“It’s Rachel’s blood, which means she has to be the one to go through. You can go with her, but not without her. And if you do accompany her, who’s staying behind to fight? It’s clear that fighting is your strength.”
It’s hard to be angry at someone who compliments you.
I glance up at Ace, who appears as uncertain as me.
“Let me go with her,” Zane says. “I’ll ensure she’s safe.”
My eyes narrow on him. “A minute ago, you didn’t even know who was related to Zerachu despite knowing Rachel created the portal.” I extract my wrist blades. “What kind of games are you playing?”
He calmly shakes his head. “I’m playing no game, I assure you. I’ve heard of powerful sorcerers creating blood portals on behalf of other people… It’s only that I’ve never seen it done. I’m putting myself on the line by trusting you.”
Still glowering at him, I take in a long breath. “Okay, then why haven’t you created your own blood portal to find your mother?”
He smirks. “I’m not that powerful.”
Rachel beams, and I hope this won’t go to her head.
On one hand, I don’t like the idea of her going blindly through some portal with a guy we barely know. On the other hand, he’s a witch, and if there’s one thing better than a witch, it’s two of them.
“I want her back in one piece,” I say, jabbing my finger in front of his face.
Rachel looks at me like I’m an embarrassing mom, and that’s when it hits me.
Rachel’s mom. Surely, she’s realized by now that Rachel’s clone is precisely that—a clone.
“Rachel, how do you know your mom hasn’t figured out the clone thing?”
She flicks her wrist at me. “I have a safeguard in place. If she figures it out, the clone sends me a signal.”
“A signal?” I ask. “As in a magical telepathic message?”
She scrunches her nose and whips out her cell phone. “Um… A text.”
Now I definitely feel like the embarrassing mom.
Zane tightens his lips, no doubt fighting the urge to laugh.
Teenagers.
I wave impatiently. “Create the portal again, will you?”
I realize I’m making it sound like it’s as easy as baking premade cookies when in reality, it drains a great deal of Rachel’s energy. She still looks depleted from her first blood portal. I hope she has enough strength to go at it again.
Rubbing her palms together, she says, “Okay everyone, step back,” and a powerful gust of wind sweeps through what’s left of our motel room.
Chapter 27
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Watching the portal close behind Rachel is the most difficult thing I’ve had to do in a while. It makes me want to chug back a bottle of tequila, but for her sake, I won’t do it. I’m worried like hell that she won’t make it back, but I can’t focus on that.
She’s doing her job. Ace and I need to do ours.
“You okay?” Ace asks.
I turn to look at both him and Drax, and Drax quickly avoids eye contact. He knows I hate getting emotional and so he does me the honor of pretending I have no feelings.
“I’m fine,” I lie.
The truth is, I’m freaking out inside. I fucking hate uncertainty and I especially hate it when it concerns someone I care about. I also hate the fact that I give a shit about that little brat. This wasn’t supposed to happen, yet somehow, she wormed her way into our dysfunctional family.
Ace loads his weapon belt, clipping on a pistol and two knives. He slips a sword into a long sheath. “Listen, if you need time—” he says, but I don’t let him finish.
Moving at the speed of modern internet—quickly, in case that was misinterpreted—I grab him by the collar of his cotton shirt, march him backward across the room, and push him right through the wall. Dust explodes around us and a support beam snaps in two as we enter his old room—the one Rachel unknowingly led me into hours ago.
I throw him onto his bed. “Take off your pants.”
He doesn’t argue and quickly unbuttons them and tears them off. Beneath them are clean white boxer briefs that are form-fitting and quite flattering. At the sight of his erection, I slip out of my pants, climb onto the bed, and scratch his boxers right off him.
He winces as my claws draw blood, but he doesn’t seem to mind.
Without giving him any time to ask what’s going on, I straddle him like a horse, grab his bulging muscle, and pull him inside of me.
Both of our wings expand on either side of us the moment he enters me, and I throw my head back as a feeling of absolute ecstasy runs through my veins.
I thrust my hips back and forth, feeling him right where I want, but it isn’t enough.
I need more.
With my hands pressed hard on his bare chest, I say, “I want you to fuck me. Do you understand?”
Oh, he understands.
Using his wings, he pushes himself upward and spins me around onto my back. He thrusts hard, and it feels so fucking good I think my heart might stop.
With bulging arm muscles, he holds himself over me, his hips matching my rhythm.
“Harder,” I breathe, and he pumps so hard the entire bed shakes.
Wet smacking fills the room as he pounds himself inside me, and all I want to do is order him to keep going faster and harder. If I do that, he might break my pelvic bone. At this point, I won’t even care.
His skin glistens as sweat seeps through his pores, and the heat of his body envelopes me. With my legs wrapped around his waist, I reach for his bare ass, pulling him in deeper.
“Fuck me, Ace,” I breathe again.
He grunts with pleasure, his breath hot and rapid as I squeeze my legs tighter around his body.
Holy fuck.
I never imagined anything could ever top the feeling of feeding… but this… this is unworldly. Why haven’t I fucked an incubus before? My eyes roll into the back of my head as I let him take me… all of me.
And then, it happens.
Instantaneously, it feels like the room is spinning around me, and I forget about my existence. I shout so loud it sends vibrations into his muscles and against my palms on his skin.
I can’t speak.
I can’t think.
He pumps hard one last time, and it sends me over the edge.
Through some primal instinct, I dig my claws into his neck and pull his face to mine.
I’m about to feed like I’ve never fed before when our eyes lock, and for the first time, I stop myself.
How… How is this possible? Not once in my entire life have I ever been able to reject a meal. I’ve stopped halfway, sure, but not a second prior.
Why is this happening? Deep down, do I think he might try to do the same? And if he does, who will win? Maybe this all boils down to survival instincts.
With him still inside of me, I look into his eyes, searching for something.
What does he want from me? Why hasn’t he tried to feed?
“It’s okay,” he says softly. “Take some. You need it more than me.”
Is he offering to share some of his life force? What the fuck is going on? Who is this guy? Maybe it’s a setup… a trick. He’ll turn on me the moment I try.
But the sweet smile on his lips tells me otherwise. Slowly, he presses his plush lips against mine and exhales. The feeling is beyond confusing. Although I can feel the energy exploding inside of me, I’m not the one pulling it in—he’s expelling it, and it’s enough to drive me mad.
So mad, in fact, that I lose control.
Without warning, I flip him onto his back, grab him by the hair, and suck on his lips as hard as I can. A seductive purple mist spills out of his mouth and into mine.
The taste… the power… It’s indescribable.
Unable to control myself, I suck harder, and harder until black lines spiderweb across his face. He stares up at me, a look of terror in his eyes, but I can’t stop.
An
d he’s too drained to stop me.
If you don’t stop now, you’ll kill him.
But I can’t…
It feels too fucking good.
His face flushes to a powder white and his eyes glaze over.
Fuck.
Unable to stop inhaling, I push myself off as hard as I can and land at the opposite end of the room. The moment I look toward the bed, reality sinks back in and my stomach forms a knot.
His body, pale to the point of being translucent, lies still.
Did I kill him?
In a panic, I rush to the bed.
“Ace?”
His hollow eyes stare at the overcast sky.
“Ace?” I shout.
I place my ear over his lips, feeling his faint breath against my skin.
He’s still breathing.
Buck naked, I climb back on top of him and press my lips against his.
Nothing. Why isn’t he trying to feed? He needs to take some of his life force back.
I pull away, staring him cold in the eyes. “You need to take some,” I say.
A groan escapes his mouth, and he licks his dry, cracked lips.
He’s too weak.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
What the hell am I supposed to do? How do you force an incubus to feed if they don’t have the energy to? I’m beating myself up for not knowing how to share some of my life force. How did Ace do that?
It doesn’t matter. You’re running out of time.
I bite my lip, trying to sort through the dozens of thoughts running through my mind. I search the room, the hollow ceiling, the clouds, and then look back down at Ace.
That’s when I notice he’s still hard.
If there’s one thing Ace and I share in common, it’s succubi survival instinct. He may have been able to control himself with me earlier, but now that he’s on the verge of going comatose, nothing will stop this demon from feeding… not even me.
It’s a risk, but what choice do I have?
Swallowing my panic, I bring out my Lure. It feels forced and unnatural given that my target is hardly moving, but he needs to want this more than anything. Breathing out slowly, I climb on top of him as if preparing to fuck him. Although I can’t know what he’s thinking, his rapid heartbeat against my palm tells me he wants this.
Breathing out slowly, I reach for his erected manhood and squeeze my fingers around him. His eyelids flutter and he releases a raspy breath. I stroke him softly… torturously teasing him. But the harder his heart pounds, the quicker my strokes become, filling the open space with a wet chafing sound. Beads of sweat slide down the side of his face and a hint of his crisp cologne enters my nostrils.
“You’re going to get off hard, and you’re going to feed on me, do you understand?” I order.
He tries to nod, but his chin barely moves.
I fucked this up…badly.
But it’s okay. I stroke harder, and harder, my grip tightening around his shaft and my bare breasts hanging in front of him. I’m going to fix this.
His moans louden, and although he can’t vocalize it, I can tell he’s experiencing euphoria. I sense it. It’s invisible energy generated by my Lure. It leaves my fingertips and enters him through my firm touch, then seeps out of his body and envelops us both.
I feel a similar ecstasy with feebles, hence why I can feed without being touched myself, but with Ace, it magnifies the sensation beyond belief.
Holy shit… What would have happened if we’d both used our Lures on each other before sex?
I get wet at the thought of it, so I tell myself to remain focused.
Suddenly, his entire body contracts and lets out a long, sustained moan as he releases himself all over me.
This is it.
I drop my chest against his and kiss him hard.
This time, he doesn’t hold back.
The strength of his inhale is enough to make me think he might suck out my lungs. A loud, high-pitched sound hums between us as a colorful mist licks his chin and slips into his mouth.
His muscular hands grab me by the back of the head as his cheeks sink in, making it impossible for me to pull away.
Fuck. Is this it? Is he going to suck me dry?
The black lines across his face disappear as he continues to inhale my life force, and right when I’m about to start yelling in my head for someone to come save me, he pushes me off and sucks in a deep breath as if emerging from the ocean.
His eyes open wide, looking burnt orange under the evening sky.
“Holy shit,” he says.
I wipe my lips, not quite understanding how he managed to stop, yet I almost killed him.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
“Are you okay?” I ask, climbing off and reaching for my clothes.
He doesn’t answer, and it almost looks like he’s holding back vomit. Was stopping difficult for him?
I fasten my bra and slip my shirt back on. “Why did you do that?”
I don’t have to elaborate on my question for him to know what I’m talking about—he knows. Allowing me to feed off him was a huge risk. I don’t mean to come across as rude or even ungrateful for what he did, but it was foolish and impulsive. Had I not been able to stop myself, his blood would have been on my hands. And for that, I resent him. I almost killed the guy, and I could have died trying to undo the damage I caused.
“You needed it,” he says plainly.
I scoff. “I could have done without it.” Wiping my face with both hands, I say, “You could have gotten yourself killed.”
A sly smile decorates his face. “I knew what I was getting into when I found you.”
“Found?” I say. “Found insinuates I was lost in the first place, and you don’t know a thing about me.”
He averts his gaze.
Goddamn it. Is he a stalker? Does he want something from me, too? Cassidy the witch wasn’t shy about expressing why she’d sought me out, so why should Ace’s intentions be any different?
What does this asshole want from me?
“Don’t do that,” he says.
“Don’t do what?” I snap.
“Don’t create an entire scenario in your head and assume you know what I’m doing here.”
For the first time in a long time, I’m at a loss for words. It’s like the guy can read my mind.
“You saved my life,” he says.
I project rage through my stare. “Only because I almost killed you.”
He stays quiet, and instead, climbs off the bed and slips back into his pants. “Your father asked me to keep an eye on you.”
I clench my fists. “My father? How would you know anything about my father?”
He sighs. “You were supposed to figure this out on your own, Alexis.”
I’m taken aback by his use of my first name.
“But, you know”—he twirls a finger in the air—“with the end of the world approaching and all, I’d say we’re running out of time for you to figure it out.”
“What are you talking about?”
His eyes linger on me longer than necessary. “What do you know of your birth parents, Alexis?”
Turning away, I shrug. In my eyes, my biological parents, whoever they were, were cowards. Why else abandon me at the edge of a forest with a doll to protect me? Don’t get me wrong—I’m glad they did. Otherwise, I would have never been raised by the man and woman who found me.
To me, they are my true parents, and I couldn’t have asked for better ones.
He must sense my resentment and moves toward me, exuding nothing but confidence.
“I knew your real father,” he says.
I’m not sure whether to believe him or punch him in the face for making such a bold statement.
“His name was Eros.”
He pauses, almost as if for effect. Is this supposed to mean something to me? Elevating my chin, I cross my arms and stare back. Am I getting defensive? Maybe. This guy, who I’ve known for all of a
few hours, is telling me he knew my biological father.
No one’s ever spoken about my biological parents. It’s as if they disappeared after handing me over to the village.
I hope they did. Anyone who abandons a child like that—
“You have no idea,” Ace says.
No shit.
If I did, I wouldn’t be standing here letting him waste my time like this.
“Eros was the son of Ares and Aphrodite. He was the Greek god of love and sex.”
My jaw twitches.
I’m too stunned to say anything, so instead, I burst out laughing. “Fuck off. You can’t stand there and tell me that my father’s a god. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” My laughter subsides and I glower at him, raising a stiff finger. “And if you think I’m dumb enough to believe—”
“What reason would I have to lie to you?” he cuts me off.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I say. “To boost my self-esteem? To get even more intense sex out of me?”
I feel like a psycho as the words come out of my mouth. I’m not making much sense, but nothing makes sense to me anymore.
“He and your mother, a succubus demon like you, procreated out of pure sexual desire for one another.”
“Procreated,” I repeat. “So I’m a procreation.”
I’m stalling. This is way too much for me to take in.
“Eros returned to Mount Olympus and couldn’t care for you. And your mother, well, everyone knows what happens to children born as demigods. They’re hunted and killed for their power.”
My head spins, making me feel like I ate shrooms.
His lips move slowly as he speaks, and I wonder if maybe I died seconds ago. Maybe he sucked me dry and none of this is real.
“Your parents didn’t want to abandon you, Alexis.”
An indescribable rage boils my insides. “How would you even know all of this? Why would a god entrust a demon as filthy as an incubus to carry this secret?”
I hate how calm he is. He acts as if nothing in the world bothers him. Either that, or he truly is that understanding, which makes him a stand-up guy.
“I was there that day… when they carried you to the edge of the forest.”
Although I don’t want to believe a word he’s saying, I can’t help but want to hear all about it.
Lethal Blow: (Succubus Hitwoman Book 2) Page 15