Succubus Dreams

Chapter 2

Even in the inky darkness I could see the clouds passing by. I'd never been on a plane before and I'd really never had any desire to do so. A metal bullet zooming hundreds of miles per hour, thousands of miles above the earth. Forgive me if that just seems like a horrendous death waiting to happen.

My fingers tapped quickly on my knee. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. The pattern helped keep me calm and my mind off the never ending scenarios of firey deaths.

"One three nine!"

My eyes focused on the woman across from me. Her brows pulled together, small lines forming between them and her lips pursed. She looked no less tense than when she walked me onto the plane. She must have drawn the short straw.

"Sorry," I mumbled. I wasn't sure why I bothered. She didn't care about my apology.

"As I was saying, you're going to continue to use your issued name of Piper Harris. It's easier for beginners to stick to their known name than to worry about following an alias."

I wanted to unleash my smart mouth, to say that Piper was an alias anyway, but what good would that do me?

"This is a long term assignment," she continued.

"Wait, what?"

"You're going to be our first subject stationed in Las Vegas. I have a cellphone in here programmed with every number you'll need. Someone will check in with you every three days. We've set you up with a job, you'll be a dealer at one of the high stakes tables in The Venetian."

"I don't know the first thing about being a dealer," I cut her off.

Las Vegas? Dealer? Permanent? They had never said anything about this. I had been told about short trips, a week max, but I was about to be a long term resident of Las Vegas, Nevada?

The woman waived a hand and rolled her eyes. "That doesn't matter. You will learn everything you need to know when you arrive. You will also continue your training sessions. Twice a week. The location for your sessions, along with everything else you need to know, are inside this envelope." She held the large manila envelope in front of her before setting it on the table between us.

My stomach sank as the plane dipped down and the landing gears engaged. We were nearly there.

"There will be a car waiting to take you to your new home. Everything you will need has already been provided. Should you need anything else, you have been provided with a bank account to purchase what you need. It will be monitored." The woman paused for a moment, her lips tightening even more. "And should you get in any trouble, it's best for you to know up front that there will be no backup to save you. You will be completely on your own. The personnel we have stationed are to keep you in line, not keep you alive. Got it?"

All I could do was nod. It wasn't like I expected anything less from them. They didn't care about what happened to us. We were tools at their disposal. Nothing more.

I looked out the window as the lights of the airport shone through the windows, getting closer with each passing second. The tires bumped the pavement, causing me to lurch forward in my seat, and panels on the wings pulled up, breaking the wind to slow the plane down. We hadn't died. I was hoping to take that as a good sign. 

We slowly taxied our way through the maze until the plane finally came to a stop. I looked out the window, and just as she'd said, there was a car waiting. 

It felt like my lungs couldn't expand enough, that I couldn't pull in enough oxygen. I was about to step out into the real world for the first time in years. I was going to be interacting with people. It was freedom outside that window, and yet I was afraid of it.