Read A Mate Worse Than Death for Free Online

service?” Then she stood back up straight and and folded her arms, glaring at him as she waited for an answer.
    Mephistopheles raised his elegant brows at her and leaned back in his chair, “Why does anyone come to a dating service?” He laughed and held up his hands. “She was lonely. Times have changed, changed quite harshly for the older races.” He gestured at Cal. “You work with this human woman and have no urge to turn on her? Take her home for the dinner pot?”
    Cal laughed, “Hells bells, we fight all the time.”
    Mephistopheles put one long slim hand to his chin, stroked his beard, then smiled, “No, you do not fight. You are having fun. You are friends. You trust each other.”
    Tony cleared her throat, frowning as she said, “We’re here for the case, not for psychoanalysis from a pimp.”
    Cal turned a horrified look on her, but Mephistopheles only laughed again. His laughter subsided into a chuckle as he looked at her, head cocked to one side. “Don’t mistake what I do with this business for what Adonis did. Before him, it belonged to Aphrodite, who did not use it to supply herself with lovers. She did it to spread sexual stability, which the Great Geas had compelled her to do to repay past transgressions, of which she had many. The Powers That Be allowed her to step down, and unfortunately, she chose the wrong successor. Adonis did not live here when the Geas went into affect, so he did not fully understand the enormity of coming to this realm to live.” He grimaced, “And it did not help that he was a fucking idiot. Adonis’s abuses led to, ah,” he paused and filtered his language, “certain changes in his physical status.”
    Cal winced, “ The Great Geas handing out justice?”
    Mephistopheles snorted, “Oh, now that is a good one.” Cal looked confused but stayed quiet as the demon continued, “Anyway, he is...out of the picture here for good. I got the call to take over and” he looked up at Tony from under his brows, his mouth curved up in a sardonic smile, “I had no choice but to come. But pimp? A bit harsh, dear detective.” He stood and walked around the desk, stopping in front of Tony, close enough to cause Cal to step forward, close enough to make Tony extremely aware of the body under an impeccably tailored suit that she could definitely call one of “the most expensive in the world”.
    “Sexual stability,” he said again, almost whispering it to her as he stared into her eyes so intently that she couldn’t look away, “is at the heart of this business. An unstable Super can become a violent Super, and a violent Super makes the Geas respond. I consider my job every bit as important as yours to keep the streets free of the kind of vicious brutality that I have seen all too often in my lifetime.” He slowly leaned in as he spoke, getting closer and closer until his face was only inches away from Tony’s. She stared at him, listening, trying to hear his words though distracted by his presence. But as he finished, she suddenly realized that it had to be glamour. Had to be. She took a step back.
    “You do know that glamming an officer of the law in pursuit of a case is a felony offense?” she told him in a calm, polite voice, as if pointing out the sky was blue rather than potentially insulting a powerful Being.
    He grinned at her, “I don’t glam, darling. I don’t have to.”
    Cal snorted. “Now that we know you provide a very important service” he underscored the last word as insultingly as possible, “as opposed to pimping out Supers, can we get back to the case?”
    Tony turned to her partner, shaking off what certainly felt like a spell. She nodded and turned back to Mephistopheles, “We’ll need a copy of Lilith’s profile and her current contact information, address, and f-light contact spectra.”
    He looked at Tony for a long moment, still smiling at her. Then he spoke, “I need to sync that information to your f-light. Hold it out,” he told