Page 46 of Succubus Sins
I approached to take his offering, grateful to have an excuse to examine his muscular physique. He was an amazing specimen. Most supernatural men had an agonizing level of perfection. Even Nate. I thought I liked that, until now. Luke’s skin wasn’t porcelain like a doll, but rough like a human’s. The hairs on his arms were white as if he’d bleached them, and tiny scars lined his whole body. I found myself unable to resist the urge to trace my finger across some that were still pink, as if trying to heal.
“Detective Anderson’s handiwork,” Luke admitted.
I jerked my hand away, not realizing that I’d been stroking the outline of his abs. “I thought you healed?”
“I do. But a small mark always stays behind.” His hand drifted to a red line up the center of his chest. “I prefer it that way. I never want to forget why I want to kill him.”
Realization hit me. “Why are you on some blind mission to lead me to ‘holy ground’ by your prophetic mother? You should be tracking that bastard after what he did to you.” And Sarah, I added in my thoughts.
He smiled. “Because the end of the world takes precedence.”
“End of the world?”
God. I sounded like some blonde bimbo. Which in this case, I was.
“Yeah. It’s real.” His eyes fell to my Blood Stone. “And you’re going to have to get rid of that, for starters.”
My hands clutched it defensively. “Are you kidding? Do you know what this is?”
His cheeks pinched as if he’d tasted something bitter. “I know exactly what that thing is. It’s entombed evil. It needs to be destroyed.”
I shook my head. “Hell no! This is the only thing that keeps me from killing people. Without this, I’m just a walking murder weapon and I can’t do anything about it.” My cheeks flushed with the unspoken certainty that I never would have experienced Nate without it, and he’d opened up a whole new world. One that questioned my desire to be with my so-called soulmate.
Luke’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t make a move to snatch it from me. Instead the tension in his shoulders eased. For some reason, the pretense of “not giving a damn” made me bristle. I crossed my arms and shifted my weight to my hip. It probably made me look even more the blonde bimbo, but I was past the point of caring.
He snorted a laugh. “Look, don’t get all prissy on me. We’ve got a lot to do.”
“Like what?” I snapped. “All I’m interested in is making sure I don’t need to kill people, which means either you help me or I go back to Derek and Silvia.”
I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to happen when I met my soulmate, but it wasn’t this. He was supposed to fall madly in love with me, sweep me off my feet and nourish me with as much sexual energy as I could want. I wasn’t supposed to have to go back to killing, or go back to bartering with the Incubus King to screw his wife and spawn demon babies.
Luke openly laughed at me, making my blood boil. “You already gave Derek what he wanted. You tipped things over to some dangerous dark scales by unleashing a Demonspawn on earth. Now they’ll want your head on a pike. Your daughter is the first on the list who wants you dead.”
Did he mean that literally? I sure hoped not. “Why would my own daughter want to kill me?” My words came out defiant, even though I’d seen the cruel gleam in the Demonspawn’s eyes. She didn’t look like she’d blink twice to lop my head right off my body.
Instead of responding, he gingerly sat on the plush sofa and reached under the maple table. A soft rustle sounded as he drew out a small box and cradled it in his lap. His face rose and his eyes met mine. The expression made me soften. There was something in his eyes I hadn’t expected. There was hope, but also fear and dread. “It’s better if I show you,” he said, seeming to force the words out.
Suspicious, but curious, I eased into the seat beside him. “And that is…?”
His hand caressed the silver box as if it were the greatest treasure in the world. “Some would call it Pandora’s box.” He flashed me a grin. “To me, it’s just the place I keep my soul.”
My eyes dashed away from his magnetizing gaze. There was definitely attraction in it now. Electricity zinged in the air between us and my cheeks burned with the inappropriate thoughts that were springing into my mind. For some reason, I felt like Nate would approve of this. I could almost hear him in the background, telling me to get it over with so I could go share his bed again. “Sounds mysterious,” I said.
He eased the chest open and my eyes were glued to the lid, dying to know what someone’s soul would look like. To my surprise, a diamond rested inside. I chuckled. “Your soul is my new best friend.”
He reached for me and my curiosity made me still. He took my hand and he guided my fingers to the stone’s surface, closing his eyes as my skin grazed the glass. Emotions and memory surged after a moment of contact. I jerked, but his grip tightened, keeping my fingers pinned.
Memories infused me like a hundred ghosts taking claim of my mind. Images of a woman, fleeting feelings of being trapped in the dark. Crying. Torture. Detective Anderson ripping out my heart and then I was looking into my own eyes, frozen in a loop looking into my eyes, into my eyes, into my eyes…
The world snapped back to reality the moment my hand was freed from the diamond. I gasped for air and crawled to the other side of the sofa. “What the hell was that?” I squeaked. The memories continued to flood. They were incoherent and massive. My eyes darted as fleeting glimpses of shadows sprinted across my vision. My head jerked at every new voice that droned in the distance, every sharp cry of Luke’s suffering at Detective Anderson’s hands.
Then a deeper memory unfurled, one no human would ever remember. At first I thought it was one of the memories of Luke as a child, trapped in the basement when his mother had locked him away for “training.” But Luke was much younger than that. Much,muchyounger.
I was inside a womb, just conceived by an angel father. No, not one… but three. Two angels and a… some supernatural I couldn’t name. Conceived with the power of a prophecy’s blessing to combat the reign of terror that would come for this world. To save a conflicted succubus from darkness. To save the world from destruction. To saveme.
The small room came back into focus. My eyes found Luke’s and blurred with tears. “You’re…” I couldn’t say the word. It wasn’t possible.
His eyes went wide and hopeful. “Did it work?” he whispered. “Only you can see what I cannot. Please, tell me what you saw.”
