Counterpart (Succubi & Incubi Assn.)

  “Okay, okay,” Tristan said before I could continue. “I see where you're going with this, but this time it's different.” I doubted that, but whatever. “Tori's doing whatever she wants to do. I can't control her. I text you because I thought we could improve your little fear for this cage.”

  Suuureee. “At midnight?”

  His grin grew wider. “Yeah, at midnight.” He pushed his hand closer to me. “So?”

  I wasn't going to fall so easily for this. Firstly, I needed to think about the pros and cons about this.

  The pros consisted of: Hanging with Tristan… Well, I could do that anyway… okay, scratch that. Start again.

  Pros: I could eventually get over this eerie feeling every time I saw this steel framed slaughter house, and it could help with future fighting events. Another one could be that... I get an excuse to take Tristan's hand... you know, just because it's that tempting.

  Ah, fuck the lists. My head wasn't really bothered at the moment, and right now, I'm kind of glaring at his hand like it's going to betray me in a way.

  Taking a deep breath and releasing the tension in my muscles, I let him have this one and I slid my hand into his. Instantly, I felt my chest rise and lower easily when the warmth of his skin captured mine. I could feel his touch travel from my fingers all the way through my body until it settled in my stomach, where a usual flutter would occur.

  Slowly, he pulled me up the stairs, all while watching me for my reactions. He was probably waiting for me to cry or something, beg to be let go so I can run away. In all honesty, I wasn't feeling anything but his eyes on me. His fingers wrapped securely around mine, telling me that they weren’t going to betray me as I thought, and within five seconds, I was inside.

  I hadn't even realized it until I felt him stop tugging.

  “See.” His hand never let go of mine and I managed to find myself looking around. “I told you it's not so bad.”

  He was right. Half of me was wondering why it took me so long to even get in here. Originally, I wanted nothing to do with this ring. The only time you would see me anywhere near this thing was if Tristan was inside it—well, sometimes—other than that, I was a negative.

  Now though, it didn't seem that bad.

  “You okay?” he asked, starting to walk around me while my hand had still yet to leave his. “You've been still for about thirty seconds now, and I'm starting to think you're entering shock or something.”

  Releasing a short laugh, I sighed—a relieved sigh. “Just trying to figure out why it took me so long to enter the slaughter area.”

  “It's not a slaughter area,” he laughed.

  “Just add a few sharp kitchen utensils and I'm sure you wouldn't be far,” I muttered.

  I could feel his body behind me before the warmth of his breath washed over my ear in a laugh. “Only you would get that creative.”

  I was distracted by this point and I felt myself swallow when his hand left mine, the tips of his fingers moving over the inside of my wrist. I asked, “Tristan, why am I really here?”

  It was wrong of me to do so, but I wanted him to keep his fingers on my skin. The reaction my skin was giving was like a rush through me.

  No wonder Tori hated me. She was going to hate me so much more after tonight—if she found out—I could already feel it.

  My control wasn't that great, especially when it came to the guy behind me.

  “I don't know,” I heard him murmur. “I wanted to see you.” His other hand was following the lead of the first one as it trailed over my other wrist.

  Ignoring the rapid acceleration of my heart, I turned to face him, stepping back. “Tristan.” The words came out as a murmur. I wasn't sure what I was going to say. My words caught in my throat when my eyes met with his, and I was instantly sucked in. The captivating color of blue always pulled me in, emptying my mind from thinking or even processing.

  Air left my lungs but I wasn't sure if they made it all the way out of my mouth. Tristan stepped towards me again and this time, I couldn't find myself to move—either that or the cage that was against my back was stopping me.

  “Everything I try, everything I do, it never stops you from entering my mind, Maya.” Fingers touched my cheek, moving down until they rested along my jaw. “You're everywhere I go.”

  I didn't know who made the first move, but whoever did was a legend to my demon. Tristan's lips pressed against mine softly at first, the texture of his skin sending me into oblivion. I was still at first, not really understanding what was going on, but after a couple of seconds, I was kissing him back.

  I pushed back into him, taking his lip between my own while his arms slid around my waist. My body was soon pressing against the hardness of his, my arms making their way around his shoulders. He tasted so good to me. The way his lips moved in complete sync with mine was only pursuing me to do more. I released a soft moan when his tongue touched my lip, begging to enter, and I let it. It was stupid of me because as soon as the taste of him fully registered, I was completely hooked.

  My legs were wrapped around his waist, my back finding its place against the cage. Threading my fingers through his hair, I tugged on it, causing a growl to come from deep within his chest.

  I could feel my subconscious start to make its way through my head. This was wrong. I shouldn't be doing this.

  Hands cupped my ass and my breath hitched when his hips moved into mine. It only sent my imagination to places that I hated visiting—it didn’t help my control.

  Everything that was happening was only telling me that I had to stop it.

  “Tristan,” I murmured again, reluctantly removing my lips from his. “I can't.”

  I couldn't do this. I just couldn't.

  “Maya.” The memory—or dream?—disappeared when I heard the soft voice.

  “You're dreaming, wake up.” I shifted my legs, only to be confused by the silk against the back of my legs. There was also something soft resting against the back of my head.

  “Maya.” There was the voice again, only this time I recognized the huskiness of it. My eyes fluttered open and they met with the exact blue ones that were in my dream.

  “Tristan?” I asked, registering that his face was upside down. “What are you doing?”

  “Not much, waiting for you to wake up.” He smiled. “It took you a while.”

  “No.” Shaking my head, I moved my head, now noticing that we were in my room and the soft thing that was behind my head was a pillow, which was lying in Tristan's lap. “I mean, what are you doing here?” I didn't even remember falling asleep on my bed.

  When I turned to look at him, his face was strained. I could tell by the narrowness of his eyes, the stiffness of his jaw and the way his brows were pushed down like he was finding it hard to say something.

  “Tristan.” Instinctively, my hand came up and my thumb rubbed circles between his brows. “What's wrong?”

  A long inhalation and ragged exhale was all I heard before his eyes averted over my shoulder. “You passed out last night.”

  I passed out?

  Confused, I asked, “What did we do?”

  “It's not what we did—” he stopped abruptly. “I don't know what you want me to say, Maya.”

  My mind was stuck on his words and emotions. Everything he was saying wasn't processing through me. Not even I knew what I wanted him to say. Did we sleep with each other? Oh God. I looked down at myself. I had clothes on, but I didn’t remember putting them on.

  “Maybe I could help with that.”

  The voice got an instant reaction from me and I turned to face Ethan. He was standing at the end of my bed, the usual black smoke lingering around his frame before disappearing fully.

  “Ethan?” I hesitantly crawled off the bed. “What's going on?”

  “There's some things we need to talk about,” he said.

  Yeah, apparently. “I'm so confused by what's going—” my words instantly stopped when something occurred to me. Ethan just transported i
nto my room, the same room that Tristan just happened to be in.

  In realization, my head snapped straight to Tristan, expecting a panicked expression. I was only even more confused when Tristan wasn't even looking at Ethan. He was just staring at me, like he was waiting for me to panic.

  Then I understood.

  “You know,” I said. Tristan's face didn't change the slightest and I couldn't even explain the confusion inside me anymore. “What—how do you know?” I asked, my voice rising slightly.

  “Rosa told him.” It was Ethan who answered and my eyes moved to him. “He needed to know.”

  “What?” I was surprised about this. “What about the rules?”

  “After last night, the rules didn't really matter,” he replied.

  After last night? “What the hell happened last night?” I asked.

  “You passed out,” he simply said.

  Really? As if I haven't heard that one already tonight. The same annoyance that I had with the incubus—when we first met him—was returning, and the urge to punch him for his simplicity was there.

  “I'm going to need a bit more than that.” It was safe to say that my impatience was wearing thin. “The last thing I remember is…” I thought about it for a few seconds, and I turned to Tristan. “You leaving me at the cemetery.” I was starting to wonder if I had been in a coma or something and I turned back to Ethan. “What's going on?” I asked, then rethought. “Actually, you know what? I want to see Rosa.” At least with her she would give me an answer without the confusion.

  “You can't,” Ethan said. “She's busy. A whole load of succubi and incubi turned up on her radar and now she's dealing with them.”

  “Is that normal?” I asked.

  “Sometimes, yeah.” He shrugged. “After the past couple of weeks though, Rosa has been more focused on you that she pushed back all the other things.”

  Focused on me? Oh! “Tori. Have we found her?”

  Ethan's eyes weren't looking at me. Instead I noticed that they flickered over my shoulder and towards Tristan. “Yeah, we got her,” he murmured before flicking his eyes to me. “Actually, I need to speak with you.” He didn't give me any time to answer before he walked over to my door, opening it and waiting. “Now would be great.”

  Looks like it wasn’t just my impatience that was wearing thin.

  I looked towards Tristan, still trying to get over the fact that he knew. He held a small smile on his face, nodding. “I'll be here, Maya.”

  I wasn't exactly worried if he'd be there or not—okay no, I was in, a way—I was just more wondering if he had hit his head or something, and they've put him on a good fucking drug that made him relaxed and completely unaware of what's going on.

  Slowly, I followed Ethan out of the room and he closed the door behind me, instantly causing me to glare at him. “What the hell is going on, Ethan?”

  “Okay.” His palms came up. “But if I tell you, you need to be able to trust me, okay?”

  “Fine,” I said quickly, just wanting to know what was going on.

  Ethan took a deep breath, walking around me and towards the closest couch, leaning against it. It was now that I noticed that Melinda and Daniel weren't here. The whole dorm was dark, except for the moons glow that was coming through the windows. “I can't tell you what, but something happened last night.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I just said I couldn't tell you what,” he sighed.

  “That's your fault for saying that sentence then. Why can't you tell me?”

  “Maya, just listen—”

  “No.” I knew the impatience was going to overcome me, and I was taking slow steps towards him. “You listen to me. I don't know what the fuck is going on, but apparently I passed out, and now Tristan knows about us and seems cool with it. So you tell me what the fuck happened before I do something I won't regret.”

  “You need to calm down,” he hissed.

  “Why should I calm down?” I yelled. “Give me one good reason why—”

  “Because if you don't, we'll have a repeat of last night.” Ethan's voice was hard, shutting me up. “You want to know what happened, Maya? You lost control. That's what happened.” He was stalking towards me now. “Bethany took over your body last night and almost caused you to murder Penelope, all while potentially injuring Tristan while you were at it. You experienced so much last night, Maya, your body practically shut down.” My back was against the wall and Ethan was so pissed that it scared me. He must have noticed this because he took a deep breath and turned his back to me. “Bethany was too powerful for you.”

  Bethany took over my body last night? My body shut down? I almost killed Penelope? “Wait, who's Penelope?” I asked, confused by this new name.

  Ethan was silent for a few seconds. “Tori was Penelope in disguise.”

  “How come I don't remember any of this?” I should be able to know if I at least attempted to kill someone.

  Ethan turned. “You don't remember because Rosa erased it from your memory.”

  “I'm sorry, what?” Did he just tell me that my memory has been erased? Annoyed Maya was back. “Why the hell would she do that?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “She did it for you. If you remembered what happened last night, it could hurt you both physically and mentally. It's too early for you to be able to access Bethany so greatly, and if the memory is erased you won't be haunted by what happened and everything you experienced.”

  I wasn't sure if what he was telling was supposed to convince me to drop it or not. Either way, it just made me more concerned. “What actually happened?”

  “This is where I ask you to trust me, Maya—”

  “Low chance of that happening,” I interrupted.

  Ethan came to stand in front of me and his hands gripped my shoulders. “Just trust me.”

  “What if it happens again? What am I supposed to do then?” I asked. “How am I supposed to know what's going on if I can't even remember it?”

  Ethan's grip on my shoulders softened and eventually they moved away. “Forgetting last night would be for the best and right now I think you should be more focused on that guy that's in your room. He hasn't left your side since you passed out, and I hate to say this, but the only way you can get better control is if you give Bethany something she's always wanted.”

  My jaw tensed.

  Tristan. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that Bethany wanted Tristan, she always has.

  With the urge to rip at my hair, I sighed. “He knows what happened, doesn't he?” I asked defeated. “You're all not going to tell me, aren't you?”

  “He knows, yes.” He nodded. “And yes, we aren't going to tell you and I think you shouldn't worry about it right now. In the future, you'll understand why I need you to trust me on this.”

  Ethan's green eyes stared straight into mine, and I could tell just by his expression that he wanted me to do this. It was going to bother me, of course. It was definitely going to piss me off at some stage, but for now, I was going to let him do this. “Fine, but don't make me regret this.” I actually had an ulterior motive for ending this debate. Ethan was a tough nut to crack. He always has been. But maybe the guy in my bedroom will be a better help.

  “You and Melinda are so much alike.” He smiled. “And don't worry I won't make you regret it. Other than that, is there anything else you want to know?”

  There were a lot of things I wanted to know, but 90% of them weren’t going to be answered, so I settled on another one. “How much does he know?” I asked, referring to Tristan.

  Ethan thought about it for a few seconds. “You were passed out for a while, and Rosa spent majority of that time telling him the stories, you know how she is.”

  It didn't surprise me that she would've made Tristan sit through hours of story-telling. What I was more interested in, was how and why he was taking this so easily. I never thought Tristan would find out, and even if he did, I would've figured I would be the one to
tell him, not Rosa. I was kind of jealous about that.

  “Anyway, I have to go, got to help her with the incubi and succubi. It’s a great job being an agent.” I could sense his way of trying to be sarcastic.

  “Wow, you're starting to learn how to show emotions,” I said. “I'm almost proud if I wasn’t secretly pissed at you.”

  “Don't get used to it,” he said, rolling his eyes at my latter comment. “I will definitely be seeing you around. Oh, and before I forget, tell Tristan I said good job.” Before giving me time to fully process his words, he did a two-finger salute, just as black smoke swallowed his whole body, leaving me back to square one of confusion.

  Good job? What did Tristan do that was a good job?

  Twenty-Five - Honesty

  There have been times where I'd felt angst, nerves and even pressure, but nothing could ever prepare me for what I was feeling when I walked back into my room. It was like everything came together all in one, pushing down on my shoulders like an endless weight.

  Tristan was still sitting on my bed when I walked in, his eyes moving from an object in his hands to meet mine. Judging by the way he was still wearing slacks and a fairly clean white shirt only gave me the idea that he had been here since the funeral. Or maybe he just never had time to change? I don't know. The flawless skin showing between his jaw and the two undone buttons slightly caught my interest.

  How did this amazing guy just sit there, like nothing was wrong?

  Soft sounds of music distracted me momentarily and I noticed that his iPod was playing on my dock. He always seemed to have calm music playing. Why is that?

  “Why's what?”

  My back stiffened. I always seem to speak my thoughts out-loud lately. I really needed to get control of that. “Um.” My nerves were starting to show in my speech. “I was just wondering…” Why am I finding it weird to ask this? “It's nothing,” I finally settled on. My eyes averted to something that wasn't Tristan. I never really noticed it until now, but my room was nearly at the point of being messy. A few of my exercise books were scattered on the floor. There were shirts and shorts on the ground—obviously needing a wash.