Gutted.
Burned and blackened and…gone!
“What the ever-loving fuck!” I shouted, though it came out more as a disheartened groan.
“It was Saldrea and her goons.” The voice startled me.
I flinched, spinning so fast my hand cracked on the doorframe.
Ouch!
Fuck!
Rook peeked out from his room. “She got her dragon to incinerate everything. Sorry.”
Sorry?
Why washesaying sorry? He hadn’t done anything.
Also… everything I had in this world — not like it was much — was gone. My brand-new computer, clothes, bed,everything! And all he had to say was…sorry? The word was far too little for what I felt, but also somehow too much when coming from Rook.
I couldn’t even respond, so utterly overwhelmed by this complete destruction.
My visions swam, growing dark, the world fading.
Rook caught me as I collapsed.
“Whoa… I’ve got you,” he whispered. “Why don’t you rest in my room for a bit.”
I didn’t want to rest inhisroom, I wanted to rest inmyroom, but I didn’thavea room anymore!
Rook carried me into his room and laid me on his bed. All I could think was: how many other women have been on this mattress? Hewasan incubus, after all. Yet I had no energy to protest. I couldn’t even sit up, I just lay there, dazed.
Rook left me and moved around, doing something, slipping into the bathroom then returning with…
A hot cup of… was that tea?
“Here, drink. It’s an old remedy my mother taught me, for… energy.”
His mother… a succubus. So, probably not so much energy but libido I guessed.
He helped me sit, shifting so my back rested against the wall, since I still couldn’t hold myself up.
I took the cup, cradling it in both hands as I sipped.
“Oh!”
The flavor was a bit odd, but the effect was intense and immediate. Warmth filled my body. I felt… rejuvenated… alive! The dimly lit room came into crisp focus as all my senses went on high alert. “Whatisthis?”
Rook chuckled. “Don’t ask.”
“Demon balls?” I joked.
He shrugged and smirked… which made me think I wasn’t far off.
Oh…
Yeah… I shouldn’t have asked. Luckily that one sip seemed to have been all I needed to perk up.
