Warning: NSFW, mild sexual content

Hours later, I was still banging my head against a wall. I'd retraced Justine's steps, just in case I could sense anything she'd missed. Thomas had magic, though it was a pale echo of Harry's. Hell, it was a pale echo of mine and I'd never be the powerhouse Harry had been. I didn't think Thomas could manage anything as complex as a veil, but it was still worth checking.

Nothing. It was like he'd evaporated into thin air, disappearing like a ghost. No, scratch that. A ghost would have been easier to find.

I laid my head flat against the work table, cheek down. The cool metal felt good against my sweaty skin and soothed a budding headache. The quartz crystal communications system I'd been working on lay abandoned, just waiting for the day I could finally sit down and pay attention to it. The system would be invaluable, giving me a more secure way to communicate with my allies. It might even allow me to be proactive, rather than responding to disasters already in progress.

Marcone had already hinted he'd like something on a larger scale to be maintained by Gard and lesser practitioners on the payroll. I wasn't sure if I was up to a task that huge, or if I wanted to set him up as the Richard Nixon of Chicago, going Big Brother on our collective asses. He was willing to pay handsomely for it, which was something I could really use. Lifting wallets only got me so far. But I'd learned my lesson about trading dangerous technology to amoral people. The product was almost never used to target who you hoped.

"What do you think, Bob?" I asked, mumbling against the table.

The skull rattled closer to me, somehow managing to sound impatient. "I think you're cruel, Boss. You brought the vampire over to play, and you didn't let me watch! I could barely even hear you! At least Waldo lets me watch porn when I'm over at his house."

I sighed, ruffling the edges of one of my schematics. I felt like a divorcee dealing with a petulant kid most days. When he was with Waldo, he was complaining that he didn't get to stare at my boobs or watch me have loud, enthusiastic sex with Thomas. And when he was with me, he bemoaned his inability to use a computer to access a veritable flood of pornography. The dirty magazines I bought him just didn't cut it now that he had access to the hard stuff.

"I'm not going to give you a live show just because you can't watch porn at my place, Bob. I need help with a problem."

"Yes, yes, the vampire," Bob said. "I heard you, but I don't see what there is you can do without a conduit. You're familiar with the pattern of his aura, which means you could theoretically try to follow that if he'd been gone only a night or two. You've mingled life forces enough that you could pick up on him or his demon. But sunrise will have washed away any traces of that, which puts you back at square one. It's too bad that it doesn't leave much of itself behind."

Bob paused, eye lights brightening. "Behind...ah. I have a question boss. You won't like it."

I raised my head a little and scowled at him. "What?"

"What do you remember about your last tryst with the incubus? I have an idea, but I really need details to know if it will work."

I stood abruptly and banged a fist on the table. Several jars rattled. "Damn it, Bob, this is sexual harassment! I get enough of this shit on the outside, and I don't want to go through it here. I can call Waldo right now and ask him to come to get you. I will not give you a blow-by-blow of my sex life so you can fap to it. Or whatever the hell you do!"

Bob sighed. "I understand that, but it is important. The vampire ruined it toward the end that first time I saw you together. Took you off the top and finished on the floor. Total anticlimax, pun intended. I just hate it when they pan away from the money shot. Did he do it again, possibly on your sheets?"

I blinked in shock. It took me a moment to understand what he was getting at, and then my cheeks adopted the heat and color of an electric stovetop. I buried my face in my hands. I couldn't help it. It was just too fucking embarrassing.

"Are you suggesting I use Thomas'...his..."

"Ejaculate?" Bob suggested happily. "Cum? Jizz? Spunk? Cream? Swimmers? Semen?"

"Oh God..." I moaned.

"Apropos," Bob said gleefully. "You say that a lot when he's inside you."

"Oh for the ever-loving...Are you saying that..." I hesitated, then selected the least offensive term I could find. "That I could use Thomas' semen to find him?"

"Oh sure," he said. "It is a bodily fluid. It's an essential part of the human male anatomy, and even has spiritual significance in some cultures. It's as potent as blood. Maybe more potent if you're looking for a sex demon. It's their whole schtick after all. So did he give you a creampie, Boss, or can you use the bedsheet to track him?"

I didn't lift my head from my hands. I couldn't. There was no way that I was going to answer the question. It would thrill Bob either way, and he might even be liable to share with Butters. So, when I felt safe enough to step away without melting to the floor in sheer mortification, I turned on one heel and strode out of the room.

To think I was actually hoping for unwashed sheets.