Page 16 of Incubus (The Incubus Saga #1)

Nathan sprinted out of the bedroom and through the apartment. He did not slow down even when he burst from the main door into the hallway, passing Jim and the confused victim who was still wrapped up in the sheets from her bed.

Nathan yelled, “Come on!” and expected Jim to follow.

Jim did, without giving the victim, or the few people who had begun sticking their noses out from behind their doors, any explanation.

The panicked pace Nathan had taken on did not stop Jim from demanding his own explanation as they made their way down the stairs to the ground floor. “What happened!? What are we doing?!”

“Battlefield moved!” Nathan shouted in answer.

“We’re six stories up!”

Nathan didn’t quite know how to explain about the wings at this point. He bounded down the last set of stairs that would lead them to the door they had first snuck in, right out into the alley where Sasha and the succubus would have landed.

“There’s…a couple other things,” Nathan said, out of breath as he came to a stop.

“What other things?” Jim asked.

Nathan grabbed the handle to the outside door, gun at the ready.

“They’re in all their glory out there, so be prepared for that.

And…the succubus? She’s Sasha’s other aunt.

” Without offering Jim any more than that, or any time to think about what he had said, Nathan ran out into the alley to join the fight.

At first Nathan couldn’t see anything. The alley was dark, but there were only so many places two gargoyle-like creatures could be hiding.

“Look out!”

A twinge of pain swept through Nathan’s shoulder at the unexpected impact into brick as Jim pulled him back against the wall.

He cursed at first, but was thankful his brother’s reflexes had been better than his own, because Sasha and the succubus tumbled down out of the air above them and crashed to the ground.

Nathan wondered about the delayed reaction of their fall, but as the succubus reared up again, he remembered that this wasn’t just a ground fight. They had wings .

Jim did not seem deterred by the sight of the pair or by the news that the succubus was Sasha’s aunt. He readied his gun and raced toward them before Nathan could say anything else.

Sasha had scrambled to his feet—or raptor claws, since Nathan didn’t think they looked much like feet anymore—but the succubus wasn’t foolish enough to only notice her nephew. She heard Jim coming and wheeled around, hovering a few feet above the ground.

As Jim took aim, the succubus dove and plowed into him, knocking the gun clean from his grasp. Nathan watched the weapon fly through the air and slide its way beneath the alley’s dumpster.

When the succubus rose up as if to strike again, Nathan quickly took aim himself, but before he had the chance to fire, Sasha leapt into the air after her. He rammed into his aunt, sending them both soaring over Jim to hit the ground several feet away.

The alley was not big enough for this fight. They were hidden from the street, and hopefully none of the occupants of the apartment buildings would look out of their windows any time soon, but there was always a chance of being discovered.

Nathan needed to get in there. At his current distance it was even harder to gauge a good shot with how Sasha and the succubus tussled. Half the time Nathan couldn’t tell whose wings were whose.

Jim was up and searching for his lost gun. Nathan gave a quick yell about where he had seen it fly, and went running.

Sasha and the succubus were still on the ground fighting viciously.

The sight of them almost made Nathan stop.

He felt a tremble working its way up his arms. He and Jim used weapons more for defense, and would always run first before trying to fight.

This was different. But even out of his element, Nathan was not about to freak out when he was needed.

He got as close as he dared, found his shot, and he took it.

The shot would have been dead on too if the succubus hadn’t spotted Nathan just in time to jump out of the way. And then moved straight for him .

“Shit!”

Nathan tried to duck, but her wings were faster than his reflexes. He anticipated an impact like he had seen with Jim, but the succubus didn’t ram him. She flew right at him, reaching out with one of her taloned black hands, and grabbed Nathan by the throat.

Nathan was lifted so effortlessly from the ground, he almost forgot to choke.

He saw the pavement getting farther and farther away until the succubus finally stopped about the same distance up as the victim’s apartment.

If Nathan fell, he doubted he would fare as well as Sasha had.

Wings definitely had to have come in handy for that.

“You come here to kill me, Sasha!” the succubus called down to where Sasha stood on the concrete. “And you have to use humans to help you?”

Her words should have sounded more mocking, but they didn’t. They were as calm and dead as the ones she had spoken in the apartment. Only the resonance had changed, low and rumbling, because of her more monstrous form.

Then Nathan felt her grip let go, and there wasn't time to think of much else. That stomach flip he always hated about rollercoasters was far worse when he was falling to a much more possible death.

“Nathan!” Jim called from too far away to help him.

Nathan refused to close his eyes. He was not going to close his eyes and just accept this. If he timed things right, rolled, something , he might get away with a broken bone. Or several.

Preparing for impact, Nathan tried to relax his body to better ease the blow, but before he could meet the pavement, strong arms and clawed hands caught him.

Nathan's heart was up in his throat, beating wild. He looked up and saw that Sasha had saved him. There was something very frightening about the incubus’ true form up close.

Awesome, in the original sense of the word, but frightening.

Nathan managed a pitiful, “Thanks,” and let Sasha drop him safely the rest of the way to the ground.

Sasha didn’t say anything, but he smiled. He was striking with those eyes, the horns, the wings, and the slight point to his ears that Nathan hadn’t noticed until now. But Sasha’s smile softened him as if even his fangs were harmless.

Reality snapped back into place when Nathan caught sight of the succubus coming in fast from above.

He yelled Sasha’s name, watching as the incubus turned in preparation only to be crashed into yet again.

Sasha and his aunt landed against the wall of the building, feet on the ground this time, with Sasha pinned back by the grip Nathan now knew better than he wanted to.

Nathan’s adrenaline was pumping so hot, he almost didn’t notice Walter appear beside him. “Nathan, you must be careful,” Walter said. “Her strength is too great. You won’t be able to take her head on.”

Having lost his gun when the succubus lifted him didn’t help either.

Jim was still struggling to retrieve his gun from beneath the dumpster, but Nathan couldn’t afford to wait for him. Ignoring Walter’s warnings, Nathan moved for the pair against the wall.

“Enough,” the succubus said, holding Sasha firm and glaring back at Nathan as he approached. “You don't understand. You don’t know anything . What I’ve been through...”

“You want to tell your sob story now ?” Nathan said, readying a mocking voice if only to buy time. “Oh, my life’s been so sad. Nobody loves me for me. Poor little succubus. You want to find true love? Try not killing your victims then.”

“She did love me!” the succubus roared. Her voice was shrill and inhuman as it rang throughout the alleyway.

Nathan cast a glance at Sasha. The succubus’ grip had tightened on his throat, but he gave a small nod for Nathan to continue.

“Some chickie a few years back gave ya the ditch, huh?” Nathan said, inching closer. “She, what, found out you were a sex vampire and said she didn’t want to have any more sleepovers? I’m sure killing her really convinced her of how wrong she was.”

“Shut up! She was just lying to herself, like all of them. She wasn’t willing to love me openly, to admit she loved another woman.

She was ashamed…and dared to call me a monster when she found out the truth.

You think you understand what it is like to be one of us?

Even Sasha has yet to discover what it really means. ”

The succubus turned back to look at Sasha, one clawed hand on his throat, with the other holding his shoulder to keep him against the wall.

“Your mother was as rare as… I am,” she said.

“You know that. We don’t get the human happily ever after.

We get night after night. We get moments.

I just wanted to be with her. Yes, she was afraid.

And I was desperate . I knew I could convince her if only she’d let me.

I didn’t…I didn’t mean to take so much…”

She glanced aside as she remembered, and Nathan dared to wonder if he could grab her and distract her enough for Sasha to regain the upper hand.

“She was dead before I realized what I had done. If she hadn’t struggled so much maybe…maybe I wouldn’t have been so...violent. She said she loved me, but she turned away. And so I kill her…again…and again. So I never—”

“Have to feel hurt like that again.” The voice was Sasha’s but it wasn’t, because it growled as the succubus’ growled, even spoken so tenderly and half choked behind her grip.

The succubus grinned, shocking them both. “No," she said. "So that I never forget how good it felt when I realized she was dead.”

Nathan launched himself forward, but he was too late. The succubus moved, still holding Sasha in one hand, and reached out with the other to grab him. This time she had Nathan by the shoulder, and he didn’t doubt for a second that she could rip his arm clean off.

“You’re fond of this one, hmm?” she said, moving her eyes from Nathan back to Sasha. "Shall I tear him into pieces for you?"