Sweet Temptation (5 page)

“Maybe this little sweet will help you.” I hold up the pill Raj gave me, and Anna swipes for it, fast as a damn cheetah. But I'm quicker. Her eyes are flashing and eager with need.
“Answer all of my questions first. Any illnesses in your lifetime?”

“N-no,” she stammers.

Good. We're finally making progress.

“How far back can you remember?” I ask.

She stops shaking and stares up at me. Her mouth opens, then closes. She's afraid to answer. I step closer, my heart beating uncharacteristically fast. I feel as if I'm on the edge of a discovery.

“Answer the question,” I say.

Her hands grip her sides and she drops her eyes as if embarrassed. “Fine. All the way back. My birth and even before that. Happy?”

I'm never happy, but I'm at least satisfied she's finally admitting to her Neph traits. Our memories are vast and clear from the moment our souls entered our bodies.

“Now for the important part.” I step closer. “Who is your father?”

I've never seen a Duke's badge of that color—dark yellow amber—and I definitely haven't seen white—that's an angelic color.

Her jaw quivers. “I-I don't know. I was adopted.”

“Bollocks,” I say through gritted teeth. “You must have some idea.” I raise my arm so that my hand with the pill is above the water.

She gasps and raises her hands in horror as if I'm threatening to drop a baby.

“There was this one man . . . ,” she says. Finally, some bleedin' answers. “I remember him from the day I was born.
Jonathan LaGray . . . he's in prison now.”

Holy shit. “Yes, of course.” I'd completely forgotten about the Duke in prison, as I've never met him. The Duke of Substance Abuse—addiction—hence Anna's desire for more of the drug. “I should have guessed from your behavior tonight.”

She closes her eyes and I stare at her. She knows she is different. From the way she is shaking and battling this drug lust, I can only guess this isn't something she deals with often. As if she's never been trained. But of course, if her father's been in prison . . . but wouldn't he have gotten someone else to train her? Neph are taught to control themselves, not lose themselves to their sins this way.

Anna sticks out her hand. “My pill.” Her face is pale and drained. There's no way I'm giving it to her. If her reaction is this bad coming down from the first pill, it will be worse after the second.

“You mean this one?” I ask. I know I'm cruel, but she comes across far too kind. I want to force her claws out. “Sorry, luv, just an aspirin,” I lie. I toss the pill into the water with a
plunk
.

“No!” She damn near dives in after the stupid pill, and I grab her by the arms. I need to calm her before she does something stupid.

“How long ago did he give you the pill?” I continue holding her tightly.

“What?” Her eyes dart around as she tries to focus. “I don't know. Maybe thirty, no, forty minutes?”

“It should be out of your system very soon. You'll be fine. Just sit here and try to calm yourself.”

When I let her go she sits obediently and grabs around her
knees, burying her face and rocking back and forth stiffly. She looks tiny balled up like that, and her long, straight hair lifts and blows in the wind. A foreign tug of sympathy invades, and I look away from her.

I want to believe her, but I'm still wary. I don't want to be entrapped by the mystery surrounding her. I can't afford to care.

I sit down on the edge of the dock while she rides it out and sobers up.

After ten minutes she scoots closer to me, watching my face with a newfound carefulness. Her colors are back: gray and orange.

“Why did it come and go so fast?” she asks. I'm happy she's worked up the nerve to open up and ask me something while she's sober.

“Our bodies fight anything foreign. Germs, cancer, disease, the whole lot. Drugs and alcohol burn through quickly. Hardly worth the effort. I tried smoking. Spent days coughing up black tar.”

“That's attractive,” she says, brushing something invisible off her knee.

I snort with the irony of her comment. “Precisely. Can't afford to be unattractive.”

“So . . .” She's still being careful. “Are you like me?”

“Yes, and no, it seems.”

Her head cocks to the side as she's observing me. As if
I'm
the one who needs to be figured out. I want to ask her so much, but I don't. There's still a quiet, untrusting voice in my head warning me away from acting too interested. Neph are
not supposed to give a damn about other Neph, or anyone, for that matter. In fact, we've probably spent enough time together tonight.

I push my hearing up to the house to see if Raj is looking for me, but he's not. He's out in the car smoking a joint with Rocker Girl, no doubt after taking his hit of X, as well. He'd better take it easy or he's likely to show Rocker Girl a poor backseat performance.

Tut, tut.

“Why don't you have one of those cloud thingies around you?” Anna asks. She's eyeing the air around me, and I shake my head. What on earth is she talking about? Then, I realize she must have just turned sixteen and gained the ability to see guardian angels.

“Cloud thingies?” I sputter. “You can't be serious.” Surely, surely she knows that humans have guardian angels. That is the most basic of Neph basics.

As I'm pulling my hearing in I stumble upon a scuffle inside the house—shouting.

“Do you know what I'm talking about?” She sits up straighter, and looks like she might grab at my shirt. “You do, don't you?!”

Inside the house, Jay and Scott are fighting. Seems as though Jay is drunk and defending Anna's honor. Brilliant.

I stand up, asking, “Are your senses back now?”

She opens her mouth, clearly wanting to know more about the “cloud thingies,” but I've thrown her off and she blinks.

“I think so,” she says.

“There's a fight in the house. I think you'd better listen.”

She stands up and closes her eyes, looking pained as she strains to hear. Then her eyes pop open. “Oh, my gosh, Scott and Jay!” Yep. Jay just landed a nice-sounding
crunch
and Scott is howling.

Anna takes off running and I watch her go. She's got nice form. And a great arse.

And she's
still
a possible enemy, although it's taking more and more effort to convince myself of that. If this girl has been sent by the Dukes to test me, I cannot let myself be reeled in by her spectacular act.

I take my time walking back up to the house and going in. I listen, further baffled, as Anna defuses the situation and gets the drunken Jay to her car. She cares for him with patience and tenderness. The only Neph I've ever seen act like that is the twin Marna, but she's only like that with the few of us Neph who are her friends, never with humans.

I stand in the nearly empty kitchen—everyone has made a mass exodus to the front of the house for the fight. As people filter back in, I hear Anna whisper something in her car, seemingly to herself.

“I'm not finished with you, Kaidan Rowe.”

It's like a puppy threatening a cobra. A grin flashes across my face and I quickly wipe it away before saying to the air, “Likewise.”

Two seconds later Rocker Girl is standing in front of me with her hands on her hips, looking unamused.

“Uh-oh,” I say. “Has Raj overindulged?”

Her eyes narrow in annoyance. “He says his hands weigh a thousand pounds and he can't lift them.”

We stare at each other for two beats, and then we burst into laughter. Rocker Girl covers her mouth until her mirth subsides.

I twist the strands of her pink hair in my fingers, and she looks up at me with a tough face, pretending she never showed that moment of humor. Then I lean down and whisper into her ear. “You're fucking sexy when you laugh, Mandie.”

I'm not sure if it's my words or my breath against her skin that makes her shiver. She hooks her fingers into the belt loops of my black jeans and looks up at me.

“What's your name, anyway?” she asks.

“Kaidan Rowe.”

Her mouth drops open and she bats her eyes. “Shit. Wow. I totally didn't put two and two together when Raj said he was in the band. You're the drummer. Kai.”

I nod.

Her fingers tighten on my loops and she pulls me closer. “Your reputation precedes you.”

“Oh, yeah? And what reputation is that?” I slowly back her against the counter, amidst all the people.

Her voice goes even huskier. “I've heard you're a very,
very
bad boy.”

I shrug. “Good. Bad. It's all subjective, right?” I grind my hips against hers, and her eyes flutter back. I lean down to her ear. “You have two choices. There's a room upstairs or the empty boathouse.”

“Boathouse, all the way,” she says breathlessly.

I take her hand and say nothing more, but as I'm opening the back door to the deck the hairs on the back of my neck
stand up. A dark whisperer swoops in and snarls with glee at the partygoers. I tense for half a second, glad Anna is away from the party now. When the demon spirit flies my way, I acknowledge the savage being with a nod, hoping it will leave off, but it doesn't. It cackles and dives toward Mandie, whispering harshly in her ear as her guardian angel pushes and fights it. She's unaware she's being whispered to, but her aura darkens and I squeeze her hand. A pit opens in my gut at the thought that I'm on the same team as that evil thing.

It finally leaves off and I pull Mandie outside. She looks away from me purposefully and reaches across to scratch her wrist. In the porch light I see the silvery reflection of scars up her arm. Cut marks.

Fucking whisperers.

I won't ask about those lines. Nor will I stick around to chat about it afterward. But tonight I'll try to take her mind off it, even for a moment. What happens afterward is up to her.

“You're way too young to play these games,

But you better start, but you better start.”

—“I'm Not The One” by 3OH!3

A
nna has me turned completely around, arse about face. It's been days since I saw her, and I feel as if I will not be able to tell up from down until I figure out if she's for real.

Am I naive to think she's genuine? I cannot figure out why she would lie about not knowing her heritage, other than to entrap me for the Dukes' dark purposes, to question my loyalty.

While I'm out of Father's hearing range, I call Blake, the son of Duke Melchom, demon of Envy.

“Ever heard of a Neph called Anna? Daughter of Belial?”

“Huh?” he asks. “He's Substance Abuse, right? I don't think he has any kids.”

“Yeah,” I say. “Neither did I.”

“What's going on, brah?”

I shake my head. “Nothing. Take care, mate.”

I know I roused his curiosity, but it can't be helped. I have trust in Blake, a rarity among our kind, but I can't say too much over the telephone.

The first knock comes from upstairs. My bandmates are spot on for our practice time. I hear the door open, and voices spill down the halls and stairs. Feet tromp down to my basement, where I sit at the drums, ready to go. Ready to clear my head. A group of girls comes down behind the guys, laughing and smelling of perfumes and hairspray. Raj and I bump fists, and Bennett slaps my palm before turning on the keyboard. There's enough hair product between Michael, Raj, and Bennett to keep the gel companies in business forever.

I sometimes wear an earpiece at large gigs, but in my basement I have to wear headphones to keep the sounds from echoing. It's a relief to put them on, do our sound checks, and get started.

We rock out for nearly two hours. I am refreshed and tired in the best way. The only thing I need to top off this feeling is a bit of soft skin against mine. I lock eyes with a redhead in a miniskirt who I hooked up with months ago. We haven't had sex yet, though, and I plan to remedy that.

I give her a nod. Poof goes her aura, as red as my shirt. I'm so in. I jerk my head to the side and she gives me a smirk like only hot girls can do. She comes to stand between my legs, eyeing me sexily.

“Oh, so you're going to give me the time of day now?” She tries for nonchalance in her voice, but her colors are
screaming like a fireworks display.

“What are you on about, babe? I haven't seen you in ages.”

“I've been at, like, a ton of gigs since that night.”

I widen my eyes as if surprised, and lazily push the curls off her shoulders with the back of my hand, touching her bare skin. “You should have come backstage.”

“See ya, Kai,” Raj calls. I raise my chin to say bye to the guys as they leave with a bunch of girls. One chick stays behind, the redhead's friend. She sits in an oversized chair, texting.

“They wouldn't let me backstage! I tried and tried to catch your eye. And I've called you.”

“Ah, my stupid phone,” I say. I widen my knees and take her by the waist, pulling her closer. But before we get started, I scan the property with my hearing. The voices I catch in a car outside make me freeze.

“. . . want me to come with you?”

“It might be better if I talk to him alone.”

“That's cool. There's this instrument store . . .”

Anna is here. Jay's brought her. She's come for me. I somehow know this is the moment of truth where she will finally show her true self. I have to be ready, because there's a huge part of me that will be disappointed if she's an enemy. I steel myself against it and prepare myself for the worst.

I quickly stand and drop my hands from the redheaded girl, backing away. Her eyes flash with shock.
Bugger.
I do not have time to deal with angry girls.

“Er, look, I'm sorry, but I need to work on these songs a few more times by myself. I'll give you a ring to hang out later. All right, then?”

“Are you serious?”

“I'll let you show yourselves out.” Her friend is staring at me, mouth dangling open to show the chewing gum inside.

Yep. I'm a prick. Don't care. They need to go. Now.

Redhead lets out an angry growling sound and proceeds to gather her belongings and stomp off. Her friend glares at me before they finally leave.

I put my headphones back on and force myself to relax. This Neph will not beat me. If the Dukes think they can send a tiny, beautiful actress to throw me off my game, they are mistaken.

I release my crazed anxieties on the drums but keep her in my peripheral vision when she enters the basement. She gently closes the door and looks around the room in awe before her stare lands on me. As she watches, a cloud of lust practically glows in red around her, and it makes me play harder.

Call me moody, but if I'm expecting a shag and it falls through because a possible enemy decides to show, it puts me on edge. Especially when this possible enemy is hot for me and I refuse to touch her. I've never had such ambiguous feelings for someone. I'm a paranoid, confused mess, and that irks the bejesus out of me.

Enough of this. The game ends now. I slam the final beats and then stand, throwing down my headphones.

“Well, if it isn't little orphan Annie,” I say.

A hurt look crosses her face, and navy sadness slices through her aura. I refuse to feel bad. I get myself a drink and decide to call her out. Take this to the next level.

I take out my knife. Open it. Twirl it. All the while
watching her fear and confusion. I want her to speak, but she doesn't. So, I move closer. Get right in her face. Cage her in against the wall.

Now she's the one feeling ambiguous—torn between lust and fear. I keep my knife steady in my hand, out at my side where she can see it. I am primed and ready for a fight, expecting her to reveal secret ninja skills at any moment, but she doesn't. She merely melts back against the wall.

“What do you want?” I ask.

“I just want to talk. You don't have to try to scare me.”

Her voice shakes. The darkness of her fear is overridden by a puff of red as my hips graze against hers.

“There's hardly any room for fear when you're so bloody turned on.”

A blade of near blackness slices through her lust. I'm making her mad. Good on me. Perhaps if she's angry enough she'll finally blurt out what she wants.

“Ah, there's anger now . . . and a bit of embarrassment.”

“I know what we are now,” she says in a shaking breath. The sound of her voice rakes against my cold heart.
What we are
. . . is it truly possible she didn't know? Obviously she knew she was different, but could she have been ignorant about being the daughter of a demon? Possible, but not probable. It has to be a bloody lie.

“Congratulations.” I consider kissing her, just to see how she'll react. Just to see how those pretty little lips feel.

At that thought I push away from the wall, berating myself, as I send my small dagger flying at the dartboard with a hard throw.

Bull's-eye.

I make it smoothly to the couch and turn, not wanting my back to her for too long. I sit and wait for her to explain why she's come, but she simply stands there at a loss. Heavy doubt clouds my mind. Did she come here to talk to me about what we are? If she didn't know before, how would she have found out? I want to ask, but if it's all a wicked hoax, I can't fall into her trap.

Something inside me twinges—I hear something outside, but everyone should be gone by now. I push my hearing through the house and down our curved driveway.

A smooth-engined car.

My father's velvety voice as he talks on his mobile, schmoozing someone, chuckling.

Of all the bad fucking timing . . .

I look at Anna, but she doesn't appear to be listening. Does she know he's coming? Is this a trap? I wait for a smug look to cross her face, for the act to drop, but she's the very same Anna, standing there in a cloud of hurt feelings.

Sudden clarity smacks me and I feel the strangest sense of protectiveness over my mysterious Nephilim girl. I know I've been contemplating whether or not she's working with Father and the other Dukes, but in that moment my gut feeling overtakes me.

I don't think she is. Deep down, I think she's legit. Call me a damned fool, but the idea of keeping this girl in the room with my father is like putting a speckled fawn in the path of a wolf.

I have to hide her.

Father is saying his good-byes on the mobile now, and the driver is walking around to let him out. It's likely that Father has already heard us, but if he was on the phone he mightn't have. If I attempt to take Anna out a back way, he will hear both of our footsteps and wonder why I'm avoiding him. I have about one minute to dupe him into thinking she's a hookup.

I jump from the couch and lunge at Anna, grasping her shoulders hard and pressing my lips to her ear. I whisper as softly as I can.

“My father is here.”

She stiffens under my hand. Yes, she knows what we are, therefore she knows Father is a demon. Be afraid, Anna.

I pull her to the couch and fling her down. Thank God for female blouses with buttons. I rip it open, needing the scene to appear real. When she sucks in a shocked breath I press a finger to her lips. Her aura is a swirl of gray tones, both fear and embarrassment. This is not the time for modesty. I can't have her appearing terrified if we're supposed to be going at it. So I toss a throw blanket at her and rip my own shirt over my head. I point to her shirt and she starts rolling her shoulders to get it off.

God, she is sexy. Even in that innocent white satin bra. Let's just hope I haven't been a fool and she doesn't shove a dagger in my spine. I lower my body over hers and taste the skin at the base of her throat. I move upward to the curve of her neck and shoulder, and let out a low moan. Our skin touches and she moves underneath me in a sultry way, grasping the nearby pillows in her fists.

I suddenly want all her clothes off.

The sound of Father coming down the stairs erases that thought from my mind. He knows by now I'm with a girl, but he has no notion of privacy.

When the door opens, Anna's body jumps under me and she lets out a squeak. I turn my head to the door where Father stands, smiling, inching farther to the side to get a better look at Anna. Damn. I can't hide her any further without being obvious.

“My apologies, son. I didn't realize you had company.” He is still moving casually across the room, staring.

Before I can say a word, the politeness slips from his features and his eyes flash red. I look down at Anna, who has foolishly allowed the blanket to fall enough to give Father a side view of her badge. I hold my breath. They definitely do not seem to know each other.

“I never imagined you'd care to entertain female Nephilim,” he grits.

Not good. Not fucking good. Neph can work together, but they are not to play together. Especially in the one-on-one way.

“I don't normally.” I stand and move away, as if coming to my senses. “She caught me while I was bored and alone after practice.”

His face sours as he scents the air. “You will come up for tea. Both of you.” He leaves, and I ball my hands. Close my eyes. I want to punch something.

Anna is
my
problem.
My
mystery. I don't want to share her with anyone, especially not the wolf upstairs. It's clear now they weren't working together. The blood has drained from Anna's face as she clutches the blanket to her chest. I simultaneously
feel sorry for her and want to shout at her. She's a stupid, stupid girl for coming here.

She reaches for her shirt and tries to put it on, but there are buttons missing from when I went all Incredible Hulk. I toss her my red T-shirt and she puts it on.

No girl has ever worn my clothes before, and it's the embodiment of sexiness. I imagine her wearing it the morning after we've had an all-night shag fest.

I shake my head. What the hell is wrong with me? Father is waiting.

I lead her up the stairs to the sitting room, and I lean against the wall to watch helplessly as the wolf licks the fawn.

She maintains her norm of complete innocence as Father questions her. I listen and learn all the things I was too afraid to ask, though I'm still unsure how she came by the information. She has no idea her demonic father's name is Belial or what he does. Belial most likely doesn't know she exists. She and I met coincidentally at a gig, and she's just learning what she is. My head is spinning with thoughts when I hear Father say to Anna—

“. . . you reek of innocence. Yes, that's right. I can smell it—your
virginity
.”

I nearly topple over in surprise, and Father laughs at the look of horror on Anna's face. There is no way she's pure. No. Way.