A quick glance at my surroundings confirmed what my butt on my familiar mattress had already told me. I was at home. At my own house and in my own bed.
I sank back into its comforting depths, pulling the comforter over my face to drown out the evil sunlight, its full force having returned to my attention once I’d ascertained my whereabouts and the fact that I was not, in fact, turning into a glowing ball of fire.
What the hell had someone slipped in my drink that made me hallucinate? I could only remember drinking beer and tequila, but maybe there had been some absinthe or something later. I’d heard that that used to have hallucinogenic qualities back in the day in ancient Europe.
All I knew was that I had to have been hallucinating and that I couldn’t remember how I had actually gotten home. Unless it had actually been on the back of a beast of a motorcycle having been kidnapped by a biker gang.
Ludicrous.
Groaning, I rolled out of bed and stretched my tired limbs, surprised to find that other than my temporary sensitivity to the light, I wasn’t actually hung over. If I was being honest, even the sunshine was fine by the time that I had finally stretched out. Odd, given the fact that my memory was very clearly jumbled.
Encouraged by my lack of physical symptoms of overindulgence, I opted for a shower before calling Charlie or Brie to find out what we had had to drink the night before that would account for my mental lapses.
I was halfway to the bathroom when a stranger in my hallway mirror caught my eye. I stopped dead and reversed, gasping when I realized that the girl in the mirror was… well, me.
Sort of. Like me on steroids. Me if I was in an alternate universe in which I knew how to play up my non-existent natural beauty and knew where to find my closest gym.
Just the night before, when we were heading out, I’d stared at my reflection in that very mirror and a pale girl with faded red hair and a trim, serviceable body had stared back at me.
Now it was a different story. My skin had a radiant glow that it had never been capable of getting, my hair was a lustrous and thick auburn. My washed-out green eyes had a deep emerald hue and my figure… holy mother of Harry, my figure.
It was all strong, toned, gentle curves. My breasts were even straining against my shirt.
Wait, what now?
I didn’t have breasts. Not really. Although, I’d never had curves either. Or thick auburn hair. Or eyes that didn’t look like the water in the tub after you’d washed out the green dye and were left with what was behind.
Tentatively, I cupped one of my boobs. The girl in the mirror followed my movements precisely. She really was me.
I sucked in a deep breath, savoring the fact that I could finally feel the weight of my breast in my hand.
Darting my eyes around to make sure that Charlie or Brie weren’t passed out somewhere around me, I yanked my shirt to my neck to see my newly grown boobs in the flesh.
Sure enough, there they freaking were. I pinched myself, then I winced. I was definitely awake.
Panic shot through me and I swayed on my feet. My breathing became shallow, the oxygen barely reaching my lungs before rushing out again. My vision blurred. My muscles, because I had those now, tightened.
What the hell was happening?
Shaking like a leaf, I turned back towards my bedroom and the docking station where I had spotted my phone earlier. I had to speak to my best friends. They had to know what was going on, what had happened the night before. If nothing else, they would be able to help me piece the night together.
Had we gone to some sort of plastic surgeon or those retreats where they did stuff to you? It seemed impossible that even that could enhance a person overnight, but who knew what they really did at those elusive medical centers?
Brie had been joking about going to one for ages, maybe liquid courage we had borrowed from Mr. Cuervo and Co. had finally been enough to seal the deal?
I was going freaking insane, I needed answers. And I needed them yesterday. I reached for my phone, hurriedly keying to my favorites list when I heard a noise downstairs.
If Brie or Charlie were at my house, they would have been in my bedroom or crashed in my pajama lounge, but they weren’t there. I had checked already.
Besides, neither of them were likely to be awake before I was- much less making breakfast or whatever all that banging was.
My eyes scanned my bedroom for some kind of weapon, but I came up empty.
Why aren’t you into sports? I silently cursed myself, wishing for a golf club or bat of some sort, but picking up a well-read copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire instead. It was the biggest book in the collection, but it was a far cry from an actual weapon.
Book-nerds, unite! Knowing it was going to be futile, I glanced around anyway, hoping that my quiet call would have reached some other readers. It hadn’t.
It was me and Harry for the win. Alone. My low-rent Ron and Hermione were probably sleeping off their hangover somewhere.
I skulked down the stairs feeling ridiculous, because really, if there was anyone in my house who wanted to harm me they probably would have done it already.
But still, Harry and I were up for the challenge. Well, Harry always was. Me? Not so much.
My heart was pounding by the time I reached the kitchen. I inhaled a deep breath and stepped around the wall brandishing the book like it was one of the powerful wands it contained.
Nothing in my never-ending love of all things fantasy and science fiction could have prepared me for finding four massive men in my kitchen, lounging around like they belonged there.
Two of them were down on all fours like they were looking for something, while another was digging into a bowl of my cereal at the kitchen island and the other was standing at my fridge, drinking milk straight from the carton.
That motherfluffer. The one drinking the milk, he was the one who had thrown me onto the back of the bike, which probably meant that one of the others was the one I had been smashed up against as we’d left the alley.
“Freeze,” I yelled, brandishing my book like a weapon.
The one at the fridge moved first, setting the carton down on the island and slowly moving towards me.
A frisson of fear shot up my spine, but the really strange part of the encounter was that fear wasn’t even close to the most overwhelming thing that I felt when I met his gaze.
Arousal was. Desire for the dark and clearly dangerous man who had rooted me to the spot with his poison green eyes. The depths of which seemed to know no end. They were absolutely fucking devastating.
As was the man himself. He had tousled midnight black hair that was just long enough to get a good handful of, a sculpted jawline that was so sharp it looked like it could cut glass, and dark slashes of eyebrows that rested over those eyes and an arrow of a nose.
Black jeans hung from his powerful hips and a black t- shirt was stretched to its limits over his strong chest and sculpted shoulders and arms, adorned with black whorls of ink that crept down both arms and underneath his sleeves.
Unwittingly, my sex clenched. He oozed… Something. Dark definitely. Dangerous? Check. And something else, something very, intensely sexy.
One of his brows was raised, his eyes almost narrowed as he moved slowly to me, like he was trying not to scare a deer. Then again, any deer would have bolted far away by then, instead of surveying the predator closing in on them.
Slowly becoming aware of my surroundings at the thought that I, like the deer, should probably scope out an escape route, I realized that the other three men had all risen to their feet.
While they were all a tiny bit shorter than dark and dangerous, they were all huge and imposing.
The one who had been eating the cereal looked vaguely amused, the corners of his mouth quirked up as he watched me take them in. His light brown hair was cut short at the sides but was styled longer on top, falling just so over his sky blue eyes. They were impossibly bright, impossibly blue.
His attir
e was also dark, his jeans a navy blue instead of black and his Henley shirt a deep shade of gray. Aviator sunglasses hung in the V of his shirt, beyond which a detailed chest piece was barely visible.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my voice surprisingly calm as guy at the cereal smirked at my once over. Colorful tattoos covered his arms and hands, hanging loosely at his sides.
I averted my eyes, embarrassed at having been caught staring. Part of me was terrified of these guys, but another part knew that they weren’t there to hurt me, that if they had been, they could’ve done it hours before. And for hours.
Amused cereal guy stepped forward and extended his hand. “I’m Lachlan, but you can call me Lach, if you’d like.”
I stared at his hand like it was going to bite me and jutted Harry at him.
He smirked. “Unless you’re holding a copy of a Gideon’s bible, that book isn’t going to help you, darlin’.”
One of the other guys grunted back a laugh, drawing my attention to him. He was built like a house, big surprise, and had dark brown hair and big brown eyes. He seemed cool, aloof, but amusement glinted in his eyes. There was an intricately designed tattoo on his neck that seemed to reach under his dark green shirt and peeked out just below his elbows, to where his sleeves had been rolled up.
“Sit down, Stevie,” the one who had introduced himself as Lachlan said. “We’ll explain everything.”
Before I could sit down, the intensity of the last guy in the room watching me made the hairs at the back of my neck stand on end. He was standing right behind me. I turned to face him, surprised to find that practically black, menacing eyes could seem soft.
His longish, raven hair was finger combed back, his strong arms crossed over his chest as he met my gaze head on. He seemed brooding, none of the interest or amusement that I’d seen one way or another in the rest, in his eyes. There was only a fierce sort of protectiveness, yet it was caring somehow.
It was all too much for me. I sank into a chair and faced Lachlan. Almost instantly, there was a scurrying noise and Maximus climbed into my lap.
The fact that two of the men had been on all fours clicked into place, they must have been looking for Max. He had a way of getting out of his cage, he was wily. Charlie must not have done up the clips properly the night before.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, holding on to Max so tightly it was like he was a lifeline.
The cool, aloof guy winced, clearly squicked out by Max, which only made me clutch him tighter.
The sexy milk-drinker—damn, could he do a body good—cleared his throat and I realized that he had moved practically to my side while I’d been surveying the others and plotting possible escape.
His voice was low, deep. An impossibly sexy rasp that I wanted to record and use as my ringtone just so I could hear it all the time. “I’m Damon. This here is Lach, but he’s already told you that. That’s Matteo.” He pointed at the cool, aloof one as Matteo. “And that’s Rex,” he said, gesturing to the intense, dark one.
“Like Lachlan said, we’ll tell you everything, but you should probably brace yourself. This is going to be…” he hesitated for a beat, “difficult for you to hear.”
“How difficult?” My palms were suddenly sweaty. They were clearly members of some biker gang and I had no intentions of being patched in. I was a damned librarian for heaven’s sake. It was the epitome of a safe career path. For a bloody reason.
“Well, you’re going to think that we’re insane for saying it. We’re not. We’ll prove it to you in due course, if need be. Which it will, but we’ll start at square one. Have you noticed anything different about yourself?”
I gaped. “Yes.”
“It’s because you’re a succubus, Stevie. You came of age last night.” He managed to keep a perfectly straight face as he said it, then gestured to the guys around the room. “We are here to help you. We are your demon protectors.”
Maximus let out a squeak and I realized that I was squishing him. Panic rose in my stomach, threatening to choke me, then something clicked and I started to laugh hysterically.
“What’s so funny?” Damon asked, concern furrowing his brow. Or maybe it was confusion.
“So wait, hold up. This is too good! You’re supposed to be a demon…named Damon?” I managed to gasp between fits of laughter.
Fucking Charlie. I’d told him about a year or so ago, after we’d watched an episode of CSI where a guy was immersed in a live role play experience in which he was a spy, that I would totally love to be in a gaming experience in which I was in some or other world where the paranormal or supernatural existed.
It explained everything.
“Nice try, guys, really well played. I know that this is all some twenty-first prank thing that Charlie put you up to. You had me going there for a second though.” I clapped my hands, still not able to stop laughing completely due to the thundering of my heart and the adrenaline that was still coursing through my veins.
The guy behind me, Rex, the intense one, breathed out a sigh. He stepped right out in front of me, glancing at the others before he held out his hand, a flame bursting out right on his palm.
I stopped laughing abruptly, swaying in my seat as the world tilted on its axis. “Dear god, what is happening to me?”
Chapter 3
An hour later, I was still sitting in my kitchen and despite more than a few pinches, the four guys—or demons, if they were to be believed—were still there too.
They seemed to be taking up the frigging space as they calmly took turns explaining the situation to me, not unlike the way that I had seen parents explain difficult truths to their children.
It was absurd and scary and totally beyond the realm of possibility. And yet, Rex had made fire dance in his palm. Damon had blown at it from the other side of the room seconds later, making it burn out immediately with a slight whooshing sound.
Rex had simply shrugged and stuffed his palms into his pockets, stoic as ever. Lachlan had shot him an amused look before his eyes clouded with concern when they met mine. Matteo had shoved Rex lightly with his shoulder, grunting under his breath, “Nice going, man.”
“Let’s say that I believe you,” I said finally. “What happened to that guy at the bar?”
My voice trailed off, though I implored them with my eyes to answer the unspoken question that I couldn’t bear to ask out loud. Did I kill him?
Damon answered first, his eyes blazing into mine as if he could see all the way to my soul. I suppressed a shudder. “You didn’t kill, if that’s what you mean.”
“But you could have, Stevie,” Lachlan continued gently. “We stopped you.”
The edges of my vision went black and I swayed on my stool. Before I so much as saw him move, Matteo was behind me, his arms wrapped around my shoulders to steady me. “Whoa there, Stevie.”
Whoa indeed. “I would never hurt anyone.”
“Not intentionally, I’m sure,” Rex said, his voice even. Measured.
The others shot him a glance before focusing on me. Matteo’s arms tightened on my shoulders. “You going to faint on me?”
I might. “No, I’m okay now. Thanks.”
He stepped back, returning to his place next to Rex. I missed the heat of his body immediately, desire suddenly building again. I pushed it down, but it didn’t go quietly. It simply settled in a dull ache between my legs.
“What the hell is happening to me?” I burst out suddenly. I was twenty-one, it wasn’t like I had never been turned on before, but this was ridiculous. It was maddening and distracting and I was getting worried that I would never not be turned on again.
The guys exchanged a knowing look, but it was more concern that passed between them than arrogance at the knowledge of the feeling they were so clearly stirring up in me.
“In a nutshell,” Lachlan started, “your father was an incubus, which makes you a succubus.”
Realization settled in at his words. I had never known my father, neve
r so much as met him or seen a picture of him. My mother told me he was dead. Another manic wave of laughter echoed in the room. It took me a beat to realize that it had come from me.
“How could I not know about this?” I whispered.
“The power,” Matteo said.
“Or curse, as it were,” Lachlan interrupted cheerfully.
Damon silenced him with a look, then nodded at Matteo to continue. “The power manifests at the age of maturity. Twenty-one, that is, that’s why it happened last night.”
They allowed me a few moments of silence to absorb what they were telling me. I sagged into my seat. How was this possible? I was as normal—and boring—as could be.
“Are you sure you have the right girl?” That had to be it, they were mistaking me for someone else. In the back of my mind though, I thought back to my reflection that morning. I glanced at my chest and sure enough, there were the boobs that hadn’t been there the day before.
“We’re positive,” Rex confirmed. “We were given very specific instructions and we’ve been watching you.”
“What?” I spun in my seat to eye him. So, four massive demon bikers had been stalking me and I hadn’t even noticed. Maybe Charlie was right. Maybe I did need to pull my nose out of the books a little more often.
“What Rex means,” Damon cleared his throat, “is that we’ve been watching you from afar to make sure that we were around when it happened so that we could help you through it.”
“You weren’t though,” I exploded. “I nearly frigging killed that guy. You said so yourselves.”
“The kid will be fine,” Lachlan said soothingly. He came over and caught my hand in his, stroking the pad between my thumb and forefinger until my breathing returned to normal. I slowly became aware of the feel of his strong fingers on my hand and jerked it away.
Once it was clear that I had calmed down, Damon finished his story. “We were at the club, but then you snuck out and we didn’t notice right away.”
Her Demon Harem: Reverse Harem Duology 1 (The Succubus Chronicles) Page 2