Page 51 of Incubus
A nervous laugh fell from Sasha’s lips and he scratched the back of his head. “Sure,” he said. “In about…twenty-four hours.”
“What?!”
“Actually…they’re a little more potent when we’re frenzied, so…maybe longer.”
Well that was justgreat, Nathan thought with a deep scowl.
“Look, the important thing is that everyone is okay. Right?” said Jim.
Nathan turned to his brother with a ready comeback but stopped short. “Dude,howare we all okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“How?” Nathan said again, glancing toward the remains of the door that he now realized Jim must have gone super strength Jim SMASH on to get it to explode open like that. “There were Weird Sisters all over you. What happened?”
“Oh,” Jim said, looking somewhere between sheepish and terrified of being caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “It’s…it’s fine now. They’re gone.”
“Gone?” Nathan repeated. “Jim, three super-powered dark sidhe and you. How are they just gone?”
Nathan turned without waiting for an answer, heading for the door that Jim had burst open. Despite the sting in his chest as air and the remains of his T-shirt struck against his skin, Nathanwas fine. His ego was bruised more than anything. But there was no reason he should be fine.
Sasha came up beside Nathan as they reached the door, having to step over some of the debris from Jim’s entrance. There was nothing, no sign of the Muses at all.
Nathan looked back at Jim, who still had that sheepish, scared look on his face. “What did you do?” Nathan asked.
“I don’t…know exactly,” Jim said. "But you're not going to believe it."
Chapter 19
Themenushadnotyet been perused at the small diner where Nathan and the others stopped for a late breakfast. All they had ordered so far was coffee. They were too busy listening to Jim’s side of the story to care about food.
And Jim was right. Nathan didn’t believe it.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah.”
Nathan shook his head and leaned over the table. “That’s…it?”
“Yes, Nathan, that’s it. That’s all,” Jim said. “I don’t know what did it. Maybe it was because I was panicked. Maybe because I was so worried about what was happening with you two, I don’t know. It just happened. Poof, they were gone, as good as a banishing spell, but not.”
Sasha leaned forward beside Nathan. “And all you said was…go to Hell?”
“And they took that literally?”
Jim shot Nathan a frustrated glare and clutched at his coffee cup a little tighter. “Of course not. I think I just sent them back to the dark fae part of the Veil, only…without having to work a spell or use a doorway. They just suddenly looked frozen, like the lights weren’t on anymore, and then…they were gone.” Jim glanced down into his mug. His dark eyes looked especially blue with a glimmer of wetness in them. “I don’t know why these things keep happening without my control, but once I knew you were left in there alone together, I guess…I guess I was just so scared of…of…”
“What I might do,” Sasha said in a small voice.
“Of what Desire was going tomakeyou do," Jim said. "And of what Nathan might have to do to stop you. I don’t want anyone getting hurt like that because of me.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Nathan said sharply, clattering the coffee cups as he slammed a hand down on the table. “I refuse to watch you two mope all day because of things that were out of your control. You,” he said, pointing at his brother, “are not a freak. We are going to figure out these powers of yours sooner or later, so stop over-analyzing. You are not a bad guy or in any way evil, and you are not some pansy-ass little girl who feels sorry for himself after saving peoples’ lives. ‘Cause that’s what you did back there, Jim. You saved us.Again.”
Nathan whirled on Sasha so quickly that he actually made the incubus flinch.
“And you,” he said, “aren't a freak either, even if you are a sex vampire who had a hard-on for me for about two minutes back there and left a few nice reminders.” Nathan touched a hand gingerly to his chest, which was now cleaned and bandaged and under a new shirt, but still ached. “But you’re not a bad guy either. You wouldn’t have done anything to me if Desire hadn’t sent you on the rampage. You weren’t in control of your actions, so I don’t consider you responsible. I’m looking on the brightside here. I remain unmolested, all of us are fine, and the people of Crofton are safe from the Muses. Where’s the downside?”
Both Jim and Sasha had the sense to look ashamed of their scowling faces, but Sasha still looked wary when he spoke. “You’re probably right, Nathan. It’s just…” Sasha glanced down at his lap as his words trailed off. “You...might want to move your hand.”
