Page 40 of Incubus (The Incubus Saga #1)

“Hey,” Nathan said to Jim as he exited the bathroom. “Did I hear the redhead?”

Jim was engrossed in notes on the case they were heading to in Georgia. “Sasha ran down to the gym. Said he needed to let off some excess energy. Probably from last night,” he added with a smirk.

Nathan held back a grimace. “This place has a gym?”

“I’m guessing a big empty room with a treadmill and a punching bag, but who knows.”

“Huh.” Nathan reached for the fresh clothing he had laid out on the bed. “I think I’ll run down there too,” he said. Pulling a T-shirt over his head did nothing to block the weight of his brother’s eyes when they turned to him.

“You just took a shower,” Jim said.

“So? I’ll stretch and do sit-ups. I don’t have to get sweaty.”

“Nathan—”

“I’ll make sure we’re back in half an hour so we can get out of here,” Nathan interrupted, quickly heading for the door. As he left the room, he chose to ignore the impatient repeated utterance of, “ Nathan ,” that followed after him.

Nathan could admit that half of him was terrified to face Sasha, but his feet carried him through the hallways regardless, following the signs and arrows that pointed toward ‘Workout Room’.

An empty room with a treadmill and a punching bag was pretty much all there was to it, too. Sasha was the only person in the room, pummeling the life out of the no doubt usually neglected punching bag.

“Dude, you break it, you buy it,” Nathan said with a half-grin as he entered. “Did the bag insult you or something, ‘cause I can totally help you take it down.”

Sasha stopped mid-punch at Nathan’s arrival. He tried to smile back at Nathan, but the expression fell flat. “Hey,” he said. “Didn’t you just shower?”

Nathan rolled his eyes. Lacing his fingers together and raising his arms above his head to stretch, he moved further into the room, noticing several full-length mirrors along the walls. “Felt like stretching,” he said. “Some mid-morning calisthenics. You mind?”

“Of course not.” Sasha grabbed the punching bag to stop it from swinging. “I was just…”

“Releasing a little excess energy?”

Sasha laughed but that sounded flat too. “Yeah.”

“No wonder. That chick from the bar last night was pretty hot, huh?” Nathan looked steadily back at Sasha and, as their eyes met, he saw a familiar flash of grief.

“Why not release a little of that energy on me? Unless you prefer opponents that don’t hit back.

I don’t think so, though. I'm thinking...you’d really like to take a shot at me about now. Am I right?”

The intensity on Sasha’s face broke somewhat, but the grief remained. “I don’t want to fight you, Nathan.”

“I didn’t say fight, just a good spar,” Nathan said. “Come on. What’s a little sparring between friends?”

“Nathan—”

“Come on . Humor me.” Nathan grinned, remembering that Sasha had used that exact phrase on him in an alleyway in Minnesota.

Kicking off his shoes, Nathan motioned Sasha closer, already positioning himself into a fighting stance.

He hadn’t sparred with anyone since a few weeks before Jim was taken.

Of course, that was before Jim had super strength.

Sasha was supernaturally strong by birth.

Nathan knew he would have to fight as hard as ever to keep up with an incubus.

At first Sasha didn’t so much as blink Nathan’s direction. He still had the punching bag in his arms. He was barefoot, just wearing a pair of sweatpants he had slept in. That would give him an advantage since Nathan was in jeans.

Then Sasha pushed the bag away and started toward Nathan with a blank expression. The hollowness of it made Nathan shiver, and not in the way Sasha usually made him shiver.

“I can hold back,” Sasha said, getting into a fighting stance as well, “but not much.”

“Don’t hold back at all,” Nathan said.

“I could kill you.”

“I doubt it.”

“I could break an arm or a few ribs.”

“Try me.”

“Nathan—”

“Hit me. I’ve already gotten a hit off you, remember?”

Sasha’s eyes flashed as if they wanted to turn red. He nodded.

Nathan had no idea what he was thinking when they started to circle each other. There wasn’t enough room to fight properly, but the adrenaline rush that had started to surge through his limbs kept him from calling a stop.

Nathan threw the first punch, but Sasha dodged effortlessly to the side and brought a ready uppercut into Nathan’s ribs.

That almost winded Nathan right then, but he wasn’t about to let things end so quickly.

Nathan was hunched slightly from the well-placed hit and used that to his advantage, bringing a knee up into Sasha’s stomach.

Then, swinging with the same punch he had tried before, this time Nathan connected, clean across Sasha’s jaw.

Sasha recovered quickly, however, and rounded on Nathan with a swift kick to his shins that brought Nathan down hard on his knees.

Nathan only just managed to roll away, scrambling across the floor to get back to his feet.

As Sasha rushed after him, Nathan used the incubus’ own strength against him, grabbing Sasha’s arm and swinging him around to slam him back into the nearest wall.

Nathan immediately reared back for another hit.

The swiftness with which Sasha had hold of Nathan’s wrist happened faster than his eyes could perceive.

Nathan’s fist loosened under the tight squeeze of Sasha’s grip, and he cringed.

He tried to pull his hand away but Sasha was too strong.

The incubus pulled on his wrist, swinging Nathan around into a hold that had Nathan’s back pressed into Sasha’s chest. The sudden closeness made Nathan shudder.

Ramming his hips backwards, Nathan slammed Sasha into the wall, lifting up with his legs as he bent forward. It took all of his strength but he managed to flip Sasha over his shoulder, even if it also brought Nathan down to his knees.

“Had enough?” Nathan huffed, pulling his feet up into a crouch.

Sasha was breathing heavily, but he grinned back at Nathan. Their positions should have meant that Sasha was at the disadvantage, but Nathan should have realized that a mirrored smirk couldn’t mean anything good for him.

Rolling back onto his shoulders, Sasha grabbed Nathan's wrists, pressed his feet to Nathan's chest and swung down, flipping Nathan over to land on his back. Nathan gasped at how the wind was knocked from him, unable to roll to the side before Sasha twisted around, lifted up into a handstand, and tumbled end over end to land straddled on Nathan’s hips.

“Jesus Christ!” Nathan called to the ceiling. He hadn’t expected Sasha to be quite that nimble and acrobatic about things. He had only anticipated the strength.

“Nope,” Sasha said, smiling down at Nathan in triumph. “Just your friendly neighborhood incubus. But you knew that when you got yourself into this, so you really shouldn’t complain.”

Nathan took in a few labored breaths. Sasha had managed to soften the blow when he landed, of that Nathan was certain since he could still breathe, but that didn’t mean a grown man hadn’t just landed on a particularly sensitive area.

“I’m not complaining…only my balls are,” Nathan grimaced.

“Oh? I’ll have to make it up to them some time then,” Sasha said.

“Funny. Now do you mind letting me up? You win, okay?”

“Really?” Sasha looked a little too pleased, and Nathan didn’t miss that the incubus’ legs locked a little tighter around his hips. “Well if I win then I think I’m the one making the decisions here.”

“Uhh…Sasha…”

“Maybe I’m thinking of staying right where I am,” Sasha went on, holding Nathan down by the shoulders. “Maybe I’m tired of waiting for you.”

That tone of voice, the low growl to it, as if Sasha was in his incubus form even though his eyes were blue, made Nathan suddenly very aware of how much trouble he would be in if Sasha actually wanted to hurt him.

But Sasha pulled back, looking more hurt than angry.

“It’s been weeks," he said, "and this, right now, is the first time you’ve really looked at me since that night. What do you want from me, Nathan? I thought I knew, thought I understood the signs you were giving me. If you wanted me to back off then why the hell did you let me kiss you?”

Words died on Nathan’s tongue. He had no excuses.

Growling in frustration, Sasha started to get up.

“ Don’t ,” Nathan said, catching Sasha’s arms so quickly and so tight, he almost thought it was enough to hurt the incubus by the sound of his gasp.

There were so many things Nathan wanted to say, but he only managed a choked, “Give me more time,” and then felt like such a coward for the whole damn situation.

“More time?” Sasha repeated. “More time for you to convince yourself you don’t want me, you mean. I can only take so much, Nathan. I may not be human but that doesn’t mean this doesn’t hurt.”

“I know that. And I know you can feel everything I feel. I know I’ve been an asshole, I just…I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“This may surprise you, but neither do I.” Sasha's eyes softened and he let out a slow, shuddering sigh. “I can do slow, Nathan. If you need slow, I can do that, but only so much. I can’t change that I need to feed. I hate it, but I can’t change it.

I didn’t want things to have to happen like that last night. ”

“Me either,” Nathan admitted. He was fully aware of their intimate position, and realized he didn't really mind. “I think, maybe…I can do slow too. And not the kind of slow I’ve been doing the past couple of weeks, but actually… trying .” He looked up at the smile growing above him and quickly added, “But it has to be like grandma driving on Sunday afternoon slow for at least a few days, okay, because this… this is…"

“Kind of scary. I know. For me too, Nathan. But it doesn’t have to be…”