Page 30 of Incubus
The door was locked when Jim tried the knob. “Damn.”
“I got it,” Sasha said. Taking firm hold of the doorknob, he turned it until there was resistance, and then kept going.
Nathan heard the strained crunch as the lock broke, staring in awe at Sasha’s easy strength.
Sasha smiled, reaching stealthily into the back of his jeans to pull a gun. “You ready for this?” he asked.
Nathan and Jim had also armed themselves, but it was strange to be hunting something rather than being on the defensive. Not that Nathan had any issues of conscience taking down a murderous fae. Even Sasha was willing to kill one of his own for crossing that line.
Weapons ready, Nathan and Jim nodded to Sasha and the three of them burst into the apartment. There was no sign of the women at first, having already moved to the bedroom, so they wasted no time locating the now closed bedroom door.
Nathan kicked the door open with a shout, “Police, don’t move!” It was the first thing he could think of.
The brunette was lying back on the bed in her underwear, while the succubus straddled her, already nude. At the sight of them, Nathan had to shake his head to focus. “Sorry for interrupting ladies,” he said, “but I’m afraid we have to take the blonde there in for questioning.”
“Questioning?” the brunette asked, gathering the blankets to cover herself. “Questioning for what? How did you even know she was here?”
“We have strong suspicions that she is connected to a string of recent murders,” Jim said, following Nathan’s lead.
Nathan looked to Sasha since he was the expert in all this, but the incubus had yet to join in on the ruse. The succubus was staring at Sasha and he was staring right back. She had gotten off the bed—andthe brunette—and was standing there bare as anything.
Nathan gestured from the brunette to his brother. “Miss,” he said, “if you’ll be so kind as to accompany Officer…James here out of the apartment, it would be best if you stayed with someone else for a few hours. We need to, uh…take the other lady in.” Nathan realized he was running out of ways to talk about the succubus without sounding suspicious that he didn’t know her name.
Jim gave Nathan a sideways glance as if to say he did not like that Nathan was taking him out of the action, even if only for as long as it took to get the brunette into one of the other apartments. But he soon nodded, and the brunette moved quickly to join him.
The succubus lunged forward as her companion went for the door, but a step closer from Sasha and a wave of his gun kept her in place.
After Jim ushered the victim out of the room, Nathan readied his own gun to fire and get things over with, but something about the way Sasha and the succubus stared at each other made him pause. The succubus seemed transfixed by Sasha. Then Nathan realized why, and he worried for the briefest moment again of betrayal.
In both Sasha and the succubus’ eyes was a clear sign of recognition.
“Sasha...dear. Still following in Daddy’s footsteps, I see,” she said, speaking casually despite the tension in her body. She had the whole package, so to speak, but something in her expression repulsed Nathan. She looked mid-twenties, and absolutely flawless, but Nathan knew that this hag could be as ancient as stone and just as cold.
Sasha twitched at being addressed personally but did not lower his gun. “Even when I caught a glimpse of you the other night, and following you at a distance all day, I never thought it could actually beyou.”
Nathan looked hard at the succubus. The hair was different, but seeing her up close, he realized he had seen that face somewhere before.
“You blinked out of existence. I’ve seen you once every, what, five years?” Sasha said, his voice trembling in a way Nathan had never heard before. “Shi never spoke of you fondly, Sabine, but not cruelly either. How can you…do these things? Our people do not kill. We take what we need but we always give in return. You’ve been slaughtering these women…”
The succubus laughed as Sasha trailed off, but it sounded unnatural, emotionless and flat. “Sasha,” she said, “women? Humans are cattle. A good meal. That is all.”
She took a step closer to Sasha, and though he held his gun firm, he did not fire.
“I thought differently once, like you do now,” she said. “And like your mother…my poor dead sister.”
Nathan could have kicked himself. Sasha had mentioned his aunt Shiarra, but this was another woman with the same face as Sasha’s mother. There were three sisters.
“Age changes that,” the succubus went on. “Experience changes that. Just wait. Wait until you find someone so…enticing…that you can think of nothing but possessing them. And when they finally turn from you because they’ve gotten bored, or they don’t feel the same passion as you do, or maybe…because you tell them thetruthand they see you only as a monster…” She glanced at Nathan and her eyes flashed red before she focused sharply back on Sasha. “Then…tell me what justifies slaughter.”
She moved so fast that even if Nathan had thought to fire, he would have hit nothing but air. In those same short moments, Nathan saw her transform as if in slow motion and was struck completely still.
The succubus rose into the air, growing wings like that of a gargoyle that stand atop buildings. Her hair, blindingly blonde, grew longer, fuller. From her temples grew horns, black, that went straight up and came to dangerous points. The slit red eyes remained, and her eyeteeth became fangs. She had claws fading to black from her now pure white skin where her fingers became talons. Her feet were the same, large and monstrous. She had been wearing no clothing, but now there were black coverings that gave back her modesty, like undergarments woven out of intricate tattoos.
Tattoos.
Now Nathan understood Sasha’s markings, but that could not have prepared him. Not for how the succubus rushed at Sasha inher new form and slammed him back into the wall, making his gun drop to the floor. Not for how Sasha pushed back with such uncanny strength to get her away. And definitely not for how quickly Sasha, too, changed.
Sasha did not need his gun. He had claws just as she did. He had wings that spread farther than hers for his greater size. Sasha’s hair grew longer too, well past his shoulders. His eyes blazed red, and his fangs glimmered as he growled. The horns that grew from his temples were different from those of the succubus, black but curled at the sides of his ears like a ram’s.
