Incubus Awakened by Kitty Thomas
21
Damn. How had she just sailed through life and not ever noticed there were demons floating around masquerading as humans? There couldn’t be that many incubi in the world without huge unexplained death tolls, unless most of them didn’t kill their prey. But Cain did. And Luc had.
The incubus across the room was trying to use the mind tricks on her. It caused the scar on her hand to flare to life. She mentally pushed. The demon took a step back, a look of surprise on his face, but he didn’t leave the coffee shop.
“Tam, incubus at nine o’clock,” Anna said.
“My nine o’clock or yours?”
Anna rolled her eyes. “Just look.”
Tam turned around. “Dear Jesus, he’s hot.”
“Yes, and a killer. Let’s try to focus and remember that part.”
“Right.” Tam turned away from the temptation, a look of resolve on her face.
Anna doubted the demon would try to hurt anyone in broad daylight. It seemed unlikely their kind had lived below the radar for thousands of years being careless. And he didn’t look hungry. Not that he wasn’t looking at her with that special brand of predatory that said he wouldn’t refuse a snack, but he seemed in control of himself.
A preppy t-shirt clung too tightly to his body, outlining lean, sinewy muscles. Not too beefcake. He was definitely working the Abercrombie look. Anna was sure, anytime before all this, she would have thought he was a regular human college boy with more magnetism than most.
She turned to speak to Tam again, but the seat across from her was empty. She wasn’t sure where her friend had gone, but suddenly she was worrying about just how long she’d been staring at the demon, oblivious to her surroundings. She’d thought it had only been a minute or two.
Anna took a deep breath; she wasn’t going to sit there all afternoon playing chicken with a demon. Her heart was in her throat as she approached him, and she had to physically fight her reaction.
His eyes hardened in frustration. He was really trying. It was clear he wasn’t used to receiving anything less than complete acquiescence from the women he stalked.
Electricity curled the air as he tried and failed to touch her, bouncing back as if a force field had wrapped itself around her. At that moment, Anna felt very much like a superhero. He can’t touch me. Why not taunt him a little?
“Hi there,” she said, smiling.
The demon rubbed his hand on his jeans as if it had been burned, and eyed her warily. “I can’t believe it. You’ve been marked.”
“I bet it’s really killing you to find out you aren’t all that. You probably existed for centuries under the delusion you were just so hot no sane woman could resist you. Nice updated look, by the way. It’s very J. Crew.”
He stared at her a long time, cocking his head to the side. “Bizarre.”
“Well, if you’ll excuse me . . . ” Anna started around him, but he blocked her path. She shrugged. He couldn’t hurt her, but she’d already hurt him. She shoved him out of the way, and again the barrier forced him to back up to let her pass.
Moments later, the demon was outside, matching her stride.
Anna sighed. “You can’t touch me, I don’t know why you’re following me,” she said, feigning boredom.
He couldn’t touch her against her will, but she wondered if he could if she let him. He was still trying to hypnotize her, and she was still pushing him away. She worried what would happen if he broke through her mental defenses.
Then again, she couldn’t lie; she was feeling pretty kickass right about now. She was going to have to buy some black leather pants. You couldn’t be kickass without black leather pants.
“I have my orders,” he said.
In the bright afternoon sun, red scorch marks glared against his skin from where she’d touched him. Anna couldn’t help smirking. She’d spent over a week alternately feeling safe and terrified, and now she was at least safe from everyone but Luc, who didn’t seem interested in hurting her. That’s right incubi of the world. Watch out.
The temptation to abuse her new power a little more was too great. She turned and leaped at him, holding her hands out like claws. “Boo!”
He jumped back, an annoyed look on his face. “I might not be able to touch you, but I have to follow you. Those are my orders. I’m Jackson, by the way.” He offered a hand as if to shake, then, remembering his new crispy critter look, pulled it back hurriedly.
“You guys are all so very polite until you’re sucking the life out of some poor, starry-eyed girl. I don’t care what your name is. Who told you to follow me?” If it was Luc, she was going to be pissed. She didn’t need or want a bodyguard.
“Cain.”
Luc had mentioned Cain had minions. It was just that normally when one heard the word minion one thought of gross, sewer-dwelling creatures. Not potential underwear models.
He was still eyeing her as if she were a sideshow freak. “I haven’t seen a woman marked by my kind in a long time. We don’t do it. Fucks with your mind. No one wants to fall for their food around here.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe Luc did it.”
“He did it to protect me from Cain. And his minions.” She gave him a once-over. “How many of you are here?”
“Just me and Cain. The rest are in our dimension. We don’t need an army for this.”
Army for what?The word army put a damper on her superpower excitement, but she kept moving.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m going to church. I don’t know where you’re going,” Anna said.
He visibly flinched at that. Interesting. Holy items had no effect, but the church itself might be a different story.
When they arrived, Jackson didn’t follow her inside. “Allergic?” she asked.
His eyes glowed in irritation. “Churches are consecrated ground. A sanctuary. It’s like a mirror of Heaven, a place we cannot enter.”
“Okay, well bye now." She smiled brightly at him and disappeared inside the building before he could regale her with more fascinating demon history.
Within moments of shutting the door, her mood shifted. The church was too quiet. It was only a few hours before Friday night mass; someone must be there.
“Father Jeffries?” She hurried down the empty hall, trying not to be spooked by the sound of her shoes echoing in the silence. Shadows danced along the walls in flickering candlelight. The demon was outside, so why was she so uncomfortable being inside?
“Hello?”
She found him in his office and mentally berated herself for not checking there first.
He looked up from a disorganized pile of papers on his desk and removed a pair of reading glasses. “Anna. Have you decided?”
“I’m not here about the scar.”
The priest looked troubled but nodded for her to go on.
“I was just wondering how you kill a demon.”
“You can’t.”
“What do you mean you can’t? There has to be a way. Nothing’s immortal.”
“Everything’s immortal,” he said. “Your soul. Mine. We aren’t immortal in our current forms, but we are immortal. A demon has been cast out of Heaven. He’s at the end of the line so to speak. And we are in Hell, Anna. This is their domain, their playground, even if they have other dimensions to go to.”
“But . . . ”
“This isn’t a movie. They can’t be killed. Sometimes immortal really does mean immortal. You’re in danger. You know it or you wouldn’t have come back here. We must do the ritual immediately to keep you safe.” He scooted his chair back and started toward her.
“No. I didn’t come here for that.”
Father Jeffries pursued her as she backed herself against his office door; his pale blue eyes seemed to look into her. “I spoke with a seer. The demon will have your soul if you don’t do the ritual. I know you don’t want that. You have to know what’s between you isn’t real.”
“Stop it!” She was falling for Luc. She’d tried to keep her distance, but it didn’t matter. She wanted him to love her.
She fumbled for the doorknob. When it turned, Anna almost fell out into the hallway, then took off in a dead run. The irony of running from a priest and toward a demon was not lost on her. She’d wanted to know how to kill the others in case they started trying to hurt her friends, not how to break the bond with Luc.
The priest gave chase. For an old guy he could book it, and she wondered if he was endowed with superpowers of his own. On an ordinary day she would have checked herself in to the nearest mental health facility for even thinking something so odd, but she couldn’t unsee the things she’d seen.
When she reached the awning outside the church she leaned forward, her hands braced against her knees. Father Jeffries spotted Jackson standing there growling, and backed into the shadows of the church.
Anna took a few deep lungfuls of precious oxygen. When she’d gotten her breath back, she started the trek home, knowing the priest wouldn’t follow with a demon there.
Jackson kept pace beside her. What was it with demons? They were the most tenacious . . .
“Are we going back to your house now?”
“What are you? My pedestrian chauffeur? Shut up.”
It was bad enough he was following her around. She didn’t need streaming commentary the whole way. Jackson shrugged but shut up.
She should have known Cain would be inside the house with Luc, yet seeing him caused a chill to go through her.
“You’re right to be afraid of me,” Cain said, his eyes raising to hers.
He was perched in a chair by the fireplace looking about as regal as an evil being could. It was clear from their body language that she’d interrupted some kind of argument between the two demons. Maybe she was paranoid, but she felt like they’d been fighting about her.
“Anna, come here.” Luc held a hand out to her. Jackson was forgotten at her back as she went to him. He took her scarred hand in his, and for once she was glad he was doing some weird possessive demon-y thing. She could feel him sending her power through the bond, as if she were a battery being charged up.
Cain laughed and shook his head. “I can’t believe you think you can protect her from me. Someone like Jackson, perhaps, but not me. I’m older and stronger than you.”
Luc growled and held onto Anna’s hand tighter. She was relieved the harem wasn’t home. The last thing they needed was other people in the mix who could be used as pawns.
Cain chuckled. “You’ll come back to the fold one way or another. Once you’re out of this house, things will be different. You’ll remember who and what you are.”
“No,” Luc said.
Cain’s eyes danced with amusement as he turned his attention to Anna. “Come here.”
His mind pressed in on hers, and she felt the insane, maddening lust he’d created in her the first night in the kitchen. She wanted to go to him. She wanted to shake Luc’s hand off and follow the seductive voice whispering inside her head. Wicked thoughts of all the wonderful things he could do to her flitted through her mind, and a slutty little moan passed through her lips.
Luc growled beside her, gripping her hand so tightly she thought he might break it. “Fight him.”
She pushed back, like she had with Jackson, only much harder. The pressure eased off her mind, and the lust she’d felt only seconds before was replaced with her usual disgust with regards to the other demon.
His head whipped back from her effort, and he laughed. “Impressive. I can see why you marked her. I may not be able to make her come to me, but I can go to her.”
Anna felt Luc’s muscles tense in response, ready to pounce. Cain crossed the floor in three easy strides and reached out, touching her arm. No barrier locked him out.
His hand began sizzling as he fought to keep a grip on her, and her courage returned when she realized she still had a defense arsenal.
She smiled. “Get your dirty hands off me, Cain.”
He snarled, still holding on while the smoke rose off his flesh. “I can take it.” He gritted his teeth, unwilling to let a human woman best him.
“Sure you can,” Anna taunted.
“Leave,” Luc said. “I don’t need you or the clan anymore.”
Cain looked almost hurt, then his face hardened. “Fine!” He withdrew his hand from Anna’s arm and stood. “But when she leaves and you lose your mind from marking her, know that we are your family. We’re all you’ve got.”
The front door opened and in walked Tam and the harem. She couldn’t have picked a worse time to show up. Cain’s eyes lit with malice as he saw the scales tip in his favor.
“Tam, get out of here!” Anna said.
Cain smiled. “This one means something to you? Come to me.” He extended a hand toward Tam, arrogantly waiting for her to obey and fall into his arms like a cheesy romance heroine.
“Um . . . no,” Tam said.
“What?” He shook his arm like it was an electrical instrument that had a short in it. “Come here!” he demanded again.
“I said no!” She crossed her arms over her chest, smirking at him.
“Tam?” Anna said. “Luc thralled you. How . . . ?”
“Oh, please. Yeah, I admit my guard was down that day, but seriously, fool me once . . . Well, you know . . . blah blah blah. Point is, I’ve got really good shields up now. Thanks for that heads up, by the way, Luc.”
“Not a problem,” he said, grinning.
Cain shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have to feed, I just want to hurt you.” He rushed toward her.
Tam was eerily unconcerned. She hauled her hand back like she was going to throw a baseball, and then suddenly, she had something to throw. In her hand, she held what could only be described as a glowing purple ball of energy. She threw it and sent Cain flying across the room to land in a heap on the floor.
He glowered up at her, sweeping a clump of hair out of his eyes, and growled. Tam arched a brow in challenge. “Wanna look stupid in front of your immortal pals again?”
Cain got up and brushed himself off. He pushed past Tam and the harem, calling over his shoulder for Jackson to follow. Then to Luc, “Fuck it. I’m done. Don’t expect my help again.”
“Are you all right?” Luc asked when the door slammed behind them. He ran his fingers over Anna’s hand gently, checking to see if he’d hurt her with his grip.
She nodded.
“So, yeah,” Tam said, “I took the harem to my place for awhile, and we put up a barrier spell. No one that isn’t invited can get in. I looked into doing the same thing here, but the original spell prevents a barrier from being put up. It’s this whole you can’t have two spells of similar nature on the same object thing. We’d have to break the spell currently on the house first.”
After seeing Tam go super-witch on her, she had no other choice. They were going to have to put their witch issues aside for the greater good.