Page 12
Lydia
“ What the hell were you doing in here while I was away? ” Indie asked inside my head once she’d awakened. “ Did you lose a wrestling match with your bookshelves or something ?”
Indie’s voice was like a splash of cold water on my dreamy haze. I came to, spluttering and gasping for my life as she settled back into the brain space we shared. It had been like a subtle ache, the place where her thoughts were supposed to be. Now she’d returned with a vengeance. And she was loud.
“Ugh...” I moaned, turning onto my side and pressing a pillow over my ears as though it might accomplish something. Indie’s voice wasn’t something I could muffle, despite my fondest wishes for that to be the case.
“ Seriously, Lydia. What happened? Did we get into a fight? And if we did, I hope you kicked some ass. ”
It was the concern in her voice that finally broke me. She’d never admit it, but she cared about me. Not just because I was her host body, but because we’d become... friends. It seemed impossible, but we’d managed it.
“Not a fight,” I admitted.
I struggled to keep what Angelo and I had done private, but let just a few images slip past the careful filter by way of explanation. My back caged against the bookshelf. Running, tripping, and being captured by a very hungry demon. I let her do the math. It only took a protracted second. Indie remained carefully neutral.
“ Oh. You got laid. Finally. Good for you .”
A trickle of guilt slipped in to dampen the warm, floaty afterglow. It wasn’t my fault that Indie couldn’t be getting some with the man she loved, but I felt responsible anyway.
Indie’s sigh breezed through my head. “ Don’t do that. I know what you’re considering, and you need to stop it. It won’t help. ”
“You don’t know what I was going to say,” I snapped defensively.
Indie snorted. “ Yes, I do, you feather-brained gypsy. I’m in your head, remember? Even if your lover wanted to share you with Anthony, I wouldn’t let you. You don’t have to rent your body out for my use. It’s... wrong.”
“Indie,” I thought back.
“I know that’s rich coming from me, but the point still stands. I know you don’t feel that way about Anthony. I don’t want you to do something you don’t want to do for my sake. You’re right. It’s not your fault that I’m in this predicament. ”
Not my fault, but still my problem. Liking Indie came with hiccups of its own. Namely, that a normal, well-adjusted person wanted their friend to be happy with the man she’d fallen in love with. Except it was my lips he’d kiss, not hers. My body they would both use to try to be close to one another. It did feel a little icky, now that I thought about it.
“ Did you enjoy yourself at least?” Indie asked, trying for a more upbeat tone.
I groaned. “Are we really going to talk about my sex life? I thought you’d leave me alone once I finally did what you suggested and...” I made finger quotes in the air. “‘Got some man meat’. I still can’t believe you called it that, by the way. And to a vegan, no less.”
“ It’s the only meat you’ll eat, right?”
“Oh, my God…”
Heat flooded into my cheeks and swept down my body in a prickling rush. It felt like I was on fire.
No... scratch that. I was on fire. A small but genuine tongue of flame had blossomed between my fingertips at the embarrassing thoughts. I yelped and batted it out on the coverlet, which was a stupid move when I really thought about it. But come on, my hand was on fire! The last time it had only been a lighter, and only for a second or two at a time. The scorch marks left behind were proof enough that this flame had lasted longer, even when the sparks dancing over my fingertips went out.
“What the hell was that?” I shrieked at her.
I kept waiting for it to hurt. For my skin to begin to peel and blister. Burns were some of the worst injuries, in my book, devastating in both a physical and magical sense. Fire purified and could kill just about anything if you stoked it hot enough. But the pain I braced for never came, and when I examined my hand more closely, I realized why.
There was a definite burgundy cast to my skin that hadn’t been there a few hours ago. It wasn’t as obvious as Angelo’s true form. It looked like it had fused with the paleness of my human self to create a sun-kissed shade any celebrity would envy. My skin looked smoother, and lines of gold ran beneath my skin where the maps of veins should have been present.
“Oh my god,” I whispered, staring down at myself. “What... what is this?”
“ Demonic transference ,” Indigo said with a sigh. “ Damn it...”
“What do you mean, damn it!” I shot back. “You have to give me more than a cryptic remark, Indie! I swear to God I will reach into my own cranium and strangle you like a weed if you don’t start giving me answers!”
Indigo’s laugh stopped my tirade short. It sounded bitter enough to choke on. “ This reaction only happens in a fraction of a percentage of us who take on demonic attributes. They’re usually the baseline extension package that Murrain offers.”
“In stupid people speak, please.”
“ It makes you nearly impossible to kill, but it’s not meant to mingle with other types of demonic magic past a certain level. I think sleeping with Angelo seized on the energy you took from him and mingled it with the Koloth demon’s, making it more powerful than the other attributes I acquired. Some of the genetic markers seep through. You see how your skin looks? ”
I looked at it again. “Yeah.”
“ That’s what it would look like if you were half-succubus, half-koloth. I imagine the rest of you has changed dramatically as well .”
I was on my feet and staggering for the bathroom before I could stop myself. The bathroom in my loft was nearly as narrow as the staircase, a glorified closet with a toilet and a shower. I felt like a bull in a china shop when I tripped into the room, clutching the towel rack for stability.
What I saw in the mirror above the sink stopped me dead.
It had been jarring enough to wake up a few days after Indigo’s death to find I’d undergone a spontaneous dye job. My hair wasn’t just black now; it was as lustrous as a cat’s, shining with dark highlights when I moved. The strands swayed without any breeze to actually stir them. The ends of my hair had lightened to the color of a sullen ember, pulsing with light at odd moments.
“ Fire ,” Indigo said with a sigh. “ Koloths live in a similar infernal level to the Reeper demons. Congratulations, you’re pretty much immune to fire now. Unfortunately, most things in the mundane world aren’t though, so you’re going to have to be careful not to set anything ablaze .”
If Indigo had been in front of me at that moment, I would have decked her. It wasn’t enough she’d burst into my life and plastered herself to my soul. It wasn’t enough that I’d accidentally become party to the evil scheme she’d participated in. Now her evil deed had transfigured me. I barely recognized myself in the mirror. I mean, demon Lydia was good-looking. The luminous skin, huge eyes, pouting lips, and burgundy color might do it for a lot of mortal men. I just needed a rounder ass and a tail to entice a certain section of the population. But when I looked in the mirror, the alluring woman I saw wasn’t me. It seemed fundamentally wrong that sex should have given me an instant makeover.
“This is so not okay.”
“ Fine ,” Indigo said sharply. “ Freak out. Try to pick it all apart and tell yourself it was a bad idea. I’m sure it will go over swimmingly with your lover .”
I didn’t think she’d earned the pissy tone she was using, but she was right about one thing. Would I have had sex with Angelo, even if she’d mentioned the remote possibility of this happening?
Yes, I would have. Because I needed it and because he needed it. Because it had been beautiful, and thrilling, and perfect and I...
I caught myself before I could whisper the truth to myself, but Indigo had heard it.
I loved Angelo.
“ It’s a bad idea .”
Loving a sex demon sounded like an oxymoron. Emphasis on the moron part.
“I am so screwed,” I whispered to my sober reflection.
“ And not even in the fun way,” Indigo chimed in.
“Yes, thanks so much for that.”
“ Anytime, Lydia. Anytime .”