Page 82 of Changeling (The Incubus Saga #2)

“Always did look impressive, baby,” Nathan said, forcing his voice to not shake as he looked at Sasha, monstrous in a way he knew the incubus would hate if he was in his right mind.

“You’d be something else flying like that.

We better get a move on and get you outside.

Some of these passageways can’t be too easy for you to fit into. ”

The smile on Sasha’s face brightened to hear Nathan speak normally to him, or at least Nathan liked to think that was the reason.

“Thanks for the concern, but don’t worry.

I’ve squeezed into tighter places.” Sasha’s claws flexed as he looked at Nathan like they wanted to reach out and snatch him up.

Nathan swallowed. “Jim told you to behave. Better listen to him. He’s a little out of sorts right now so…

I don’t know if he can be entirely trusted.

Might turn on you.” He moved to hurry after Jim and Alex, not wanting them to get too far ahead.

He felt something in the stone beneath his feet tremble as Sasha stomped after him.

“There’s never a time I don’t want you, Nathan. And following Jim…I get everything I want.”

Nathan ducked quickly inside the tunnel. Sasha wouldn’t be very mobile in the passageway. He waited until the incubus had folded his wings down and was climbing in after him before he spoke. “Now you need Jim’s permission to have me? I thought we usually left him out of the equation.”

“Jim would never keep me away from you.”

“But you let him order you around. If he wanted to, he could just make you do what he wanted. He’s just patronizing you, letting you think you’re in control.

But why listen to him at all?” Nathan stopped.

He looked back at Sasha, who filled the entire passageway with his larger form.

“I’ve never seen you look so powerful,” he said, knowing Sasha wouldn’t be able to sense anything but sincerity in those words.

“Half of me is pretty freaked, I’ll admit.

Those claws are mighty dangerous looking.

New fangs too. But the other half of me, well…

baby, you know me. I’m just a glutton for punishment.

” He grinned. He was playing with fire, but he had to try something.

Sasha growled as Nathan turned to continue after the others.

Jim waited only to see that Nathan and Sasha made it out of the small crumbled opening before leading on. Nathan soon felt the incubus come up close behind him.

“You think I don’t know what you’re doing?” Sasha rumbled low from over Nathan’s shoulder. “Get the best of us by setting us against each other, making me think I have to choose you over Jim? Come on, Nate, is that really the best you can do? You don’t get it yet. But you will. Jim will show you.”

Nathan stopped to look back at Sasha and found him staring hungrily at him like he only did when he was frenzied. Nathan flinched when Sasha reached for his face as if to caress him with his clawed hand, ghosting sharp talons over his cheek.

“It’s like an addiction…like you …the way Jim makes me feel. I’d follow him anywhere. I’d do anything he asked of me without it being an order. I want to share the world with you, Nathan. Jim can give it to us.”

“Stop. Don’t say that,” Nathan snapped, stumbling backwards up the passageway.

“I remember how you taste, Nathan…” Sasha said, advancing on him again.

A visible shiver ran through Nathan’s body and he glanced forward to see Jim and Alex disappearing ahead of them.

The figure of Sasha was all-consuming when Nathan turned back.

“I thought Jim told you to behave,” Nathan said, fighting to keep his voice steady.

“Don’t think power means you can do whatever you want with me.

I’ll have Jim turn you into a god damn puppet and you’ll never touch me again.

” There was no hesitation in the threat, Nathan couldn’t risk it. He looked up at Sasha in challenge.

Sasha’s eyes shimmered. There was the most awful pause and terrible silence. Then Sasha held up his claws in placation.

“Good.” Nathan took a step back, remaining resolute. Then he turned and continued up the corridor.

In a flash he was eating stone.

Pain blossomed in Nathan’s jaw that had smacked into the rock, and sudden helplessness filled his limbs.

His hardhat clattered from his head to the ground.

He could feel Sasha’s hot breath on the back of his neck, the claws pinning his wrists, the large well-muscled body that held him in place with barely any effort at all.

“You don’t get to deny me,” Sasha growled darkly. “You’re mine. I can have you whenever I want,” he snapped at Nathan’s neck.

Nathan flinched closer to the rock. His breaths came harshly; he could feel himself on the verge of hyperventilating.

The way Sasha was pressing into him, the knowledge that he couldn’t get away by his own power, it all brought him instantly back to Pete .

But he couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t let what had happened that night ever become associated with Sasha.

Sasha pulled away as if he’d been yanked back, and Nathan whipped around expecting to see Jim.

Instead he saw Walter, dimly illuminated by the light from the hat on the floor, huffing from exertion as he stood between Nathan and Sasha.

Sasha stared from the other side of the corridor not understanding what had happened.

“What are you two doing?” came Jim’s voice, echoing back to them. Jim appeared a moment later and took in the scene. With the way Jim focused for a moment on the spot between the pair, Nathan wondered if he could see Walter standing there.

Without a word, Jim picked up Nathan’s hat and handed it back to him. Then he turned a steady stare on Sasha. “Take the lead with Alex into the main cavern.”

Nathan sputtered for a response, unsure if he trusted Sasha with Alex, but as she appeared from behind Jim, she shot him a look that said she would be okay.

Meanwhile, Jim walked to Nathan and grabbed his arm, pulling him along with him down the passageway.

Nathan barely got his hardhat back on, and only just managed to look back at Walter and mouth a heartfelt ‘thank you’.

Eventually, he had a hold of himself enough to wrench his arm out of Jim’s grip. They were several feet behind the others. “Ya mind?” he shot at his brother. The truth was that Sasha had cut up Nathan’s wrists pretty badly, not that he could do anything about it now.

There was a mild huff from Jim as they continued forward.

“How exactly do you plan to dig us out the way we came in, anyway?” Nathan asked after a moment, hating silence on principle but especially with an amber-eyed Jim.

“I have an idea.”

“An idea? And were you planning on sharing this idea with the rest of the—” Nathan flinched as Jim came to an abrupt stop and whipped around.

“You know, you’re pretty ungrateful,” Jim snapped. “Keep in mind, my abilities are what’s going to save your life, and yet you keep turning your nose up at them. Why? Because they make me this ?”

Reacting in such a way, indignant and frustrated, was so very…

human. Nathan didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse.

He studied his brother, looking at the way Jim seemed to glow.

Sure, there were the amber eyes, but unlike Sasha, Jim was otherwise just Jim in appearance.

It was what remained beneath the surface that scared Nathan.

“Because I don’t believe I can trust you,” Nathan admitted.

“Can you really blame me for that? You and Sasha being all buddy-buddy in all your dark glory. Yeah, that’s comforting.

Come on, Jim. This is the part you didn’t want either, remember?

You say you want the same things you always have. But do you really?”

Jim’s eyes were unreadable, so Nathan focused on the way his lips weren’t at all smiling and his eyebrows were tightly knit. “I’ll show you, Nathan. I’ll show you,” was all he said before he turned and began moving up the corridor again.

A torrent of emotions rumbled through Nathan on their way back to the main cavern. The thought of what Jim meant, of what he could possibly show Nathan that would change his mind, made him feel hollow and helpless.

Alex was fine when they caught up to them, sitting in the main cavern as far from the body of Iain’s mother as she could get, going through the two duffle bags.

The remnants of Sasha’s shirt, shoes, and leather jacket also became visible.

If they got out of there and things didn’t completely go to Hell, Nathan would take Sasha shopping for a new one.

“So, Mr. Dark Sidhe Mastermind,” Nathan said mockingly to Jim. “This idea you have for getting us out of here? Please tell me it doesn’t just involve you and Sasha using your super-strength to dig us out with your hands.”

Sasha chuckled, his eyes piercing as they looked at Nathan.

Jim chuckled, too. He shrugged, moving to the closed-off exit that led to the main entrance. “Just the two of us, even with our strength, would take too long, but that doesn’t mean it’s not doable with a little extra help.”

“No offense, Jimmy,” Alex said, walking over to him, “but I don’t think Nate and I will be of much help.”

That dimpled grin stretched wider as Jim tilted his head at her. “Have a little more faith in me than that. I wasn’t talking about extra help from in here .”

Jim moved directly up to the gathering of crumbled rock.

As he began to lift his hands palms outstretched facing the way out, Nathan feared for a moment that his brother meant to use TK.

That would be just as risky as punching their way out with how likely this place was to give way to another cave-in.

But nothing visible began to move in front of Jim even after he had closed his eyes.