My mate. And notanymate. One without a soul.
What an awful timing…
I couldn’t handle or protect a mate now…But if I didn’t do anything, she’d die. Could a Succubus die? She didn’t look like she was going to survive the night…
I leaned over her and slid my hand behind her head, bringing her face toward mine.
Her lips were soft and responsive despite her condition. She moved, reaching for me like I did before my emotion went out of control. And slowly, her face went from ghostly pale to pink-ish, her eyes from dull and empty to bright and almost shining.
Theshadows had told me the truth; Succubus were syphons, just like the Vampires that had appeared shortly after. Both in their own way, needed the energy of others to sustain themselves. And with a simple kiss, I had given her more time.
More time to survive, hopefully long enough for me to find her again, at a time that would allow us a chance.
I pulled back and enveloped her in shadows, protecting her from the outside world while she slept.
We’ll meet again, my little bird.
I stood up, watching her breathing even out.
“Go, my little bird. Set us all free.”
Lola
My eyes opened with a gasp, my knees buckling under my weight and I caught myself on a wall before falling to the ground.
That wasn’t the place I remembered hiding Marcus and I in…How did I get here? Where the Hell was Marcus? I looked around and winced at the pain in my shoulder. My hand reached for it;right. The fucking assholebitme. That explained why I felt like my legs were going to give out at any moment…
I leaned on the heavy armored door in front of me and waited for the dizziness to pass.Fuck, I’m going to die, aren’t I?
“Go, my little bird. Set us all free…” a strange, deep raspy voice whispered in my mind.
I would have laughed if I wasn’t in so much pain. Were voices in my head a sign that death was at my doorstep? Because itsucked. At least that voice sounded good…Like a caress or a warm breeze over my skin.
With a last, stuttering breath, I focused on the door I was leaning on. I had to move forward. I had to find Arc, to getanswersabout everything that was happening. The mind controlled demon guards, the prisoners at the brink of insanity,Amyntasin a fucking cage…Nothing made sense.
I pushed at the door but it didn’t budge.For fuck’s sakes. I groaned, throwing my whole weight and meager force against it, holding back a frustrated scream when it opened only slightly.
“Come on, just a little more,” I grunted to myself. My arms shook from the strain, dots of sweat beading my forehead. “Come on, come on, comeon—”
I poured all my remaining strength to widen the opening and slid—or more likefell—through it, landing on my hands and knees, panting.
There was no time to catch my breath. My head lifted and eyes roamed the room carefully, searching for any sign of danger.
Arc wouldn’t attack me…Would he?
But the thought quickly left my brain as I took in the state of destruction the whole space was in. The tiled floor, cracked and covered in broken furniture and blood. The dirty concrete walls, splattered with more red and black, filled with holes that looked like someone had punched through it in multiple places.
The large cage at the back of the room.
And a battered Arc locked inside it.
My heart stopped as I limped as quickly as I could toward him, falling to my knees next to the locked door with a pained whimper.
“Arc?” I tried, my throat barely able to produce a sound with all the emotion clogging it. “Arc, wake up—”
His hands were cuffed with large metal pieces attached to a heavy looking chain that was tied above his head, forcing his arms up. His wrists looked burnt and bloody, his shirtless chest covered in cuts and bruises.
“Arc, please—” I grabbed at the bar and hissed in pain when my skin blistered and started sizzling. “Fuck!”
