Page 17

Dalton

“Nowhere To Run” — From Ashes To New

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I demanded for probably the hundredth time.

Her red lips curved up in a wicked smile as she leaned down and ran her fingernail from my neck down the center of my chest. Her hair, which she’d colored to look like Ryian’s, fell forward and tickled my skin. “What I wasn’t powerful enough to do all those years ago. Then again, back then, I didn’t understand the intense attraction to you. Now I do.”

“What kind of crazy shit are you talking about?”

She leaned down until her nose was nearly touching mine and whispered, “I’m going to unlock your shackles. You won’t go anywhere unless I tell you.”

“Okay,” I found myself promising. In the back of my mind, I was screaming for her to fuck off, but it was like there was a disconnect between my brain and my body. She freed my limbs one by one, but instead of getting up and running, I simply lay sprawled on the bed.

“Sit up.”

Without hesitation, I did as she said. That’s when I realized I was wearing some kind of loose white pants and no shirt. When the fuck had I changed? And how?

“How long have I been here?” Evidently, I could speak as long as it wasn’t against what she wanted.

She tapped her blood-red lip with a matching fingernail as if she wasn’t sure. “Five days.”

“Five days!” I had the irrational thought of wondering how I hadn’t pissed myself or why I didn’t stink.

“Eat,” she instructed, and I immediately got to my feet and walked over to the table that held a plate heaping with food. My stomach growled at the savory aroma. I sat and began putting food in my mouth. It was as if I was a puppet that she controlled with invisible strings.

As I practically inhaled the food before me, she stood over me and lifted my amulet from off my bare chest. A dark chuckle left her as she stared at it. “Funny that the very thing that was meant to protect you is what makes you weak.”

“What?” I asked around the mouthful of food. It was weird because I didn’t even want to eat anymore, yet my body kept going through the motions.

“You truly have no idea, do you?” She let her nails trail up my chest to my jaw. When I tried to jerk away, she barked, “Look at me!”

Immediately, I turned my head in her hand.

“That’s a good boy,” she crooned. “That amulet you wear—it’s meant to bind your powers to keep you from being detected and, therefore, safe from people like me. You are a prize indeed. I’ve been planning this for years—waiting for my own powers to mature. When you came back when you did, I knew you were a gift from Lilith herself. Not only do you have your father’s powers just simmering inside you, but you also inherited your mother’s Amplifier traits. Do you know how rare that is? You’re like… a unicorn,” she excitedly explained.

“What the fuck have you been smoking?” I asked as I stared at her like she was insane. Which she probably was.

“Tomorrow night is the full moon, and I will be able to conceive.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. No way. You think I’m going to fuck you? You’re out of your damn mind!”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, you naive man. Have you not been paying attention? You will do anything I ask you to do. No man can refuse a succubus. Well, I mean, you probably could if you weren’t wearing that thing,” she motioned to my amulet with an amused grin. “But I’ve already ordered you not to take it off. So unless I tell you to, you won’t.”

When she leaned in and kissed me, I jerked away. That time she didn’t stop me, she just laughed. The food I’d eaten churned in my guts.

“We’re going to have so much fun,” she murmured as she stared into my eyes. “Get back in bed.”

I stood up and walked to the bed, then lay back down.

She crawled over me, straddling my hips.

Sweat broke out over my forehead and upper lip as I fought to break free from her pull. I just couldn’t do it, no matter how hard I tried.

“You’re so powerful that I can see you’re trying to fight me. An average man wouldn’t even try—he would want to fuck me just by me being this close to him. It’s so intriguing,” she said with awe. Then she leaned down and kissed my chest. “Do you know the kind of power you would give me if I swallowed your cum?”

At that, I was panting. “Have we…?”

Dramatically, she sighed. “Alas, no. I need you to be your most potent tomorrow. That’s why I had to take you when I did. You were fucking your little plaything too often. Though I thought about taking her too. To have you both would have been pure nirvana. I was very unhappy to find out you had a child with her. I may have been a bit petulant when I vandalized her truck.”

“Leave her alone,” I bit out. Knowing she was responsible for keying Ryian’s truck was one more reason to hate her.

“You do understand you don’t really have a say so in what I do?”

“Fuck you,” I ground out through gritted teeth.

She flicked my nipple with her tongue. “Soon.”