Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 16

As I walked into my make after dropping Seth run into, I was surprised to see the guy who staffed the front desk still working. He usually went home at dinnertime. A sheaf of papers in his hands indicated roughly s eeralise of mandatory overtime. He brightened when he saw me.Miss Kincaid I have something for you.I blanked for a moment, thus remembered the quotidian Post-it reminders on my verge. Thitherd been a total of three now. Oh, yeah, I said. Sorry I havent had a find oneself to pick it up yet. I keep for reduceting.He was already rustling around for something behind him on the other side of the window. I strolled over, exactly as he heaved a huge street corner up onto the counter. The printing on the side was upside down, hardly I could still make it out Christmas tree diagram Austrian Fir.Oh, man, I grumbled. This is somebodys idea of a plainly the guy was busy hauling another box up to the counter, a smaller one with pictures on the side depicting the pre-decor ated fiber optical tree inside. It was followed by another box, a bit smaller than the Austrian Fir, and a smaller one still that was to the highest degree devil-by-two feet. These last two boxes were wrapped in glittery green paper, with a wrapping job so perfect that only one universe on earth could have managed it turncock.The desk guy surveyed the boxes. You must genuinely like Christmas.I horizon for each one of those notes was a reminder for the same package.Nope. New one each day. Want some assistant?We hauled the trees up to my apartment and deposited them on the living room floor. I thanked him, and as soon as he left, Aubrey emerged and began stalking the boxes.Thats a lot of tannenbaum, a voice behind me perfectly said.I jumped and turned around. Yasmine. Dont do that. Carter does exactly the same thing.Sorry, she said, looking sheepish. Wasnt intentional. I just got here. She walked over to the boxes, tilting her passing play to read them. She wore jeans and a n LSU sweatshirt, her black hair pulled into the trademark ponytail that made her look seventeen. Whats up with all these?I took forward my coat and flounced onto the couch with a sigh. My friend Peter started this full buzz that I contended a Christmas tree after Carter burned mine down. So I forecast everyone made good on it.Wait, she said. Did you say Carter burned down your Christmas tree?Yeah, its a long story.He must feel bad.She pointed to the teensy fiber optic tree, the one that was already decorated. Words were scrawled on the side of the box in spidery, tightly fittingly illegible writingG Figured you could handle this one. Ready and decorated CP.S. And flame retardant.Hmm, I mused. C could be Cody too.Nah. I recognize the poor attempt at penmanship. Its Carter.Okay, so the angel repents. hardly who are the rest from?We soon found out. The wrapping job on the two matching boxes had already accustomed Peter extraneous. The larger box contained a very beautiful, very expensive tree with winter moss green needles that were mildly dusted with silver glitter. The smaller box contained a matched set of lights and ornaments all done in purple and fuchsia. Peter apparently hadnt trusted me to decorate his gift myself.The Austrian Fir turned out to be from the bookshop staff. A card from Maddie read Surprise We all pitched in for it. Now you wadt be a Scrooge. It was signed by other store workers, as well as Seth.I looked back and forwards between the boxes. Its a Christmas miracle. I had no tree. Now I have a forest.Cmon, said Yasmine. Ill help you set them up.I looked at her in surprise. Arent you here to meet up with Vince or something?She shook her head. Im here to talk to you.Uh-oh.I didnt really want to set up the Christmas trees, but a being vastly more powerful than me did, so I set to it. Carters tree was the easiest since all I had to do was plenty it in. I placed it in a window sill, one with an out allow right underneath. The tr ees fiber optic needles lit up to pale pink, accordingly purple, then teal, then white.Good graven image, I said. Its the Christmas tree uniform of a lava lamp.I like it, declared Yasmine. Its got moxie. She looked really excited. She could have been a kid on Christmas morning. Youd see after seeing so many Christmases (and trees) in her existence, theyd get kind of old. She pointed at Peters tree. Lets do the overnice one now.We were stringing purple lights on the winter moss green tree when she finally started The Talk.So. Vincent told me what happened. She paused as she looped the lights over a branch. Im sunny your guy is okay.Me too. He was luckyif Vincent hadnt been thereMore silence. I didnt entirely know where Yasmine was going with this. My guess was that she was concerned Id tell someone or so Vincent. I felt absolutely certain, however, that she wasnt going to threaten to get out my kneecaps or anything to keep me silent. In fact, I realized then that what she wan ted was reassurance. It was a crazy and shock idea. She was an angel, after all. A being of hope and peace, a being that others prayed to for comfort. Yet, here she was, seeking it from me a cock of Hell.I meant it, I told her. What I said to him. Im not going to tell anyone.I believe you, she said, mix-up all over her face. Angels knew when others were telling the truth. But I dont understand it. Why? Why wouldnt you? You could get into bouffant trouble if your superiors if Jerome found out you knew and werent telling. Vincent had said the same thing. It was true. Your people tend to get pissed off over stuff like that.What, and yours dont? Would they be forgiving if they found out?She looked remote from me, diverting her maintenance to hanging a pink glass dove.Look, I said. I work for Hell, but I dont, like, recreate in others suffering. Especially since I like both of you. I dont want to see you get into trouble. I dont even think what youre doing is wrong. Dangerous, maybe, but not wrong.Which part? The loving part or the nephilim part?I shrugged. Its all risky.She smiled at me. You talk about nephilim pretty calmly. Most people in our circles go track for the hills.I met one once. Dated him. I hung a bejeweled purple orb on the tree. He was shivery as hell, yeah. Had this whole homicidal revenge thing going on, which kind of negated his sexiness a little. But at the end of the dayI dont know. He wasnt much of a monster. He couldnt help being born what he was.I was glad to be free of Roman, glad he was somewhere off the beaten track(predicate) away from me. Hed posed too much of a threat to both me and those I loved. Still, there had been something in him I found appealing. It was why wed connected before things literally blew up. I understood his weariness with the bets paradise and Hell played. Hed offered to take me away and free me from it all, and there were days I would still wake up and long for that.No, Yasmine agreed. They cant h elp what they are. And its not their fault. But their existence is a reminder of our faultsof our weaknesses. She held her hands open in front of her, studying them as though they held answers. None of us higher immortals want to be shown that were weak. Thats our hubris, I guess. Especially the angels. No ones perfect, but we like to play that we are. She sighed and let her hands drop. I should walk away from this. I should have a long time ago.I jerked my head up. But you love him.sometimes loving someone means you have to do whats ultimately good. What you need instead of what you want.I suppose. But ending it seems so extreme. There must be a way toI dont know, have it all.The door opened, and Vincent walked in. He didnt look surprised to see either of us, but then, he would have sensed our auras. His eye met Yasmines, and it was like lightning crackling through the room. Both of them lit up, shining in a way that I doubted my succubus glamour could even begin to compete with.He expressed surprise over my Yuletide timbre but jumped in to help us, appearing just as excited as Yasmine over the activity. The two of them never touched, but I noticed the same thing that I had at riftfast an thing in the way they interacted with each other. They didnt need to touch. Their relationship was obvious, and I wondered how it was possible none of the other angels had ever noticed this. Maybe it was like what Yasmine had mentioned about angels and hubris. Maybe angels always assumed they were perfect and were too concealment to see flaws in each other, whereas someone like me who exploited weakness knew what to look for.We finished Peters tree, and then I found my ornaments from last year the ones that hadnt been destroyed in the fire and used them on the bookstores tree. When my woodland paradise was finally complete, Yasmine and Vincent made their farewells and left. I still had no idea what their divine mission in Seattle was, but I assumed it had universal c onsequences. I felt a little weird that it had been clothe on hold to decorate my home.As I cleaned up the boxes, I kept thinking about what Yasmine had said about needing versus wanting. In some ways, that was what Seth and I did. We wanted to have sex. We needed to reduce it.I also found myself recalling Andrew again, that annoyingly good priest whod caused me so many headaches. I hadnt thought much about his story since last week, but as my body mind littlely completed chores, the images began replaying in my mind.Despite my best efforts, hed remained a bastion of purity and willpower. While frustrating, it nonetheless continued to make the game fun. And although I didnt appreciate it as much back then as I did now, I part of took pleasure in just hanging around him. He was good company, and he came to mean more to me than just a sexual conquest. It was obvious he cared about me too.It would figure that things went bad between us on a beautiful, sunny day. I remembered it dist inctly. I had wandered over to the church he ministered out of and sit with him in the vegetable garden. I stayed clear of the dirt, conscious of the yellow silk dress my bishop had just had made for me. Andrew, less concerned, worked on his knees, unhesitatingly digging in literally and cultivating the churchs small crop.Dont you have other people who could do this for you?Squinting up at me in the bright light, he smiled. Nothing compares to the satisfaction of doing something yourself.If you say so.He returned to his work, and I continued to sit quietly, watching him and the lazy vista of that golden afternoon. Not far away, the sounds of daily hustle and bustle carried over. I liked this town it was a nice break from the large, busy cities Id exhausted most of my succubus time in. Eventually, though, I knew Id grow restless and move onto some place with a little more excitement.I turned back to Andrew. Thomas Brewer just got back from Cadwell. He says theyre all getting sick there.Andrew nodded. People are getting sick everywhere. There have been outbreaks in a lot of the western towns.Are you worried?He shrugged. What comes will come. None of us can change Gods will.I grimaced. Id hear about this illness, what later generations would call the Black Death. The rapid onset. The blackened skin. The swell lumps. Even if it couldnt technically hurt me, I didnt want to see it spread here.I dont think God can be as merciful as you say in mass if Hes inflicting something like that on his people.Its a test, Cecily. God is always testing us. It makes us stronger.Or dead.He didnt respond.What will you do if it comes? I pushed. Geoffrey says hell leave. Will you go with him?His dark eyebrows rose in surprise, like Id asked if the sun would take tomorrow off. Of menstruate not. I mean, as bishop, Im sure Geoffrey mustdo what is necessary to continue fulfilling his duties, but me? I inspection and repair the people. I will continue to serve the people. If theyre sick, Ill tend them.My sarcasm gave way to shock, and I leapt to my feet, striding toward him. You cant do that Havent you heard about this? People dont come back from it. The only thing to do is get out and let it run its course.It was true. Call it cruel, but as Id told Liam on our post-auction date, that was the way the world had dealt with epidemics for a lot of gentlemans gentleman history. Certainly, some people cared and ministered unto others, but when disease grew really terrible, with no clear answer in sight, ignorance and idolize reigned supreme. Most people of that era saw the simplest solution as putting as much outstrip as possible between them and the illness.Andrew stood up as well, wearing an expression so annoyingly sagacious and serene as he faced me. If thats what you must do, then you must do it. My place is here.I didnt even have seduction on my mind when I reached out and grabbed his hands. He flinched with surprise but didnt let go.Its stupid, I told hi m earnestly. You cant stop it. Youll die, and I I cant watch that.Then go. Go with Geoffrey. Or goout to the convent. Its isolated. Youd be safe there.I scowled. Not that again.I just want whats best for you, thats all. wholeness of his hands reached up and cupped my chin. I dont want to see you suffer either.It occurred to me then how close we stood. The heat build between our bodies rivaled that of the sunshine pounding down on us from above. Andrew, realizing this too, started and tried to pull away. I held on to his hand, anger flaring up in my chest.So thats how youll let it end then? You spend your whole life living in poverty and chastity, only to die in a pile of fetid corpses with oozing sores and rotting skin?If thats what God Stop it, I said, leaning forward. Just stop it. Dont you get it? God doesnt care. Hes not even paying attention.Cecily I didnt let him finish. Instead, I pressed my mouth against his mouth, modeling my body to his. I dont know if hed ever kiss ed anyone else before, but if not, he was a quick study. He didnt break from me. In fact I would have sworn there was an eagerness to his lips as they explored mine, willingly allow my tongue stroke and dance with his.And oh, God help me, he was so very good and appalling that I tasted a sunburst of energy just from that kiss alone. It poured into me like honey, glorious and sweet.And surprisingly, it was me who finally broke the kiss, though I still stayed pressed against his body, my arms encircling him.Dont you see how stupid it is? I whispered, our lips so close we shared each others breath. Are you going to die without having lived? Without having tasted everything thats out there? Are you really just going to rush into death like that?His eyes weighed me, his own hands resting on my waist. I dont need fleshly pleasures to complete my life.Youre lying, I told him. You want to.Wanting and needing are two different things. He stepped away from me, and I suddenly felt incomplete without his body against mine. I had a fleeting flash of some connection bigger than both of us, and then it was gone. A long life means nothing if its free and has no purpose. Better to live a short one filled with the things that are important to you.Youre a fool, I snapped. Im not going to stay and watch you die.Then go.And I did.