“Not anymore,” she called out cheerfully. “Sucks have a few perks, one of which is being the object of every man’s fantasy. Which comes with nice boobs, I might add.”
I’ll say. I was staring at the mirror in shock at my naked chest. Speaking of perks. They were perky, all right. We’re talking plastic-surgery bounce and fullness, but without the fakeness. Not a stretch mark, not a flaw, not even a hint of sag.
My waist was amazing, too, curving in more than I’d thought possible. I was shocked I even had a waist. I blinked and poked the mirror, wondering if it was a trick of the light. When I passed my hand in front of it several times and it looked normal, I began examining the rest of my body with delight.
The face was the first to hit scrutiny. It didn’t look that different, except a bit more sensual. My brows were perfect, my lips full and pink, and my eyes were a striking shade of silver. My hair looked like something out of a Pantene commercial, shiny, bright red, and bouncing in thick waves across my shoulders. I turned and let my sweatpants fall to my ankles.
Holy crap, I had an ass.
Which is not to say I didn’t have one before, but it was flat and wide and had little cellulite dimples. The new butt in the mirror was perfect, rounded, and nary a hint of cottage cheese.
Remy knocked on the door. “It got quiet in there. You okay?”
“I don’t look like me anymore,” I said, turning in the mirror.
“Yeah, I know. Like I said, there’s a few perks with the job. I was as fat as a Christmas turkey before I changed.” Remy sounded amused. “You get used to it, and then you start to enjoy it. Trust me.”
I ran my hands down my new gorgeous body. I could almost live with the forced “sex every week” thing if this was the trade-off.
Almost.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Thirteen stores, ten hours, and several thousand dollars later, I wobbled out of Victoria’s Secret in a pair of stilettos. “I can hardly walk in these things. What made you think dressing me up like this was a good idea?” They’d laugh me off the museum floor if I showed up in a pair of shoes composed of a few artful pink straps held together by a glittery butterfly.
“Because it is? And if you’re going in to work with me tomorrow, you’ve got to be a little more stylish.”
I wasn’t sure how a snakeskin miniskirt and thigh-high leather boots were job-appropriate, but it was her money. Same went for the electric blue silk tank top barely covering my large, rather bouncy breasts.
I did have to admit that I looked hot as all get-out. Remy had shelled out thousands of dollars for the clothing we currently carried without a word of protest. And while it wasn’t clothing that I would have bought in a million years, it looked pretty damn good on the new me.
I paused in front of my reflection and fluffed my flame-red hair again, still shocked that the gorgeous woman staring back was me.
Remy cleared her throat and turned to glare at me. “Can you stop checking your reflection every window we walk past? It’s getting a little old.”
Mortified, I whirled around and nearly walked into a tall black-haired man in a trench coat. “Sorry,” I said, and hurried over to Remy’s side.
He nodded and flashed a bladelike smile in my direction, an inky lock of hair falling over his forehead. “Not a problem.”
I glanced back at him as he continued on his way. “So,” I said, changing the subject. “Why do I have to go to work with you tomorrow?”
We were passing the food court, and it smelled like Heaven. Granted, I might not see Heaven at this point, given my line of work, but if I did I imagine it’d smell like Cinnabon and Taco Bell.
To my immense relief, Remy made a beeline for the food court, her long black hair swinging as she walked. “Because I can’t leave you alone by yourself. Who knows what kind of trouble you’ll get yourself into?” When she glanced over at me, I noticed the startling blueness of her eyes. They’d gotten brighter over the past few hours, which meant that she was about to go into heat. “The first few days are crucial.”
Seeing as how I knew nothing about succubuses, I was forced to believe her.
We threw our shopping bags down on a table, and I practically ran to Taco Bell. When I returned, I saw that Remy had not one, not two, but three cheeseburgers on her plate, and the biggest milkshake I’d ever seen. I’d tried to play it cool and get a taco salad, and at the sight of all her food I was totally jealous. “How can you eat that much and stay so skinny?”
She gave me an odd look. “You can eat whatever you want-your appearance isn’t going to change. That’s part of the whole package.”
Heaven indeed! I was starting to think I’d be okay with this. “I’ll be right back, then,” I said, excitement in my voice, and headed back for a few more burritos.
To my surprise, the hot guy in the trench coat was in line and smiled at me as I stepped forward to order. He walked away as I ordered, and I grabbed my tray full of food, frowning. A stalker?
I hurried back to our table, where Remy was polishing off her first burger. “That’s the second time I’ve seen that guy in the black coat,” I told her, then took a huge bite out of my first burrito. It was better tasting than anything I’d had in weeks, and I closed my eyes in bliss. An Afterlife full of carbs couldn’t be all that bad.
When I opened my eyes Remy was out of her seat, cheeseburger hanging from her mouth as she gathered up her bags again. I crammed as much of the burrito in my mouth as I could, not caring how ridiculous I looked. “Um, are we leaving?” A few beans trickled out of my mouth as I spoke. “Can we eat first?”
She shook her head and headed for the exit doors. “Leave. Now.” Her words were muffled around her own cheeseburger, and I scooped up my clothing and burritos and trotted after her as best I could in my four-inch heels.
The hair prickled on the back of my neck as we ran through the empty parking garage and back to her BMW. We had the doors locked within seconds, and Remy didn’t even let me buckle my seat belt before ripping out of the parking lot like the end of the world was upon us.
My burrito smashed into the passenger window, spraying beans and hot sauce everywhere. I slid against the door, trying to stay in my seat and failing. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I shouted, glaring at her from the other side of the car. “You’re going to get us killed!”
She ignored me, tossing her cheeseburger on the dashboard and putting both hands on the steering wheel to take the most frightening U-turn of my life. My body slammed against the car door again and I groaned. “Stop that!”
“Quit being a baby and buckle up. We have to get out of here ASAP unless you want to stick around and find out if your follower is a vamp or a dealer. Either one spells trouble.”
I fumbled with the seat belt. “You think someone’s after me?” Heck, I didn’t even know what a dealer was, yet I’d managed to piss one off?
Remy ran a red light and cut through a side street. I closed my eyes so I couldn’t see her driving anymore. “If the vamps suspect you were turned into a succubus-and I bet someone knows-they’ll be looking for you.” The car swerved hard to the right again, and Remy’s long hair smacked me in the face as we cornered. “A succubus is the perfect tool for a vampire, since we can go places they can’t. Throw in your vamp master, and you don’t have the luxury of telling them ‘no.’”
She paused for a long moment, the only sound the squealing of the tires and other cars as they honked at us. “Speaking of which, if your vamp master is an unscrupulous type-and most are-then it’s a safe bet that he’s going to try to use you for his own devices. I made a deal with my master, and you can do the same with yours, but they’re generally not good deals to make. I had to give up two hundred years of my free will to get him off my back for the next two hundred. And when those finish, I have to answer to him again.”