Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,24

had.” Particularly when I didn’t have it anymore.

“You haven’t been to a club once this week.” It wasn’t a question. I hadn’t left Elias’ house since I’d arrived, except to go on his torturous runs with him.

Twenty miles. And he’d told me he’d been holding back.

Tomorrow, we were supposed to go forty.

He was a sadist.

I wasn’t entirely sure why we were friends.

“Okay, pity party, table for one. You’ve been called, seated, served, and now it’s time to pay the check.”

Oh right, we could both be assholes when the occasion called for it. I lifted my middle finger in his direction. His teeth flashed as he smiled. “Wow, that was weak. Your game falter that much, Red?”

“Maybe,” I said, shrugging again. Long before the thirst hit, longing had already sunk into my bones. I’d started dreaming about them. It was like I could feel them, as if they were right there with me. I’d even caught myself reaching for them a couple of times when I woke. The last time, the ache had been so profound, I’d gone into Elias’ bedroom and crawled into bed with him. He’d only given me a curious look and then wrapped his arms around me.

Surrounded by his scent and his heat should have been enough to chase away the dreams. But it didn’t work. They followed me like plague locusts. Elias hadn’t commented the next morning, and neither had I. Though, I’d avoided fleeing in there again. We’d been friends for a long time and never lovers. I was so not his type. Too high maintenance—his words, not mine—and too much red hair. Probably why we got along so well. We wanted nothing from each other but companionship.

By all rights, he could have kicked me to the curb when I showed up. His dislike for vampires was legendary, but he hadn’t. He’d just moved me into the guest room and let me wallow, however briefly, before beginning my torture.

“Fiona,” Elias said, sitting forward abruptly and pinning me with a look. “This isn’t like you. Do you need to feed?”

I shook my head. Even if the thirst was a constant scratch at the back of my throat, something that water, beer, and coffee couldn’t slake, I wasn’t hungry. “No, I’m not, I’m just…I’m just at a loss for what to do right now.” That also wasn’t like me, and I wasn’t so lost in all of this that I didn’t recognize it. I’d fought to hold onto myself every single day in that prison.

Clawing for every inch of my routine and reality until Maddox walked in and…

I shook my head. Even after they got me out, I kept fighting. I wanted my freedom. I wanted Maddox to keep his word, to let me go. After Alfred woke up, the only thing I could fight for was to keep one piece of myself hoarded away, boarded up and safe.

I’d finally gotten Fin out of my mind. Now I had everything I’d wanted.

I was free.

So why couldn’t I even enjoy it?

“What do you want to do? You already said you couldn’t go back to the shop, and I haven’t been able to get a line on what happened to your things.”

Those were a lost cause. “Thanks for trying though.” I still had Rogue’s card hidden away, along with my new identification and the burner phone. I usually had them both on me when I ran, but when I returned to Elias’ place, I hid them away. They were my armor out there in the world, not that I was facing the world.

“Red, you know I love you like a sister.”

“Nah, you’d like a sister.”

“No,” he said after a beat. “I really don’t like either of my sisters. You’ve met them. They’re mean.”

I grinned. “Point taken, because I’m never mean.”

He snorted, but widened his eyes as though mocking me. “Sweetness and light, that’s you. Butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth.”

Yep, that got him another middle finger. “Anyway…you were saying I know you love me like a sister.”

“Right, I do. But this shit? This wallowing and pity party that you have going on? It’s not doing anything for anyone, least of all you. I’m not kicking you out—”

“But it’s time for me to go,” I finished for him.

He shook his head. “Not quite, but close. If I thought you staying here was helping you, I wouldn’t say a damn thing. My alpha isn’t thrilled you’re here, but he trusts me to handle my own business.” That was something.

“Your alpha has