Succubus Soul

by Lina Jubilee

  Sheila snorted at the word “husbands,” although it wasn’t news to her. Hazel’s eyes darted wickedly toward me, as if she knew I could sense her wanting to bully me about my “strange” family.

  As if we were still kids and this would bother me.

  Still, I slouched somewhat until Derek dismissed the projection of his book and squeezed my hand.

  “Be on the defensive, but report to an instructor should you see any sign of him,” said Roulette. “On campus or off,” she added, turning her head toward Derek and me and smiling coyly. Almost as if teenagers caught in a compromising position, we both instinctively dropped our hands. I hadn’t realized anyone could see that we were holding them under the table.

  “Do not try to engage,” continued Ice-Blast. “Unless absolutely necessary.”

  “I have a question,” said Hazel, her hand pointlessly up in the air since she wasn’t waiting to be called on. “If his abilities are to make people tell the truth, why can’t one of us with more useful abilities take him on?” She glowered in my direction pointedly. Like my abilities weren’t useful.

  “You’re still students,” said Papa Zander. “Don’t underestimate a clever, skilled fighter.”

  Hazel turned her nose in the air, both her hands atop the table in front of her.

  “Any other questions?” asked Dad Jayden. When no one else moved to speak up, he added, “Dismissed.”

  It was Sunday, so everyone was in more of a hurry to get back to whatever it was they’d been doing than they might have been if this meeting had interrupted a class. Princes Rio and Zeke slipped through the crowd, their guards walking ahead of them and providing a wide berth. I caught both of their gazes in turn and blushed each time at the intensity of their stares.

  “Do you want to study for our political science test tomorrow?” Derek asked of the table.

  Rajani let out a deep breath. “Oh, please. We’re a week away from spring break. My mind is already getting ready for vacation.”

  I chuckled. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

  She shrugged and watched Connak as he consulted with my dad. “I need to find out what he’s doing.”

  With a start, I suddenly knew. After yesterday’s date with Prince Zeke had gone entirely off the rails, I’d almost forgotten about our escorts. “Didn’t anyone tell you?” I asked Derek. “I have my date with Prince Trey this afternoon.”

  Derek’s gaze darted obviously toward the last prince remaining. The prince seemed to be attempting to exit the dining hall, but he was being accosted by Hazel and her group. Hazel kept twirling a lock of her striped hair around her finger, her lips poutier than usual. His smile looked genuine but strained. Almost as if he’d had a lot of practice paying polite attention, but she was wearing even that thin.

  “And Connak is on guard duty?” asked Rajani. “Rats.”

  “I assume so.” I looked to Derek. “Are you tagging along?”

  “Sage asked me to take his place last time,” said Derek, pushing glasses up his nose. “But I bet your parents would be mad if he ditched you twice.” He took a deep breath, then squeezed my leg. “You have a nice time. I need to study more than you do anyway.”

  Maybe he’d been serious about not being upset about “sharing” me after all.

  Then again, Prince Trey was the least likely to be added to my growing list of serious suitors. The fact that he could tolerate Hazel alone was enough to ensure that getting serious with him was bad news.

  “So I suppose you don’t need a friend along this time to wish you luck,” said Rajani, her daze darting toward Connak. “Guess I better actually study while you’re off banging princes.”

  Heat pricked my skin. I hadn’t even told her everything that had happened with Zeke yet.

  She smiled wickedly. “A lady knows,” was all she offered for that little bit of mindreading she seemed to have done.

  Papa Zander walked over to me as the last of the dining room crowd dissipated, even Prince Trey seeming to make his excuses with a bow of the head and maneuvering around Hazel and her friends. The prince quickly made eye contact with me and smiled, and Sheila and Hazel followed his line of sight, scowling in tandem at me before turning on their heels.

  They did know I was at least expected to have a formal date with the prince who’d caught Hazel’s eye, didn’t they?

  “Feeling better?” Papa Zander asked.

  I nodded, tracing a finger over the surface of the table. “How’s the tracking going?” I jutted my chin toward the remaining projections on the wall.

  “Your mom, Nash, and Chastity are working with my people,” he said, referring to the two founding members of the Renegades still part of his strike team. “We’ll catch them. But I want you to be on your guard.”

  “Prince Trey is taking me to Jollity Land,” I said, waiting to see if he had any objections. “And then I… I guess I’m supposed to make a decision.”

  Papa Zander put a hand on my shoulder. “You don’t have to rush into anything. These dates are just supposed to be introductions, a chance for you to get to know them.”

  I hoped he wasn’t probing in my mind just then, but if he had been, he’d be turning the same shade of red I felt I must have been.

  “Just keep an eye out, okay? And this time, stay within sight of your security detail.”

  “Please. Like I coordinated with the boars to get separated last time?”

  He smirked. “It seems to have worked out for you and Prince Ezekiel fairly well.”

  “Papa,” I said threateningly.

  He gave my shoulder a playful pinch. “Only guessing, pumpkin. And you may have just confirmed I should stay far, far away from those thoughts.” He turned over his shoulder. “Jayden. Alarik. Our baby girl’s growing up—”

  I covered his mouth, ruing the day I’d ever let any of my dads talk me into dating their handpicked suitors.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Relaxing in the luxurious cushioned seat of a blue-lit limo, I was regretting letting my dads pick out my suitors far less. Cars all ran on solar panel electricity, and though Daddy Alarik had encouraged the smart use of vehicles appropriate to the size of your party, which minimized production of unnecessarily large vehicles and encouraged modification of existing ones, well, we had quite a group along with us, between Prince Trey’s navy-suited bodyguards, my Nelian escorts, and both Sage and Lacey. Sage sat kitty-corner from me across the large, cavernous space, giving my date and me as much privacy as possible. Or carving it out for himself. Lacey’s brow was furrowed in a headache caused from literally holding herself together no doubt, and Sage kept his hand threaded through hers, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss it every few minutes.

  “I hear they’re to be wed,” said Prince Trey beside me. “The schoolteacher and the student.”

  “She was never his teacher,” I made sure to point out. Though Dad Jayden kind of had been Mom’s at one point—after she was already an adult.

  Prince Trey beamed at me, his lips tight as if suppressing a laugh. “It still makes me randy.”

  “Gross,” I said, crossing my hands tightly across my chest. I’d changed yet again after the morning meeting, this time into tight jeans and a flowery short-sleeved blouse, along with a navy sunhat I kept on my lap while in the car. My phone was in my jeans pocket, thin enough not to make it bulge. I’d left my purse behind. It was sunny and just warm enough to make the amusement park an ideal suggestion, though we were bound to find that half the city had thought the same. But based on this cramped vehicle alone, it was clear Prince Trey and I were never going to have a moment without witnesses.

  It was just as well. I wasn’t sure I was comfortable alone around his Natch ability to command people, though he hadn’t misused it since his little demonstration in my biology class, as far as I knew.

  Prince Trey crossed his leg, resting his ankle on his knee as he put an arm across the back of the bench behind me. That scent of lemongrass floated toward me, thre
atening to turn my muscles into jelly. Despite myself, I found my breath growing just a little more shallow at the proximity and had to purposely lean forward slightly so I didn’t fall back into his touch.

  “Is there anything you want to make sure we do?” He leaned slightly toward me and whispered, his voice cracking. “Just the two of us?”

  When my thoughts jumped immediately to the two of us alone somewhere in a bedroom, my muscles stiffened.

  Prince Trey chuckled. “In the park,” he added, but he’d known what he’d been doing. “Any rides that tickle your fancy?”

  “I’m not sure,” I said, clearing my throat. “It’s been years since I’ve been here.”

  “Fortunately for you, I know all the best rides.” He winked.

  We pulled off the interstate and we all jostled somewhat, Prince Trey moving closer to me, his side coming into quick, brief contact with mine.

  My heart was practically beating out of my chest as I stared up at him, his breath minty cool on my forehead.

  “What’s this?” asked Sage from across the limo and I jumped, putting a bit more space between me and the prince again. I looked out the window to see what he was asking about and found the limo pulling into the sole hotel attached to the amusement park property.

  A hotel. Had he booked the two of us a night in a hotel?

  I swallowed, a lump suddenly caught in my throat.

  Prince Trey straightened. “We always use a hotel’s services whenever possible as a base of operation.” He leaned to his other side as one of his bodyguards whispered into his ear. “My men will split into two, one group monitoring our safety remotely, ready to spring into action should something go wrong.”

  Okay, I felt stupid now.

  He leaned back toward me and whispered, “Were you hoping for something else, princess?”

  “‘Bry,’” I said, forcing myself to sit up straighter rather than melt into pieces of goo. “Or Bryony.”

  I didn’t comment on anything else he’d said.

  Trey leaned back and nodded, clearly studying me. “They told me you were nothing like the princesses we’ve met before.”

  They? I squeezed my hands together between my legs. Rio and Zeke, of course.

  There was a flurry of activity just then as some of Trey’s guards got off, along with a couple of Connak’s Nelian guards.

  I piped up. “Connak?”

  He bowed slightly at me from his seat near Sage. “They have video equipment and are monitoring outside threats.” He tapped an ear piece that dangled from his ear. “Prince Trey’s men have lent us these contraptions to keep in touch.”

  The limo had virtually emptied out now, leaving just Sage, Lacey, Connak, another Nelian guard, and two of Trey’s bodyguards along with Trey and me.

  “You’ll hardly know they’re there,” said Trey, bumping his arm against mine. “My team and I do this all the time,” he added. “We’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “Of course,” I said, my fingers crackling with pink aura. It wasn’t like we were expecting a threat.

  But it wasn’t like there were often fugitives with ties to my family on the loose, either.

  Brushing aside that strange inkling of being watched, I stared out the window of the limo, my hands clutched on my knees as the entryway to the amusement park grew nearer.

  The driver parked the car and got out to open it, then everyone poured out. I was the last to leave, and Prince Trey held his hand out toward me, the vision of a prince even in his casual clothing.

  I took his hand. It was soft, yet sturdy somehow, its warmth offering me a chance to stand on steadier feet.

  The sun shone strong overhead, so I slipped on my sunhat before sliding my arm through Trey’s proffered one.

  “In London, there’s a Ferris wheel that gives you a view of the entire city,” he said as we made our way past the line to a security entrance. Trey’s guard exchanged a few words with the man there and showed him some papers he slipped out from the interior of his coat. The employee waved us through.

  “I know,” I said. “Well, I’ve seen it. In pictures.”

  “But you’ve never been?”

  “No,” I admitted somewhat sheepishly. “I haven’t traveled much. Mostly just to Nelia.”

  Trey looked out at the crowd around us, at the merry-go-round greeting us and the nearby gift shop. “Well, I have been almost everywhere there is to be, but I have never been to Nelia. Have to admit I was rather jealous of Zeke.” His gaze slipped slyly toward me. “In more ways than one.”

  I straightened my back. Prince Trey couldn’t help himself from flirting. He’d even do it to someone as heinous as Hazel. It couldn’t mean much then.

  “Well, I have to admit I’m jealous of anyone who’s seen the world,” I said, changing tracks. “My best friend wants to travel after we graduate, but…”

  “You don’t intend to join her?”

  “Him,” I corrected. “Well, Rajani’s my best friend, too, but she has plans to go straight to med school.”

  “Him.” Prince Trey led us closer to the merry-go-round, the dulcet, tinny tones of a familiar melody playing as the horses and other animals moved up and down and round and round. “Derek Ramirez?”

  I slipped out of Trey’s arm as we came to a stop in front of the fence surrounding the carousel. “So you know.”

  “We wondered whether there were any impediments to you making a royal match.”

  I chewed on my bottom lip and didn’t answer.

  Trey’s fingers brushed gently on my chin then, lifting my face to meet his. “But you didn’t answer my question. Why not travel then?” His smile was strained, almost pained, but not fake. “With your best friend?”

  “I…” I shrugged. “I promised my parents I would focus on Nelia after graduation. On learning how to govern, I suppose. On getting to know my people there.”

  “And you can’t spare a year to get to know your Earth world a little better first?”

  My eyes wandered in an effort to calm the beating of my heart. Trey was too suave, too skilled, and I had enough rattling around in my head just now. Back at the gift shop, Lacey grabbed the sleeve of a sweatshirt hanging on a rack at the front of the store and stretched it out, Sage regarding her as if he couldn’t believe how lucky he was. I turned on my heel to give them some privacy and looked at the line forming for a roller coaster some distance behind Prince Trey. “Let’s go,” I said, gripping Trey’s hand.

  Trey’s broad smile dropped when he saw where I was leading him. He gestured over his shoulder with his free hand, back at the carousel. “You don’t fancy starting off a little smaller?”

  I laughed, but when I saw the way his pasted-on smile had grown unnaturally still, I grew serious. “Do you not like roller coasters?”

  Trey’s mouth opened, then shut. “It’s not that I don’t like them, so much as they don’t particularly like me.” We’d reached the end of the line now, so we still had some time to change our minds, but I didn’t want to make him too uncomfortable.

  “Did you plan to work your way up?” I asked. “Steel your courage?” Unless he’d planned on directing me to all the rides that stayed a few feet within the ground the entire day.

  He stiffened and gripped my hand harder. “I don’t need to. It’s fine.”

  I felt bad for teasing him. “Look, we don’t have to—”

  “It’s fine,” he said again. His shoulders seemed to relax somewhat.

  “You can always step aside and watch,” I whispered, leaning closer to him as people started joining the line behind us as well. “There’s a chance to leave the line before you get on.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” Trey sounded more confident then. Looking into his shining blue eyes, I really believed him.

  “I won’t think any less of you,” I added as another cart filled up and the line moved a great distance.

  “But I might think a bit less of myself,” he said, and I was surprised to find him admitting
such a thing. He seemed so confident all the time—invulnerable. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

  I squeezed his hand to give him courage.

  “You know,” I said, trying to keep my voice quiet, though it wasn’t too hard to go unheard with the clinking of the carts as they made their way up the track, “I’m surprised you just don’t demand things your way.”

  He took an uneven step forward. “You think so little of me? That I’m entitled?”

  “Entitled?” I laughed. “I couldn’t say. Confident, sure, a bit of a playboy, but—”

  “Playboy?” he said, loud enough for several other people around us to look our way.

  Giggling, I shushed him, trying to get him to lower his voice.

  Some time passed before he spoke again. “I’ll have you know that women throwing themselves at me and making a point of sleeping with as many women as possible are quite different characteristics,” he said in a hushed whisper. His lips tickled the edge of my ear, making me shiver. “And I always believe in being polite to a lady, even when such attention is unlooked for.”

  Attention like that of Hazel? I wanted to ask. But I mentally slapped myself, straightening my back as the whoosh of the roller coaster soared overhead. “I meant… Well, your abilities…”

  I hadn’t seen them in action since that display in the classroom. When he’d teased poor Professor Wade.

  Trey let out a deep breath and straightened. “I’m quite careful not to use that unfairly,” he said. His brow narrowed as another set of carts came to a stop and the group got off, all smiles and yells of exuberance. “It took quite a lot to learn that. I couldn’t help myself as a child. I didn’t understand.”

  I wondered if there was something in his past I’d have known if I’d researched him at all, something about his ability to command making a seventy-year-old governess perform a pirouette for him because he’d demanded she put on a show.

  But the way he was rubbing his face now, his gaze far-off, made me worried it was something far less amusing than that.