He rolled his eyes, and reached for my hand again. “Come on, let’s go.”
I wrenched my arm away and took a step back while saying, “Why would I go anywhere with you?”
“I believe we’ve established that your life is in danger here. It’s time to go.”
I wrinkled my nose. I’ve never liked being told what to do. I wasn’t one of his dogs. He couldn’t command me to heel.
“And how do I know this isn’t some sort of trick to get me alone?” I put my hands on my hips, and continued. “And yes, I just realized we are in fact, alone. But my question stands. How do I know you’re telling the truth and why are you so hell bent on helping me?”
“Hey, you don’t trust me?” He cajoled with a smile to lighten the mood. “I’ve already saved you tonight. I think that earns me points.”
Twice if you counted the whole bleeding from the neck/vampire thing. Possibly a third from the batshit crazy blonde. Not that I was going to volunteer that in my livid state. This entire night has been a goddamn nightmare and there was no way he’d defuse my rage with his bullshit charm.
“I don’t trust anyone I’ve just met.” Especially not men. They only wanted one thing from me.
“You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you?”
I stared at him, letting him see the answer in my eyes. No, I wasn’t.
He sighed. “Have you ever wondered why there is no concrete information on your kind? No studies, in fact I bet you haven’t heard of anyone else like you except in historical context. Am I right?”
He was. Some historians believed Cleopatra may have been a succubus but there was no hard evidence. No one in modern times had come out of the succubus closet. The only other one I knew of was my mom, but since she was just a carrier, it didn’t count.
Technically, Lucas hasn’t confirmed that he knew what I was. He could just be fishing…
He’d proved himself to be a capable manipulator; I could only assume the charm and flirtation was just an act to confirm his suspicions about me. He actively presented himself as an omega wolf for some unorthodox political gain. Lucas Masters clearly didn’t balk at the prospect of deception. I wouldn’t put it past him to somehow give me enough rope to hang myself.
“Alright, smart guy, what am I? You keep alluding to my kind but you’ve never actually confirmed that you know anything.” I folded my arms. “So prove it.”
His fists clenched. It suddenly occurred to me that his wolf probably didn’t like being challenged. I mentally noted to stop being so antagonistic.
“Judging by the way I want to tear your clothes off and bounce you on my dick,” he growled. “I’d say you’re a succubus. One who doesn’t know her own power or maybe you’re just incredibly irresponsible for leaving the house smelling like that.”
I reared back, offended. I was used to guys being crude, but no one gets to insult my hygiene. “Smelling like what?”
“On top of being a bunny?” He mocked. “Which would be bad enough by the way, you smell like you need to get fucked. Badly.”
I slapped him.
His head whipped to the side, a faint red hand print marred his cheek. It faded before my eyes. He must have allowed me to hit him since I knew his reflexes were lightning fast compared to mine. It probably felt like slow motion to him. The wolf king slowly turned his head, facing me. Rage burned in his luminescent eyes.
He growled.
I gulped. So much for being less antagonistic…
His eyes traced down to the movement of my throat, seemingly entranced by that swallowing motion.
“You do realize I could kill you for that, right?” Lucas said, still mesmerized with my throat. He muttered to himself. “You really must be new.”
“I-I’m sorry for hitting you.” My body screamed at me to run. My hand stung and throbbed with heat.
Lucas withdrew his sight from my throat. He took a moment to collect himself then blinked away the amber. He lifted his head back as if asking a higher power why me?
“This type of shit is why you aren’t safe here,” he said to the sky. “Not only are you completely ignorant of our culture, but you don’t even know where you stand in our ranks. If you knew the danger you were in, you’d have never come here.” He sighed and let his head drop, then ran his hand through his hair and glared at me. “You should have hidden while you had the chance.”
“I—”
“No. Listen to me, goddamnit. You need to come with me unless you want vampires to rip you to shreds, because that’s what happened to the rest of your kind. The vampires wiped them out.”
I flinched back from his vitriol.
When his words sank in, a wave of cold, calm numbness washed over me. This thing inside me…it was a death sentence. I didn’t stand a chance against a vampire. And why were they hellbent on killing off succubi?
He threw his hands in the air and started pacing. “Don’t you get it? I can help you. I couldn’t help her, but I can help you.” He turned to me, eyes beseeching. “Just let me do that, OK? Just let me help you, Claire.”
I stood stalk-still in response to his emotional outburst. He was helping me because of some other girl?
The thought both stung and relieved me. Who was she? What happened? But it’s not like I could ask him to reveal one of the obviously more painful pieces of his past to a virtual stranger.
I breathed deeply. If this was his big bad ulterior motive, if keeping me safe would somehow exorcise his demons, absolve him of a past failure—if this wasn’t about me at all, then I’d do it.
“OK,” I muttered. “But you have to tell me everything you know about my kind.”
“That’s fine.” He held out his hand toward me. “Can we please go now?”
I stared at his hand, the symbolic olive branch. “Yeah. I left my bag inside though.”
“Leave it.”
“What about my inhaler, my phone, my car keys?” I said. “I’m not leaving my car here.” It may be a piece of shit, but it was my piece of shit. My Honda and I had cemented a special bond when she was my only shelter.
He looked in the direction of the classroom and sighed. “Fine, come on.”
He held the ruined door open. It looked like a spiderweb map of my shameful inability to protect myself. Surely, I should have a concussion or something from the head trauma. Had Lucas’ healing methods fixed that too?
I squared my shoulders and walked through the door. We trudged down the hall. It kind of felt like a funeral march. Maybe because now that Lucas had gotten what he wanted, the playful act was gone and he was all business. He felt like a man on a mission, stone-faced and serious.
He nodded to the bench directly across from the bathrooms. “Stay there.” He didn’t wait for me to agree, just continued down the hall.
I leaned against the wall, too antsy to sit down. I tried not to admire his jean-clad backside as he strode away from me. Tried and failed. He paused at room 808, caught me staring. The serious facade came crashing down with a smirk. “Try not to die in the next five seconds.”
I folded my arms and arched an eyebrow. “I think I can manage that.”
“Just scream my name if you need me, Babe.” He winked.
“Idiot.” I muttered, knowing full well he’d hear me. His smirk grew and I shook my head.
The moment the door closed I felt vulnerable. Apparently on some subconscious level, I trusted Lucas to keep me safe. If he wanted to hurt me he had ample excuse when my dumb ass slapped him.
Maybe I shou—Pain stabbed through my abdomen. Or pleasure. It was hard to tell, like touching something so cold it burned. It was so much pleasure at once, it overloaded my nerves and synapses to the point where they could only register it as pure, bright intensity. An all-encompassing tsunami that blotted out the sun, the horizon.
I staggered from the bench, clutching my stomach. I was dying. I gasped, too much, too little. My entire existence narrowed. No bench, no college, no air. All that was left to
me: agonizing pleasure, and the knowledge that it was awake again, slamming into my ribs, ricocheting off muscle, pushing outward from underneath my skin. I was being torn apart.
And it felt amazing.
Orgasmic even.
The blaring sensations started to recede. It swept across my torso, skimming right below the surface of my skin, circling, hunting. Having found no exit it eased into lazy vigilance—eyes peeled but not actively prowling. I blinked slowly, let the ceiling come into focus. The ceiling?
“I was literally gone two seconds. Why are you on the floor?” He held my bag in one hand. I wanted to eat the power that hand had to offer. The thing inside me wanted to rip the energy right through his dick, wanted to ride out the wave.
…WTF? I was clearly losing control of my other side—these were not normal thoughts.
I’d been in semi-denial about being a succubus. But this? I couldn’t refute this unnatural need for Lucas Masters. It took every ounce of self-control to stay still, to stop myself from doing something I’d regret. I clenched my jaw tight and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Hey, you OK?” His amusement gave way to concern.
The air shifted and my eyes sprang open. Lucas had bent down and—
“No wait—!”
—touched my forearm.
Instantly all that violent need coalesced and barreled down my arm with the force of an avalanche. The great, terrible thing suddenly vanished, leaving me bereft.
But that desperate desire hadn’t disappeared.
It transferred.
I watched in horror as blue lightning sparks erupted from my skin and snaked around his wrist from our point of contact. Lucas’ face twisted in agonized pleasure. The entity coiled tightly, shooting up his arm and traversing his body, encasing it in pulsing, staticky webs.
Lucas gritted his teeth, his form completely ensnared in the living electricity. The hallway lit up in a light show from his writhing cage and a neon blue mist that surrounded us.
I jerked my arm back only to realize I couldn’t extract myself from his grip. I don’t think he was capable of loosening his hand at the moment. I looked around frantic, but didn’t see anyone who could help. It was just the Alpha, me, and a fine blue mist that surrounded us.
We needed help. I inhaled deep and prepared to scream my lungs out.
“Don’t,” Lucas choked, expression pained.
Strands of the netting snapped open and vibrated. They whipped about and spat sparks like hissing little vipers. Each viper strand grew sharp barbs and wicked prongs like some sort of vicious mutated rose stem.
The lightning vipers reared back and stabbed him in synchronization.
Lucas dropped to one knee and moaned low in his throat, encapsulating such pure longing in that one sound. He panted, eyes on the floor. He began to shake.
“Oh God,” I whispered, wide eyed at his crouched form.
Lucas snapped his head up, eyes a flickering neon blue. His intense gaze didn’t waver from mine. The flickering stopped and settled. Electric currents zipped across his body and sizzled out. And just like that, all the blue and white light faded into his skin and the walls no longer danced with shadows.
I held my breath… could it be over?
The next thing I knew: My back slammed into a wall. And the sharp ripping of fabric.
Somehow my head had filled with cotton and buzzing mosquitoes—their high pitch squealing in my ears. I couldn’t hear anything past the ringing. My head lulled to the side causing my vision to swim and lurch.
I squinted my eyes to make the bench stop moving. My blurry vision cleared a bit, but remained fuzzy at the edges. I blinked again and noticed tatters of a sweater were strewn across the bench—lain out like a battleground of fallen soldiers. I had a wool sweater like that.
Chills and goosebumps ran rampant across my shoulders and down my bare arms. My eyes rolled back when I finally registered the lascivious assault on my neck: wet sucks, nibbles, and laving...
Slowly, sensations flowed back into the rest of my body, enough to alert me that someone had me pressed against a wall, splayed, pinioned like a fly with its wings stapled to a sheet of paper. My first instinct was to squirm, but with him standing between my legs— legs that weren’t touching the ground—writhing around didn’t seem like a good idea. Hard hands held onto my thighs—both prying them open and holding my entire weight at the same time. Distantly I noted that I would probably have hand-shaped bruises tomorrow.
By the way my head ached, I’d have a bump there, too. I turned my head to see the person who was grinding his erection against my jean covered crotch; a person who had done this to me while I’d been unconscious or at the very least, dazed; but his face was buried in my neck.
And yet it all felt vaguely familiar, like my traitorous body recognized him.
“L-Lucas…?” I croaked, sloppily pushing at his shoulders.
The man at my neck growled in warning. The frightening sound triggered my fight-or-flight response.
I struggled in earnest. He snapped his pelvis into mine so hard, it bruised my tailbone against the wall. I cried out and swung my fist. He caught it and continued to pin both my wrists to the wall without leaving my neck. His teeth nipped at my pulse point.
“Get off!” I yelled, scared shitless that this could be a vampire attack. I struggled against the vice-grip on my wrists with no luck. Adrenaline surged through my veins when I couldn’t free myself. Oh God, could it be that feral Hyena finishing what he started?
Without warning, the man released me and stepped away. I slid down the wall, just barely caught myself from falling on my ass. I looked up expecting to see my attacker from earlier tonight, but it wasn’t the hyena.
It was worse.
Because this time, no one would save me.
“Lucas,” I begged. “Please stop this.”
“Mine,” he rumbled, his voice had gone too deep—like his vocal cords weren’t quite human anymore. Even his face looked off-kilter. I searched his eyes for an ounce of humanity, any kind of spark, but no one was home. His eyes burned neon blue.
“Oh no,” I whispered in dawning horror, this had to be the fervor. The freaky pheromone producing estrus cycle.
And I just infected the King of Wolves.
His possessive stare bored into me as he used one hand to tug at the fabric on his chest. Buttons flew in different directions, one pinged off the wall next to my ear.
I gaped at the shirtless god before me. He looked like he had been Photoshopped: complete with bulging biceps, six pack abs, the V lines that angled toward his dick. I knew he was muscular, but I had no idea how dangerous he’d look without a shirt.
More primal.
More feral.
“Lucas, this isn’t you. You can fight this…” I trailed off as the blue in his eyes flickered a bit. His face contorted like he waged war against himself—like that piece of him that wasn’t being possessed could still hear me. “Good, you can do it! You’re stronger than this.”
The blue disappeared. His horrified gaze caught mine.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, expression tormented. He staggered backwards until the opposite wall supported him. “I can’t hold off much longer.”
No! The blue was gone, he could control it. Control was supposed to be his specialty! I wanted to sob.
“Whatever you do,” he gritted his teeth. “Don’t try to fight me. I can’t control myself like this. I can’t control what I’ll do to you if you challenge me.”
I needed to run. I needed to run right fucking now while he still had some semblance of control. My eyes searched the ground for my bag, my keys.
“Don’t.” He shook his head, body tense and shaking. “It’s too late. I’ll catch you. It’ll just make it worse.”
Fear paralyzed me in place. There was no escaping this. No way I could fight him off. I didn’t stand a fucking chance against a feral, let alone an Alpha who looked like a ferocious caged animal. He wanted to sprin
g and take me down, I could tell. Except, he wasn’t caged and there were no bars between us. The only thing stopping him was his rapidly receding willpower.
He began to shake, eyes flickering back and forth.
Blue. Gold. Blue. Gold…
Blue.
The color settled.
And I knew Lucas was gone, only to be replaced by a neon-eyed monster.
I held out my hand, warning him off. “I’m going to go now,” I whispered with a calm I certainly did not feel. “Just stay there, OK?”
I took a small side step. Not taking my eyes off of him, hand still extended. He snarled at that small movement.
I froze again.
“Mine,” he roared. His fists balled at his sides, his chest heaved, yet, he hadn’t attacked. Lucas was still battling himself. The way he was acting reminded me of how I didn’t dare move when it was riding me. How I instinctively knew if I moved just an inch all of my walls of restraint would come crashing down. One tiny moment of weakness, of momentum, would be my downfall.
But Lucas said he was good with control. He could beat this. I just needed to stay perfectly still, and not push him over the edge.
At that thought my arm started to feel much heavier than a moment ago. Sweat prickled my brow. I was glad that I didn’t have my sweater on, but so grateful that Lucas hadn’t ripped my tank top off, too.
Lucas charged. I didn’t have time to yelp. A split second later, I found myself sitting on the bench with Lucas crouched between my legs. He moved so quickly some of my hair fell out of my bun. A dizzying sense of vertigo slapped into me.
Lucas nestled and rubbed his face against the seat of my jeans, purring like a contented cat. Heat flood my cheeks at the turn of events. I tried to close my legs but Lucas wedged his broad shoulders between them and he certainly wasn’t going to budge. I tried to push him away, but he simply growled, sending vibrations against my groin.
Lucas grabbed at the waistline of my jeans. The button popped off, and he began pulling down the zipper.
The Fervor: A Sinful Supes Story Page 5