Wolves at the Door - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,15
one thousand percent living and breathing this campaign until election day.”
“I will,” I said, but I felt completely fucked.
Byron walked through the wall next to me and it was a testament to how weird life had been that I barely jumped.
He glanced behind him. “Oh—sorry about that. I suppose I should use doors. But a ghost has a few pleasures and one of them is walking through walls.”
“I’m afraid to ask what the others are.” I grimaced. I didn’t know what to say to Byron. I wanted Helena to myself, but I also couldn’t help wanting to know more about Byron. He wasn’t my blood relation, but we had a tie, and we were the same race. Maybe I was the one who didn’t seem normal. He didn’t seem possessive of Helena.
“To walk into her dreams…that is my greatest pleasure.”
Oh, he actually answered. Good lord.
“But there is no guarantee I’ll ever have more than that,” Byron said. “So I want you to make her happy.”
“And if you do have more than that?”
“Then…we’ll figure it out.” He actually smiled at me, with a little mischief in his eyes. He really wasn’t jealous.
I’d grown up in the human world, where if another man checked out your girlfriend, you told him to back the hell off. And if your girlfriend was seeing another guy, you needed to have a talk. Maybe some people agreed on an open relationship, but I could never do that. I was afraid to have a serious relationship, but if I did, I knew I would want to be all-in. For the weeks I was back home working on my campaign, I was thinking of Helena.
“I’ll give you a tip as to how to change between demon form and human form,” Byron continued. “Don’t try to do it all at once. Just focus on the wings first. Then the tail. Then the horns, then the claws. And look in the mirror. For some reason, the visual helps. Once you do it a couple of times, it won’t be hard.”
I nodded thanks and looked at my reflection in the window glass. Might as well give it a try. I imagined the wings vanishing up into my back.
After all my struggling, the wings now vanished easily. I was surprised at how well the suggestion worked. Now I moved to the tail, and I could finally straighten out my torn clothes. “Thanks, man,” I said, still brusque with him.
“You remind me of Talin,” Byron said. “The thing about our race is that, despite our intense sex drive, we often have a lot of drive to do other things too. One leads to the other, I think. We have to have somewhere to put the energy since no one can have sex all day. In the magical world, we aren’t always given our due because we have that reputation for seducing the unwilling. But in fact, an incubus doesn’t prey on the unwilling, but the willing. And when we’re not doing that, we can be quite productive members of society. Talin was always trying to change the world.”
“I never met my grandmother…”
“No. Talin died before you were born. But you’re more like her than you were like your father.” Byron added, “Be proud.”
“Some have told me I’m a little too proud,” I said, laughing it off a little. My face must have shown my wariness. I wasn’t used to friendly conversations with romantic rivals. Sometimes other men picked fights with me just because their girlfriends were checking me out. “So I guess you’re just used to this. All the needs that come with being an incubus, and the attention.”
“It’s what we do,” Byron said. “Although I might be a little too proud myself.” He leaned on the window frame that he had just passed through moments earlier. “Let me remind you, the Sullivan brothers will be here soon and our girl—”
“Is she our girl now?”
“We might be in for a little competition.” Byron raised his brows. “They know how to work together. If we did the same, then we’ll win her.” He shrugged one shoulder.
“So you’re suggesting we agree to…because otherwise Jake and Jasper might win her heart and they don’t have any qualms about sharing?”
“Exactly. Anyway, you could use a little mentorship, just like I once showed Talin the ropes at the library.”
“You’re very old,” I commented.
“It doesn’t matter how old I am. My life has been frozen. We’re practically the same age.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, just like I wasn’t