Page 5 of The Succubus's Song

It’s probably time you got a new number, anyway.

Lauren was the reason Finley had moved to Scotland. They’d always had a rocky relationship, but he had loved her. In his eternal optimism, he proposed to her and hoped the commitment would settle them. It did not. Lauren accepted, but Finley discovered her with his best friend the night of their rehearsal dinner. A few weeks later, he took the offer to move to Edinburgh and found a therapist.

His phone started pinging again.

We were great together.

I still have your ring.

Finley’s stomach twisted at the memory. He knew she was bringing it up to bait him, but he’d had enough.

You also have my best friend. Stop contacting me. It’s over. Your doing, not mine.

Finley managed to fire off the text before he lost his nerve, flipping over to his phone’s settings and blocking the number before he could receive a response. He didn’t feel anything for Lauren anymore, but it was still a painful memory. She had an incredible ability to poke all his emotional weak spots.

It was overdue, and now that Finley was dealing with an impending suspension from the team, raging insomnia, and the fallout from the realization he had a magical family, he was done.

Finley tossed the phone on his nightstand, wrapped himself in the duvet, and made a mental note to tell his therapist what he’d accomplished. He promptly passed out, dreaming not of Lauren, but of glowing red eyes.

CHAPTER THREE

Mara tightened her grip on her umbrella and stepped over a puddle. The cobblestone streets were slick, and it took preternatural grace to navigate them in stiletto heels—which luckily, Mara had in spades.

The temperature had dropped again, which it was known to do several times throughout the Scottish spring, but it hadn’t deterred the nightlife crowd.

After leaving Emmett’s office, Mara had attempted a few short hours of work before a migraine settled in. She knew it was because she hadn’t slept, and she reluctantly turned in for the day. She said nothing to Emmett when they crossed paths at the library that evening, with Emmett leaving and Mara arriving, even though they both knew he’d been right.

Mara had never fit in. She was the black sheep of her family and a pariah amongst the magical community because of her identity as a baobhan sith. Luckily, Calum had done his best to put a stop to it, and after the first century of magical exile, most of their small magical family accepted her. When Scotland’s magic returned, Mara knew her most innate, primal traits would come clamoring to the surface. It was only a matter of time.

Her nocturnal affinities were the first warning sign.

Yet, here she was, just past midnight and practically floating over the sidewalks as she surveyed Edinburgh’s night crowd.

Even without drawing attention to herself, Mara stopped traffic. She kept her head down as she walked, but there was no denying how out of place she looked in the mortal world.

Baobhan sith were never affected by weather, so Mara stepped down the street, without a coat, in a red knit turtleneck dress. Even with its modest neckline, the nearly skin-tight tailoring caused more than one man to trip when she walked by.

Mara turned to the side and slipped past a group of men and women on the sidewalk, catching one of their scents as she moved. As soon as she sensed it, her body went tight as a bowstring. Her heart began to race, and her claws and canines snapped out of hiding on instinct.

Mara choked back a quiet gasp and ducked into the nearest alleyway, dropping her umbrella as she tried to run from her own desire.

You fool! You should’ve fucking fed before coming out tonight.

Mara had been unable to keep a normal schedule, and while she still forbade herself to feed off Edinburgh’s mortals, she had also failed to keep her self-imposed quarantine.

Her body yearned to be where the action was. In those moments, Mara didn’t felt like her body was her own. It wanted to be soothed with the pulses of potential prey, to sniff its fill of unsuspecting victims. If she was going to keep from seducing someone tonight, she should’ve fed before coming out—but her instincts overrode all rational thought.

“Stop, stop, please, stop,” Mara prayed silently, leaning against the alley’s dirty brick wall. Her hands tightened into fists, and Mara could feel the blood drip down her fingers where her talons dug into her palms.

The sounds of the city faded away as Mara’s senses focused in on the retreating scent. Everything else became background noise until the only thing that got through to her was the man’s heartbeat, her body latching onto him like a honing beacon.

Mara forced herself to take deep breaths as the urgency flooding her veins turned painful.

“No,” Mara hissed, banging her head repeatedly against the wall. “You’re better than this.”

“You know you’re not better than this. This is who you are,” a silky, seductive voice purred in Mara’s ear, and shock replaced her anguish. Mara stumbled and nearly fell but caught herself with reflexes quicker than a cat’s.

In a blink, she stepped to the side and straightened up. Her lip curled, and she held her hands out in front of her, ready for a fight as she turned to face the stranger.

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