Page 57 of Incubus
“You feeling okay?” Sasha asked, smiling his usual, friendly smile as if no awkward incidents had happened the night before.
Nathan didn’t feel like lying, and since he didn’t want to ask one of them to just shoot him in the head to end his misery, he said, “I thought you hated playing cards.”
Jim snorted.
Sasha just shrugged. “I make an exception forGo Fish. Besides, your brother owes me so much money by now, I would have been a fool to pass up a few extra hands.”
“Yeah right,” Jim said. “Like I’d play for real money. Lunch? Or…breakfast for you, I guess?” He turned back to Nathan.
Nathan still wasn’t entirely awake but managed a short nod. “Sure. Food. Whatever.”
Jim raised an eyebrow at Sasha. “Now I know he’s wrecked. Keep an eye on him for me, will you? This could be serious.” Jim gave them both a passing wave and headed out the door.
It was as if they hadn’t dared leave Nathan alone until he woke up, and now that he had arisen from his intoxicated sleep it was safe for them to separate again.
Nathan felt like a child needing a babysitter.
“You really okay?” Sasha asked.
Nathan tried to sit up as Sasha came closer to the bed, but his world spun and he had to lie back against the headboard. “Me? Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to ask that?”
That sad, knowing smile of Sasha’s surfaced again, enough to make Nathan’s heart ache whether there were pheromones in his system or not.
Sasha sat down on the edge of the bed. “The pheromones must have been…pretty strong,” he said. “Stronger than I realized. Usually, they’re not that big of a deal. It just peaks a person’s interest, it doesn’t…it wouldn’t normally make a person do…the things you did. I should have known better. If I’d have realized, I…well. I would have let you leave when you first tried. I can feela person’s emotions. I should have noticed sooner. It wasn’t your fault.”
Nathan cringed. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Take all the blame. Why don’t we call it even? You tried to molest me, I tried to molest you, we both admit temporary insanity and…try to forget about it. It was only one day.”
Sasha's somber expression broke with the creases of a smile. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Putting this behind us is for the best. But, umm…Jim’s been acting sort of weird. Asking questions. Watching me when he thinks I'm not looking. I think he thinks I’m in love with you,” Sasha added with a laugh.
Nathan mustered a laugh too, though he wondered how honest Sasha was being by brushing it off. “Sorry about that,” he said. “Just try to ignore him. If he gets too annoying, I give you full permission to hit him. Always works for me.”
Sasha laughed harder, but Nathan knew the incubus would probably let Jim ramble on for an eternity rather than punch the guy.
“Hey,” Nathan said, waiting for those blue eyes to meet his again before continuing. “I know I should leave it alone, but…I have to ask. I was right there, thinking I knew just what I wanted and blind to everything else, and you let me walk away. Why?”
Sasha looked surprised, maybe even a little offended, but eventually he smiled, leaned a little closer to Nathan and said, “Because. If it ever does happen, I don’t want you to have any excuses. I’ll be honest though,” he grinned, wide and yet somehow so sad again, “it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Watching you leave.”
Nathan couldn’t bring himself to move when Sasha leaned that last bit forward to place a soft kiss on his cheek. The kiss seemed to carry with it all of the sadness in Sasha and it made Nathan ache a little more.
“I’ll let you get dressed,” Sasha said, and before Nathan had the sense to come back to himself, Sasha was gone.
For the first time in twenty-four hours, Nathan could think clearly again. He laid his head back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling.
Either the pheromones worked because he genuinely felt something for Sasha in return, or they worked because they were just that strong, like Jim had said the night before. Nathan had no doubts that they were especially powerful since they had made him do things he otherwise wouldn’t have no matter what the truth was, but he was still left with a question.
A question he didn’t know the answer to.
AssoonasNathanwas able to drag himself out of bed, he, Jim, and Sasha hit the road again, hanging on to their borrowed car as they left Crofton behind. Sasha said he knew of a place where they could better seek out dark fae leads, but it was another dead zone like Minnesota, without any nearby Veil doorways.
Laid out in the backseat while Sasha drove, Nathan scratched unconsciously at his chest, releasing a suppressed hiss when his aggravated wounds stung from the contact. Nathan’s one consolation, besides the fact that they had survived their encounter with the Muses, and the aftermath, was that he had taken some very strong pain killers for his lingering headache and the gashes caused by Sasha's claws. He was left feeling numb and equally drowsy. Dozing through the first few hours of their trip, Nathan had forgotten his wounds several times until his treacherous body caused his pheromone-withdrawaled brain to give him a reminder.
A sharp jolt brought Nathan to full alertness as the car went over a bump, and he blinked out the window behind his head. They were no longer on a paved road.
“Where are we?” Nathan asked, pushing up into a sitting position. The landscape seemed familiar. “Are we in Missouri?”
