Page 81 of Inflamed By an Incubus

He drew down a deep breath and exhaled it on a shaky sigh as he scrubbed a hand over his short tawny hair, flashing the markings that tracked up the underside of his forearms. Markings that shone in hues of black, purple, blue and a dash of burnished gold.

“What are you feeling?” She shifted her gaze from his arm to his face and silently demanded an answer to that question this time.

He dropped his hand to his side and for a moment she thought he wouldn’t answer, but then with a sober look at her, he said, “Sorrow… fear. I don’t know how dangerous it is to tell you things about yourself. I want to leave, but I can’t.” He lowered his gaze to his boots and then lifted it to meet hers again. “I can’t leave you. It’s the curse.”

Was that all it was?

One look into his eyes was enough to tell her that it wasn’t the curse that made him want to stay near her even when he knew it was dangerous and might end with her death. He wanted to stay near her because he felt something for her, something deep and powerful, a love that had lasted despite the curse that apparently kept them apart.

Her gaze dropped to his left hand and the gold band that encircled his finger. A band that was worn and old.

“Did… Aderyn give you that?” She wasn’t ready to say I, wasn’t there yet by a long shot.

Fenix lowered his gaze to his hand and twisted the gold band around his finger with his thumb, his gaze growing distant and his expression turning lost. He subtly nodded, drew down another breath that tightened his black shirt across his chest, revealing muscles that stirred heat in her veins, and then lifted his gaze to her.

“You wanted one too, but gold can’t survive a phoenix rebirth. So I said I would wear it for both of us… to show everyone we were bound.” He toyed with the ring again, keeping his gaze on it as Evelyn let that sink in.

They hadn’t just been lovers then.

The other incubus had been telling the truth.

They had been mates.

Were mates.

She looked across her shoulder at Mackenzie. The instant her eyes settled on the woman that feeling of home bloomed inside her again. Was Mackenzie mated to the elf? The two were clearly more than lovers. The way the male looked at the redhead was the same way Fenix looked at her, with a softness that could only be love.

“I’m not saying I’m buying this crazy shit, but…” Evelyn shifted her focus back to Fenix. “How did we come to be cursed?”

Maybe if she knew that, it might trigger a memory or something that would make her believe everything he was saying.

And she was beginning to want to believe him.

“A long time ago, blood mages forced a lot of phoenix shifters through a gateway linking your world to this one. They closed that gateway behind your ancestors, trapping them in Hell, and then proceeded to round them up.” Fenix cast an uncomfortable look at Mackenzie and then Evelyn. “They use your blood in their spells. It makes them immortal. Your blood is powerful. The mages still capture phoenixes for their spells.”

A low burn began in her blood, gradually heating it as she listened to him and thought about what the mages were doing. She curled her fingers into fists and frowned as her nails bit into her palms, opened her hands and stared at them. Her nails were longer than before. Sharp too.

Panic swept down her spine like a thousand needles pricking her skin.

Fenix took a step towards her, his tone gentle. “You’re okay, sweetheart. It’s normal.”

“It isn’t normal!” she barked and cast a glance at him, frowned and backed away as she shook her head. “It isn’t normal for me. None of this is.”

She was freaking out again and she hated that she had a bigger audience this time. She could feel the elf and the phoenix staring at her and she wanted to lash out at them and scream at them to leave her alone. Her temperature soared and she gripped the front of her T-shirt and furiously fanned herself.

“You need to calm down.” Mackenzie’s tone was hard as steel as she closed the distance between them. “You can’t go nuclear here. You’ll destroy this place and kill everyone. You have to calm your mind and the phoenix within you will calm too.”

Evelyn stared at her hands, her eyes widening as the air around them shimmered like a heat haze and she could see all the veins beneath her skin. They were glowing. Her throat closed, her chest tightening, and she tossed a look at Fenix as panic morphed into fear. She didn’t want to hurt anyone.

She didn’t want to hurt him.

“It’s okay, love. Just look at me. Listen to me. You just have to breathe. Don’t be afraid. You’re in control.” He held his hands out to her and she shook her head, refusing to take them as he clearly wanted.

She would burn him if she did.

“Something is wrong with me.” Her brow furrowed and she clutched the front of her T-shirt, gasped when smoke rose from the point where she gripped the black material and quickly released it. “Ever since I came back from the Fifth Realm… something has been wrong with me.”

Fenix’s handsome face darkened as his eyes brightened dangerously. “That fucking warlock. He interfered with your rebirth. Son of a bitch!”

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