How to Kill an Incubus: A Rae Erickson Story (33 page)

This was not my dream.

“Andrei!” I called out, picking my way around the various treadmills and elliptical trainers in my way. “Where are you, you heartless bastard?”

“Shower,” he called back.

I had never been in Witness Fitness when it was empty. The gym equipment seemed ethereal without people using them. I quickly skirted past them all and headed through the locker room and into the shower.

“Hilarious prank this afternoon,” I said dryly, finding him with a towel wrapped snugly around his waist. “The seventy-year-old woman that discovered me with my fingers up my cunt could have had a heart attack.” Despite my annoyance, I exploded with laughter when the horror wore off. After all, my satisfaction was great.

“Prank?” Andrei arched a brow. “I don’t do pranks, Rainelle. You forget who I am. Now let’s take a shower.”

“I’m sleeping. I don’t need one.”

“Suit yourself,” he said as he let his towel fall.

At the sight, my mouth immediately dried up.

“I’m in Moscow right now. It’s understandably cold.” He stepped into a stall and the water came on.

I couldn’t resist the pull to follow him inside. Didn’t want to resist it.

It was cramped with the both of us inside but that didn’t matter. Andrei pulled me flush against him, kissing me fiercely. His hand gripped the back of my neck and my arms were slung around his.

“What are you doing to me?” Andrei’s voice was pained.

I broke away from him, searching his eyes for something. I shook my head and went down on my knees before him, sliding my hands down the sinews of muscle that made up his powerful thighs. Hot water beat down on me but my vision was clear. Andrei’s shaft was an angry red, the tip pointing to the high heavens. I am always fascinated by the uncut head, the thrumming web of veins, and the sheer size of it. It always seemed that I would never be able to take all of him.

“Rae,” he said thickly, clutching a clump of my hair in his hand. “You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”

“Considering the fact that you’re old as fuck and have been to different dimensions, I am humbled by the compliment,” I murmured, taking him in my hand.

He chuckled, the laughter dying on his lips when I took him into my mouth. I held him at the base, using my other hand to guide him inside my mouth. Its realness hit me when I tasted his hot flesh. It was only a dream, wasn’t it? But it was real, for the both of us.

Andrei began to thicken in my mouth, his hold on my hair becoming unbearably painful. He pushed forward, hitting the back of my throat. He wasn’t even all the way in but I was greedy for more of him. Wanted him to be rough, to take.

“Yes,” he breathed, releasing my hair and sliding his hand down the back of my head and to my neck. “Shit, yes.”

He pumped into my mouth, his thrusts short and quick. I cupped his balls, rubbing the swaying nodules with the pads of my fingers.

“So.” Thrust. “Fucking.” Thrust. “Amazing.”

I couldn’t look away from his face. There was something carnal about looking into his eyes as his cock drove past my lips and into my mouth… something incredible about making him lose his control so greatly, so intensely.

Andrei’s sapphire eyes were hazy with overwhelming hunger as his hips moved faster, forcing him to plunge even deeper.

“Coming,” he groaned, my lower lip pressed against the base of his shaft, tipping him over the precipice.

The hot gush of his semen filled my mouth and I swallowed every drop, savoring the salty taste. His breathing became erratic. Then he pulled me to my feet and crushed his mouth against mine, tasting himself on my tongue.

“Your turn,” he whispered against my lips.

I began to protest, wanting him to know that, much as I adored his talented tongue, it was his dick I wanted inside me just then. The shower fizzled into nothingness and then we were in my bedroom in Paris.

The bedspread was gone. A large expanse of white sheets beckoned in its place. Andrei gently deposited me atop them and I breathed a sigh of contentment. When he was sweet like this, I could almost believe in romance. But then, more often than not, I quickly recover myself and beg for his roughness, his darkness.

“Andrei,” I gasped, heat bubbling low in my belly.

He was kissing his way up the inside of my thighs, hot, open-mouthed kisses that made every hair on my body stand at attention.

Tension knotted in my groin when he kissed his way to my clitoris. Hands grasping my hips, he blew cool air on the folds of my labia. I was drenched, bucking against him, aching for his tongue.

He inhaled deeply. “This is the most erotic smell in the world, Rae,” he declared, his voice raspy. “Do you know what the scent of your arousal does to me? It drives me fucking mad. You want me to eat you out?”

“Yes,” I hissed, grabbing a handful of the cotton sheets. “Please, please, please.”

“Tell me what I want to know.” He massaged the outer lips of my opening. Slowly, teasingly.

I huffed out a sharp breath. “You know you’re the only one,” I whispered. “I only want you. Need you.”

“Look at me.”

With great effort, I propped myself up on my elbows and stared at his face between my legs.

“I belong to you. I am yours,” he said softly, placing a reverent kiss on my hipbone. “And you, Rae, are mine. Now, watch me tongue-fuck your beautiful pink pussy.”

Dear God!

The second Andrei latched himself onto my center, I lost all sense of being. I was liquid. I was a cloud of smoke. I was nothing. He licked up my slit, exerting the perfect amount of pressure that made me lock my thighs around him.

“Good,” I moaned, feeling him thumb the lips of my sex apart.

He plunged his tongue into me, his nose thumping against my distended little nub. I writhed, screamed, fought against the pleasure. His tongue came out, flattening against my clit. Pressing against it. Then he drew it into his mouth and my back arched.

“Can’t,” I murmured. I gasped when one of his fingers breached my moistened folds and slipped into me. “Ah. Don’t stop!”

Andrei knew what made me tick, what drove me half demented. He wielded that power like a sword and I let him. There was no other way.

I love you.

“You taste so damn good,” he groaned, sliding his probing digits in and out, in and out—until finally, tremors of sensual bliss inside me shattered, and I came long and hard in Andrei’s mouth.

Everything inside me was liquid and I was vaguely aware of Andrei placing a soft kiss on my clit as he held me through the aftershocks.

My eyes fluttered closed.

When I opened them, it was morning and I needed to pee. I barely made it to the bathroom. And once I saw the dry discharge coating the inside of my thighs, I decided to slip into the shower. Sex with Andrei put me in a great mood and I even felt less antagonistic toward Selene. I wasn’t going to question her comings and goings, wasn’t even going to probe her about sex as a guy. In fact, I was thinking of introducing her to
Game of Thrones
. She would probably appreciate the elaborate sets and costumes used in the show, since she was billions of years old and George R.R. Martin did mention that he based some of the story’s setting on the Middle Ages.

So after throwing an old pair of sweats on, I bounded downstairs.

“Selene?” I yelled.

The house was eerily quiet. Instantly, I put my guard up. After yesterday’s sexercise, I was a little sore, but it was nothing I couldn’t tolerate.

“Selene?”

I stood by the entrance of the living room… and froze.

Blood, thick and burgundy, was congealing on the cream carpeting. There was so much of it that I doubt it would be possible for the donor to still be alive and kicking.

Someone was killed in my house
, I thought, my mind swirling.
Selene killed someone in my fucking house!

I was going to kill her.

“Selene!”

“Rainelle,” said a familiar voice.

I spun around and bit down on my bottom lip, instantly tasting copper.

“Teddy,” I whispered, eyes widening. “What the hell are you doing here?”

He had shaved the ridiculous moustache he’d been sporting the last time I’d seen him but his head was still a gleaming egg. This time, he wore a dark suit. Unease settled in my belly. He resembled a staid mortician.

“Your father would be disappointed, Rainelle,” he said quietly, a shadow crossing his face. “He would be ashamed to call you his daughter.”

Anger bubbled inside me. “Bastard,” I spat. “How dare you break into my house and say that?”

“How dare I?” he snapped, moving toward me.

I instinctively stepped back.

“Raymond was one of my closest friends. I made promises to him, promises I had intended to keep. Until I found out that his daughter—a girl who called me her uncle—is willingly having relations with demons!”

All the breath rushed from my chest. I stepped in something warm and slimy. It took me a few seconds to register that it was the blood. I jumped a mile.

“Get out of my house!” Each word forced through gritted teeth.

Teddy’s wheat-colored eyes were menacing. “You share your bed with a demon,” he went on, completely ignoring me. “And not just any demon.” He pulled out a gun. “The king of all the incubi. Rainelle, you sicken me.”

Teddy pointed the gun at me. It was easily recognizable—a Beretta. Lovely model. And that was probably a silencer extending from it, wasn’t it?

“Then I guess you know about Selene,” I speculated, resigned to my fate. “Where is she?”

Teddy laughed, a cold, empty sound that sent shivers down my spine. “The succubus?” he sneered. “That’s her blood you’re standing in.”

Chapter 22

Blood and I had never really been great friends, but after the Damien Ivanov incident, my tolerance for the crimson liquid became nil. My tolerance for the man standing before me was at the exact same level and that was what propelled me right to him.

Teddy’s hesitation to shoot me was obvious, which was why he didn’t react with a bullet to my head in the split second that I decided to become a human cannonball. We fell to the floor in a messy heap and since he had at least twenty pounds on me, my only advantage was the element of surprise.

And with all the strength I possessed, my elbow connected with his throat, momentarily stunning him, and then I took that opportunity to scramble to my feet and sprint to the front door. All kinds of frantic thoughts were running through my mind: that Teddy was indeed a sociopath, that he just couldn’t have killed a billion-year-old demon without breaking a sweat, and that there was no fucking way I was going to let him kill me.

The front door was wide open and I all but launched myself through it… and came up against a wall—a wall that was not there.

Panic skated through me. My brain took a while to register that I couldn’t get through the door because something invisible was stopping me. Keeping me inside.

“I had hoped I would not have to resort to violence, Rainelle,” Teddy croaked from behind me.

I spun around to face him, anger sizzling in my veins. “What have you done?”

“A simple spell to keep you from doing something… stupid.”

“Hunters aren’t that powerful. Only witches could do something like this.” I craned my neck to look over his shoulder, anticipating his secret sidekick of the occult loitering in the background. But I suddenly got the sinking feeling that I was alone with Teddy.

“Ah, but I am both,” Teddy stated matter-of-factly, rubbing the column of his neck. “You’re making it difficult for me not to want to hurt you.”

“What,” I snarled through clenched teeth, “do you want from me?”

He smiled this time, a sly, wolfish grin that looked more like a grimace than anything else. “Your cooperation.”

“Well, would you cooperate with a big fuck like you if you were me?”

The smile left his face. “You don’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation, Rainelle. You don’t know what I am.”

And with that declaration, invisible hands began to choke the life out of me. They brought me to my knees, tightening around my neck. They were making it hard to swallow, hard to breathe. Everything inside me begged for oxygen, for the gift of respiration.

The unseen hands released me and I turned to one side and emptied my stomach.

“Apology accepted,” Teddy said quietly.

I ached. I seethed. I yearned to end his life slowly, painfully, and creatively.

“I hope my father can see you now for what you are,” I choked out, hating the sour taste in my mouth.

“Same to you,” he snarled, the venom in his voice so tangible it could’ve been lethal. “You will come with me and you will do as you’re told, when you're told. Do I make myself clear, Rainelle?”

Go to hell, bastard.

I wasn’t going to make this easy for him. He was going to have to drag me away kicking and screaming, and if that just pissed him off, he was more than welcome to kill me. Whatever it was that he wanted from me, he was delusional if he thought I’d roll over and just give it to him.

“You will do this, my girl,” he said gently, “because if I can successfully take on a demon as old as your succubus friend, rest assured that a demon king will be just as easy.”

I went still.
Andrei
. Tears pricked my eyes and I furiously swiped them away, glancing down at the ring shimmering on my finger. It was selfish of me to keep it on, to convey all my fears and desperation into it and, consequently, to Andrei. The selfless thing to do would be to take it off, to make sure he didn’t find me. But that would have been futile. He would always find me, regardless of whether or not I wore his ring.

“Okay,” I whispered. “I’ll cooperate.”

“Good girl. Now close your eyes, Rainelle. Everything, and I do mean everything, will be fine…”

Drowsiness besieged me. Each of my eyelids felt like it was carrying an anvil that was weighing them down. My final thought before blackness swirled around me was of Andrei. He had the most beautiful eyes… like the sea… only they were mine to look at.

I was in Culebra, standing on the beach and watching the waves roll to the shoreline. Wind whipped my hair but the Puerto Rican sun heated my skin and warmed my blood. He was coming, wasn’t he? I wanted him to come and he was somewhere near—so close, I could feel him.

On the horizon?
I thought, shielding my eyes and staring out into the wide expanse of shimmering azure.

“Baby.” His voice came from behind me and I immediately felt at ease. The weight on my shoulders, whatever it had been, was lifted.

I turned to look at him, to be reassured by his icy blue eyes. But they were stormy, threatening.

He gripped my shoulders, his fingers painfully firm. “Where are you hurt? What the fuck is going on? Who has you?”

“This is my dream?” I sighed heavily, inhaling the sea breeze. “Yes. This is my dream.”

Andrei cupped my chin, narrowing his eyes as he looked into mine. “Dilated. You’ve been drugged. Fuck, fuck, fucking hell.”

Why was he so worried? We were in a virtual paradise together. The sky was blue; the sea was even bluer. Didn’t he like us being together like this? There were no sadistic fallen angels, no idiotic demons planning a coup d’état, no flirtatious succubi, no pushy hunters… Nothing and no one awful to contend with. No one but us.

“Oh, you smell great,” I murmured, burying my face in his solid chest. His natural musk was familiar and comforting. It wasn’t even arousing… just… nice. Pleasant. Lovely.

“Rae, listen to me.” His voice was softer. He forced my head up. “You are in a warehouse in Sallow Bay. The one near the abandoned industrial site. Do you remember how you got there?”

“I remember how good you are. So, so good. How can you be so good? It’s bad to be so good.”

Andrei cursed under his breath. “I’m trying not to be mad at you.”

I laughed… hysterically. “You’re almost always mad at me.”

“Not this time,
mea domina
. Please. Make yourself remember. Who is in there with you?”

“Come to me,” I said breathlessly, putting my hand over his, which was on my cheek. He always came, even when I didn’t want him to.

He looked pained. “I can’t breach the ward. You have to wake up. You have to come to me.”

I pulled his hand back and kissed the inside, skimming my lips over the calluses there. “This is one of the reasons I love you, Lord Andrei Anghelescu. You make me believe I can do anything.” I switched to an open-mouthed kiss, savoring the taste of his skin. “I… love… you. You’re my king.”

He stepped back as if I’d stung him but his hand was still in mine. “You are not yourself, Rainelle. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Oh, but I do love you,” I beamed, and I briefly wondered if that had been the weight on my shoulders. The words sounded amazing out loud, and to the right person. “And I love this island! Catch me, Andrei. If you love me back, you’d better catch me!”

Before he could blink, I pulled away from him and ran,
Pulling up the hem of my wedding dress?
No matter. It was blue lace, the strangest thing I had ever seen. Laughter escaped my lips, and still I ran.

But Andrei wasn’t chasing me and a dull ache in my head grew to a sharp and painful throbbing, freezing me to the spot. The island fizzled away and I desperately wanted to hold on to it, freeze it in time, to stay there forever.

Unfortunately, I blinked myself awake, groggily taking in my surroundings.

Every inch of my body hurt… even my fucking hair follicles. Memories sharpened and faded, memories that made my head hurt some more. Red… there was a lot of red in my recollection. Had I cut myself? I was clumsy sometimes. Teddy was at my house.
But why?
And where did Selene disappear to? She was obligated to tell me when she left me alone, wasn’t she?

Where am I?

I wasn’t in my bed. Heck, I wasn’t in a room. Not really.

Propped up against a wall with concrete floor, I was in what could only have been described as a cell. Directly in front of me was the exit: a steel door that was stainless and looked impenetrable. A rusty iron-wrought bed was pushed against the far wall, a chipped toilet bowl was beside it, and adjacent to that was a tiny sink. The steady drip, drip of the leaking faucet was already beginning to grate on my nerves.

I craned my neck and found that the minute window above me was the source of the single ray of light in the room. Breathing in deeply, I tried to get to my feet. Pain instantly bit through my wrists and panic seeped into my blood.

Chained.

I was chained to the wall like a dog!

Breathe, Rae,
the voice in my head gently instructed.
Do not panic.

Easier said than done.

Impulse took over and I tugged at the restraints, despite the knowledge that it was useless, that I was only going to end up hurting myself. My brain calculated this fact but my heart was too frantic, too uppity to listen. Instead, it pumped blood faster and adrenaline spiked in my veins.

I tasted bile… and forced myself not to gag.
Epic fail.

Tipping to one side, I heaved loudly. Nothing came out. The rumbling in my stomach told me why.

Don’t cry. Do not cry, you pussy. You’ll figure this out. You will. Just… don’t… cry.

I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed. I tried to block out everything but the sound of my heavy breathing, and slowly, my memories flooded back to me. The blood on my carpet… Teddy and his insulting behavior… his magic… and Andrei invading my dream.

My eyes flew open as a renewed strength coursed through me. There was no time for weakness. Teddy was deranged and knew too much about my life. The thought that he knew who Andrei was all along— and had faked ignorance when he dropped by my penthouse in Paris—crossed my mind. Oh, he deserved an Oscar for his performance as a concerned family friend. If he was some fanatic puritan who felt personally slighted by my relations with demons, there was no knowing what he was capable of.

“Theodore fucking Bunting!” I screeched at the top of my lungs, ignoring the idea of self-preserving docility. My voice was hoarse and it hurt so much to even breathe out a syllable. “I will fucking kill you, you psycho bastard!” The heavy iron chains dug into my wrists, eating at my skin. “I don’t care what voodoo shit you’ve got going on. I will crush you! I will. I will!”

Minutes of silence passed. Tears made a salty path down my cheeks. Everything ached. And I was half-deranged with hunger.

Finally, the door was pushed open.

I steeled myself to face Teddy once again. The rage I felt bubbling inside me. My hatred for this man was indescribable.

“I swear, Rainelle, I didn’t know.”

Daniel closed the door behind him, leaning against it for support. We stared at each other in silence after that, until he finally got the balls to elaborate.

“This isn’t the way things were supposed to go,” he muttered, approaching me. “Teddy said he’d just put you to sleep and wait for the demon king to walk into the trap. But now… Oh God, he hurt you.” He crouched beside me, reaching out to touch my neck.

“Don’t,” I choked out, leaning away from him. After screaming myself ragged, it surprisingly hurt less and less to speak. “What trap?”

“Why would you do this, Rae? Willingly succumb to an incubus?” he wanted to know, ignoring my question. “Hunters are immune to incubi so don’t even pretend to be a poor, beguiled victim. You have hunter blood in you, much as you want to pretend otherwise.”

“What I do with my life is none of your business!”

“It isn’t?” he snarled, putting his face in mine. I couldn’t believe I had ever been attracted to him, even for a second. “This entire time, you’ve bleated on about how you wanted nothing to do with the supernatural, yet your sex life was just that! You’ve spat on your father’s grave a thousand times and you seem incredibly chuffed with yourself!”