Serpent's Kiss: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (The Last Serpent Book 3) Read online

  Then there was Aiden, who was about to be sent on a mission he had no idea about. And Dante, who wasn’t in the picture at all. Did he know? Was he in on the secret too? What about the Keeper, and Liam? Fuck. There were too many options, too many doors that begged to be opened, including the door to my room—the door to the reality where I kept this all to myself, told no one, and let everything play out as it was supposed to.

  But as the seconds fell off the clock, I was no closer to making my decision.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I knocked on the door, three light raps I hoped would be heard by the person inside and no one else. The sound of footsteps helped to ease the tension, but when Dante opened the door with a concerned look on his face, my nerves came rushing back to the surface, causing my fingers to shake.

  “Lilith,” he said, frowning, “What is it?”

  “Can I come in?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

  Dante glanced down the corridor, then nodded and stepped aside. “Come in. What’s wrong? You’re shaking.”

  He noticed.

  I turned around to look at him, and found myself in wonder at the simple fact that Dante, for the first time since I had met him, wasn’t wearing a suit. He was wearing a black t-shirt that contoured his strong chest and abdomen, a pair of grey sweat pants, no shoes or socks, and his hair wasn’t neatly combed and parted—it was still a little wet from the shower he’d just had.

  “Lilith?” he asked, when the silence went on for too long.

  I tried to bury the nerves, but the effort was in vain. “I have to tell you something,” I said.

  He came up to me, his eyebrows pinched in the middle. “What is it? You can tell me anything.”

  “Can I? I don’t know if I can tell you this, but I don’t know who else to tell.”

  Dante placed hands on my shoulders. “What happened to you? Has someone hurt you?”

  His touch was gentle, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that if someone had hurt me there would be hell to pay. I had never wanted to kiss someone as much as I wanted to kiss Dante in this very moment, but the urgency of the situation mixed in with the fear of his inevitable rejection forced me to look away from him.

  “No, no, nothing like that,” I said.

  “Then what is it?”

  I was finding it difficult to look at him again, but I turned my eyes on him now. “I just heard a conversation downstairs, between Leo and Madeline.”

  “What kind of conversation?”

  “It was about two mentors… Henry, and—”

  “Covell? What about them?”

  “Leo… he said they were missing.”

  Dante swallowed hard and hesitated for just a second. “Missing,” he said, releasing my shoulders. “You’re sure you heard that?”

  I nodded. “You don’t know?”

  He walked away from me and paced around the room. “I don’t get told anything anymore. What else did Leo say?”

  “He… said they had come here, to London, and that they hadn’t come back to the mansion when the mentors were summoned.”

  “I knew that much, I just thought they were too busy to return so I didn’t question it. But them being missing, no, I didn’t know that. Do Raph and Vik know?”

  I shook my head. “He hasn’t told them, and I don’t think he wants to.”

  “They have to suspect something, right? Their mentors didn’t come back, Leo and Nikolai returned, but not the others. If Vik and Raph don’t know…”

  “They’ve been lied to?”

  Dante turned his intense, dark eyes on me, and nodded.

  “Do you know how close they are?” I asked.

  “Close. Henry, Vik’s mentor, is an archaeologist. The two of them have gone digging around for fragments of arcane knowledge before. Entire months spent together, hunting down the past. Covell is a professional psychotherapist, though he hasn’t worked at a clinic in years. He also travels, but often performs psyche evaluations on supernaturals that come to the mansion; Raphael works for him.”

  “They were definitely lied to, then. I don’t see how they could just ignore the fact that their mentors didn’t show up when the others did.”

  “This isn’t the first-time mentors haven’t shown up when they’re supposed to. My question is, who did the lying? Was it Leo, or is the Keeper covering things up?”

  “I really don’t like this, Dante. I don’t know what to do.”

  “You don’t have to do anything, Lilith. You haven’t done anything wrong here. You just overheard the conversation, and you did the right thing in coming to me. I want to say I can’t believe that rat bastard didn’t tell me what was going on, but that would be a lie, too. Son of a bitch.”

  I walked up to him and held his hands. “Please,” I whispered, “Calm down, okay? There must be a reason.”

  “He doesn’t want me involved in what he considers to be his affairs. That’s the reason.”

  “Maybe, but the worst thing you can do right now is take it personally and act out.”

  He took a deep breath. “I am taking it personally, but I won’t act on this. Not yet.”

  “Do you think we should tell Vik and Raph?”

  “I thought it was a good idea at first, but now I’m not sure.”

  “Why not?”

  “Vik is a smart guy, one of the smartest men I know, but Raphael is passionate, hot blooded, and he has this inspiring aura around him. The more I think about this, the more I think Raph will convince Vik into a stupid course of action.”

  “I thought you said Vik was smart.”

  “He is, but that’s the problem. He’ll think he can outsmart this problem, and maybe he’ll get close, but if two mentors have gone missing, then this is bigger than Vik.”

  “Leo doesn’t think so; he’s going to take Aiden tomorrow and try to retrace the mentors’ steps.”

  “Leo thinks he can take on the world. That line of thinking is going to get him killed one day.”

  “Him and whoever happens to be with him…”

  Dante’s gaze instantly softened. “You’re worried,” he said, “Worried about Aiden.”

  I turned my eyes away and nodded, but said nothing.

  “I know that was difficult to hear, but Aiden is a capable guy. Demons are quick to react, and powerful. If anything happens to him—”

  “I don’t doubt any of that, but that’s not the problem.”

  “Then what is?”

  “I… I don’t want to be separated from him.” I looked up at Dante again. “I don’t want to be separated from any of them.”

  Dante nodded. “I understand,” he said, “Better than anyone, I understand.”

  “You do?”

  “I’ve felt the same things you’re feeling. I know what it’s like to feel like you’re… dependent on people.”

  “Dependent. Is that what I am now?”

  “It’s complicated. You aren’t, exactly dependent on them but you do have a special connection to them. A strong one. Especially with the ones you’ve… been intimate with.”

  “Will this happen with every sexual encounter?”

  “No, there’s a huge difference between sex and intimacy.”

  “Do you have that too?”

  “Do I have what?”

  “Other women you’re especially connected to?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “No? I thought you were with a woman the other night.”

  “I was, but only because I had to. I don’t have a connection to anyone right now; the people I’m with are casual. I don’t usually see them again.”

  “How is that possible?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe I’ve just learned to suppress whatever it is that forms the need, the dependency.”

  Another first happened right at that very instant—Dante was lying to me, and I had caught it; I had seen the twinkle in his eye, had felt his heart start rapidly thumping. I had picked up on the lie, and I wasn’t about to let hi
m wriggle his way out of it. “Is that true?” I asked.

  Dante fell silent, jaw clenching. “What do you think?” he finally asked.

  “I think you’re keeping something from me, and I don’t know why or what it is, but I thought we could trust each other.”

  “I don’t know that I can.”

  “Dante, it’s me… you can tell me. I want you to. Please.”

  He swallowed, then sighed. “I was lying,” he said, “I haven’t learned to turn the dependency off.”

  “So, why’d you lie about it? I want to learn more about our kind, what it’s like to be us, to live as one of us.”

  “Because my dependency is… in the wrong place.”

  “Wrong place?”

  “You should go,” he said, ending the conversation way too quickly for my liking. “It’s been a long day. We all need to rest.”

  “You’re asking me to leave?”

  He nodded, but I could see the strain in his eyes; the conflict. I left his room without looking back. I stopped in the hallway for a flicker of an instant once I had shut his door, and considered my next action carefully.

  Dante had asked me not to say anything to Raph and Vik, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that they had to know. They had to be told. Their mentors were missing, and they had a right to know. At the same time, telling them meant going not only against Leo’s wishes, but also Dante’s. The only other option I had was to go to bed and sleep on it—I was starting to feel the pull of sleep getting heavier and heavier—but there existed every possibility that Aiden would be gone in the morning, and I wasn’t sure I liked that.

  On silent feet I padded across the hallway toward Vik’s door. Without hesitating, I knocked on it—loudly enough to wake the person inside. I waited, but Vik didn’t answer, so I knocked again. Still nothing. Frowning, I headed for Raph’s door and knocked on that one, too. Also, nothing. I stifled the yawn that came out of me, then knocked one more time, just to be sure, but that was also useless.

  By now the call to sleep was too loud for me to ignore. My eyes were heavy, my limbs felt soft and unresponsive, and neither Vik nor Raph were answering. I wanted to go to Aiden’s room, but my room was closer, and I almost felt like I wouldn’t make it another twenty seconds without passing out. Too long.

  I headed over to my bedroom, locked the door behind me once I was through, and tucked myself under the thick covers that had been laid over my bed. Sleep hit me hard, and fast. I was gone before I could think about anything that had happened tonight, plunging headfirst into a night of deep sleep plagued not exactly by dreams, but by what felt like the ghosts of dreams; distant, impossible to remember, but strangely unsettling.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I woke up with a start to the sound of a fist pounding against my bedroom door. At first, I thought I was dreaming, my brain still foggy with sleep. But then the sound came again, a beating so hard the entire room seemed to shake. I slipped out of bed still wearing last night’s clothes and hurried toward the bedroom door to open it.

  Leo was there, wearing jeans, a long black coat, black leather gloves, and looking like I’d just kicked his mom down a flight of stairs. “Get dressed, we’re leaving,” he said.

  “Wait… what?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder. It was still dark out. What time is it?

  “I’m going to give you five minutes to get changed and ready to go.”

  “Where am I going?”

  “This will be much easier for you if you don’t ask so many questions.” He checked his watch. “Four minutes and fifty seconds left.”

  I shook my head, doing my best to evict the sleep from my brain. “No way; I’m not going anywhere.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because! You can’t just barge into my room, wake me up, and demand I come with you. I don’t know where I’m going, what I’m doing, or why you feel like you own me, but it’s bullshit, and I’m not doing it.”

  “We can stand here and argue all you want, but I don’t see a single reason why you can’t do exactly what I say, exactly when I say it.”

  “I can think of a couple. Number one, Madeline wants to see me today; considering she’s the reason I was brought here, I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t flake out on our date.”

  He shook his head. “Taken care of. You aren’t seeing her today.”

  “You’re telling me she knows you’re taking me somewhere, and she’s okay with it?”

  “Of course.”

  “And what about Dante? And the Keeper? Do they know that you’re intending on taking me somewhere?”

  “I don’t see why I have to explain anything to them. Dante isn’t a mentor, and the Keeper has no control over my actions; he isn’t my boss. I, however, am your boss.”

  “Bullshit. You aren’t my boss.”

  “Lilith, I became your boss the instant you accepted me as your mentor. Now, turn around, get changed, and come down with me or we’re going to be late.”

  “Late for what!” My voice rose with the rising tide of anger bubbling within me. I didn’t want to go anywhere with Leo, and I couldn’t let him believe he could get whatever he wanted. But just as I was about to reply, telling him to go shove his little field trip up his ass, I remembered the conversation he and Madeline shared last night; remembered him mentioning he was going to take Aiden with him to retrace the lost mentors’ steps.

  “Where’s Aiden?” I asked.

  “Unlike you, he’s doing as he’s been told and is waiting downstairs for you to finish whatever this is.”

  “This? This is me telling you to stop acting like a dick, Leo. I don’t know what I’ve done to piss you off so much, but I don’t like being talked to the way you talk to me.”

  Leo’s eyebrows arched. “You don’t like it, do you?” he asked, advancing on me and forcing me back into my room. “Let me tell you something. This world is full of things we don’t like but have to put up with. Take you, for example. I didn’t want to be lumped with a succubus as a student. We aren’t compatible on a basic, fundamental level, which means training you is going to be an uphill battle for me that’ll probably only end in disappointment. So, before you start turning your nose up and waving that sense of entitlement around, remember this; if I drop you as a student, you’ll be sent away from the mansion. Forever. Out into the cold, alone. I couldn’t care less if you were the last woman on earth, let alone the last succubus. You do what I say, or I’ll feed you to the wolves, and there isn’t a damn thing the Keeper, or Dante, or any of your boyfriends can do about it. Is that understood?”

  My heart was thumping so hard it was sending dizzying amounts of blood into my temples, causing my vision to rattle. I wanted to stand my ground, but even though Leo was tall, and imposing, and while what he was saying sounded like an empty threat, like he was bluffing, a tiny piece of me worried he was telling the truth, and if he was, then what did that mean?

  Would he really send me out into the cold? Discard me like an old shirt? Feed me to the wolves? Moreover, would the others just stand idly by while he did? I didn’t think they would. Dante would object, as would Aiden and the others, but what if Leo really did have the authority to ditch me as a student and, in doing so, exile me from the mansion?

  Even a shred of doubt was enough to break the most fortified of hearts.

  I breathed deep. “Fine,” I said, “I’ll get changed and come with you.”

  “Good. You have less than three minutes. Don’t make me wait.”

  Leo turned around and left, and I scrambled to find something to wear—black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a leather jacket with a hood I could pull up against the cold or the rain. I slipped my feet into my Doctor Martens, my hands into a warm pair of gloves, and wrapped a black scarf around my neck before quickly heading out of the room and down the stairs. I wanted to go to Dante or the others and tell them what was happening, but I also didn’t like the thought of being cast out as an exile, and Leo had convinced me he c
ould do just that, if he so pleased.

  Downstairs, Leo and Aiden were both waiting just in front of the door to the British mansion. The foyer was cast in darkness save for a sliver of pale morning light slipping through. Outside, birds were happily hailing the dawn with their song. I walked up to the two men, hands in my jacket pocket, trying my best not to let my current rattled emotional state show on my face.

  “You’re late,” Leo said.

  “You gave me five minutes,” I said.

  “And you chose to argue for two of them; that wasn’t my fault.”

  I bit my lip to stifle the vitriol from leaving my mouth. “Alright, where are we going?”

  Leo opened the door and gestured for me to step through. The air was bitterly cold, and nipped angrily at my nose. Every blade of grass and flower was covered in a light layer of frost. My breath turned to steam in front of my face. I didn’t want to be out there—I wanted to be back in bed, with the covers up to my neck—but I pushed my hands deeper into my jacket pocket stepped along the cobblestone path leading away from the house.

  “So?” Aiden asked once we were through the Alexandria’s front gate and on the street. “Where are we going?”

  “I don’t want you repeating what I’m about to tell you,” Leo said, “But Henry and Covell are missing.”

  “Missing?” Aiden asked. Clearly, he hadn’t been clued in.

  “Yes, missing. We lost contact with them two weeks ago, and they didn’t turn up when they were summoned the other day. That normally wouldn’t be a problem, but I haven’t been able to reach them in any way. They should have checked in by now, and they haven’t.”

  “Is that why we’re here?”

  “That is exactly why I’m here. The Keeper just wanted to show his new succubus off.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Isn’t it? What reason did he give you?”

  “It doesn’t matter what he said, I know he didn’t bring me here just to show me off. Anyway, let’s get back to the real topic and stop messing around; why aren’t Vik and Raph here, and what do we know about these mentors?”