it. When Rogue came into my life, he had his own agenda. He fit, and when battle nearly took him, I saved his life. He did not thank me for it.
No, quite the opposite, he tried to kill me. It says something for our friendship that he tried to kill me for five years before he considered forgiving me.
He has been my friend ever since. My constant companion.
The images raced away, almost too fast for me to hold onto. I gasped when he pulled his wrist from my mouth and then tucked his face down to my throat.
“No,” I tried to squirm, but his arms locked around me.
“Yes, my hellion. I am removing all trace of him from you.” The rasp of his voice was a dark promise all its own, and my whole body seemed to go liquid. Then his teeth sank in, and I wanted to scream. Panic clawed its way up, but he didn’t tear away or rend. His arms tightened, a hug not pinning me down, and with care, he began to stroke my hair.
I was in the shop. I loved this shop so much. We’d worked hard to cultivate the clientele. Mundane and supernatural, they all came to us. I didn’t own the place, no, I just worked there, but I loved it. I loved the feeling infused into every part of the place.
“What’s your favorite part?” The whisper of his voice against my ear had me turning. No one was there, but I looked to the wall of crystals. In the afternoon, when the sun hit them, it became a wall of light. Part of why my perfect house would be one with floor to ceiling windows where I could see the whole world, not some dark, cramped little apartment that faced the brick wall of the building next door.
“It’s beautiful.” Like a ghost, he trailed his fingers down my arm to take my hand. “Show me your house?”
It wasn’t mine yet. Just a place. An idea.
“Show me.” Command and request. Seduction and demand.
With a roll of my eyes, I retreated from the shop and walked out onto the deck of my cliff house. I could see it so perfectly. The salty air blew in from the west. The thrum of the waves a soothing soundtrack, even as birds called in the distance. He was indistinct, but he stood next to me as I leaned against the railing.
“Open…not very defensible.”
I snorted. “I don’t want to hide behind walls,” I confessed. “I’ve lived in the shadows for so long. I want light. I want—this.” Open skies. Open air. Light everywhere.
“Who kept you in the shadows, hellion?”
Life. What I was. Succubi didn’t even want to be around their own kind. We separated from our families as soon as we could survive on our own. We dared not get too close. It was why I had to go.
“Shh…you don’t have to do anything. Show me more.”
I should tell him no. I really should. This was my place. I’d built it for me.
“Please.”
The single word shocked me. I’d already wanted to show him, but now… Fine. I took his hand, threading my fingers with his, and guided him inside. The bedroom was exactly as I envisioned it. Huge, like the room I shared with Rogue, Maddox, and Fin. The bed was much bigger, too. So it was the same with a few tweaks.
He chuckled at the description as we moved toward the windows and looked out over the ocean. “Magnificent.”
I thought so, too. It was why I wanted to be able to look over it. Always. “Just imagine the sunset over the water…” The light changed and played exactly as I’d wanted it to be.
“Show me more?”
The bathroom, the sunken tub and the oversized shower. Though images of the pools in the bathing room flickered in and out. Downstairs, I showed him the kitchen and dining areas, but they were the library. Piece by piece, my house turned into the keep and then changed back.
“It’s all right, Fiona. Trust me.”
Why should I? But he didn’t answer the question as darkness crowded my vision, and then I was gasping as he lifted his head. We were in some room I’d never been in before, and Alfred gazed down at me, his lips red with my blood. He rolled me over so I lay breast to chest, and then he tucked my head to his throat. I knew what he wanted but I was so tired.