything about it. He's the only one that had known of its existence, so how had Izabella found out about it?

He found it on a dig somewhere in the jungle. I didn't ask and he doesn't remember, especially not after I made him forget.

Izabella knew about the artifact. She kept thinking about it and tried to placate me so she could slip away. Maybe placate is too gentle a word for what we had done to each other. I felt drugged, but that was simple enough to shrug off. I was confused about why she waited until after our insanely passionate, still-clothed, night of sex to knock me out?

It was Saturday. No one would be at the University. After putting myself to rights, I moved through the undershadows and arrived inside the vault, just in time to watch Izabella break-in with a rather clever device. It managed to break the combination on the vault and short out the internal defenses. I imagine she also took care of the cameras, and the trip alarms near the door, or she would have been caught by now.

I stood next to the pedestal the artifact rested on. She came around the corner and the smile on her face vanished. I was amused to some degree.

"Oh, come now, you didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" I asked.

"I had hoped," Izabella said.

Her inky-black hair was in a tight bun at the back of her head. She was dressed, not in black, but in a blue so dark that one could mistake it for black in the right light, with gloves and shoes to match. I imagined the outfit was tailored for such excursions. I had images in my head of peeling her out of it and pressing her to the nearest wall.

"Oh, but part of you didn't." I said with a bemused smile on my face. While the sex had been epic, I wanted to understand her motivation. Maybe even discover an answer as to why she was a thief. "Tell me, would part of you rather have stayed in bed with me this morning?"

"What the fuck are you?" While her voice was even her eyes were wide with shock. Me showing up really wasn't the welcome she had intended.

"A demon."

"A... wait... seriously?"

"Let me preempt you with a few questions I am usually asked at this point," I cleared my throat. "Is there a god? Not really," I said with a sigh. "Are there things which humanity manifests from the best and worst parts of themselves? Yes," I said and continued. "That's how angels, demons, and our breed of magic exists. Even heaven and hell exist." 

She stared at me, clearly fascinated, but I could tell her annoyance was growing. 

"The realms were created by the metaphysical forces of billions of different souls, on this planet. It's all pretty fascinating."

"Is this a history lesson, Professor?"

"Why, do you need one?"

"Not really."

"Oh, but perhaps you do."

"How so?"

"How do you know about the artifact?"

"That's for me to know."

"Ah, but see," I paused thinking about this for a minute. When I continued I'd formed what I thought was a brilliant plan "I went to a great deal of trouble to hide this artifact's existence. Even the wolves don't know about this and most of the staff here have no clue what it does. They all think it's nothing more than a fancy clay sculpture. My friend thought it might contain someone important. It was actually a sacrifice of someone important, but I digress...."

"Are you going to give it to me?" She put her hand on hip, then crossed her arms while she watched me and I watched her.

"Why would I do that?" I had to admit, I was fascinated by her. Alluring burglary suit and all. To still have the guts to ask me for something after I'd told her I was a demon was impressive.

"The possibility for more sex?" And that question impressed me even more. It wasn't a weakness, but it might as well have been where she was concerned.

I opened my mouth to reject the offer, but I didn't. I didn't even want to. While I was momentarily distracted by her, I took a deep breath and placed my hand on top of the artifact. If I let the artifact go, anything could happen. The last thing I wanted was to be responsible for another rise of shifters.

"As enticing as that sounds, I must decline. Is this the only thing you were sent to steal?" I tapped the artifact with my fore-finger.

"Yes." She looked me in the eyes, and I knew it was the truth. But it seemed she had done more than she had even intended I think as she looked down at her shoes and around the vault.

"Could I convince you to take something else?"

That drew her gaze back to me. "Like what?!" She shifted her hip and stepped her foot out.

I couldn't tell if it was a preemptive move to strike or more agitation.

"Well, how about this coin?" A twist of my hand and a gold coin appeared. Old, Roman, priceless. I had thousands upon thousands of them.

Her eyes widened at the sight of it. "That," she pointed at the coin, "in exchange for leaving the artifact behind?"

"Well, this," I twisted the coin in my fingers, "and another date."

"With a demon?"

"What have you got to lose?"

She lifted a beautiful, black eyebrow at me.

People and souls. I swear. "I'm not that kind of demon."

"What kind are you?"

"One that could be extremely helpful in your line of work if you leave this here, and take this to your employer instead," I tossed the coin to her.

"And a date." She caught the coin easily. She quickly inspected it before she looked at me again.

"Actually, the date is optional, but I had hoped you'd consider it."

"What are you doing later this evening?"

I smiled. I really needed to send Shelby a thank you gift. What does one get for an Amazonian witch woman as a present for steering you to one of the most intriguing people you've ever met in your long, long life?