Counterpart (Succubi & Incubi Assn.)

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Melinda turned to Ethan, her anger suddenly moved away from Daniel—who was grateful. “You know more about any of this than we do and you're telling us to take it seriously?” she exclaimed, “I'll tell you what I'm serious about. My best friend was attacked tonight by a bitch that managed to get past you and every other official out there. Right now, your face is becoming an easy target for my fist, so next time you want to tell me to take it seriously, give me more information than 'Oh, she was just attacked by Tori—or whatever her real fucking name is—and now has a few wounds but don't worry, Rosa's here to save the day.'”

  Automatic silence followed the sudden outburst from Melinda and we were all waiting to see Ethan's reaction. I admit I was trying really hard not to start laughing right now.

  But no matter how frustrating it must be for Melinda, this guy—who looked not much older than me—was standing there with his eyes narrowed. I’m not much of a visual analyst but I was sure he was finding this amusing.

  I should know. I've always been amused by Maya. I get more satisfied when she gets pissed about it.

  “Well?” Melinda said, her hands now sitting firmly on her hips.

  “You know I can't tell you anything—”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Melinda, I told you to trust me so trust me. Have I given you a reason to not?” he asked.

  Melinda’s arm was instantly out and she was pointing towards me. “Exhibit A.”

  Slightly confused by this, I went to voice my opinion but Ethan—who hadn’t averted his eyes a single bit—interrupted that thought when he said, “Maya is a different story. I didn’t hear about what was going on until a few seconds before I turned up. You should be lucky that I even turned up.”

  This silenced Melinda and I was positively sure she was trying to come up with a come-back for this because half the time, she doesn't like to be wrong or corrected.

  There’s a lot that I’ve learned since knowing both her and Maya.

  “So what?” Daniel spoke up. “We just continue being in the dark, continue telling Maya that nothing happened tonight? I'm telling you now that she won't like that.”

  “She'll have to deal. Until we can sort this out everyone needs to continue their normal routine. It's not over, obviously. From now on, just be cautious but not conspicuous. You're right, Penelope did get past us so that's an even more of a reason to be careful. One sign of fear makes you look vulnerable and we don't need that.”

  All I was doing was watching as Melinda and Ethan had this staring contest. I had to give Ethan props. Not even a single flinch came from him. When Melinda was angry around anyone else, we all run to the next city. Shit, the more I think about things the more I'm bruising my own manhood. Maybe the sleep deprivation is starting to hit me. Yeah, that could be it.

  There was a deep sigh from Melinda and her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I'm trusting you this one time. Don't make me regret it.”

  “Got it,” he replied.

  “Alright.” Suddenly her attention was towards me and instinctively, I was trying to figure out what I had done. It also wasn't helping that a single finger was pointed at me. “You and Maya obviously need to talk, and sort things out.” Relieved, I relaxed and nodded. I did want to talk to Maya. Fuck knows how I was going to talk to her about it. “So,” she continued, “Daniel and I are going to stay at Sophia's tonight. She has the day off tomorrow so we won't be home until around lunch, maybe. I'm giving you guys the night.”

  “Thanks,” I said. She didn't really have to leave. I was sure Maya and I would talk about it whether Mel and Daniel were here or not. She probably expects us to have another fight—which is a possibility—but I wasn't going to lead it to that. If Maya and I ever fell out again, I don't know how I was going to take it. I knew her secret. That's why I got angry, because she didn't tell me. She just doesn’t realize that I would fight for her, just like she fought for me.

  “But just know,” Melinda's voice changed to a lower tone. “The last thing any of us want is another stand off between you two, because frankly the mood Maya gets herself in starts getting annoying after a while, and I know I'm her best friend, but if you plan on walking away again then tell her. And as much as I would probably want to kill you, do it tonight.”

  “Not a good first impression you’re putting on us, Mel,” Daniel murmured, flicking his gaze to me. “We're not all like that,” he said, “only Melinda is.”

  I laughed shortly and said, “I believe it.” And I also respected her words.

  “Yeah, yeah.” Melinda grabbed Daniel's collar and started towards the door. “Come on, I need to get rid of this dress. We'll see you in the morning, Tristan.”

  I didn't have time to answer before they headed towards the door but Daniel's voice really grabbed my attention. “Why are you blushing? Are you embarrassed that you just stood up to your little masturbation image?”

  “Shut the fuck up, Daniel,” Melinda exclaimed, and then the door closed.

  Confused and curious, I moved my eyes towards the only other man left in the room. “Please tell me she's talking about you.”

  Ethan didn't answer for a couple of seconds. Eventually, he shrugged. “She blurted her gratitude towards my music choices earlier on and it seems that she has developed a crush.”

  “Wow, looks like we're both having girl troubles,” I muttered, finally able to move my feet back into Maya's room.

  A chuckle from Ethan sounded. “Nope, just you.” Of course. I wasn't sure if I should find that to be a bad thing or not. I guess we'll see when she wakes up. “You were silent out there by the way,” he later stated.

  I was semi-distracted by Maya's sleeping form when he talked. “Huh? Oh, right. Not really my place to input.” I shrugged, slowly sitting down next to her. “I honestly don't know what to say.”

  “Maybe the truth about why you're really here,” he quickly answered.

  My hand was wrapped around Maya's and the flinch that went through my body caused me to slightly squeeze her hand. “What are you talking about?”

  Ethan was on the other side of the bed, looking down at Maya before bringing his eyes up to mine. Not that I was looking at him, but that burn that you feel was there, so I knew he was staring. “You may have Rosa fooled and for your sake I'm glad about that.” My brows furrowed and he continued, “but you don't have me fooled, Tristan.” His voice didn't sound accusing, in fact it sounded like he was negotiating. “I know exactly who you are.”

  My first instinct was to be in denial, question what he was trying to tell me. But as I looked down at Maya, I knew that my questioning wouldn't get me anywhere. I sighed. “What do you want me to say? She's been through enough as it is.”

  “You could start by saying that she's not the first succubi you've met, besides Penelope,” he said as my eyes finally snapped up to his. “But she is however, the first one you haven't tried to kill.” My whole body went rigged. I tried to find a bluff between his words but all I got was nothing.

  He knew.

  “How did you—”

  “I know a lot more than I lead on,” Ethan interrupted, “I even know more than you lead on. You know, she was always scared that she would kill you. That she would drive you away. When in reality, you're both going to be the death of each other.”

  Guilt resided inside me and I couldn't deny what he was saying. What if I was going to be the death of her? What if she was going to be the death of me? After all these years, everything I was searching for was starting to turn its back on me.

  Just watching her—lying there completely unaware to everything that’s happening—only made me hate myself for what I'd done. She was so innocent. More innocent than she thought.

  That saying about curiosity killing the cat was so much like this situation right now. It was almost perfect.

  Maya was the cat, but the twist was that it was my curiosity that was killing her.

  “You shouldn't have come lookin
g for her so soon, Tristan. You're both not prepared for the battle that's coming.”

  And he was right. I hated that he was right.

  “I can't fix this,” I said, “if I leave her, than she'll hurt even more.”

  “I know.” Ethan moved to stand behind me, and I knew we were both staring at her. I wondered if she was having a dream. Maybe it's a dream where she's riding a unicorn or something. She had this small smile on her face so at least it wasn't a nightmare.

  I don't know how I knew, but I could tell what Ethan was thinking. It had been a thought that I was fighting with since day one. It fucked me off that I’d even made this last this whole time.

  I made the mistake over a year ago. And there was really only one way that could possibly help her, even if it killed me.

  “I think you know what you have to do, Tristan,” Ethan said. He was right again. I did know what I had to do.

  It was what I had originally come here to do.

  Acknowledgments

  Writing COUNTERPART has been a long and—not going to lie—exhausting journey. The thoughts and ideas that went into this book took a big toll on my mind, from the writing of it to the editing and so on.

  I couldn’t really have gone through this if it wasn’t for the people that have supported and kicked my ass during the making of this.

  First of all, I’d like to thank the family members that have respected my writing, read my writing and even exported their own ideas into the creation of this and other novels, even when some of the ideas are weird.

  My friends, Ashley (also my cover designer, isn’t it pretty?), Nathan, Jessica, Stah, and my author-sibling-not-really-my-sibling, C, thank you all for your contribution towards this piece. You don’t know it, but your support towards me and my work have really helped me and I couldn’t have done this without all your input.

  And lastly, thank you to the readers (that’s you!) for picking this up and taking the time to read it. Your love, support and friendship means the world.

  So thank you!

  About the Author

  K.J was born and raised in New Zealand, a small country sitting on the Pacific Ocean. She could say something cool like she's been writing since a young age, but that would be a lie. She has however, been reading since a young age, and then soon enough, her imagination took control and she was sucked into the life of fiction.

  Counterpart is her debut novel.

  For more information on K.J visit http://kayjazx.blogspot.com