Page 31 of Incubus
And, of course, there were the tattoos—for Sasha’s clothing vanished as he dropped his glamours—the ones on his back to form black wings, and the ones below his waist to cover him.
When Sasha charged forward to meet the succubus again, and together they soared back and burst out of the window to fall gloriously to the alley below, all Nathan could think was…
Awesome.
Chapter 12
Nathansprintedoutofthe bedroom and through the apartment. He did not slow down even when he burst from the main door into the hallway, passing Jim and the confused victim who was still wrapped up in the sheets from her bed.
Nathan yelled, “Come on!” and expected Jim to follow.
Jim did, without giving the victim, or the few people who had begun sticking their noses out from behind their doors, any explanation.
The panicked pace Nathan had taken on did not stop Jim from demanding his own explanation as they made their way down the stairs to the ground floor. “What happened!? What are we doing?!”
“Battlefield moved!” Nathan shouted in answer.
“We’re six stories up!”
Nathan didn’t quite know how to explain about the wings at this point. He bounded down the last set of stairs that would leadthem to the door they had first snuck in, right out into the alley where Sasha and the succubus would have landed.
“There’s…a couple other things,” Nathan said, out of breath as he came to a stop.
“What other things?” Jim asked.
Nathan grabbed the handle to the outside door, gun at the ready. “They’re in all their glory out there, so be prepared for that. And…the succubus? She’s Sasha’s other aunt.” Without offering Jim any more than that, or any time to think about what he had said, Nathan ran out into the alley to join the fight.
At first Nathan couldn’t see anything. The alley was dark, but there were only so many places two gargoyle-like creatures could be hiding.
“Look out!”
A twinge of pain swept through Nathan’s shoulder at the unexpected impact into brick as Jim pulled him back against the wall. He cursed at first, but was thankful his brother’s reflexes had been better than his own, because Sasha and the succubus tumbled down out of the air above them and crashed to the ground.
Nathan wondered about the delayed reaction of their fall, but as the succubus reared up again, he remembered that this wasn’t just a ground fight. They hadwings.
Jim did not seem deterred by the sight of the pair or by the news that the succubus was Sasha’s aunt. He readied his gun and raced toward them before Nathan could say anything else.
Sasha had scrambled to his feet—or raptor claws, since Nathan didn’t think they looked much like feet anymore—but the succubus wasn’t foolish enough to only notice her nephew. She heard Jim coming and wheeled around, hovering a few feet above the ground.
As Jim took aim, the succubus dove and plowed into him, knocking the gun clean from his grasp. Nathan watched theweapon fly through the air and slide its way beneath the alley’s dumpster.
When the succubus rose up as if to strike again, Nathan quickly took aim himself, but before he had the chance to fire, Sasha leapt into the air after her. He rammed into his aunt, sending them both soaring over Jim to hit the ground several feet away.
The alley was not big enough for this fight. They were hidden from the street, and hopefully none of the occupants of the apartment buildings would look out of their windows any time soon, but there was always a chance of being discovered.
Nathan needed to get in there. At his current distance it was even harder to gauge a good shot with how Sasha and the succubus tussled. Half the time Nathan couldn’t tell whose wings were whose.
Jim was up and searching for his lost gun. Nathan gave a quick yell about where he had seen it fly, and went running.
Sasha and the succubus were still on the ground fighting viciously. The sight of them almost made Nathan stop. He felt a tremble working its way up his arms. He and Jim used weapons more for defense, and would always run first before trying to fight. This was different. But even out of his element, Nathan was not about to freak out when he was needed.
He got as close as he dared, found his shot, and he took it.
The shot would have been dead on too if the succubus hadn’t spotted Nathan just in time to jump out of the way. And then moved straight forhim.
“Shit!”
Nathan tried to duck, but her wings were faster than his reflexes. He anticipated an impact like he had seen with Jim, but the succubus didn’t ram him. She flew right at him, reaching out with one of her taloned black hands, and grabbed Nathan by the throat.
