Page 58 of Incubus (The Incubus Saga #1)

“No, it was a werewolf,” Sasha argued. He had been happily interrupting whenever he disagreed with how Shiarra was telling the story of how his parents had first met. “I swear it was a werewolf. It’s in Dad’s notes.”

“Fine, fine,” Shiarra conceded, “a werewolf. So as I was saying, if my sister’s story is to be believed, they were enjoying perhaps thirty seconds of afterglow before the thing came crashing into Deklin’s hotel window.

The sudden uncovering of his arsenal gave away that he was a seal fairly quickly, as well as his generally rational approach to fighting off a werewolf.

And then, of course, the appearance of claws and fangs gave away my sister since she rushed in to assist him. ”

“This is the best part,” Sasha whispered to Nathan below him.

Nathan was sitting on the floor leaning back against the bottom of the couch so that, if Sasha wanted, he could have tried all sorts of tell-tale things—running his fingers through Nathan’s hair being one Nathan almost expected—but the incubus showed remarkable restraint.

When they had first gathered in the living room, Sasha had leaned over to Nathan and whispered, “ Those are Manolos,” while gesturing toward Shiarra's heels.

Nathan thought it both fitting and ironic that Sasha’s aunt was so high class.

It suited the succubus, but Sasha was just so down to earth.

The incubus could probably pull off the metro look if he wanted to, but he stuck to jeans and T-shirts.

And his leather jacket, which made Nathan wonder if Jim had gotten around to filling Sasha in on that particular casualty.

“They had sex again ?" Jim gaped as Shiarra finished the story with an air of succubus pride. Jim looked mildly guilty once he realized how loudly he had said that, especially since Kitty looked up at him from playing on the floor. "But...well...they did? Right after? Just like that?”

Nathan laughed so hard, his sides hurt. “Dude, they were still naked. Sasha’s mom was hot. They had just killed a werewolf together. Of course they had more sex.”

The sound of echoed laughter from behind and around Nathan almost had the last couple of days fading away entirely.

It didn’t surprise Nathan that Deklin Kelly had been completely uncaring at finding out Sasha’s mother was a succubus, because she had probably just saved his life.

As if having read Nathan’s thoughts and finding them very pleasing, Sasha did just what Nathan had been praising the incubus for resisting—he ran his fingernails up into the short strands of hair at the back of Nathan’s neck.

Nathan leaned into the comforting touch and tender scratches.

He glanced discreetly at Schuester in a chair across the room, but the other man was talking to Shiarra.

Nathan realized then that the succubus was getting up and saying goodbyes.

“I’ll be fine,” Sasha insisted, removing his hand from Nathan’s hair as Shiarra came over to hug him tightly.

“I wouldn’t go at all,” Shiarra said, “but if I don’t get back to my quarry, he’ll be running back to his soon-to-be ex-wife in a heartbeat, and three weeks' worth of work will go right down the drain. And believe me, no one would benefit from that. Far too much drama,” she said with a wave of her hand.

She moved on to kiss Jim and Schuester on the cheek in turn, to which both of them blushed, soundly kissed Kitty on the forehead, and then turned to Nathan.

“Walk me out?” she said.

Nathan was momentarily shocked. He glanced at Jim, who simply shrugged, and Sasha looked, well, Nathan would have to say scared , and that just couldn’t mean anything good.

Rather than think up any new ways to get under Shiarra’s skin, Nathan nodded to the succubus and stood to follow her. He felt like one of those boys who gets ‘a talkin’ to’ by their girlfriend’s father with a shotgun.

On their way out of the living room, Nathan heard Sasha’s voice rise a little as he said, “ What about my leather jacket?” and Nathan could have kicked Jim for choosing that moment to tell Sasha. Then again, Nathan was kind of glad he wasn’t there to see the crushed look on Sasha’s face.

“Okay, can we just get this over with?” Nathan started in as soon as he and Shiarra were far enough away not to be overheard. “You obviously don’t like me very much. And the feeling’s pretty mutual. But if you think you can tell me—”

“I’m not going to tell you to stay away from my nephew.”

Nathan stopped long enough to avoid tripping over his tongue. “What?”

Shiarra sighed. She wore an expression that Nathan knew he often wore himself, when he didn’t mean to look mistrustful and challenging but couldn’t help it.

“I’m listening,” Nathan said quietly when Shiarra continued to stare at him.

Shiarra took a breath, and Nathan realized for the first time how young she could look despite the age in her eyes.

“You saved Sasha’s life,” she said without ceremony, “and not just because you acted quickly to bring him somewhere safe and call me. But because you care for him, even being human and knowing what he really is. You don’t understand how hard that is for me to…

accept. You see how easy it is to love that boy?

It’s not an incubus trait. It’s a Sasha trait. ”

Nathan had figured that out some time ago. He also understood what Shiarra wasn't saying. “He had a lot of friends before he became a seal, didn’t he?”

“Every one of his kind turned on him for becoming a seal,” Shiarra spat.

“And yet, humans discover he is an incubus and…don’t.

You care for him regardless. Maybe finding it so difficult to believe that does make me a hypocrite.

Or maybe it’s because I saw how easy it was for my kind to dismiss him so I figured why should humans be any different. ”

“The thing is,” Nathan couldn’t help but interrupt, “I can’t help thinking you knew that potion thing was going to work all along. Otherwise, I’m guessing you wouldn’t have been nearly as… nice about everything. Am I right?”

There had to be something about the succubus that wasn’t all bad because, when she smiled back at Nathan, it was entirely filled with humor and without any of the usual malice or distaste to mar it. “I apologize, but I will not take back any of what I said last night.”

“Good,” Nathan said. “Neither will I.”

Brilliant blue eyes looked Nathan over, calculating but not unpleasant. “Make sure he continues to call me from time to time,” Shiarra said, “or you’ll be hearing from me much more often."

As Shiarra kissed his cheek as she had done with the others, Nathan took her words for as much of a warning as he did a kind of blessing. He was smiling after seeing her out the door.

The others were dispersing when Nathan returned to the living room.

Schuester was carrying Kitty up to bed, saying he needed to get some actual work done tomorrow but that they were more than welcome to stay as long as they needed to.

He seemed to have pushed aside any unease regarding Jim, at least for now, which Nathan was grateful for.

Sasha had already escaped to his room for some extra rest.

Jim finished retrieving clothing for the night and took off for the bathroom, leaving Nathan suddenly alone. He was exhausted. Having had no sleep the night of Sasha’s birthday was still catching up to him.

He wandered for a moment to the shelves near the balcony doors, mostly covered in books. A sparkle of violet pulled Nathan’s attention to a familiar sight—the goggles he and Jim had traded with Schuester when all of this began.

Nathan was surprised to see the goggles, since Schuester had a room upstairs set aside for fae artifacts, but there they were, laid out casually on the bookshelf.

Curious, since Nathan had never worn the goggles himself, he picked them up, slipping them over his eyes fluidly and amazed yet again when they vanished from his face.

Nothing about Schuester’s apartment looked any different at first, but when Nathan turned toward the front door, he saw the many invisible wards and spells Schuester had in place to keep unwanted fae out. It was almost like seeing them under black light, glowing in vivid purple hues.

Nathan wondered what it would be like to see Sasha through the goggles, but then he assumed he would just see the incubus in full wings and horns, which he had already seen several times before. Then he thought of Jim, and of Schuester and Walter’s warnings.

A shuffle from around the corner alerted Nathan that his brother was returning from the bathroom. He pulled the goggles off and shoved them back onto the shelf.

“You going to bed right away?” Jim asked, ignorant to what Nathan had been doing as he came into view and started resettling his sleeping bag on the sofa.

“Uhh…soon,” Nathan said, “I was just going to check on Sasha first. He still seemed a little weak.”

“Sure,” Jim said with something of a knowing smile, though the expression quickly vanished. “We can’t waste too much time here, though, Nathan. Don’t forget.”

“I know. Back on track tomorrow, I promise. I’ll be back in a bit.” Nathan headed off toward the stairs without much more thought, though he detected another meaningful smile from Jim that he decided to ignore.

A teasing Jim was better than a fatalistic one, at least. Whatever else Jim was, Nathan wasn’t ready to find out.

Upstairs was quiet, with only the murmur of Schuester telling Kitty a bedtime story. Sasha’s door was closed. Nathan knocked lightly before slipping quietly inside.

“Hey. Sasha?” he called, closing the door behind him.

Sasha wasn’t immediately visible but that quickly changed when the incubus suddenly appeared, slamming Nathan back against the door and kissing him hard .