Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Holy shit, I’m asleep.

At least, I was pretty sure I was asleep. Since I hadn’t gone to sleep in at least a week, the concept was a difficult one.

It wasn’t a normal sleep, but I must have had a few moments of true REM action because the scene in my dream wasn’t the one I’d just left.

Zane stood over the bed in my dream, shrugging on his jacket. He was fully clothed again, much to my disappointment-the man had a sweet body-but his hair was still tousled from sex, his mouth still as thrillingly moist as when I’d last kissed it. His eyes had cooled back to their normal dark shade, and as I watched, he stuffed my gun into his waistband.

That made my dream-self pause. What was he doing with my gun? The blue one?

He stared down at the bed, remorse flicking across his face. “Sorry, Jackie. I imagine you’ll be quite mad when you wake up.” His hand reached down to brush my cheek.

Hell, I was already getting pretty steamed. Nobody had to wait for me to wake up.

Zane left, solicitously hung the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the doorknob, and shut the door behind him. To my surprise, my mind’s-eye followed him as he walked down the hall of the hotel, whistling.

He paused outside of Remy’s door and knocked, still whistling a cheerful little tune. He wiggled his fingers at the peephole, and then the door slid open.

It was Stan, his hair tousled, dressed only in pajama bottoms. He looked at Zane with irritation. “What do you want?”

The stolen derringer pointed at Stan’s forehead, and the human froze. A cocky smile crossed Zane’s face. “You’re coming with me.”

I struggled to wake up from the bizarre dream, not liking the avenue that this was turning down. But for some reason I couldn’t rouse myself enough to return to consciousness. I was forced to watch helplessly as the scene unrolled before me.

Remy was at Stan’s side, both of their eyes trained on the ridiculously small blue derringer. She cursed fluently, staring up at Zane with hatred. “Where did you get that gun?”

He cocked it, the heartbreakingly mischievous grin on his face tearing my soul into shreds. “I took it. Nice of you to arm your friend, Remy. The good thing about these guns is that they kill humans same as any other weapon, don’t they?”

The mutinous look on her face told Zane everything he needed to know.

“What do you want?” Remy’s voice was weary, her hand slowly reaching up.

“Uh uh, naughty succubus,” Zane corrected, dragging Stan out of the hotel room, gun still trained on his forehead. “No touching. I’m not falling for your dream-tricks today.”

Remy lunged, her hand brushing down his arm, and I tensed, wondering what would happen.

Nothing happened, except Zane sideswiped the worst of her lunge and she fell to the floor. His hand wrapped around Stan’s throat and he lifted him in the air as Stan began to make choking noises. “Not nice, Remy. Now your little friend is going to suffer.”

Remy stared up at him in a mix of hatred and shock. “I don’t understand.”

Zane grinned down at her. “Don’t you?”

“Oh shit,” she said, getting up off the floor. “You fucked her, didn’t you? God, that girl is so stupid sometimes. You took her blood, too, didn’t you? All so you could be immune to Suck powers. I should have guessed that you’d use her like that.”

I should have guessed it, too.

Zane tsked, his hand tightening about Stan’s throat. The human was turning an unbecoming shade of purple at this point. “That’s not nice, Remy. What I do in my personal life is my own business, and I’d prefer if you didn’t say unflattering things about Jackie.”

He was defending me and betraying me at the same time? Part of me was flattered, but the horrified part of me squashed that thought down.

“I did it because the queen needs a halo, and I don’t plan on forcing Jackie to do anything she doesn’t want to do.” The look in his eyes was possessive.

Oh no.

Remy smirked. “Then you’re at an impasse, I’m afraid. I’m not going to do anything for you.”

Even I could tell Remy was lying. Her eyes were glued to Stan’s purple face.

Zane laughed and shook his head, giving Stan’s limp body a little shake. “Won’t you?”

Silence.

For about two seconds. Then Remy blurted, “Okay! Just stop hurting him!”

Zane let go of Stan’s throat, and he clapped the human on the shoulder as he wheezed for breath. “Of course, Remy.” The derringer wiggled against Stan’s temple encouragingly. “But you two are coming with me.”

“Where to?” Remy’s voice was flat. She’d given up the argument by this point.

“I believe Jackie mentioned Amarna. It seems that she’s all but found the halo for us.” Again, the bladelike smile.

“Is she coming with us?”

He shook his head, the dark lock of hair falling over his brow. Even in villainy Zane was stunningly beautiful, and my heart broke all over again. “I’m afraid she’s indisposed at the moment.”

“If you’ve hurt her-”

Aww, how nice that Remy was finally concerned for me.

“Why would I hurt her?” Zane seemed puzzled. “She’ll understand what I’m doing, once she’s had time to cool down.” He gestured for Stan to walk forward. “Now come on-we’ve got a boat to catch. I’ve got people waiting on me.”

That bastard! I recalled our conversation just before I’d nodded off into my unnatural sleep.

“I don’t know if I can do it, Zane. I don’t know if I can give her that halo. It’ll be really bad if she gets it, won’t it?”

His thumb rubbed against my lips. “Yeah.” There was a long pause in which neither of us said anything. Then Zane kissed my mouth. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, Jackie. Ever.”

In his own misguided way, Zane was saving me from a decision-and in doing so, destroying us all. I struggled again to awaken, but it was useless. I recognized the feeling of deep, unconscious sleep just moments before it swept over me, drowning out the rest of my vision.

I’m not sure when I woke up. It was more of a gradual return to consciousness, and my eyes fluttered open. My hands tingled in their bonds, and my head throbbed with an enormous headache that didn’t help my mood any.

I tested my wrists. Jerking on the scarf only caused the material to cut into my skin. Damn it.

The dream was still spinning in my mind, fresh and ugly. Part of me wanted to think it was nothing more than a bizarre dream, but the realistic part of me put the pieces together. Succubi don’t normally sleep, and the fact that my erstwhile lover was nowhere to be seen told me that I’d somehow glimpsed what was truly going on while I lay asleep.

The bastard just had to go and tie me up, didn’t he? I jerked at my wrists again and winced when pain shot through my arms.

I pondered my options as I lay there, nude. Call for help? Wait it out? Chew my own wrists off?

“Heeelp!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “I need help in room 214!”

After five minutes of screaming, my voice started to go hoarse. I was about to give up when I heard a hesitant knock at the door.

“Miss?”

Delighted, I jerked at my bonds again. “Yes! Please come help me! I’m stuck!” I tried to kick one of the blankets crumpled at my feet over my body, with little success.

The door opened and two bellhops entered, their eyes bugging out at the sight of me, naked and sprawled and tied down to the bed.

Uh oh. I was starting to rethink my plan. Probably not the smartest thing I’d ever done, I thought as I watched their eyes glaze over from startled to lustful. “Hi, guys,” I said, trying to maintain a casual tone despite the fact that their eyes were fixed on my breasts. “Care to untie me?”

I watched them exchange a look, and my hope turned to fear. Those didn’t look like the expressions of people who were going to help me. Both wore smiles that made my skin crawl and regarded me with slitted eyes.

The first one came closer, and I recognized him from my ill-fated trip down the hallway. Oh crap. It was the same busboy as before. Kasib trailed a hand across my stomach, and to my dismay, my skin began to burn with a feeling of desire.

I hated being a succubus sometimes.

Okay, most of the time.

“Look, buddy, you don’t want to do that,” I said, trying to keep my voice reasonable.

His friend looked hesitant, but the look in the eyes of the guy touching me didn’t change. Drastic measures were going to be needed. The only question was, what would I do? I couldn’t do anything special.

Or could I?

As he bent over-to kiss me, I’m sure-my leg reached up and whacked him square on the forehead. I felt my mind connect with his at the same moment that my big toe touched his brow, and his eyes rolled back in his head and he went down like a light as I sent him into dreamland.

I glared at the companion, who was staring at his downed friend in shocked horror. “He’s going to be unconscious until I bring him back-and if you want that to happen, you’ll untie me now.”

“Yes, madam.” He hurried forward to undo my bonds.

Pleased, I began to plot out my next move. “Hurry it up,” I demanded, “and tell me where I can rent a speedboat at this time of night.”