Succubus Lips

by Lina Jubilee

  Jayden turned on his heel, almost as if in answer to the words he couldn’t hear from Zander in my head. Perhaps Zander was sending him his own snide message.

  “You stay here,” was all he said before stepping out of the room.

  Chapter Two

  “What do you mean, ‘stay here’?” I fell into step quickly behind Jayden. He may have had Natch powers that allowed him to manipulate the soil of the earth, but unless he was going to pick up the handful of dirt in the potted plant in the hallway and send it flying at me, he had nothing to stop me with amidst all this concrete.

  Though Wade and I had theories about what would happen if Jayden ever accepted my boost. He and Wade were the only ones who’d never once experienced what would happen if they kissed me on the lips.

  Jayden not trying it out was the only one of the two that really bothered me.

  “I don’t think it warrants further explanation,” he said, reaching the garage and the set of lockers out front. Nash and Roulette were already zipping up their sleek, form-fitting combat suits. You didn’t have to wear them if you didn’t want to—being caught off-guard didn’t always allow us to—but Wade had formulated them to be extra durable against bullets, knives, and energy blasts. Unless any of the above hit us in the face, of course.

  Nash’s fingers rested at the base of his throat atop the zipper as he stared at me. I gestured my head toward Jayden, who’d carefully tucked his glasses into his shirt pocket and was unbuttoning said shirt in front of his open locker.

  “Sir, why isn’t Aurora suiting up?” asked Nash.

  Jayden methodically folded his button-down and placed it on a shelf in the locker. Damn, if his muscles had no business being on such a studious, all-business man. I stumbled and had to catch my breath, to remind myself to breathe.

  Maybe I’m not so over him, after all.

  “Get the van ready,” he said, never once looking at Nash.

  Nash shook his head and clasped his hands in apology to me before heading around the lockers to get things moving. Roulette slammed her locker door and then grabbed my hand, sending a nervous smile my way. I hesitated, thinking about giving her a quick peck for a boost, but it’d be over before she arrived downtown. Unless I came along. Which would be the whole point of me coming along.

  I settled for squeezing her hand back, my hesitant smile the best luck I could offer unless Jayden saw sense. I watched her as she turned the corner, the drum of the garage door opening just before the van’s engine whirred to life. Then I turned back to face Jayden.

  Jayden in his tight, form-fitting briefs. His package practically burst out of the cotton, and it only got worse when he lifted first one thick, defined leg and then the other to slide into his combat suit.

  His eyes are up there. His eyes are up there. I clenched my teeth and forced myself to stare up at his face, which didn’t seem at all bothered by me catching more than a glimpse of this little racy show. But then again, we were all kind of on top of each other here and I was certain he’d gotten more than an eyeful of me when I’d been here changing before.

  He’d gotten quite a good look at me the night he’d walked in on Zander and me making out in his office.

  “He was jealous,” came Zander’s voice over our bond. “Don’t believe him if he says otherwise.”

  I shook my head to shoo the pest away. I often wondered how much of my mind he got glimpses of whenever I thought about him, but it seemed to be, just as it was with me and his mind, that he only got the thoughts that I wanted him to hear—and the thoughts that involved him. Which is why I found my libido’s too-frequent wanderings to that night more than a little annoying.

  “Thank you, darlin’,” said Zander. “It drives me wild to know your libido can’t stop focusing on me.”

  Jayden slamming the locker door shut jarred me out of the conversation in my head. “You’re talking to him right now.” It wasn’t a question.

  I didn’t want to lie. “Nothing important.”

  Zander chimed in. I supposed we were both thinking about him, so he was going to be able to hear what was going on if so inclined. “I don’t know. I count one of the wildest nights of my life as pretty damn important. Even if it ended in blue balls.”

  I squeezed my hands into fists. “Nothing about whatever he’s up to.”

  Silence on the other end of the bond. I supposed he actually was up to something and couldn’t focus entirely on me.

  “This is why I don’t want you along,” said Jayden. The movement of the van’s tires echoed as Nash pulled it out onto the driveway, where it idled, waiting for the team leader.

  The team leader who possibly looked even more heavenly in this skintight suit than he had virtually naked a minute before. Possibly because my fingers curled at the instinct to rip it off him.

  “We don’t need you with the Renegades,” he said. “Go back and watch for Nelian activities. Contact Wade if something comes up.”

  It was hard to argue with the fact that someone needed to be monitoring for Nelian activity. “I can do that from the van,” I pointed out. “I just need to grab my phone.” Wade was this close to being able to use a computer program to detect the energy surge Nelian portals gave off whenever they appeared, but they apparently gave off different energy signatures each time, almost as if they knew they were being tracked. Until Wade cracked that puzzle, we had to resort to locals reporting strange activity. Because even in the midst of a horde of otherworldly elves strolling down Main Street, you could count on half a dozen people stopping to snap pics and post them on their social media profiles.

  Human, Earthly Natches were old news. Nelian elves—they could get you lots of likes and reposts. Typicals—the non-powered humans—and Natches alike seemed in awe of them.

  The fact that they all looked like super models with pointed ears, a variety of smooth skin tones, and long, silky, dark green hair probably helped. Even if they sent a car flying into the air right behind you two seconds after your camera’s flash went off.

  Nash laid on the horn of the van and Jayden stiffened. “I don’t need you near the Renegades.”

  Translation: I don’t want you near Zander.

  “Because he’s jealous, darlin’,” said Zander in my head. “Just like I told you.”

  Zander may have once been Jayden’s best friend, but he knew nothing about how the man felt about me. Jayden always acted like spending more than twenty seconds in my presence reminded him that I had a problem with b.o. I didn’t, but sure enough, Jayden’s nose went up in the air as his eyes wandered around the room and he turned to go. He paused. “Just stay in the briefing room.”

  Scoffing, I crossed my arms. “I’ll be waiting for your call,” I said. He was acting like fighting the Renegades was going to be a piece of cake. “Then I’ll join you.”

  Zander hadn’t just taken Kouta and Lila with him when he’d formed his own offshoot of Natch “talents.” He’d teamed up with Torynt—a former enemy we used to keep in line whenever he went around bothering the Typicals with unnecessary displays of his powers. Like blowing wallets into the air and snatching the cash. Or sending women’s skirts flying. Another cocky one, that guy.

  Zander really was a bad guy now.

  “I prefer to think of myself as a forward thinker who knows the old rules of the world were made for Typicals and don’t apply to the next stage in Mother Nature’s plan for humanity.” A flash of something like irritation shot down our bond. “Excuse me, darlin’. Your friends have arrived.” He went quiet.

  “Go,” I whispered aloud to Jayden. “The others are there.”

  Jayden left without another word, and I stood there not moving as the sound of the van’s tires peeling down the driveway died down, as the garage door closed again, as the motion-sensing lights shut down. Just remembering.

  Six years ago.

  “Wade, this is Aurora Haddix,” said Mr. Roberts—or “Jayden,” as he told me to call him. My eyes kept flicking up to him and m
y palms were going sweaty as they clutched the handle of my sole piece of luggage. So this was my new home.

  My new life. My new “family.”

  And we lived in a former-community-center-turned-superhero-team-bunker? I didn’t know what to call it. But now I knew the old rec center I’d frequented as a kid hadn’t been abandoned, despite outward appearances. It was all high-tech in here.

  Mom and Dad hadn’t exactly been thrilled to discover—years later than most parents would have—that I was a Natch. Most people were cool enough with Natches, but there were some Typicals who saw them as a threat—an aberration. My parents had apparently secretly been in that camp, even if I hadn’t noticed them say more than a word or two that qualified as prejudiced. Evidently, as long as no Natches crossed their paths, they’d been content to project the air of acceptance and civility. Tell them their daughter had had Natch powers all along and well, that was a different story.

  So I’d only had time to pack one bag and rush out to the car that Mr. Roberts—Jayden—had had waiting for me.

  He and Chastity had appeared in front of me at my summer job to offer up a display of their own powers and a convincing plan for what might be a better use of my next few years than the community college I’d been enrolled in for the fall.

  Joining Veras. Fighting to make sure that other Natches didn’t misuse their powers to break the law. The group wasn’t officially sanctioned or anything. It was more like a volunteer effort to help where the city’s laughably ill-equipped police force didn’t dare to tread and for that, the government seemed to look the other way. Room and board and an allowance included—apparently Jayden was pretty good with investments. They’d found me posting anonymously about my suspicions concerning my powers on a “Am I a Natch? Strange Tales of Discovering Natch Abilities Way Past Infant and Toddler Years” forum. Apparently, not-so-anonymously since their friend Wade had been able to trace the IP address to my job at Dila’s Soft Serve Ice Cream.

  I still shivered at the memory of Jayden casually causing a clump of dirt to rise up from the patch of grass beside the outdoor picnic table where we’d had our discussion. Chastity’s little sparkling light show in her palm had been cool, too, but the way Jayden had so casually flicked his hand and caused the dirt to shape into a star in midair as he licked his ice cream cone had sent a fire between my legs. Talk about power. And he hadn’t been cocky about it, either.

  That had just been a day ago. Man, I’d moved fast. Trusting them. Trusting my whole future to these powers I’d never known I’d had. I shook my head now as the image of Jayden’s display of Natch abilities kept flashing through my mind. Don’t crush on “teacher.” That would have been so gross in school, but dang, if he weren’t the hottest “teacher” I’d ever laid eyes on. And he couldn’t be that old.

  “Ah, yes, the special lips?” said Wade. He was cute, too, an Asian-American with short, black hair and a ridiculously charming smile. He extended a hand out to me and I hesitated, wiping a palm on my thigh before shaking it. He cackled. “Glad to have you aboard.”

  “Well, we have to test it first.” Jayden’s lips pinched as Chastity filed into the room and took a seat at the big, round table. The room reminded me of Camelot, ready and waiting for King Arthur and his knights—except with giant screens covering one wall. There were news feeds and some kind of graph and 3D model on various spots throughout the grand span of interlocking monitors. “We don’t know for sure that she’s a Natch yet,” Jayden added. He fidgeted with his hands, like he was nervous about something he couldn’t bring himself to voice. Maybe he hadn’t expected the first sit-down with my parents about the mere possibility of me having powers to devolve into a matter of me being kicked to the curb.

  Gulping, I took an uneasy step toward the chair beside Chastity and sat down. At this point, I’d better be a Natch because even if I did turn out to be a Typical, I didn’t think I could just tell that to Mom and Dad and smooth things over and move back in with them—I didn’t think I’d want to, knowing they’d abandon their own flesh and blood if she turned out to have a special power since birth. Like I would have had any choice in the matter. Maybe if it turned out these people had been wrong, I could stay on as their unofficial Typical mascot.

  “Well, that’s what we hope to find out,” said Wade, turning back to the screens and waving his hand over some kind of sensor to close out a few windows and bring up another one that seemed to be a collection of data. He spun around to face me, all business, just missing a clipboard in his hand. “When did you say you first noticed your potential Natch powers?”

  My eyes flitted to Chastity beside me. She’d basically recited my forum post back to me, so I’d thought this was old news here, but she just nodded, a slight smile appearing on her ruby-red lips as she twirled one of the two long strands of her raven-black angled bob around her finger.

  “Well, I… I kissed a boy,” I said, suddenly embarrassed. My eyes wove around the room, my face growing hotter when I saw Jayden standing beside Wade, staring down at me. He didn’t look judgmental or anything, it just—I was imagining talking about such things with my high school teachers and nope, this was not a conversation I relished having with authority figures.

  Even ones as hot as Jayden.

  “When was this?” asked Wade, typing something into the keyboard in front of the monitors and completely oblivious of my hesitation.

  “About a month ago,” I answered.

  “You never kissed anyone before a month ago?” asked Chastity. “You’re eighteen?”

  I nodded, my mouth souring. “Er, yes, I’m eighteen. I did kiss others—a couple of times. But nothing happened then. He was… my first serious date.” I didn’t want to say what I hoped I was implying. He was the first boy I’d wanted to have sex with, too. Until he’d flipped out after our first kiss and scared the beejebus out of me, anyway.

  I’d had to beat him off with a stick practically. My dad had called the police and it had gotten out that he was a Natch, and now the whole neighborhood was talking, and last I heard, his parents had shipped him out to the West Coast months before college started. They’d known he was a Natch, of course, but for some reason had instructed him to keep it all quiet. Didn’t want the neighbors gossiping, I supposed.

  “And what was different about this kiss?” asked Wade with the detachment of a scientific researcher.

  “He was a Natch,” I said.

  “He knew he was a Natch?” asked Chastity.

  “I guess he knew. But I didn’t.”

  Jayden let an audible sigh escape his lips. Chastity seemed to notice me waiting for an explanation from the man, so she offered one. “He hates when Natches keep their abilities quiet. He understands why not everyone can just have accepting, rich parents and escape most of the prejudice and staring”—she glared at Jayden then—“but he still hates it.”

  “Natch is short for ‘natural’ for a reason,” offered Jayden. “There’s nothing wrong with what we are.”

  Someone scoffed from the corner of the room and I jumped in my seat to see a figure seated in the far shadows behind Jayden. I hadn’t even noticed anyone else in here.

  He leaned forward in his chair, his face coming into the light. Wow. He was hot. Like rugged, five-o’-clock-shadow, would-look-real-good-in-leather hot. What was it with this team of Natches? Did being a Natch automatically make you more beautiful?

  I thought back to Tobias, the boy I’d kissed, and shrugged. He’d been okay. Cute, but not gorgeous like any of the specimens here. I supposed I’d mostly been caught up in the attention he’d paid me. He’d come by for ice cream most days in June, and by the end of the month, he’d asked me out. I’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker, only snapping out of the effects of that little flirtation when I’d kissed him and he’d hit the ceiling. Literally. Floated and hit the ceiling.

  “Sorry,” said the man, gesturing toward me and leaning back in his chair, crossing an ankle over his knee. “Please continue e
mbarrassing yourself. I’m finding this all very fascinating.”

  My face went hot and Jayden turned around to snap at him—the most emotion I’d seen in the man yet. “Zander, knock it off. She’s just a kid.”

  An invisible fist punched me in the gut at that. This fascinating, stoic “teacher” of mine thought of me as a kid. There was no chance he’d ever… I cleared my throat. “Technically, I’m an adult…” I started. Jayden frowned at me, so I dropped it and sighed.

  “So what happened when you kissed him?” asked Chastity, though she knew that from my post. They all did.

  “He floated and hit the ceiling,” I said. “Apparently, he’d been hiding the fact that he could fly and he said at the feel of my lips, something like a spark shot through him and he lost control. He had to fly, even if he usually had to tell himself when he wanted to. If it weren’t for the ceiling…” I bit my lip. “He said he felt like he could fly higher than ever before—like he could have floated up into the clouds.”

  That Zander guy snorted. “That wouldn’t have been very smart, considering the effects would likely wear off,” he said. Jayden, Wade, and Chastity all glared at him. “What?” he asked, shrugging. “Aren’t I right? Kid would have floated up to the clouds, then a few minutes later when it wore off, blam, right back to the ground.” He smacked his palm against his fist for emphasis.

  So they did all know this story from the post. They were just making me recite it to see me squirm. I clasped my hands together between my legs and squeezed, trying to calm my rapid heartbeat.

  “If he could fly normally, I’d assume his Natch instincts would have kicked in and saved him from such a fate,” said Jayden as he pushed his glasses up. “Even if the supposed effects of the kiss had made him think he could achieve higher heights than usual.”

  Supposed effects? Did he not believe me?

  “Well,” said Wade as he finished typing something into the documents on the screen, “I propose a series of tests. A full-body scan, some heart rate monitoring, a brain scan, an array of stimuli—”