Succubus Lost (Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency, #2) Read Online Free

first?” Costa asked after Vasquez’s office door shut safely behind us.
    I blinked at him.
    “Come on,” he said, one eyebrow raised. “I’m not an idiot. I didn’t really believe your lieutenant’s orders were going to faze you.”
    I cleared my throat. “I need to look up some info on Elaine’s friend Wendy. She’s a siren, and I haven’t been able to track her down. She was the last person to see Elaine as far as I’ve been able to tell. I’m afraid something has happened to her, too.”
    Costa nodded and gestured for me to lead the way. The man was cool under pressure. Most people—
    otherworlder or no—would have pressed for more info or shown more emotion when I mentioned Wendy’s species.
    Sirens were relatively rare and almost always stayed away from humans as much as possible. Their abilities were very powerful, and that made normals and otherworlders very suspicious of them—more so than succubi, even, which was quite an accomplishment.
    I walked to my desk, unusually self-conscious with Costa behind me, and far too aware of him. When we reached my computer, I sat and logged into the national police database.
    Costa placed his hands on the back of my chair, and I was careful not to lean back and touch him. I needed to stay focused on Elaine. He leaned forward and his scent swirled around me. Aftershave and something spicy that could only be him. I closed my eyes for a second before I snapped them back open. Priorities much?
    “So tell me what you’ve learned so far.” I pursed my lips. “I talked to her friend Teresa. Normal, twenty years old. She spent the afternoon and early evening with Elaine and Wendy at the library. Nothing unusual. Studying, girl-talk.”
    “Nothing at all unusual? Are you sure?” Costa cut in.
    “Yes, I’m sure. I know how to question a witness.” Costa didn’t comment, so I continued. “At the end of the night, Teresa left for the train station. Elaine and Wendy headed the opposite direction, toward the lot where Wendy’s car was parked.” I typed Wendy’s name and address into the police database.
    “Did you get any other info?”
    “No. There wasn’t any other info to get.” I suppressed a sigh when the screen came up with little more information than what I already had. I’d figured Wendy wouldn’t have a police record, but I’d hoped she might. It would have made our jobs just a hair easier. “We’ll need to go to the college to get contact info for Wendy’s family. She’s not in the system. Given the situation, hopefully they won’t give us a hard time about a warrant.”
    “Full name?” Costa asked.
    “Wendy Larson.”
    “Do you mind?”
    I slid out of the chair so he could sit. He pulled up the national database and logged in. I frowned at his list of options, which were far more extensive than my own.
    “Are you going to read over my shoulder?” he asked.
    “That was the plan.”
    He stiffened but continued his search. A few quick clicks later, he ended on a page with a Skokie address.
    The wheels squeaked as he rolled the chair out from under the desk. “Let’s go meet the parents.” Wendy Larson’s parents lived in one of the wealthier suburbs just north of Chicago. With access to the Red Line, one of the trains leading directly to various locations in the city, the neighborhood was desirable for people who worked in the city, but who also wanted the slower pace and free space that could only be found outside of the high-rises.
    Costa parked in front of the quaint white home. With its shutters and large front porch, it would have fit in a small town in the southern part of the country more so than a Chicago suburb, and I wondered if her parents actually used the old wooden swing that hung on the porch.
    I knocked on the door, trying to ignore the sensation of Valerio Costa’s body standing so close behind mine. The coolness that had clung to his hands when they touched me at the station seemed to cling to his whole body, and