"Oh yes!" she wailed as pleasure wracked her. Her body writhed, sinuous and serpentine as pleasure rolled over and over her. Lucien grasped her, stilling her wild movements so he could drive up into her again and again. Each hard thrust brought her a new wave of exquisite spasms, and he held her still and made her take it all, every thrust, every inch, until even her wails of ecstasy fractured into whimpering sobs.
Lucien drove deep once more and froze, groaning. Sarahi felt the flood of burning liquid in her depths. They poised, trapped at the apex of pleasure for a long moment. And then, at last, their bodies relaxed slowly until Sarahi was lying on Lucien’s chest, her head on his shoulder, his big hands on her back.
With the release of sexual tension came the release of self-control as well, and Sarahi’s misery of the last two decades expressed itself in a flood of tears. Lucien stroked her hair as she wept on his shoulder. His hands felt so good on her. She had forgotten how good. But now she was remembering. Now she felt alive again. She felt his soft kiss on the top of her head.
"I love you, Lucien," she sniffled.
"And I love you, Sarahi."
"Never leave me again."
"As long as there is breath in my body, I will not. And that is a vow I shall never break."
Sarahi smiled through her tears.
Lucien’s erection had softened inside her, but her needy body was far from finished with him. When he made a move as though to withdraw from her, she placed her hand on the center of his chest and sent him a little pulse. Instantly, his sex thickened to throbbing life. He groaned.
"How did you do that?" he asked her.
"Succubus," she replied. He drew her head down for a kiss, then stood, still inside her, and reversed their directions, bearing her down into the mattress. Sarahi looped her legs over his elbows, presenting herself to him for another deep, thorough taking which left them both panting and sated.
Chapter 15
Lucien led his lady out of her bedroom. Much time had passed while they had been inside. He had missed breakfast altogether, and his stressed body was clamoring for food. She had taken a tremendous amount of energy from him, between the feeding and the physical exhaustion of sex, however wonderful it might have been. That, coupled with the battle he’d just completed, had left him starving to the point of lightheadedness. Hand in hand they made their way through the compound to the empty kitchen. The women and some of the men took turns cooking meals, but a large number of snacks could be had by anyone who felt a need.
Lucien scanned the refrigerator and snagged an apple, crunching it nosily while Sarahi rummaged for a pan and heated it on the stove.
"How can a creature who does not need to eat know how to cook?"
"How can a creature sworn to celibacy be so good in bed?" she bantered back. He shut up.
She sautéed some onion and bell pepper in a pan with bacon, and then added a few beaten eggs. By the time he’d finished his apple and a banana, she’d completed the omelet and slid it onto a plate. He devoured it. She sat beside him, toying with a cup of lukewarm, leftover coffee. While she did not require food or drink, she could take them if she so desired. Or so she’d told him. Once the edge of his hunger was satisfied, he returned his attention to his lady, taking her hand and admiring the long, slender fingers, the perfect half-moon nails, the soft, soft skin. He touched his lips to her palm, and then to the pulse in her wrist. He felt her heartbeat increase under his lips. She opened her hand on his cheek, stroking.
He stood and hauled her into his arms for another long kiss. This was madness. They had to slow down. But he couldn’t.
"Sarahi!" A harsh voice behind them broke the couple apart.
Mr. Smith stood, arms crossed over his chest, regarding the succubus with an angry scowl. "You promised us our men would be in no danger from you. You swore you’d never seduce them. What on earth is this?"
"Mr. Smith, I..."
"Quiet," he ordered, slashing the air with his hand. "You’ll have to leave now. We can’t have you here, not of you’re harming our men."
"Mr. Smith," Lucien cut off the elder’s tirade. He stopped dead and turned, taking in the face.
"Lucien? You? Did you learn nothing from your previous punishment?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did." Lucien said, deliberately being cryptic.
"I know you have a... weakness for women, but a succubus? Really?"
Lucien shook his head. "No, not the way you think. Sarahi did not seduce me. She would not do that."
"But... but..." the cleric sputtered.
"Listen, you wanted to know... I’ll tell you. This is not a casual fling with a hungry succubus. We’ve known each other a long time. Sarahi is... Josiah’s mother."
That rendered the stuttering cleric silent. He looked from one to the other and back. Apparently, Lucien’s lady felt nervous. She clung a little closer to him. He tightened his arm around her.
"Mo... mo...mother?" Mr. Smith forced out at last. You mean he’s... "
"Half naphil, half...me," she said softly.
"A demon," he gritted out. "That explains so much." A sour look passed over the elder’s face.
"He’s not a demon," Sarahi hissed. Lucien could never recall hearing that ugly, snake-line tone in her voice before. Apparently even a succubus could be dangerous in defense of her offspring. "He’s less demon than I am, and you let me stay here. What makes you dislike him so?"
"There’s something wrong with the boy. And before you go all cobra on me, Sarahi, remember. I’ve raised him since infancy. You’ve never seen him. You have no idea the trouble he’s caused in this place, with his strange urges and his unnatural abilities."
Her body tensed in Lucien’s arms and he tightened his grip, warning her to remain calm.
"Listen, Mr. Smith," he said, "I’ve been here the last ten years, and I have not seen him behave differently than any of the other boys. Why are you so set against him? If this is the way you’ve treated him, no wonder he’s begged me to take him away."
"I wish you had," Mr. Smith said coldly. "He should never have existed. I felt that when I thought he was your son by a human woman. Now that I know he’s a demon..."
"He is not a demon," Sarahi said again, more strongly. "He is the incubus. And you should be careful how you treat him. If he hates you, he will side against you. He’ll go back to her. Even now she calls for him."
Mr. Smith’s eyes bugged out. "Incubus? But... that’s just a legend!"
Sarahi turned in Lucien’s arms, fully facing the furious elder. "If that’s so, then why has Mother been trying to create one for millennia? She’s not stupid. She knows the prophecies as well as you do... at least the ones she has access to. You have volumes here she’s never seen. The incubus exists. He lives right now. Where is he? Where is my son?"
Mr. Smith gulped. "He’s been sent with several other clerics in training to investigate a succubus in Billings."
Sarahi blinked.
"Now listen, ma’am, I think we need to talk."
"Yes, I agree," Sarahi said coldly. "I sent my son away so he would be safe. If I hear he’s been abused in some way..."
"He has never been harmed, I swear," Mr. Smith replied.
Sarahi nodded. "Very well then," she said, though Lucien could feel from the tension in her arms she wasn’t fully convinced. "We do need to talk."
"We certainly do," the elder agreed. "In fact, let’s gather the council, the other nephilim, the clerical generals. I think this is information everyone needs."
"I agree," Sarahi said. "That will give me a few minutes to gather my materials."
Half an hour later, the elder conference room was filled to capacity. The massive table seated two dozen, and the seven elders sat along one side, all in a row, with Mr. Smith at the corner, the seat of power, as it were. Across from them, the generals of the nephilim; Lucien, Jonas, and five others Sarahi did not know, though she’d seen them all at one time or another. The rest of the seats were taken by the he
ads of the Order of Clerics; stoic men none of whom Sarahi knew by name. Younger clerics, teachers and elders-in-training crowded around the table, standing or leaning on the wall. Sarahi had been given a spot beside Mr. Smith, across from Lucien. At the last moment, a silent figure dressed in white slipped into one corner.
All eyes turned toward her. She suddenly regretted volunteering to lead this conversation. After three millennia of hiding, she did not like being in the spotlight. And it really was a spotlight, the overhead bulb glaring down on her. She gulped and met Lucien’s eyes. He nodded.
"I wanted to start by thanking everyone who has made me feel so welcome here. It can’t have been easy, having a succubus in your midst." Gasps sounded all around the room. She suppressed a grin. Now she really had their attention. "The reason I’m here is that I’ve been marked for death by my mother. I don’t know if you are aware, but all succubae are the daughters of Lilith, in a literal sense. There is so much information I need to share with you, and I’m not used to public speaking, so I hope you’ll forgive me if I... ramble, and don’t present my thoughts in the most organized way..."
"The demoness is your mother?" a heavyset elder demanded. "The succubae are your sisters? Why are you turning against them? Have you no loyalty to your family?"
She turned to the man, meeting his eyes squarely. He flinched.
"You should be glad I have chosen your side," she told him coldly. "I choose to believe that DNA does not determine destiny. I have made a choice. Don’t make me regret it." She let her nails grow out from delicate shell colored half-moons into three inch, razor-sharp talons.
He nodded once, cowed.
"Now, does anyone else want to waste time on silly questions, or can we move forward?"
No one spoke.
She opened the book in front of her, an ancient text bound in musty-smelling leather. She sneezed. "All right. The information I wanted to present to you has to do with the incubus."
Several people snorted, and one man standing near the door turned ostentatiously and walked out.
"It’s a fact, not a legend," she said. "He already lives."
That drew their attention back to her.
"What proof do you have of that?" Mr. Smith demanded. "You saying it doesn’t make it so."
"You’re right. And I would hardly expect anything else. All right. I’m in a rather unique position. I’ve spent my life with access to the library of prophesy owned by the succubae. I’ve read them all. I never guessed the ones you had would be so... different. Combining them, I finally feel like I understand what they mean." She swallowed, looked down at the book and then back up at the people around her, meeting their eyes. She locked gazes with The Assassin and received a wink. She smiled, but grimly.
"What it means, friends, is that war is coming."
"I hate to break it to you, Toots," one of the cleric generals drawled sarcastically, "but we’ve been at war for millennia."
"I know that," Sarahi snapped. "I’m not talking about these little skirmishes and sneak attacks we’ve been engaging in since time immemorial. I’m talking about outright war. She will come, and she will kill us all."
"And just why would that happen?" The naphil seated next to Lucien asked. "What reason could she possibly have to come against us now?"
"It’s because of the incubus," Sarahi said. "To us, to her, it’s not a legend or a myth. It’s a fact. She’s been trying for years to create one."
"Why?" Several difference voices posed the query at the same time.
"Yes, that is the question," Sarahi said. "And that’s where having access to both sets of prophecies has answered a lot of questions for me. Yours explain what an incubus is. Hers explain what one does."
"Enough with the foreplay, succubus," another of the generals said. "Get to the point."
"The point is, the incubus is an inexhaustible source of power. He will not take energy from intercourse with others. He will create it."
"That’s impossible," Mr. Smith said. "Energy cannot be created."
"Perhaps not as such," Sarahi admitted, "but it can be generated. Think of a static charge. When two objects rub against each other, it can create a spark, even if neither object is electrical in nature. That same kind of process goes on inside the incubus."
She glanced around again. They were listening, finally. Good.
"I believe I also know why. Our texts speak of the incubus’s power. He will be able to provide unlimited energy to his partner, or he can use it to enhance lust, or even kill. He’s a living weapon."
"I can understand why Lilith would want one," Lucien said. The sound of his deep voice made a little shiver roll up her spine.
"Yes. But what she did not understand was how to go about getting one. She assumed her demon blood, mixed with human, would suffice, if only a son could be born. But that’s not the case. Human nature, tainted as it is with original sin, mixes easily with the demon. No conflict. No energy. It requires untainted DNA to create the friction which will result in the energy production."
"So, an angel, then?"
Sarahi looked for the source of the voice. A woman standing near the door.
"In a sense, yes. However, Lilith could rape an angel and not conceive. The natures are too disparate. You might as well mate a tiger to a fish. Nothing would happen. The mingling requires a catalyst. Lilith herself can never produce an incubus, because the catalyst, human DNA, is not present in her. She is fully demon."
She waited, hoping someone else would make the inevitable leap.
"So then," Mr. Smith said, "human DNA is the catalyst?"
"I believe so," Sarahi replied. "Because it is God-breathed, human can join with angel, as the existence of the nephilim proves. But because of sin..."
"Human DNA can also merge with demon, producing succubae."
She nodded.
"So then," one of the clerics, a young man with bright blue eyes and a lusty gaze which raked insolently over Sarahi’s torso, "spit it out. How do you make an incubus?"
"Isn’t it obvious, Peter?" Lucien asked the boy. "If the mingling of demonic and angelic blood can only happen in the presence of human DNA, then the way to produce an incubus is..."
"To breed a naphil to a succubus?" The blue eyes widened. "Good thing nephilim are chaste!"
Lucien’s dark skin turned even darker. "Not entirely," he said in a tight, strangled-sounding voice. All eyes turned from Sarahi to him.
"Lucien?" Jonas said, as though pleading him not to go any further along this line of thinking.
"You know I have a son. You all know this. It is not a secret."
"But Lucien... his mother is human. Tell me she’s human."
"No," Sarahi answered. "Only half."
The implications sank in slowly. Eyes, expressions, spoke of rejection, fear, revulsion.
"We’ve been harboring a demon in our midst?" One of the elders asked, disgusted.
"My son is not a demon," Sarahi said. "He has the potential to be a great hero, our savior. If we can leash his power, we just might be able to destroy Lilith for good."
"And how do we do that?" Peter asked.
"From what I’ve read, the incubus is like... a duck. He imprints to his first partner, and only that woman can connect to his energy. So who would it be?"
She met eye after eye. Every person, each and every one, blushed and turned away.
"What?" she asked.
"It’s just..." Mr. Smith started, then broke off, visibly steeled himself, and continued. "You mean sexual partner?"
"Of course."
As one they all turned their eyes to the floor.
"Would someone please explain the problem?" she insisted.
"Listen, love," Lucien said, "To the clerics, sexuality is... intensely private. To the nephilim, a total mystery. You are speaking of this as though it were a casual coupling, as though it were nothing."
"Oh no," she said, "it’s very important. I just need to know who."
"N
o one," Mr. Smith said. "He’s unmarried."
"He’s twenty-one years old," Sarahi said, incredulous.
"That’s not so very old to be unmarried, here," Mr. Smith replied.
Sarahi didn’t respond, but it occurred to her that being married meant a great deal to them. She’d never encountered an attitude like that.
"All right, well there’s no time to lose," she said after carefully measuring her words. "Even now, Lilith is searching for him. If she becomes his imprinted partner, we have no chance."
Now everyone was squirming.
"Imprint on Lilith..." Mr. Smith stammered, "but that means..."
"Try not to think about it," Sarahi urged. "But it’s really important to prevent it. I’m sure you’ll all agree."
"Well, that’s a problem," Peter said. "There’s only one girl he likes..."
"It will never happen," Mr. Smith said firmly.
"What now?" Sarahi demanded.
"Josiah’s crazy about Smith’s granddaughter," Peter said irreverently, earning him sharp glances from all the elders. "Has been forever."
"And so?"
"So I won’t have that demon child near Annie," Mr. Smith said. Sarahi raised her eyebrows.
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