“Excuse me, miss,” came a voice with a strong Irish accent from off to my side. I rolled my eyes and turned, ready to unload on him, but I realized after just a beat he was terribly familiar. Waxed mustache, sparkling eyes—annoyingly so, like they knew something you didn’t. It was the guy who had tried to steal from me on the train only yesterday. “Are you lost? Looking for Platform 9 and 3/4, perhaps?”
I blinked at him. “You’re awfully chipper for someone who got his ass so handily kicked just yesterday.”
He shrugged. “I bounce back from injury pretty quickly. Something I expect you know a thing or two about. Besides, I try not to hold a grudge. You did catch me trying to steal from you and all.”
“I did indeed. I’d kick the hell out of you again, but I’m a tad busy at the moment.” I waved him off. “Wait. Are you here thieving again?”
He gave a light, shameless smile. “I have to make a living, you know.”
“Have you tried an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay?”
He pretended to give that serious thought. “You know, I did once, but then I found out nicking wallets and jewelry on the tube is a more lucrative business than fetching coffee for eight hours a day.” He stared at me flatly. “I do have to ask you, though … I don’t run into our kind all that often. Are you with them?”
“Them who? Omega?”
He looked at me with open eyes and a smile like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Well, yeah. Who else would I be talking about?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “No, I’m not with Omega.”
“Eh, I figured an American girl like you, far from home, you must be with them,” he said with a loose shrug. “Not like you run into a lot of independents ’round these parts—especially lately.”
“What about Alpha?” I asked. “Aren’t they a presence around here?”
“Alpha?” He asked, confused. “Oh, right, them. Made a big noise a few years back, tried to muscle in on Omega. I think they’re mostly in southern Europe. Can’t say I’ve heard much about them, but then, all’s I hear are rumblings.”
“From whom?” There was a slight breeze in the tunnel we stood in as I watched him.
“I tend to run with a crowd that’s in the know, if you catch my meaning, and especially about Omega—with their business activities and proclivities and whatnot.”
I heard a train in the distance and it blotted out everything else I heard. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The Irishman blushed. “I’d uh … I’d prefer not to discuss it in public. Sensitive topic and whatnot.” He looked around, then leaned in and lowered his voice. “You just never know who’s listening, after all.”
I resisted the temptation to punch him in the face until he spilled what I wanted to know like a broken piñata let loose candy. “I need to know about Omega. Where can we go that you can talk about it?”
He raised an eyebrow, and I caught a hint of something perplexed on his face, though it was hard to tell under the mustache. “I … um … you’re not propositioning me, are you? This is genuine request for information?”
“I’m a succubus,” I said quietly. “You don’t want me to proposition you.”
“Right you are,” he said with a nod, realization spreading slowly over his features. “Well, uh … look, I’ll tell you what I know, but … um … it could take a bit, depending on how much detail you’d care to get into, and whatnot—”
“I need a place to stay,” I said, causing him to take a step back.
“I thought you said you weren’t propositioning me,” he said.
“I’m not.” I ignored the looks that the crowd of passersby was giving us; his voice had risen on the last bit. “I’m just putting that out there because I’m going to need to ask eventually and I figured I’d get it out all at once. Someplace cheap, because I don’t have a ton of cash and I can’t use my ATM or credit cards right now.”
“I look the sort to know how to skirt by on the cheap, do I?” He sounded mildly offended.
“Yes,” I said flatly. “Did you not know that?”
“I … well, I never,” he said, his voice high. “Like I’m some sort of petty thief or something.”
“You are,” I reminded him.
“Oh, right,” he said, and the mischievous smile was back, the act of being offended evaporated in a second. “Yeah, I know some cheap places ’cross the river. Some flats that might be … questionable. Not really safe, as it were, not to a normal person, anyhow …”