“You guys have a fan club for him, too?”
“Oh yeah,” Bella replies to Rainey, her grin one hundred percent teenage girl with a crush.
Rainey groans. “His ego does not need this.” She turns away from Bella and closes the distance between us. Elijah remains where he is, watching the succubus with intrigue that I, too, feel. I’ve met dozens of her kind over my lifetime, and not a single one of them ever seemed to possess even a mild distaste for what she was.
Then again, that could be because they’d been forced. My hands tighten into fists. A teenage girl, raped—both physically and magically—because she dared to be different.
When all this is over, I will be paying her mother and everyone in her den a visit.
“You believe this kid?”
“I do,” Bronywyn tells her.
“She’s not a succubus yet?”
“Apparently, in order to become a true succubus, she has to feed.”
“As in…”
“Have sex while she magically steals the life force of her partner,” Elijah finishes.
Rainey casts a curious glance his way, then turns back to Bella. “Fun.”
“She won’t do it. Has been refusing, but her mother threatened to force her into it if she hasn’t completed the change within the next three weeks.”
Rainey’s cheeks flush with anger, the red color spreading down her neck, as well. She whirls on me, gun still in hand. “What the fuck do you meanforceher? As in—”
I nod. “Yes. She threatened to tie her down and make her do it.”
“That fucking bitch.”
“She won’t be alive much longer,” I tell her, and Rainey meets my gaze.
“I’ll be tagging along for that particular party.”
“More the merrier,” I reply.
Rainey glances back at Bella, and then to us once more. “Fine. But if she eats anyone, I get to shoot her.”
“Deal.”
Rainey holsters her firearm now. Then she crosses the room and offers a hand to Bella. “Welcome to the team, Bella. I should warn you, if I see your mother—it’s over for her. Shay and I will see to it.” She winks at me.
Come the fuck on. This is seriously one of the worst things the council could have done to me. Torture? Give it to me. But don’t tell Rainey fucking Astor that my first name is Shay.
“Familial ties are not overly strong among my faction, so if you’re looking for me to be upset, I’m not. She was never kind to me—not when I’d been a child, and certainly not now.”
“Good to know.” She yawns. “I’m headed to bed. Next time, please call, text, email, shoot a fucking light in the sky—just something to let me know you have decided to bring a potentially deadly supernatural here.”
“Bat-signal, you got it.”
At my reply, she grins. Then she leans into Elijah as the two of them head for the stairs. They’re just stepping up onto the first step when the front door slams open. The scent of blood—human blood—fills my lungs, and I blur toward the front door. Felix’s muscled body slams into me, but I steady him before he hits the floor.
“What happened?” Bronywyn is at my side in an instant, checking Felix for any life-threatening injuries. I kneel, setting him gently on the ground. Tears stream from his eyes, but I don’t see any of that. It’s been too long since I fed—my eyes drift to his throbbing pulse, my fangs sliding down.
“I need—”
“Tarnley,” Bronywyn snaps, though she sounds miles away. Blood hammers in my ears, and nothing else matters.