Page 12 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

“Sit down, Lucius?” I asked super politely. Because he was crazy and fickle, and old as dirt. It would be beneficial for my undead health if I resisted pissing him off. To my surprise, he laid down on the grass beside me, looking up at the moon.

“Do you know, it is rumored that we were gifted our immortality by the moon? The story goes that the Moon goddess, a goddess so old that she didn’t belong to any pantheon, got jealous of the creatures her sister made which frolicked so happily in the sun, becoming beautiful colors, growing strong and tall, that she decided she needed creatures of the night. But colors couldn’t exist in the darkness, and nor could humans. So instead, she stole a particularly attractive couple from her sister, The Sun, and turned them into vampires. Then she stole from them their lives, or the essence from within them that needed the sun. She said that all they’d need to survive was to steal that essence back from humans through their blood. She blessed them with the gift to create others of their kind. Then she let them run rampant in the night.

“The Sun was mad. Not just because The Moon had stolen her favorite human couple, but because in the light of the sun, she could see the crimson streets of blood from where those early vampires had gorged themselves on whole villages. So she created other supernaturals to keep us in line. Shapeshifters. Weres and shifters. Djinn. Demi-Gods so powerful that they could unmake the world.”

I scoffed. “Seems like a bit of an overreaction, but okay.”

Lucius grinned, his pointed fangs pressing into his lower lip. “Indeed. Humans began to worship these supernaturals, some creating whole religions around them. Others hunted them into extinction. This is why humans are food and not friends,” he added derisively. “While The Sun created creature after creature, The Moon only ever made one. Her perfect creation.”

I looked over at Lucius, this rabid vampire. “I’m part-succubus. What you feel for me isn’t real. You should go home.”

Lucius snorted. “I know.”

I scrambled up onto my elbows. “Wait? What do you mean?”

Lucius leaned back, looking more like he was bathing in the sunlight than the moonlight. “I killed the last succubus centuries ago. I remember the feel of being in thrall.”

Oh fuck. Oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit. I edged away, trying not to startle him into attacking. He looked over at me crab walking away. “Ah, be still. I am not going to hurt you. Do you know why I stay?”

“My great ass?” slipped out of my mouth before I could curb my tongue.

He turned his head from side to side like he was considering my answer. “A little, yes. But mostly, because when I kissed you, it was the sanest I had felt in centuries. I know I am in thrall, but before, I was rabid. It was what they called me, though no one was brave enough to say it to my face, except The Executioner. And I stabbed him in the back for it, literally. This close to you, smelling your intoxicating blood, I can feel bad about that. He didn’t deserve it. He was only saying what everyone was thinking, because he is far too brave, and perhaps a little too stupid, to hold his tongue. I should have been put down decades ago, but the only people who could undertake a task like that and not die are my brothers. Nico loves me as much as he despises me, and Titus… “ he trailed off and shook his head. “Titus is overrun with guilt for turning us to start with. I have no doubt that I would have tipped his hand eventually though.”

He rolled onto his stomach, crawling toward me, and I was too stupid to run away. “But like fate or the Moon Goddess had ordained it, you fell in my lap. Or into my twin’s lap. You, with enough succubus blood that I would rather live for your happiness than the casual pleasure of torturing my own kind. But not enough succubus power that I chafe under the bonds of your control. You are the perfect solution.”

I stared at him hard. “Are you saying I’m a walking, talking antipsychotic med?”

Lucius shrugged. “Maybe?” He smiled and it was somewhere between sexy and sinister. “Then again, it may just be your ass, as you say.”

What the hell did I make of that? Honestly, let's add a psychotic co-dependent onto my list of problems. “So if I fed you a little of my blood every now and then, you’d be fine?”

Lucius threw back his head and laughed, the sound seemed to suck in all the noise in the area, like the animals knew the call of an apex predator. “Sweet Raine. No. I must taste you, yes. But not your blood. One day soon, I will bury myself between your thighs and pleasure you until your juices soak my face. It is not your blood that is my drug. It’s your pleasure.” I clenched my thighs together at his words, because my pussy shouldn’t light up like Christmas lights in July at the thought.

“You want me to be a booty call.”

He nodded slowly. “I will not even be upset by the fact that you have six other men in your bed.”

I rolled my eyes and hoped he couldn’t see it in the darkness. “Benevolent of you.”

Shit. I didn’t know what to do. I found Lucius attractive of course, and not just because he was a carbon copy of Nico. Can you imagine that twin sandwich? I bit my lip. Dammit. Lucius nostrils flared and I realized he could smell how turned on I was.

On the other hand, no one trusted Lucius and there was no way that it wouldn’t cause drama. X and Judge strongly disliked him. Nico loathed and loved him. Walker wanted to run the other way if he saw him. He’d massacred countless shifters in his rabid rages, so Brody and Tex were probably out too.

Then I remembered what Judge had said about him having a harem of witches. “Err, won’t your witch harem be mad?”

He shook his head. “I released them from my service. All of them. I am unbound from obligation.”

Well, shit. I didn’t have any other arguments for that.

I nodded and stood. “I will talk to the guys, and see what they say. We are a democracy, so if they vote that you’ll be bad for the group, then that's all there is to it.” That is if I had them at all.

Lucius reached out, stroking my blood red hair. “They will come around. If they say no, I will respect your decision. But I may petition to stay in town.” Ha, good luck with that. “Your physical nearness is enough to keep most of the demons at bay. But Raine?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m not much of a spectator. I’d rather taste than smell,” he said with a wicked grin. I didn’t know if that was sexy or gross. Lucius stepped toward me quicker than my eyes could track, his hands suddenly tangled in my hair and my face tipped up towards his. “One for the road?”

His lips captured mine. He kissed differently to Nico, unsurprisingly, but they were both still dominant. While Nico tempted me into submitting, Lucius took without remorse.

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