Page 22 of Inflamed By an Incubus

Fenix kept his eyes away from her, afraid of what might happen if he looked at her. The hunger was still riding him hard, filled his head with images of her beneath him, yielding to him and crying his name as she broke apart. If the white-coats saw the effect she had on him, it would place her in danger.

The female checked her clipboard. “An incubus. Raise your arms.”

She glanced at him, her grey eyes cold.

“Fuck off,” he spat and placed them behind his back instead, stoked the anger that was quick to come as he thought about what these nefarious humans probably wanted to do to him.

A nice round of studying.

“Black and red. Make a note of that.” She angled her head towards her male partner and he scribbled on his own clipboard. “They were a different colour when we arrived. Incubus gold and blue. The subject is hungry.”

“And now the subject is angry.” Fenix growled those words at the brunette and glared at her for good measure when she arched an eyebrow at him.

“The subject is mouthy,” she said and her thin lips curled into a vicious smile. “Perhaps the subject wants a dose of gas?”

“There’s no need for such extreme tactics,” Evelyn put in and he almost looked at her as she stepped forwards, emerging from between the two white-coats, her black uniform of a T-shirt and fatigues a stark contrast to them. “The incubus might be more inclined to assist us if we don’t go gassing him over the slightest thing.”

“The incubus is never going to be inclined to help you. I see what you people do to immortals like me. Studying. Nice way of saying slicing and dicing and seeing how we tick. I don’t remember being a danger to any humans so I’m not sure why I’m here.” He squared up to the front of his cell, still keeping his eyes off Evelyn, holding on to the anger he felt burning in his blood as he clenched his fists behind his back.

“Not a danger to any humans?” Evelyn frowned at him. He could feel her surprise and fury as her gaze seared him, as her emotions trickled into him through their bond. Could she feel his rage too? She should be aware of it, but maybe she had misinterpreted it as her own anger. “You attacked my partner.”

He shrugged. “Like I said. I wasn’t a danger to a human.”

She huffed and he could easily picture her rolling her eyes. “This again? Fine, have at him.”

She turned away from him and he wanted to lunge for her, to tell her to stay close to him, to roar at her that she was in danger here, surrounded by humans. She didn’t belong in this place.

“Tell us about your lineage,” the male said, his gaze on his clipboard and pen poised to write down the information.

“Dead, I’m afraid.” Fenix lied through his teeth, something he had become good at over the years. An incubus quickly learned to protect himself and his kin upon maturing, when his need to feed came to the fore and he found himself caught up in fights over whether or not he had stuck to the code of honour.

Which was utter bullshit some incubi had come up with before Fenix had been born, declaring they would never feed from an unwilling host or use their powers to persuade one who didn’t want to be seduced. It had probably sounded like a fantastic way of avoiding conflict when the males had come up with it, stopping the wars against the incubi that had broken out over the centuries. Most modern incubi felt neutered by it, driven to conduct their seductions in private in order to avoid revealing that none of them upheld that code.

Well, none of them except Fenix and maybe a few other mated males.

“Where are your family from?” The male gave him an exasperated look that revealed he already knew what Fenix’s answer would be.

“Here, there… around.” Fenix shrugged his bare shoulders.

“Perhaps we need to try a different tactic.” The male looked at the brunette, his brown eyes sharp with frustration.

“You are not our first incubus guest, but there is something different about you that warrants further study.” The female ran an assessing gaze over him from head to toe and back again and he bared his teeth at her.

“The word guest implies I’m free to come and go as I please,” Fenix spat. “So how about you lift this barrier and I walk out of here? I’ve done nothing to warrant being your prisoner.”

Evelyn’s soft voice had the rage blazing in his blood dropping to a simmer and then spiking again as her words registered. “He attacked my partner without provocation.”

He slid a glare at her. “Not without provocation.”

She frowned at him and stepped towards the glass, her golden eyes scrutinising him as her lips compressed and her eyebrows knitted. He didn’t like that look. He felt as if she was peeling back his layers, stripping away his defences in her quest to seek the answer to the question that gently rolled from her delectable lips.

“Not without provocation?”

Fenix refused to say any more than what he had. It had been a mistake to answer her but part of him had felt compelled to make her see that her partner had had it coming and that he wasn’t some mindless, brutal immortal out to hurt the innocent.

“What is your name?” the male said, his tone dull as he moved to the next question on what had to be a standard list of them that he knew Fenix wouldn’t answer given how bored he sounded.

He stoked his rage again, ensuring his markings churned with obsidian and crimson, and growled at the white-coats. “Go to hell.”

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