Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,80

my freak flag fly so we can both get over it.” Largely because this verbal dancing suddenly made me nervy as hell. I didn’t get nervy. Shit happened, I accepted that for what it was, but this? This was going to make me batty if he kept it up.

That, and I wanted Maddox here. My mind kept flitting to him. Like…

“Your freak flag is just a phrase, yes? You don’t actually have a flag.”

I opened my mouth to explain, but there was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Great,” I drawled. “Everyone’s a comedian.”

That earned me a slap on the ass and the sting sent a jolt of heat through my system. The answering flare in his eyes told me we’d be playing with that again.

Yes, please, and thank you.

Don’t get distracted, Fiona. I gave myself a stern shake.

“I need to keep up with you, my queen,” he murmured, and that sent an entirely different kind of jolt through my system. But rather than focus on that, he sat up, one arm around me to keep me in his lap as he met my gaze. “Twelve of us fell. We refused to take sides in a war for Heaven.”

Wait…

…what?

“When our brother broke with our father, we were charged with holding the line. We would not draw on them, nor would we wage battle. At the height of the war, we were cast out and consigned to Earth.”

I might not have gotten the best grades in math, but I understood basic equations.

“You’re an angel.”

“No,” he said slowly. “No longer.”

He didn’t have wings.

As if anticipating my question, he gave me a small smile and slid the hand from my throat to face. “The wings burned when we fell. The intent was to kill us. But when we were created, we were created of celestial material and infused with the breath of life. Even consigned to mortality, we evolved.”

Oh. “I bet your pops was pissed.”

He gave a shrug. “I wouldn’t know. We have heard nothing from him since that fateful day. Where once my brothers and sisters were numerous, then they became only twelve. The evolution gave us the taste for blood, and the gift of life—the breath of it—gave us the power to change others. To grant them immortality.”

“You don’t just trip over something like that,” I said. “I mean, I can’t imagine you woke up and went, huh, think I’ll bite that dude and give him my blood and see what happens.”

I don’t know why I was trying to lighten this up, but the weight on Alfred seemed almost interminable, and to be honest, as real as I’d always known Hell to be, I really didn’t want to think about Heaven.

Good girls versus bad girls and all that stuff.

Besides—hello, demon.

“I would give anything to understand your mind, and I think in a millennia, I will still be just as captivated,” he admitted.

“That’s sweet, and I’m very much a sure thing at the moment,” I told him, aware of his cock hardening between my thighs. “I promise, you can impale me on that lovely dick of yours after we figure this out, because I think I’m going to need a scorecard.”

He chuckled. “It is not that complicated, Hellion.” While I loved how he said my name, I had to admit there was a thrill at the possessive way he intoned ‘hellion.’ “Yes, it took time to discover the ability. Some sooner than others. Some abused it, others refused to consign anyone to our fate. Not all were thrilled to find themselves earthbound, forever banned from all we’d known, and trapped amongst warring tribes of creatures, from elves to shifters to the humans in between.”

“Yeah, I can see how that would suck.” I coughed. “Pun not intended.” Another faint smile. Look at me—scoring two in a row. “But you said there are only seven of you left. What happened to the other five?”

“I killed three of them,” he said, and I stared at him. “We are hard to kill, not impossible.”

Oh. Shit.

“Of the last two, they were killed by others. The battle lines had been drawn, and those five were the most fierce in the creation of vampires. They were intent on raising whole armies. They thought to settle the scourge of the earth by force.”

The story he told was filled with blood and vengeance, terrible battles, and a mind-numbing death count. In some ways it was better—or worse, depending on how you looked at it—than that last season of Game of