Page 51 of The Elementalist
Crystal stood and offered a hand. “I know what I look like. Don’t feel that way. If anyone’s taking advantage here, it’s me.”
Who was I to say no to that? I still felt a bit like whatever we had would be cheapened by casual sex so soon, but I also appreciated my hypocrisy considering how things had been with Justine. That said, Crystal and I soon wound up on the bed together, no clothes between us, holding each other. Something definitely worked differently with this girl… every time we kissed, a tingle sparked at my lips and rushed down inside me to parts unknown, and bounced back up.
Oh, yeah… I was about to have one hell of a night...
Chapter Twenty-Six
Worth It. Definitely Worth It.
I felt like a juice box that had been sucked on until it imploded.
My body had gone numb from the waist down except for the important parts, which admittedly, kind of ached. It wasn’t the ‘kicked in the balls an hour ago’ sort of ache that I loathed, though it came close. However, if she wanted to do that again, I wouldn’t hesitate at all. We’d just shared the most amazing almost-hour of my life… even if I did feel as though I’d been run over by a bus. She’d certainly drained quite a bit of energy out of me—through a rather specific part of my anatomy.
Crystal lay on her side nearby, gently stroking her fingers around my chest. I appreciated not being alone. If a vampire kicked in the door right now, I’d probably be dead. Ever have an alarm clock go off after three hours of sleep and have one of those mornings where you’d rather find a new job than get out of bed? Yeah, that times ten is where I found myself. If the Farringtons sent some thugs after us here, I could see myself just lying still and not caring what they did to us.
For her part, she seemed energized and put on this contagiously happy grin. I would’ve been grinning too if I had the strength left to move my lips. Somewhere between fatigue and that ‘holy shit that was awesome’ feeling like it had been my very first time with a girl, I couldn’t be bothered to do anything but stare at the ceiling. In fact, I’m not sure my bodywouldmove if I tried.
“Are you sure you want to be involved with me?” asked Crystal in a partial whisper.
Was she seriously questioning if I’d never want to experience that again? “Absolutely. You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met… in every conceivable way.”
She smiled, and cuddled closer, resting her cheek on my chest. “You aren’t worried it might not work out between us long term? Whoever heard of an elementalist and a succubus together?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Whoever heard of an elementalist at all?”
Crystal giggled. “True. Well, we could see where this goes. Are you all right? I didn’t take too much, did I?”
“I wasn’t expecting that… but I’m fine. More than fine. Amazing even.”
“Your energy felt so different from the others. I’ve never had anyone seriously in love with me before.”
Of course, she referred to it as ‘feeding,’ which meant sex. I hated thinking about how many men she’d probably been with, but resisted the notion of her being a ‘loose woman.’ Nature compelled her to engage in sex for nutritional sake. If she didn’t do it, she’d starve to death. Human morals probably shouldn’t apply to non-humans. Or even half humans. And really, who decided that men can bed dozens of women and that’s something to brag about, but it works the opposite way for women? That is kinda messed up.
“So, umm… how long before I can move?” I asked.
She laughed again, perhaps thinking I joked about not being able to move. “You should be all right by morning.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Most succubi don’t do long-term relationships well. One guy is sometimes not enough to feed me. For afullsuccubus? It wouldn’t even approach possible. The poor guy would wither away if she tried to sustain herself exclusively from one person.”
“Ouch. So what you’re saying is, you’re going to need other men?”
She stroked her hand over my chest in front of her face. “It depends on how rough things get. The more often I usesupernatural abilities, the faster I get hungry inthatway. If the poo really hits the fan, I’d need to consume more than you could safely give. I still need to eat real food, too. True succubi don’t. And, they also leave a guy out of sorts for a few days afterward.”
“How do you know so much about them?”
“My real father visited me a few times after the family exiled me to Ironside. He filled in all the missing pieces that explained so much about my crazy life. I’m not sure what surprises me more, that I actually told you the truth about me, or that I feel drawn to you as well. Maybe wecouldmake it work… if you can handle that I might sometimes need to sustain myself by feeding from someone else.”
“Would it bother you if I tolerated it but didn’t like it?”
“It wouldn’t have any deeper meaning to me than eating dinner.”
I wanted to curl my arm around her, but couldn’t move it. “That’s why I’d tolerate it. It’s just something you have to do, like food, water, air…”
“If you’re the jealous type, I could try to feed on women instead.”
I coughed.
