Lilith's Children

by Rachel Pudelek

  I wondered if it was trust the succubi gave the incubi, or some other emotion yet to be seen. Did they feel a familial bond to the men? What must that be like?

  “So,” Aleksander spoke to Marie for the first time since leaving the succubi’s home. “Tell me about the huldra leader.” I couldn’t see them, of course, through the group of succubi and incubi in front of my sisters and me. But I’d been listening for their voices since we left the apartment, because while I was sure Marie knew huldra had impeccable hearing, I assumed Aleksander had no clue. An advantage I clung to.

  “The huldra don’t have a leader, not like us,” Marie retorted quickly in monotone. “And she has a name.”

  I’d never heard the woman speak so…unemotionally. Maybe this decision to go into hiding was as she’d said, not of her making.

  Aleksander’s voice showed no offense to her remarks. “Excuse me cousin. I will endeavor to do better.”

  Oh, what I’d had given to see Marie’s expression. I’d only ever seen her angry, mischievous, and whatever else one would call her behavior around Celeste—I never claimed to be an emotional guru. But I’d never had the pleasure of experiencing annoyed Marie.

  The parade of supernaturals into the more bustling parts of downtown Portland took well over ten minutes, though my antsyness kept me from counting exactly how many minutes. The moment I’d realized this, I chided myself for being sloppy. I’d been too wrapped up in waiting for Aleksander and Marie to finally talk and then listening for information in their conversation, that I’d let my attention to detail slide. If a group of Hunters sauntered out of an alley at this very moment, I wasn’t sure I’d know my way back to the apartment complex.

  I leaned over to barely whisper in Olivia’s ear. “You haven’t been keeping track of the time or which streets we’ve turned down, have you?”

  She grimaced and shook her head.

  Well, shit. I took stock of our surroundings. I didn’t know Portland like I knew Seattle and Everett, but the empty park we currently passed got my attention, or at least its trees. I inhaled their pine scent to memory and glanced at the time on my phone. That’s when I saw the GPS app. Duh. My mind had to be out of sorts in a major way for me to forget about my GPS.

  Too much was going on at once. I still hadn’t heard from my coterie and Marcus. I had no idea if the Hunters had them or not. Neither the mermaids nor the rusalki had returned my phone calls. Only the harpies texted to say they were just waiting for the Wilds to show up in their territory. They still thought the plan to attack their Hunter complex was on.

  So yeah, no pressure or anything.

  I opened my GPS map, the screen’s brightness messing with my night vision, and put a pin at my current location to reference later. I glanced at the map each time we turned a corner and placed another pin to mark the spot.

  Humans passed us on the sidewalk, some gawking at the interesting procession, others clearly unfazed by Portland’s newest oddity. I assumed Aleksander chose the night hours to escort the succubi through the city for this very reason, fewer humans to take notice.

  Marie finally responded to the incubi leader she walked beside at the front of the group, “Believe me, Faline won’t take it well to you calling her ‘huldra’ rather than her name. It won’t start you two off on the right foot.”

  “I appreciate the advice.” Aleksander waited a breath before speaking again. “I wonder, would you have any other advice for me regarding Faline? She intrigues me so. I’ve met Wild Women over the centuries, but never one quite like her. I’d like to get to know her better, spend some…quality time with her. How should I go about arranging that, do you think?”

  Olivia shot me a look. I rolled my eyes.

  There had to be another way to go about getting Aleksander to join our cause and in turn convince the succubi galere to change their minds about going into hiding. I was a huldra for Goddess’s sake! Instead, I felt like a helpless being prancing around in her bikini—or in my case a low-cut silk top—for the attention and affection of some male.

  Aleksander was handsome and all, but no. Just no.

  I stopped walking. “I’m not doing this,” I said aloud to my sisters. “This is bullshit and I’ll take no part in it.”

  “What’s bullshit?” Celeste asked after taking two more steps and turning to see me.

  “All of it.” I motioned to the crowd ahead of us, walking and furthering the gap between them and us. “I had a moment of weakness. That’s passed.” The dread I hadn’t realized I’d been feeling dissipated, a new sense of urgency taking its place. “I’m not going to roll over, belly-up, and lower myself for some male just because he’s lived a life of privilege and thinks we ought to too, like we even have that option outside of fighting for our freedom. They’re telling us to go into hiding when they will still get to walk around the city whenever they choose. To them, hiding is just living in a place that no one knows about. For us it’ll mean being shackled to a place no one knows about. Huge difference.”

  I hadn’t noticed the succubi procession stop until Celeste’s gaze bounced from me to Marie as Marie walked through the center of the galere who’d been following her and made her way to us. “Why have you stopped?” she asked, probably unable to hear our earlier discussion. Aleksander joined her.

  Celeste reached to Marie who clasped her hand and kissed it. “My sisters are discussing a change in plans,” my sister answered her lover.

  Marie slowly nodded. “I see. And are you in agreement with this change in plans, of which, I assume, include not joining our galere for the time being?”

  Celeste eyed me and then Marie again. She exhaled and bit her lip. “I am.”

  Marie dropped my sister’s hand and backed away. She closed her eyes and opened them again with a tight smile, clearly fighting to rein in her hurt feelings. I expected her to try to convince us, to shift our own emotions enough to follow her into the underground. But she didn’t. She only whispered, “Stay safe,” to Celeste and turned on her high heel to walk off and lead her galere once again.

  Aleksander lingered by my side. “This is quite a disappointing change of events,” he uttered, tipping his head as though we lived a hundred years ago and not in the twenty-first century.

  I saw no need to respond. What he deemed unfortunate, I saw as the first clear-headed decision I’d made since Shawna and Marcus pulled away from Portland.

  I would, I decided, show politeness to a fellow supernatural being that wasn’t currently hunting me or mine. “It was good to meet you, Aleksander. Be well.”

  “It is disappointing,” he continued, as though I hadn’t just stated the equivalent to a socially acceptable dismissal. “But I have set a contingency plan in place.”

  He paused, as if waiting for me to ask about this plan of his. When my response consisted of only a stare, he explained, as he pulled a folded paper from his pocket. “I have secured a safe house for you and your coterie.”

  He held out the paper. “Here’s the address. The key to the front door is in a lock box on the knob. You’ll find the code to that box below where I’ve written the address.”

  I made no move to take the paper from him.

  The semblance of a smile he’d been sporting dropped, leaving pure seriousness in its place. “I realize my feelings mean nothing to you, but whether we like it or not, your feelings, your safety, mean everything to me. If you refuse to join us underground, at least for now, stay in a home unknown to the Hunters.”

  I considered his offer for half a second. “Here’s my problem with all of this,” I started. “I don’t know you. How can I be sure this house of yours isn’t bugged with cameras in the bathroom or something?” It was a legit question. An even more legit question rang through my mind: what would this incubi leader expect in return? I had no interest in being beholden to him or anyone else.

  The slight smile returned to Alexander’s face, framed by his five o’clock shadow. “Because it is not my home I am offering. I
t is a nightly rental, large enough to ensure your coterie’s comfort and procured under a name the Hunters will not recognize.”

  The man seemed practiced at hiding others, a little too practiced. I wondered how many types of people he’d done this for throughout his many years on the earth. How many supernatural secrets were buried behind the incubi leader’s smile? But now wasn’t the time for questions and I wasn’t in the mood to give him any indication that I was interested in anything about him. I took the folded paper from him and stuffed it into my jean’s pocket with no intention of opening it. His intensity made me uncomfortable and if accepting the address appeased him enough to leave me be, then so be it.

  A look of relief washed over his face.

  The tall incubus smiled, that gleam once again in his eyes suggesting that he knew something I didn’t. This time it didn’t bother me. We all know things others do not. Doesn’t always mean they’re useful things.

  “I do hope to see you again,” he said as he took a half step and bowed toward me, not fully committed to the choice. He righted himself and left my sisters and me to continue at Marie’s side, leading the procession. The little smile and glance over his shoulder gave me the distinct impression he hoped I was watching him walk away.

  When he was out of earshot, I hugged Celeste. “You okay?” I asked.

  She shook her head into my neck.

  “They might change their minds,” Olivia consoled our sister, wrapping herself around Celeste’s back.

  “She’s just doing what her galere wants,” Celeste huffed into my neck. “She knows it’s a mistake.”

  So they had talked about this in their alone time. My respect for Marie rose another few points. She remained loyal to her galere, despite her opinions or her desire.

  My phone vibrated in my hand and I swiped to answer. Celeste and Olivia pulled away to give me my space.

  “Hello?” I answered, unfamiliar with the phone number.

  “Hey.” His voice sang to me like leaves on a breeze. “You okay?”

  “Marcus, seriously?” I laughed, happy to hear him. “You guys were the ones running from the Hunters. Of course we’re okay, just incredibly worried.”

  He gave a deep chuckle. “True. Yeah, we’re fine.”

  I ached to wrap my arms around him. How had I ever thought I could seduce Aleksander? How had I ever thought I could bring myself to flirt with, or even touch another man in that way?

  Tears trickled down Olivia’s cheeks. She nodded, staring at my phone like it was her lifeline too. Our coterie was safe. They were safe, thank Freyja.

  “Did you ditch your cell?” I asked.

  Bed springs groaned through the line. “We all did. We’re at a hotel, calling you from this phone. Shawna and the others want to talk to you, too, but I had to hear your voice, know that you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine. We’re fine. The succubi went into hiding, left their apartment complex. They offered to allow us to stay in it, but I don’t think it’s safe, so we’ll need to find another place. If the Hunters found our house, they’ll easily locate the succubi’s.” I paused, deciding to save the shop talk for later. “Where are you guys?”

  “We’re in the south Sound area,” Shawna said, past Marcus. “Outside of Tacoma.”

  My ex-Hunter chimed in. “We didn’t want to stop, not even to make a phone call, until we were well out of the area.”

  I fought the urge to throw my face into my hands and bawl with relief. “Good, good,” was all I could say past the lump in my throat. I swallowed it down. “Where should we meet up?”

  Renee spoke up now, though Marcus still breathed into the receiver. “We’re only two and a half hours away from you. Let us get a few hours of rest and we’ll meet you there in the morning.”

  “Perfect.” I put them on speaker and pulled up my GPS. Let me give you the coordinates to where we’re at. Let’s meet here…what time?”

  “Seven in the morning,” Renee answered. “We’ll be there at seven.”

  Seven felt like a lifetime away. After the way we had left things, I couldn’t get to Marcus and my sisters fast enough. The world grew wider and more dangerous with each passing moment and we were stronger together. I may not agree with Marie’s decision, but the succubi had gotten that part right.

  Fifteen

  I woke to the quiet creaking of a door being carefully shut outside of our apartment, to the sound of someone trying not to make any sounds. I jerked up in bed. Bits of morning light filtered through the curtains. My sisters and I had first thought we’d sleep in the park, the spot we’d said we’d meet our coterie and Marcus, but after an hour of trying to get shut-eye with humans wandering around, unknowingly alerting us to their presence, we gave in and decided to take Marie up on her offer. Only for a night. I mean, we’d rationalized, how likely were Hunters to choose this one night to storm the succubi galere?

  Pretty damn likely, as it turned out. Except, they weren’t storming, they were sneaking. I rushed out of bed and pulled my jeans on.

  “Olivia,” I whispered, buttoning my pants. “We’ve got company.”

  Olivia jumped out of bed, ready to go, her jeans already on.

  I eased the bedroom door open. No one had entered our temporary domicile yet, so I hurried to Celeste who already had her ear to the front door.

  I gave a nod toward the door and followed suit with my sisters who were allowing bark to sweep across their arms.

  We silently counted along with Celeste’s fingers. One. Two. Three!

  Celeste swung the door open and bolted into the entryway of the apartment complex, hands out, attack ready.

  I pushed out behind her. Squeals of delight met us as my aunts and Shawna gathered us into a group hug. Shawna’s little white dog yapped in excitement at our feet. Relief swept my bark away. I had my coterie again. Finally.

  Marcus hung back, waiting for his turn with me, which he’d eventually get, but not before I squeezed every member of my coterie in a thankful embrace. I almost lost them, and if the Hunters had taken Shawna, again, it would have killed me. But I didn’t have to worry about that anymore. Shawna was here, rubbing my arm. My whole coterie was here.

  “You said seven,” Olivia declared, pulling out of the group hug.

  Marcus took that as his opportunity to wrap his strong arms around me from behind and I turned in his embrace to face him. I relished the moment, breathing in his scent. He moved and smiled with ease, as though he felt perfectly fine. I checked his neck, moving aside the black collar on his cotton shirt, and looked his hands over for wounds anyways. I thought to press my lips into his skin, kissing each spot my eyes grazed for signs of a bruise or a cut, but with my coterie nearby, I figured it wasn’t a good time. Later, I told myself. I’ll give him a more thorough inspection later.

  “I know I said seven,” Renee countered Olivia’s declaration of what time the members of our coterie said they’d arrive in Portland. “But we couldn’t sleep. We had to get out of Washington and reunite with you three. When you weren’t at the park where you’d said you’d be, we came straight here, remembered the way from when we’d dropped you off.”

  “It’s so good to see you,” Celeste sighed, looking a little less heartbroken than she had yesterday.

  “So,” Patricia said, taking a look around the quiet apartment complex. She smoothed her hand over the ornate banister. “They’re all gone?”

  “They are,” I said, gazing around. The place didn’t seem right sitting nearly empty like this, almost eerie. “Their check-in at the Hunter compound is today, and once they don’t show, the Hunters will probably be out in force, trying to keep what happened in Washington from happening here. So we should probably go too.”

  “The incubi leader, Aleksander, got us an Airbnb, but Faline is being stubborn,” Celeste tattled. I felt like we were little kids again and she’d caught me trying to explore the woods beyond our property line.

  Marcus flashed me an unsettling look.

&
nbsp; “We should take him up on it,” Olivia added. “There’s no way the Hunters will find us there and it’ll give us time to plan what’s next.”

  “Can we eat breakfast first?” Shawna asked. “We haven’t had a decent meal in days. Unless they took their food with them.” She paused. “I just realized they may have done that.”

  I stayed in Marcus’s arms, trailing my fingers up and down his bicep. “Not all of it, they traveled light. I think there’s eggs and bacon in the fridge. And while we eat we can fill you all in on everything that’s been going on.” I ignored the whole Airbnb thing.

  I wasn’t particularly proud of it, and when I saw Marie again I planned on letting her know I’d used her bed, but after the happy reunion with my sisters and aunts, I took Marcus upstairs to the top apartment, to Marie’s apartment. I’d told my coterie he and I would be back down when the food was ready.

  I wanted to be alone with him. I needed to be alone with him.

  After the swing of emotions the last couple days had brought, and my inner uncertainty about any kind of future Marcus and I had in store, I just needed him, to be with him in the moment. I needed everything else to wait its turn, to lie on the floor while this beautiful man and I created a heavenly existence elevated on the bed.

  “What are you doing?” Marcus asked in a low voice, acting like the innocent man I knew he wasn’t.

  “We’re in a succubus’s lair, so I’m seducing you,” I quipped playfully as I led all six feet and however many inches of him through Marie’s front door and into her bedroom.

  Marcus’s attention shifted from me to the walls covered in draped tapestries and burned-down candles. “It looks like a sex temple.”

  I let out a laugh. “That’s exactly what I thought when I first came here!” I thought to rephrase that. “When they first brought me in here.”