He drew in a deep breath. “That sucks… how long will that take?”
“I don’t know. Dante wasn’t—I mean, I just have no idea.”
“Dante? Has he been teaching you?”
I ran my fingers through my hair. “I wouldn’t exactly call it teaching, but he did tell me what I needed to do to feel better. You don’t know how… empty… I was after that training session.”
“But you feel better now?”
I kissed him lightly on the chest. “Much better, thanks to you.”
There was a pause. “What happens tomorrow when Leo puts you through his intensive training again?”
“I… don’t know. I guess I’ll just be tired.”
“Won’t that be bad for you?”
“It might be, but the alternative…”
“What about it?”
I tilted my head to the side and shot him a serious look. “Do you really know what’s going through my head right now?”
“I have an idea, and I think you should.”
My heart suddenly began to race. I swallowed to fight the adrenaline racing up through my stomach and into my chest, but that didn’t kill the butterflies. “You think I should… what… exactly?” I asked.
He reached for my hand and took it. “I think you should entertain the idea of… taking what you need from the others, too.”
I was shaking, and he noticed. I could tell by the way he squeezed my hand. “You know what you’re asking me to do, right?”
He nodded. “Like you did with me.”
I laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I can’t, not after… I mean, I chose you, right? Wouldn’t… wouldn’t it bother you if I started cozying up to other guys?”
Aiden let go of my hand, reached for the back of my neck, and pulled my face closer to his, close enough to kiss me. I brushed my hands against his face and ground my naked pelvis against his outer thigh, breathing deeply through the kiss. I could feel him getting excited again, and I wanted to reach for him and… but I didn’t. Instead, I let the kiss break and stared into those gorgeous eyes of his.
“Lilith, you can do whatever you want with whoever will have you… as long as I get to have you, too. Do you understand me?”
Trembling, now. “I do…” I whispered. Smiled. “I do.”
I wanted to have him right now, again, but I knew that wouldn’t be good for him. It would, in fact, hurt him whether I intended to hurt him or not, so I pulled away from him and let us both simmer down by stepping off the bed and locating my clothes. When I found my underwear, I slipped back into it, acutely aware of his eyes on my naked body. Another smile swept across my lips, one he couldn’t see. Maybe I gave him a show on purpose, or maybe it was just absent-minded on my part, but I liked that he was watching me put my clothes back on.
I returned to the bedroom after grabbing my leather jacket and slipping it on. “Can I get you anything?” I asked. “Something to eat or drink?”
“No, I think I’ll be okay to get up in a sec,” he said.
I sat next to him on the bed. “Alright. You should probably stay here until you’re fully recovered, then think about moving when you’re ready.”
“That’s a good idea.”
I leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Sleep well, okay?”
“I will.”
I smiled at him, then got off the bed and headed out of his bedroom to leave the cottage, but something caught my eye as I moved toward the door. A fresh sketch, laying on a desk illuminated by a small lamp. I glanced at the bedroom across my shoulder; Aiden was already passed out. Tentatively I approached the desk, driven by curiosity more than anything else.
There were other sketches along the walls, each pinned up in some fashion. All of them were good, most were portraits or close-up shots of hyper-realistic looking skulls, demons, and snakes, that kind of thing. They were incredible, and the thought of getting to see one as it was being sketched out, in its rawest form, excited me. Then I got a good look at the sketch sitting underneath an inert pencil.
It was me.
The girl in the picture was wearing a leather jacket and had long, black hair. She was standing with one hand on her hip, another across her cheek, and her lips were parted. Her face was expressive and bold, and she had wings arching out of her back—large, leathery, bat wings. Seeing it gave me a warm rush of excitement. It was the eyes that struck me. He had captured something in my eyes, a glimmer, an inner light, one even I couldn’t see.
Smiling, my curiosity satisfied, I turned and headed out. Outside, the temperature seemed to have dropped fifty degrees, though compared to the warmth inside of the house, it was probably just the shocking contrast that had hit me instead of the night chill itself. Then again, the grass was already frosted as I walked across the grounds toward the mansion, and my breath was clearly visible in front of my face.
I was half way to the front door when the air in front of my face distorted, and a black mass burst its way into my path. I jumped, hackles rising, skin prickling all over, and put myself into a defensive stance. They’ve found me, shit, they’ve found me and they’ve gotten through the mansion’s defenses somehow! I readied myself to attack the thing manifesting in front of me, but it wasn’t a thing, or a werewolf—it was Leo. That fact alone didn’t stop me from wanting to throw my fist into his gut, but the scowl on his face did.
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing with that boy?” he barked, his voice echoing through the night like a gunshot.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Confrontation
Leo stood tall in front of me, like an ancient guardian standing before the door to a sacred temple, denying me entry until I had paid its toll. My heart was pounding, due to the fright of seeing him show up in front of me like that, rather than the idea that he knew what had just taken place in Aiden’s cottage. His anger, though—that I couldn’t understand and didn’t care for.
“Excuse me?” I asked, my voice rising an octave. “Who the fuck are you to shout at me like that?”
He squared up to me. “What did you do to him?”
I backed away a step, further moving into a defensive stance. “Seriously, you’d better get the hell out of my way.”
“Or what, serpent?”
I frowned and pushed past him. Leo went to grab my arm, but I was faster than he was and managed to slip my arm just out of reach. When I was satisfied he wasn’t going to try again, I turned around and started heading toward the mansion, walking at a brisk pace, but not running. I wasn’t running from him, I just wanted to be away from him.
“You get back here now,” Leo warned.
“Fuck you,” I said, throwing the middle finger over my shoulder.
When I reached the mansion’s main doors, I threw them open and went inside, letting the cool night chill—and Leo—in behind me. The door shut with a bang, and before the sound had finished reverberating off the walls, Leo was in front of me again, having exploded out of a black cloud. That was starting to get really old.
“You had no right to do what you did,” Leo said. “It was reckless and stupid, and now he is out of commission.”
Footsteps. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Vikram and Raphael come rushing into the foyer from the living room, each of them wearing what’s going on faces. “Look,” I said to Leo, “whatever happened between Aiden and I is our business, not yours, so get the hell out off of my case, alright?”
“Woah,” Vikram said. “What’s this about?”
“Your friend just fucked my student,” Leo said, and I could have kicked him square in the balls right there and then. Did he seriously just slut-shame me?
“Lilith?” Raphael asked, and I almost didn’t dare turn around to answer him, didn’t want to look at him for fear of the judgment I would see in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Am… I?” I asked, confused. There was no judgment there, none whatsoever. Only understanding and concern. “I�
��m… fine… I just don’t like being treated like this.”
“Like what?” Leo asked. “I think I’m within my rights to find this unacceptable. I should have been told first.”
“Told?” I asked. “Told what? That you’ve run my energy levels into the ground, and I need to recharge? I don’t need to ask you for shit.”
“My students, my rules.”
“Everyone, let’s just calm down,” Vik said, his voice soothing, but stern. “There’s no need for any of us to be arguing like this.”
“Why don’t you just stay out of it?” Leo said. “This doesn’t concern you. Either of you.”
“It doesn’t concern you, either,” Dante’s voice boomed across the otherwise quiet foyer. I watched him descend the steps, tugging on the cuffs of the expensive shirt he was wearing beneath his suit. “Lilith was right—this is between her and Aiden.”
“Of course you’re going to take her side,” Leo said. “Why don’t you just do us all a favor and back out of this conversation?”
He reached the foot of the stairs and approached, getting in between me and Leo. “I’m not going anywhere, and I think you owe her an apology.”
“I’m going to ask you one more time—back out, Dante, or else.”
“You’re threatening him now?” I asked. “Who the do you think you are that you can come in here, make all the rules, and threaten people?”
“You’re a succubus, and you just endangered my student.”
“I didn’t hurt him. I would never do that.”
“You don’t know what you can and can’t do. You had no way of knowing whether you were going to hurt him or not.”
I did, because Dante had told me, but I wasn’t about to give that piece of information up so easily. “You endangered me! You knew that I was drained, and you should have known I would have to take my energy back somehow. If you didn’t, then you’re a crappy teacher!”
Leo made as if to advance on me, but Vik and Raph stepped up beside me, and Dante moved to get between me and Leo. “Whatever you think you’re about to do,” Dante warned, “don’t. She did what she had to do because it’s in her nature to do so. She didn’t hurt him, end of story.”
“Of course you would jump to her protection, wouldn’t you?”
“And if I didn’t, and I sided with you? What would you propose we do with her? What should her punishment be for doing what she had to in order to survive?”
“She had hardly been pushed. Just because your appetite is insatiable doesn’t mean hers is. She could have waited.”
“And asked for permission? From you? That isn’t how this works.”
Leo drew himself up and breathed deep. “And who put you in charge of affairs around here? You’re nobody, Dante, remember? You were stripped of your authority a long time ago.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Everything.”
“Okay,” I said, butting in. “You know what? I’ve had enough of this bullshit. You come in here, treat everyone like crap, and demand respect because, why, because you’ve done some cool shit? Won some fights? That doesn’t impress me, and I don’t owe you anything. None of us do. So why don’t you just lay off?”
“Don’t owe me anything?” Leo asked. “Dante owes me, or hasn’t he told you?”
“Leo,” Dante snarled, lowering his eyes.
I suddenly looked at Dante, then back at Leo, and the moment of hesitation seemed to give the demon an opening, an opportunity.
“Ah,” Leo said, “he hasn’t told you, has he? The illustrious Dante Rhodes, who came into your life to sweep you off your feet and bring you here where you would be safe, hasn’t told you that he’s just as bad as the people who were after you back in Seattle. That’s good.”
I found myself looking at Dante again. “Told me what?” I asked.
Dante brought his eyes up to meet mine, then centered his glare on Leo. “You’re crossing a line here,” Dante said. “I’m going to give you a chance to shut that mouth of yours before you start something you’re going to regret.”
“Why? Because you’re going to use your stolen magic on me?”
Stolen magic? My eyebrows pinched in the middle as a flash of memory came racing to the surface. That first night we had met, when the vampires came for me in the parking lot, he had done something to one of them… there had been a flash of white light, and the vampire had turned to ash in an instant. Poof, just like that. I wasn’t sure what it was at the time, but hadn’t thought much of it. Now, knowing that he was an incubus, that flash of white light didn’t make sense. The power to disintegrate a vampire like that should have taken its toll on him like shapeshifting had on me today, but it hadn’t. Not that I could remember, anyway.
“You need to leave,” Vik said to Leo. “Now.”
Vik and Raph both looked like they were ready to get into a brawl at a moment’s notice. Though Vik was more of an academic, his body was as toned and taut as an athlete—a runner, maybe, possessed of speed and stamina. Raphael, however, was bulky, and also had plenty of muscle on him. Looking at them now, they looked like champions defending my honor, and I was grateful for them. But that stuff about Dante…
“We’re going to continue this discussion tomorrow,” Leo said as he walked past Dante and toward the staircase. “That is, if I decide I want to continue training you.”
He headed upstairs, leaving Dante, Vikram, Raphael, and myself standing in the foyer, reeling from the aftermath of what had just taken place. I could count in one hand the number of times I had been chewed out by someone in a position of authority, and I would have plenty of fingers to spare. I mostly didn’t care, didn’t listen, didn’t let those kinds of people get to me, but Leo had gotten to me.
Not because of what he had said about me and Aiden, but because of what he had said about Dante—because of the seed he had planted in my mind. A truly dangerous seed that suggested Dante hadn’t been entirely honest about something, only I didn’t quite know what that something was. Didn’t know if I wanted to know.
“Dante?” I asked.
But he didn’t reply. Instead, he turned on his heel and stormed away from the foyer, heading in the direction of the library. I wanted to chase after him, to find out what Leo had meant… to find out if he was okay… but Vik and Raph, who were both just as confused as I was, stopped me in my tracks.
“I think we should let him simmer down,” Vik said.
“I agree,” Raphael said. “I don’t think he will respond well to you right now.”
I didn’t like the idea of doing nothing for Dante, but they were probably right. Following him to the library had more of a chance of ending badly than it did of ending well. Dante knew me better than the others did, but that also meant I knew him—knew enough to agree with Vik and Raph, and leave Dante to deal with his own thing.
“Let’s get you upstairs,” Raphael said, and he and Vik escorted me to my room.
CHAPTER NINE
Nighttime Escape
While Vik and Raphael waited with me in my room, Liam brought up a tray with a pot of tea and four mugs. It was Vik who had sent him a message and called him up. The four of us had become friends, and I didn’t want him to be out of the loop, especially after what had just happened.
Liam handed me a warm cup, and I took it and thanked him. A feather of steam warmed my cold nose as I went to take the first sip.
“Now that we’re all here,” Vik said, “how about we discuss what happened down there?”
“Please,” Liam said. “I feel like I’ve missed something.”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Raphael said to me. “Okay? It’s up to you.”
I considered that for an instant. “I think I have to.”
He nodded and gestured for me to continue. I took a breath and explained to him all that I could; from the moment Leo’s training begun, to the moment Leo had stormed out of the foyer downstairs. He didn’t ask questio
ns, didn’t interrupt, he just listened to me speak and tried quietly to understand what had just gone on and why.
“And did you?” Liam asked. “Feel better, after, I mean.” He seemed genuinely concerned.
“I, uh… I really did. I felt like me again.”
“So, it’s true,” Vik said. “What they say about succubi and incubi, I mean.”
“Looks like it. We only kill if there’s intent. If the intent to kill isn’t there, we just… drain people’s energy, leave them tired, lethargic.”
“Which, in itself, can be dangerous; even harmful, if done repetitively.”
“I know that, but I still needed to do it. If it was the only way I would be able to feel better, less tired, less hurt, I needed to try it. What would have been the alternative?”
“It’s alright,” Raphael said, his voice comforting, eyes shining. “No one is going to judge you. We all have to replenish our powers in one way or another, usually through meditation. It just happens that yours requires intimacy.”
I sipped my tea and said nothing, noticing how my hands were trembling a little bit.
“I don’t know what it’s like to be in your shoes,” Liam said, “but it couldn’t have been easy feeling like you did.”
“I thought it was never going to end, and it was all because I had forced my body to the limits during my training. I had spent all of my energy, and more of it was draining by the second. I need to be careful.”
“Now you have hindsight.”
“I do. But…”
“But?” Liam asked.
“Well, it’s just… I can’t be with Aiden again until he recovers, and if I’m pushed again…”
“Oh…”
Liam, Vik, an Raphael exchanged glances, and for an instant I wasn’t entirely sure what was passing between them—what psychic chat they were all in on. Maybe one Raphael had started? That was probably just paranoia talking. They weren’t chatting with each other, but they were understanding something. That much I was able to glean from the steadily rising emotional tension in the room. They understood something. Something unspoken, and secret, but that involved me. I was sure of it.
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