Page 21 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

“Um, apparently the word of my succubi-ness has gotten around the Vamp grapevine, and X thinks that they are about to try and woo me from the town so they can keep me as their own personal happy pill?”

All eyes turned to X, and Nico’s fangs lengthened in his mouth. It was simultaneously scary and hot as fuck. “Who?”

“Louis De Ja’an.”

Nico’s eyes slitted like he was planning how to peel the skin off this Louis asshole. “He is old and powerful. How did you escape?” he asked both me and X.

I swallowed hard, because this was bombshell number two wrapped in the same packaging as bombshell number one. “Lucius saved me. He did this truly terrifying animalistic thing that seemed to deter that Louis guy. But he thinks that I will need either you, him, or X and Judge together with me at all times.”

Walker was tense under me, probably because he’d been left out of my protective detail. I snuggled closer to his chest. “He said it was because all the vampires who were coming for me would probably be ancients, for the same reason he hung around. Senile mania. He said even X or Judge separated would get their ass kicked.”

Judge snarled at the insinuation that he couldn’t protect me, but X looked far more pragmatic. The Executioner was a scary bastard, and I had no doubt that today I caught but a mere glimpse of him. What had he been like in his glory days, when he’d earned his moniker?

“As loathe as I am to do it, I agree with Lucius. Louis is strong, and when you are as old and as powerful as us, the battleground is pretty even. We have gone full, er, Super Saiyan?” Nico asked, and looked at Tex, who nodded sagely. Apparently, Tex was trying to get Nico into anime, andDragon Ball Zwas probably the best place to start. Still, it made me snort-laugh. Nico gave me an indulgent expression that was laced with heat. “I guess that would lead into your other problem,” he said softly.

Walker groaned underneath me. “You are never boring.” He kissed the spot on the back of my neck that always sent shivers of pleasure down my spine. “I leave for a couple of days and you have twelve new problems.”

“And one new lover,” X chimed in, and I glared at him.

Walker tensed. “What?”

I hoped the expression I shot X really communicated the fact that I was going to eviscerate him slowly and in ways he wouldn’t enjoy. But the asshole just wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. Did he need both testicles? Would they grow back? Inquiring minds wanted to know.

“It's not like that. Lucius knew I was a succubus this whole time. It was why he, uh, persevered with the heads even though I was obviously not interested then.”

His arms squeeze me tighter. “Then?”

Ah shit. “Well, Lucius came to me with a proposal the other day. Apparently, succubus blood has a calming effect on the chaotic minds of the ancients who’ve lost their sanity. Apparently, the obsession that comes with succubus blood overrides everything, even the urge to shed blood. It calms the predator, I guess.”

Walker hadn’t untensed under me, so I barreled on ahead even though my heart screamed to stop, that we’d only just got Walker back and we didn’t want to lose him again. But I couldn’t live tiptoeing around him either. This was my life, and he’d had the option to stay or go. He chose to stay, and that meant that all my bullshit problems came with it.

“So Lucius wants to take some of my blood and uh, I guess, come over for a booty call and get some succubus essence every now and then to calm his mind.”

Brody spoke up. “What did you say?”

I bit my lip as I looked around the table at the rest of the guys, who all looked varying degrees of concerned. Brody didn’t look indignant or enraged or anything like that. If anything, he merely looked contemplative. “I said I would discuss it with you guys. My mates. My life partners. The decision is as much yours as it is mine. It has to be unanimous or I can’t. I won’t have that distance between us again,” I said to Walker.

Walker heaved a sigh, but his body loosened. “Do you want him in that way? Do you want to let him into your bed, not for anyone else's benefit, but simply because he is someone you want?”

I worried at my bottom lip until I scraped it with my teeth. X leaned over, pulling my lip from between my fangs, and then licking at the fat blood drop that he caught on his finger tip. “Waste not, want not, Love.”

I took a deep breath and hoped I wasn’t going to lose them with my next words. “Yes. I feel this attraction to him that I’d like to explore. At first I thought it was because he looked so much like Nico, but you only have to spend a minute in either of their presences to know that they are so different they may as well be night and day.” I let out a shuddering sigh. “No. For better or worse, Lucius calls to something inside me. Something wild and dangerous. And she wants him bad.”

The silence around the table this time was almost deafening. They watched me and Nico, but most of all, everyone was watching Walker. I wasn’t the only person who’d felt his distance. He’d been a stalwart in my life for so long, not having him at my back had seemed wrong to us all.

Walker squeezed me and I held my breath. “As long as he is what you want, what is one more, right? You are a succubus. It's in your makeup to desire the things you need. And I’m not going to stand in the way of that. But as soon as you are doing it solely for him, and not because you want to, he’s gone. If he won’t go quietly, I’ll kill him myself and bury his body with all those goddamn heads.”

He looked at Nico as he said it, but the vampire in question merely held up his beer. “Agreed. Raine comes first, always.”

I looked at Brody. He shrugged. “I’m with Walker. If it's what you need, it's what you need. I can’t say I understand it, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I just want you to be happy, Red. I can share you with one more vamp, but I don’t think we’ll be having any orgies anytime soon. I’m not sure I will ever trust him with my back.”

I leaned over and kissed him lightly. “I can take that.”

He ran his fingers through my hair. “But make him work for it, Raine. Let him know that you are the one in control, because beings like that? They will take your free will before you know it.”

I looked at the guys, and wondered if maybe someone should have given them the same warning about me.

In a way,I was unsurprised to find Lucius at my front door a few days later. In the dwindling daylight, he looked handsome and mysterious, but the craziness in his eyes told me that he’d been away from me for a little too long.

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