Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,46

I don’t need you to do a damn thing.”

“You needed us to purge the demon,” he scolded me lightly as he trailed a finger down my throat to the mark, pink and faded against my skin. The mark of his mouth, and electricity went from tingling to zapping my system like I’d touched a live wire. “You needed to finish your transition.”

No matter how soaked my thighs were, those last six words helped dry me right out. “I never wanted to be a vampire.” I slapped his hand away from me.

He sighed. “You’re being childish.”

“Then fuck off, Daddy-o. You wanted to be a sire to a child, this is what you get.”

Eyes narrowed, he raised his hand, and I braced for his next touch. Shockingly, or maybe just to me, I wasn’t worried about him hitting me. Far from it.

I was far more worried he’d kiss me and my traitorous body would jump on board, ticket or no, to ride the happy train.

Fuck. I yanked my thoughts off that single-track path. I didn’t want to be a vampire. I definitely didn’t want Asshole.

Liar.

Fin’s tease made me groan, and I closed my eyes. The air around us all seemed to change as he arrived, even my goosebumps got goosebumps. The sudden nearness of not just Rogue and Alfred, but Fin and… I turned toward Maddox, and when my gaze collided with my dragon’s, guilt surged up through the rage to claw at me.

His beautiful eyes were slitted as he stared at me, his expression haunted and his jaw locked. “I told you,” I said quietly. “Succubi don’t do relationships. It’s…just not a good idea.”

The anger drained out of me as I moved away from all of them and retreated toward the house. I didn’t flee so much as fling myself down to sit on the steps. I set the mug aside. I didn’t think I could stomach even the idea of it at the moment. All of the good intentions I’d poured both cups with had long since soured.

Fin whistled slowly. “Yeah, the tension here is giving me a headache. Why don’t you two take a breather and let us talk to her?”

I didn’t have to look up to know who he meant. Rubbing my hands over my face, I tried to gather together the shreds of myself and my complicated feelings. I’d kill for a drink right now, and I didn’t care what time it was. The four of them didn’t say anything, but when I finally lowered my hands, I was alone with Maddox and Fin. The dragon waited until I looked at him before he crossed to where I sat.

The need to apologize to him vibrated on my tongue. I’d left him. He’d given me his word to let me go in that cell. It had been Rogue and Fin who’d made him a liar. Then it was Rogue who gave me the keys to my freedom. But I had left him.

“You’re well?” His tone was brusque, but there was a dark heaviness to his words.

“I was,” I admitted. “Kind of went sideways though.”

With care, he eased to sit on the steps next to me. His thigh was close enough to brush against my own, but he kept a careful space. Fin, surprisingly, said nothing. When I stole a look at him, he gave me a careless little shrug, then nodded to Maddox.

Ah.

Swallowing, I focused on Maddox again. “Are you well?”

“No,” he told me bluntly. “I will survive, however.”

Probably not a good track to pursue then.

“Good.” Because, really, what else was I going to say? Sorry? I get that you want me to be your mate, but that’s not me? That seemed particularly cruel. Fuck my life, I didn’t want to hurt him.

You know, beyond the fact that I’d kicked him in the balls twice back before I got to know him.

“If you were so unhappy, why didn’t you tell us?” Maddox asked. The quiet question pressed a firm pause button on the guilt eating me up.

“How would you have imagined I wasn’t unhappy?” I demanded. “I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t ask you to keep me chained to all of you. You stole me from one prison and then promptly locked me up in another.”

Fin clucked, but we both ignored him. Maddox’s eyes flared. “You were not a prisoner.”

“Could have fooled me. I wasn’t allowed to leave. One of you was always watching me. You told me over and over I had to feed. Then