The bedroom was every bit as cute and cozy as the rest of this house had been. The floors were carpeted, just like the corridor was. There was only one bed, and it looked a little snug. It was covered in blankets and pillows and looked comfortable as all hell. Never mind that I’d have to share it with Raph. There was also a tall dresser, and a TV bolted against a wall.
Raph moved over to the bed and sat on the edge. He then produced a small, leather-bound pouch and emptied its contents on the bed. A collection of colorful crystals spilled out, each of a different color and size. He picked a green one up and handed it to me.
“What are those?” I asked.
“These are my gems,” he said. “Here, this is the one I think most represents you.”
“Me? What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “All crystals vibrate on different frequencies. I can hear those frequencies sometimes, if I listen hard enough. I can hear your frequency too. You and this crystal vibrate in similar ways.”
“That’s… really interesting.” I sat on the bed next to him and looked at the crystals there, but didn’t touch any. “Which vibrates the most with you?”
He plucked a misty white one, which looked a little cracked and scoffed, but had an almost silvery iridescence to it. “This one. I knew the moment I found it that this was me in gem form.”
“Where did you find it?”
“Would you believe me if I told you I pulled it out of a dream?”
My eyebrows met in the middle, and I lowered my head. “From… a dream? Like in the Freddy Kruger movies?”
His lip tugged into a cheeky smile, and he offered the crystal for me to touch and look at. “Something like that, only without the nightmare demon. I was eighteen, backpacking across Sri Lanka. I met a man who claimed there were many worlds we couldn’t see or hear with our own eyes and that most of them were closed to humans except one—the world of dreams. I wanted him to teach me what he knew, so he offered to let me stay with him, and train with him. I spent two years living with his family.”
“Wow, that’s incredible. What was it like?”
“It was a quiet lifestyle, far away from a modern world we relied very little on for everyday things. In other words, nothing like my life back in Spain.”
I handed back the gems, and when our fingers touched, a current seemed to pass between us—one that raced throughout my body at lightning speed and set my nerves tingling. I watched Raph lay the crystals down with the others. “I’ve never left the US before now,” I said. “I’d barely even left the state. I always wished I could just grab a backpack and go out into the world.”
“It is the best way to discover yourself as a person. You learn who you really are.”
“And who are you?”
Raph’s smile was intoxicatingly bright, and it only seemed to get bigger. “I think that is a question I cannot easily answer.”
“I know. It was a stupid question. I guess I just still don’t really know who I am; I don’t know my place in all this.”
“It’s normal for you to want that. I can only guide you; I cannot give you the answers.”
I nodded. “I get it…” I trailed off and stared at the crystals. The green one seemed to wink at me, probably just a trick of the light.
“Would you like me to give you a reading?”
I looked up at him. “A reading?”
“Give me your hand.”
Hesitating only slightly, I did as he asked and offered him my left hand. He took it in his warm, strong hand, and at this second moment of contact, my heart began to race. Delicately, he trailed his soft fingertips along the lines in my palm, causing my skin to prickle in just the right way. I stared at his eyes, which were turned upon my hand, and felt my teeth pinch my lower lip.
“You’ve had a troubled life,” he said, still staring at my palm, “but you have a good heart. You don’t treat people badly unless they have wronged you.”
“I have a lot of ex-boyfriends and old friends who would probably disagree with you.”
He looked at me. “Then you haven’t been finding the right friends.”
“If you say so.”
“I do. I also see… you have never been good with money. You spend what you have and don’t think of saving for a rainy day.”
“It’s 2017. Can anyone really save any money?”
He shrugged. “I guess not.”
“Probably not a big problem for you since you used to live off the land, huh?”
“I chose to make money the least of my concerns a long time ago, yes. Money and people’s opinions.”
“If I had the power to pull things out of my dreams, money would definitely not be a concern of mine.”
Raphael laughed, having gotten the joke. “I’ll have to explain to you how all of that works sometime, including where I found the green crystal that resonates with you. That is a good story. But right now, I want to focus on this…”
“What’s this?”
“You are going to have a very fulfilling love life.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Am I, now?”
He nodded. “Men will fall at your feet, they will live and breathe to make you happy, to see you smile… and to satisfy your desires.”
“Yeah?” I asked, having unknowingly shifted a little closer to him. “Are you one of those men, Raphael?”
His eyes locked with mine, the hazel within them burning with the heat of a thousand suns. “I am,” he said, reaching for my hand and smoothing it with his fingertips.
I licked my own lips. “I think I should go… I’d like to have a shower.”
He stood, with my hand held in his, and gently pulled me across the bedroom and toward the bathroom. He flicked the light on, and I stepped through, then turned to look at him as he went about the business of drawing the curtain back and turning the hot water on. When the water was comfortable enough, he pulled his hair out of the man bun, then readjusted it, and tightened it so his hair wasn’t in his face.
“Are you having a shower, or am I?” I asked.
Raph didn’t say anything, instead he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside, revealing a landscape of incredibly toned muscles beneath. His skin was tanned, but taut, and the hair on his chest and abdomen was curly like the hair on his head. I couldn’t help but stare at him, couldn’t stop my heart from speeding away from me like a runaway train.
“What are you doing?” I asked, even though my feet were already shuffling toward him.
Again, he didn’t speak. Now he moved closer to me, and without saying a word, he slipped his hands into my t-shirt and pulled it up and over my head. When that thin layer of fabric no longer stood between him and my collar, his lips came searching, eager to taste my skin. I let my hands wrap around his head and arched my neck back, enjoying the sensation of his warm mouth on my body, feeling the soft, euphoric tingles race through me at his touch, reaching every single one of my nerve endings.
I worked at the clasp of my bra while he kissed my neck and shrugged out of it quickly. Raph wasted no time in working a trail of kisses along my collar bone, and then moving down, down, down, until finally taking one of my nipples into his mouth. I sighed lightly and watched him, my fingers running through his curly, held up hair.
Around his shoulders and back, I watched as light, colorful mist began to form—crimson, the color of lust. Together we shrugged out of our pants an underwear, then entered the shower where the warm water washed over us both. He kissed my lips, then, taking deeply from me as I pressed my wet, naked body up against his.
I had never been shy about sex, and I wasn’t shy about it now, but there was something different about this encounter than any other sexual encounter I had ever had before. On the outside, this would have looked like a casual hookup between two attractive people. It could have happened to anyone, at any time. The reality, however, was that this went deeper than that. Hookups were spontaneous, spur of the moment, and fleeting. Rarely did I see the guy agai
n after. I knew I would see Raph again after, but I felt a kind of unspoken understanding pass between us.
An understanding that this was okay, that he wanted it as much as I did, and that nothing would be weird after. This was all the encouragement I needed to push even further into the experience, to accept his surrendering to me as something wonderful, and exciting, and intimate in a way that was only possible in a situation like the one we found ourselves in now.
I grabbed a fresh bar of soap from a shelf inside the shower and washed his shoulders, his chest, his back, admiring his powerful build with my fingertips. When my hands were lathered with soap, I explored his body with them, feeling the many ridges of his abdomen, and the smoothness of his outer, and inner thighs. He moaned into my mouth when I took him in my soapy hand and gently started to work at him, and I felt something like a current of energy pulse through him and into me, reinvigorating me, already replenishing the energy I had spent maintaining my disguise the entire day.
I had never been a shy lover. I always considered myself a generous one, more interested in pleasing my partner than receiving pleasure for myself. I exulted in the way Raph’s hands would occasionally close around my slick, wet shoulders whenever I would trigger a pulse of pleasure to run through him.
He broke the kiss we had held almost this entire time and stared into my eyes. I smiled at him, and then slowly turned around, planting my hands on the shower wall, and sensually grinding my hips against his lower abdomen. A sigh escaped my mouth when he entered me, and that sigh became a series of hitched breaths as we found our rhythm despite the cramped little space we were in.
When his climax came, my entire body began to tremble with the power that rushed through me. When I opened my eyes, and looked over my shoulder at his tensed arms, his shoulders, I saw my body connected to his, and I caught a glimpse of what I thought was an inner light radiating from under my skin, as if a glowing orb were moving quickly along the curve of my spine to rest at the base of my neck. But the light faded fast, and I didn’t see it again; I only felt the warming effect it had on my stomach and chest.
I turned around again, then gently kissed Raphael on the lips. “Thank you,” I whispered.
“For what?” he asked, his breaths short, and tired.
“Just thank you.”
He wrapped his arms around me, and we kissed again until the water ran cold.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rejection
My body was still tingling as I made my way down the stairs. My cheeks were flushed and hot, and I couldn’t erase the smirk from my face even if I had wanted to. I didn’t have to wonder or speculate as to the reason for my good mood. It was Raphael’s energy working within me, invigorating me, empowering me. Now that the fear of seriously hurting someone was gone, I was free to exult in this sensation, and I was loving it.
After our shower, Raphael had decided to go and rest. I hadn’t objected to the idea, but I wanted a drink to try and take the edge off of my buzzing nerves, so I slipped into a black, low-cut t-shirt and jeans, stuffed my feet into my sneakers, and headed down to the bar. I ordered a whiskey and coke, found a table at the back of the bar with a window view, and waited for the bartender to serve me. I took a sip of my drink when it arrived, and the warmth of the alcohol burning its way down my throat relaxed me, at least until Dante seemed to arrive out of nowhere.
“That seat taken?” he asked.
I shook my head and smiled. Dante still looked just as well put together in his tailored suit and expensive Rolex as he ever had. I wondered if he ever took his suits off, or if he had mastered the art of shapeshifting to such a degree that he could conjure clothes, too. Whatever the case, Date oozed a kind of dangerous masculinity, the kind that made other men nervous, and made other women melt. I wasn’t too proud to admit I was one of those women.
He sat down opposite me, and like clockwork, his drink—the same as mine—arrived shortly after he sat down. Dante took a sip, then set the drink on the table.
“You’re looking well,” Dante said.
“I’m feeling well,” I said. “I had a very hot shower.”
“Did you?”
A smirk graced my lips. “You don’t really want me to spell it out for you, do you?”
“No. I know what happened. Why do you think I chose to pair you with him?”
“I don’t know.”
“I knew you would be tired and would need to replenish your energy after today.”
“I wasn’t that tired—this was nothing like what Leo had put me through.”
“No, but your energy won’t refresh itself on its own. You need to feed, and often, especially while you’re still new. Even small powers will use exponentially more energy now while you’re still getting used to them. You can’t let a lack of energy suddenly fall on you.”
“Well, in that case,” I raised my glass to him, “to a good match.” Dante clinked, and we drank. I took another sip of my drink before setting the glass back down. “It’s weird.”
“What is?”
“This. Everything. I’m not used to any of it.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific.”
I sighed. “Alright, besides the idea that there are people who want me dead—that can happen to anyone—I’ve slept with two guys in the last twenty-four hours, and neither of them have been totally freaked out by it. I kinda feel like they… encourage it.”
“It isn’t a normal situation to be in, I’ll grant you that.”
“Right? Most of the guys I’ve ever known wouldn’t dream of sharing me, but Aiden and Raph… they both want me to do what’s best for me. It’s like they don’t… care about having to share me.”
“Let me tell you something you need to understand, Lilith… You’re a drug.”
“A drug?”
“You’re charming, you’re smart, you’re beautiful, and when you give yourself to someone like that, the euphoria they feel translates into something like an addiction. I’m not saying they aren’t in control of their choices, but they’re more likely to want you in their lives even if they have to share you, than risk not having you at all by being possessive or jealous.”
“This… this is bullshit, right? I can’t be an addiction.”
“You can, and you are. Trust me on this. The men you are going to meet are going to be driven by a desire to please you, and by doing so, please themselves. They’re going to fall under your spell from the moment they catch the light smell of your hair, or brush their skin against yours. It starts with a spark, which turns into a current, which sets fire to everything it touches.”
“And what if I want to put the fire out?”
“Why would you want to? You need to feed, and if these men are willing to give you what you need, then why would you want to end it?”
I took another sip of my drink. “Is that what you have?” I asked. “Do you have women who… are that way with you?”
“My feeding habits are… different.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t need to feed as often as you do.”
“So, you don’t need to have… a group around you?”
“Back in the day, those groups were called harems.”
“A harem… is that what you have?”
He shrugged, but didn’t say anything.
“Do you?” I pressed the issue. “Wait, have you just been with another woman?”
I hadn’t noticed until now, but his cheeks were just as flushed as mine were, and he had a sparkle in his eyes that I rarely saw.
“I was,” he said.
“I don’t know how I feel about that. Harems, I mean.”
Dante put his glass to his lips and tipped it back into his mouth, finishing the last of his liquor in one go. “You’re a succubus. That’s up to you to figure out. Your aura, your… whatever it is we have… is going to make it easier for you to navigate your way around this network of relationships you’re building, but you’ll still need to talk t
o them, make sure they’re aware of what’s going on, make sure they’re satisfied. What you have isn’t mind control, and you’re going to need to nurture whatever relationships you build to make sure they’re as safe and content as you are.”
I swallowed, then nodded. “Seems like a lot of work.”
He shrugged. “What’s the alternative? Starve?”
I stared at him from across the table, and my heart started to thump within my chest. I licked my lips, and almost without thinking about it, drew my right foot slowly up the side of Dante’s leg, never once letting my eyes move away from his, which were cast out of the window to the side. Rain was falling. A car passed on the street, drifting silently in the night. Then Dante looked at me, and my heart began to pulse even harder.
“What are you doing, Lilith?” Dante asked, his cool demeanor not breaking for an instant.
“What do you think?” I asked. Quickly I let my foot slide out of my boot, and I pressed my bare foot against his calf, then slid it up toward his thigh. “What do you think I’m doing, Dante?” I asked.
“A mistake.”
Slowly pushing my toes further along his thigh. “Mistake? Why?”
“I’m not what you need.”
“Am I what you need?”
“What I need and what I want are different things.”
My toes started to feel warm as they approached the center, but his hand jerked around fast and clamped around my ankle. I withdrew, shrugging my leg out of his grasp and returning my foot to my shoe, heart slamming against my chest, head pounding, fingers numb from the adrenaline. “I don’t get it,” I said, sounding a little harsher than perhaps I wanted to be. “What the hell is it about me that puts you on the defensive?”
“I know how this plays out, and it ends badly for both of us.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’ve been around longer than you have, and because I know what we’re both capable of. You’re a succubus. You’re going to be cruel and selfish, just as I am. The only difference is, you and I aren’t going to see each other through the same eyes as the others will. Your powers don’t work on me any more than mine work on you.”
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