Counterpart (Succubi & Incubi Assn.) (27 page)

Score.

When I walked back into the living room, I noticed Ethan had gone. I
didn’t have many options to choose from on where he was going. It was either he
went down to report to
Rosa
, or
he didn’t want to see my ignorant mood that I was getting myself into.

Twenty minutes later, I had nearly drunken half the bottle of tequila
by myself. I savored the burn that went down my throat. I could feel my mind
and body start to feel light, and I liked it. Melinda and Daniel didn’t say
anything, and even though I wouldn’t talk or look at them, I knew they were
watching every move I did, probably waiting for me to do something stupid.

Which, I seem to do a lot lately.

I felt the couch dip down and Daniel’s arm rested around my
shoulders. I didn’t push it off—frankly, his arm felt like Tristan’s and it
felt comforting in an
I miss Tristan
kind of way.

Ugh.

“Want me to smash him?” I knew he was joking, judging by the smirk
that was on his face, but even I couldn’t help but think of the odds Daniel
would have against Tristan.

Muscle and flawless skin surrounded both of them, making them too
much alike. But Tristan had more experience than Daniel, and even though an
incubus has a lot of advantages over a human, I knew Daniel wouldn’t last.

“No, you’ll get smashed instead.” My voice was blank, and I had
decided to just stay blunt for the rest of the night.

Tequila and me = telling the truth, and nothing but the truth.

“Now, usually at this point I’d feign how you wounded my ego, but I
see how you’re not in the mood, so I won’t.” He was right about that.

I didn’t reply, instead I gave the bottle in my lap my full
attention. I cringed at the amount of liquid left. I was obviously going to
need more than this, and maybe I’ll get some lemons while I was at it.

“Anyway,” Melinda said. She sat on the opposite couch from us, her
feet on the coffee table. “I found out some information about Ethan.”

I was hardly interested in information about Ethan, but hell, it
beat talking about Tristan. “What did you find out?”

“Well, his name is Ethan Bennett. You should’ve seen how many last
names I went through to find that information out.” She rolled her eyes for
effect. “He wouldn’t give me an exact number, but he’s been with the SIA for
over fifty years.” She suddenly sat up. “But wait, there’s more. He’s over a
century old. It’s weird because I thought he was, like, twenty two or
something.”

It even came as a shock to me. I thought he was just a few years
older than me, but no, he was a bit older than that. And, that’s an
understatement.

I wonder how he feels being an incubus... sleeping around with girls
not even fifty percent his age. I refrained from laughing at the image of Ethan
being an old man, looking around and persuading little girls.

Then the image just made me cringe.

“Good thing we have demons,” Daniel spoke up from my side, “we can
be however old we want, look however we like, and do whoever we want. It’s
probably one of my favorite things about being an incubus. But, I have to
admit, I think the first thing I want to try is replicating Channing Tatum.”

“You want to be Channing Tatum?” I smirked. The thought of him
gaining a larger build almost sounded intriguing, but I couldn’t help but
wonder, “You have a man crush on him?”

“I don’t have a man crush!” he said defensively, “I’m just saying,
the guy looks good.”

“Man crush,” I stated again. Not that I had a problem in Daniel’s
choice of men but if he turned up to my dorm like Channing Tatum... I was
scared about what the results would be.

“It’s not a man crush. Melinda, tell her it’s not a man crush.”

I had to my roll my eyes at the fact he was going to coward behind
Melinda.
As if she would be on his side for this.

“Sorry,” she shrugged, “I’m with her on this.” I refrained from
poking my tongue out in an immature manner. “You have a man crush and it’s
totally not something to be defensive about. He’s hot. Did you see him in
Magic
Mike
—ugh.” She slumped back against the couch, fanning her face. “Talk
about
swoon
.”

Normally I would say something about Melinda being dramatic, but not
even my semi-tipsy mind could ignore the hotness that came with that movie.

“I haven’t seen the movie,” Daniel said.

Both Melinda and I snapped our heads in his direction. I guess it
was understandable that he hadn’t seen it. I knew a lot of males that refused
to see it. Then there were the people like Stuart, who didn’t care as long as
there were shirtless scenes.

“So did you watch the part when he totally rotated his hips all over
the stage?” Melinda said to me, ignoring Daniel's lack in movie picks.

“Of course I did. I watched it, rewound it, watched it again and so
on, so forth. If there was an option to just replay that scene over and over
again, I’d probably fall asleep to it.”

I felt something move on my lap and I remembered that I had an open
bottle of tequila in my hand. Geez, talking about Channing Tatum really distracted
me.

“Oh, the things I would do to have a guy just dance for me like
that,” Melinda said, her eyes distant and glassed over.

“I have a feeling I don’t want to be in this room anymore, so
goodbye!” Daniel made the move to get off the couch, and it only caused me and
Melinda to laugh.

“Aw, come on, Daniel, if you had seen the movie, you’d know what we
were talking about. And, trust me—you’d definitely want his body after that.”

Daniel ignored Melinda’s comment, covering his ears from the sounds
of our laughter as he headed into the kitchen. I had no clue why he was going
to hide in there. It’s not a big kitchen.

I wonder if he’ll look to see if there’s any more alcohol...

“You know what would happen if he walked into campus like Channing,
right?” Melinda’s voice distracted me from the liquor. She was watching the
space Daniel had left, her finger tapping against her chin while her green eyes
narrowed.

I wasn’t fully sure what she was talking about. What would happen to
Daniel if he walked into campus like Channing—
Oh
. “Those girls will be
crawling up those stairs like zoo animals.” Sadly, that wasn’t just me
over-exaggerating

“Exactly, it’ll be a frenzy. We’ll have to put him in a cage.”

The image of him being inside a cage, surrounded by screaming fan
girls was so satisfying that it wasn’t funny. Sometimes Melinda could come up
with some good ideas. “We can totally sell him off.”

Her head tilted to the side, curious. “I was just saying that for
his safety,” then she grinned, “but your idea is
so
much better.”

“I know. Only drunk thoughts lead to these significant ideas of
mine.” I held the bottle up, like I was cheering to myself and only myself. I
can just see myself acting like a loser tonight.

“He will be the death of everyone,” Melinda said after a few seconds.

I was about to comment on how that comment itself was dramatic, but
then I felt him.

“No one is going to be the death of anyone,” Ethan said. I could
feel the room grow serious, and my fingers itched to grab the bottle and drink
the rest of it right then.

“Oh, if it isn’t Mr Serious, what do we have the pleasure of today?”
Melinda said, trying to bring out her—what she called—
royal accent
.

Ethan just stood there, his broad arms crossed over his chest. “I
don’t have time for your little games, succubus.”

“You know we have names right?” Melinda pointed to herself. “I'm
Melinda, and that's Maya.” She stated our names slowly, almost like she was
trying to teach a child.

Ethan definitely wasn’t a child.

“Great, nice to know you remember your names,” he said, walking over
and taking the seat beside me. Why did everyone have to sit beside me? Why
couldn’t they sit by Melinda?

I turned my head and glanced towards the elderly—ha, elderly. The
word didn’t fit him though. He looked nothing like his age. And, seriously if
people knew his age, and that he wasn’t an incubus then maybe they’d ask which
surgeon he went to.

There was a small amount of stubble along his jaw, a smooth lightly
tanned complexion, followed by those dark green eyes that looked awesome. Why couldn’t
I have cool colored eyes? I was stuck with brown ones—thanks to my so-called
parents.

Honestly though—and I’m not entirely sure if this was the alcohol
getting to my head—but Ethan was really good looking, like in that '
I’d
totally watch you strip
' kind of way. It almost made it impossible to
imagine him with wrinkles and gray hair. Actually... my eyes traveled to his
hair and I tried to look for strands of hair that I could call him out on, but
no, it was like he always dyed it.

He was lucky he was cute, or else females wouldn’t give him pleasure
if he opened his mouth.

“Can I ask you a question?” I said out of the blue.

He snapped his head to me, a brow arched. “Why?”

I don’t see why he couldn’t just say:
Sure, Maya. What’s up?
“It’s a serious question.”

He watched me for a slow couple of seconds then sighed. “If you
must.”

I must
. I tried to keep my face
straight, showing no sign of my question being humorous. “You know how you’re
like a century old or something?”

“Mhm...”

“When you have sex with a twenty year old female, does that make you
a pedophile?” I heard Melinda burst out laughing, and soon enough Daniel’s
laughter was heard. It wasn’t helping the charade I was trying to pull.

Ethan, however, was as emotionless as he was the first day I met him.
“If you have sex with over 20 males a year, does that make you a whore?”

My laughter died so fast that I could hear the sounds of Melinda’s
and Daniel’s fading as soon as they got the meaning. “That’s not fair and you
know it,” I said.

“Then don’t ask me questions that you’re not prepared to know the
answer for.”

“You didn't even answer the question. You just asked me a question.
It's different.”

I figured with the fact that he turned his attention away from me
that this whole conversation—that was about to turn into an argument—was at an
end.

“I’m here for a reason. We think we might know why Tori’s here,” he
spoke up. I groaned.

Tori. I had forgotten about the bitch for a while there, hell, I had
even forgotten about Tristan.

Now my down mood was back.

At least I got to laugh today.

“Why?” I said, just wanting to drink the liquor now.

“We think she might be after
Bethany
’s demon for Cassandra.”

“I don’t get it.”

“
Bethany
was one of
the strongest succubi after
Rosa
. She managed to make a human immune. There's no telling what else
she could do. If she had the same powers as
Rosa
did then...” he didn't finish his sentence. He looked at me with an
expectant stare, like he wanted me to figure it out, and I was trying to dig
inside my brain for what only
Rosa
and
Bethany
could
do.

“She would have been able to make succubi and incubi,” I finally
said.

“Right, but we couldn't find out because she died.”

My demon had more powers than I thought. But that still didn't tell
me why Tori’s here. “What does that have to do with Tori?”

“We think Cassandra sent Tori to keep you and Tristan apart.”

Well it worked
. The mention of Tristan
hit me and the memories of earlier on played in my head. It wasn’t long before
I was unscrewing the cap of the bottle in my lap, swigging it back as soon as I
could.

“Why?” Melinda asked the question everyone was waiting to hear come
out of my mouth, but it was currently occupied.

“If Maya and Tristan reconnected
Bethany
's soul, then you'll get stronger, Maya. If you get stronger it'll
be harder for Cassandra to get to you.”

Great, because I don’t have any other problems right now.

“And,” he continued. I noticed Daniel had moved back into the living
room and he sat on the arm of the couch Melinda was on. “As much as you
probably don’t like the idea right now, you may have to reconnect the soul.”

I almost sputtered the whole tequila contents on the floor. “Excuse
me?”

“You need to be prepared for anything, Maya. If you can reconnect
it, you’ll get stronger. You’ll learn faster. You’ll be able to protect
yourself.”

Isn’t that was the SIA was for, protecting me from crazy people like
this? “Why can’t I take her down now?”