Succubus, Interrupted (3 page)
I could see where Ethan might have problems with that scenario. “But who’s going to wake him up?”
“You are?”
I snorted. “Not if I’m with you.”
Remy’s eyes widened and then she pounced on me with a happy squeal of delight, knocking us both to the floor. “You’d go with me, Jackie? You are the best friend ever!”
I patted her on the shoulder. “Of course, Remy. Succubi stick together.”
“The next hundred years won’t be so bad if you’re with me! Isaiah’s a little kinky in the sack, but hey, you’ve seen one strap-on harness, you’ve seen them all—”
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I pried her clinging arms off me. “Wait a minute,” I said, sitting up. “I’m not going to be this guy’s wife. I’m going with you to
free
you.”
“Oh.” She sat up and frowned at me. “Oh. Well, that won’t work.”
I sat up too. “How do you know it won’t work?”
She rolled her eyes. “Hello, Jackie, he’s a Serim. They’re not exactly the most open-minded immortals. My guess is that he’s still reeling from women’s lib. Only happened about a hundred years ago. He’s probably barely even begun to process it.”
“Well, if he’s not going to listen to us, then maybe he’ll listen to Zane.”
She groaned. “Jackie, you can’t bring your boyfriend to a slumber party.”
“This isn’t a slumber party! I’m not sleeping with anyone but Zane!”
“Not even if I ask nicely?” She stuck her lower lip out.
I reached out and pushed it back in with my finger. “No. Zane and I are a package deal.”
She rolled her eyes. “All right, but Isaiah’s a little touchy when it comes to vampires.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I’ll handle that,” I said. “Now, what about Ethan?”
“I could send him to Florida for oranges?”
“Or… you could just take him with you.”
She winced and bit her fingernail, thinking. “I don’t know how he’s going to react if I have to sleep with Isaiah again.”
I patted her arm. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
#
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We woke Ethan after we had packed our bags and placed them in the car. He cast wounded looks at both Remy and myself, but he said nothing when Remy began to launch into a big story about how she’d accidentally put him to sleep. Like I said before, she was a shitty liar, and I knew that Ethan could tell she was lying. But he loved her, and I think it was just as obvious that there was something wrong, so he said nothing.
Remy continued to chatter in a too-light voice, spinning Ethan a big story about how her friend wanted her to come visit, and we were all going for a little while. I felt bad when he readily agreed, and he didn’t ask questions when we asked him to load the still-sleeping Zane into the back seat. I cradled my vampire’s head in my arms as we drove. Since Remy was fatalistic about her chances of escaping her master, I’d expected her to pack heavily, but her one bag was smaller than mine.
“How far is this place, Remy?”
“A few hours’ drive,” she said. “We’ll be there before sunset.”
I didn’t like that—Zane might still be asleep—but I didn’t have a choice.
I’d expected her to head south, into Colorado, but she took the highway heading southeast. When we hit the border for Nebraska, I said nothing, but my curiosity grew. Exactly where did this Isaiah live?
After a few hours of highway driving, we pulled off on an unmarked gravel road and drove quite a ways until the highway was out of sight. Corn fields lined my vision as far as the eye could see. So weird. We turned down a second gravel path, and I saw a sign—the Sanctuary for the Angel of Eternal Life. My skin prickled. This was going from bad to worse.
We stopped in front of a massive wooden gate in the middle of nowhere. At the gate, Remy turned off the car, parked it, and looked over at me. “We’re here.”
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“Uh, where exactly is here?” I saw nothing but corn. Corn and the gate.
“This is where we have to take our shoes off and change.”
“Change into what?”
“Our penitent gowns,” she said, tugging off one tall, leopard-spotted Louboutin. She hesitated, then kissed the shoe. “God, I’m going to miss you.”
Ethan gave her an odd look. “Do you wish new shoes, Remiza?”
She shook her head, then looked over at me. “Better take yours off, too.”
“We don’t get to wear shoes?”
“Isaiah believes women should remain closer to the earth at all times. Footwear just gives them airs.”
“This Isaiah sounds like a real prize,” I muttered, stripping off my own ballet flats and tossing them into the back of the car. “What about Zane and Ethan?”
She frowned over at Ethan, as if just now remembering him. “You’ll have to stay back here with Zane. Jackie and I will go in first. Okay?”
His eyes flashed and he placed a hand over his heart, then bowed. “It shall be as you wish, Remiza.”
She softened, her eyes going watery. Her lower lip trembled, and I thought she’d burst into tears again.
So I pinched her.
Remy looked over at me, then nodded. She pulled out a white pile of fabric and handed it to me. “Here’s yours. Isaiah mailed me these a few weeks ago. That’s how I knew it was time.”
It looked like a plain white shift. “What’s this for?”
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“You cannot approach Isaiah or his followers unless dressed all in white. He feels that women need extra steps to maintain their purity.”
Gee, I already loved this Isaiah guy. “I bet he’s not thinking about purity when it comes to the strap-ons,” I muttered.
But still, because we were in this far, we hovered next to the car and changed into the weird white robes. Ethan cast Remy and me disapproving looks but didn’t comment. When we were changed, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, very tenderly. “Stay here for me?”
“For you,” he said in a deep, bass voice. He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it.
I gazed down at Zane, still caught in day-slumber due to his vampire nature. His beautiful face was smooth with sleep, and I brushed my fingers over his forehead, sending a quick ‘I love you’ into his dreams. He wouldn’t remember it when he awoke, but it still made me feel better.
“And Zane? You’ll stay with him, Ethan? While he’s vulnerable?”
The enforcer’s eyes flashed and he gave me a stiff bow. “I will watch over him for you, Jackie Brighton.”
“All right then,” I said, and took Remy by the arm. I could feel her trembling. “Let’s go face the music. Together.”
I have to admit, I was expecting all kinds of weird, kinky shit from what Remy had said.
But so far… nothing odd. The exterior of the house was a plain, white two-story house with little décor. An enormous garden stretched out behind the house and farm animals dotted a nearby pasture.
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We went to the door and Remy raised her hand to knock, then hesitated. Another full-body tremble swept over her.
I squeezed her arm, aching for my friend. “He’s a cruel master, isn’t he?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking,” she said with a wry twist of her mouth. “I am nothing to him but a slave. I have no wants and needs of my own in his eyes. I’m just an object. A thing.
A brainless thing with boobs.” She shrugged. “I should be grateful that I’ve had my hundred years of freedom. I’m just not feeling so grateful at the moment.”
“Can’t say I blame you for that.”
Remy sucked in a deep breath, then reached out and knocked on the door. I held my own breath, waiting. What would Remy’s master look like? Would he be beautiful? Cruel?
A woman answered the door a few moments later. She was very young, her face clean of makeup and freckled. Her hair was parted down the middle of her scalp and braided tightly into a circle. She wore the same white shift we did, and when I looked down, I noticed her feet were bare. Her eyes widened at the sight of us. “I—I greet you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Remy said, waving a hand. “Tell Isaiah I’m here already, okay? Let’s get this over with.”
The woman stared at the two of us for a moment and then dropped into a slight curtsy.
“Please wait here.”
A moment later she returned, not with Isaiah, but with another woman. This one was older, garbed the same, with her hair pulled back in the same severe style. Her plain face was disapproving as she stared at Remy and me. “Isaiah told us that Penitence would arrive alone.”
“Her BFF tagged along for the ride,” I said dryly.
“Then you are not here to be Isaiah’s wife?”
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“Um, no. Are you both his wives?” Remy pinched my arm but I ignored it.
Both women’s faces curved into small, satisfied little smiles. “All of us at the Sanctuary for the Eternal Angel are brides to Isaiah.”
Remy was silent at my side.
“How lovely,” I said, because I couldn’t think of anything else.
“You cannot stay here if you are not to serve as a bride.”
I raised my hands up in protest. “Just visiting, I promise.”
That seemed to mollify them, and they exchanged a look. “Very well.”
“Are there many women living here?” I couldn’t help but ask, the bright smile still plastered to my face.
“Only thirty,” the younger one said, then waved us forward. “Please follow me.”
As they began to walk down the long, undecorated hall, I slowed my steps and leaned in close to Remy. “You didn’t tell me he was running a cult, Remy.”
“I think that’s pretty new,” she whispered back. “Though I’m not surprised. He was always a little too cheap to pay for servants.” She gave me an uncertain look. “You can still go, Jackie. I understand.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said. “You know, we could knock them unconscious and make a break for it.”
“No,” Remy said sadly. “If I run, he’ll find me and then I won’t even get a hundred years of freedom anymore. He’ll just make me serve him forever. I don’t want that. I have to do this.”
I bit my lip and said nothing else. What could I say? Remy was determined to go through with this. All I could do was support her and look for a way to extricate her from this problem.
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The women ahead of us opened the door to a large, sunlit room and then bowed their heads, not crossing the threshold. Remy’s steps faltered a little, and I put a hand on her back, comforting her.
I’d been expecting something austere in the room. More cult-like. You know. Sneakers and purple Kool-Aid and rows of bunk beds. To my surprise, the room we entered was a warm, sunny atrium filled with flowering plants of various shapes and sizes. The ceiling was high overhead, the glass curved so it felt like we were in a dome. Not what I’d expected from the plain exterior of the house. It was humid inside, just enough to cling to the skin. A posh Persian rug was thrown over the tile floor and soft harp music played. As we pushed past the leafy plants, the doors shut behind us.
Ahead, a man with golden-brown hair and lightly freckled skin relaxed in a throne-like rattan chair covered in white pillows. He looked to be of a slender build—Noah had positively bulged with muscles and even Zane’s leaner form was athletic. This man was spare, almost delicate. He seemed… short, too. One hand was extended outward, his nails being buffed by a woman who crouched by his side, wearing the same braid and white gown that the others had.
Another knelt by his feet, giving him a pedicure. Across from his chair, another sat, playing the harp—the source of the music. I heard the plants rustle in the background and realized another woman was nearby, watering.
Remy sucked in a deep breath, then spoke. “Hey, big daddy, you can call off the search party. I’m home.”
The man opened his eyes. They were bleached silver, like all Serim that had recently had their needs sated. “Ah, Penitence,” he said in a soft, cultured voice. “You are home after all.”
“That’s not my name—” Remy began irritably.
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“Silence. It is your name while you are here.”
To my horror, Remy quieted, and I saw her mouth pinch into an unhappy frown.
He waved one manicured hand at her. “Come and give me a kiss to show me that you missed me.”
Remy jerked forward, walking stiffly. She moved toward Isaiah, leaned in, and kissed him on the cheek.
He chuckled as if amused, then gestured at the floor. “Sit.”
She sat at his feet like a dog. Her gaze flicked over to me and she gave me a miserable look.
His gaze moved to me finally, and his mouth curled a little. “I see my Penitence brought a friend.”
“Her name is Remy,” I said. “And yes, she did.”
“That is not her name while she is here,” he said coolly. “Here she is silent and obedient.
She must earn the privilege of speaking with good behavior.”
That sounded… horrific. Ugh. So Remy had to grovel and beg at this jackass’s feet just to earn the right to have a conversation? That seemed grossly unfair.
Isaiah cocked his head and studied me, then smiled. He reached over and stroked Remy’s dark hair as one might a pet. “You have delivered my lovely Penitence home. Thank you. You may go.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I sputtered. “I’m here for Remy.”
“She no longer needs you,” Isaiah said calmly. “Tell her, Penitence.”
“I no longer need you,” Remy said in a dead tone, her eyes begging me to stay.
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I snorted. “I did not fall off the turnip truck yesterday, Mr. Angel of Eternal Life. I know how you work and how you can affect Remy. She doesn’t want to be here.”
“Of course she does,” Isaiah said with an indulgent smile. “Tell her that you want to be here, Remy.”
