“What do you think?” I turned to Ivarr.
“Bizarre.” He shook his head.
“What? Why?”
“I’ve never seen Zander express interest in anyone. And this is the most I’ve ever heard him say.”
Yet something in Pam’s emotions had sparked Zander’s interest.
What makes a woman special for an Incubus? What was that longing Zander mentioned?
I had more questions to ask, but others had noticed our arrival by now. Several people waved in greeting in our direction. Andras, who had stepped away during my conversation with Zander, was now standing next to one of the tables in the middle of the room.
“Come, I want you to meet someone.” Ivarr tugged at my hand, leading me in that direction.
Three of the five women present in the room sat at the table in the company of two Incubi. Both demons rose from their seats as we approached and bowed their heads in greeting.
“Good evening, Kitty,” one of them called my name before anyone had a chance to introduce me.
My eyes snapped wide open with a stab of surprise at the sound of his voice. Although the tone had much more life in it now, I still recognized its even cadence.
“Garrett!”
A wide smile spread across his face, lighting his coffee-bean-coloured eyes with humour. It was because of those eyes that I’d always imagined him dark-haired under his helmet. However, his hair turned out to be flaxen blond. In the fashion, seemed to be preferred by many Incubi, Garrett wore it long.
“You’ve met?” Ivarr tilted his head.
I wondered how potentially awkward it would’ve been, had Garrett actually got a chance to perform his duties as a Handler during my incarceration.
However, Incubi seemed to count a true connection as a sign of intimacy, not whatever mindless stimulation was performed on me during the Council’s nightly feedings. Since I failed to form any connection with either one of my Handlers, my time on the cross didn’t seem to count as being intimate at all.
That was exactly the way I preferred to look at it myself.
“You know her?” Ivarr directed his question to Garrett this time.
“I had the honour to be Kitty’s Handler at the base.” Garrett leaned across the table to shake my hand.
“Then you were there when she was drugged and abducted?”
“I was in the building that night, yes.” Garrett’s expression darkened. “I’m so sorry, Kitty, I have no idea what happened or who took you. I spent the night by Simone’s door.” He gestured at the petit, dark-skinned woman who sat at the table at his right.
“Simone?” I’d only seen her from the back before. The image of the tiny figure curled up on the mattress on the floor came to mind.
“Nice to meet you, Kitty.” She flicked the mass of glossy ebony braids behind her shoulder and offered me her hand.
“Allow me to introduce everyone else here.” Andras moved to my side. “This is my wife, Natasha.” He gestured at a tall woman with strawberry blond hair gathered in a bun.
“Hello.” I shook her hand, staring at the woman who was married to a demon, the Grand Master. How did it work? I was dying to know but held back my questions—my ogling her could be considered rude enough.
Natasha smiled.
“I am very happy to meet you,” she said with a strong accent. “Ivarr told us about you a few days ago. He said you woke him up. A very dangerous thing to do. I am so glad everything turned out okay and you are well.”
I nodded, but Andras moved around the table continuing the introductions before I could reply.
“This is Alyssa.” He pointed at the woman with a light-blonde braid. Her sitting at the table didn’t disguise the fact that she was heavily pregnant. “Alyssa came to the base two days after you were taken.”
“As a Source?” I asked, remembering that the kidnappings were supposedly stopped by then already.
“No,” she replied with a rueful smile. “Not that time.”
“Alyssa used to be a Source, less than a year ago, but she escaped.”
“You did?” I spent so much time figuring out a way to get out of there myself, wondering if it was possible at all. Apparently, someone had actually done it.
“Well, Sytrius rescued me.” She took the hand of the Incubus standing next to her as her expression melted into that of utter adoration.
“Sytrius?” My gaze moved between him and Ivarr, gauging the reaction of both.
“Finally, I get to meet the woman who helped to keep Ivarr put.” Sytrius said brightly, shaking my hand, his blue eyes sparkled with humour behind a strand of sandy-blond hair that fell across his forehead. “I spent centuries chasing him all over the globe. But the threat of never seeing you again kept him firmly in place for the last few months.”
This took away any doubts I might have had—it was the same Sytrius who arrested Ivarr, more than once. And now here they were, sitting at the same table with no hard feelings apparently. I wondered if living lives as long as theirs made holding grudges useless.
“I—I’m so sorry we took your truck,” I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind as the reply.
“Well.” Sytrius laughed. “I took his car first. And I honestly have no idea where it is right now.”
“Please join us.” Alyssa gestured at the two empty seats at the table.
Ivarr moved a chair back for me then sat between Simone and I.
I glanced around the room again. Besides the three women I’d just met, there were only two more present at the party.
One of them I recognized from the show. She was the one who blew kisses at Lucius on stage. Now she sat in his lap on the couch, animatedly talking to another young woman sitting next to them.
Then two men on the couch across from them caught my attention.
One of them had all the characteristics of an Incubus. Tall and muscular, he had a soulful expression on his beautiful face. The other, however, seemed human. Even though he was young and definitely attractive, he just didn’t have that out-of-this-world appeal that I came to expect from Incubi.
“Is he from The Priory?” I leaned into Ivarr.
“Who?” He followed my gaze. “Braden? No. He is with Radimir. They met about two months ago, when Braden came to see the show, and they have been inseparable ever since.”
Only now I noticed their hands clasped together between them.
“They’re planning on getting married this summer,” Sytrius added casually from his seat at my right.
“So marriages between humans and Incubi are allowed now?”
Andras called Natasha his wife. And the ring I spotted on Alyssa’s finger, combined with her pregnant belly, led me to believe that she and Sytrius must have been married too.
“Well, marriage with a demon is more of an afterthought, really.” Alyssa laughed. “The true connection happens first. And once it does, there is no going back. With the union already formed, it’s up to couples whether or not they want to go ahead with a ceremony.”
Natasha stirred in her seat.
“Andras simply asked me one fine morning if I wanted to be with him for the rest of our lives. When I said yes, he put the ring on my finger, and told me I am his.” With a wide smile, she showed me the gold wedding band on her right ring finger. “I am from Belarus,” she added. “We wear the wedding ring on the right hand.”
“Can I get you some wine?” Ivarr whispered in my ear.
“Please.” I nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed at finding myself in the company of happily mated demons all of a sudden.
My phone rang the moment Ivarr left for the small bar in the corner of the room. I glanced at Pam’s number on the screen and excused myself from the table to take her call.
“It’s been over an hour!” She yelled in my ear accusingly the moment I picked it up. “Please tell me you’re still alive.”
“I’m still alive.”
“Thank God! Why aren’t you calling me? You promi
sed!”
“I’m so sorry, Pam. I was just invited to the after party, and there are so many people here, I got a little distracted. I was going to call you—”
“The after party?”
“Yes. Kind of. It’s rather quiet here. Casual—”
“Are all those guys there?” A note of curiosity cut through her voice. “I mean the dancers.”
“Um. Not sure about all, but many are.”
“Okay.”
She paused, and I could almost hear the wheels turning inside her head.
Still unsure if it was at all responsible of me to involve Pam in this world, I glanced back to the table. The sight of the women glowing with happiness at their demons’ side was reassuring.
“Zander is here,” I said.
“Really?” Pam exclaimed, her voice breathless. “You got to meet him?”
“I did.”
“How is he? In real life, I mean.”
“Charmingly old-fashioned and . . .” I sighed. “Very hungry.”
“Hungry?”
“Pam, we need to have a long talk when I get back.”
“What do you mean? Did he say anything about me? Do you think you could, maybe, ask for his number for me? Please? Or give him mine?”
“He wants more than your number.”
“He does?”
“Yes. He pretty much said so.”
“Oh, my God.” The excited squeak at the end of her statement clued me in that Pam would not have minded more herself. Except that she couldn't truly comprehend what more meant for Zander.
“I’ll really have to talk to you about all of this.”
“Oh, my God,” she repeated.
“Pam?”
“Yeah. I’m still here. When are you coming back?”
I caught a glance of Ivarr walking back to the table, a glass of wine for me and one with whiskey for him. I still needed to talk to him too.
“Um, not sure. Later tonight. In any case, Pam, you don’t need to worry,” I assured her with an absolute certainty. “I’m safe.”
Chapter 38
ONE GLASS OF WINE LATER, I sat at the table, leaning into Ivarr. Somehow during the time it took me to finish the wine, our chairs ended up flush with each other, and his arm draped casually around me, my head on his bicep.
“One more?” He tipped his chin at my empty glass, his eyes twinkling bright blue.
“You just want to get the buzz from my drinking.” I giggled. He’d explained earlier that the only way for an Incubus to get intoxicated was to consume a significant amount of emotions from a drunken human.
“I already have all the buzz I need from your simply being here. I’ll get you some more.” He kissed my hair and got up, heading to the bar.
“I don’t believe I heard him say a word in the weeks I’ve known him.” Simone leaned my way. “It’s amazing how happy he looks with you around.”
I followed Ivarr with my gaze, hating to see him depart even for a minute.
She shifted in her chair, and only now I noted the small bump of her belly.
“You’re expecting, too?” My gaze moved to Garrett’s beaming face.
“We are,” they both said in unison then laughed at each other, impossibly adorable together like this.
“You have a good eye. I’m only three months and just started to show anything at all.” She patted her stomach with obvious pride.
“Congratulations,” I offered sincerely.
“Thank you. The doctor assures me all is going well, but I’ll never stop worrying until I hold a healthy happy baby in my arms.” A dark cloud moved over her face next. “I, um, I’ve lost a child once. Stillbirth.”
“I’m so sorry,” I gasped.
She nodded, acknowledging my condolences.
“It was the worst experience of my life. By far.”
Garrett hugged her shoulders and kissed her temple. By the way her expression settled to that of calmness I wondered if he had taken some of the pain from her at that moment.
“The grief is forever with you.” Simone sighed. “But the fear of another loss doesn’t stop my hope.” She glanced at Garrett with a warm smile. “In any case, I know that Garrett will be at my side, no matter what. This knowledge gives me strength.” Her gaze shifted back to me. “The father of my first baby left me a week after we had the stillbirth.”
“He did?”
“We had problems in our marriage, even before I got pregnant, but that was the last nail in the coffin of our relationship.”
I winced inside. Granted, I didn’t know Simone well, but the loss of both the baby and the husband within a week couldn’t be easy on anyone. “How did you manage?”
“Not very well.” She fiddled with a napkin in her lap for a few moments. “Really, I had no idea how to go on. I just gave up. Got fired for not showing up for work. Then just stayed in bed, all day every day.”
“When did they abduct you?”
“Honestly, I’m not even sure. I don’t think my kidnapping even registered with me for a while. Everything from that time is just one long, foggy nightmare in my memories. First the hospital. Then my empty apartment. The cell in the basement. Then the white room with a cross . . .”
She swallowed hard and took a sip of water from her glass.
“After a while, though, I started noticing Garrett. His touch during the Feeding was the only thing that made me feel. Good or bad, it didn’t even matter at that time. What was important was that I felt something beyond the crushing agony of loss and loneliness. And I began viewing the Feedings as a reprieve, a break in the dark clouds constantly hanging over my head otherwise.
“When they told me I was free to go. I had no idea where. It was really sad and somewhat pathetic that out of everywhere in the world, I felt most at home in that prison cell in the basement. I realized only much later why it felt that way. It was because I knew that Garrett was nearby.”
She covered his gloved hand with hers.
I was certain neither of the married demons at our table performed in the show tonight. Still, all of them wore gloves. Assuming they all could control their touch with their wives, just like Ivarr did with me, I suspected they wore the gloves out of respect for the women of other demons.
The way Ivarr reacted when Zander almost kissed my hand clued me in that touching another demon’s woman skin-to-skin must be considered offensive to her or to her partner or both.
“He told me you wouldn’t see him.”
“No,” Simone agreed with a tiny smile. “I even asked for someone else to bring me meals. I believe I detested my perceived growing dependency on his presence. But he didn’t really leave. Every night I lay in bed, waiting for the echo of his footsteps down the corridor outside of my cell, then for the sound of his back sliding down my door as he took his seat on the floor. Only then I could fall asleep, knowing that he was there to guard me. Then one night, I wished he were closer. I didn’t know he could walk through walls then, so I requested to leave my door open after dinner that night. When Garrett came, I asked him to hold me while I slept.”
Simone gazed up at her demon, her eyes glistening from reliving the emotions of her story.
“He’s been doing it ever since.” She smiled at him. “Every night, he holds me in his arms while I fall asleep.”
“What made you know Simone was the one?” I asked Garrett.
But he just shook his head.
“I’m not sure,” he finally replied. “I knew she needed me, no one else. Despite the armour suit, the recognition sparked inside her every time she saw me. I loved seeing that spark. Still do. Only now it’s no longer just a spark, more like a raging storm of fire.” He gazed upon his woman with an expression of pride and satisfaction. “My Simone’s fierce love for me.”
“Is that what ignites a demon’s interest in any particular woman? Recognition?”
Silent, Garrett kneaded his forehead, as if pondering my question.
“Recognition, affection,
gratitude, sympathy,” Alyssa replied instead of him, joining our conversation. “For each couple it’s different. But I’ve been noticing that any positive emotion can trigger interest in an Incubus, as long as the woman who experiences it feels it specifically for him. She needs to glimpse the man in the sex demon, the real person behind his enticing appearance.” She waved her hand in front of Sytrius’s handsome face to illustrate the enticing appearance she was talking about.
He just chuckled in response.
Ivarr returned, putting a glass of wine in front of me along with a plate piled high with cheese, fruit, and desserts.
“Sexual desire in humans is a normal reaction to Incubi,” Ivarr joined the conversation, taking his place at my side again. “We want it, we crave it, we feed off it. Human lust is our bread and butter. But it’s that special flavour of personal affection that makes someone irresistible.”
He drew me to him and placed a tender kiss on my lips, in front of everyone, generous with his own affection for me.
Breathless from his kiss, I blinked and quickly took a sip of wine, hiding my heated face. The women at the table might have guessed the way Ivarr made me feel, but I was certain their men would see clearly the flare of arousal his kiss ignited in me.
Ivarr brushed his bare hand across mine, and the sensation of a slight dusting of frost calmed both my nerves and my hormones at once.
“Incubi are eager to learn,” Alyssa stated with firm belief in her voice. “They have been feeding on human emotions for centuries, absorbing the very essence of our minds and hearts. They’ve learned from what they’ve taken. There is no other explanation for the humanity I’ve found in so many of them. Turned out they can learn to love, too.” With a smile, she leaned into Sytrius.
“Is a human-demon bond forever?” I asked her. “You said once it forms, there is no going back. . .”
“To my knowledge, there is no magical mating bond that binds us together,” she replied. “But I don’t want to through life without Sytrius, and I see no way to separate us. We are one. I am a part of him just as much as he is a part of me now. And I wouldn't want it to change. Ever.”
I nibbled on the grapes and cheese from the plate that Ivarr brought, contemplating what I learned from everyone tonight.
The Forgotten (Demons Book 2) Page 21