Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,13

incensed me.

Another vampire raced at them, but I stepped in his path and locked gazes with him. He hissed, but a second later, he slammed into a wall and I didn’t have to do anything. Rogue stood where he’d been.

Eyebrow cocked, he said, “Go to the dais before I have to kill half of this room.”

I snorted. “No.”

The count’s feet were kicking in the air, and try as he might, he couldn’t break Maddox’s grip. Fury and bloodlust filled my dragon, even as Rogue put a hand on his shoulder.

“Let him go, Maddox. He’s learned his lesson.”

“No,” Maddox gritted out. “He shouldn’t have touched her.”

That earned me another glare from Rogue.

The scattering of voices rose in volume. “Maddox,” Rogue attempted again. “Let him go.”

Alfred hadn’t moved from the dais. I didn’t have to look to know it. His presence danced over my skin like an electric wave when he approached. The vampire had slowly begun to stop fighting. They didn’t need air, per se, but there was a very good chance his vertebrae were shattering.

Really, all he’d done was touch my hand.

Taking a deep breath, I drew Maddox’s bloodlust into me. It was sharp, piquant, and very spicy as it spilled into my veins like liquid fire. The stiffness in his shoulders eased, and his jaw unlocked. When he opened his hand, the count fell and landed on his ass, fine clothes be damned. The man coughed and sputtered, but Rogue actually looked relieved, albeit briefly, before even that expression vanished.

“Be clear,” Maddox informed the downed vampire, then he swept his gaze over the others. “You keep your hands to yourself unless granted the approach.”

“They understand,” Rogue assured him.

With a pained look and a flash of rage in his eyes—right at me, because yeah, I did all that, fuck you too, buddy—the count moved to his knees and offered obeisance. Everyone in his party went down, then rose one at a time to offer their throats.

Maddox let out an aggrieved sigh, and Rogue murmured something to him.

I could probably guess.

They’d exerted authority, so offerings had to be made and accepted.

The cuts on Maddox’s face had already begun to heal. Leaving them to it, I slipped away into the crowd, leaning into the one part of my nature few seemed to understand. Succubi fed on lust. We craved it above all other emotions to fill a blatant hunger. It wasn’t that we didn’t long for caring or even friendship, but we didn’t feed on those things.

Everyone believed succubi were always in lust, always a half-step away from dropping our clothes. It happens, don’t get me wrong, but it was all about feeding the hunger inside of us—the biological imperative to survive. That said, we could also feed the lust in others. Inflame it. I’d done it with Rogue, and I could do it with this noisy crowd. They were all eager for something, hungry for it, desperate in some cases, and in others, already enraged that they had to ask for what they believed should be theirs. It didn’t always work, but the partial frenzy in this crowd and the eagerness to win notice with the others helped.

I drifted, sipping my wine and weaving through the crowd in an attempt to lose myself in the throng without any of my keepers on my ass.

“Children,” Alfred said, his voice carrying over the assembled and sending a ripple of apprehension and desire up my spine. “Settle.” Everything in his tone demanded absolute obedience.

The quiet rolled through room, silencing the voices both protesting and otherwise. Twisting, I moved between two taller vampires, both dressed in business suits and looking almost too corporate to be here in this ancient setting. Course, they fit in a little better than the rock star wannabe with the rainbow hair four feet away.

The crowd shifted, and I focused on that agitator. He hated being here. Hated it because he wanted what Alfred had.

“Why should we?” he demanded all of a sudden, surging forward and dragging the attention of the rest. “Why should we bow and scrape when you’ve been gone for over a century?”

“You don’t have to do anything,” Alfred informed the detractor. “If you truly wish to break your covenant with me, just say the word.”

Oh, he sounded so reasonable.

And bored.

“Well I do, I have—” We never really did learn what he had. Alfred separated his head from his body and then resumed his place on the dais without so much as mussing his hair.

The vampires nearest the