Page 19 of Zodiac Hybrids

Right. That’s crazy talk.

The more I thought on it, the more annoyed I was. I lost my virginity to someone I couldn’t even confidently pick out of a lineup, and I’d still never been kissed. Never had anyone hold my hand or say they wanted me. Was that okay? I wasn’t sad to have lost it, but I was sad that I still felt so undesirable despite.

I sat in a nervous and complicated daze the whole class, to the point I hadn’t even noticed that it ended. The last of my peers had stood to leave, and the sound of the door closing was the thud that awoke me from my trance. With a shake of realization, I started packing my textbook back into my backpack. I stood to leave, when I heard a loud click.

An acute sense of terror cascaded down my nerves, from my head to my toes, as I turned to face the exit. There, Adrian leaned against the newly locked door, arms crossed, stern, and focused only on me.

Chapter 10

The look of panic in her big brown eyes was exactly what I was expecting. Her innocence was an impressive act, considering even I had fallen for it. As an incubus, sensing sexual drive, desire, and experience was as easy as breathing, but there was no way I could have read her correctly.

This young woman, who lured me into the trap of her pheromones during the full moon, not caring what that would do to me, was taunting me with her presence. Why else would she have been out after dark last night unless she was hunting for an easy mark? I’d been mortified when I realized what I’d done to her, but the more I thought on it, the more obvious it was.

This girl from a family of Accountants. I thought with an internal scoff. What a fucking farce. I didn’t know what the hell she was, but she had some kind of baiting scent that was amplified by the moon, and the Capricorn half of my blood hadn’t stood a chance.

That was the only explanation for the uncontrollable drive I felt for this little Virgo. Neither Incubus nor Greek Zodiac Shifters had fated mates, after all, so neither half of my bloodline was at risk of the devil’s magic manipulating my mind and relationships. Only the Chinese Zodiac shifters dealt with pre-assigned bonds. The rest of us experienced attraction and repulsion just like anyone else.

So why was I experiencing both of those emotions so strongly around her?

“I didn’t expect you to show up today.” I managed to speak with restraint, masking my anger best I could. “Funny. Your choice of major lead me to believe you were smarter than that.”

She swallowed hard but seemed to be at a loss for words. Some feral part of me loved the way she looked when she knew she was trapped, and I had to shove that inclination back down. I’d like to be able to blame that on her scent too, but that would be disingenuous. I shouldn’t be falling for her little act again, anyway.

When she bit her lip and broke eye contact, I opted to continue the conversation for her. “Do you still think Astrology is pseudo-science?” I pushed off the door and paced over to her desk. “Or perhaps you always knew it wasn’t.”

“P-professor, I—” Before she could finish whatever bullshit she was crafting, I gripped her by the back of her neck, and I shoved her chest down onto her desk. She braced herself with her palms at her sides on the hard surface, and she squeezed her eyes shut as her cheek smashed into the wood.

“Let’s try this again, Lila Denton. What are you?” I increased the pressure in my grip, digging my thumb into a small bandage over her pulse.

Odd. My fluids should have fully healed her. What wound was she covering?

“What the hell are you talking about?” She squirmed, so I pressed down even harder, dancing dangerously between bruising force and black out force when so close to her brain’s blood supply.

“A succubus? A witch? A harpy shifter?” I supplied. She’d already seen my cards, so her coyness was becoming down right aggravating. There was no need to hide her magic form from me anymore.

“I’m human.” She closed her eyes tightly as her voice started to break. “I’m just a normal person. I’m not a harpy-whatever. I’m not some kind of incubus Capricorn werewolf thing either.” The bead of a tear bloomed from the corners of her tightly shut eyelids. “I’m just a twenty-two year old human girl who lost her virginity to some fucking monster in the cafeteria.” Her frustration shook from her lips with more fear than anger. “Now let me go.”

My entire soul fed on the intensity of her emotions, and again I cursed how innately I knew she was being genuine. Denial wasn’t changing reality, no matter how desperately I wanted it to. I released her and stepped away, letting everything I was most afraid of truly sink in.

If she truly wasn’t one of us, then why? I’d never sought out a human before, no matter how out of my mind I was. Not even when I turned for the first time and would have devoured anything in my path. And now I was manhandling one of my students, trying to diminish my own guilt in her abuse?

Dammit. Good fucking job, Adrian.

“You’re human?” I repeated her own words in hollow disbelief. “Your mother was human and your father was human?” Somehow, I couldn’t wrap my head around that at all, and I needed absolute clarification. Within Graves, it was extremely common these days for various magic kind to mix with what should be very incompatible magic others, now that we were all living harmoniously within the town and the campus. The wars of vampires and shifters and warlocks were long over, as evidence by… some unfortunate mistakes that were now a permanent bane of my existence. But even now, humans were the one creature within our walls we couldn’t mix blood with. Hybrids were less common outside of our bubble, but at best, an ordinary mortal’s only appeal to our kind was for making new werewolves or blood suckers.

“Yes!” She shouted with pronounced frustration. “I think I would know if my parents were something like you. What part of what happened last night made you think I had some special power?”

I opened my mouth, but anything I wanted to say was too far over her head if she just now was learning of the entire existence of the Devil’s children.

“And I was your first?” I confirmed, trying to get a handle on all of the facts right now. “Ever? Human or beast?”

“Are you seriously wondering if you’re the first giant, winged monster to stick his dick inside me?” Lila was unexpectedly snippy when I asked what, admittedly, was a stupid question. With a heavy exhale, she rubbed her neck as she turned to face me. “You were my first anything.” She chewed on her lip for a moment, and I couldn’t help but pick up on how desperately she was trying to look tough in front of me. “To be clear, I don’t care that you were. I didn’t want my first time to mean something.” She didn’t make eye contact as she added, “I wanted to just get it over with for a long time.” She trembled near imperceptibly in ironic contrast to her attempt at appearing confident. “So it’s fine.”

I planted my palm on my face and dragged my sheer mortification downward until my hand was around my own neck. She had no clue what she was saying. Even if she didn’t care about the symbolism of who was first to have her—I’d never cared myself, being sex was purely fuel for me—what she didn’t understand was the fact that there was nothing worse than feeding an incubus fucking virgin pussy on a full moon. And one that was astrologically compatible with my Capricorn blood was a recipe for a goddamn disaster. This wasn’t a matter of feelings, but a matter of danger.

It was now guaranteed that my body would seek hers should I be so unfortunate as to shift again on the next full moon. Human or something else, her scent had already been irresistible, and her pheromones had been maddening. To add a familiarity to it, and to know mine has been the only scent to ever be mixed with hers? She’s so fucked.

I needed her to get as far away from me as possible.