Page 87 of Aberrant Monsters
The last thing I saw before unconsciousness claimed me was Telarion sliding his fingers into his mouth and sucking them clean.
twenty-two
Iwoke the next morning to the memory of Telarion’s mouth on mine and his fingers…Urgh, don’t think about it. Don’t recall it.
He was silent now. Hidden from me.
Good. I couldn’t bear to face him after the way I’d begged him to pleasure me. The hunger was also silent, almost as if it had never been there.
I had a vague memory of being tucked into bed, of voices, soft and concerned, of Telarion’s rumbling dismissive tone cutting the other voices off.
Did Nandi and Archie know what had happened at the club?
The clock told me it was close to midday. I needed to get out of bed, but that would mean facing everyone and answering their questions, which meant recalling what had happened.
I pulled the duvet over my head. Maybe I could just hide here all day.
The knock on the door foiled my plan. “August, it’s me,” Nandi said.
I peeked out of the covers. “August isn’t here right now.”
“I have coffee, freshly brewed,” she sing-songed.
Dammit. “Fine, come in.”
She entered carrying my favorite mug, the one that looked like a bowl so that I got two cups of coffee in one.
I took it gratefully and sipped the caffeinated sugary goodness. “Thank you.”
She sat on the edge of the mattress and watched me drink for a few seconds. “What happened last night?”
“I want to say that I don’t want to talk about it, because I really don’t, but I think I kinda need to.”
“Okay. I’m listening.”
“There was this incubus, some prince or something, and he wanted to get it on with me, and he did his mojo thing, you know.”
Her hazel eyes darkened. “I know.”
“Anyway, Lothos showed up.” I filled her in on the satiation room, my hunger for Lothos’s life force, and how I’d begged him to have sex with me. “But he didn’t. He knew I wasn’t fully myself and he didn’t trust himself not to feed on my life force and so he got me to call Telarion.”
Nandi’s eyes went round. “Oh.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I called him and I kissed him. On the mouth. And then he…”
“Oh, God, did you have sex with him?”
“No!” I set the coffee mug down. “I needed an orgasm, and he gave me one.” I shook my head. “I don’t know how it works, but it does. It helped me absorb Telarion’s life force.” A thought occurred to me. “Was he okay?”
“Huh? I don’t know, you’re the one he gave the orgasm to.”
My cheeks flushed. “No, I mean when he brought me home. Did he seem okay to you?”
“You’re worried he’d be weakened?”
“Lothos seems to think Telarion draws life force from the environment, that he has an infinite supply.”
“He looked like he always looks, but…” She plucked at the duvet. “He seemed more agitated than usual. Told us all to piss off and leave you be, and then he parked his ass in that chair by your dresser to make sure we didn’t bother you.”
