NoQS Agent Round: Bloodsucking Lawyer

Title: BLOODSUCKING LAWYER
Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance
Word Count: 99,000

My MC and MA (main antagonist) are dressed as:

Emma and Henry are the hero and heroine of this romance, but because of their emotional conflicts, they are also each other’s antagonists. As busy lawyers, they have no time to throw together costumes, so they both dress up as their legal assistant, Rick, who enjoys distracting them with magic tricks. Rick is an average-looking guy, so the key to this costume is props and mannerisms. This includes playing with trick knives, shuffling cards mid-air, and exuding showmanship by saying things like, “Ho-ho! That is what she said, my friend.” In retaliation, Rick would likely lock them in a closet.

Query:

Henry de Daumier-Smith is a vampire lawyer who needs help—now. Normally, he works with paper, not people, but criminal cases of the supernatural variety are piling up on his desk. The problem is, he can’t go to court during the day without burning up like a campfire marshmallow.

Emma Parker is a jobless lawyer who can’t catch a break, thanks to the dumpster heap that is the current legal economy. When a chance encounter with Henry has her joining the handsome man’s firm, she must set aside her preconceived notions of the paranormal if she wants to pursue her dream of being a criminal defense attorney. Yet despite her best efforts, she’s a misfit among her supernatural clients, and she needs Henry’s help to gain their trust.

As Henry and Emma grow closer, a slow-burning passion ignites between them. Soon, though, the supernat crime rate spins out of control, and their romance begins to fizzle. Henry is done cleaning up after people who never change, while Emma still believes in the cause. When a werewolf murders a man, Emma must convince Henry their client is worth saving. But if they can’t work together, not only is their relationship done for, but supernats will be exposed to the world.

First 250:

Henry was regretting—not for the first time—hiring a prodigious magician as a legal assistant.

“Face it, Salinger Boy. I’m not drafting the Cordova contract until you pick a card,” Rick taunted as he sidled around Henry’s desk.

Turning away from his computer, Henry frowned at the blue-and-white deck of cards Rick held in a fan before him. Maybe it was self-indulgent to take his last name from a J.D. Salinger story, but a clown like Rick had no business judging him.

“It’s a good story, and I needed an alias.”

“Oh yes, De Daumier-Smith is very inconspicuous and unassuming.” His assistant lowered his eyes, nodding solemnly.

“Do you have a problem?” Henry bit off.

“Not in the slightest.” Rick waved the fan of cards in his face. “If you pick a card.”

With a sigh, Henry drew a card. The perils of cheap labor.

He had hired Rick through the University of Arizona’s law school for the summer, but clearly, he’d been swindled. Sure, Rick was indispensable. The kid was an expert at legal research and organizing Henry’s calendar. But the never-ending magic tricks were wearing his patience down to a thread. 

Now it was August, and Rick had withdrawn from the College of Law to “pursue magic,” whatever that meant, and Henry was stuck with the magician and his sleights of hand. Henry didn’t have much of a choice, considering Rick was helping him keep his law practice from ungluing at the seams.