Counterpart (Succubi & Incubi Assn.) (18 page)

“It's not you two.”

His voice stopped me.

Finally we were getting somewhere.

I turned back around to face him. “Okay, so who is it?”

“It's a rogue, that's all we know.”

That's all they know? That's all they came here for? “Seriously? You
have to be kidding me.”

“I don't joke, succubus,” he replied in the most bored tone I've
ever heard.

“Okay then, why are you here? What does this have to do with us?”
Melinda asked.

“There are SIA agents all over the place, following all succubi and
incubi. We needed to make sure none of ours were involved. Lucky for everyone,
they're not,” then he brought his attention to me, “except for you.”

Oh, yes, because it's always Maya's fault. Let's just all blame
Maya.

“Why am I not surprised?” Melinda murmured.

“Hey! I already stated my case. I didn't do anything. This rogue—or
whatever—is the one killing
my
victims, if anything
I'm
technically considered a victim.”

“She has a very weird fascination with you. Seems to be that
everywhere you go, she goes too. You know an unregistered succubus must report
to the SIA.”

I can't believe this. “You think I know who it is? That I'm allowing
her to do this to my victims, all while trying to hide her from the SIA?”

“It's a possibility, yes.”

“You have to be out of your mind if you think I would do that,
knowing the consequences.”

Ethan watched me for a few seconds, and I was sure Melinda could
feel the tension if she went to the other side of town. “So, you don't know
anything?”

“Trust me. If we knew anything they wouldn't be alive. Do you know
how close I've been to almost getting busted by the cops? If they had
investigated more on the deaths, I wouldn't be here right now,” I said.

He stared right at me longer than I found comfortable. It was like
he was trying to find out if I was lying or not. It was becoming uncomfortable.
“So nothing?” he asked again.

“Well,” Melinda said, “I did feel something at the gym. It was too
weak of a scent though. I couldn't pick up who it belonged to. Whoever it was,
they were at the gym before we got there.”

Ethan nodded and placed his thumb over his bottom lip. He looked
down to the ground and narrowed his eyes, slowly taking the information in.
“She's masking her scent. She knows what she's doing, so she's making it
difficult for the rest of us. She doesn't want to be found.” He was just
talking to himself and Melinda and I shared a glance. Was he all there, or has
he forgotten we were in the room? His eyes moved back up to mine and he was
back to asking questions. “Has she killed all of your subjects?”

“No,” I said straight away. “Well, not the one from last night. As
far as I know, he's still alive. But then again, I wouldn't know either way.
Before him, yes. It's only been in the past couple of weeks.”

“Alright,” Ethan said, “I'll report it to the head. But if you hear
anything, let us know.”

“How am I going to do that?” I asked. “Does Hell have a door now?”

“Hilarious,” he said, but his face showed he wasn’t finding it funny
at all. “I'll know if you guys need me. It was nice to meet you both, even
though both times were... very unusual.” He looked to Melinda for that one.
Unusual is an understatement. “Until we find this rouge, I suggest you lay
low.”

“If I had a nickel for every time I heard that,” I muttered.

Ethan nodded his head once and vanished into thin air. I didn’t know
what to think when he left. At least someone was getting onto this rouge thing,
and maybe it will all be over soon.

Good, because I was getting sick of people turning up dead.

I can’t believe Melinda and I actually thought this guy was
attractive. My opinion had completely changed direction in the past hour.

I turned to her, a curious expression on my face. “Do you still
think he's an angel?”

She turned her head from watching the space Ethan just left, and her
lips actually pulled up into a grin. “Are you kidding me? He's a fucking alpha
maniac. I love it. He's sexy. He has this husky deep voice that sends chills
down my body and makes me want to just fuu-ah—” she stopped when she noticed
the bewildered look on my face. “What? Can't a girl fantasize?”

I didn’t know if I should be disgusted or annoyed that through-out
the whole interrogation, she was checking out how sexy he was. Did she listen
at all?

“Do you think we're low, middle or high ranked?” she continued. Even
though it answered my question, I still couldn’t refrain from sighing and
leaving the room, shaking my head along the way.

“I thought his flight got in at 1?” Melinda groaned.

We were sitting in a large area waiting for Daniel to turn up. How
we got here was just a whole bunch of bullshit. We called him after Ethan had
disappeared and he made it his priority to make his way here. So that's why
we're at the airport, waiting for the incubus to walk through the doors.

But he's late.

Like, really late. It's almost
2PM
.

“I don't even know why he's coming here,” I replied, draping my arm
over my eyes to block out the sun that was shining through the large windows.
“And why don't these people invest in tinting for their windows?”

“Maybe to piss off moaning people like you.”

I moved my arm from my eyes and turned. “Well, look who decided to
show up.”

Daniel stood there in all his glory. A pair of dark jeans hung low
on his hips with a white shirt that accentuated his toned arms and
Florida
tan. A boyish grin came to his
lips and I couldn't contain the excitement at seeing the incubus.

I may have not been excited before, but just seeing him right
here... I guess I may have missed him.

His arms slid around my waist as I hugged him, breathing in the
ocean-breeze scent he seemed to always smell like. “Maya, it's always good to
see you,” he said.

“As with you, Daniel.”

We let go of each other and Melinda provided the same excitement
when she embraced him, except well, her excitement was a bit more noticeable.
“Daniel, I have missed you so much, you have no idea.” I could see her arms
tighten around his neck and he laughed, his ice blue eyes brightening as he
hugged her just as tight.

“Always good to know that I'm being thought about.”

“Why are you late, by the way?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

As much as I ignored it, I already knew the answer to this.

“Oh,” the grin on his face grew, confirming what I was thinking. “There
was this girl on the plane, great legs, amazing set of boobs and she was eager
for this,” he motioned down to his body, showing how conceited an incubus can
be.

“One day, someone's going to cut your balls off for sleeping with
their daughter,” I stated.

“Ouch, Maya.” He made a show of cupping his balls. “You shouldn't
threaten the area unless you plan on personally making up for it.”

“I don't plan on making up for it,” I shrugged, showing him a bit of
sympathy. “Sorry.”

Succubi and Incubi weren't allowed to romanticize amongst one
another, but the rules said nothing about having the casual sex. Some succubi
and incubi would have sex because they wanted to. It temporarily satisfied the
demon but not as much as it would satisfy if they were stealing from a human.
Due to the fact that our energy isn’t fresh, it just doesn't work out. Well, it
could if you both agreed on not being faithful. If you didn’t agree on that,
you were most likely going to die. If you don’t feed your demon enough, it will
kill you.

Committing to a relationship would just end up killing you.

Then there was the human rule. They weren't allowed to know about
us, and too much sex with them leads to their deaths.

So yeah, we're practically the definition of the phrase '
forever
alone
'.

Daniel shook his head sadly, but even I knew it was part of his
show. “One day, Maya. One day you will fall for my charms.”

I actually don't know why I hadn't had sex with Daniel yet. It could
be the fact that I have sex to satisfy my demon and Daniel isn't going to be
enough, or it could be the fact that he and Melinda have done it and I just
don't need to go there.

Yeah, I think it was the latter reason. “I highly doubt that.”

****

“So, run it by me again what this Ethan guy said?” Daniel asked from
the backseat.

I was bound to be expelled or suspended soon with everything that I
was doing. Melinda staying at my dorm was currently going unnoticed, but add
Daniel to that equation and I was asking for trouble.

“There's a new succubus in
L.A.
but they have no leads on whom or where she is. The SIA were
following us to see if we knew anything. They would have been following you to
make sure you weren't involved in any way,” Melinda said while she scrolled
through songs on your iPod, “I still want to know if I’m a middle or high class
demon.”

Melinda still hadn't dropped the subject on the ranking of her
demon. She did however drop the idea of her demon being low because well,
that's Melinda and she won't accept that.

So it left the other two.

“We're middle.”

My gaze flicked to the rear-view mirror. “How do you know?”

Daniel shrugged. “The older you stay alive the more you're capable
of doing, the higher your ranking is.”

“Explain.”

“Well, an elder demon like the SIA can do a lot of things from
transporting to shape-shifting. They can take themselves anywhere between here
and the underworld. They can change their appearance anytime they want, make
themselves look like anything and anyone. They can even create their own
appearance. Middle-class demons—like us—are only capable of appearing in dreams
and doing what we do. Lower-class demons are the ones that refuse to associate
themselves with the SIA, rogues as you may call it.”

“Thank fucking God,” Melinda spoke to the ceiling, “I now know the
answer to the million dollar question.”

I stopped at a set of traffic lights and arched a brow at Daniel. My
eyes narrowed on his. “How do you know so much?”

Looking straight into my eyes, he arched a singular brow, as if to
tell me that my question was a stupid one. “I'm not just a pretty face.”

I let my eyes take in his face. A few strays of sandy blonde hair
hung over his icy blue eyes. The chiseled features of his cheek bones matched
his jaw line perfectly. And the perfect
Florida
tan was something to be jealous about.

He did have a pretty face. “Well you had me fooled.”

Melinda snorted a laugh beside me and finally picked a song. It was
MKTO
– Thank You
. Pretty much over the conversation we were all having, I turned
the volume up. This song was one of those ones that could make you happy, even
if you were having a bullshit day. It helped with my mood. With everything
going on, it actually distracted my thoughts for four minutes.

But when the song finished and a familiar slow strum of a guitar
played, my mood was suddenly back to being at an all time low.

When we arrived at the dorms, Daniel brought out his signature
attitude, and quickly assumed where he was sleeping.

“So, I'll take the right side and you the left?” he smirked, sliding
his arm across my shoulders only for me to just push it right back off.

“You're sleeping on the couch, buddy. I can't trust your hands.” I
headed into the living room, wanting to sit down on the couch and ignore the
world. As much as music could give you that escape from everything, when it was
finished, suddenly all its problems come right back.

“That’s because you haven’t given them the chance to gain your
trust.”

I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to answer his comment.

“What's up her ass, anyway?” I heard him ask Melinda.

“Probably having Tristan withdrawals,” Melinda said.

So because I refuse to sleep with Daniel there's something wrong
with me? And that it's because I'm having Tristan withdrawals? “There's nothing
wrong with me,” I muttered, placing my feet on the coffee table and staring
down at the dark red nail polish.

Tristan’s favorite color.

Daniel came and sat by my feet. Moving my eyes up, I saw him
watching me carefully. I thought about just shifting my eyes away from him, but
there really wasn’t anywhere else, so instead I mumbled, “What?”

He didn’t answer. The small stubble growing on his jaw distracted me
momentarily, and it was then that I noticed that Daniel had really gained some
manly features. The last time I saw him, he was still in that boy next door
mode. Now, he was starting to look like one of those guys that you would
totally not wear panties for.