Wine and Candy

Chapter 10: Discovering the truth

Walking past Akoth I informed him I would be borrowing one of his cars, he simply nodded, being far too distracted with what I had made Ethan wear. We got inside and I teleported us to a rarely used road not too far from our destination then drove the rest of the way.

Ethan and I coordinated so that we would not enter the club together, I entered first altering the guest list to include both of us on it. Once inside I sat on the bar and ordered whiskey on the rocks. I could sense Ethan and discreetly looked over my shoulder, spotting him leaning against a wall flirting with some guy, he really can blend in easily here.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned my head, it was Connor, why didn't I sense his presence? It's just like when we met on the plane, he doesn't seem to have a presence. I smiled and stood up to hug him "Connor! Oh it's so great to see you again. You look amazing".

Connor was wearing a perfect clubbing outfit, looking nothing like the innocent steward from the plane. He was wearing a loose gray tank top with a deep v that showed half of his very toned chest, black faded distressed skinny jeans, gray converse with red laces and a black leather choker. With the lack of sleeves I noticed he had many tattoos on his arms, as I recognized the symbols I began to panic.

Those were demon ward symbols, sigils of demon banishing spells and the crest of an ancient demon hunting family dating back thousands of years, the Lockleys. Trying to act calm I tried to converse "Hey those are some cool tattoos, do they mean anything?".

Connor smiled dangerously "Funny you should ask, you of all people should know Lilith", upon feeling the panic that sparked in me, Ethan immediately teleported between me and Connor "You will come no closer!" Ethan threatened and pulled out his claws while baring his fangs.

Connor held his hands up in surrender "Whoa whoa I'm not here to fight. Yes I'm a descendant of the Lockleys and I was forcefully initiated into demon hunting. But it's not a thing that I do ok? Unless I'm attacked of course" he glared at Ethan, who didn't make a move to stand down. I tapped Ethan's shoulder "Stand down, but stay beside me" the incubus obeyed and stood beside his master.

"Why do you know my true name? And what are your intentions with me? Was this all a trap!?" I was angry and afraid, while I was an extremely powerful demon, against a Lockley I could take some serious damage.

"I know your name because it's my birth gift to be able to see a demon's name, that's why they wanted me to become head of the family. My intentions are simply to have a nice date with you. And if this had been a trap I would have been careful to hide my tattoos since you would instantly recognize them" Connor was making sense, he knew that I could easily recognize every single symbol on him so if he wanted to catch me off guard he would have kept them hidden.

"Now I have a question for you. Why were you infecting so many people with sex pheromones the other day? I was half tempted to seal your powers for causing so much mischief. You even tried using it on me" the demon hunter asked in a more serious tone.

"It was a victimless crime! Come on, sex and seduction are my thing. And you're cute so I wanted to get with you"

"Fair enough, nobody did get hurt. Though I almost punched the creep on the airplane myself..."

I laughed at this. Then asked a bit playful "So, why should I trust that you don't mean any harm to me?"

Connor sighed "I'll let you seal my power with a curse stone if it will make you feel more at ease" he looked at me with pleading eyes.

"Why do you trust me so much? How do you know I won't hurt you once you have been sealed?" I was both shocked and touched by Connor's trust

"If you wanted to hurt someone you would have done it at any moment. I've been tracking your movements for years... father's orders. You mostly do mischief and you actually help women in need. Sure you've done some very immoral and illegal things as well but the good you do outweighs the wrongs" he stuck his hand out for me to place a curse stone ring "Please do it, I want you to be able to feel safe around me"

I closed her hand and a red glow appeared from within, when I opened it there was a ring with a red stone. I placed it on Connor's finger. He looked shocked and stared at me "Why? Why didn't you use a curse stone?"

"All I need is for you to not have anti-demon magic. You can keep your other talents, magic and protections. Those are of no harm to me or my kin" I then turned to Ethan "You can go mingle again, I think the guy over there is missing you" Ethan glared once more at Connor before going back to where he was.

"Thank you for trusting my Alyssa" he took my hand and kissed it. "What's with the incubus by the way? Your son?" I looked over at Ethan "One of many. He was born with more devotion than desire to corrupt, so I kept him as my familiar"

Connor noticed my empty drink and the lack of one of his own "What are you drinking?", "Whatever you're buying" I replied in a flirtatious tone. Connor smiled and signaled to the bartender "Two deaths in the afternoon please. Actually, make it four and have two sent to the couple over there" He pointed at Ethan and the young man he was flirting with.

"Your attitude now, you're very confident. Why were you pretending to be shy on the airplane?" I asked and took a gulp of her drink. Connor drank half of his own before replying "With this kind of life you have to keep separate personas. You know this better than me".

"Is the shy persona the reason you didn't want to fuck me in the plane or was there something else?" Connor blushed at the bluntness of the question "I just don't do random hookups. It doesn't feel right. I like taking the person out on a date or two first, get to know each other a bit"

Connor finished his drink in one gulp, signaling at the bartender for another round before continuing to speak "We hadn't even properly introduced ourselves then. We were both pretending to be someone else, and that didn't sit right with me. I want to get to know Lilith, not Alyssa". I smiled "We would need to go somewhere more private to have such a sensitive discussion", Connor glanced at Ethan "Will the incubus be joining us?", I nodded "He's rather cute, maybe you'll grow to like him". "He does look hot in those clothes" he said without thinking and blushed when he realized he had said it out loud.

I communicated telepathically with Ethan "We're moving, you wanna stay with your new boytoy or you wanna join us?" Ethan immediately said his goodbyes to his companion and ran over to me. "So did you get here driving Connor?" I asked as I played with the car keys, "I don't drink and drive, I took a cab" he replied.

"Well, you're riding with us then! Come along" I walked out of the club followed by the two men. They all got into the car, Ethan and Connor arguing who would ride shotgun until I instructed Ethan to get in the back.

"We're going to the White Raven, any objections?" I asked as I turned on the car, "Isn't that the underground club where every single drug dealer and crook in town gathers?" Connor looked concerned. "I love that place!" chirped in Ethan. "Yup, I'm a VIP there so we can get a private room and speak calmly. Also since it's a niche for criminal activity there's no surveillance so nothing that happens inside gets out" I began to drive, speeding past the empty streets.