Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,66

offense. Enough that Maddox is willing to break with me, as is Rogue.”

So this was what bothered him. Losing his friends. Of course. The little kernel of hurt that swam up irked me. Why should his affection for them have anything to do with me? Of course they mattered more. We were not friends. Mutiny kept me silent though, because I wasn’t willing to betray how much his words affected me.

It didn’t make any damn sense anyway.

This whole conversation might be easier if I got off his lap, but he had an arm around me and he was both warm and safe. Maybe the attack had affected me more than I wanted to admit. I glanced up to the ceiling where the black cloud had been like a tornado in the room, and there was no evidence of it.

“It’s gone,” Alfred assured me, even though I hadn’t asked.

“What was it?” Of all the things we’d discussed during my initial tenure here, we hadn’t discussed what the hell a shadow taint was, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with that inky cloud thing. That had been a first.

In all the fucking, biting, draining, and drinking, I hadn’t seen one of those before.

With a sigh, Alfred glanced down at my thigh as he nudged the robe a little wider to give him more room to trace patterns against my skin. “Succubi are demons, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Can you leave a little of yourself behind on someone you’ve fed on?” He glanced at me from beneath his lashes, and there was no hostility in the question, just simple inquiry.

“I can set off an orgy,” I admitted, one corner of my mouth kicking up. Chin lifting, he stared at me a beat and then did something I couldn’t have predicted.

He laughed.

The sound came right up from his belly and radiated out like a fountain of warmth. My smile grew as his expression lightened, and he squeezed my leg. “You are why the reception turned into a wild hunt’s worth of fornication.”

“And I’m not even sorry about it.” Except… “Hopefully, whoever you got laid with…”

He snorted. “Laid is the word for sex? For fucking?”

“More or less.”

“Then the one I wanted wasn’t there, so I didn’t indulge.”

Huh.

“It did make for some amusing explanations as my guests came back to themselves. I do believe there were a few who didn’t expect to find themselves entangled once more or ever.” A careless shrug. “However, is that leaving a piece of yourself there?”

“In a manner of speaking,” I said, a little curious about who ended up together. Then I thought about those shifters in the kitchen and skipped right on past that. In a few months if there were little ones running around, it might be better if we forgot about my consensual non-consent. Though it really wouldn’t have affected them if they hadn’t wanted to do it. I just removed the inhibitions. “I don’t get it back, that piece, it’s just…like lighting a match. The spark travels, feeds the fire, and poof…” I made a motion like an explosion with my hands. “It’s gone.”

“Then you do not do as some other demons do. Not all demons are equal.”

He didn’t have to tell me that, but I nodded. “I tend to avoid other demons. Succubi aren’t really considered that high on the scale of things.” Too often we were treated like whores there to service their pleasures. As unfair as that was, a lot of succubi were content as long as we could feed. It was a really narrow ledge to walk along.

The morality of the situation didn’t faze me in the slightest. The presumptuousness, however…well, they could go fuck themselves. I said as much to Alfred, and he spread his fingers out over my thigh again, stroking slowly almost like he was petting me. “I had a similar presumption,” he admitted. “I did not see why you would rebel when I could feed you pleasure upon pleasure. When all of us could.”

“Because I’m not a fuck toy,” I told him drily. “No matter how I’m drawn on paper. There’s more to me than that.” It took everything to keep the wounded note out of my voice. Particularly since he’d been delving through my memories when he drained me. “Or was that all you saw when you fed on me?”

“I saw your house,” he told me as if I was being ridiculous. “The shop where you worked. Your friend Elias.”

Fuck.

“I saw your loneliness, Hellion.”

I snorted. “I’m fine.”

“Now,” he agreed.