Page 1 of Wounded Mate
Chapter One
Valius
Pain spikesin my side from out of nowhere. Though I try to hide it—this isn’t a good time to appear vulnerable or, worse, crazy—the intensity overwhelms me. I clutch my guts and double over. Panic makes my thoughts race.
What’s happening to me? I haven’t been touched. One moment I was having a flirty conversation with a potential partner for the evening, and the next, agony.
To my surprise, the potential partner in question doesn’t take the opportunity to get the hell out. He has plenty of other incubi here for him to choose from. No, he crouches next to me on the lush emerald carpet and lays a tentative hand on my shoulder as if he’s afraid to touch me.
“Are you all right?”
Excellent question. Am I?
The pain is subsiding breath by breath, dulled but not gone. The urge to yank up my blue silk blouse and check my skin for gouges—because that’s what it feels like, rows of deep slashesclawed across my side like streaks of fire—becomes impossible to ignore.
“I don’t know. Here, help me with this.” I present my back. The sexy garment I’m wearing is designed to be taken off by a companion, not the wearer themself. “Unlace me, please?”
We’re in the middle of the larger of two parlors in the establishment where I work and also live, a brothel in Pest called The Twig and Berries. Though all the workers and inhabitants are supernatural in some way, our clientele is mostly human.
They don’t know, of course. Our glamours prevent them from seeing our true selves, and our secrets are safe with us. Everyone gets what they want. The human gets a sexual experience that’s out of this world, and we get to feed off their pleasure.
A win-win if there ever was one.
But this man is awkward. It’s his first time here, and I’m sure he wasn’t expecting his conquest to flail to his knees in a dramatic show of pain. His clumsy fingers are slow with the laces, and we’ve attracted the attention of others. Guests watch with mild curiosity, but Annais, my friend and a fellow incubus, eyes me with concern.
Nothing like this has ever happened before. I catch his gaze and give a subtle shake of my head. I don’t want to make any more of a scene than I’ve already made.
No such luck.
Annais approaches anyway. Even in his human form, he’s huge. Tall, broad, intimidating. My probably-not-tonight-after-all potential partner shifts away from him.
“I’ll take him from here, sir.” Annais helps me up effortlessly, hands gentle beneath my armpits, even as he’s directing the man to another incubus, one free of random phantom injury. He must use a bit of our sway on the client, who goes without a backward glance and with no questions as to what the hell kind of weird place he’s found himself in.
“Let’s get you to your bedroom, Valius. Easy does it.” Annais’s deep rumble is comforting.
He’s a good friend, and his presence goes a long way to making me feel safe despite the mystery injury. My side still throbs, but not as bad. It’s more manageable now. A ghost of an ache instead of the ache itself.
Together we walk down the narrow hall to our rooms. Mine is thankfully quite close. Annais has to duck under the colorful silken tapestries hanging crisscrossed from the ceiling, giving the whole place a rich, decadent feel.
He helps me to my bed and shuts the door. When we’re alone, I struggle for a deep breath, but it only causes more pain. Shallow breaths it is.
“Get this off me.” I squirm in the confines of my garment, desperate to see what damage lies beneath.
“I will, but start talking. What the hell is happening?”
“I wish I knew. I was perfectly fine. Thought I’d landed a good mark for the night. Then out of the blue, this stabbing pain keeled me over. Felt like getting ripped open. How bad is it?”
Annais shifts the unlaced shirt off my shoulders and tosses it onto the bed. I scan the skin of my chest and abs and check my sides while Annais looks at my back.
Nothing.
At least nothing I can see. No mark, no blemish, no bruise discoloring the false creamy color of the human skin my glamour is maintaining. Not a drop of blood.
“You look fine,” Annais confirms.
“I’m going to shift. Because I’m not fine.”
I roll my neck, summoning my magic, and let the glamour slide away. With a bit of a whole-body shiver, it’s gone, revealing my ethereal blue skin, long true-red hair, and four petite black horns curling back from my forehead.
