Page 33 of Incubus (The Incubus Saga #1)

The building of the Gatehouse had the appearance of an old-fashioned hotel, as large as a Southern plantation and surprisingly well-kept.

It was one lone building amidst nothing but fields as far as anyone could see.

There was no real parking lot, but a handful of other vehicles littered the grounds.

Nathan and the others decided to bring in all of their things from the car just in case any curious seals decided to go through their trunk.

Walter called after Nathan to be careful before they disappeared inside the Gatehouse doors, effectively leaving the Spirit Guide out.

The entire front lobby and check-in area of the Gatehouse had long ago been turned into a bar with tables and booths to better feed the patrons.

There were lounges all throughout the downstairs, and an infirmary, as well as countless rooms upstairs to sleep and the fairly well-stocked library.

Nathan also noticed a newer digital jukebox set against the wall.

He remembered a time when the main room was brighter, more open and inviting, and he and Jim had run around as children without a care in the world.

Nathan scanned the bar area as they piled their stuff inside the doors.

No one was paying them much mind. There were a couple older gentlemen at one table that Nathan took for possible seals, and a few other solo patrons scattered about that might have been disguised fae or just as likely normal humans.

There was no real way to know inside the Gatehouse.

Even if there were fae around, they wouldn’t be able to sense Jim here or Nathan’s mark.

“Well, I’ll be damned.”

Nathan saw Jim tense beside him, but he couldn’t help smiling at the sound of the familiar voice. Of the few people Nathan considered friends, Alex Ferris could be counted among them, even if she did live in a somewhat inhospitable place.

Alex joined them from behind the bar, looking sweaty but energized from working.

She was their same age, tall for a woman, and with a certain girl-next-door beauty without the need for makeup.

She wore the extra weight to her curves well, and could pack a pretty fierce punch, though her kind smile was usually the only weapon she needed.

Her hair was long and dark, pulled back from her face into a ponytail, and her eyes were a rich hazel, taking in whatever color she was wearing at the time.

Today she was wearing violet.

Alex smiled with a line of straight white teeth and opened her arms. Nathan was a bit shocked when Sasha stepped forward to accept the embrace and Alex hugged him without reservation.

“Hey you,” she said. “Been a while. Though not as long as it’s been for others.” Her eyes flicked over at Jim from around Sasha’s shoulder, but when the embrace ended, she turned to Nathan. “You could have called, you know.”

“We got a little caught up.” Nathan shrugged, stepping forward to kiss Alex’s cheek, which she allowed despite maintaining an indignant expression.

She turned fully to Jim then, clearly expecting him to approach her. When he didn’t, Alex sighed and swiftly crossed the space between them. Despite Jim’s rigid posture, she hugged him as fiercely as she had hugged Sasha.

“You’re hopeless, Jimmy,” Alex said, almost sadly. She smacked his arm good and hard when she released him. “I'm glad you’re okay, but it would have been nice to know how things worked out after I gave Nathan that book.”

“It isn't my fault. Nathan didn't tell me you were involved. It’s…uh…complicated, Al,” Jim said, scratching at his neck.

“From one carrier family to another,” Alex whispered, so that none of the other patrons would overhear, “it’s always complicated.”

Alex was like Nathan, part of a family that could produce a changeling, but she had lucked out and been born normal.

"So how do you two know each other?" Nathan asked with a gesture at Sasha.

Alex glanced back at the redhead and they shared what might have been a cryptic smile.

"I've passed through here a few times," Sasha said.

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Dude, this is the second time you've turned out to know one of our friends. And we don't have many friends."

"Me either," Sasha said. "I guess we must have the same taste." He winked at Alex before moving around the others to retrieve his bag.

Nathan wasn't sure he got the joke.

Alex smiled, hands on her hips. "Well, I have plenty of rooms available.

One for the redhead and one for you two?

I'll get you set right up." She walked back toward the bar where the room keys were kept behind the counter.

They were the old metal kind, not plastic cards like the ones found in modern hotels.

"First two rooms on your left up the stairs," Alex said as they gathered in front of the bar. She handed one key to Sasha and the other to Jim, purposely catching his eyes when he took it. She smiled, but Jim quickly turned away.

A clatter of chairs made Nathan jump and jerk his head toward the back of the room.

The men he had taken for seals were arguing.

Nathan couldn't make out what they were saying, but it was heated enough that they had both leapt from their chairs, causing them to topple over backwards.

As the fight escalated, the men made their way around the table closer to each other and one of them took a swing at the other.

Nathan clapped his hands over his ears.

BOOM.

The two men went flying away from each other as if an explosion had gone off between them. Some of the other patrons looked up. Others barely even blinked.

"You know the rules!" Alex called to them, hands on her hips again with a stern expression coloring her pretty face.

The two men didn't bother trying to argue with her.

They staggered to their feet, picked up their things, and headed straight for the doors, grumbling at each other as they went.

One of them managed a, "Sorry, Miss," as they left, but the continued sound of fighting echoed from outside as soon as the doors closed behind them.

On a good day, the Gatehouse served as a neutral zone for everyone inside.

The wards and protection spells inherent to the building prevented so much as a fist fight breaking out, and most fae powers were completely useless.

Anyone who tried to fight was blasted across the room by the building's wards and asked very politely to leave.

Politely the first time anyway.

"So," Alex went on briskly. "Go ahead and make yourselves comfortable. There isn't anyone in the library if you need it. Food will be ready around six."

"Thanks, Alex," Sasha said, turning immediately for the stairs, which Jim gratefully took as his cue to follow.

Nathan made to do the same, but Alex gestured for him to lean across the bar.

"Are you okay?" she asked seriously. "After I told Sasha over the phone that I knew you, he said he was helping you with a bounty problem. I can't believe you let the Messenger mark you."

Nathan was going to have to have a talk with Sasha about what constituted too much information. "I'm fine, Alex," he said. "We practically have the whole thing solved already. Don't worry. I got Jim back, didn't I?"

"True. Though it still would have been nice if you had told me sooner." She narrowed her eyes at him, but quickly softened again. "You must have done something right, 'cause he still seems like the Jimmy I remember. Any signs of dark fae powers cropping up?"

"A...couple."

"Well, be careful. I worry about you guys, you know."

Nathan had to smile. They almost never visited Alex—the Gatehouse was too dangerous—but she was one of the few people who would never judge Jim for what he was. She knew as well as Nathan did that Jim was closer now to True Awakening, but that didn’t change her tune at all.

"You're still in love with him, aren't you?" Nathan said, not really asking.

Alex's answering smile was somber. "I never tried to hide it. You better go catch up to them. And be careful, Nathan. Really. I'm still going to worry, even if you do have an incubus helping you."

It took Nathan a moment to realize what Alex had just said. "Wait. What?"

"Hurry up. I don't have all day to wait on you," she said with a wave of her hand.

"But how do you...?" Nathan trailed. Alex's unassuming smile and swift dismissal of him soon had him turning to head upstairs to follow after Jim and Sasha.

Nathan would have worried that Alex was psychic—and the last thing he needed was another one of those—but he doubted her knowledge came from anything so grand. Running the Gatehouse came with some advantages.

Nathan entered the first room up the stairs to find Jim unpacking, focused entirely on the task at hand as if it actually mattered whether or not they removed all of their things from their bags.

“I see you’ve decided to go for gold in the dateless wonder competition,” Nathan said, dropping his bag unceremoniously in the corner of the room.

Jim looked up long enough to glare. “I’m looking for the book,” he said.

“What book?”

“The one you got from Alex , apparently.”

“Oh, come on, Jim, I had good reason not to tell you about that. I knew you wouldn’t want to get her involved, but she was the only person I thought I could trust.”

Jim resisted further comment as he continued rifling through his bag that was propped up on one of the beds.

The room was simple but somewhat of a hybrid between a normal bedroom and a hotel room.

There were two double beds, two dressers, a closet, and a private bathroom.

Not all of the rooms were as accommodating, but most of them had a similar design, enough that the place could almost feel like home if it wasn’t built for transients.

Nathan stood before Jim’s bed. “You ever notice how Alex runs this place alone ?” he said. “No hunky handyman moving in. Nothing.”

“It’s a lot of responsibility to run the Gatehouse,” Jim said without looking up. He found the book and started filling his bag again with the things he had tossed out. “Alex’s mother did all of this alone for years.”

“Yeah, because her husband died, not because she wanted to.”

“Are you trying to make a point here, Nathan?”

It was an old argument, one in which Nathan didn't know who was actually winning.

Their parents had chosen to live in a town close to the Gatehouse because it was a dead zone and helped protect Jim from curious fae and seals since no one would be able to sense that he was a changeling.

They had been good friends with the Ferris family.

Nathan still remembered many things about their visits to the Gatehouse, and about Alex. Some things he would never forget.

“We were kids, Jim,” Nathan said, unmoving in front of the bed as Jim sat and pretended to page through the book.

“We didn’t know changelings could set off the Gatehouse wards stronger than other fae.

It wasn’t like the power came from you. The two of you were roughhousing, the wards went off, Alex got blasted—”

“And ended up in a coma for two weeks.” Jim slammed the book shut. “You don’t roughhouse in the Gatehouse, Nathan. I knew better. Alex could have died because I was careless. Because of what I am. It’s better if I just stay away from her.”

“That was a long time ago, Jim. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Nathan—”

“Mom and Dad weren’t your fault either.”

Jim looked up with a snarl, blue eyes flashing.

Nathan knew it was a dangerous nerve to strike, but he also knew how his brother thought. As much as Nathan hated that Jim had to be a changeling, he knew Jim hated it more, regardless of Jim’s tolerance of normal fae.

“It’s not…only about that, you know,” Jim said, still angry, though his voice had fallen to a near whisper.

“Alex is from a carrier family too. If we were together…it’s that much more likely a child would be like me.

You’re right, Nate, we were just kids then.

Just kids. We had some silly childhood crush. Why do you have to harp on it?”

Because it didn’t stay just a crush , Nathan wanted to say, but he didn’t.

“Besides, Alex was acting a little familiar with Sasha too. Seemed like there might have been something there. You think?”

Nathan would have smiled at Jim’s obvious slip of jealousy if the thought of Alex and Sasha didn’t unsettle him a little too. “Nah,” he said. “They’re just…friends.”

“Well...whatever,” Jim said. “I’m going to go through the book a while, okay?”

“Meaning you’re going to hide in here?” Nathan countered.

Jim didn’t comment.

“Fine. I’m going to check on Sasha then. I want to make sure we get whatever leads we can so we can get out of here first thing in the morning. Don’t sprain anything.”

Even as he headed for the door, Nathan watched Jim, waiting for his brother to look up and at least glare at him again, but Jim remained immersed in the book.