That has an inkling of dread crawling up in me. How serious is this? Regardless, Jeremiah is still just an incubus. The second he opens this door to touch me, those little markings won’t do him any good—the seal will be broken. And I’ll level him with barely any effort.
Jeremiah laughs and turns to walk away, leaving us in here with Dice shouting at his back.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to kill him,” I state confidently, staggering back to my feet when the other incubus is gone from the room.
My words are dampened a little by the way I stumble around like a drunken fool, but I still mean them.
Dice sags in relief as he looks over at me. “If you’re talking like that, then he’s fortunately not as strong as I feared.”
“Oh, he’s strong. But I’m just pissed off enough to eat away at some of the lust crowding my mind. I’m not sure how we ended up in here. There’s no way that small spell set off that big of a reaction from the forest. At most, we should have had a few branches whip us. I’ve seen Dad use the same spell in those same woods before, and three out of four times, nothing happened. The degrading whipping happened the fourth time, and we easily got away before taking too many licks. Where’re our phones?”
“No clue. Mine was missing the second I reached for it in the woods. Those damn woods are tricky, though. For all we know, we lost them early on.”
Just. Great.
Dice looks confused for a moment.
“Those women looked…familiar,” he says, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “Though I can’t recall where I’ve met them.”
He shakes his head.
“Not important. We have to get you out of here before you become a slave, because that will be inevitable. He’s been keeping a harem for centuries.”
“You claim to stay stuffed around us, even gripe at us when we feed you energy on accident.” I don’t say sexual energy, because I’m still young enough to where that sounds hella creepy. “Yet you make it sound like he’s constantly feeding.”
“He is constantly feeding, and his appetite is ravenous. That’s what I mean by Type A. He fed too much when he was transitioning. Now his hunger is insatiable. But if he keeps you for too long, he’ll need more power as strong as yours, and Alyssa will be next.”
I stumble again before righting myself. “He can’t take her on.”
“He’s not even in here, and you’re still struggling,” he points out. “And you’re stronger than her.”
“Strength is the wrong word. I have more power. She has more strength. Regardless, he caught me off guard. Just give me a minute to get this out of my system—”
“If that’s a euphemism for rubbing one off, I’m not okay with that. First of all, i
t’d just be a little too uncomfortable for me to have to see. Secondly, Karma is very jealous. Third of all, I’m like your favorite uncle, and…I don’t want to be that uncle. If you know what I mean.”
He snorts, and even though I want to punch him in the face just a little, I also feel a little more at ease just hearing his ridiculous jokes. It means he’s calming down, which helps me to calm down.
“I’m not touching myself in front of you, so chill,” I grumble, and he weirdly blows out what sounds like a major breath of relief.
He really thought I’d do that here?!
When I give him a glare, he shrugs. “It’s the easiest way to free up some headspace. Most of them don’t know that in the beginning, and they get sucked into the spell too quickly to figure it out before it’s too late.”
My cheeks rise with heat but…hell no. Not doing that.
“There’s got to be another way for me to sober.”
“If getting pissed is working, then think of him getting his hands on Alyssa.”
All of the little floating fire lights blow out at once as a surge of power rushes out of me unbidden. As one, they relight, as though they’re set to do just that, should they be blown out.
I’m steadier when I look at Dice, and he smirks.
“Maybe these cells aren’t as good at trapping your powers as I worried,” he says.
I try to dematerialize again, but no such luck.