by LJ Swallow
The heat between us, the intoxicating scent from his skin, and the strength in the shoulders I grip onto consume me, as the urgency continues. A dizziness matching earlier by the bar washes over me. My body fills with exhaustion, the new kiss pulling me towards unconsciousness. This contradiction makes no sense, but my body and brain shut down as I disconnect from reality. Legs buckling, I fall backwards onto the sofa. I fight to keep my eyes open as Ewan stands over me, lust filling his hooded eyes, but the dizzy dark consumes.
8
EWAN
I stand on the balcony overlooking the dance floor, snapping my head between watching people on the stairs and scouring the crowd for Vee.
"Where the hell is she?" I growl at Xander.
"Hey, don't get pissy with me. You were the one who lost her."
Lost her. "Fuck you."
"Whoa, calm down. She'll be fine."
"How do you know that? She said some guy came onto her. What if —"
"Come on, this place may be filled with freaks, but the place is too busy for a girl to be dragged screaming through the club. Especially not her. Vee might not have control over her powers, but something that threatens her will trigger them."
I want to believe his words, but something doesn't feel right here. The way she looked at me before we headed away from the bar and over here blew me away. She seriously looked as if she were about to tear my clothes off. Our relationship hit awkward since the "big reveal" fuck up, and there's no way either of us are near to acting on the tension between us.
"I'm going to look for Vee. What if those we're trying to find have found her first?" I rub a palm across my mouth. "We’re not immune to every trick a demon can pull, especially any that influences our human side."
Xander's not listening. He grips my arm and points into the sea of sweaty black below.
"Do you see what I see?" he asks.
I peer through the dim. Lost in the crowd’s midst, two women surround a guy, one kissing him and the other behind, sliding her hands down the front of his jeans.
"Yeah. A guy getting very lucky," I reply.
"No, dumbass. They're holding him up. Look at his arms loose by his side."
I peer closer. He’s right. "Shit. Demons?"
"Yeah, succubi. I bet there's a fucking gang of them around."
"But they're attacking him in front of everybody!"
Xander shakes his head and places his bottle on the nearby table. "Like that matters. Half the people dancing are practically screwing each other."
I rake a hand through my hair, momentarily forgetting about Vee as I know the man’s life’s in danger. "When did they arrive?"
"Unless we come face to face, it's hard to spot them."
"Should've brought Joss," I mutter.
"No. We both know he’s best suited to scouting out demons’ nests and we need to work separately to cover all angles."
"Yeah, and we need to stop them!" I jab a finger in the direction of the two girls. "Then we need serious words with Arlo about this."
"Maybe he doesn't know."
"Sure." I snort.
We take the steps two at a time as we charge down them. Two succubi sharing the same guy means there’s a real possibility they'll kill him. The demons must be young, because public attacks like this are a dumb idea. On top of that, sharing him increases the chance they'll drain the guy’s energy too quickly. He'll die in public. In the club.
Yeah, they’re either young or dumb, or both.
If the attack happened outside, this would be easier for us: a quick dispatch with a knife. But here, we'd draw attention however subtly we can kill following years of practice. I nod at Xander who approaches the girl kissing the guy and drags her backwards. Black hair falls down the succubi’s back as she tips her head to look at Xander, eyes lazy with pleasure, and touches his face.
Xander spins her around so her back's against his chest. She doesn't struggle, instead continuing to move to the music, arms behind her, running hands along Xander’s legs as she rubs herself against him.
One advantage we have is not all demons know what the Horsemen look like, or can detect who we are. Of course, those higher up their food chain, the ones attempting to interfere with our work, would spot us from across a room. They follow our moves, send lower caste demons after us, but these girls are different. Renegade. Young. Focused on their own lives while waiting for the day their demon superiors bring the world to its knees.
Have they any idea who we are?
The girl holding the guy drops her hold from around his waist and terror crosses her face. I guess that answers my question. I catch the guy as he slumps into my arms, his tall figure heavy with semi-consciousness.
"It’s the fucking Horsemen!" she yells at her friend. The succubi darts into the crowd leaving the other girl firmly in Xander's grip. With the guy in my arms I’m unable to follow.
Another girl dancing alongside us gives a curious look. I pull a face at her and smile in an attempt to communicate I'm helping a drunk friend. Simultaneously, the girl in Xander's arms stops dancing and attempts to pull away, digging nails into his grip on her waist.
We drag the demon and victim into a quieter corner before anybody else notices what’s happening. Ironically, we look like two guys assaulting a girl, and that can cause more problems than the one we’re about to fix. Fortunately, club security know who we are and never bother with us.
"Is he alive?" asks Xander above the music.
The man shifts against me and mumbles, answering Xander's question.
The girl whimpers as Xander takes hold of her shoulders and shakes. "How many of you are here?"
She gives up on her escape attempt, the high from her victim’s energy soothing the fear she should have. She waves a hand around. "Me, her, a couple of guys from our family."
"Incubi too? Are you fucking insane? Anybody who crosses into this place to feed risks death if we’re around," shouts Xander over the music.
"He invited us!" She indicates the guy now sitting on the floor. "He's a friend."
"A friend you're sucking the life out of?" I snap.
"Well, he thinks we're friends, since we happen to look like the two chicks he's spent months lusting after." Her beautiful face curves into a smile. "We didn't need to use magic to turn this one on."
Fear trickles down my spine like ice. They've glamoured themselves to look like people he knows? These scum often disguise themselves with magic, and use the same power to switch off everything in a victim's brain apart from sexual arousal. One touch and the victim's infected the way I'll happily infect this thing with my own brand of magic.
Fuck. What about the guys who groped Vee?
No, I'm being paranoid. Any guy could've touched Vee; she's an attractive girl and plenty would grab the opportunity to put their hands on her.
Surely Vee would notice if they were supernatural.
But would she? This incubus’s appearance is as human as the girl dancing nearby. We can't always detect demons, and we’ve had years of practice.
Shit.
I flashback to Vee rubbing her arm. Did they mark her and infuse magic into her body? The ice chills my blood further. I really fucking need to find her.
I drop the guy who slumps against the wall, head lolling to one side. "You sort this. I need to find Vee."
I don’t wait for Xander’s inevitable protest.
The paranoia intensifies as I plunge back into the dancing bodies, searching for any sign of Vee. I shove at those blocking my path, staring down any guys who take offence and challenge me. I know my way around this club, spent evening after evening involved in searches like this, but for demons not the girl who means the world to all of us. I kick open doors to rooms as I pass along the hallway leading to the rear of the building.
Nothing.
The last room I come to is locked. Not caring or waiting, I step back and slam my foot into the black door as hard as I can. The lock splinters and door flies open
.
The scene greeting me triggers a rage I've never experienced before. The individual standing with his back to me a few feet away is about to experience my rage too, and it won't be pretty.
Vee's lying on the sofa unconscious, head hanging off the edge and hair falling towards the floor. A guy stands over her and he twists his head around at the noise caused by my kicking down the door. His brown eyes widen in surprise, but he’s not as fucking surprised as I am. I stare back at the man who matches my height, build, face.... my mirror image.
What the fuck?
The space around him shimmers; the guy’s body and face change to reveal someone completely different. As he transforms, his brown curls switch for blond hair, and he becomes slimmer. A glamour. I was fucking right; this guy’s an incubus who’s preying on Vee.
I flick my eyes to Vee. Her clothes are intact, but what the hell would’ve happened if I hadn’t arrived?
"You fucking demon bastard!" I yell, and in seconds he's on the floor, beneath me with my knees on his chest.
Tonight he can be the victim pinned down and killed.
"Get the fuck off me!" he snarls, but realisation who I am dawns across his face now we’re closer. "Shit."
"Oh yeah, shit." I pull back a fist and bone crunches as I smack him in the face. "Do you know who that is you're about to rape and kill?" I snarl.
"Rape? She's consenting and fucking desperate to screw you," he sneers.
My hand’s back, ready to strike again, but I pause at his words.
"You know how we operate, Horseman. You saw me; I glamoured myself. I lifted the image of a guy from her mind—one she wants to fuck." He pauses then silently mouths the word "you" before breaking into a grin.
No way. Blood smears his face and my knuckles as my fist collides with his broken face again. "She’s not fucking consenting!"
The man rubs his stained lips together. "With a bit of magic persuasion, they're always up for a good time. Man, you should give her a go. Amazing tits, shame I never got my hands on them."
I grab his shirt, lift him forward, and slam his head on the floor with a sickening thud. He blinks back at me and laughs. Pulling him close again, his face almost touches mine.
"If she thinks you're me, and you're not, that's assault. How far have you gone with her? If you’ve hurt her I will kill you so slowly and painfully you’ll wish you were in Hell," I spit out.
The demon chokes on the blood gathering in his mouth. "Not far enough, thanks to you. Just a kiss or two. She lost consciousness before we could get down to the good stuff."
A lot in my life pisses me off; I've witnessed some evil shit by demons before but never to somebody close to me. This? Livid doesn't even begin to describe the rage consuming each and every cell in my body.
I grip the incubus’s neck with both hands and he gasps. Veins in his neck blacken, and the blackness moves upwards and across his disfigured face. The disease and decay I infuse with my fingers continues its deadly journey through his body, and his eyes redden as the blood vessels burst.
"The girl you're assaulting? She's our Fifth. If she'd known who you were you'd be fucking dead already."
He gasps a laugh. "I think she wanted to believe I was you."
No. No. No. I squeeze my anger into his neck.
The demon retches as the disease takes hold, fluid filling his lungs and I keep my grip on him while I grasp at what the hell is happening here. Xander's right. Vee needs to learn to defend herself until she grows into the strength we presumed she could summon.
A movement from the sofa catches my eye as Vee sits and props herself on one arm. She stares, pale face marred by shock, and touches her mouth with shaking fingers.
"Ewan. What are you doing?" Her eyes flick to the dying demon. "Who's that?"
"The demon you thought was me," I snarl. I shake him again. "Isn't that right?"
The guy turns his head to look at Vee, blood caking his face. "Don't you recognise me, sweetheart?"
She continues to touch her lips. "He was one of the guys who came on to me. The one who touched me. Why is he in here with us?"
"The bastard glamoured himself to look like me," I bark out. "He'd already magiced you into a state of uh... arousal. I just arrived. He was the one who brought you in here, not me." I meet Vee’s eyes and wait for the truth to catch up.
"Omigod." Vee tears her gaze from mine and slumps back down again. She rakes hands into her hair. "He’s the one I kissed?"
"Yes," rasps the demon with a laugh. "We could’ve had so much fun if your friend hadn’t interrupted."
The demon bastard doesn't laugh for much longer as the blackened veins burst sending a putrid darkness across his skin and choke the remaining life from him. His body slackens, and I drop the evil creature’s neck. I wish I'd prolonged his death, but I want this over and to get Vee the hell out of here.
I rest back on my haunches and look to Vee. "I'd ask if you were okay but guess that's a bloody stupid question."
She chews on a nail, eyes hard and not glistening with the tears I’d expect. "Don't tell anybody what happened."
"That's your biggest worry here?" I ask. "That the others would find out? Vee, a guy just assaulted you."
"He only kissed me." She glares at the body on the floor.
I blink. "That’s still assault."
As I stand and then sit next to Vee on the sofa, she shifts slightly and pulls at the dress to cover more of her legs.
Realisation hits as she refuses to meet my eyes. "He wasn't me," I say. "The scum dead on the floor who touched you is—was—an incubus. Do you know what they are?"
"Sort of. I know they feed from humans, and it has something to do with sex." She swallows.
"Demons. They’re male succubi who feed on unconscious females by having sex with them. The sexual energy fuels them. You’re their food source."
"But how?" She grits her teeth. "Surely I'd know what he was."
I point at Vee's arm, at the smallest mark, no bigger than a thumbprint bruise. "Magic, Vee. You had no idea." She closes her shaking hand over it.
"This is bullshit, Ewan! You guys say I have special powers, yet demons can still freaking attack me?"
I recoil at her anger. Vee's breathing's shallow, cheeks pink, and she can't look at me. I ache to put arms around her and hug tight, but don’t know if she wants me to.
"You can’t always spot demons. It sucks, but it’s true. Don’t you think our job would be a hell of a lot easier if we could pick demons out more easily? We're powerful but not infallible, Vee. You didn’t feel in danger or know, so nothing triggered your powers."
Her demeanour changes, and she drops her head back onto the sofa."Fuck. I passed out. Was he... When you walked in. It was just kissing, wasn’t it?"
"Yes." My stomach twists at the thought of what I could’ve seen, and I give in to my need, wrapping Vee in my arms and holding her close. Vee's cheek touches my chest, but her muscles remain tense, and she doesn't yield to my desperation to comfort her.
The succubus told us there were four of them altogether, which means I need to get Vee to safety, then find and subject his friend to a painful death too.
I can't help the question rattling in my brain. Why me? Why not Xander? I saw Vee with him, intimate, when I arrived, positive she wanted him. The incubus must've seen both of us in her mind. Why did Vee favour me?
I wish she bloody hadn’t. Everything between us was already a mess and is now fucked up more than ever.
9
VEE
Ewan keeps his promise and doesn't say a word to Xander. He messages him and escorts me from the club, through the fire doors at the back. An alarm sounds, but Ewan strides through despite somebody appearing in the doorway to yell at us.
"I told Xander to meet us at his car," Ewan informs me and we walk across the dirty tarmac in silence.
I shake, my mind missing chunks of the last hour, and when I close my eyes, all I see is Ewan's face looking down at me,
his lips on mine and hands on my body. I waver between anger over the attack and mortification I imagined the demon was Ewan. Why the hell did I?
As Xander strides towards us, he clicks the key fob and the lights flash as the Aston Martin unlocks. Ewan pulls open the car door and I slide onto the cool leather seat, not looking at him as he slams it shut behind me. I huddle down in the seat as the two guys talk.
I’m beyond grateful Ewan found me when he did, but I can’t separate the incubus and him in my mind. He probably takes my inability to meet his eyes as pissed off with him, or upset by the attack, but I’m bloody embarrassed I’ve revealed my feelings. Ewan now knows how I see him. How can I look Ewan in the face knowing he doesn’t want me, but that he knows I fantasise about him?
Minutes later, Xander climbs into the driver’s seat and I eye him warily. He starts the engine.
"You're a bit of a lightweight, huh?" he says as he releases the handbrake.
"Pardon?"
"Ewan said he found you sitting in a corner having thrown up in the bathrooms. Seriously, you had one vodka, Vee."
"Must've been something I ate," I mumble. The perspiration across my back cools under the car's air con, and I shiver.
"All good. But you should've stayed with us or told us where you were going."
"I lost you in the crowd."
"Yeah, pretty crazy in there, huh?"
I clear my throat as he manoeuvres the car onto the nearby street. "I think next time you guys should go on your own."
"Not your best intro to hunting if you don't see us kill the bastards. Demons were in there. Found a couple of succubi, and Ewan took out one of their male counterparts before he found you. He's headed back to find the fourth in the group before he comes home."
