Page 3 of The Mating Fire
She climbed out of bed and rubbed her eyes. Glancing at the clock, she groaned. No time for reflection on the dream. She had work, and her studies.
Minutes later, getting ready for her job at the college science lab, everything from the dream faded. The visage of the sexy man in the dream became a memory she forgot.
Jared Griffin wokefrom the dream, his body quivering. Seldom did he need sleep. Yet the curse wracking him had left him despondent, so he slipped into sleep hoping to escape reality and then had this dream…
It left him disoriented and filled with heart-wrenching sorrow, as if it were true and he had watched his only love die on that field of grass.
“Bella,” he murmured. “My Isabella.”
His soulmate. He was a 234-year-old incubus demon and never truly knew love, so the dream was a mockery. Yet he vaguely remembered a girl, some kind of girl, from Regency-era England when he was still a young demon, searching for love.
So stupid. It was probably one of the many women he’d seduced over the decades.
He laughed and rubbed a hand over his face. His twisted, deformed face, cursed by a witch to remain like that during the darkest night.
“It was just a dream,” he said aloud to no one.
There were no such things as soulmates, not for him.
His soul was damned for all eternity.
Chapter 2
The next evening, Jared chose not to sleep, but partake in one of his favorite activities.
Alone in his castle high in the Andes mountains of Peru, Jared sat by the dying light of a flickering fire in the Great Hall. The armchair, cushioned with velvet, resembled a throne more than an easy resting place, but the chair accommodated his beastly form. Most of all, the openings in the back allowed his tail to drape just right.
The same tail gave an occasional twitch now and then as he chatted online with a fellow bird lover who lived in Florida.
If Otherworlders, the paranormal magick beings who walked this earth as he did, knew his secret hobby, they might laugh. Worse, powerful Others who envied him could use it to kill him and steal his magick.
Jared had no desire to tempt them. He was already cursed to look like a grotesque beast. Each day inched him closer to being purely evil.
Embracing the darkness and turning his soul over to the Dark Lord seemed easy, but he’d have to surrender this hobby and his friendship with Rockstar00. During the lonely nights,Rockstar was the only one who could yank him from his depression and spark his interest.
“What did you see today?” he queried.
“Not much. Typical backyard birds. ThePasserina cirisare back, though. Love those painted buntings. The males are colorful.”
A pause and then, “You?”
He considered. Seemed like bragging, but he wanted to impress. “Rupicola peruvianus.”
Several question marks followed.
Jared chuckled and typed. “The Andean cock-of-the-rock.”
He liked the name. It made him chuckle every time he said it aloud. But they had a system – scientific names of the birds before using the common name.
“What does it look like?”
Jared flexed his claws. Difficult to type fast with these protrusions, though he’d filed them down earlier. The curse made them grow back to their usual three inches.
He spoke into the microphone instead. “It was a male. Astonishing crimson color, with black wings. The crest is round and its face resembles…”
“A penis?”
Playful emoticon of an eggplant and wink followed. He grinned. The bird’s elongated and rounded head did resemble a cock, but he wanted to keep the convo free of sexual suggestions. Being an incubus demon, he kept shop talk and hobbies separate.
