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‘It might work,’ I hear myself saying.

I’m trying not to lie to her. There have been times when I would have said or done anything to feed just a little, but as I take her in, I just can’t bring myself to do it.

This is new. Why I care what this slip of a charlatan thinks of me, I have no idea. I don’t know how long we’ve been down here together. My perception of time hasn’t been great lately. But I know I hated the sight of her as soon as I figure out who she was. Because of her actions, the demon was able to swallow me whole, though I concede much of this wasn’t her fault directly. Wrong place, wrong time.

I let out a dry laugh.Wrong place, wrong time.What a fucking understatement.

I step closer to her and kneel down. She’s still staring at the ground. I cup her chin and angle her face up to mine.

‘Look at me.’

Her eyes flick to mine. ‘Ready?’ she whispers.

‘I’m not going to hurt you.’

She lets out a laugh of her own. ‘This is not how I thought it would be if I ever got out of the Mountain.’

That’s news to me, and I don’t like it one bit. ‘Why were you in that place?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she deflects, and I let it slide because now isn’t the time, and she owes me no explanation of how she spends her moments.

I’m the incubus who’s about to kill her if we don’t pull this off.

I swallow hard as I pull her up to stand, feeling the kind of trepidation I haven’t experienced since I was, for all intents and purposes, a human youth. She comes with me easily, no hesitation, but I don’t for a moment believe it’s because she wants me. This girl is nothing if not pragmatic. She’ll do what she has to do to survive.

And that I understand.

I make her look at me. ‘I’m not going to hurt you,’ I say again.

She nods, ‘I know you’re not,’ she says, ‘but you can’t really speak for the other guy, can you?’

‘Not yet.’

I draw her closer, wondering if the energy she gives off here will actually feed me and hoping with everything in me that it does. For once, I don’t give a shit about feeding for me, I just don’t wanthimto kill her.

I liked her before. She was a bright light when things had started to go grey for me two years ago when we’d first begun to realize what was happening to me. I tried not to get too close to her while she was staying with us just in case I did something I couldn’t take back, but her energy and the way she lived in the moment were contagious. I secretly crept into her room on more than one occasion while she slept to watch her. Even though I knew it was dangerous and wrong, I couldn’t help myself.

Just like I can’t now.

I pull her closer, putting my lips to hers, my tongue invading her mouth, and her wide-eyed squeak, followed by almost instant arousal, is enough to make me growl with need. I pull her shirt over her head and use it to capture her arms and cover her eyes. A claw slices through her bra, letting her ample tits bounce free.

I weigh them in my hands, scrape the calloused pads of my fingers across her nipples until they stand to attention.

I bend down to lick, pulling one into my mouth to suck gently and reveling in her mewl, groaning as I feel energy trickling into me already.

I don’t say anything as I rip her jeans down her legs and lift her to yank them from her body. The effect is immediate. She likes sex the way she likes life. Unpredictable and dangerous.

My fingers flex on her arms, digging in just a little, and I grin when her fear morphs quickly into quivering need.

I put her legs around me and tear off her shirt the rest of the way so I can see her face as I enter her.

Her eyes are wide and unfocused. She’s panting and impatient. Her mouth opens as if she wants to say something, but all that comes out is a breathy, ‘Now.’

I don’t make her wait, plunging into her wet channel. Her hands on my shoulders curl, her nails biting into my flesh, and I fucking revel in it. I’ve rarely taken a human outside the lull, and it makes them docile. Jules is all fire and passion, and if we survive this, I promise myself I’ll have her in the real world, too.

My pace is fast and desperate, and her cries fuel me to go faster, her energy taking me to heights I’ve not felt in a very long time.

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