Page 42 of Succubus Sins
I looked away as my cheeks began to burn. “Yeah,” I said. “Great.”
Demonspawn Daughter
Sonya
The one nice thing about being back home was that there were random closets filled with adorable outfits just my size. All the women in my family were five-foot-five, busty blonde beauties. I don’t know if our race came with some kind of precoded DNA for what is supposed to be the sexiest womanly form, or if Hitler’s Arian fanatics had a play in our creation—I wouldn’t have been surprised. Either way, it felt damn good to take a steaming shower and open the closet in Nate’s room, pull out a red skirt to accent my hips, a puffy white blouse to show off my cleavage, and red shoes to draw the eye down my long legs.
After slipping into the outfit like a favorite glove, Nate offered an approving appraisal before I went for the door.
“Babe,” he said, waving his arms out in amazement. His outfit consisted of tousled hair and the sheets I had thrown at him, all too thinly draped over his perfect body. “Seriously, you can’t dress all cute like that and then just leave.”
I offered him a wry smile. “Really? You want to go again?” I popped open my locket and let him have a long look at the withering stone. “You want to test how much more it can take? I’m in if you are.”
He stared me down, and for a moment I wondered if he was seriously considering the risk. Then he put on his classic jokester smile and crossed his arms, letting himself fall back into the bed with a dejected sigh. “Sucks to be human. You have no idea.”
I chuckled and gripped the doorknob, feeling a mixture of pity and longing, which was an odd combination. When I closed my eyes, I saw images of Sarah, my past, and Luke, my future. Nate wasn’t in there, and shouldn’t be. There was no room for a human in my life. Especially not one who was the son of the Incubus King, the only person I knew who could help me recharge the Blood Stone. Talk about your fucked up love triangles.
When I slipped outside, Nate didn’t protest. One quick glance before the door closed showed me his eyes closed, looking asleep in his bed. I wondered if this was as hard for him as it was for me. But as I clicked my heels down the empty hall, it felt silly to believe this was anything more than a stroke of good luck for him. How many humans got to fuck a succubus and live to tell about it? I was probably going to be the topic of his boyish bragging many drunken nights to come.
The best way to get over a guy, especially one who was just intended to be a one-night stand but had somehow turned into something more, was to have a distraction. I chuckled, realizing that Nate wassupposedto have been my distraction. Well, it had worked far too well.
I still needed to get to Queens, but first I needed to deal with my grandmother. I turned a corner and found myself walking to the sunroom, knowing that’s where she would be spending her morning tea if she was still the woman I remembered.
Sure enough, there she was sparkling like an orchid misted with morning dew sipping from a darling porcelain cup.
Her eyes crinkled with delight when she saw me approach. Nothing about her seemed aged except for her eyes. They were blue and bright, but ancient and ever-so-slightly wrinkled when she grinned. “Sonya, my sweet,” she said, putting her tea on the table with a softclinkand rose to embrace me.
I couldn’t resist falling into her arms, enveloping myself with her lilac scent and letting myself be lost in the embrace of a loved one. I didn’t have any left, except her.
She nuzzled my face like a kitten. “I’m so glad you could find it in your heart to forgive me. I have missed you so much.”
I squeezed her tighter. “Why did you do it?” I wanted there to be a good answer to the question. Why had she let me believe she’d been dead? I’d not only had to grieve my mother all alone, but grieve my grandmother too even when she’d been alive all this time.
She pulled away, her face scrunching with regret. “I hated not telling you. But there was no choice. You never would have methimif I hadn’t let you find your own path.”
It was hard to swallow the lump in my throat. “What do you mean?”
She smiled, and then drifted about the sunroom trailing her fingers across the flowers. “Would you believe me if I told you?”
I frowned. “I’ve seen a lot of things. There isn’t anything you could say that would surprise me.”
She chuckled and wrapped her fingers around a rose just about to bloom. Her sparkling eyes found mine. “Your mother had a vision. She sacrificed herself to make that vision a reality, and if I had approached you before you met him, her death would have been for nothing.”
Tears threatened at the edges of my eyes, burning like tiny embers. I swallowed and kept them in. “How could my mother have a vision? We’re succubi. We don’t have such gifts.”
Her eyes drifted to the necklace about my neck and she said, “There are exceptions.”
My hand went to it instinctually. The locket hadn’t gone completely cold, meaning it still had some power left. What warmth I could feel spreading through my fingers made me feel solid and in control. “You’re talking about Luke, aren’t you?” I clenched my jaw. “Why does everyone think he’s so damned important? I’ve tried looking for him, and he’s supposed to be somewhere in Queens. Instead of taking me there, Nate and the random flight attendant dragged me here.” I growled and stomped to a wicker chair, ignoring the small snaps as I jolted into the seat. “Whydeterme from such an important task, as it were?”
She shrugged. “Your mother’s vision made it clear the path would be set once you had met. After that, making it come true would be entirely up to you. Nothing I could say or do could interfere.” She pointed her index finger in the air. “However, I’m not going to let a demonspawn drain your soul before I’ve had a chance to make amends.”
I scoffed. “That sounds like you. Who cares about my safety, as long as you’ve made amends?” I narrowed my eyes. “Demonspawn,” the word trickled off my tongue. “I thought they’d gone extinct.”
She shrugged. “It was bound to happen again. They usually appear after the Blood Stone is recharged. I’m not sure why, though. It is odd.” Her ancient eyes locked onto mine as if searching for answers. “You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you?”
I froze into the best poker face I could pull off. I loved my grandmother, don’t get me wrong. But I certainly didn’t trust her farther than I could…well, farther than a human could throw a boulder. If she was talking about my daughter, I certainly wasn’t looking to give away that secret.
Instead, I shrugged and reached for the pot of tea. An empty cup with two cubes of sugar was waiting for me. I cracked a smile. My favorite.
