Incubus Awakened by Kitty Thomas

13

Anna glared at Tam as she dropped her bags on the kitchen table. “You and I will have words later,” she hissed.

“Why? What happened?”

Anna was momentarily distracted by Luc. The kitchen table had been pushed against one wall, and he was dragging the dining room table in to join it. The effort seemed to be causing him physical pain.

“Luc?” Surely a table wasn’t too heavy for a demon to lift, even one as large and ornate as this one.

He glowered. “Tam said she needed more space to work on. But you listen to me . . . we are covering the surface with your bath towels. I don’t want to hear one word about it. This table should not be used to make handicrafts on.”

Anna glanced away to hide her smile. She’d thought it would be hard to look him in the eyes after spending the morning shopping with the harem, but he had that funny way of disarming her.

“So help me, Anna, if you laugh I will blister your ass.”

She lost the smile. He hadn’t just said that. And no, she was not going to fantasize about what he hadn’t just said. Bad, Anna.

“I wasn’t going to laugh.” Plan B. Ignore all innuendo. Do not respond. Do not engage. Check.

“Then what was the smile about?”

“You. With the cleaning up Chinese food and wiping off the mirror. I thought you were just being creepy and ghostly, but you’re an antiques fiend. You couldn’t stand anything getting messed up.”

Instead of denying the accusation, he shrugged. “So?”

“I don’t know why you’re protecting it. If I burn the house down it’s all going to be ashes anyway.”

He cringed, no doubt imagining all the beautiful antiques going up in flames along with that gorgeous banister.

“WHAT?” the girls shrieked. They stopped what they were doing and gawked at the couple.

“Luc wants me to burn down the house, to break the curse that has him trapped.”

“But you can’t! You can’t even be thinking about it!” Renee was near panic.

“I wouldn’t turn you out on the streets,” Anna said, assuming that was the reason for the freak-out. She’d taken them in; she wasn’t heartless enough to just throw them back to their pimps. That would be worse than bringing them there in the first place. The current set-up was starting to feel less sleazy and more Pretty Woman, but with an ensemble cast.

“No, that’s not it,” Susan said. “We’d be okay, but please tell me you aren’t thinking of burning this house down.”

“I’m not. We’ll find another way.”

“Then what happens? When we get him out?” Karen asked.

“I don’t know.” Anna hadn’t thought that far ahead.

For the briefest of moments, she entertained the idea of never letting him leave. Stop being crazy. You can’t even bring yourself to sleep with him. But the thought of the big, beautiful house with no Luc inside made her feel cold. Could she bring herself to stay without him there?

“I hate to say it,” Tam said, “but freeing Luc is going to be like getting a middle-aged man out of his mother’s basement. Do you even know where to start?”

“I thought about calling the archbishop, seeing if they could bring someone higher up in. Maybe that would make a difference. And I made an appointment with some paranormal investigators I saw on TV. They’ll be here tomorrow”

“I could just call the coven,” Tam said.

“No!” Both Luc and Anna shouted at once.

“I’m just saying. A witch started this mess. Maybe other witches can undo it.”

“Thank you, Tam, but no,” Anna said.

Tam had been claiming to be a witch since high school. Anna had thought it was a phase. When her friend didn’t grow out of it, she decided it would be the thing no one acknowledged, like the uncle who farts when company comes over.

With evidence right in front of her of not only demons but witches, well, she liked to keep pretending she had a normal life. If Tam started breaking out the pointy hats, she didn’t know how long she could maintain that fantasy.

Maria cleared her throat. “No one is talking about it . . . but I do have gypsy blood. And I have relatives who are full Romani. I haven’t spoken to that side of the family in awhile, but I’m sure that . . . ”

Anna looked at Luc and shrugged. “Gypsies aren’t witches.”

“Yes, but Gypsies aren’t traditionally good news for my kind either.”

“What do you have against witches?” Tam said. “It’s not like I hex people.”

Anna turned back to Luc. He was making her brain fuzzy. The scar on her hand tingled pleasantly, as if happy to be so close to him.

“We really have to try something. If we aren’t going with the coven, we should at least try the gypsies,” Anna said.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “But I’m putting your fluffy bath towels on the dining room table.” The look in his eyes dared her to challenge him.

“Luc!”

“It’s fluffy bath towels or no gypsies. You keep them in the guest bath anyway.”

“So?”

An arched eyebrow.

“Fine. Take my fluffy towels.” She thought she might cry.

.. . Luc sat in the middle of the living room floor staring off into space. The house was deathly still except for a constant, irritating drip from a leaky faucet in the kitchen. He made no move to shut it off.

He hadn’t fed in weeks. All he could think was that she was gone, and it was his fault. He heard the back door fly open. It wasn’t a woman. He would have known instantly if it were a woman. If it wasn’t food, there was no point wasting any more strength. Without food or means of escape, immortality became a true curse for the first time.

Footsteps stopped in front of him.

“Luc, my God. What’s happened to you?” Cain said.

“I killed her. She was right there for two whole days.” Tears streamed down his cheeks as he pointed to an empty spot on the couch.

Cain’s eyes were wide, his face filled with horror and disgust. “Why on earth are you crying?”

As if Cain had the right to be disgusted. He had no soul, not the slightest bit of empathy. “Why wouldn’t I cry? I killed her. I loved her, and I killed her.”

The other demon’s jaw clenched. “Why haven’t you left this place?”

“I can’t leave.” Luc didn’t have the energy yet to explain about the magic. He couldn’t rid himself of the image of Beatrice’s lifeless eyes staring up at him. All my fault. All my fucking fault. “They finally found her and took her out. She was still pretty.”

Cain ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath as if trying to gather a tsunami of patience. “Why can’t you leave?”

“Trapped. She didn’t want me to leave her . . . trapped me.”

Cain grabbed an unresponsive Luc by the arm and dragged him to the door. He tried pushing him out, but the magic smacked against Luc, sending a shock of pain through his body.

The other incubus took Luc’s face in his hands and stared hard into his eyes. “Snap out of it! She was a witch. Goddammit! I knew something was wrong with you. I should never have left you here.”

Luc jerked out of his grasp and started to pace. Anna stared out from inside him, wanting to back away from Cain.

Luckily, Luc needed to rest against the wall, and moved, getting both of them out of the other demon’s immediate sphere. The only thing keeping her from screaming to wake up was the reassurance that Cain couldn’t hurt her.

“Luc, you have to listen to me. She’s using the same mind tricks our kind have used for thousands of years. She made you want her, made you care for her. It’s not real. None of this is real!” Cain swiped his hand over the mantel, breaking half a dozen knick knacks. Luc didn’t even twitch.

“Doesn’t matter. I feel it. It doesn’t matter what she did. It’s done now. I can’t stop seeing her face.”

Cain growled in frustration. “You need to feed. I’ll be back. We’ll find a way to get you out of here.”

Anna wanted to leave. She wanted the scene to shift like it always did. She wanted to wake up. Anything to no longer be swamped by Luc’s anguish.

Why wouldn’t the scene change? She was gripped with panic that she’d be trapped forever in this time and place with him. She couldn’t stand it. Anna never thought she’d be so happy to see Cain return.

“Here, this one’s already under.” Cain shoved a very willing female at Luc. He ravaged her mindlessly as she moaned and writhed beneath him.

“Yes, oh yes,” she cried.

He felt the life slipping from her, and his mind screamed at him. No No. You have to stop. Stop right now. Stop. But he was too hungry. Her little pants of yes kept goading him on.

Cain had two other girls, holding them each by one wrist, his grip punishing as they struggled.

Luc flung the girl away, his self-disgust raging through him at having taken another life. He didn’t want to kill anyone now. The witch had unlocked his long-forgotten human emotion, and now that the floodgates had been opened they could never be resealed.

Cain stepped forward with the second girl. She was under his thrall now and clawed at him, begging him to satisfy her needs.

“Come on, now. You want to please me don’t you?” Cain said, his voice a seductive purr.

“Yes, please,” she whimpered, trying to unbutton his shirt.

“Then go to my friend. He’s very lonely.”

The girl detached herself from Cain and stalked Luc as if she were the predator instead of the prey, and Luc went through the motions. The edges of his hunger slowly abated, but he couldn’t stop in time as the life left the second girl.

Cain was about to put the last one under.

“Don’t,” Luc said. “No more.”

Cain sighed and shook his head. “One more, Luc. I’m sorry for what’s been done to you. You shouldn’t feel bad killing them, but we’ll fix it. Until we do, the more you feed the less likely you are to kill.”

Cain was right. Of course he was right.

“Don’t put her under. Let me.” Luc hated the way his brother turned them into zombies and had never done it himself. He’d have to now. You couldn’t seduce a woman who’d just watched you kill her friends. He closed his eyes and breathed slowly, focusing on what he needed to do.

When his eyes opened and settled on the target, he allowed his mind to touch the edges of hers, enough that her body relaxed. But there was still awareness in her eyes.

Cain released his grip, and she slunk toward Luc. She was trembling and trying not to go to him.

“Don’t play with your food,” Cain said.

Luc growled. “I’m not playing. I need to talk to her first.”

“Please don’t kill me,” she whispered, her eyes brimming with tears.

“I’ll try my very best not to. I have to put you under. If I can’t stop, know that I’m sorry, and it won’t hurt.” Then her eyes glazed over, and she was willing in his arms.

He fucked and fed, feeling more in control this time. He was fully alert when he pulled away. She blinked as she came out of it, surprised to be alive.

“Sleep,” he said. Luc stood and passed her unconscious form to Cain. “Take her home.”

“As much as I am trying to appreciate how you feel, this is a lost cause. Even if she remembers tonight as a dream, when her friends turn up missing she’s going to know. She won’t make it through this. It would be a mercy to kill her. I’ll do it if you don’t want to.”

“No. She’s strong. She’ll make it.”

Cain shrugged. “Whatever you say. I’ll take her back and clean up here.” He indicated the two bodies on the floor. “Then I’m going to bring you a couple more.”

“No more. I’m done.”

“Just to be sure. I’m trying to support this new feeding pattern. If you don’t get enough, tomorrow you’ll just kill someone else.”

Luc nodded and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor again. The sea of conflicted emotions overwhelmed Anna. Then the blackness engulfed her.