Incubus Among Us Box Set (Shifter Romance) Read online

  I smiled and knelt down to stroke his back. "Thanks. It really means a lot to me to have somebody to talk to. My. . .one of my human friend didn't really believe me when I told her about David being an incubus," I admitted. I laughed when a purr erupted from Mo's throat. "Are you sure you're a city spirit, or were you just lying to me?" I teased.

  Mo rubbed his face into my hand and meowed. "Oh, I'm sure, and I'm sure you'd have one lucky cat if you owned one," he replied.

  I stood and brushed the fur off my legs. "Well, if you ever need somebody feel free to come by for a visit. My apartment doesn't allow pets, but I could say you were a roommate."

  Mo sat down and his eyes glowed yellow in the dimming light. "Maybe I will, but you'd better get along before the ghosts wake up."

  "Well, be seeing you then." I waved goodbye to him and hurried down the path.

  Night was just falling when I reached my car. I paused at the door and caught one last glance at the hill. The last weak rays of the sun glistened on the snow-covered slope and cast its light on the stone shadows at the top. The silhouette of a cat sat atop one of the gravestones, and I swore I could see its yellow eyes look down upon me with kindness. I slid into my car and drove home with my doll and my doubts.

  Clouds covered the darkening sky and by the time I reached my apartment building a light snow was falling. I slipped inside and hurried to my apartment door.

  "Hey, Liz!" I heard Tiffany yell. I stuffed the doll deeper into my pocket, and turned to see Tiffany close her door and hurry over to me. She leaned one shoulder on the wall and smiled at me. "Long time no see, Lizzy."

  "Um, I think we saw each other this morning," I reminded her.

  "Well, yeah, but it has been a long time since we went out for fun," she countered.

  I sighed. "That's because the last time we went out I ended up seeing that guy and running out on you."

  She shrugged, and the smile remained on her lips. "Well, then, you owe it to both of us to go out tonight and have a good time. What do you say? You only live once."

  "I-" My hand brushed against my coat pocket where lay the doll. I needed to test the abilities of the doll, whatever those abilities were. "Sure, I guess I could go out," I told her.

  Tiffany pushed off from the wall, looped her arm through mine, and dragged me toward the stairwell. "Great! I've got the perfect place to try out! You'll love it!"

  A half hour later found us at a noisy club with brightly-colored strobe lights that flashed overhead. Most of the corners were shrouded in shadows, and a bar covered the entire left side of the joint. Behind us was the double-door entrance, and in front of us was a large, slick, sunken dance floor. People gyrated to the music and others stood against the walls talking to their dates and friends.

  "See? Didn't I tell you you'd love this place?" Tiffany yelled over the loud music.

  "Yeah, great!" I shouted back. The music pumped into my ears like I was a car and the DJ was filling me with music gas to overflowing. I pointed at some tables that sat on the right-side wall. "I'm just going to take a seat!"

  "Oh no, you're not ducking out on me this time! You're going to find a cute, not-creepy guy and dance!" Tiffany ordered me. She wrapped her arms around one of mine and dragged me onto the steps that led down to the dance floor.

  My free hand clutched the pocket where lay the doll, and I wondered if the magic of the doll would really tamper the succubus curse. Mo had mentioned something about my putting off succubus vibes. I supposed the only way to test out if those vibes were still around was to try to get a guy.

  Tiffany was way ahead of me. She nudged me with her arm and nodded at a handsome guy by the bar. He sat on a stool with his back against the bar and examined the cream of the dance-floor crop. I had to admit he was cute. Dark hair, blue eyes, just the right height, and clothes that showed he wasn't from the poorer neighborhoods. Those same blue eyes met mine and I swear I saw him stiffen.

  "What do you think? Marriage material?" Tiffany teased.

  "I think he's a little out of my league," I quipped. He was the most handsome guy in the room, and a woman in a red, body-hugging dress sat on the stool beside him.

  "Come on. No ring, no problem," Tiffany insisted.

  "I'm not going to get into a cat fight over a guy I don't even know," I argued.

  "Come on, Liz, live a little!" she countered.

  "That's what I'm trying to do," I mumbled.

  "Get in there and get that guy!" Tiffany yelled at me. She swung me in front of her and gave me a big push toward the bar.

  I stumbled through the dance crowds and tripped over the steps that led up to the bar area. A painful fall awaited me, but a pair of strong arms caught me. I whipped my head up eager to see David, but the face I saw was of the handsome stranger. I kicked myself for thinking of David. I was supposed to be trying to exorcise him from my life, not wishing he was there to catch me whenever I fell.

  I gave my hero a sheepish smile. "Um, hi."

  He smiled in return and pulled me to my feet. "Hello, yourself. Are you all right?"

  "Oh, just fine. I just thought I'd-um, drop in on the bar," I quipped.

  He chuckled. "That's cool. Want to have a drink with me?"

  My heart thumped in leaps and bounds. "I-I'd love-"

  "Manny!" a high-pitched voice screeched from the bar. The woman in red trod her matching high-heeled shoes over to us and put her fists on her hips. "What the hell is wrong with you? I was asking you a question and you just up and leave when you notice her." She waved one flippant hand at me.

  Manny shrugged. "I guess I thought she needed my help, and it looks like she did."

  The woman grabbed his arm and yanked him toward the bar. "Well, now that you're done helping then get back over here and order me a drink. I'm thirsty."

  Manny tore himself from her long-nailed grasp and moved to stand beside me. "I think we're done for tonight, Jessie. How about you go home?"

  Jessie's eyes widened and her mouth dropped to the floor. "You're. . .you're dumping me for this-this tramp?" she growled.

  I frowned at her. "I'm not a tramp any more than you are. Probably less," I quipped.

  Jessie narrowed her eyes and marched up to me. She jabbed a finger into my chest and glared into my eyes. "If you think you've got Manny's attention then you're wrong! He's just being nice, aren't you, Manny?"

  We women looked to Manny, and our eyes once more met. From this short distance I noticed a strange dark color flash through his eyes. A casual smirk slid onto his lips and he wrapped an arm across my shoulders. "I think me and this girl are going to go some place else, so why don't you order your own drink, Jessie, and go find yourself someone else to leech off of?"

  Something was horribly wrong here. I could feel it in my bones, and I could see it in the vacant look in his eyes. He was bewitched by me, there was no other logical, or even illogical, explanation. I had to get away before I was socked by his girlfriend, or worse, attracted the attention of more men and got socked by more girlfriends.

  I slipped out from beneath his arm and backed up with my hands in front of me. "Um, I think I need to go the bathroom. If you need me I'll be in a stall." I spun around and scampered to the woman's bathroom that lay at the rear of the club.

  "Wait!" I heard Manny cry out in a voice that ached with desperation.

  That only got me moving faster. I swept into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind me. The knob shut with an audible click that rang through the otherwise quiet bathroom. I was alone, at least for now.

  Chapter 10

  There were eight stalls directly in front of me, and to my far left was the row of corresponding sinks. I hurried over to one of the sinks and splashed myself with enough cold water to drown a rat.

  "Get it together, Liz. He was just being nice," I muttered to myself. I looked at my reflection in the mirror above the sink and saw the disbelief in my eyes. My face fell and my shoulders drooped. "Yeah, right, Liz. The cutest guy in the club was be
ing nice to ugly old you." I pulled the doll out of my jacket and glared down at the ugly little mini-me. "You're not much help," I scolded the doll.

  "Something with that little of energy would hardly keep a novice incubus away," a voice quipped behind me. Nobody else was reflected in the mirror, so I spun around to see David standing beside the shut bathroom door. I hadn't heard him come in, but I doubted he'd used the door. He raised his hand toward the bathroom entrance and the lock turned by itself, locking us inside. "This should remain a private conversation," he mused as he strode toward me.

  I scuttled away from the sink and down the rows of stalls. My mind whirled with ideas, none of them good, so I did the only thing I could think of: I held out the doll like it was a cross and he a vampire. "Back! Back, I say!" I ordered him.

  David chuckled and didn't even slow his walking speed. The next moment my back hit the far wall of the bathroom. I was trapped, and the doll didn't slow down my pursuer. He stopped a foot from me so that the doll pressed against his chest. "As I told you before, the doll is too weak to fend off an incubus of my powers." He grabbed the doll and flung it aside.

  I shrank against the wall and tried not to look into his eyes. "I-I didn't call you, so scat! Go on, shoo!" I commanded him.

  He set a hand on the wall near my head and leaned toward me so his nose nearly touched my cheek. His warm breath wafted over me and sent tingles of anticipation down my body. "But you did call me, and every other male in the club. They all sensed your new-found gift, and the strongest came to you like a moth to a flame. I was glad to see you spurned him, but there was such little tact to your refusal of his kindness."

  "I-I don't know what you're talking about," I argued.

  He chuckled and his warm lips pressed lightly against my neck. I shuddered and squeezed my eyes shut. "Oh, but I think you do. You refused that human because he was not who you wished to meet this night." One of his hands reached up and stroked my waistband. His voice lowered to a sultry whisper. "Wouldn't you rather have the company of one of your own kind?"

  "I'm not your kind. I'm a human," I shot back.

  "If we cannot agree then tonight we shall say you are my lover, and I yours," he suggested. His hand slid beneath my shirt and coat, and his heated fingers left a blazing trail on my skin as he reached up to cup one of my breasts in his soft, soothing fingers. I sighed and bit my lip to hold back a groan. David pressed his body against me and I could feel the size of his need. He spoke in a husky tone that revealed his aching lust for me. "Don't fight it, my love," he cooed. He blazed a path of hot, wet kisses down my neck. "Enjoy what I have to offer, and feed off our lust."

  I couldn't contain the moan as I felt my breasts swell. My hips widened so that my pants were too tight, and my shirt squeezed my breasts as the fleshy, aching mounds outgrew my bra and shirt. "What. . .what are you doing to me?" I gasped.

  "Giving you what you desire. You are an animal of lust, Liz, or soon will be," he told me.

  He kissed me again and again. His fingers toyed with my pants, my shirt, my bra. I didn't stop him; I couldn't. I was under his power, his control, and oh god did it feel wonderful. I succumbed to his seductive touches and kisses. My willpower melted away under his skillful fingers and warm body. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he pressed my back against the wall and clutched my rear in one strong hand. I felt so hot and aching, only his touch soothed my need. It burned me like fire, but I wanted to be engulfed in the flames forever. It was heavenly bliss.

  I don't know when my clothes slid off, or even how, but they fell to the floor. Our naked, sweat-soaked bodies pressed against each other and I shuddered when I felt his member press into my hot core. We made sweet, sensual love against the far back wall. Hands touching, flesh burning. I have hazy images of his lips pressed against me and his fingers as they danced across my naked thighs. My countless orgasms were filled with pleasure beyond compare. Every nerve, every inch of skin tingled and strained with each penetration of him inside me. I cried out my pleasure as loud as I could, and yet no one came to see what the noise was about. It was as though we were the only people left on earth. I clutched onto him and wished it would never end. Hot flesh against flesh, sweat-soaked muscles sticking to each other. I wanted to become one with him, to know him like I'd never even known myself.

  "Yes. Yes. More," I whispered to my lover, my master.

  He grunted and pressed harder into me, more demanding. He touched every ache inside of me with himself. His thrusts were deep and hard. His hands roamed over every inch of my body. Nothing was sacred, all was his temple, and he worshiped me with all the lust of a lover.

  I clutched onto his back and nibbled on the slick flesh of his neck. "Yes. Oh god, yes," I chanted. His name was my mantra, and his grunts were my reward.

  "Feel it, our lust. Feed off it," he growled.

  I tilted back my head and reveled in the warm glow of our love-making. It was as though I could feel heat slide off our very bodies and soak into my skin. The feeling increased the euphoria and my body shook with more orgasms than I could count.

  "Never stop. Oh, my love, please never stop," I whispered.

  He pumped faster into me, extending the bliss. He came again and again inside of me, and still he never softened, never let up. Our lust fed us both and pushed us into the heights of delicious orgasm. I knew nothing but him and he me, and I ached for him with all my soul.

  I don't know how long we were in the bathroom, but when it all ended my legs were so weak I could barely walk. David set me down, and I regretted the loss of his body heat as we separated. What I couldn't regret was the deed. The afterglow still held sway of my body and mind, and I had a touch of a goofy grin on my face.

  My clothes returned to my body with as much mystery as they had left it, and David helped me over to the door which he unlocked by sheer will alone. He stopped us at the entrance and turned me toward him. His wide red eyes told me he hadn't had his fill of me.

  David took my hand in his and pressed a light kiss to the back. "This is not goodbye, my love, but tomorrow," he promised me.

  "Tomorrow," I whispered, not fully registering what I was saying.

  He smiled, turned me to the door and opened it for me. A gentle push and I stumbled out into the noisy world of the night club. I was bombarded with loud, crowded reality, and for one moment the thought of dashing back into the bathroom crossed my mind. Tiffany changed that as she rushed up to me. She was out of breath and clutching her heart. My friend grabbed my shoulders and looked me over.

  "Are you all right? Where the hell have you been? I've been looking all over for you! You just up and disappeared after you refused that guy," Tiffany scolded me.

  "I was in the bathroom," I told her.

  "The-" she looked past me at the bathroom door, "-oh, right, the bathroom. I guess I didn't know this place had bathrooms. Speaking of this place, how about we try another joint? The music's too loud, even for me."

  I sighed and shook my head. "I'm kind of beat. Could we just go home?"

  Tiffany scrutinized my face and frowned. "You do look a little tired. You feeling okay?"

  I managed a smile. "I'm fine, just tired. Long weekend." Truer words were never spoken.

  Tiffany sighed, wrapped an arm over my shoulders and led me through the dance floor to the front door. "All right, I'll let you off this time, but you owe me another night."

  "I'll see if I can make room in my busy schedule," I teased.

  We returned to our apartments and parted after our goodbyes. I slipped inside my abode and set my back against the front door. A long, drawn-out sigh escaped my lips, and I ran a hand through my hair. "What a wild day," I muttered. First the tarot card reader, then the doll- "The doll!" I yelped. I'd left it at the club! I settled down a little when I recalled how useless it had been in protecting me from my new impulses and David. A frown slipped onto my lips, and I strode to my bedroom for a long sleep. "Tomorrow, I collect my warranty," I mumbled.

 
; And tomorrow would be more stress and terror, mixed with pleasure, then I could have imagined.

  Incubus Among Us #3

  Chapter 1

  Monday. The day the working masses dread. The day that begins the long march to the next weekend. Office slaves went to their cubicles and desks, and pounded away at their keyboards in return for a paycheck. That nightmare was now my dream.

  I woke up on that Monday morning with a regret-hangover from the previous evening. My unintentional liaison with David was at the forefront of my thoughts as I swung my legs over the side of the bed. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. My doll protection was gone, the time was Monday morning, and I was slowly changing into a man-attracted succubus. I frowned and stood.

  "Come on, Liz," I whispered to myself. "You just have to get through one day of work and then you can go back to that crazy witch doctor and get that guarantee taken care of." I pounded a fist into my other hand and stiffened my upper lip. "You can do this! You just need to focus and-" My eyes fell on the time. I had twenty minutes until work, and it took fifteen minutes to drive there. "Crap!"

  I raced through the motions, skipped a few minor details such as breakfast, and rushed out the door. Twenty minutes later found me huffing and puffing out of the elevator and onto my floor. I leaned one hand against the wall and gasped for breath.

  "What happened to you?" a voice spoke up. I looked up and saw Ann walk toward me.

  "Don't. . .ask," I huffed.

  She took my lunch pale and escorted me to my cubicle. "Rough weekend?" she guessed.

  "That's. . .an understatement," I replied. We reached the cubicle and I plopped into my chair. "You could say I had some guy trouble."

  "You mean you've been trying to find a guy for the winter party?" she asked me.

  I leaned forward on my desk and set my chin on my arms. "I don't think I want to talk about guys right now."