Page 49 of Inflamed By an Incubus

Another piece of Hella’s pest problem puzzle fell into place. Her nymph ex had come after her and taken her captive, and that was why she had resorted to hiding out in a hovel with a cursed wolf for company.

“You’re staying here until some of the heat you’re feeling in that fae town dies down, got it?” Fenix stared across the table at her, leaning on the polished top with his right hand. Her lips flattened, her green eyes brightening as her mood shifted, taking a sharp, dark turn. She never had liked taking orders from anyone. She glared at him for a full minute before she huffed and looked back at her book, and nodded. He added, “Your boyfriend can stay too.”

That earned him another glare.

And a bolt of electricity that shot across the table to zap his hand as she pressed hers to the other side of it.

She smiled wickedly as he glared at her now and went back to her work. Silence fell as everyone set to it, broken only whenever someone found something of interest, and the minutes rolled into hours. Fenix stretched, pressing his hand into his lower back, as he reached for another stack of books. What time was it?

He glanced at the clock on the mantel, but his gaze landed on Hella where she sat sideways on one of the leather wingback armchairs by the fire, her legs bent over one of the arms and her booted feet bobbing up and down as she flicked through a huge book. She looked tired. He was surprised her wolf hadn’t come down to protest about the fact she had been away from him for too long or to join her in going through the documents. Had she done something to him to keep him in their room?

Fenix walked around the end of the table furthest from her and Mort and went to the other side to check out the papers and books she had reserved.

And noticed Rane had drifted to the sash window at some point.

The brunet stared out of it, his brown eyes fixed on the dark world outside as rain streaked down the pane. Lightning struck, illuminating the grounds and Rane’s face, casting shadows around his eyes and in the hollows of his cheeks. He looked tired too.

“No point standing there staring out of the window,” Fenix said and rounded the table again, heading back towards the younger incubus.

Rane glanced at him as if he hadn’t noticed he was there and his voice lacked his usual confidence as he quietly asked, “Will the barrier hold?”

It was Hella who answered that question.

“It will hold.” She looked up from her book, her gaze settling on Rane’s back.

Rane tensed, his dark gaze sliding towards his left before it darted back to the world beyond the window. Fenix couldn’t blame him for being on his guard around Hella, but he wanted the male to see she wasn’t a threat to him, that he could trust this witch.

Mort cast her a heated glance and then abandoned his work to casually lean against the armchair opposite her, his left elbow resting on top of the tall back. “I bet you could reinforce it for us. You look as if you could cast spells that would make the witch who had cast this one look like an amateur.”

Hella rolled her green eyes and went back to her book as she sighed. “Shoo. You can’t charm your way into my panties.”

Mort shot him a worried look and Fenix knew why.

He feared that the reason he couldn’t charm Hella was because she was his fated one.

Fenix shook his head. “It’s not that. She takes precautions. A spell that makes her impervious to our powers.”

Mort had never looked so relieved as he raked long fingers through his blond hair.

Until Hella raked a slow, leisurely look over him from head to toe, and purred, “It is a shame you’re an incubus and off the menu. You’re almost as handsome as Fenix.” She looked at Rane and then Fenix, and finally settled her gaze on Tiny. “This would have been a dream come true once if you all weren’t incubi.”

Fenix rolled his eyes now, because he knew she was just teasing as she lounged in his favourite armchair, her ruffled black skirt riding up to show a strip of bare thigh between the hem of it and her stockings. Mort and Tiny tensed, their eyes gaining gold and blue swirling flakes as they stared at her. Tiny’s cheeks heated and he quickly sat down, covering his lap with a book.

Rane just sighed and stared out of the window as rain hammered it.

Until a feral, booming howl of rage shook the house, causing all three incubi to tense and look at the door.

Fenix flicked Hella an unimpressed look and muttered, “I think he heard you.”

She tried to shrug it off, but Fenix could see in her aura that she was rattled by the whole thing with the wolf—a male he was beginning to suspect she had growing feelings for that scared her. He got that. Curses were powerful things and she feared everything she was feeling was a lie, a product of a spell. He looked into her eyes, silently telling her that she wasn’t alone, that he was there for her if she needed anything.

Although, right now, he was the one who needed something from her.

Banging and creaking came from upstairs, and it sounded an awful lot like the wolf was going on a rampage, destroying every bit of furniture he could see.

Fenix gave her a pointed look, one that ordered her to go and see to her male, because he didn’t need an angry alpha wolf wrecking his home.

Hella hurriedly stood and put her book on the seat of her armchair, fidgeted with smoothing her skirt down and waggled her finger towards the door. “I’ll… um… I’ll just go and calm him down.”

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