Page 81 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)

It was dark enough in the cavern that Nathan didn’t need Walter’s warning. He could see the lights flashing inside his jacket from the pheromone detector he’d forgotten about. It wasn’t supposed to pick up on Sasha…

With a great crunch, a clawed hand smashed into the cave wall from around the curve of the passageway. Horrifyingly slow, the rest of the figure appeared as if it were climbing out of the rock itself, out of the very fissures of the earth like a hellbeast.

Nathan stared, clinging tightly to Alex.

The incubus could barely fit his way out of the passageway into the cavern he was so large.

He didn’t look the way he should. His coloring was the same, his hair longer and wild as always, but his red eyes glowed with a dreadful light.

His horns were larger, sharper. His fangs were not merely on his eyeteeth but the ones next to them seemed slightly pointed too, and the same pattern repeated on his lower teeth.

Though more subtle than the length of his original fangs, these new additions made him that much more fearsome for his potential bite.

His claws were larger and sharper too. He was taller, by another inch or two maybe, because of his now frighteningly monstrous raptor feet.

But most impressive were his wings. They were massive. At first pinched by the tight space, when Sasha stepped out into the cavern, his wings shot out from his back with such force that Nathan felt literally pushed.

Sasha looked exactly as he had in Nathan’s nightmares.

Then Sasha’s tongue darted out over his lips and he grinned wide to show off his fierce new fangs. “Nathan…” he said like a low rumble. “Poor Nathan. Should have run faster.”

“Go!” Nathan called, but even as they turned and he made to push Alex back toward the opening they had come through, the way out proved to be just as blocked.

Jim stepped out of the other passageway with leisurely steps.

Neither Jim nor Sasha was wearing their hardhat—not that Sasha would have been able to fit it over his large horns—but it didn’t seem that either of them needed the extra light.

Jim’s eyes shone with power just like Sasha’s, slit amber and menacing.

Something else about him was different though, just not as visible as Sasha’s more impressive appearance.

The power emanating from Jim made him appear somehow larger, god-like and glowing.

“You even had a map,” Jim scoffed, leaning frustratingly casual against the rock wall just inside the cavern, “and this is the best you could do?” He was grinning, dimples galore, like he did only when he was completely content.

“Though I suppose we did have a bit of an advantage.” He broke into an easy laugh.

His laughter seemed so offhandedly cruel for how carefree it was.

It was even worse when Sasha joined him, who in his even more monstrous form sounded halfway to a growl.

The combination was exactly what they had been hearing in those warning roars.

All Nathan could do was reach out for Alex and pull her in close against him.

He could feel the weight of the gun in his hand but didn’t think he could use it.

“Looking good, Sash!” Jim called to the incubus. “How do you feel?”

Sasha flexed claws that for the first time in so long made Nathan feel afraid. “Like nothing can touch me. Like I want to stretch my wings…and really let loose.” He laughed again.

Nathan shivered when Jim joined in, having to grip Alex’s arm that much tighter to keep from visibly shaking.

He felt her clutch his wrist as he slowly tried to back them up towards one of the walls so they could keep Sasha and Jim in their sights at the same time.

Nathan could see Walter near Sasha’s form, looking confused and horrified.

“I don’t know what to make of this, Nathan,” the Spirit Guide said. “They are…like nothing I have ever known.”

Sasha cocked his head. “What’s wrong?” he said in that new more resonating growl of a voice. “Don’t you want to fly with me anymore, Nathan?”

Sasha and Jim both moved to close in, taking the cue from Nathan and Alex having backed up as far as they could against the cavern wall. Their combined hardhat lights lit up most of the cavern, spotlighting the advancing pair.

It was then that Nathan noticed Sasha was still wearing what remained of his jeans.

There was no T-shirt or jacket though, no destroyed shoes, meaning Sasha must have torn the offending items away.

It also meant that Sasha wasn’t holding any glamours and not just because he didn’t want to—he couldn’t.

Somewhere in the caves was yet another ruined leather jacket.

The two demonized versions of their companions came together, bookending them from just a few feet away.

Sasha stretched back and extended his wings to their full breadth with a fresh roar at the ceiling while Jim lifted his head and closed his eyes, arms outstretched, as if they were both drinking in the new sensations running through their bodies.

“It’s…intoxicating,” Jim said, his smile twitching with a sick kind of pleasure. His eyes opened, shimmering. Without having to say a word to each other, they both began to move forward again.

Nathan tugged Alex as close as he could, feeling rock at his back as he pressed himself away from Jim and Sasha’s advance…and raised the gun.

It flew from his hand with a flick of Jim’s wrist.

“You know, it’s funny…” Jim said, looking at Alex as if unfazed by Nathan having pointed a gun at them, “this is exactly the reason I didn’t want to come see you all those years. I never wanted you to see me like this. I didn’t want you to think I was…a monster.” His grin twitched as he said that.

“I don’t think you’re a monster, Jimmy,” Alex said, her dark eyes unwavering as they returned Jim’s piercing amber stare.

“Hn.” Jim regarded her closely, towering over her as he drew closer so that his breath moved the strands of her hair that had fallen from being tied back under the hardhat. His smile faltered for a moment and his brow furrowed. ”You’re not even lying…”

A growl built in Sasha again. Nathan didn’t know who he should be more worried about, but his eyes were drawn to Sasha, and the incubus looked at him with rapt attention. Sasha’s tongue darted out at his lips. “Jim…”

“Not now,” Jim said.

The incubus growled impatiently, almost like a feral whine. Nathan shuddered at what the request was probably for. He looked to his brother again and saw the flash of a smile as Jim stepped back.

“Well, what is everyone waiting for? We really should find our way out of here.”

Neither Nathan nor Alex moved.

“What?” Jim said. “Did you think I was going to sick him on you like a dog to tear you to shreds? I’m sure he could.” There was a sharp snap of fangs from Sasha as if to confirm that, and the incubus chuckled. “But really, it’s in all of our best interest to find a way out of here, isn’t it?”

Nathan knew he couldn’t trust Jim or Sasha, but he had to believe there was a way to fix this. Because if what had happened to them wasn’t temporary then he might have to find a way to make sure…they never got out of the mine.

Jim’s hand slammed into the wall just above Nathan’s head, making him flinch.

“That wasn’t a very nice thought you just had,” he said darkly, a hot whisper against Nathan’s face.

With his hand propped over Nathan’s head, he leaned in closer, his face brushing past Nathan’s so he could whisper, “Now, Nathan…why would you want to leave us behind?”

Nathan couldn’t allow himself to be bested by fear. He turned his head to Jim’s ear and whispered back, “Because if I don’t…it might be us that never gets out of here.” The tears that had been stinging at Nathan’s eyes dried up as he said that and he felt some part of him go numb.

Jim chuckled low and steady. He backed away from Nathan and stood centered before the pair while Sasha moved to stand just slightly behind him.

A large black claw rose up and curled talons over Jim’s right shoulder.

Wings shot out behind Sasha and, for a moment, it looked as if the great mass of black skin belonged to both of them.

“We’re still us, Nathan. We still want the same things.

And you should know what the most important thing to both of us is right now.

” When Nathan gave no reply, Jim’s smile faltered like he was disappointed.

“I would never let Malak take you, Nathan. How could you think I would ever hurt you? I want you here. We want you here with us. Why would that change? You’re my brother.

“Why would I hurt Alex, either? How would hurting my friends benefit me? Of course I can’t say the same for him ,” Jim smirked, looking up over his shoulder at Sasha whose tongue ran eagerly over his top fangs.

“Sasha’s nature is a little more…instinctual than mine.

Be a good boy, will you, and behave yourself? ”

Sasha snapped his teeth at Jim playfully, close at his neck. It was disturbingly intimate. “Mmm…get me to call you ‘Master’ and we’ll be into a whole new kind of kink .”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Jim said, pushing on Sasha’s chest to knock the incubus slightly back. It was the first act that actually seemed reminiscent of how they really were with each other. Playful. Teasing.

It kind of broke Nathan’s heart.

“But we really should go,” Jim said, turning back to Nathan and Alex. “Sasha can guard from behind and I’ll lead. You never know what might be lurking down here, after all. None of the old openings are clear, I’m sure of it. We have to return to the main cavern.”

“He’s right, Nathan,” Walter added, though Nathan fought not to react or look at him. “You must be cautious but I do not know how else to help you. Following them is the only way.”

That broke Nathan’s heart a little more because this wasn’t Jim and Sasha, not really, and yet it also was .

He feared this situation more because they were still themselves at the core, not possessed by autonomous sidhe like Leven.

He couldn’t imagine anything worse than this being who they were now—forever.

“Oh, I don’t know. I think you’ve imagined worse things, Nathan.” Jim moved so swiftly that Nathan gave an audible gasp at his brother suddenly being closer, pressed in tight against him again like Alex wasn’t even there. Nathan felt a hand snake into his jacket and his stomach flipped.

“Wh-what are you doing?” he stammered.

But despite the nausea that filled Nathan’s gut, Jim simply pulled back, drawing the scanner out of Nathan’s jacket. He smirked and flicked his eyes over Nathan as if he knew every secret of Nathan’s nightmares.

He turned the scanner off. “The flashing was really starting to annoy me. Guess Sasha is a whole new man. I’ll grab the gun as well. Wouldn’t want anyone getting hurt.”

He promptly tucked the scanner into his own jacket and moved across the cavern to retrieve the gun he’d mentally tossed from Nathan’s hand earlier. He tucked that away as well.

“I understand you want to keep a close eye on us,” Jim said when he walked back to them. “Really, I do. Why don’t you stay up by me, Alex? I’m sure you can handle the responsibility.” He held out a hand to her in offering.

Part of Nathan wanted to hang onto Alex tighter and keep her from accepting that hand, but their options were limited. She didn’t hesitate either or show any sign of fear as she pulled away from Nathan and gripped Jim’s hand with hers.

“Of course,” she said. It almost seemed hypnotic and yet Nathan knew Alex was under her own will. Jim could force them all to do anything he wanted, but he seemed to prefer getting them to agree willingly.

And now Jim had Nathan’s gun. He hadn’t been able to lift a damn finger.

“Don’t worry so much, Nathan,” Jim said with a curl of his lips before he led Alex by the hand toward the way they had come. “Sasha will protect you.”