Succubus Shadows Page 0,17

then."

"I'm sorry I don't have any ready answers. I never seem to."

"Not in the beginning," I said. "But you always come through in the end. More patterns."

"Hmm?"

"Nothing," I said with a small sigh. "Sometimes I just feel like the same things are happening to me over and over. Like, even this siren thing. Why me? In the last year, I've been targeted over and over. What are the odds? Why does this keep happening?"

Erik's eyes studied me for several moments. "There are some people around whom the powers and supernatural beings of the world will always circle. You appear to be one of them."

"But why?" I asked, surprised at the childish tone in my voice. "I'm just another succubus. There are tons of us out there. And why recently? Why only in the last year?" It had to be the cruelest joke in the world that all these paranormal mishaps had started happening right when my romantic ones had. Apparently, one source of pain just wasn't enough.

"I don't know," Erik admitted. "Things change. Forces move that we can't see." He paused and coughed, making me wince. How sick was he? "Again, I feel like I'm useless to you."

I reached out and gently squeezed his shoulder. "No, no. You're invaluable to me. I don't know how I would have gotten by all these years without you." This earned me a smile.

Wanting him to go to bed, I picked up my purse to leave. As I was heading to the door, he suddenly said, "Miss Kincaid?"

I glanced back. "Yeah?"

"Do you still talk to Mr. Mortensen?"

The question caught me by surprise. Erik had been intrigued when Seth and I were dating, marveling at the connection between a human and a succubus, though he didn't have the crazy obsession that Carter used to.

"Sure. Sometimes." My earlier conversation with Seth came back to me, the ease and warmth that had surrounded us.

"And things are amicable?"

"More or less." Aside from his impending marriage, of course.

"That's good. It doesn't always happen in these situations."

"Yeah, I know. Although - " I bit off my words.

Erik tilted his head, studying me curiously. "Although what?"

"It's amicable, except sometimes...sometimes this whole situation with him. It's like having my soul split in two."

"Understandable," he said. Those eyes burned with compassion, and I felt tears spring up in my own. "I'm sorry I brought it up. I was just curious."

I assured him it was okay and said good-bye again. The mention of Seth and the recollection of being with him earlier had made my mood go melancholy. I drove back to West Seattle, miserable that I'd be helping with his wedding tomorrow and worried over Erik's sickly state. As heavily as those thoughts weighed on me, they immediately flew from my mind as soon as I walked into my living room.

"Roman!"

He sat on the couch as he had last time, now eating a microwavable chicken pot pie. The TV was on, but he didn't seem to be watching it. When he looked up at me, he didn't wear that amused, teasing look. His expression was dark. Troubled, even.

"I've been waiting for you to get home," I exclaimed, tossing my purse and keys to the floor. "You won't believe what happened."

Roman sighed. "No, you won't believe what happened."

"Yeah, but this is - "

He held up a hand to interrupt me. "Let me get this out first. It's been driving me crazy."

I swallowed my impatience. "Okay. I'll bite. Does it have something to do with Simone?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I followed her tonight to this twenty-four-hour coffee shop called Bird of Paradise." He eyed me carefully. "Do you know it?"

Now I felt a frown creeping over my face. "Yeah...it's in Queen Anne, right around the corner from Emerald City. What was she doing there? I mean, aside from getting coffee?"

Roman's expression turned darker and - unless I was mistaken - sympathetic. "She was there hitting on a guy," he said. "Seth."

Chapter 5

I stared at him, and the world stood still for a moment. "Wait...Seth was meeting Simone there?"

Roman shook his head. "I wouldn't say that exactly. It was more like she sought him out. He looked like he'd been working there for a while when she showed up."

"And then?" My voice was very small.

"Then, she walked over to him and shyly introduced herself as a fan, saying she recognized him from his website. Picture perfect demure coquette."

"And then?"

"She said she wished she had a book with her to sign and asked if he'd sign a