Page 53 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)

Jim and Sasha continued surveying notes while Nathan and Cam chatted, and they let Leven finish his dinner. Eventually, the four older men decided they’d gotten enough info out of Wade and Leven, and could probably get more done if they headed back to the motel and used Sasha’s laptop.

“You can’t go!” Leven cried as they began to head out.

“You’re not gonna spend all night working on case stuff.

This place is great once things get going.

You gotta stay. By seven it’s crowded, by nine it’s packed toe to toe, and after ten if someone isn’t getting laid in the corner then something is seriously wrong with the universe. ”

Nathan smirked. “Listen, kid…”

“ Please ,” Leven pleaded. His shoulders were hunched and his voice was as whiney as, well, a teenager’s. “Just an hour or two. Cam’s gonna leave with you and…and Wade’ll make me go home. Please, I just…really don’t wanna be there right now.”

‘Alone’ , Nathan heard as an addition.

“Well…” he said, looking around at the others to find no actual dissention, “I guess we could use a break.” And a drink , he thought.

Nathan grabbed the remains of paper and sandwich bags to throw away when everyone started filing out of the room. But before he could follow after the others, he realized that Leven had lingered back with him and they were alone. Nathan might have been worried if Leven didn’t look a little scared.

“What’s on your mind, jailbait? Panties in a twist over something?”

A smile broke out on Leven’s face, but it was small. Cracked. “I…I was just wondering,” he started, stammering a little.

Nathan prayed the kid wasn’t about to ask for sex advice.

“Today…ya know, when you came charging to my rescue? I got the feeling it was a little… personal .”

Crap .

“I’m sorry,” Leven said right away, taking a step back. “Not my business.”

“Wait,” Nathan called when Leven turned to dash outside, to which the kid immediately glanced back from the door.

“It… was a little personal, okay? Kids aren’t the only stupid assholes around, ya know.

Adults can rank right up there too. All…

five or six of ‘em? Shit, I don’t even know how many of them there were in the end… ”

Leven’s eyes widened.

Nathan sighed. He took a few steps closer to Leven so that they were only about a foot apart.

Running a finger over his still somewhat inflamed eyebrow, he indicated the slowly forming scar that ran through it.

“See this? I’m lucky it’s the only reminder I got stuck with.

Things didn’t go as far as they wanted, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t a little beat up by the end of it.

It gets to me, knowing pricks like that are out there, who’ll hate you just for who you care about.

Seeing the next generation picking on their first victim didn’t make me feel any different about the subject either.

So yeah, I may be new to all this,” Nathan said with a large, false smile, “but I have been aptly initiated.”

Leven grimaced. “That’s not fair. It shouldn’t have to be like that.”

“No, that it should not. But there just aren’t enough decent people out there most of the time, kid. Sorry to tell you.”

“There’s you ,” Leven said with a slight blush.

Nathan stood stationary a moment, unsure how to react, before reaching over and yanking Leven down into a headlock.

He messed the kid’s gelled turquoise hair.

“Ya think so, huh?” He added an extra firm tousling before letting go.

It reminded Nathan of when he and Jim were younger—or a few weeks ago, really.

Leven was laughing when Nathan shoved him playfully out the door. Nathan considered it a good sign of character that the kid didn’t immediately start fussing with what had become of his hair.

Nathan ordered shots for himself and the others when they reached the bar, and told Cam that whatever he had next was on him too, while Leven nursed a Coke. They could see Wade over by the door, occasionally tossing them glances.

The place was getting pretty packed now that it was later.

With so many people, it wasn’t until after Nathan’s third drink—and last, he decided—that he started to notice something strange.

There were a lot of men and women in the club, mostly younger than thirty, but there didn’t seem to be very much intermingling of the sexes.

The dance floor was behind Nathan. He gave it a cautious glance.

No intermingling there either.

Panic gripped Nathan’s chest—old, silly panic. He couldn’t help it; this just wasn’t the type of place he ever thought he’d feel comfortable in.

He leaned towards Sasha on his right. “Dude…did you know we were in a gay bar ?”

Sasha’s bemused expression was not helping the situation. “You mean you didn’t?”

“No. I didn’t. Why would I?”

“Because you have eyes ,” Sasha laughed, looking about the bustling club of mostly same-sex pairs. “I assumed you could tell. Besides, Cam mentioned Wade worked in a gay bar.”

“No, I’m pretty sure he didn’t.” Nathan was trying to stay calm. He knew it was ridiculous to suddenly feel so…exposed.

“Uh…well…actually he did,” chimed in Jim from Nathan’s other side.

At least Jim looked a little guilty. “After we met up with them inside the school again. Guess you were…distracted.” Jim stared at Nathan extra hard.

Nathan had asked Jim to avoid mentioning the group of bullies with Leven to anyone else, mostly for the kid’s sake.

Suddenly, Sasha downed the rest of his beer and pushed what little was left of Nathan’s at Jim. “Why do you think I didn’t protest to staying?” He took both of Nathan’s hands and tugged. “I’ve been wanting to get you on the dance floor ever since we got out here.”

“What?” Nathan tried to pull his hands back but Sasha wasn’t letting go. “ No way . Are you out of your freaking mind?”

“Nathan, it’s a gay bar,” Sasha said slowly. “No one’s going to care. Or notice. How often are we gonna get a chance like this?”

Preferably never again , Nathan thought.

“Here, we don’t have to pretend anything. We can just dance. It’s not like I’m asking for a slow dance to Barry White. It’s been pretty much rave music all night. Come on, Nate. For me?” Sasha’s voice deepened and he grinned at Nathan all toothy and sweet.

“This is not a new trend,” Nathan warned him. “You do not get to use that ‘look how cute and pretty I am’ face for at least a week. And the rest of you,” Nathan finished, looking at Cam, Jim, and Leven, “you’re coming with us.”

Of course the kid was all over this invitation. Cam just shrugged, nonplussed. But Jim nearly dropped his beer. “Uh…what?”

“Shake a leg, Jesse James,” Nathan commanded, grabbing Jim’s arm. “At least if you’re out there too maybe I won’t look so bad.”

“But…”

Nathan shoved Jim out onto the dance floor. “Move.”

The song changed to one Nathan recognized almost as soon as they were out on the floor, which seemed a bit serendipitous, but when Sasha slithered up behind Nathan and grabbed his hips, Nathan tensed. There were so many people.

Being an incubus, Cam didn’t have any qualms about who he danced with. And Leven—bless the kid—was being very friendly with Jim in an attempt to get the other Grier brother dancing and more relaxed. Jim looked pretty much petrified.

The sight helped calm Nathan’s nerves.

There were so many people…and none of them cared that Sasha was molded against Nathan’s back as they moved to the music.

Nathan liked to dance. He wouldn’t be winning any awards for it, but it was fun.

When no one was looking or when he was trying to get on Jim’s nerves, anyway.

At least there was something easy about the way he and Sasha were moving.

Their bodies rocked in synch with each other, Sasha’s hands held firm around Nathan’s waist and Nathan’s hands on Sasha’s hips.

It was really kind of intimate and yet most of the other people around them were connected the same way.

Nathan laughed when he saw the frightened look on Jim’s face with how close Leven and Cam were dancing to him as they tried to get him to move in kind.

Jim was being much slower to come out of his shell this time than he had been at the Gatehouse.

He still managed to toss Nathan a knowing smirk, however, when their eyes met across the floor.

Tuning out the rest of the club’s din, Nathan sank back against Sasha.

“You see,” Sasha said beside his ear, “two guys dancing like this and the world still turns. The only eyes on you are mine, Nathan. And the ones from all the people checking you out.”

“ What ?”

Nathan’s eyes snapped open—he hadn’t even noticed when he closed them—but the only response he got was Sasha’s laughter.

Nathan couldn’t help scanning the other nearby dancers for wandering eyes.

The only ones he caught, however…were Leven’s.

They, surprisingly, were not checking him out.

They were just watching. Longingly, yes, but for what Sasha and Nathan had, not who they were.

The thing that surprised and hurt Nathan the most though was when he caught the same look in Jim’s eyes, too. All of Nathan’s barbs about Jim needing to get laid suddenly settled like lead in his stomach. Jim shouldn’t envy him. Jim should never envy him .

“Nathan?” Sasha questioned.

Nathan hadn’t realized he had stopped dancing.

He turned around in Sasha’s hold, looking up into those concerned eyes, so blue and beautiful.

Nathan was a lost cause. He was bound for death, or worse, servitude in the Veil with no way out in sight.

He was the most selfish person he knew. He wasn’t even sure if he could protect Jim anymore, not from some unknowable future.

But looking at Sasha, feeling and knowing that he was blessed enough to be that loved …

yeah, maybe Nathan would envy himself too.