I looked at Leo. “I… we did?”
“You did. Even if we didn’t find Henry and Covell, you were able to save three innocent lives, and we have a lead to go on now.”
“We do?”
Leo handed one of the phials to Raphael. “Do you think you can use this to figure out who the energy belongs to?”
Raph nodded. “I think so.”
“So, if one of these belongs to your mentor, could you find him?”
“It’s possible.”
Leo nodded. “You can take the phials and get to work, then. Let us know what you find. Meanwhile, I’m going to talk to Madeline. This was all taking place in her backyard—I want to try and figure out how she didn’t know a single thing about it.”
He left the room, leaving the rest of us—or me, at least—a little shocked and lost for words. He had said a good thing about what we had done tonight. Leo, the biggest asshole on the planet, had actually paid us a compliment. I thought maybe everyone in the room needed a moment to process that, and let it sink in.
“So, now what?” Aiden asked.
“Now we call it a night,” the Keeper said, heading toward the door. “I should go and talk to Madeline as well; I don’t want to leave her alone with that shark.”
“Good idea,” I said, and I watched the Keeper leave.
I turned to Raph. “How long do you think it will take for you to try and figure out if one of these came from your mentor?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “I have never been in direct contact with the raw energy of another supernatural being before. This could work, or it could hurt me.”
“Then you shouldn’t do it alone. Vik, think you can help him?”
He nodded, “Absolutely,” he said, “Whatever I can do to help.”
“Good.”
“I’m going to try and get in touch with the owners of Pandora, or at least see if I can figure out who they are and how much they know,” Dante said.
“Won’t that be dangerous?” I asked.
“It might be; lucky for me, I can shapeshift.”
I nodded, and then Dante looked at me as if that was all; he had said everything he needed to say, was ready to leave, and wanted to know if I had anything else to ask him. All that I understood with a single glance. But I didn’t have anything else I wanted to say, not to him at least, so I said nothing, and Dante excused himself leaving Vik, Liam, Raph, and Aiden in the room with me. Perfect, since they were exactly the people I wanted to talk to.
“Can you guys sit down a second?” I asked.
They looked at each other, then took a seat; Raph with the now closed briefcase in front of him. My heart had started to go again, to race away into the night without me. When I saw how their eyes were on me, every one of them waiting to know what I wanted to talk to them about, it started to thump even harder, so hard in fact I could hear it with my own ears.
“What’s up?” it was Aiden who broke the silence by speaking.
“Right,” I said, “So, I have something I wanted to talk to you all about… and I don’t know how to start.”
“Start wherever you’re most comfortable,” Vik suggested, “We’re all here, and we’re listening.”
I nodded, took a deep breath, exhaled. “Okay, so, when I first became a succubus, I went through some things, some internal changes, I’d never expected to go through; like, I’d never expected I would ever need to have sex with people in order to survive.”
Speaking about this supernatural need of mine caused a sharp pain to erupt in the pit of my stomach, reminding me that I had used energy—far too much of my new, fledgling energy—in chasing the vampire down, and I would need to replenish it if I wanted the pain to go away.
“Vampires need blood,” Liam said, “Succubi need sex. It makes sense.”
“It does, but it’s still required some… adjustments. And it isn’t just that part that’s got me all tangled up in my own head.”
“What do you mean?” Raphael asked.
“Feelings,” I said, “I mean feelings… I’ve got feelings for all of you, and I don’t want to break any of your hearts. I know this is going to sound really weird, but I want… to have you all in my life, not just one of you, and definitely not none of you. You all, each and every one of you, make me feel safe, and if I’m going to have to live the kind of life where having sex is something I need to do all the time to just keep breathing, then I would rather it be with people I like—people who I think have feelings for me too—than strangers. Does that make sense?”
“I think so,” Vik said. He turned to look at the others. “What do you think?”
There was silence at first, but then Aiden spoke. “I remember the night we were together,” he said, “We talked about this, and I already made it clear where I stood. You have to be with other guys, and I’m fine with that. Especially if know that they all think of you in the same way I do.”
“It’s not that I have to be with other people—though I do want to. You’re all so, so amazing. Each of you has something I want in a guy. More than one thing, actually. But also, the more people I’m with, the less I’ll hurt any one person. I left you drained that night, Aiden, because I took too much.”
“But with me…” Raph started to say.
“Right, I didn’t hurt you. I think that’s because I needed to take less.”
“I feel fine, too,” Vik said, “Though, I did have a nap and something to eat in the afternoon. I was hungry and tired.”
“So, what you’re saying is,” Liam said, “You want all of us to be your… boyfriends?”
Hearing him say that sent warm, tingly feelings racing through me. I swallowed, then nodded. “I like you… all of you. I know it’s selfish, but I also think you like me back, and I don’t want to let go of that. I said it before, you make me feel safe, and I think in the world we live in, that’s really important. I’m not going to find another guy I want to be with.”
They all looked at each other as if they were privy to some piece of information I didn’t know about.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Well,” Aiden said, “It’s just… there are four of us here, but where’s Dante in all of this?”
“Dante?” I asked.
“I also assumed he would be here,” Vik said.
“Why would Dante be here?” I asked.
“It’s clear that he has feelings for you, and you have feelings for him; at least, it is to me, anyway.”
“Dante had his chance and he made it clear he wasn’t interested.”
Raph shook his head. “That isn’t what I see. It isn’t what I feel when the two of you look at each other. I know that Dante feels the same way we all do, it’s been no secret to me. Just like the rest of your feelings have been no secret.”
“What are you saying?”
Again, the men in the room looked at each other, the nodded in unison before looking at me. “I think what we’re saying is,” Aiden said, “That you’re also amazing, and sexy, but there isn’t just one winner here, there’s four, because we all get to call you ours, and we’re just happy knowing that whoever you’re with is treating you right. So, take this as …our promise to protect you, and to be there for you, and to share you.”
My heart started to swell. “Really? You mean that?” I asked.
Vik nodded, as did Raph. Liam did too, but I realized then that he hadn’t said much during this part of the meeting.
“Liam…” I said, coaxing him out of his shell, “What is it? You haven’t said anything.”
He looked at the others, then at me, and shrugged. “I’m flattered that you like me…”
Oh God, I thought, here it comes—the rejection. I braced myself, not knowing if I would be able to take the rejection or if I would snap like a brittle twig. Dante had rejected me already, and that had changed everything between us. Liam rejecting me here, and now, would have been a blow I didn’t think I would be able to recover from.
; “I just…” he continued.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Sounds like you’ve slept with everyone but me… is it ‘cause I’m Irish?”
My hand went to my mouth, at first out of shock, and dread—I thought he was hurt, but then he started to smile, then Aiden laughed, then Vik, and Raph, and suddenly we were all laughing; hard. I stood up, ran around the table, and threw my arms around him from the back, then kissed him on the cheek. I was buzzing, and nervous, and trembling, but happy.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “It’s not because I didn’t want to, we just haven’t had the time.”
“Sounds to me like you have all the time in the world right now,” Aiden said.
I looked up at him, grinned, then I spun Liam around on his chair and helped him up. “Alright,” I said, “C’mon you, we’re going to continue what we started yesterday.”
The others were still laughing as we left the room, Liam and I walking hand in hand. We headed upstairs, neither of us speaking, but when I got to the top of the stairs, I found Dante waiting for me outside of my room.
“Go to your room,” I said to Liam, squeezing his hand, “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Liam nodded at Dante, then headed into the room next to mine. I walked over to Dante, feeling the nerves build in my chest the closer I got. We had just been talking about him. I had just told the others how I thought he wasn’t interested in me, and here he was, standing outside of my room with his hands in his pockets, waiting for me.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hello to you, too,” he said, a wolfish grin on his face. “I just wanted to tell you that you did amazingly well tonight.”
“Thank you. We both did, I think.”
“You also… looked amazing.”
“Did I?”
“You did. That dress fits you perfectly.”
“Well, I can thank Madeline for that—it was waiting for me in my room today.”
He shook his head. “No,” he said, “I’m the one who bought them for you. The dress, the boots and the clutch, which you conveniently left in your room. It would have been a shame to have lost it in that club.”
“I know better than to take a designer purse into a shady nightclub.” I smiled and paused for a moment before speaking again. “Dante…” I said, cupping his cheek with my hand. “Thank you so much. You have a knack for buying me just the right clothes. I’m going to have to pick your clothes out one day.”
“I’m looking forward to the day where you try to dress me. The man I pay a yearly salary to fit my suits owns a penthouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a Porsche.”
I let my hand slide off his cheek. “I’m sure I could find something to dress you in.”
One of his eyebrows arched up. “I’m sure you could.”
A tense, silent moment passed between us—one full of words left unsaid, and of words that would remain unsaid. “Goodnight, Dante.”
“Goodnight, Lilith. Don’t be too gentle with him.”
I started to walk away, throwing my gaze over my shoulder and making sure to wiggle my behind as I walked. “No? Why? Planning on living vicariously?”
“Maybe I am.”
“I told you once tonight and I’ll tell you again, Mister Rhodes—you had your chance, and you blew it.”
“And I’m telling you again—I haven’t blown anything.”
“So, why aren’t you the man I’m taking to bed tonight?”
Dante didn’t respond. Instead he looked up at me from the foot of the stairs, still grinning. My heart was pounding from the exchange, butterflies doing backflips in my stomach. Maybe he was right—maybe he hadn’t blown it. But what did that mean? I now, apparently, had four boyfriends, and he couldn’t be the fifth. We had nothing to offer each other, and no supernatural power over each other.
Things would get messy, and I didn’t want messy; not now that I had four men to please and to be pleased by.
Speaking of which…
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Tansey is an up and coming author of Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy novels with a REVERSE HAREM twist. If your kind of books have magic, danger, strong, powerful females, and more hot guys than you could sink your teeth into in one sitting, then you've come to the right place!
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Also by Tansey Morgan
The Last Serpent
Serpent’s Touch, #1
Serpent’s Desire, #2
Serpent’s Kiss, #3
SERPENT’S KISS
The Last Serpent
Book 3
Copyright © 2017 by Tansey Morgan & LJ Sampere
Visit: www.tanseymorgan.com
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Serpent's Kiss: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (The Last Serpent Book 3) Page 11