Chapter Text
Lydia, the Madam of House of Succubae, was sitting in her office when her red phone started to ring. She put the papers in her hand down to her desk and waited for a few rings before answering the call.
“Yes” she said knowing who would be at the other end.
“Lydia, the Hounds have made their move. They have invited us to a dinner with them, and no one else” Danny, her right hand said.
“What do they want?” she asked and opened a new text file on her computer. She had to start planning immediately.
“Just a dinner it seems, I have the invite-letter which the runner gave; I’m coming there with it. I left Allison in charge of the Throne Room”
“Where are you right now?”
“I’m in the elevator – you know you could have made this more quick and I would be there now”
“Now, now Danny, this wouldn’t otherwise be Hell if things worked like they are supposed to” Lydia answered and wrote a few key words, which had come to her mind, to the text document.
“Right” Danny muttered and cut the conversation. After few minutes he was knocking Lydia’s door and came in before she could answer; an irritating thing only he was permitted to do.
“Here” he said and gave a scroll to his boss.
“Scroll, how formal” Lydia said while rolling it open. Absently waving her hand she let Danny sit down. After reading the document few times she placed it to her desk.
“I think I have a feeling of what this could be” she started and looked at her Head Incubus. Danny shrugged and she continued “I’ve heard rumors about a new pack of hounds rising – they call themselves Alpha Hounds or something. Many if not all of them are cerberus, so they are a threat for the current Alpha Hound, Laura Hale”
“I understand that this is Hell, but why to rise up against them? I thought that the current Alpha was good as they go?” Danny said creasing his eyebrows.
“She is more than good; she’s the best they’ve had in centuries. She has visions for future and I have to tell that they are surprisingly modern and fresh which you wouldn’t believe from a species so rooted on their own tenets” Lydia answered and wrote more down on her computer.
“Maybe they’re too fresh for some of them?” Danny pondered and walked around Lydia to see what she had written down.
- Customs
- Power balance, us and them + the rest of Hell
- Who are their second and third in command
- Stiles
“Do we have to get Stiles involved in this?” Danny asked sighing.
“Yes. He is the Librarian and a political figure because of it, and because he’s an incubus he’s automatically on our side so we need him to be there. Also, he knows more Hounds than anyone in this House” Lydia told him.
“But he talked about foreskins to Fallen Ones when they were here the last time – and he wasn’t even trying to seduce them!” Danny said frustrated; there was a damn good reason why Stiles was the Head of The Library and surrounded by old books and not out and trying to seduce people.
“To his defense we all were more than happy when he got them to leave more early than they were supposed to” Lydia murmured silently.
“Still, I thought that Stiles was banned from dinner parties”
“He’s not now. We need him with this and I’m sure that the Hounds would like to use his library while deciding tactics against their own species.”
+++
“Oh um… there’s no dressing code for them I believe? All I know that having your neck bare means that you trust them?”
“Why were all your sentences in questions? Don’t you know anything?” Danny asked from the young incubus in front of him and Lydia.
“Of course I know! I just haven’t been interested in dressing codes or other trivial things when there’s their ranking system and –“ Stiles started to splutter before Lydia interrupted him.
“That’s good enough information, thank you Stiles. I need to know as much as possible about their customs for tomorrow. What else there is? Any subjects to not to say or things to not to do when we are surrounded by Hellhounds?” Lydia asked coolly.
“Well um first thing would be that they are very, very physical. They communicate with all their senses, especially scents which usually come from touching others. They probably won’t touch you at the beginning of the dinner party that much, but if the things go pleasantly for both of the parties they might hug you when you leave or do other touchy-feely things. Nothing they’d count sexual-harassment though! More like they might consider you as a part of their Pack and as I understand pack equals snuggling” Stiles told them, scratching his cheek.
He was nervous for a lot of reasons, but main one at the moment was that he had to be in one of Lydia’s offices.
Yes, offices, because Lydia was a modern succubus and she didn’t accept any dusty dungeons as her workplace, no. As she had worked her way through the ranking ladders of succubae and gained her place as the Madam, the Head Master of the House, she had modernized certain aspects of the systems and customs.
Good things that came from the modernization were things like safer conditions for succubae that went to heat and Stiles’ favorite thing, liquid life energy which he got in bottles whenever he needed and thus granting him more time to work with his library because he didn’t need to go and seduce anyone for it.
Not bad but definitely scarier things were strict laws from demolishing humans (if you can’t stop yourself in time just kill the human and don’t let it suffer do death) and offices. With offices came paperwork and sterile lifeless lights and labs for testing things Stiles didn’t want to know. He had heard that Lydia had done tests with pheromones and poisons.
The woman was scariest thing Stiles knew and he was sure that one day Lydia would rule Hell if she wanted to.
“Oh and because of the scent thing, it is best if you don’t wear any perfume or makeup; I’ve heard that they mess the person’s natural scent for them. But if you’d want to mess with them and keep secrets from them I’d believe that you’d have to bath in perfumes…” Stiles told them and thrummed his fingers on the table. He knew that he was on an important mission here because of politics which Hell lived on, but he longed back to his library and books.
“Hmm… Can you wrap some main points and email them to us?” Lydia more ordered than asked.
“Yes of course I can”
“Make it under ten pages Stiles, please. I don’t want another case of mating habits of hell horses”
“If you demand…”
“I demand. Under. Ten. Pages. Stiles. You can go now. Be ready tomorrow when we come to pick you up. Wear something that I find suitable” Lydia said and waved Stiles to go away.
“Yes, okay Madam” Stiles said and hurriedly left the room. He had much to do and now he craved to be surrounded by his books.
Danny and Lydia watched him go, almost tripping on the doorstep.
“I can’t believe that he’s the master of the biggest and most important library in Hell” Danny stated and ran his fingers through his hair.
“I think that he’s on the position because he really doesn’t want it. He wanted it because he can be surrounded with books, not because the political status” Lydia answered and thought little about how to dress the next evening.
“That makes sense. He’s not a threat to anyone because he doesn’t use his power in politics. Maybe” Danny said but stopped when they heard someone running towards the office they were in.
“WAIT WHAT? AM I COMING WITH YOU?” Stiles shouted from the door, panic in his eyes “I THOUGHT I DIDN’T HAVE TO ATTEND AT THOSE THINGS”
“But of course you are coming with us. You are the only one who can warn or explain things if Danny or me are doing some hellhound faux pas” Lydia told him with a voice which didn’t stand any arguments.