Page 141 of Stalked By Seduction and Shadows

I gave her a curt nod before finding Sadie. She hadn’t bothered to bring out her entourage of subs. Or maybe it was housework day, and they were in skimpy little outfits making the place spotless. That thought ordinarily would’ve brought a smile to my face.

When I saw Sadie, in a black leather corset, pants, and sturdy, shiny boots, we shared a single knowing look. War had begun.

“Sooner than anticipated,” she murmured as she led me past the tall columns and inside her enormous property. “The newest batch is training out back. They’re a particularly powerful bunch. I like to think Selena gave us a helping hand, knowing what we faced.”

We chatted more about strategy, running through our next plays.

At one point, Sadie made a face that sent the hairs on the back of my neck straight up. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but when she snapped her fingers and one of her subs approached with a human woman, I lifted a puzzled brow. She was pretty, with waves of icy blonde hair and gray eyes, attractive features that exuded innocence. Her baby blue dress was conservative, in the style of southern dry lands.

“Rune, this is Araea. She’s a succubus and sex worker from Trinity.”

I considered the girl with new eyes. Was she intentionally switching her powers off? I noticed the same with the succubus Mason and I killed recently, and the handful of incubi and succubi spies we’d caught before. I’d always assumed it was because we knew what they were, and they had no reason to attempt to manipulate us. Demons could only encourage desires we already held within us, and letting them go free was never one of them. Still, I expected more allure, especially considering I had no reason to want to harm the girl. And I did find her attractive.

There was simply nothing more than that. It was as if I were admiring a piece of art in a museum before moving on to the next, without attachment or deeper intrigue.

“You two chat,” Sadie instructed with a flick of her wrist. Though she appeared cool and nonchalant, I knew something deeper was at play. Something just a touch beyond my understanding.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the girl said, her voice a smooth insinuation. She looked slightly nervous, assessing me with a smile but confusion passing over her features in the briefest lapse. “My cousins are turned, and their letters back home to us speak so highly of you.”

I merely nodded, waiting for desire to stoke in my blood. “Your cousins…”

She picked up on the unspoken question, shrugging a shoulder. “A born man attacked my mother. I was raised as my father’s, but my mother always knew the truth. She protected me until she was forced to come clean. When the rest of my family found out, they were split down the middle. My father never spoke to me again, and my mother has to see me only in secret.”

Pain reverberated through her eyes, but she quickly shook it off, shifting back into her easy air of innocent charm.

“I understand the pain of familial rejection,” I said. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

I glanced at Sadie and then back at Araea. What game were we playing? Stranger than this interaction, however, was how normal Araea appeared. How human. Her pain appeared genuine.

Every sex demon I’d ever encountered had been in the context of subterfuge and power moves. I’d once witnessed an incubus stoke the desire of several shifter men in my secret ranks to throw themselves off a building. They’d recently lost a cherished member of the pack. For a powerful incubus who’d been feeding off several turned for months, their sliver of grief was enough to amplify, to induce such chilling hopelessness that death seemed like the only escape.

I’d never met a demon outside of these plays of violence and deceit. I’d been admonished for my undiscerning hatred of them once or twice over the years, but I’d always brushed the criticism off. They were half born, and every one of them I’d ever encountered had been as heartless and vile as the rest of Lillian’s spawn.

“You feel guilty,” the demoness said.

My eyes snapped back to hers, waiting for her gentle gray irises to pull me under her waves just as Scarlett’s had. But they never did. I stayed firmly rooted in place on solid ground.

I ignored her intrusive prying. “How did you cope? When you found out about your nature?”

She swallowed. “I was devastated. I could no longer trust that anyone who still cared for me truly did, or if I’d forced them to somehow, with powers I didn’t yet understand.”

At once something inside me soured, while another part of me slowly reached through the invisible leash that told me Scarlett was still inside her bedroom.

“I was thrown out of my home, and I fled to a neighboring town. We can recognize each other, us sex demons, and I found an incubus soon after moving. He helped me to understand my powers, to use them to climb my way out of homelessness and start protecting myself instead of always being a victim.”

Sadie made some pointed look at Araea, her green eyes going snakelike.

Araea reached for my arm, and I recoiled from her touch. She quickly covered up a frown with an easy smile.

“We can talk somewhere more private, if you’d like. I can answer any questions you have about my nature to the best of my ability. Anything to help the turned. I am at your service,” she said, a mixture of suggestive and coy.

Scarlett played this act much more convincingly. I was bored.

“For the love of the gods,” I groaned, shooting Sadie an irritated glare. “Could we end this bizarre little charade now? Perhaps skip to the part where you tell me the purpose of this nonsense instead?”

Sadie tsked. “Always infuriatingly uncooperative.”

I crossed my arms, glaring between the two women. Now that Araea had dropped her act, she was flustered and visibly confused.

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