Free Descended from Dragons: an Urban Fantasy (Moonlight Dragon Book 1) by Tricia Owens Page A

believe it?"
    "I think I'd rather date my fridge demon." I popped my seatbelt and twisted around to look back at the pet carrier. A pair of topaz eyes peered back at me through the door. "Alright back there? We're here."
    I'm fine.
    "Oh, yes, you are," Melanie murmured beneath her breath before breaking into giggles.
    I rolled my eyes. "Behave." But when I thought Vale wasn't looking I winked at her.
    Melanie cleared her throat and acted serious. "So tell me about this friend of yours. Why do we have to meet her in an alley behind a strip club? This feels so shady. I love it!"
    "It's because she's a stripper. Well, I think they prefer to be called exotic dancers, actually."
    "Seriously, she is? That's so awesome!" Melanie tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I've thought about stripping—I mean dancing. What an easy way to make a fortune, huh? People throwing money at you—who wouldn't want that?"
    "Especially if you're a succubus like Liliana." I shouldn't admire her, but she really had a racket going and who couldn't appreciate an enterprising woman? "Not only does she absorb the sexual energy from men, she makes them pay her for the privilege. It's genius."
    "Suddenly all my monkey can think about is how fun it would be to swing on that pole." Melanie was wide-eyed at the prospect. "I have the feeling if I got up on stage they might not be able to pull me off it!"
    The mental image of Melanie in her monkey form, swinging on a stripper pole, was awesome. It reminded me of the time she'd revealed her shifter form to me. It had been about a week after we'd met, when she'd sold me a mango cake with lime buttercream frosting.
    "The lime frosting is good, but you really need to make it spicy to make it awesome," she'd told me with authority after handing me the small cake from behind the service counter of Todos Tortas.
    "What does that mean?" I'd asked, trying to be polite and listen to her and not just shove the entire cake in my mouth like I wanted to.
    "You should sprinkle some Tabasco or Tapatio sauce on it."
    I flinched. "On a cake?"
    "What, you don't like different stuff? Out of the normal?"
    I could sense she was talking about more than the cake. Magickal beings could cruise other magickal beings the way gay guys cruised each other in clubs. There were certain phrases and a look…you just knew something was up.
    "I love all that stuff," I told her.
    She studied my face for a long moment. "You want to see something funny?"
    Here we go, I thought.
    No sooner had I nodded than she'd vanished, seemingly into thin air. I'd been on the verge of jumping into the truck to see if she'd fainted when a monkey jumped up onto the counter and begun dancing some crazy monkey dance. I'd been so surprised I'd tossed my mango cake over my head. Her amused chatter had made me laugh at myself, too.
    I'd still made her replace the cake, though.
    "You'd better sign up for one of those pole dancing exercise classes and see if you're any good," I said in the car.
    "Oh, Anne, we both should!"
    Melanie's excitement was infectious, but we really were there for a reason, not just to fantasize about our future careers as strippers. After I dragged the pet carrier out of the backseat, she and I made our way across the lot, keeping beneath the street lamps as much as possible.
    Industrial Road wasn't exactly shady, but when you had a bunch of strip joints and liquor stores lined up along a road, you tended to attract a certain kind of loiterer. I didn't call Lucky just yet, preferring to be optimistic, but I kept my eye on the scattered groups of men who were either urinating as a team or dealing and purchasing drugs.
    "What can a succubus do that will help us?" Melanie asked as she continually scanned the area around us.
    She looked like she was ready to jump out of her skin. I'd suggested we park farther away at the mall instead of in the strip club's lot, thinking it would be better to avoid the club's security cameras. But I was rethinking that