“You like nuts?” Randal wrinkled his nose, his disgust palpable.
“And I take it you don’t?” I glanced at him, a smile clinging to my lips. The list of things I knew about him was growing, and I liked it.
“Not particularly, no.”
I chuckled as I bent to retrieve my candies.
When we came to the pathway for the restrooms, I paused. “Can you take these to the car with you? I’m going to use the restroom before we leave.” I passed my goodies to him. “Don’t eat them,” I teased.
“You have nothing to worry about, I can assure you.”
Dex exited the building in front of me. “Careful when you step inside. Floors are wet,” he said in passing.
“Thanks.”
As I entered the building, I rounded the corner, heading toward the women’s room and nearly walked into the janitor.
“Sorry,” I apologized, but he didn’t hear me. In fact, he didn’t seem to notice me at all, considering he was bobbing his head to the music screeching through his earbuds.
I carefully maneuvered around his swaying form, not wanting to startle him, but he bumped into me anyway. He flinched and did a double take as he quickly plucked one of his earbuds out.
“Sorry. I’ll get out of your way.” He stared at me with a dazed look I found amusing. “I didn’t hear you come up behind me.”
“Yeah, I figured.” A slow smile spread across my face as his cheeks flushed.
“My music is too loud.” He dangled the earbud he’d been holding in front of him.
I trailed my eyes over him. He was cute, in a barely legal, janitor sort of way. His hair was cropped so short I couldn’t fully determine its color, and his face was baby smooth with a tiny, dark mole to the right of his chin. He had brown eyes, the kind I was positive reminded girls of puppy eyes and probably caused him to get away with murder.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was backtracking away from the bathroom door and pressing him against the dingy concrete wall, unable to deny the divine hunger raging through me. My lips crushed against his before he had time to protest. I could feel my heart thundering inside my chest as the knowledge of what I was doing was wrong barreled through me.
This wasn’t how I normally went about things. This wasn’t right at all.
Generally, I took time to hold a conversation with the guy. Albeit, those conversations were usually short-lived, but they at least gave me an idea of areas for improvement and to get us into a safe place where we wouldn’t be seen. Apparently, not this time though. This time, I hadn’t even glanced at the guy’s aura. I’d just kissed him.
I attempted to break away from the poor guy, but couldn’t. My mind was coherent, but my body wasn’t. It was as though my body wasn’t my own.
Helplessness clawed at my insides at the same time panic laced my veins. The janitor didn’t seem to mind though. His hands had long ago forgotten they held a mop and had gripped my hips while his lips brushed against mine in fevered strokes matching my own. Obviously, he didn’t care when a girl took the reins and made the first move, even if she was some random stranger.
As his energy trickled into me like a small, steady stream, I realized I was hungrier than I had thought. Tiny pinpricks of fear stabbed at my mind. This situation wouldn’t end well, I was sure of it, because my need for his energy was uncontrollable.
Chapter 22
When I finally pulled away from him, it wasn’t by choice. There were words that needed to be said, but I had made no decision to utter them. Opening my eyes, I latched on to the color of his aura. Milky blue.
My heart stilled at the sight. I had never taken energy from someone with a blue aura before. It was on the list of auras I never wanted to try, because I had gathered assumptions early on about what they stood for. Without ever having tasted this specific aura, I knew it represented an addict.
He was a fiend of some sort, and yet here I was, feeding off his energy without knowing what the hell I was going to feel afterward.
My stomach somersaulted. This whole thing had to be the wraith’s doing.
The guy opened his eyes and gazed at me with a drunken expression. The words that would amp up what I was taking from him rested on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t bring myself to say them. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. The desire to walk away nipped at my insides. This was wrong on so many levels. Why wouldn’t my legs allow me to walk away?
Say them…
The words were a foreign whisper floating through my head, because they weren’t mine. They were dark and twisted, loaded with venom.
“Damn, girl. I’ve never had this happen before, and I’ve worked here for like three months now.” There was a wide, shit-eating grin plastered on his boyish face. Obviously, he was shocked by the situation, but at the same time he seemed to be getting a killer ego stroke. This would be a story he would tell his buddies, if he were able to remember it. I knew he wouldn’t, and I took comfort in that knowledge.
“Can I kiss you again?” The words crawled up my throat and slipped off my tongue without my consent. They weren’t mine. The voice was, but not the words. I hadn’t wanted to say them, hadn’t thought to. Not yet.
“Hell yeah, you can.” His voice was husky, desire filled, and full of want.
I leaned in, unable to control even the simplest movement. My limbs trembled as I struggled to stop what was about to happen, but I lacked the power to do so. The darkness I had been infected with seemed to be taking over.
My lips crushed against his, and my tongue invaded his mouth in a greedy way. I focused on the rush of energy flowing into me. A sense of euphoria splashed along my insides, making it hard to remember why I felt so strongly that this was wrong.
I became lost in the moment, allowing his tongue to caress against mine. I let him think he was in control of the situation when he wasn’t, but then again, neither was I. The wraith was, wasn’t it? I closed my eyes, blocking out the thoughts and completely surrendering to the willing rush of energy shifting from him into me.
Time seemed to stand still.
As I entwined my fingers through the guy’s hair, I pulled his face closer to mine. His hands slipped along the sides of my body, chasing away the cool touch of the wraith. My core tightened as tingles of satisfaction shifted through my lower stomach. Never had I felt anything sexual coincide with feeding, until now.
I realized then that the wraith wasn’t just power hungry, but also a sexual predator.
Suddenly, the reason I was naked each time I found myself locked in the nightmare with him made sense; he was a pervert.
“Sweetheart, what the hell are you doin’?” Dex’s voice startled me.
I flinched, breaking my lip-lock with the guy and taking a step back. Obviously, the wraith had been taken by surprise as well. Shockwaves of panic rippled through me, not from being caught, but from the sight of the guy’s aura. It was nearly solid gray.
“You shouldn’t be doin’ that in public.” Dex chuckled.
“No, no, no,” I breathed. My stomach burned with worry. Had I taken too much this time? Was he going to be okay?
“Whoa, he doesn’t look good.” Dex confirmed what I was thinking, all the amusement disappearing from his voice.
The guy’s face was ashen and clammy. His stare had become glassy and dazed, like it should be after me feeding from him, but his aura frightened me. Images of Delvin and New Orleans flashed through my mind again. The only difference between then and now was that this guy hadn’t toppled over yet.
“Is he going to be okay?” Dex stepped to my side with his arms crossed over his chest as he observed the guy.
“I hope so.” My words felt thick and sticky as they left my mouth.
“Should I go get Randal?” Dex offered. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave this guy out in the open like this. Maybe he’ll have a suggestion for what we could do, because I gotta admit, I’m a little flabbergasted by the situation.”
I nodded, but
didn’t speak. The sound of Dex’s footfalls as he walked toward the exit echoed through the corridor. I could barely hear them over the pounding of my heart.
Zeroing in on the guy’s aura, I focused on the tiny speckles of milky blue, willing them to grow in size so that I would know he was going to be okay. They didn’t. The harder I focused on them, the more I swore they decreased in size instead of growing.
I was losing him. I’d taken too much.
As soon as the thought floated through my mind, the guy slumped against the wall behind him, his legs giving up on holding his weight, and he slipped to the floor at my feet. Icy tingles spiraled through me. It was New Orleans all over again.
“What happened?” Randal’s voice pierced my thoughts, sounding accusatory and worried at the same time.
I couldn’t look at him. My eyes were glued to the guy I might have possibly killed. This was one hundred times worse than the Delvin situation, and a thousand times worse than Sam. “I don’t know. I-I don’t even think it was me.”
“The wraith is starting to take possession, isn’t it?” Randal asked. His voice was more calm and collected than I cared for it to be.
I nodded. “One minute I was stepping around him while he mopped the floors, and the next I was pressing him against the wall, kissing him while siphoning his energy as fast as I could.”
“I knew this would happen eventually. It was exactly why I stressed we find Lexy as soon as possible.” Randal’s voice raised an octave or two, chilling me. He was pissed.
I knew his anger wasn’t directed toward me, per se, but toward the situation and the wraith. Still, it caused my heart to pump ten times faster and knots to form in my stomach.
“Wraiths are a time-sensitive issue,” he continued. “We should have begun our search for Lexy the moment we found out where she was.”
I swallowed hard, berating myself for not mentioning to Bree how bad her timing was. Maybe if I had, this situation could have been avoided.
If this guy died, I would never forgive myself.
“Let’s not point fingers and toss around blame. What we need to do is figure out what to do with him so we can get back on the road,” Dex insisted. “Any ideas? This lounge area isn’t goin’ to remain empty much longer. I can guarantee that.”
“You’re right. It’s not an option for him to remain here. We have to move him.” Randal stepped around me and reached for him, pulling him to his feet in one swift gesture.
“There has to be some sort of janitor closet or break room we can tuck him in until he comes to,” Dex offered.
I glanced around, searching for any door that might lead to such a place.
“Kenna, why don’t you peek around the corner and keep an eye out for others,” Randal directed. “Dex, search for an office or closet we could place him in.”
Dex jogged away, but I couldn’t move. My feet were rooted in place by the fear that the guy would die the second I walked away. My eyes refused to move from the tiny speckles of blue in his aura that still weren’t doing what I wanted them to.
“Kenna.” Randal’s voice was soothing and calm. “I need you to make sure no one is coming this direction. We can’t have someone witnessing this. The last thing we need is for the police to be called.”
“Is he going to make it?” It was all I could think about.
“His pulse is faint, but I can assure you, he will survive.”
The words washed over me, calming the hammering in my chest and ungluing my feet from the floor. I was around the corner, scanning those who were in my line of view, praying none of them decided they needed to use the restroom. I wasn’t sure how to detour them if that happened.
“There’s an office at the end of the hallway.” Dex jogged toward Randal.
“That will work perfectly.” Randal adjusted his grip on the unconscious guy and headed in that direction.
Dex moved to grip the poor guy’s other side, even though it wasn’t necessary, and I watched as the two of them hauled him down the hallway. Once they were out of sight, I followed them. Relief trickled through me as I realized we weren’t going to be caught.
Or were we? In places like this, weren’t there security cameras?
My gaze lifted to the ceiling. While I didn’t see any in the hallway, that didn’t mean there hadn’t been one in the lobby area.
I followed Randal and Dex into the office, anxious to get my hands on the computer so I could search for any surveillance footage that could have captured what I’d done. When I stepped into the room, the first thing I noticed was how small and dark it was. There was one lamp on a sleek metal desk near the far wall and one freestanding lamp beside the door. The only other source of light seemed to come from two rectangular skylights cut out of the ceiling and the large window facing the parking lot. A pea green couch I was sure had seen better days was where Randal and Dex laid my victim. Ripping my eyes away from his lifeless form, I remembered what I should be searching for.
A computer with a monitor thicker than my TV sat in the center of the desk. The low hum of the machine filled the room, calling to me. My heart thundered as I stalked forward, already trying to figure out what I would do if there happened to be surveillance cameras that could have recorded the entire thing. While I wasn’t a computer genius, I wasn’t a dummy either. When I set my mind to something, I could figure it out. The only problem was it would take some time, and from the looks of the rising sun lighting the parking lot, I didn’t think we had much to spare.
“He should be okay in here,” Randal said. “At least he can sleep off the effects comfortably.”
I rounded the desk, taking in the colorful pipes snaking around the screen someone had set as the screen saver.
“What are you doin’?” Dex asked.
“I need to make sure there aren’t any surveillance cameras that could have recorded everything.” I shook the mouse, making the screen saver disappear and a gasp escaped me.
There was a camera in the main lobby, and I was positive it had recorded the entire thing.
My eyes bounced from one square to the other, taking in each angle of the multiple cameras. One was directed at the vending machines, two were recording either side of the building facing the parking lots, and the final was taping the main lobby we had just walked through. My heart stopped.
If anyone happened to look through today’s footage for any reason, we were screwed.
Chapter 23
Randal and Dex boxed me in as I stared at the screen, wondering how we were going to get a specific chunk of time erased. How long would it take to do something like that? The sun was coming up, which meant we were pressed for time.
Dex leaned forward. “Oh shit, we’re screwed, aren’t we?”
“I think so.” I chewed my bottom lip, readying myself to apologize for the precarious situation I had placed us in while keeping my tears at bay.
“No, we’re not.” Randal slipped past me, and pulled out the desk chair. The seat was practically a solid layer of duct tape. “Erasing the section we need to disappear won’t be a problem. All I need is a few minutes.”
“Are you serious?” It was a redundant question. Randal didn’t seem like the type to joke around in a situation as dire as this, but I asked anyway.
“Yes, I am.” A smug smile twisted his lips.
After cracking his knuckles, he rolled up his sleeves and situated himself in front of the ancient monitor. I watched as his fingers flew across the keyboard with ease. He opened tabs and clicked here and there, working with such precision, such know-how it baffled me. “Where did you learn to do this?”
“Seriously, you’re like a whiz at this,” Dex added, sounding as blown away by Randal’s computer skills as I was.
“When I was younger, I mostly obtained my blood from hospitals. As the technology of surveillance became increasingly common, I decided it would benefit me, as well as my sisters, to learn how to erase a few minutes of time to save us from being exposed.”
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“Resourceful.” Dex released an amused breath.
“Thank you. It wasn’t easy to learn, but it has been a skill that has come in handy more times than you could possibly imagine.” Randal clicked a few more times, and then sat back in the rickety desk chair with a smug smile plastered on his handsome face. “And there you have it; all documentation of the three of us has been erased. According to the cameras, we never stopped here at all.”
“Holy shit.” Dex clapped Randal on the back. “You’re a fuckin’ genius!”
Randal shook his head. “No, I’m not a genius, just skilled.” The smug smile dripped off his face as he glanced out the large window facing the parking lot. “We should continue. There are still quite a few miles to go, and my time is becoming increasingly limited.”
“Do you need me to drive?” Dex offered as he started toward the door. “I can move our luggage into the backseat, and you could squeeze into the trunk if you needed to.” A shit-eating grin slid onto his face.
“That will not be necessary.” Randal pushed away from the desk and stood. “I should be fine.”
I was the last one to leave the room. My conscience wouldn’t allow me to part without checking on the guy first. I stepped to his side and smoothed a hand against his baby-soft cheek, while taking in his aura. The speckles of milky blue I had been praying would grow were finally. It wasn’t enough to be drastically noticeable, but it was better than nothing.
I bent at the waist to whisper in his ear, “You don’t need the drugs. They’re only crippling your true potential.” After pressing a soft kiss against his cheek, I turned and exited the room.
My hope was that, when he woke, he would turn his life around. Maybe what happened was meant to, because it would save him in some way.
As I passed through the doors to the lobby, that was what I kept in mind. It was the only thing making me feel better about what I had done to him, how I had allowed myself to completely lose control and let the wraith take over.
Succubus Kiss The Complete Series Page 30