Hey lady, Caleb and I were just talking about you and that crazy mansion of yours. How ya holding up??? Finding anything cool in those hallowed halls? Don’t hesitate to call if you need help.
Ew. Gross. How condescending.
I started hate-scrolling her social media feed, with tons of pictures of her ridiculously gorgeous children frolicking in the sunlight, her and Caleb opening a bottle of wine from their friend’s vineyard, Kiersten’s pregnancy photo shoot, Caleb’s stupid ruggedly handsome bearded face mugging for the camera before he demoed a wall.
I imagined them snuggling in their California king bed, wearing organic cotton pajamas that didn’t exactly match each other but did match the entire room as a whole, being like, Babe, I wonder how Helena is doing? She spent way too much money on that house.
I don’t know, babe, should we ask her if she’s okay?
You’re so right, babe, we are the best humans on earth so we need to make sure to take care of poor Helena who doesn’t have what we have. I’ll text her now.
No matter where you are in life, I guess now and then you have a sleepless night where you question all the decisions you’ve ever made.
“Oh, hey, I actually fell asleep!” I said, finding myself in the dream garden.
“I like the boots,” Byron said, crossing his arms over the iron gate that separated us. This was a smaller gate than usual. I seemed to be in a different part of the garden and he wasn’t so far away. In fact, I’m sure he could have vaunted himself over the gate if he wanted to, but maybe dream rules held him back.
“Boots? Oh—“ I was sitting by a koi pond wearing some thigh high boots with insane stiletto heels. I had a feeling this was a dream compensation for my dislike of bowling shoes. When I was sixteen I had this brief moment of deciding I had a crush on one of my teachers and I wanted him to notice me so I bought some serious fuck-me boots because I had some idea that this would grab an older man. Don’t judge. Nothing happened, as I quickly realized that it was more of a fantasy than a thing I actually wanted. I was just kind of over teenage wizards.
“I’m glad you’re getting some sleep,” Byron said. “You’ve been working yourself very hard and not eating enough.”
“That’s how I am in house flip mode,” I said. “When it’s all over I’ll go order a ribeye.”
“Your breezy confidence is very charming,” Byron said, “but you keep returning to this garden, ever vulnerable to my magic.”
“I can’t help that,” I said. “You’re the one invading my dreams.”
“You know very well that’s not how magic like this works,” he said. “Not everyone allows me into their dreams. It’s often the ones who crave affection. I like to think that I can serve a need, that I’m not just here to take from you. If you let me, I could satisfy your desires and fantasies. And that weight will be lifted off your shoulders. You might find that you’re more productive. You won’t be thinking about…certain distractions. Those werewolf brothers, for example?”
“We’re just friends.”
He snorted. Not many people could snort in a sexy way, it was this low arrogant sound that made me want to tame that bull.
“I’m not going to open the gate for someone I hardly know,” I said. “If you can’t tell me about the magical thing, can you at least tell me…how you met Fiore?”
“I think you’ve already found the answer. Fiore fell in love with my apprentice.”
“An apprentice? I thought she might be your sister. What did you do?”
“I was a librarian.”
I laughed.
“What’s so funny about that?” He looked genuinely offended.
“Your…talents seem wasted in the stacks, let’s say.”
“You haven’t even sampled my talents yet,” he said. “Fiore was looking for something. And he found Talin along the way. She shared my belief that we incubi and succubi are not demonic, chaotic, or parasitic. Our reputation is that of seducers who sap energy from innocents. But you could look at it another way. We can heal and soothe the loneliness and frustration of humanity. Our magic is attracted by people who crave us—not the unwilling.”
“I’m really not sure I asked for this.”
“That’s true. That’s why you have installed this gate. You want to flirt with the idea of me, but your subconscious has not given me free reign. It’s unbearable, Helena.” He flexed his powerful wings. “My cock is stiff as we speak at the sight of you, the torture of holding back, night after night. Knowing what I could give you.”
“You’re definitely a demon,” I said. “Just so you know, from an outsider perspective. And what was Fiore looking for?”
“I can’t say.”
“Argh.”
“But it’s the reason I keep waiting. My friends are dead and gone. I’m glad of that, because I swore to them I would never leave this world until our quest was complete. They will have peace.”
“Why not Graham? Someone in the family?”
“He knows nothing of this,” Byron said. “The person who finishes our quest will be a strong witch or warlock who will change our world. Who better than you?”
“Probably a lot of people.”
“Do you really think so? Why not you?”
“Because I’m just a good-average sort of witch.”
“You seem to me to be a very unique sort of witch, Helena von Habsburg Nicolescu. You are tough. Hard-working. Humble. You are well aware that a path was laid out for you, a comfortable path, and you refused to walk it. Your ancestors shaped the world, so why not take the responsibility of reshaping it?”
“You know a lot about me all of a sudden!”
“All I’ve had to do is hang around for your phone conversations, chats with your familiar, and mumblings to yourself, honestly. And I see a kindred soul. I also came from a venerated house in my own world. And I challenged the role I was given, to come live in this world. A royal witch, doing manual labor? Turning away from marriage, wizard gatherings? This is no small thing, and no one knows that better than you.”
“Yeah…”
It was true that I was getting the weird feeling that maybe Byron really did have some view into my soul. And it made some sense if he had already gone through some of the same experiences. Few people knew what it was like to walk away from ‘society’ and all of its heavy obligations. They were drummed into me all my life.
On the other hand, he could just be a horny incubus blowing smoke up my ass.
If I opened the gate, I would find out.
Either he would give me a night of mind blowing dream sex and I would wake up exhausted and satisfied and I probably wouldn’t see him again for a bit until he could drain more power from me, or…I would have mind blowing dream sex and he would keep hanging around, urging me on as I unraveled the secrets of the house. But then I could get attached.
Falling in love with a ghost might not be so bad if the ghost was in my own house. It would be sort of like the romance of a marriage without ever having to lower the toilet seat and if I was having a PMS day I could just tell him to scram to the ghost plane. It wasn’t for everyone, but…for an independent woman, it had its appeal.
But falling in love with a ghost who was haunting a house I needed to sell? No no no no no.
“You know, I don’t think I have ever seduced a woman in dreams who thinks as much about real world problems as you do,” Byron said.
“Can you read my mind now?”
“It’s so obvious on your face, angel. You were, weren’t you?”
“It’s just…I want to. I do. I know you’re going to deliver.”
“Oh, I will.” His eyes started to dance, the beginnings of a smile teasing at the edges of his mouth in an irresistible way. I was a sucker for a good almost-smile.
“And this is a dream, and you’re dead, so we don’t even need a condom. This is like a bucket list moment.”
“A practical consideration, to be sure.”
“But…I have t
o ask you to move on from the house. I have to. I can’t sell it with you in it. And I’m tying up my life’s savings in this thing. It feels really cold to say this, but…I mean, I just need to find out what’s keeping you here, and—I don’t want to develop any feelings.”
“I think that might be difficult. I’m very good company.”
“I need to stay focused.”
“How is that going?”
I gave him a helpless look.
“I will tell you something,” Byron said. “If you can find out the things you need to know, it will lead you to a greater treasure than this house. And—I will follow you.” He held up a finger and glanced away, cutting a mysterious profile.
“A greater treasure? Do tell,” I said.
“I can’t. I wish I could. You have to keep digging.”
“Do you think I’ll be able to figure this out?”
“I have the utmost faith.”
I met his eyes, and I wasn’t sure what to think of him. In those eyes I saw warmth and lust and mischief and…some other world I didn’t quite understand. I was standing at the tip of an iceberg. I could feel it. But what was in those depths, I had no idea.
“Will you come to the gate?” he asked huskily. “You don’t have to open it yet. Just come.”
For the first time, I met him at the gate and we were close enough to touch.
And touch he did. Since the gate only came up to my breasts, my shoulders and face were totally within reach of him, and he traced his fingers down my cheek.
“I haven’t touched a woman in so long,” he said. “So long… If I was alive, it would have killed me.”
His touch was like a fire that lit the kindling deep inside my core, and much to my shame, my eyes briefly fluttered closed and I let out a small moan.
Who knew having my cheek touched could get me halfway to a climax, but that was sort of how it felt. Incubi really were something.
“Yes…I do like that,” he purred, his thumb giving my lower lip a brief caress before he brushed a kiss across my ear, and now his hands slipped down to my neck and gave me a few deep massage moves.
“Ohhh…,” I groaned.
“I should have known, in your line of work, this would really get to you.”
“Okay,” I said. “I guess…we can…I don’t know…once.”
“Don’t melt for me too fast, now,” he said. “I like the challenge.”
“I feel like I’ve challenged you enough, actually…now that I feel what your touch is like.”
He chuckled, then slipped his hands through the gate and around my waist, pulling us together so we were embracing but held back by artfully rusting metal bars. The garden had an attractive antique look but in this context it wasn’t ideal.
He kissed me and I forgot all about the fact that I was crushing my pelvis into peeling paint.
Man, this is the best house I’ve ever bought, I thought as his lips explored mine, with the perfect level of kiss aggression. Gentle, yet forceful. The sort of kiss that would leave me feeling like I’d achieved a new level of woman. I wanted to delve into the depths of him, or I wanted him to delve into the depths of me, actually—
Just the kiss was as electric as anything I’d ever felt in my life. I wondered how any man could taste so good.
For a brief moment, I thought of Jasper and the tiniest weird moment of guilt crossed my mind. But there was no reason for that.
He drew back, looking at me with suave confidence mingled with admiration. “Lovely,” he said.
“More…,” I said, moving to open the gate.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“Oh yes…”
“What time is it?” he asked.
“I don’t know!”
“It took you forever to get to sleep,” he said. “Isn’t your tile crew coming back at eight? You would not want to be woken up in the middle of what I’m about to do to you.”
“Shit.”
I woke up. The sun was just starting to rise, casting a thin bluish light between and around the curtains.
“Shiiit!”
“Tonight…,” I heard him whisper, as if from the walls.
I guess it was official. I was entering into a fuck-buddy relationship with a spying, wall-dwelling sex ghost.
Chapter Fifteen
Helena
I was sure that the information I needed was in the stuff Graham buried. Where did he bury it? Would he have put the books and Fiore’s ashes somewhere on these forty acres? Why didn’t he just burn it or something? He knew there was something to those books. Byron said that he met Fiore because Fiore was looking for something. So he met a librarian and his apprentice. Both demons. He was looking for dark magic you could only find in a demonic library.
I needed to talk to Graham.
I tried to look him up, but political figures don’t just have their personal phone numbers sitting around on the internet, I guess. At least, I suppose the smart ones didn’t.
What I did find, almost immediately, was a Facebook group called “In Love With Graham Capello” and a Reddit post titled, “Is it super weird that I have a huge crush on PA State Sen. Capello and can’t stop thinking about him even though I’m only 16 and live in Delaware!?!?”
This post had 1132 comments, and from what I could tell, 32 were from jealous nerd men and the other 1100 were people with an unusual attraction to a state senator, mostly women from his district, but also including a gay guy from Puerto Rico who had incorporated Graham into a play he was writing and a 50 year old “die-hard non-voting anarchist” man from Kansas who said he “could not explain” why he was compelled to phone bank for a moderate politician from a totally different state. All of them seemed to share confusion over why they were so into him when there were plenty of sexy actors and so on to like instead.
Man, this is such a classic demon move, I thought. Demons were always going into politics. Graham’s powers were probably getting strong and stronger but he had no idea he had any magic. It was dangerous, really, but if I got involved and exposed him as an incubus, the wizard councils would immediately move to destroy his career.
And he obviously thought he was helping people and wasn’t trying to run a campaign based on hotness. It wasn’t like he had an Instagram of shirtless photos, although the picture of him at a 5k run for breast cancer had a staggering amount of favorites.
I called his office and got a young woman who took a sort of aggressive, protective tone when I asked if I could speak to him, like I was the ‘other woman’ talking to his girlfriend.
“Well, can you give him my number and tell him it’s Helena with a question about his grandfather’s house?”
“Helena? Okayyy…he’s out right now but I’ll tell him.”
She wasn’t going to tell him.
I sent an email instead, but I had a feeling that would also be screened by his office staff, maybe the same girl.
Oh shit. I had to get going if I wanted to make it to town in time. This was distracting me from the stuff I absolutely had to do which was to go pick out tile for the bathrooms. I checked in on the crew and then hit the road for the hour plus drive to real civilization.
I was only about fifteen minutes from the house when a BMW came up in the other lane. It flashed its lights at me. I slowed down warily but then I saw Graham.
“Hey,” he said.
“What are you doing here?”
“I want to see the house again. Maybe I want to buy it after all. You haven’t done too much to it yet, have you?”
“You think I was just sitting on my ass? You can’t get the house for a hundred thousand anymore,” I said. “I have guys out there right now.”
“Can we talk?”
“I would love to talk, but I have to get to town and pick out tiles before they close.” In fact, I’m late because I spent too much of my morning checking out your groupies, I did not say. “If you want to wait, I’ll be back around six-thirty.” I took my foot off
the brake.
“Helena!” he shouted.
“Leave a message with my office!” I cried. No one messed with my time schedule when I was working on a house, and I didn’t need to cater to a one-fourth incubus when I had a dream date tonight with a full-blooded one.
Behind me, the BMW whipped around, one wheel briefly going into a ditch and spinning up some mud before the tires got back on the road and gained traction and speed, coming up behind me.
I wasn’t going to beat a BMW if he wanted to chase me, but he was going to have to follow me all the way to the tile store.
Or pass me. He was passing me now. Was he going to turn around and try another day, or—
Nope. He was getting in front of me to slow me down.
I blew my horn hard.
He jerked the BMW sideways and put himself in the middle of the two lane road, blocking most of it, but I was now so pissed off at him that I just drove off the road. I had no idea if my truck could handle the ditch but I would cast some sort of spell to get me out if I had to. I banged and jolted around inside as I drove over the dip and then out of it again to get around him.
Then I gunned it out of there. Dude was not being reasonable.
I had barely gotten up to speed when the brakes suddenly slammed without my help. The truck spun. I saw Graham getting out of his car, looking intense.
“Thank you,” he said. “I really need to talk to you.”
“Thank you!?” I screamed, leaping down from my seat and waving my hands around. “What the fuck did you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know you stopped my truck on purpose.” I saw his confused expression. “You still don’t know what you’re doing? Really? You think I started speeding away from you and then violently changed my mind in the space of a second? You did that.”
He grabbed the lapels of my coat in both hands. “What are you talking about? You’re blaming me for stopping your truck? Who do you think I am, Kylo Ren?”
“Well, no, obviously you have no training.”
He was still gripping my clothes, breathing hard, but then he seemed to realize what he was doing. “I lost my temper,” he said.
Demons in the Bedroom (Paranormal House Flippers Book 1) Page 8