Page 17 of Bite Me

Jada blinked a few times trying to get her brain out of the gutter and back into her head.

“I see you’re not hurting for sustenance then.” Her sister walked up to the counter. She was looking very cool in her dark glasses, black leather jacket and messy bun.

“Portia? What are you doing here?” Leon had sent her sister away, a mini-banishment. Plus, he didn’t allow anyone from the coven out into town during the day. Jada had been gone a week without so much as even a sighting of any of her brothers or sisters.

She planned to try to get in touch with Portia someday, but not yet. She wasn’t ready.

Portia looked around the café and ran a finger over the top of a table, sauntering closer, as if she didn’t care about this conversation in the least. It was a skill Jada coveted.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your snack?”

The guy placed his hand on the small of her back, all possessive like. “No, she isn’t.”

The kissy face with Mr. Sexy-pants was great, and there was more going on with him that she’d figure out later. But she didn’t belong to anyone anymore, so he could take his possessiveness and put it up his butt.

He was right though. Even if she didn’t know his name, and she’d find it out as soon as she found out why Portia was here, she still wouldn’t introduce him to another succubus.

Dibs.

He was hers.

Jada shuffled to the side and out of his grasp. He growled, quietly enough that only she heard.

Portia glanced between the two of them and quirked her head to the side. “I’ve come to take you back.”

For the first time, probably ever, she felt a little bit proud of herself. A tiny modicum of the hatred for who and what she was had faded, if only for a few minutes.

Going back to live with Leonard, letting him dictate her life, would only push her further into the darkness.

“Back? To Leon, the coven. I… I don’t need them anymore.”

That might be a lie right now, but she was doing everything she could to make it into truth. This week had been hard. Today especially had tested every resolve she had to give up sex and blood.

“Don’t do this, Jada. No one survives without a coven. My month away taught me that. At least I had Geshtianna’s coven to take refuge in when I got to the continent. You’ve got nothing.”

“I have everything I need. I’m not going back. I can’t live like that anymore.” Jada reaffirmed what she’d said with a shake of her head.

Neither of them had to pretend Portia didn’t know what Jada meant.

“You still can’t change what you are. Why do you continue to make it so hard on yourself?”

Portia’s words echoed Leon’s. She was the closest thing Jada had to a real sister, but even Portia fell in line with Leon’s way of thinking.

“You’re the only one I regret leaving, but I’m not going back. I must do this. I want to know what it’s like to be human too, not just a succubus.”

The stranger grumbled something under his breath that definitely included some swearing.

That was not how she’d intended on telling him she was a demon. Crap.

“I was hoping you’d listen to reason, but since you won’t, maybe you’ll hear this.” Portia looked the guy up and down before she continued. She must have decided he was okay. “The demon dragons are coming for you tonight. Leon won’t let any of us do anything about it as long as you’re in your rebellious phase.”

The guy stepped up. “Tell me now why demon dragons would be after this woman.”

Stolen by a Succubus

The power that had coursed through Ky when he’d walked into the café and laid his eyes upon the most gorgeous creature on land or in the seas had almost knocked him to his knees.

He’d followed that pull on his soul across the ocean to the east coast of America trusting his instincts. They told him he’d find Cage’s shard here.

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