Sebastian

specialty," Philo said. "Stuffed Tits."
    " What ?" Lynnea raised a protective hand to her chest as she stared at the plate.
    "Um… er… " Philo gave Sebastian a panicked look.
    Lynnea frowned. "Those look like… mushrooms."
    "Yes," Philo said quickly. "Stuffed mushrooms. Harmless."
    She continued to study the mushrooms. "They do look like tits, don't they? Sort of round but pointy with the stuffing." She took one and put it on her plate. Then she picked up a piece of bread. "What do you call this stuff?"
    Beads of sweat popped out on Philo's forehead. "Ah… Phallic Delights."

    "What's 'phallic'?" she asked. Then she hiccuped.
    Sebastian closed his eyes and tried not to moan. His little rabbit was sloshed on half a glass of wine, and watching her inhibitions fall away made him feel very peculiar. He should be reveling in how easy this had been. Instead he wanted to get her away from any bad influences. Which was funny, since he was an incubus, this was the Den, and he intended to be the baddest influence she met during this visit.
    "It's a word polite young ladies don't know," Philo replied.
    "Oh." Lynnea stared at the bread. "But I'm a bad person, so I can say that word. Phalllllic."
    Someone from another table called, and Philo fled in response.
    Sebastian opened his eyes and watched Lynnea swirl the bread in the cheese—and knew he was in trouble.
    "Eat your mushroom," he said. Daylight! Now he sounded like a priggish older brother. What had happened to the desire to hunt, to hurt, to seduce her?
    "Stuffed tit," she replied. Then she giggled.
    The sound produced a heat inside him that bewildered him. It was like suddenly standing in a beam of sunlight—and that something inside him that was struggling to survive fed on the sound.
    Having lost his appetite for food, he drank his wine while he watched her eat.
    Finally she leaned back, took a sip of wine, and looked around. "This is a strange place."
    It's the Den . "Why did you come here, Lynnea?"
    "Wasn't supposed to. Was… supposed to go to the Landscapers' School, but Ewan left me on the side of the road, and…" She shuddered. "Don't want to think about that. Not now."
    "All right," Sebastian said soothingly. "We won't talk about that." Yet . "Tell me how you got to the Den."
    "Went over a bridge. Was trying…" Her eyes filled with tears. "He told me to come to him."
    Sebastian's heart slammed against his chest. No. It couldn't be. "Who? Ewan?"
    She shook her head. "I don't know. A voice inside my head. After Mam told me I was going to be sent away, I was just thinking, and…"
    A tear rolled down her cheek. She whispered, "I just wanted to find a place where I would feel safe, where I wouldn't be afraid all the time. But I ended up here. So I guess I'm a bad person after all."
    The Landscapers will send me to a had place. I just want —
    What? What do you want?
    I want to he safe. I want to be loved. I want to he someplace where I'm not afraid all the time.
    Come to me.
    Guardians and Guides.
    Pushing back his chair, Sebastian helped Lynnea to her feet, then led his jelly-legged little rabbit to the brothel that was on a side street two blocks away from Philo's. After getting his key from the clerk behind the counter in the lobby, he half carried Lynnea up the stairs and down the corridor to his room on the third floor.
    Dark, heavy furniture. Red velvet curtains around the bed and the windows. The room was big enough to have a sitting area as well as the bed. No fireplace, but he had a connecting bathroom that he shared with Teaser, whose room also had a connecting door.
    Masculine. Alien. A room designed for seduction and a sexual feast.
    And there was Lynnea, with her torn, dirty clothes, looking more like an exhausted child than a woman ripe for a romp. Looking so out of place it made his heart hurt.
    "What are you wearing under that?" he asked, gesturing to the tunic and skirt.
    "A shift."
    He hoped she was wearing more than that, but he wasn't going to ask.
    He led her to the bathroom door, paused a moment to listen, then pushed the door open.
    "An indoor privy," she said, sounding impressed. "I'd heard everyone has them in the cities now."
    "We may be decadent, but we're not backward. We even have lektricity for the streetlights and in some parts of the buildings." And he'd never wondered until now why a place like the Den would have such things.
    "I should take a bath."
    She sounded hesitant—not about the bath but about being completely