Serpent's Touch: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (The Last Serpent Book 1) Read online

  “What happened in there…” he tried to say.

  “You know, could we just like, take a second?”

  Aiden nodded, then took another drag of his cigarette. “That’s probably not a bad idea.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Thrill

  A cool wind passed between us, tugging at the loose strands of my hair and causing what was left of the smoke to swirl around us. We had sat in silence for almost five minutes, maybe ten. I wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter. Part of me was happy for the company, the other part of me kept wondering about him, wanting to almost flinch away from him, as if he were too hot to be sitting next to.

  When I was done with my smoke, and I had nowhere else to hide, I had little choice but to turn my eyes up at him. I saw him then, his face bathed in silvery moonlight, the contours of his nose, his cheeks, his chin; I saw the way the moon danced off his dark hair, and suddenly I almost couldn’t handle the urge welling up within me.

  I wanted to reach out and touch him. I wanted to see what his body felt like beneath my hands, wanted to feel his hands on my cheeks, on my hips. The feeling wasn’t entirely alien—there existed, I knew, a corner of my subconscious which had wanted to know these things from the moment we met, from that first cross of the eyes—but that subconscious had been given a voice now, maybe due in part, or in full, to what had happened back at the library.

  He turned his head to look at me, and our eyes met.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “I think so,” I said, in a low voice. “No. I don’t know.”

  “It’s always weird at first. Going from human to… whatever else we are… there’s nothing easy about it.”

  “It’s not just weird for me. It’s weird for them, too. I feel like I’ve let them down.”

  “You haven’t.”

  “Really? Because it almost felt like I had turned into some monster capable of killing people with her sexuality.”

  He arched an eyebrow, and the corner of his mouth tugged into a smile. “That’s a fact.”

  “Jesus.” I shook my head and looked toward the mountains again because I couldn’t take the smile on his face. “I’m not a monster. I didn’t ask for this.”

  “I know you didn’t,” he said. “And look, it’s not what you think. It’s just, there hasn’t been a woman here, or anywhere, in years—maybe even a decade.”

  I looked at him again. “That long? Why?”

  “I don’t know. Dante just hasn’t found female supernaturals. So, when a girl finally shows up at the mansion and, guess what, turns out to be a succubus, it’s kind of a shock.”

  “Alright, I get that, but what does that mean?”

  “Succubi are… fickle. They’re sexy, and dangerous, and rare… They’re also very powerful, and they have the potential to do the same things vampires do, which means they’re distrusted.”

  I ran my hands through my hair. “Why didn’t anybody tell me this back there?”

  He shrugged. “You were nervous and overwhelmed. All anyone wants is to make sure you’re okay, first and foremost. Trust me when I say no one thinks you’re a monster, but you are a succubus, and that means there’s gonna be challenges; not just everyday challenges, but also in finding you a willing mentor. Someone you can really learn from.”

  Sexy. He’d called me sexy. I narrowed my eyes at him, then pressed my lips into a thin line. “So, this is probably going to come out of left field but… you’re a demon?”

  He nodded. “I don’t expect you to understand what that means.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know; I had a pretty good idea of what a vampire was, and what a succubus was. I can probably figure out what being a demon means.”

  “Can you?”

  “You crawled out of hell somewhere and possessed a human host?”

  He shook his head. “Try again.”

  I screwed up my face. “I… isn’t that how demons come to earth?”

  “Some do. Lesser demons. I’m not a lesser demon.”

  “So, what are you, then?”

  “The hierarchy is a little complicated. Let’s just say I’m a rung above the lesser demons, at least. Which means I didn’t need to possess a human body. This is my body.”

  “Assuming I buy even a single word of all this, where do succubi land in the hierarchy?”

  “You don’t. We’re breeds apart.”

  “Really? I thought succubi were demons.”

  “Apples and oranges. Still fruits, just different.”

  “I don’t know if I buy all this.”

  “You think it’s fake?”

  I sighed. “I’m just trying to protect my sanity. I feel like it’s slipping away, more and more by the second. I don’t know how anyone can move into this world without coming unhinged.”

  “It gets easier. You start adapting, and it gets easier.”

  I turned my eyes up at him and locked them with his, almost pleading. “You sure?”

  He nodded. “I am.”

  Another sigh. “I have to go back inside now, and I still don’t know how the hell to use any of these powers I apparently have.”

  “Have you tried forcing them to manifest?”

  “See, you say that, but I don’t know what that even means. Is it like flexing a muscle?”

  “It is for me.”

  “Pff, easy for you to say. You’re ripped. You’re used to flexing muscles.”

  Aiden’s laugh broke the silence, and brought the smile bursting back onto my face. “Yeah, okay, I’ll give you that. But it’s only that easy for me now because I’ve practiced. You’ll practice, too, and it’ll get easy.”

  “That would help if I knew what it was, exactly.”

  Aiden shrugged. “I wish I could help you. I don’t know enough about succubi except what I’ve picked up from being here. You’re probably better off checking the library, or maybe asking Dante.”

  “Dante? Why Dante?”

  He shook his head. “Never mind, forget I said anything. The point is, I don’t have all the answers, but you have time to learn, and we’re safe here.”

  “You really think so? Based on what’s been happening to me?”

  “Yeah… I do. I think you’re safe here… with us. With me.”

  He was looking at me then, and when I found his eyes I felt a current of electricity pass between us, a current so strong it made my chest vibrate. I saw him tilt his head toward mine and felt myself drawing to him inevitably, as if we were magnets, or planets. He reached for my face with his left hand and cupped my jaw, smoothing my cheek with his thumb.

  The air around us was growing colder by the second, icy wind lashing at us from all angles, but the wind had stopped touching my skin the moment he started. It was as if he had created some kind of bubble of heat that could deflect the cold. And his hand… it was smooth and soft, an artist’s hand. I had felt his touch before, but having him touch me like this was much more intense than it had been the first time.

  Much more intimate.

  Slowly, we came together, and while some part of me had been expecting it, the moment of contact caught me by complete surprise and set my heart into full gear. It started to pound against my chest, making my vision wobble at the edges. My lips parted slightly, and he ran his thumb across them. His hands, his fingers, were warm against my cool skin. His touch was featherlight, but also strong and assertive.

  He brushed his hand across my cheek, into my hair, and tilted my head up. My eyes shut as he closed the distance between our lips. When they met, it was as if an electric current had started to buzz through me, causing my body to shake and tremble. For an instant I was frozen, my mind not willing to take commands, but then I reached for his shoulder with my good arm and slid my hand across it, letting my hand rest on the back of his neck.

  I leaned into the kiss, my lips parting further to accept his warm, searching tongue. The bubble of air around us grew warmer with each passing second, so much so that I could feel my own body
warming with it. At first, I thought this was only a kiss, nothing more, but then something happened—a strange, almost alien sensation that felt as good as it did strange, as natural as it was completely unnatural.

  I drank from his mouth as our tongues danced in rhythm with our lips and the beating of our hearts. Slowly, we began to part, but he chased me, and I let him. No, I didn’t just let him, I pushed further into him, pressing my body against his. He moved his other hand to my waist and used it to keep me held against him until the kiss was finally ready to break, not because either of us had decided to break it, but because the kiss itself was ready to do so.

  I opened my eyes, and they fluttered, trying to adjust to the natural moonlight, and I saw Aiden through different eyes. The color in his cheeks was strong and vital, but also a little paler than it should have been. I could hear his heart beating inside his chest, beating hard and loud, and almost in step with mine. When I stared deeply into his eyes, I saw not only an intense, burning desire—a desire to match my own—but also an inner truth. I thought that, while he may have known on a conscious level, he didn’t fully understand.

  We had kissed, and I had taken something from him.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, suddenly feeling concern for him.

  “I’m fine,” he said. His hand dropped from behind the back of my head and trailed slowly toward my hurt bicep. Staring into my eyes, he squeezed the flesh. My breath hitched, not because there was pain, but because there wasn’t any. At least, not more than normal, at any rate.

  I turned my eyes down to the bandage wrapped around me, then turned my eyes up at him, puzzled. “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Let me,” he said. Slowly, delicately, he went through the process of unwrapping the bandage one circle at a time, his fingers gently brushing against my skin with each pass, sending tingles shooting through me as if my body were filled with sparklers.

  When he was done and the bandage was gone, the flesh around my bicep wasn’t bruised and cut up. There wasn’t any residual blood, no discoloration. The skin was pink, a little on the pale side, but it matched the rest of my body just fine. For an instant I didn’t understand, but then I remembered what I had been told.

  A succubus takes another person’s energy to replenish their own.

  I had taken his energy, and it had healed me somehow. All the other bruises and cuts, which had decorated my body, were also gone. I smiled at my arm, then turned my eyes up at Aiden and felt the fluttering feeling return to my stomach.

  “That’s incredible,” I said. “It’s gone.”

  Aiden smiled. “See? It isn’t so bad being a succubus.”

  “I could get used to this.”

  “Don’t. Getting used to this means getting used to being hurt, and that’s not something I want for you.”

  “Oh?” I asked, arching an eyebrow and chewing on my lower lip as I stared at him. “And what do you want?”

  Aiden bent his head low and stared at me. For an instant, I could have sworn they flashed black, as black as the coldest, deepest night, and something happened to my body; an urge filled me to grab his collar, kiss him again, and then drag him to my room to do terrible, terrible things to him. But I shook the thoughts loose. That wasn’t me, I wasn’t really like that.

  Something coiled in the pit of my stomach, however—something like a serpent—said otherwise.

  I lunged for Aiden’s collar again and pulled him close—close enough to push my lips against his, wasting no time in searching for his tongue with my own. Aiden responded, taking hold of my hips and holding onto me tightly, his warm hands keeping me firmly held in place.

  Our mouths entwined, the kiss bloomed, and with every passing second, I knew I was taking something from him—something vital and necessary, something like a life force. But I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t even think I was in control of my own body anymore. Panic and fear washed over me as Aiden tried to separate himself from me, not because he was breaking the kiss, but because I wasn’t letting him.

  I gripped him more tightly and reached deeper with my tongue, taking more of what was his, more of his life, of his energy. I tried to scream, tried to force my body to do something, anything, other than what it was doing to Aiden, but I wasn’t myself. Something else had taken over, some force had pushed me to the back of my own mind and made me watch while it did whatever it wanted to do with my body—and Aiden’s.

  Finally, I let him go, though I couldn’t say whether it had been my choice to let him go, or if I had let him go for some other reason I wasn’t aware of.

  I watched Aiden collapse into a heap on the ground, unconscious. The wind rustled through my hair, tugging on it and pulling it back. I told my body to kneel, sent all the right commands to get me to check on him, check for a pulse, but I didn’t do any of that. Instead, I turned to look at the mansion, then turned back to look at the forest, and I started to walk.

  Again, I heard myself scream inside my own mind, but it was as if I had become a passenger in an automatic car, and I had no way of turning the thing around or stopping it. I didn’t want to go back into the woods, but there was nothing I could do to stop myself. I was going back, Aiden was unconscious, and the others had no idea because they thought I was with him.

  Safe.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Altitude

  This time was different than all the others; this time I could see myself as I walked blindly into the woods, drawn as if by an invisible song. My body was numb. I couldn’t feel my hands, my legs, even my own heartbeat. I was floating, attached to my body by a light tether that could snap loose at any moment, letting me soar up high into the night only to be lost forever.

  First, I crossed the boundary into the woods where the mansion’s cleanly kept, tightly trimmed grass became thicker and almost knotted. It was as if the tree line marked the portal between two dimensions: one where everything was bright, safe, and clean, and another that was dark and full of peril. I didn’t know if my heart was pulsing rapidly or sitting steadily in my chest, but I knew part of me—the part of me not in the driver’s seat—was panicking, stuck in a nightmare from which there was no awakening. Not until whatever force pulling me into the woods was done with me.

  My control didn’t return bit by bit. There was no slow burn, no tingling sensation before the tether holding my mind from floating away began to reel in. It was as if someone had yanked the tether hard and sent me sprawling back into my own body with one great heave. Every single physical sensation I had been missing in my drugged-up state came flooding back to me all at once, overloading my capacity to feel, to think, to process.

  I fell to my knees and managed to put my hands out in time to prevent myself from hitting the wet earth with my chin. My stomach turned itself inside out, my throat closed to the size of a pin-hole. I tried to breathe once, failed, tried again, and managed to grasp a fleeting breath, followed by another, and then another, until slowly my regular breathing rhythm came back to me—followed immediately by an intense pain in my right hand.

  I pulled my hand out of the dirt, thinking I had hit it on something in my numbed state, but it was completely fine, just slick with cold, wet dirt. I soon realized the pain wasn’t the same as if I had impaled my hand on something; the pain was being brought on by intense, concentrated heat.

  Panic’s cold hand gripped my throat, closing it again. I could feel my heart hammering inside of my chest, an angry animal thrashing at its cage and causing me physical pain. I could sense the source of the pain, but I couldn’t do anything about it—I didn’t want to touch my hand, despite the pain. I was frozen, paralyzed, and in agony.

  Don’t fear it.

  A whisper came from somewhere near my ear, but also inside my own head. I turned around hard, scrambling to get up on my feet. The woods creaked and hissed around me with sinister sounds that seemed to close in like predators surrounding me from all angles.

  “Who said that?” I asked, voice trembling.
>
  Don’t fear the pain, the voice whispered into my left ear this time, causing me to jump and turn again.

  “Where are you?” I said to no one, becoming immediately aware that, out here, I had no protection and anyone could have been watching.

  I’m you, and I’m here to help. You drew me out, and now we’re one.

  My breath began to form in front of my mouth as I spoke. “You’re… the succubus?”

  We’re the succubus, Lilith. We’ll exist apart for a time, but we will come together, and I will show you things—wonderful things. You’ll be stronger, faster, and more dangerous than your enemies expect. Together we will overcome anything and everything.

  I kept looking around, thinking maybe I would find a source for the voice speaking to me from some invisible plane, or maybe from within my own mind. I could almost get the image of the succubus to form, that violet flesh, her obsidian hands, her wings, but the pain in my hand prevented my mind from firing on all cylinders. Worse, I could feel my body start to numb again—my mind pulling away from it, falling back into the dark place it had just come back from.

  The ring, the voice said, it’s the ring.

  I stared at my trembling, burning hand, and then at the ring on my finger. The skin around it was red, and getting redder with every passing second. I hadn’t noticed before, but now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, I could see more clearly. My chest tightened with every breath I took.With every passing second, I felt like my finger was just going to melt off, though not before the flesh seared away first, leaving nothing but scorched, black bone.

  Gritting my teeth, I grabbed hold of the ring and yanked it off my finger, tossing it into the woods with the same movement. The ring disappeared, and slowly, the pain I was feeling in my hand began to recede. My heartbeat slowed, thanks to the relief of no longer being in such intense pain. But I was still very much in danger, with or without the ring.

  The pain subsided, but the voice went away too, leaving me alone in the woods with nothing but my own thoughts for company. When I turned around, I noticed the mansion’s lights standing in stark contrast against the night sky. The guys were there, Aiden was there—Aiden, who I had hurt. I wanted to go back and check on him, start running toward the house and not stop until I reached it. But my sixth sense started to prickle, a cold finger traced its way up my spine, and I knew I wasn’t alone.