Page 41 of Demons of Eden

Yeah. I’m thirsty.

“I think I might have woken up in an alternate reality today,” I mumble to myself, then take a few sips of the water. After screwing the cap back on, I flop back against a wall and sigh.

Unfortunately, now I think I’m going to need the assistance of the one person I’d rather stab than ask for help. I really need to be able to control this sex lure stuff, so when a man offers to fuck me, I can tell if he really wants to or not. I can’t live with the idea that I'm so potent I revoked his ability to tell if he truly wants me or is just high on succubus pheromones and unintentional sex magic.

Or however the hell this is all working...

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Rio gives me another suspicious look as we make our way down the street, the lack of an end destination becoming increasingly obvious with every minute. I turn away, anxiety and just a smidge of guilt twisting together in my stomach unpleasantly. He’s been giving me glances like that since I asked for his help, worsening when I insisted that it had to be him when he tried brushing my request off.

Hopefully he doesn’t think I’ve lured him away from the others in order to murder him or something equally as ridiculous.

Though I can’t really blame his suspicion. I would much rather have Daion or Torrin here with me, but I can't trust that their responses won’t be affected by my new abilities. Rio, on the other hand, can clearly fight off the effects well enough for his answers to be uninfluenced, even if I unintentionally blast him with waves of lust. It’s also not like he’ll hold back due to worrying about potentially hurting my feelings, the way those two might, either.

“For fuck’s sake, spit it out already!” Rio snaps loudly, coming to an abrupt halt in the middle of the street, completely ignoring the irritated and curious looks his outburst earns us.

“Spit what out?” I ask, a rush of panic forcing the response from my lips before I can think. I pause to shoot what I hope is a reassuring smile at an older woman who’s glancing over our way with some concern before continuing to walk. If he wants answers, he’ll follow. There’s no way we’re having this conversation with the audience he’s just garnered us.

“Whatever it is that you’ve dragged me here for,” he practically growls back in frustration as he catches up with me. The tension in his shoulders seems to deflate when he turns his head to meet my eyes for a moment as we walk. I wonder what he sees, why it’s apparently enough for him to lower his voice and smother some of the obvious irritation and animosity he feels as he continues. “You obviously didn’t drag me out here for my help with something to do with finding your demon, so what is it? I want to get this over with, and I’m sure you do too.”

“You’re right,” I say, hating to agree with the irritating man, but there’s really no use in denying it. “I just…I don’t know where to start.”

“How about you start with why it’s me being dragged outside at this stupid hour?”

“It’s nearly eleven,” I point out, partially to buy myself another few precious seconds of deflecting from the awkward topic we’re here to discuss. At least no one’s staring anymore. I turn left down a quieter road once I realise where we’ve ended up during our tense walk. If we’re this close to the city’s biggest park, we may as well find a nice grassy spot or a bench to continue with this awful conversation. Especially seeing as today is fairly warm for this time of year.

“We tend to work a lot at night, so I’m usually still sleeping right now,” he grumbles.

“Oh. I’m sorry.” He does sound tired now that he’s dropped some of the rage from his tone. I wonder why the hell he’s been up and awake since the early hours of the morning then? Istumbled into him in the upstairs hallway while it was still dark out, then found him downstairs after eventually showering and changing into clean clothes. Clothes I assume Suvi dropped off for me. Given that she’s the only other person in this city with a key to my place, it had to have been her. Bless her soul for knowing exactly which clothes and other essentials I’d need. If she’d brought my tightest pair of jeans…there might have been aslightproblem, as those were a bitch to pull on even before the little bump.

“So?” Rio prompts me, this time with only a fraction of the level of snappiness he’d put into his first demand for answers. The fact he’s clearlytryingnot to be a complete asshole somehow only makes this worse.

“Look.” Deep breath in…and out. “I don’t mean to pry, but I get the idea that you know a lot about succubi, likely more than either of your brothers do,” I begin, quickly continuing when I see the angry way his eyebrows twitch at my words, wanting to correct the assumptions he could be coming to. “I’m not asking for your life story. I probably already know more than it’s my business to know, but I do have some questions about their abilities.”

“Daion and Torrin know plenty about demons and their powers,” he grunts, though I notice how he doesn’t outright deny knowing more about succubi specifically.

But even if they have some or all of the answers I’m looking for, I still need this to come from him. It’s the only way I can be sure.

“I can’t trust their responses.”

“And here I thought you liked them both.Maybe even too much,” he replies, muttering the last bit. I still catch what he said, frowning at the words but otherwise choosing to ignore them.

“I do like them,” I confirm, unashamed of that part of all this. They’re great guys—kind, skilled, sexy, fun, and helping me, despite the insane situation I've found myself in. What's not to like? They’re easy people to find yourself caring for. Maybe too easy. It’s dangerous to get this attached to near-strangers, even more so when those feelings could be entirely one-sided, their responses driven by magic out of my control.

I sigh, realising a little soul-baring might be needed on my part in order to get him talking as much as I wish it wasn’t.

“Icareabout them,” I add nervously, amending my prior statement. “I know you care about your brothers too, and I want this information so I can avoid hurting them, if that’s what I’m doing.”

Even if it is entirely unintentional...

Rio stops and stares at me for a minute or two, forcing us to a standstill right outside of one of the park’s many entrances. The seconds drag on, feeling stretched longer than they should thanks to the tense atmosphere. I almost say more, only snapping my mouth shut when he sighs loudly as he turns away. He takes a few steps before pausing, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides before sighing again, and there’s more weariness in the exhale this time as he whirls back around.

“You’re worried it’s your succubus shit making them want you, that your new powers are letting you take advantage of them,” Rio says bluntly, though for the first time I find myself wondering if he’s only being so cutting due to his discomfort with the topic. His uneasiness around anything to do with the sex-feeding subspecies of demons isn’t exactly unknown.

“I’m…” I trail off, letting out another sigh of my own. “Yeah. I am worried about that.”

“Look, it’s obvious I’m not a fan of you suckling off their energy like a horny leech. As much as I want to blame their current stupidity on you and your new abilities, they’re bothmore than capable of resisting a succubus lure. I made sure of that. It’s their own dumb attraction to you that made them not realise it was happening sooner. I suppose it could be tough to notice magic-induced lust when you’re already half-fucking har?—”

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