“It didn’t take you long to find someone new to corrupt,” hissed an incensed voice. Landon looked around with his eyebrows hiked to the ceiling. Kellen was standing behind us, his face twisted in rage, hands curled into white-knuckled fists.
“Don’t they teach you boys manners in this town? That’s never a way to speak to a lady,” Landon started. He was cut off as Kellen lunged forward, pressing his face inches from Landon’s, his teeth bared like an animal. I hadn’t seen Kellen since he’d fled out my window into the night, disgusted and horrified by what I’d told him. In the time apart, he had grown harried. His normally coiffed hair looked disheveled. There was a shadow of stubble on his jaw that his mother definitely wouldn’t approve of. His collar was askew, like he’d been tugging on it, a flush rising up the muscular column of his neck.
“She’s not a lady. She’s a monster,” his voice cracked as a rage bled through. He looked at me with burning eyes. They skewered me. Words dried up on my tongue, evaporated by the fire in his expression.
“What does that make you then, buddy? You’re cut from the same cloth,” Landon quipped. Kellen rocked forward like he was about to throttle Landon before he remembered where he was. I looked at Landon, and he smiled.
“It’s okay. I’m protecting us,” he soothed. The comment seemed to set Kellen off further. He snarled. His hand snapped out to wrap around my arm and hauled me against him. He was furious and full of rage. His expression was twisted with disgust, but the force of lust that hit me nearly barreled me over. Kellen sobbed, his nose finding my neck, running down the length of it.
“She’s mine,” Kellen growled at Landon, trying to wrap himself around me now. Nobody reacted around us. They were all chatting to each other. Standing on tiptoes to get a closer view of their Prophet. Landon was in their heads. I could have kissed him, but I recognized I was dealing with a starved incubus right now. One who had finally snapped.
My gut churned, wishing I could smooth the anger out of his features and coax the rampant lust instead. He was fighting his base nature with everything in his being. He was losing. I could only imagine what was going through his mind now. The desperate push and pull of his twisted beliefs and his true self.
“She belongs to no man,” Landon taunted, adding fuel to the fire. He shrugged when I shot him an incredulous look.
“Kellen, you’re hurting me,” I whispered, running a hand down his face. He leaned into it for a second, his eyes fluttering closed. Then he remembered he was supposed to hate me and wrenched away.
“I can’t stop thinking about you. Your smell. Your taste. The feel of you. I can’t live like this. I feel like I’m going crazy. Whatever curse you’ve put on me, remove it. I’ll do anything. I just want to be free.”
“I didn’t curse you, Kellen. I didn’t do this. You’re an incubus, and this is normal for you. We are meant to enjoy sex, pleasure, and lust. We’re literally built to gain power from it. I told you I can teach you to control your powers and I intend to do that.”
“No.” Kellen crumpled, the rage seeping out to be replaced by heavy desperation. “I just want to be normal.”
I grimaced at his words. He didn’t know what a gift he was, and he wasn’t in a place for me to point it out. In direct opposition to his words, he hauled me against his chest, wrapping his arms around me like I was a lifeline.
“You can’t stay here, Kellen. You know you can’t. You’ll be miserable every second of every day.”
He shook his head into the curve of my neck, his lips pressing a lightning quick kiss there.
“I will learn how to control it. Push it down and imprison it. You’ll teach me,” he appealed. I pulled back, dashing his arms from my body and standing closer to Landon. Kellen’s jaw worked as he glared at Landon, fixated on where my arm brushed against my best friend.
“I’m leaving Kellen.” My bottom lip wobbled, surprising me. “I don’t belong here, and if you really thought about it, you’d realize that neither do you.”
Kellen made a strangled noise, his eyes bugging out.
“No, you can’t leave. I need you.”
“You hate me. I’m a monster, remember?” I couldn’t help taunting him. My ego bruised from his reaction to me. I wanted him to desire me, to want me, even though I recognized it was likely going to be an ongoing struggle with the way he’d been brought up to hate that part of himself. It would take some time to unravel the threads of misinformation and allow him to revel in his true nature.
“Allera, please.” Kellen reached for me again, but I sidestepped. It wasn’t the time to be distracted by flesh. I looked over my shoulder. We were almost at the front of the line. Reeve was looming closer, and I was sniping with my incubus lover. I didn’t know how he’d react, given how jealous he was of me usually.
“I am a monster. I’m a demon and I’m proud of that.” I pulled my shoulders back. “I can teach you to love yourself Kellen. I want to do that for you, but I can’t make you.”
Kellen blinked rapidly and he stumbled like he’d been hit with a wave of dizziness.
“You can’t stay here. You know you can’t stay here,” I added, hopeful I could convince him of the inevitability of this. He looked like he’d been struck with a club. My stomach flipped knowing that I couldn’t take him by force. I wouldn’t. It would hurt me too much to drag him with his heels digging in the entire way. I wasn’t going to take him unless he gave me permission.
“Allera. Allera.” I turned to see Pastor Young motioning for me, brushing a featherlight touch on Reeve’s shoulder. “You must meet the Prophet.” He waved his hand, obviously wanting me to come forward.
“Oh shit,” I breathed, chancing a quick look at Kellen, who looked like he was malfunctioning.
“Oh shit, is right, honeybun,” Landon cursed under his breath. “Just breathe.”
Reeve looked at Pastor Young like he was a bug, his nose wrinkling at being re-directed. But he followed the line of August’s quivering finger, finding me. His chest heaved. The energy he’d been lacking flooded into him like electricity. I moved towards him, ignoring the protests of Kellen behind me. My eyes filled with tears, my legs pumping as I weaved around the milling crowd and pushed through to get to Reeve. I’d come to this place to run from him. Now I was running to him.
He was a bastard.
But he was my bastard, and he loved me the way I was. He threw his arms out, obviously realizing I intended to launch myself into his arms.