Kiss of Awakening

by Jennifer Snyder

CHAPTER TWELVE

  Sweat beaded across the back of my neck. Running my fingers through my hair, I paused in swaying my hips until I was able to gather the tangled mess off my neck so the stuffy air of the nightclub could touch it. The movement didn’t help to cool me as much as I would have liked.

  “I need some water,” Bree shouted near my ear. “I’ll be right back. Are you good?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Are you ordering something?” Kelly, one of Delvin’s friends he had invited bar hopping with us, asked Bree.

  “Yeah, I’m so freaking thirsty,” Bree shouted.

  “Me too. I’ll come with you.”

  I watched as Bree and Kelly made their way toward the bar. Bree’s angel wings slapped people as she walked, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. My eyes scanned the crazily dressed crowd as my hips moved to the beat of the song playing again. Warm hands slipped around my waist, and a solid body pressed against me from behind.

  “I noticed your dancing partner left you hanging, so I figured I’d take her place for a second.” Delvin’s lips brushed against the outer edge of my ear.

  “Well, thank you,” I breathed.

  Smoothing my hands over his, I continued moving my hips to the rhythm of the music. Chill bumps broke out along my skin as his touch shifted to graze along the sides of my torso, pausing only once he was mere inches from my breasts. Closing my eyes, I let myself focus on the feel of his hands on me, as well as the sensation of tequila flowing through me. Delvin’s thumb brushed against my padded bra beneath the silken fabric of my costume, and my breath left my lungs in a rush. I entwined my fingers within the hair at the nape of his neck, and tugged a little.

  Normally, I wasn’t so feisty while dancing, but with each minute that passed tonight, I felt something dark and wicked unfurling within me—something that made me feel alive and sexy in ways I had never felt before.

  At one point, I questioned whether it was the alcohol letting all of my inhibitions fade into the woodwork for the night, but as the night progressed—and the auras of the guys surrounding me continued to create my own laser show inside the club—I felt something shifting inside of me.

  Leaning back against Delvin, I pressed myself as close to his groin as I could while continuing to sway my hips to the beat. His sharp inhale from my gesture filled my ears and brought a grin to my face. Biting my bottom lip, I spun to face him.

  “Holy hell,” he muttered, pressing his lips against my ear as his hands resumed their previous position on my hips. “You’re going to be the death of me tonight.”

  Tipping my head back, I laughed. When my eyes fixated on him again, his aura had shifted to that deep, rich red once more—the one I now recognized as extreme pent up sexual tension. Running my fingers through his hair, I then trailed down toward his temple, across his scruffy cheek, and right over his plump lips. He stared at me, motionless, as though he were frozen by my movements. The urge to press my lips to his burned through me, and I inched closer. Electricity fizzed through the air around us. My breath grew heavy with want as the distance between us was erased, and Delvin’s hypnotic eyes locked on mine.

  Bree suddenly gripped my elbow, and I jerked back, startled. “Hey, Kelly said the parade is getting ready to swing through here. Want to head outside for some fresh air, and check it out?”

  My heart hammered in my chest as my lungs inhaled greedy breaths of air they’d previously been starved of. Heat prickled across my skin. I could go for some fresh air.

  “Sure,” I shouted over the music. “Point the way toward the exit.”

  Delvin gripped my wrist as I started to walk away. “I’ll come too.”

  Night air collided with my sticky, hot skin the moment we pushed through the doors at the front. Wadding my hair up on top of my head again, I enjoyed the feel of the coolness kissing the back of my neck. Bright lights and colorful costumes filled my line of vision as the parade marched through the street in front of us. Smiling, I gazed out at the scene, soaking it all in.

  It wasn’t long before Delvin was at my side, his hands snaking around me in an effort to pull me closer. Warmth swam through my veins at the contact. I bit my bottom lip, enjoying the sensation of being folded into his arms more than I should. His lips grazed the back of my neck in the gentlest of kisses, and a gasp of sheer pleasure disbursed from me at the touch.

  Closing my eyes, I allowed his warm lips to skim over my throat. He nipped and sucked along the length, causing my insides to melt and burst to life at the same time.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anyone as much as I want you right now,” he whispered against my ear. “Wanna sneak off into that alley over there with me?”

  No one had ever been so bold with their words with me before. Even though I knew I should be appalled by his lack of finesse, I felt the exact opposite. Shifting to look at him, I gazed into his eyes—the ones that had captivated me the first moment I saw him—and hesitated in answering. Here was another choose-your-own-adventure moment, and oh my God, would it be an adventure with him. The dark, wicked thing that had been caressing my insides tonight, making me dance in ways I normally wouldn’t, was now coaxing me to give in to temptation.

  “Lead the way,” I whispered against his ear, surprising even myself.

  Arching an eyebrow, he flashed me that wolfish grin of his. “Really?”

  I nodded, and that was all the assurance he needed from me. As I allowed Delvin to pull me through the crowd toward the alleyway at the side of the club, I glanced over my shoulder at Bree. She was clapping and moving her little hips with Kelly and two other friends of Delvin’s, lost in the energy of the parade.

  Delvin brushed his thumb against my palm in lazy circles that made my knees weak. “She’ll be preoccupied for a while. Don’t worry. We’ll be back before she notices you’re gone.”

  There was no time for me to answer him—whether I chose to protest or not—because the second we slipped into the alley, he had me pressed against the rough brick of the club, locking me in place between the confines of his arms. An amused smirk graced his lips before his mouth collided with mine.

  Instantly, my mouth moved beneath his, and my hands roamed past the scratchy material of his blazer. Drawing my hands between us, I slipped my fingers beneath his cotton shirt so I could feel the hot skin of his solid abs pressed against my palms. Delvin’s tongue invaded my mouth, making my heart race. With each caress of his tongue against mine, spiciness filled my mouth. It was unique and unlike anything I had ever tasted before.

  Dropping my hands from his abs, I gripped the back of his head in an effort to keep him in place while I pinpointed the taste by taking control of the kiss. He misinterpreted this move for something else, and bunched the fabric of my dress into his hands so he could raise it higher. His lips parted from mine for a split-second, just when the taste in my mouth was building to something incredible, and he muttered, “God, I’ve been waiting for this all night. Kiss me like that again.”

  A jolt surged through my body the instant the words passed his lips, and I sealed my mouth against his once more. The fire from the previous kiss was still present, but it had built to a new level, one that sent energy crackling and fizzing through the air around us.

  Pulsating red lights lit the darkness behind my eyelids, and I opened them to see what it was. Delvin’s aura was throbbing. Its deep, dark red acting as a strobe light in sync with the beat of my heart—or maybe that was his. Moving my hand through his hair, I noticed the ring on my finger was a bright, glowing red as well.

  A low sound emanated from Delvin as the heat in my mouth cooled to a sweetness unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. The red of his aura speckled with flecks of gray, and the rhythm Delvin had set for us slowed.

  While my mind seemed to gather all of this, I couldn’t process any of it because something was happening to me. My insides were burning and cooling as though I was suffering from an insane bout of hot flashes. Ev
ery trace of the tequila I had consumed evaporated from my mind and body until I was completely sober.

  Delvin’s hands fell to his sides. The edges of my dress he’d held fell to my feet in a swooshing motion. He grew ridged in his stance. While his lips had long ago paused in their movement against mine, I couldn’t pull back. I couldn’t stop whatever was happening. The taste was amazing, and the rush I was getting—an incredible high I had never felt before—rocketed me higher. Alcohol couldn’t touch this feeling, nothing could.

  “Kenna, what the hell are you doing back here?” Bree shouted. Her words startled me, and I broke the serious lip-lock Delvin and I had shared. “I was worried sick about you!”

  “I—” I started to explain, but then Delvin dropped to the ground in front of me, lifeless, and I couldn’t speak.

  Whether he was unconscious or dead, I wasn’t sure. Either way, it couldn’t be a good thing, because the color of his aura had turned nearly solid gray. It was dull and stagnant in its movement, nothing like the deep red that had seemed to float and pulsate freely around him moments before.

  “Oh my God.” Bree dashed from the edge of the alley. “Is he okay?”

  “I-I don’t know.” I bent to make sure he was breathing, but couldn’t bring myself to touch him. “We were just making out… I don’t know what the hell happened.”

  Flecks of murky green spread through the ominous shade of gray his aura consisted of. A new color being added into the mix must have been a good thing, right? It had to mean he was still alive and well. That was my theory anyway.

  “Well, check for a pulse or something,” Bree insisted.

  The sounds of the parade echoed through the little alley we were tucked away in. With the taste of whatever divine sweetness it was that had come from Delvin still lingering in my mouth, I reached out and pressed two fingers against his throat. There was a pulse, but it was faint and sluggish.

  “Is he alive?” Bree demanded. “Should I go get Kelly and the others? We should probably take him to the hospital.”

  While I had heard everything she was saying, my mind had been focused on something else entirely—the way the lingering sweetness was now pulsating to life and surging through my body like rapidly growing vines spreading beneath the surface of my skin. Tipping my head back, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensation coursing through me. Bree’s voice, as well as the sounds of the parade, muted as I basked in the awareness of this, whatever it was, encasing me in ecstasy.

  “Lovely sensation, isn’t it?” an unfamiliar female voice asked. “It’s like a drug. You’ll never have another hit quite like that again though.”

  I opened my eyes to see Bree seemingly frozen in time with her mouth half open as though she were in the midst of saying something. Delvin still lay crumpled over in front of me, but the sounds of the parade had grown silent, and a lone Styrofoam cup had paused in its wind-blown path down the alley.

  A woman with skin kissed by the sun, dark flowing locks of silky hair, and brown eyes the shade of honey stared at me with a somehow familiar smile.

  “It won’t keep you from trying to reach that level time and time again though.” She grinned. Her heavily made-up eyes locked on mine, and all teasing left them in an instant. “So, my love, now that you’ve completed the Kiss of Awakening, are you ready to learn what you are?”

  Like a swift punch to the gut, it hit me who the beautiful woman before me was.

  “Mom?” My voice sounded scratchy and barely above a whisper, but she’d heard me nonetheless. “What’s going on? What just happened?” I stood and motioned to Bree and Delvin, the parade, everything.

  “In the flesh.” She placed a hand on her hip, and I zeroed in for the first time on what she was wearing—a skimpy black dress that hugged her curvy figure in all the right places. A vibrant red aura clung to her—one that was much brighter than what had been around Delvin while we were kissing—taking her beauty to a whole new level. “This was your awakening, honey. Happy late birthday…you’re a succubus now.”