Succubus Soul Read online

  One of the Japanese guards shouted, “Denka,” but he didn’t seem panicked, nor was Rio anything but calm as he sauntered over to the edge and raised a hand in greeting. This seemed to be a routine the prince and his guards expected. I wondered how many other women he had brought here for some of his solitude.

  The prince and his guard exchanged more words in Japanese, and Rio nodded. Connak clutched the edge of the guards’ boat, looking ill, his muscles tense as he tried to remain upright. I chuckled slightly, the smile falling off my face when I saw Derek through their boat’s wheelhouse, papers spread on the table in front of him. His eyes met mine and they quickly moved away, as if ashamed he’d been caught looking at me.

  Sliding my phone back into my purse, I took a look at myself and found one of the sleeves of my dress too far down one shoulder for it to have occurred any other way than it had.

  Turning on my heel, I gazed back at the shore, crossing my arms tightly across my chest.

  Rio held my hand as he guided me off the ramp and back onto the pier. “So, have I made a seawoman out of you?”

  Tucking my hair back over my shoulder after it’d blown about in the slight breeze, I beamed. “Maybe. But I’d like to actually try sailing on an ocean instead of a lake.”

  “That would be amazing,” said Rio, his voice brightening. “Will you let me take you there someday?”

  My heart fluttered. I wanted to say yes. But I hadn’t even dated any of the other princes yet. It’d be foolish to commit to a second date with one now. “I… We’ll see.”

  Rio stepped closer, moving a strand of hair off my shoulder to trace a finger across the tip of my ear. “I had a wonderful time,” he said.

  “Me, too.” My gaze drifted over his shoulder to the second boat docked now, the Nelian guards making their way off. Derek’s head bobbed slightly as he looked my way, his jaw clenched as he made a point of turning his back on me.

  His shoulders were stiff, his back straight. And then suddenly, they loosened, his arm darting outward.

  “There’s a kid drowning!” he shouted. “Down the beach!”

  What was anyone even doing swimming this late at night? Rio and I both jogged up beside him, Rio’s bodyguards and my Nelian escort all gathering to see.

  Many, many yards away, there was something that seemed to be a stiff arm extended upward, a small body barely moving in the lake water, as well as a shrieking woman at the edge of the beach leaping in.

  I whipped my arms out in front of me, but my protection bubble couldn’t reach that far.

  “Denka,” said one of the bodyguards, almost as if he knew Rio might try something and intended to stop him.

  “May I?” Rio asked, bending slightly.

  Confused, I was about to ask why. But that person drowning out there didn’t have an extra minute for me to wonder.

  I trusted him.

  I nodded and then he had me in his arms in a princess carry, my head falling fast against his chest with such pressure, it was like we were flying across the beach, the sand whipping up so fast, it almost scratched my skin.

  But then we were there on the beach. Right by the screaming woman, who’d just set out to swim after the child.

  My head dizzy from the whiplash, I nonetheless flung my arms out as Prince Rio set me down again on the sand, my bubble of protection soaring outward onto the lake and finding the child. Enveloping her, the bubble pulled back toward the shore, picking up the woman—the mother, most likely—as it made its way back to shore.

  I put them both gently on the beach, some distance from the water. The bleary-eyed woman, confused and dizzy, her wavy brown hair sticking like glue to her sallow cheek, nonetheless rallied quickly as she turned to her daughter and began shaking her. “Kristy!”

  By now, Derek, Connak, and the rest of the guards had arrived the old-fashioned way, even the taciturn imperial bodyguards out of breath.

  “Let me,” said one, his accent lending a gravity to his words.

  Shell-shocked, the mom stepped aside as the bodyguard began CPR on the girl.

  “Hisashi knows first aid,” explained Rio. “He will save her.”

  He seemed so sure.

  The next minute felt like eternity, but after a few more pumps to her little chest, the girl shot up, spewing water everywhere in front of her, coughing and trembling in her mother’s waiting arms.

  “Thank you!” the mom whispered without even looking up at any of us. “She wasn’t supposed to be out there. I told her it was time to go and…” She choked on a sob. “Thank you.”

  After waiting for paramedics to take the child away, we headed back to the pier.

  “That was a memorable way to end the night,” said Prince Rio.

  “You saved her,” I said, in awe of how fast he’d acted—at how fast we’d been together, like shooting stars across the sand.

  “You saved her,” said Rio. “And Hisashi,” he added, nodding at his bodyguard. Then he took my hand and kissed the back of it like a prince out of a fairy tale. “You are a hero.”

  “We are,” I said, my skin tingling.

  We didn’t get to say much else, as I felt positively self-conscious about the crowd gathered around us—not just the entourage we’d brought with us, but people from downtown wandering nearer now, some taking photos even, shouting questions about what had happened.

  As the crowd grew, Connak drove up in the car he’d used to take me downtown. Cars, though metal and unnatural to Nelia, ran on solar energy in the years since Daddy had come to Earth, and he’d insisted on a select group of his guards learning how to handle them.

  Derek rode separately. Rajani was due to jog back from the café earlier, so I didn’t see her until I got back to school.

  She harangued me for all the details, and I did tell her, but the whole mess of conflicting emotions and the rush of adrenaline left me feeling queasy.

  As we finally went to bed and I sat in the dark, the scent of Rio now washed away after my shower, it almost felt like it had all been a dream.

  I didn’t regret it. But it felt… unfinished. And then there were Derek’s judging eyes, and I shouldn’t have cared, but I did.

  Burying my nose into my pillow, I stifled a scream. Things had been much simpler last week, even with the specter of graduation hanging over my head.

  I wasn’t sure when I fell asleep, but I woke up, my vision bleary as sunshine filtered through our curtains, Rajani shaking my shoulder.

  “Are you still coming on the field trip?” she asked.

  “Field trip?” I echoed, my voice cracking. “It’s the weekend.”

  “That’s why it’s extra credit. Your aunt and uncles? Holding a training session? On Nelia?” She stared down at me as if I were clueless. “High school and college students only?”

  I blinked and checked my phone. Seven in the morning. I probably had only gotten a couple of hours’ worth of sleep.

  “I don’t know if I should,” I said. “I still haven’t checked in with my parents about their mission—”

  “They’re fine.” Rajani, fully dressed herself, was tossing clothes at me. Blearily, I studied what she was throwing at me. Exercise clothes. Sweat-slicking gray leggings and a navy tank, as well as a sports bra and a pair of cotton panties. “They made an announcement when they got back at six this morning,” she continued. “They haven’t found the fugitive, but they’re tracking his movements with Professor Wade’s super brain and computer or something and, look, do you want Hazel and her bimbos to show us up or not?”

  Groaning, I started peeling off my sleepshirt. “It’s an ability-less retreat,” I said, knowing Rajani’s metal exterior gave her an advantage against Hazel’s stone-inducing breath. She was one of the few who could withstand Hazel’s halitosis, as we jokingly called it, which made engaging in combat with her something of a breeze.

  “And you think she can take me?” said Rajani, her fists pumping in front of her as her whole body bounced like a boxer’s.


  “What side of the bed did you wake up on?” I asked, standing to finish getting fully dressed. I grabbed a ponytail holder from my nightstand drawer and drew my red hair back into a bun. “The bloodthirsty one?”

  Rajani stopped punching the air but kept bouncing, grinning. “I thought if I showed off my moves, a certain Nelian guard might take better notice of me.”

  “So you and Connak are going to be a thing now?” I scanned my phone—no new messages—and put it back on the nightstand. There were no satellites orbiting Nelia, so there was no phone service.

  “We’re not a thing yet,” said Rajani, snatching her water bottle from the top of her dresser, along with her gym bag full of snacks and towels for both of us.

  I grabbed my own bottle and we headed out, Rajani locking the door behind us and slipping the key into the gym bag. We stopped at the dorm floor bathroom briefly, a bunch of other bleary-eyed women taking showers and freshening up before apparently heading on the field trip as well. Thank Mother Nelia that Hazel and Sheila were in the other college women’s wing, but it was little surprise to find Pepper there in the mirror, slathering on layer after layer of mascara even in her gym clothes.

  “You do that much longer and you’re going to add five pounds to that svelte figure,” said Rajani in her best high-school-mean-girl impression. Hazel’s crew still brought that out in Rajani on occasion. They made it hard for it not to.

  Pepper held the mascara wand out some feet from her dark eye. “You’re lecturing me about adding weight, metal muscles?” Undeterred, she went back to applying the mascara. Against her dark skin, the dark lashes were making her eyes more cavernous.

  “At least my ability is actually useful, twinkle fingers,” snapped Rajani, heading out with the gym bag slung over one shoulder.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, trying my best to not muddy the waters. We were adults, for goodness’ sake. “You look nice today.”

  Pepper tossed her head, the small braids gathered into one, long ponytail behind her head shifting over her shoulder as she did. She studied me as if waiting for the punchline.

  “See you in a couple minutes,” I said awkwardly, heading to the door.

  “Wait!” said Pepper, and even the two other girls left in the bathroom stopped to look. Pepper put a cover over her wand and leaned against the bathroom sink. “Did you go on a date last night? With one of the princes?”

  “Yeah.” I shifted uncomfortably under her glare, trying to take control of the moment by crossing my hands over my chest. “Why?”

  “Which one?”

  What did that matter? “Prince Rio,” I said.

  Pepper nodded thoughtfully. “Pick him. Or don’t pick any of them. I don’t care.”

  My mind froze as I tried to process what she’d said, feeling suddenly judged by the onlookers behind Pepper. “Excuse me?”

  Pepper whirled back toward me. “Prince Trey is Hazel’s,” she said matter-of-factly. “And Sheila and I have a thing for Prince Zeke.” She pulled a tube of lipstick out of her cosmetic bag and started applying it in the mirror. “Jerry likes Rio, but if the man isn’t gay or bi, I’m sorry to say my friend doesn’t have a chance.”

  “Are you serious?” I asked.

  “I am.” Pepper puckered her lips, then sent me a scathing glare. “Are you?”

  Was I serious about dating the princes? About being asked to marry one? I had no idea. But if Hazel and her ridiculous crew of bully wannabes thought they had chances with goddamn princes, they were more immature than I thought.

  “Mind your own business.” I stormed out of the bathroom, eager to unload the confrontation on Rajani, but as I neared the grand foyer that would lead to the backyard, the anger began to flee. Telling Rajani right now would just make her angrier and start this whole thing that couldn’t be stopped.

  I took a deep breath as the group headed on the trip came into view. There were about two dozen of us milling about outside, including Hazel and the rest of her group, who were trying their best to seem aloof and wickedly fashionable even in their gym clothes, Hazel’s blonde-and-black, frizz-free ponytail pulled high atop her head. Rajani was talking with some of her fellow pre-med majors, and I just stood in the middle of the grass, not wanting to bother her. Derek was standing against the big oak tree, reading a book, not even bothering to look up as I approached. My feet carried me toward him, ready to hash it out in the relative safety of numbers, when a familiar voice called out to me, and I turned to find Mom standing next to Sage and Lacey, her hand entwined through his.

  I pivoted and headed on over. Mom was practically bouncing on her heels and I gave Sage a questioning look. His cheeks darkened and his stance grew just slightly fidgety.

  Mom hugged me and kissed me on the cheek.

  “You’re in a good mood,” I said, feeling a small trembling tingle from Mom’s powerful lips. A kiss on the cheek wouldn’t boost abilities for more than a second, though.

  Mom grabbed both my hands in hers. “How did your date with Prince Rio go?”

  Was that what had her so excited? I opened my mouth, not sure what to say, but there must have been something written on my face—could have been the heat crawling up my cheeks—because Sage and Lacey exchanged a knowing, amused look and Mom got even happier, if that were possible.

  “That’s great!” she said based on nothing but my reaction to her question, practically wringing my hands.

  “It—It was fine,” I said. “We had a great time, but—”

  “So good news all around,” said Mom, beaming at Sage.

  “You know,” I said, letting my fingers slip out of Mom’s grip.

  “They told me this morning,” said Mom. She scowled, but her eyes were still sparkling. “I should have known your twin sister would get the news first. My baby’s getting married!” She grabbed Sage by the cheeks and kissed his brow, then did the same to Lacey, leaving both a little stunned, but the nature of Mom’s abilities made her lips rather loose regardless.

  “What’d I miss?” asked Rajani as she appeared behind me.

  Mom got this wide, cartoonish grin on her face as she grabbed Sage by the shoulders, practically shaking him. But she didn’t say anything.

  Her jaw dropped. “Your fathers don’t know—oh, well, Zander does now.”

  Sage bit his lip, apparently having a conversation in his head with Papa Zander.

  “Mom, how did the search go?” I asked, as much to keep abreast of everything as to give poor Sage and Lacey a break from all the attention. “For that fugitive?”

  “Don’t you worry about that,” said Mom, her words coming out rapidly. “Your instructors and I are handling it. I just want you to go on a few more dates and have some more fun.”

  “Mom.”

  “Maybe there’ll be dual wedding bells soon enough!”

  “Mom!”

  “Dual wedding bells…?” said Rajani, her mouth opening agape as she took in Sage’s and Lacey’s intertwined hands.

  Mom laughed. “All right, all right. I’ll let you be. Pick up should be anytime now.”

  As if on cue, a portal ripped open in the air some feet away from us like a tear of paper, the crackling blue shimmering in the air revealing dense forest and the hands of two Nelian portal-creators keeping the pathway open.

  “Did you pack everything you need?” Mom asked Sage and me in turn.

  He nodded and I pointed at Rajani’s backpack. “Roomie’s got it covered.”

  “You all take care of yourselves and have a great time!” Mom started walking away. “Derek, honey, your mom and dad are still in the field.”

  I turned without meaning to see Mom talking with Derek, son of her best friend, practically a second son to her among the many, many children she’d taken under her wing.

  But my eyes zeroed in immediately on the bulky, tall figure making its way toward us, his fiery-red hair grazing his shoulders like a mane. His bulging chest muscles were covered in a tight black tank top, his thighs practically poppi
ng out of the black gym shorts he had on underneath.

  Prince Zeke.

  He planned on joining us?

  Other students were already climbing through the portal one at a time, ready for a training session in the Nelian forest, my aunt Alanna no doubt just near enough to start causing everyone to lose their powers in her vicinity without affecting the portal-creators’ work.

  Well, everyone but me. Professor Wade had studied the issue and he wasn’t sure why, but Aunt Alanna’s negation abilities didn’t affect my own protection ones.

  I turned on my heel.

  So this prince of illusions thought he could handle a fight without his abilities?

  I swallowed. Okay, he was definitely buff enough to handle a fight without making an opponent imagine he were somewhere else.

  “Did you know he was coming?” whispered Rajani into my ears.

  I shook my head just slightly.

  “Kia ora, Your Highness,” grunted Zeke in Kiwi accent.

  I shifted just slightly and wriggled my fingers at him. “Hi.” Were we supposed to go on a date already?

  Behind Zeke, several men in workout attire and sunglasses hovered, their heads moving just slightly this way and that. His bodyguards.

  “I thought we’d count today as our date if that’s all right with you,” said Prince Zeke, conspicuously looking me from head to toe, his eyes lingering at this curve and that. “I had a hankering for a workout, so I thought I’d take a tumble with you.”

  Derek passed by our group on his way to the portal just then and visibly flinched.

  “Yeah, sure,” I croaked, swallowing, suddenly feeling far too hot in the rugged prince’s presence. Judging by the moisture building between my legs, my sweat-wicking workout attire was already being put to good use.

  Chapter Eleven

  Once everyone was through the portal, we followed the Nelian guards who’d come to serve as our envoy and made a short hike toward a familiar cabin. Some distance away from the heart of Nelia where most Nelians dwelled, this cabin allowed Aunt Alanna to visit her home planet without causing her fellow Nelians the inconvenience of losing their abilities in her presence—and for about an hour even after.