by A. H. Lee
“That’s my incubus,” said Azrael placidly, as though Mal’s constant advances were reassuringly routine. He removed his hand from Mal’s shoulder to pat him on the chest exactly as he would have patted him as a panther. “Please get your hand off my ass.”
I didn’t—! Alright, maybe a little. Mal adjusted his hand.
Azrael hadn’t taken his own hand off Mal’s chest. Mal thought Azrael meant to push him away, get them back to an appropriately platonic dancing distance, but seconds ticked by like heartbeats, and Azrael didn’t move. Half of one finger was above the V of Mal’s shirt collar, against a curl of Mal’s chest hair, against his skin. Half of one finger.
If Mal had been able to use magic, he would have known all kinds of things in that moment—whether Azrael was entranced or merely distracted, whether he was aroused, a vague idea of what he wanted in bed, the flutter of his emotions. But Mal could see none of these things behind Azrael’s impenetrable wards. His master was, as usual, a person without a scent.
Azrael raised his head and their eyes met. Later, Mal wondered whether he’d kept dancing. Probably, but he wasn’t sure. Time seemed to stop.
Finally, Azrael looked away. There was a faint flush in his cheeks, and Mal knew he wasn’t imagining things. You do want me. Aloud, he murmured, “You are such a tease.”
Azrael’s eyes had fixed on his shoulder. “Mal…I am not special.”
This statement caught Mal by surprise. It wasn’t like Azrael to fish for compliments. “Nah, the High Mage Council and the Faery Queen both want a piece of you, but you’re not special at all.”
“I mean, I’m just a man. When it comes to magic, yes, I have a talent, which, as you love to point out, requires you. But for the rest…” Azrael looked at him again, his eyes pleading for Mal to understand. “When you want something you can’t have, it seems special. I haven’t been on the menu for twenty-three years, but…I’m not special.”
Mal was aghast. “You made me.” He hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that, but the closeness and Azrael’s fingertip on his chest were going to his head. “I made myself to please you.”
And then you didn’t want me. Mal recoiled from that thought, stuffed it down deep before it could poison this moment.
Some of it must have leaked through in his eyes, because Azrael shook his head as though he wanted to take everything back. “Wallace was right,” he spoke so quickly and so softly that Mal barely caught the words.
“Right about what?”
“I do think you’re my friend.”
Yes, you told me when I was dying.
Mal leaned close, so that his warm breath tickled the seashell of Azrael’s ear. “I am your friend. Why do you think I came back from the astral plane?”
Azrael swallowed. Mal wanted to trace that swallow with kisses, all the way from Azrael’s pale throat, down into his fine linen shirt.
“You came back for Jessica.”
“I came back for both of you. I’d tell you to ask my entity—we had a sort of argument about it—but I don’t think you’d want to meet him. Her. It. I certainly don’t want to meet it ever again.”
Azrael turned his head to look at Mal, and they were nose-to-nose. “So, yes, I am your friend,” continued Mal. “And I want to fuck you. I really really want to fuck you. I also want to kiss you. A lot. Right now.”
Azrael laughed and the tension broke. His hand on Mal’s chest moved and he patted him again—affectionately, like a horse. It might have been insulting if Mal hadn’t known how much Azrael loved horses. “That’s my incubus.”
The song had ended, and the piano started up again, this time for a slow dance. Let me hold you, thought Mal. Please.
But Azrael had already disengaged. “Well, we should probably save some of these dances for the other person you came back from the astral plane to kiss. Meanwhile, I need to talk to Lucy.”
Chapter 14
Jessica
Jessica had intended to scoot over next to Lucy the second Mal and Azrael departed. I’ll have half a minute to make friends with her before Mal comes back and starts being an overbearing astral demon again. However, she was deterred by a distractingly attractive waiter who leaned over the table next to them. Jessica had a weakness for adorable backsides, and the trousers on the staff here were very tight. The boy—for he couldn’t be more than a teenager—had a mop of blond hair, lighter than Jessica’s own, and faintly curly, falling into his face. The waistcoats were just as tight as the trousers—all black with gold buttons and piping. They made his waist look impossibly slim and elegant. Pearl cufflinks caught the light on the long sleeves of his starched white shirt.
The boy moved around the table, wiping it down. He seemed to sense her attention all at once and looked up. Chocolate brown eyes, freckles. He smiled at her—an impish grin that made his nose crinkle. Jessica was smitten.
As he straightened, Jessica realized that the boy was, in fact, a girl. She was skinny and small breasted with that androgynous beauty so easily mistaken for adolescence. However, Jessica guessed the girl was, in fact, close to her own age.
She stepped away from the table, balancing a tray over her head. She gave Jessica a smirk and a mocking salute before moving away through the crowd, her hips weaving under the heavy tray. Jessica blinked and looked around, a little embarrassed, wondering if Lucy had noticed the exchange.
But Lucy was watching Mal and Azrael. She gave a heavy sigh. “You’re a nice girl, Jessica. You seem to be fond of my master.”
“I am fond of him.” Jessica scooted a little closer to her. “I think he’s a great man, possibly even a good one.”
Lucy drew her eyes from the dancers long enough to give Jessica a critical stare, elegant eyebrows arching into her glossy white hair. “I’m sure you want to bed him, too. You are a succubus, after all. If only a fledgling.”
Jessica lowered her gaze. Azrael hasn’t told Lucy the price of his gate, she guessed. And I’d rather not be the one to deliver that message. Jessica spoke with a playful smile. “Who wouldn’t? He’s Lord Azrael!”
Lucy laughed. She crossed her legs and leaned back. “Gods, I wish I had a cigarette. Does nobody smoke indoors anymore?”
“Cigarettes aren’t good for you.”
“Maybe not for you,” purred Lucy, “but I’m a dragon, dove. I need a little fire in my lungs now and then.”
Jessica laughed. “We could probably find you some.”
Before she could think of how to follow this, Lucy said, “If you are indeed fond of my master, if you care about him and want him to be happy and successful, take Mal away.” Her voice dropped to a grating note on the last three words. “Take him far, far away and keep him there. Stay with him. You seem to find him as charming as most people do, so that shouldn’t be a burden.”
Jessica hesitated. “Do you really think that would work?”
Lucy put two fingers to the bridge of her nose and shut her eyes. “Probably not. Azrael would probably invent some excuse to go looking for him. It’s probably already too late.”
Jessica sighed. “Lucy, I can see you don’t quite get along with Mal, and he can be an ass, I know. But…he loves Azrael.”
She’d expected Lucy to argue, but she didn’t. “Mal loves Azrael the way an incubus loves things. Hungrily.”
“He wouldn’t eat him,” said Jessica.
Lucy didn’t respond to this. Her brows knit. Her voice came so softly that Jessica had to strain to hear it beneath the noises of the merrymakers. “Mal whines and whines about his service, but he has no idea what a bad master actually looks like. I, in my long life, have had many bad masters, Jessica. Selfish, remorseless, clever in their cruelty. Azrael is the best I’ve seen—a friend to the friendless, kind, as generous as his business will allow.” She let out a long sigh. “And Mal will be his undoing. Because the Council is right.”
Jessica stared at her. “But—”
“Mal’s one redeeming feature,” growled Lucy, “is that he is
not ambitious. And perhaps I should add: not very smart.”
Jessica could have disagreed, but she kept quiet and let Lucy talk.
“He doesn’t realize how much power he has over Azrael,” continued Lucy, “and he wouldn’t know what to do with it if he did. He’s an opportunist who doesn’t think beyond his immediate needs and desires. But, now that he’s no longer bound, now that he has broken with his primary entity…who knows what ideas may come into his head? ‘I’m an astral demon with a sorcerer wrapped around my finger’ might be one of them. This is how dark lords are made.”
Jessica wanted to argue. But… She has a point.
Jessica and Lucy were both watching the dancers, and Jessica saw the exact moment when, as far as Mal and Azrael were concerned, everyone else ceased to exist. They were looking into each other’s eyes, and, for them, the whole world had just gone quiet.
Lucy turned to Jessica and raised one eyebrow as though to say, You see?
“Mal loves him,” repeated Jessica stubbornly.
Lucy screwed up her face. “Jessica! They have been circling each other like this for years! Decades! It doesn’t go anywhere. It’s not—” She took a deep breath and said, in a voice that was deadly quiet, “Whether Mal loves him in some fashion is immaterial. Do you really think that Azrael would be all alone in the world if he had summoned anything else?”
Jessica sighed. You’re wrong. This relationship is progressing. It will progress quite a lot in about five days. But I am not going to be the one to tell you that.
“If you care about Azrael, take Mal away,” said Lucy, “and this time, keep him away.” She swallowed, and her shoulders drooped a fraction. “Please.”
Jessica put an arm around her—bony under her mink cape. “Lucy, I don’t think Azrael is alone in the world.” I think he’s sexually frustrated, but that’s something different. “I think he has quite a few people who love him in his life.” She squeezed Lucy’s shoulder. “He holds himself apart, but that’s his own choice.”
Lucy opened her mouth to say something, but Jessica kept talking. “Please give Mal one more chance. Things are different now that he’s not bound. He’s never gotten to make his own decisions before, and I think he might surprise you. Just one more chance. Please?”
Lucy sighed. “You’re a sweet child.” Her hand closed around Jessica’s with more power than any old woman ought to have and she said, “Keep as much of your humanity as you can for as long as you can, Jessica. No matter what Mal or Azrael or I do, this is my advice to you as an earth-born demon: never let anyone put you in a bottle. You understand?”
Jessica wasn’t sure she did, but she nodded. “I think you’re amazing,” she said in a small voice.
Lucy let go of her and leaned back, all toothy smile. “I’m a dragon, love.”
“A dragon I need to talk to.” Jessica looked up to see Azrael standing in front of their table.
Mal was right behind him. “He can dance like a girl! Lucy, did you know? Where did he learn to do that?”
Azrael rolled his eyes. “I can dance like a boy, too. If you want me to fling you around, let me know.”
“That’s alright,” said Mal, “I’d rather fling you around.” He held out his hand to Jessica. “Dance?”
Chapter 15
Jessica
The music had changed to slow dancing. Jessica put her arms around Mal’s shoulders, and he put his hands around her waist, drawing her close. Jessica smirked up at him. “Someone has been teasing you.”
She pressed her hips against him and Mal groaned. “Such a tease!”
“He looked like he wanted to kiss you.”
“I think that was more the other way around.” Mal’s eyes flicked towards the table, and Jessica turned them so that he couldn’t watch Azrael and Lucy.
She tucked her face against his neck and laughed. “I feel like I just met Azrael’s mother.”
It took Mal a moment to process this. “That harpy is not his mother!”
“Not getting along with your mother-in-law is traditional.”
“She’s not my mother-in-law!”
“I didn’t say she was; I said she was like one. And how would you know what mothers-in-law are like? Or mothers, for that matter?”
Mal had no answer for this.
“To her,” continued Jessica, “he seems like a talented, good-hearted young man, whom you seem likely to corrupt or destroy.”
“Well, I do want to corrupt him,” purred Mal.
“That’s not what I mean. It’s not what Lucy means, either.”
“And Azrael is not always good-hearted. He’s killed plenty of people. He’s had me kill people! He’s the king-maker of the Shattered Sea, for fuck’s sake! Azrael of the Shroud, they call him sometimes, and they’re not just talking about his island.”
“I know that,” said Jessica gently. “But can you forgive Lucy a little bit for caring about him? You both care about him.”
Mal made a grumbling noise and didn’t answer. Half under his breath, he muttered, “She just thinks I’m going to eat him. I’m not going to eat him.”
They danced for a moment in silence. Mal’s shoulders were works of art, and he was always so warm. Jessica curled into his embrace. You never had a mother. She hadn’t really thought about that until now. You never… “Mal, did you just start having sex with people as soon as you arrived?”
He hesitated. “I guess? I don’t remember much from my first three or four years.”
“Do you remember being summoned?”
Mal thought about it. “Sort of. Like a series of still images. Azrael says that I knew things then that I don’t know now—geography and math and history. It’s strange.”
“But,” persisted Jessica, “you were never a child? You didn’t go through adolescence? Didn’t go through puberty?”
“Of course not!” Mal’s voice held an edge of contempt. “I am Lust. Or I was. I’m a little confused now.”
Jessica gave him a squeeze. “You are yourself.” She licked her lips. “I was thinking, though…you met me when you stuck your tongue in me. You know that’s not normal, right? That’s not how you’re supposed to meet people.”
Mal tilted his head to look at her with one haughty, cat-green eye. “It’s how I meet people.”
Jessica shook her head. “You get away with that when you’re meeting people who are already comfortable with the idea of sex. But that’s not how regular human beings start their sexual experiences. They start slowly. Lots of touching. Lots of kissing. Lots of necking.”
“What’s necking?”
Jessica blinked at him. “You’re an incubus. You don’t know what necking is?”
“I just do what I do.”
“It’s making out.”
“What’s making out?”
“Dear gods, you’re a child.”
“I am a terribly inappropriate child.”
“Yes.”
“Please tell me?”
Jessica sighed. “It’s…foreplay without a goal. It doesn’t progress to sex.”
Mal looked baffled. “Why would anyone do that?”
“Because it’s fun? Sometimes you come in your clothes, but not at first and not always. Anyway, that’s how most humans begin sexual activity. You skipped that part because you’re not human. And unfortunately, I’m afraid Azrael may have skipped it, too. But he needs it. You’ve got to touch him more. Above the waist. Before we all jump into bed together.”
Mal shrugged. “Well, he hardly touched me even while we were dancing just now, and he stopped the second they switched to slow dancing.”
Jessica considered. “Slow dancing is a lot of physical contact. I know you don’t think so, but for someone who never gets touched, it is.” She pressed her hips against him again, and Mal ran a hand over her butt. With his other hand, he stroked the side of a breast. “Especially slow dancing with you.”
“Azrael isn’t the only one teasing me this evening.”
&nb
sp; “Well, I at least will do something about it.”
“Now?”
“Later.”
Chapter 16
Mal
When Mal and Jessica returned to the table, Lucy was staring at him. There was nothing unusual about this. Lucy watched Mal with constant suspicion whenever they were in each other’s company. However, this stare seemed different. He couldn’t interpret her emotions at all. She didn’t say anything, either, and that was also unusual. Lucy always had something to say to him.
“Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves,” said Azrael, rising and pulling on his coat. “I’d like to find a map before all the shops close.”
He went through four shops before he found a map he liked. It showed all the kingdoms of the Shattered Sea with just enough detail for his purposes, and it was made entirely of local materials. Jessica helped him search. She was better at talking to shopkeepers. Lucy had stopped staring at Mal, but she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings, either. She didn’t try to help with the maps. She seemed lost in her own thoughts. Maybe her magic is low. Lucy needed to sleep in her bottle in order to replenish. She was powerful for brief periods, but easily exhausted.
Mal tried to get a look at her aura, but Lucy was good at cloaking—far better than Mal. It was hard to get a proper look unless she let him.
They’d reached the inn, and Azrael was in the act of saying goodnight, when Mal snapped his attention away from Lucy. “You’re not sleeping here, are you?”
Azrael was holding the bag with the map in both hands. “Or working,” Mal corrected himself. You’ll probably work on that thing for half the night. “You’re not planning on working here, are you?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because a shadow creature came through your mirror this morning!”
Lucy blinked, and was fully present all at once. “What?”
“Loudain killed it,” said Azrael, “and I would have killed it if I’d been here.”
“Not if you were asleep!” exclaimed Mal. “Lucy can’t stay awake all night and guard you.”
