“What’s that?” Alex whispered.
“Nothing. Just that I like you. I don’t want you to feel like I’m running away from you.”
“If you say that’s not what you’re doing, I’ll take your word for it,” he offered.
She smiled a bit. “What are you doing this weekend?”
“I’ve kind of got plans. Party tomorrow night but I think it’s all people you don’t know. And I’m, um…well, like I said, there’s someone…”
Onyx nodded. “Yeah. Me, too. It’s fine. I just wanted to know if it’s okay to call you if I’ve got the chance. No promises,” she added. “And no getting sad if I don’t call. Just means I couldn’t, not that I didn’t want to.”
“Of course. Call me anytime,” Alex agreed. He grabbed a scrap of paper from his desk and wrote his phone number and email on it, then handed it to her.
“Okay, I’ve got to get out of here, or I’m gonna wind up jumping you.”
“That’s bad?” he grinned.
“Don’t,” she grinned back, gripping one of his shoulders firmly. “Don’t tempt me. You have no idea how easy that would be for you, so I need to trust you not to. Please.”
Alex nodded. “I’d rather be your friend than your bed buddy. But I’d much rather be both,” he added only half jokingly.
“Thank you. For this. Today. Everything.” She got up.
“I should walk you to your car,” Alex said.
Onyx laughed and shoved him back onto the bed. “Not like that you can’t. I’ve gotta run. I’ll be in touch. Seriously. See you later, Alex.” She headed out of the room and down the stairs.
At the door, a hand reached out and softly covered hers. She was sure she wasn’t supposed to see it, but she was on her guard now. The touch was electric, almost paralyzing and delicious all at once. Trying to maintain her façade of unawareness, Onyx paused.
“He wants you,” a sensuous woman’s voice whispered directly into her ear, setting Onyx’s desires on fire all over again. “He wanted you from the moment he first saw you, and will want you again. You can trust him. You’re safe with Alex.” With that, the hand slipped away.
Onyx shuddered, then opened the door and went outside with all deliberate speed.
Lorelei smiled as the young woman left. She sauntered up the stairs, feeling her master’s desire for her. The succubus expected to find him sitting or laying on his bed. Instead, he waited for her at the doorway. Lorelei yelped happily as he yanked her close, kissing her wantonly and pushing her up against the wall.
She slid one bare leg up along his, her skirt hiking up invitingly as she moved. They had a lot of catching up to do.
Chapter 12:
“Molly! Molly Molly Molly!”
She hadn’t even turned off the rattling engine of her car yet. It probably had a bent whatever from hitting a bump too fast, but the last thing she had money for was an uncomfortable noise. Yet the uncomfortable noise coming from just outside her car annoyed her even more.
At least settling it wouldn’t cost her any money.
She stepped out onto the grass next to the curb and forced herself to smile wearily at the neighbor-child. “Hi, Chrissy,” she sighed. “What’s up?”
Had this been an adult with some sense of tact, Molly never would have asked. Chrissy, however, would tell her regardless. “Tigger’s up in a tree and won’t come down and I can’t get him and I’m gonna be late for dinner and I’m gonna be in trouble for letting him out!”
“Oh no. Not that,” Molly said dryly.
“You’ve gotta help me!”
Molly tugged her backpack out of the car and locked it-as if anyone would steal it. “Chrissy, Tigger got himself up there, right? And he always comes back to your apartment, right?”
“Yeah, but he’s up in a tree and can’t come down!”
“Did you know that in the history of the world no cat has ever starved to death in a tree?”
Chrissy’s little eyes expanded. “You mean Tigger’s gonna be the first!? Oh no!”
“Where is he?” Molly grumbled. Chrissy grabbed Molly’s hand and tugged her along through the row of apartments stacked on top of one another to the small courtyard. As she walked, Molly thought once again how much of a terrible mistake it had been to tell the kids in the complex last 4th of July that she was fluent in cat. And dog. And snake. Especially snake, but at least nobody in the complex actually had one, so she wouldn’t likely be called upon to prove it.
It was also clear to her that she should never, ever be drunk in front of children again. She had let her guard down, and now none of the kids in the complex feared her intimidating manner or spiked jewelry.
They found Tigger high in the branches of a maple tree. The calico cat sat upright, complaining loudly about his predicament to anyone within earshot.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Molly asked the cat. He meowed back plaintively, to which she said, “You’ve got no business going after squirrels. You’re a housecat. That won’t work out as well for you as you want to believe.”
“You’ve gotta speak cat, Molly!”
“Chrissy, that’s not how it works. I’m not going to meow at him. He understands me.” She looked up at the cat. “Don’t you, Tigger?”
His tail flicked irritably in response.
“Okay. I’ve got to go inside. I’m tired and hungry and we’re not going to play around with this. Climb down here.”
He meowed back, and then looked away as if not listening anymore.
“Tigger, I know you’re listening. I can see which way your ears are turned. Climb down.”
He didn’t reply. Molly sighed again. She dropped her backpack and held up her arms. “Okay, jump down here. I’ll catch you. But you sprout claws on me and it’s your ass.”
“He’s not gonna just jump down,” Chrissy said.
Tigger leapt in defiance of Chrissy’s skepticism. The cat’s aim was naturally perfect, and as he thumped into Molly’s chest and shoulder she grabbed onto him gently but quickly enough to keep him from falling. Then she handed him to Chrissy.
“Oh my gosh, how did you do that?!” Chrissy exclaimed. “You’ve got to teach me how! I have this problem with him all the time!”
Molly frowned. “I don’t think your mom would like that. Go home, Chrissy. I’ll see you later.” She shouldered her backpack again, thanking the universe for allowing her solid insurance against ever accidentally having children as she walked to her apartment.
It wasn’t terribly big, or even terribly nice on the outside. Nothing more than a two-bedroom space underneath another two-bedroom space, with nearly-identical two-bedroom spaces on either side. They had no patio or porch, just a doorway underneath the staircase leading to the upstairs neighbor’s apartment.
What they had, however, was a cheap place to call their own with neighbors who didn’t ask a lot of questions and a landlord who rarely came by unannounced.
Incense wafted through the doorway as she entered, strongly enough to grab her attention. Everything was turned off. Molly put down her backpack, secured all three locks on the door and went to the spare bedroom.
Onyx knelt in the center of the wax pentagram that they had painstakingly created on the bare concrete floor after rolling up the carpet. She was stripped bare and soaking wet, chanting quietly. It would’ve been a serious turn-on for Molly to see her like this if the atmosphere didn’t seem so grave. Candles blazed on the shelves and the window was open for ventilation, though the heavy curtain was drawn for privacy. The three buckets of rainwater they had gathered sat all around her, one of them having obviously been emptied over Onyx’s head. Most of the floor was wet. Bowls of ritual components sat outside the circle.
Molly knew better than to interrupt. She looked at what Onyx had included in the ritual, what she chanted, and what was pointedly missing from the shelves of supplies in the far corner of the room. The candles hadn’t been burning long at all, but they already kicked out a good deal of heat. Molly knelt outside the circle to wait this out.