by Winter Fox
“Don’t worry, that feeling will pass. It’s a natural reaction to being fed on by two incubi.” He tapped in the door code behind my back, and maneuvered his way out of the door while keeping me held in his arms.
I tensed at his casual reference to the two of them essentially eating my lifeforce, but I was too worn out to speak. He didn’t seem worried by my silence, however. When we reached my room, he laid me on my bed, before heading for the door; where he paused to look at me.
“You did well today, eighty-eight.”
I nodded at him sleepily.
His eyes narrowed. “I’ll send Emma to check on you shortly.”
His words called my brain out of its hazy fog for a brief moment, as I tried to work out whether he was genuinely concerned about what they had done to my aura, or if he just wanted Emma to check his property over.
Before I had a chance to ask him, he had closed the door behind him, and I was left alone.
Chapter Twenty
Adonis
After he left his slave to rest, Adonis went hunting for his cousin. He wanted answers. He wanted to know who the fuck this woman was, and how the hell Erebus already knew her.
“Cara.” He tested the name out loud, and it sounded surprisingly real to him.
He found Erebus in the exact place he had expected to; shooting pool in the games room, with a half-drunk bottle of bourbon standing on the red felt. Adonis felt an irrational anger at the lack of care his cousin had taken over the expensive material on the table, but he said nothing about it.
He was here to talk about eighty-eight.
“She seemed to really enjoy herself.” Erebus looked up at him, smiling. “I think she’s going to make a super little fuck-doll.”
“How do you know her?” Adonis leaned against the table as he spoke, swiping the bottle of bourbon; he took a long drink. He preferred whiskey, but he had to admit that this was a decent bourbon. His cousin’s tastes had always erred on the expensive side of life.
Erebus stopped playing, leaning on the cue as he replied. “I’m surprised you don’t know. Your father really hasn’t told you?”
It pissed Adonis off to know that Erebus and his father shared a secret.
“No, he hasn’t. So, I’m asking you. I gave you what you wanted, it’s time for you to repay the favor, cousin.” Adonis kept his voice calm. Neutral.
Erebus seemed to really consider his options—scrunching his face up, into a contemplative gaze before he replied.
“Do you remember James Westenra?”
Casting his mind back over the years, Adonis eventually recalled the face of his father’s ex-partner. The man had died under very suspicious circumstances about fifteen years ago, maybe longer.
“What about him?”
Erebus grinned broadly. “Your slave’s real name is Cara Westenra, and she is James Westenra’s daughter. Blood daughter.”
Adonis’ mind raced as he tried to put together the pieces of the puzzle which had been tormenting him ever since she arrived. Hearing what Erebus had to say meant that a lot of what had happened over the last few days suddenly made complete sense. But it couldn’t be true.
“James was an incubus. If she’s his biological daughter, then that makes her a succubus.” Adonis was incredulous.
Erebus shrugged. “That’s why your father killed hers. Charles was convinced that when she came of age, James would hide her away so she couldn’t be married off, and used to create more succubi.”
His father had killed hers?
“And where do you come into this cousin?” Adonis had to admit that he was more than a little hurt that his father had chosen to involve his cousin in this secret, and not him.
“Once James was dead, Cara was obviously orphaned. She was taken to a children’s home. Which was rewarded with a rather substantial donation from Olympus Holdings for taking her—no questions asked. It was a place where she could be watched over until she grew up.” Erebus took the bourbon bottle from Adonis, taking a long drink.
“Let me guess, you were an employee of the children’s home?” Adonis didn’t really need to ask the question.
Erebus nodded. “I was there to keep an eye on her. But the little bitch ran away before she was old enough for us to reclaim, and for a while she was lost to us.”
Adonis narrowed his eyes at his cousin. “I wonder what you did to her, to make her leave the safety of an orphanage, and choose homelessness instead?”
Erebus’s eyes were wide, and innocent. “I did nothing to her. She’s wild and unpredictable—she’s a fucking succubus. She needs to be tamed, and our family are the ones who will do it.”
Adonis drummed his fingers on the wooden edging of the pool table. He was stunned by this new information.
“What happens to her now?” He asked his cousin.
Erebus shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Before Charles killed James, there was an agreement that she would be married into our family when she came of age. That way, two great and wealthy families could infuse their genes into a new blood-line. It would have been like creating demonic royalty, cousin. But now, I’m not sure. You’d need to ask your father.”
Adonis felt a shimmer of a memory at the very edge of his mind. Something half-remembered about a conversation that he might have heard, even though he knew wasn’t supposed to be listening.
“Who was she supposed to marry, Erebus?”
His cousin looked genuinely surprised by the question. “Oh, Adonis. I honestly thought you knew.”
“Who?” Adonis growled.
Erebus took a deep drink of bourbon before he replied. “You, cousin. She was betrothed to you.”
The sudden overwhelming feeling of protectiveness which washed over him, was completely irrational, and he didn’t like it. His family had: stolen her father from her, forced her into an orphanage, and ultimately been responsible for god-only-knew whatever happened to her after she ran away.
Now she had been kidnapped into sexual slavery, and was going to be forced into a marriage that she didn’t want, so she could produce children on demand.
For the first time in his one-hundred and seven years of life, Adonis experienced the feeling of shame. He pushed himself away from the pool table, and made his way quickly toward the door—he needed to be alone.
“Don’t tell your father what I told you. He’ll kill me.” Erebus called after him.
Adonis paused with his hand on the door-handle, turning just enough to allow his voice to carry over his shoulder, he replied. “I want you gone within the hour, Erebus.”
“I was hoping we could maybe go for round two with the whore, before I left,” Erebus said darkly.
For the second time in a week—and perhaps only the second time in his life—Adonis lost control. He flew across the room, wrapping his hand around his cousin’s throat. He lifted the other man as though he weighed nothing; before slamming his body down against the surface of the pool table.
The bottle of bourbon shattered, splashing a puddle of dark, amber liquid across the red felt; which only served to fuel Adonis’ rage. Lowering his face until it was just inches from his cousin’s, Adonis snarled.
“You’ve touched her for the last fucking time. I see you anywhere near her again, and I swear I will tear you apart, Erebus. Leave. Now.”
Then, he let go and made for the door. He didn’t turn around even when he heard the choking, and spluttering breaths of his cousin behind him. Adonis didn’t slow his pace until he was inside his office, with the door closed, and a glass of his preferred drink in his hand.
Dropping into his chair, he picked up the desk phone. Adonis hit the speed dial for his father’s office. There was no answer, and the line clicked through to his father’s answer phone. He hung up, and tried calling Charles’s cell instead. When that call went straight through to voicemail; before even ringing, Adonis slammed the phone down, and sat back in his chair.
He was filled with a storm of conflicting emotions. He
knew he had no right to judge his father, when he had been a part of kidnapping and raping women for the best part of ninety years. But just hearing the story of what his family had done to that woman; was almost enough to make him renounce his inheritance and leave right now.
He knew Erebus well enough to know that he wouldn’t have been able to resist tormenting his charge when she was in the orphanage. And he also thought he knew enough about eighty-eight, to know that she was smart enough to stay in a place of relative safety, rather than taking to the streets, alone. Not unless she absolutely had to.
He sipped at the whiskey, as he recalled the first time that he saw her. His father had sent him out to some podunk town, in the middle of nowhere, with instructions to collect his latest trainee. Her name was Daisy Harper, he’d been told.
When Adonis had walked into the bar in which she worked, his eyes were immediately drawn to the fiery braid which trailed down her back. Her bright green eyes had caught his own blue eyes immediately, and she had smiled.
“Hi there. What can I get you?” She asked, brightly.
“Just a whiskey.” He’d spoken smoothly, as he took a seat at the bar.
“I haven’t seen you here before.” She made the same casual conversation with him that she probably made with every single stranger who ever walked through the door.
He returned the platitude. “I’m here on business, hopefully only for a day or two.”
She smiled at his brutally honest opinion of the town she called home, but he didn’t feel the need to apologize. He sensed that her ties to this place weren’t all that strong. And by this time tomorrow, she’d be in her new residence, and she would never see this place again, anyway.
He’d finished his drink without saying anything else to her, and returned to his car, across the street. He had the information he needed—taken from the staff roster on the wall. Daisy Harper finished her shift at one-thirty in the morning. Now all he had to do was wait.
Adonis closed his eyes as he remembered her kidnapping. It had been textbook. She left the bar a little after one-thirty—just as he’d expected. She came out the front door, and was walking toward a second door on the side wall of the bar when he took her from behind, with a chloroform-soaked cloth pressed over her mouth.
It wasn’t the most elegant way to knock a person out, but it sure as hell always worked. In total, less than one minute passed until Daisy was in the back of his car, and on the way to her new life—four hundred miles away.
Sitting in his office now, knowing what his family had done to this girl—how they had ruined her life, over and over again—Adonis groaned, and let his head drop into his hands. He wasn’t one hundred percent sure, but he suspected the feeling which overwhelmed him right now, was guilt.
Chapter Twenty-One
Daisy
Exhausted, I slept for hours. But when I woke up Emma was sitting on the chair from the vanity—but she had pulled it close to the bed, ensuring she was the first thing that I saw when I opened my eyes.
“You’re keen,” I joked.
“And you’re surprisingly chipper, since you just had sex with two incubi,” she said, smoothly.
My cheeks burned. “How do you know about that?”
Emma raised one blonde brow, before answering my question. “Because your aura is now currently made up of three colors, not two.”
My eyes grew wide. “What? You mean I ate Erebus’s aura too?”
Emma nodded. “I think so, yeah.”
I ran my fingers through my tangled, copper hair. “How am I able to do that?”
The blonde girl shrugged. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you were a succubus. But that’s not possible. They’re all dead.”
I frowned at her. “I think I’d know if I had been draining the men that I’ve had sex with of their life-force.”
“Not necessarily, Daisy. You didn’t even believe in any of this stuff until you saw Adonis’ wings.”
I had to admit that she was right. But still, I couldn’t honestly believe I was a demon who ate auras. A tiny whimper caught my attention, and the two puppies scampered across the floor to my bed.
“I guess they woke up,” Emma said, smiling.
Laughing, I leaned over the bed, and scooped both furry babies up onto the blankets with me. They seemed to have recovered from yesterday’s trauma, although I wasn’t entirely sure that I had yet.
“You know there were three yesterday?” I asked Emma.
She had been tickling Star behind her ears, but she paused to look sadly at me. “I know.”
“He’s a fucking monster,” I murmured, as I scooped Bear up and held him against my chest, beneath my chin. I cuddled him closely.
The blonde-haired girl nodded. “They’re all monsters, Daisy. They use all living beings as though we’re toys. Adonis would kill you or me just as quickly as he killed the other puppy, if he felt we were getting in the way.”
I was startled to realize that I didn’t agree with Emma. Yes, I thought of the incubi as monsters. Charles had murdered my father, and Adonis had kidnapped me. But I was a hundred percent certain that Adonis would never kill me. He had killed the puppy to protect me from Erebus, after all.
I told Emma what I thought, and she gave a hollow laugh. “I didn’t think you would be so easily fooled, Daisy. He has you falling under his spell, it’s what he’s designed to do. Be careful he doesn’t pull you under his control completely.”
Looking down at the two tiny puppies—who had both fallen asleep, curled up next to my leg—I frowned determinedly. “That’s never going to happen. I swear.”
Before Emma could reply, the door flew open, and the room was dominated by the shadowy presence of Adonis. He looked at the puppies, and Emma; before he barked, “Out. Now. Take the dogs with you.”
Emma hesitated for a brief moment, looking at me as though for permission. I nodded quickly, collecting the puppies and thrusting their wriggling forms into her hands.
Emma bowed her head, and rushed past Adonis, but he caught hold of her arm before she made it to the door.
“Remember who is in control here, witch. She,” he gestured at me. “Is not your mistress. Got it?” He kept hold of her while he waited for her to answer.
“Yes, sir,” Emma whispered.
He let her go without another word. And after firing me an apologetic look, Emma closed the door behind her.
My temper flared, as I rose from the bed. I didn’t want him to have the advantage of standing over me.
“You’re vile, you know that?” I hissed.
He stepped in to me so that our bodies were almost touching. “You weren’t saying that earlier, when you were full of incubus cock.”
I had no idea what I was thinking in that moment, but his words made me so angry that I could barely see. I drew my right arm back, before raising my hand to slap his face with every ounce of energy that I could muster.
As soon as my hand connected with his handsome face, I regretted it. The sound of the slap had barely faded, before I sprang into action; trying to run away from him—although I had no idea where to.
I was way too slow.
His large hand curled around my slim wrist, and I was jolted to a stop. He yanked hard, and I stumbled so that I landed with my back pressed against his chest. My ass came to rest against his rock, hard cock, and I took a minute to think to myself that this man was insatiable.
He’s constantly hard.
One strong arm snaked around my arms and waist, pinning me tightly against him. His other arm crept up my body, until his hand was wrapped around my throat; pulling my head back against his chest. I was trapped, and he was angry.
He bowed his head so that his lips brushed against my ear, making me shiver as he spoke.
“I thought we’d agreed on your obedience, slave,” he murmured. His breath tickling my ear and neck.
It took me a moment to reply. “I didn’t think you’d let another man fuck me. Especially
not him,” I spat.
He stiffened almost imperceptibly against me. “But you did enjoy it, didn’t you?”
I wanted to say no, but three howling orgasms told a different story. My core burned just remembering what had happened in that room, and a wetness had already begun to spread between my thighs.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“Ahh,” he made a sound that was a beautifully blended combination of both agony, and delight.
“What are you, Cara Westenra?” he whispered, hoarsely.
I stiffened at his use of my real name. He tightened his hold on me a little—letting me know that he would hold me here forever if that was what it took.
“I can’t answer that question.” It was the most honest answer I could offer.
“Because?”
“Because I don’t know,” I confessed, in a whisper.
“Would you like to know?” He leaned down, and darted his tongue along the smooth line of my neck. I groaned in delight, and involuntarily pressed my ass backward, grinding against him.
“Yes.” The word came out so quietly, I wasn’t sure that he had heard me.
He had.
In one swift movement he turned me around so that I was facing him, he grabbed tightly hold of my upper arms; before stepping back toward the bed. He pulled me across the floor with him, until the backs of his legs connected with the bed. Then he allowed himself to fall back onto the soft blankets, pulling me with him so that I ended up straddling him, with my knees either side of his hips.
He let go of my arms, letting his hands drop to his sides on the bed. He was completely vulnerable beneath me, but he didn’t look worried. He looked as though he was just lying back to rest for a while.
His blue eyes burned into my own, and I felt an overwhelming desire to lay my lips over his full mouth. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. I wondered if he could feel the growing dampness between my thighs, and I was suddenly grateful for the thin robe that Emma had handed me to cover my modesty when I woke.
