He opened his mouth to explain himself.
She slid a brass key into the lock, twisted it and pushed the door open. She breezed into the dark building and lights came on, glowing warmly and illuminating the clutter in the small room.
She lived here?
She was the witch?
She tossed the key and silver rope onto a messy wooden desk on the right of the room. A fire burst into life in the grate to his left, near two tattered armchairs. A dark threadbare rug spread across the stone floor between them, covered in haphazard piles of books.
Payne closed the door behind him. The witch bustled through into an adjoining room and returned with a hairbrush that she put to good use, viciously dragging it through her tangled hair. She didn’t flinch when it caught on knots and pieces of hay. She grumbled in the fae language, dark things that had Payne remaining close to the exit. She was livid about something. He could feel her anger in her blood and hear it in her heartbeat, and sense it in other easier ways too. The fire on the grate roared like an inferno and the flames on the candles were six inches tall and blazing white, evidently a response to her rage.
She paced, heeled black leather ankle boots loud on the stone floor.
Whoever those males had been, she was pissed as hell at them.
Payne leaned his back against the wall and breathed slowly. She wasn’t a threat to him. He focused on the calm ebbing and flowing through him, trying to instil that same feeling in her, and raised his hand to his face. He was still bleeding. He licked the blood from his fingers and then licked them again and dabbed his saliva across the cut.
She stopped pacing then and tossed the brush onto one of the dark red armchairs. It bounced off the cushion and landed on the fire. She cursed, shrugged, and approached him. She looked different with all the tangles and twigs gone from her chestnut hair, but she still had a wildness about her, a wickedness that Payne found alluring.
The witch stopped in front of him. He looked down at her. She was petite, a good nine inches shorter than he was.
“Elissa.” She offered her hand. He didn’t take it. It had been hard enough dealing with skin contact in the street. If he touched her now, when they were alone, in private, he probably wouldn’t be able to stop his hunger from rising again. If that happened, he would have her on that bed he could see in the adjoining room and naked in under five seconds. She frowned into his eyes. “Thank you for helping me...”
Clever ploy. She wanted his name.
“Payne.”
It seemed she wasn’t satisfied with his aloof air and refusal to place her at risk by touching her. She tiptoed and touched the cut on his cheek.
Payne felt that same intense gut-tugging jolt as he had the first time they had made skin contact.
Warmth crept outwards from where she touched, turning him hazy, drugging him with how good it felt. His very nature said to go with the flow because the flow felt divine. The little witch could give him what he needed. Not just the method of freeing Chica from her bond. She could give him bliss.
He could feed on both her energy and her blood.
His incubus side and his vampire one purred at the prospect.
His cut stung and he could almost feel his flesh knitting back together. Magic.
“Witch,” he growled, a low warning that he didn’t like her meddling with his body.
She didn’t heed it but she did eventually withdraw her hand. She smiled up at him. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?” He frowned at her. How could you be sort of a witch?
“I don’t have much power yet. I’m still learning.” Her sweet voice was a melody in his ear, curling around him, petting him and feeding his desire.
She stepped back, distancing herself. His eyes must have changed again, swirling blue and gold. Payne lifted his hand and grazed the backs of his fingers across her soft cheek, his breath shuddering in his chest over how exquisite she felt. He wanted her.
She knocked his hand away. “Don’t turn on the charm. I don’t like it.”
That brought Payne back to earth with a bump. “You can tell when I’m using my ability?”
She nodded and moved back another step. “I don’t like it. It feels as though I’m seeing myself do things, feel things, that aren’t really anything to do with me.”
Strange. Was it a witch thing? He hadn’t heard that immune females could sense an incubus attempting to use his ability on her. It had to be a witch thing.
“Normally people can’t tell it isn’t their natural feelings.” His gaze tracked her across the room.
“I’m not normal now, am I?” She stared into the fire and sighed at her melting hairbrush. At least the flames had died down. Her heartbeat was level again too and he couldn’t feel any anger in her.
She looked back over her shoulder at him, her eyes locking with his, their dazzling silver depths enchanting him once more. Her lips parted and her pupils dilated. Desire. He could get drunk on the way she felt whenever she looked at him. How would she feel if he took things further?
“I don’t like it,” she said in a breathless voice. “I don’t know why you feel the need to use it... so stop it.”
Payne smiled. “I’m not right now.”
Her eyes widened and she blinked. “You aren’t?”
He shook his head. “Whatever you’re feeling, it’s one hundred percent yours, and I’m flattered.”
She turned her nose up at him. “Get over yourself.”
His smile widened into a grin when her heart skipped a beat and her cheeks turned rosy.
She disappeared into the bedroom again and slammed the door behind her. Payne listened to her stomping around the room and muttering about him. He cast a glance around the messy room, studying the piles of books, the vials and beakers, and bottles of coloured liquids and jars of herbs and other more questionable things. A witch’s home was disappointingly close to what he had imagined.
Elissa emerged from the bedroom.
The witch however, was nothing like he had pictured.
She had changed into a pair of tight black jeans and a sexy purple halter-top that gathered beneath her breasts, and by god, she wasn’t wearing a bra. He could see the soft buds of her nipples pressing against the material. The chestnut waves of her long hair curled around her milky shoulders and a black choker with a silver star in the centre ringed her throat. Payne swallowed, desire surging through him, hot and heavy, burning up his blood.
Was she trying to kill him?
“I thought witches wore those dull black dresses?” he said and was that his voice that had sounded squeaky and tight?
He cleared his throat.
She smiled wickedly, her lips a glossy pink now, enticing him more than ever. “I was on duty... now I’m off duty.”
“I need you on duty.” And not just because off-duty Elissa was hotter than Hell on a summer’s day and had all his blood rushing to his cock.
“Why?” She twirled the ends of her hair and stared at him, her silvery eyes bright with curiosity again.
“I came to this place to speak to you. I need an item for a friend of mine. She’s a fae and was accidentally bound to a theatre. I heard you can help us.”
“Sounds like a real problem.” Elissa thoughtfully tapped her finger against her chin, drawing his gaze to those glossy tempting lips. Would they taste sweet if he kissed her? She shook her head. “But I’m only covering for the witch who normally lives here. Sort of like house sitting.”
Payne’s insides dropped a few inches. Not good. He was shit out of luck just as he had feared and the witch she was covering for had been his last lead. It was back to the books and the research. He hated the thought of returning to Vampirerotique empty handed. He wouldn’t be able to bear the look of disappointment on Chica and Andreu’s faces when they discovered he had failed them again, and god only knew how long it would be before he turned up more leads and more potential fixes for their problem.
He heaved a sigh and scrubbed his
hand through his blond hair. “Thanks for your time.”
He grabbed the door handle and pushed down, letting the door swing open. It was probably for the best anyway. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could last around Elissa without pouncing on her and getting that taste he hungered for.
“You’re in luck.” Those words stopped him dead and he turned back to her.
“I am?”
She nodded, looking very bright and cheerful. It set him on edge. He didn’t like that she was smiling at him. It made him feel as though she was up to something, was plotting behind those beautiful eyes. He could almost see the wheels in her mind turning.
“I can help you better than Verity could have... but I have a price.”
He knew it. She was up to something. “What?”
She nibbled her lower lip and crossed the room to him, moving so close that personal space became an issue and he had to take a step back to avoid her body pressing into his. She looked up into his eyes, hers surrounded by sinful black kohl that highlighted how silver they were and enhanced the devastating power they held over him. He couldn’t look away, even when his gut instinct was to run before she answered because he already knew he wasn’t going to like her reply.
“I want a taste of you, Incubus.”
“No fucking way.” The only way he could distance himself was to back out into the street.
Elissa didn’t look pleased. Her expression darkened and then lightened again in the space of a heartbeat. She shrugged.
“It was worth a try.” Those words gave him the distinct impression that she really needed his help with a different matter and had been trying to sweeten the deal by getting a taste of him. His incubus side kicked off at that, disgustingly pleased by the fact that she wanted him. Desire surged through him, hunger to taste her too and see if she was as sweet as she looked. Payne tamped it down, unwilling to surrender to that urge.
She backed off, moving to the fireplace. He flinched when she poked it with a fire iron and shoved the dark memories it evoked to the back of his mind. His right forearm throbbed and he was holding it before he realised what he was doing.
Payne stepped back into the small building.
Elissa put the fire iron down, much to his relief, and settled herself in the armchair facing him.
“Tell me what you know about curing my friend’s problem.” He remained near the door, his gaze locked on her, monitoring her for a sign that she was lying about any of this—her feelings and her ability to help him. Her heartbeat remained level.
“There’s a ring that can bind a fae to someone.”
Payne’s breath left him on a sharp exhale. “It exists?”
She nodded. “It’s real alright and I’ve seen it.”
He had heard of such a ring, one powerful enough to overrule any other bond, but he had thought it was a myth. None of his research into it had turned up anything to indicate it was real, so he hadn’t pursued it as a possible solution for Chica. If he could get his hands on it, Andreu could use it to bind Chica to him, freeing her of her bond to the theatre. Payne was sure she would happily go along with being bonded to her mate.
Elissa toed her heeled short black boots off and brought her feet up onto the seat of her armchair, tucking them close to her bottom. Red knickers. Payne tried not to stare. It was hard to keep his eyes on her face when all they wanted to do was drop a few feet and stare at her backside, imagining the naughty lingerie the jeans concealed.
The incubus side of him purred. Damn, she was wreaking havoc on him.
“I know where the ring is and that’s where you come in. The man who has it also has something of value that belongs to me, something dear to my heart. I want it back. You’ll be perfect for helping me achieve that.”
Payne folded his arms across his chest. His forearms tensed against the rolled up sleeves of his dark grey shirt. “Why?”
“Because the man is also an incubus.”
Payne resisted his desire to growl at her. “I don’t see how I will be much help with that.”
She stared at him, her right eyebrow slowly rising. “You really don’t have a freaking clue about yourself, do you? I had thought I was reading you wrong...”
Payne glared at her. He knew all he needed to know about himself. He was an abomination and he hated this world. He wanted to go back to his world.
He did not want to meet another incubus.
There were two other reasons he didn’t want to help her. One, he couldn’t control her for some reason and it was unsettling him, especially with that phantom’s words still ringing in his ears. Being around Elissa was too enticing. Two, she was right and he didn’t know much about incubi and he hated to go into any situation blind.
Diversionary tactics were required. He knit his eyebrows together and pinned her with a scowl. “Did you try to fuck that male too?”
Elissa tensed, flew from the armchair and slapped him hard across his left cheek, snapping his head to his right. The scent of fresh blood cut through the herbs and spices in the air. She had reopened the wound.
“No!” She huffed and looked as though she was considering hitting him again. If she tried it, he was going to hit her back. He was all for equal rights. “And if I had, I certainly wouldn’t be asking you for help.”
Payne rubbed his stinging cheek. “Why not?”
She grabbed his arm, sending another hot bolt of lust through him, and twisted it. She pointed near his wrist.
“Because he’s your grandfather.”
Payne tugged his arm free of her grip and turned it so he could see the markings on his skin. She prodded several symbols in a row. That was his grandfather’s name? Were his fae markings a record of his bloodline?
That made him hate them all the more.
He stared at the swirling glyphs, a low growl rumbling through him, anger that poured into his veins like acid and ate away at the restraints tethering his temper and his pain. His grandfather. His pulse accelerated, heart thumping hard against his breastbone, driving that scalding acid through his body, cranking up his anger to new, dangerous heights. Grandfather. He wanted to scratch those markings off his arm, loathed them with all of his being. He didn’t want to know that somewhere out there was the bastard who had sired his mother, who in turn had spawned him. An abomination.
Devil, he wanted that man to pay for his sins. He wanted to erase his grandfather’s name from his lineage and then erase him from existence.
Elissa released an exasperated huff. “You really don’t know anything about your kind, do you?”
He growled at her. “My kind are vampires.”
Her eyes shot wide. “What on mother earth did you just say?”
Payne towered over her and growled down at her again, his lips peeling back to reveal his fangs. “I’m a vampire.”
She stared at his mouth, eyes enormous and pulse off the scale. “What you are is all shades of messed up.”
He shoved her away from him. She tripped on a stack of books and landed in the pile behind them, her right arm catching on the armchair and her legs splayed. Payne tried not to think about her naked and like that, spread for his pleasure, the chestnut curls at the apex of her thighs glistening with arousal. Tried and failed. It had clearly been too long since he’d had sex. A good century at least. Damn. He was a ticking time-bomb of lust. He had heard tales of incubi who had gone insane from lack of sexual gratification. Payne looked down at his right hand. It was probably the only thing keeping him sane, but the pleasure he took from masturbation didn’t come close to the satisfaction he gained from intercourse.
Intercourse with this witch was officially off the menu though.
“You need to work on that temper.” She winced and pulled herself back onto her feet. “You need my help if you want to get that ring. Remember that.”
“Just tell me where he is and I’ll find him without you.” He wasn’t in the mood for this. She had crossed the line and he wanted to get the hell away from her. He
should’ve known better. A pretty thing like her would want nothing to do with a monster like him.
“You won’t be able to find him without my help.”
“Draw me a map.” He was not going to change his mind about this, no matter what she did. “I’ll get the ring and whatever piece of junk you want me to bring back for you.”
She folded her arms across her chest, squashing her breasts into cleavage that made his heart thump against his ribs for a completely different reason. Her lips compressed into a mulish line, her eyebrows drawing tight.
“If you want to get that ring, you will need to learn about your incubus side. I need what that bastard took from me... I can help you with your incubus side.” Those words chilled him.
“Why do I need to?” He didn’t want to learn about his incubus side. He already knew enough. It was a curse.
She stacked the books back into messy piles. “Incubi don’t live in places that are easy to find. They live in places only accessible by incubi. You’ll need to teleport me there and you’ll need to do something else too.”
“What?” Payne didn’t like the sound of this. His day had looked good but it was rapidly going downhill and he had a feeling it was about to get much worse.
“You need to pretend I’m your mate.”
Payne stared at her, his mouth dry and heart frozen in his chest.
She couldn’t know that she was potentially just that to him.
The wicked gleam in her eyes and the sensual tilt of her glossy lips warned that she wanted more than make believe from him. He could see what she desired and he couldn’t give it to her. He wouldn’t let his darker nature out to play and he certainly wasn’t about to masquerade as her lover or enter a den and face his grandfather. He wanted nothing to do with his incubus nature. He wished it didn’t exist.
He couldn’t do this.
He turned to leave.
Elissa was there before him, her hands braced against the doorframe, blocking his exit. There was a decidedly different look on her face now. She had gone from stubborn, determined and wicked, to scared, desperate and weak. What was it that she wanted him to retrieve for her? Whatever it was, it looked as though it meant the world to her.
Dark and Deadly: Eight Bad Boys of Paranormal Romance Page 27
