Gentlemen Prefer Succubi

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I stood in the Temple of the Aten, the sun cresting above my head, a big hole in my torso, and wondered why I’d ever thought this was a good idea.

“Hurry,” came the imperious demand from Queen Nitocris. “Bring me the halo, or your vampire lover will die in excruciating agony.”

Don’t remind me, I thought as I walked through the broken flagstones of the temple.

Seek the heart of the temple, the queen had said. Call him there, and you will find his halo.

I studied the vast emptiness around me. It had been grand at the height of its glory; now there were just a few fake columns and a lot of nothing separating the desert from it.

I took a few tentative steps forward, and froze. Whispers began to fill my mind, soft whispers that spoke in a language that I didn’t understand. The air around me grew cold and the wind began to pick up, whipping my hair around my face. Unnerved, I took a step backward, and the effects lessened. Testing, I took a step to the side. Nothing.

Following the whispers would lead me to the heart of the temple. My heart thudded in my breast. I took a hesitant step forward again, clutching my wild hair against my neck to keep it out of my face. The whispers assailed me again, thicker and more ferocious with each step that I took.

The intensity of the wind increased and the voices in my ears began to form words, soft and hollow and sad.

My heart grows weary. My flesh is weak, as it always was. I was wrong. Save me from this eternal damnation. Forgive me.

Forgive me.

With those words ringing in my ears, I stopped near a series of nearly perfect flagstones, a broken crumble of rock ahead of me that looked like it had once been an altar. I lay a hand on the broken surface and found it to be warm to the touch, pulsing like a heartbeat.

Forgive me, the sad voice intoned. I was weak, foolish. Let me return to Your glory. Oh please, God, forgive me.

“Jackie,” Zane called behind me, a note of frantic worry in his voice. “Jackie! Be careful!”

I barely registered his voice, lost in the sad sighs and endless whispers of the temple.

Call his name, Nitocris had said.

“Joachim,” I called, my voice breaking through the tornado of whispers. “Come to me, Joachim.”

The intensity of the whispers increased, now screaming and shouting their words. The winds around me became gale force, and the rest of the world was drowned out in a sea of sandy wind and shouting, unholy voices.

Forgive me! I was weak and foolish. Heaven above, take me back!

Forgive me!

“Joachim,” I called again.

The intensity of the shouting turned to violent screaming, and I covered my ears. What did he want?

Then it clicked in my mind, and I whispered to the tempest around me.

“I forgive you, Joachim.”

The shrieking died; the wind ceased. My eyes slid open once more. Grit covered everything, and I stared down at my feet, where the sand lay in a perfect circle before me on the flagstones. As I watched, the circle of sand seemed to melt into itself, turning liquid and glowing bright. The circle raised into the air, circling around me, a singing hum replacing the whispers.

“The halo!” the queen cried behind me, rapturous.

It spun above my head, a flashing circle of pulsing light and humming air. I reached one hand up to grab it and the halo fell onto my fingers, pulsing and cool. It felt like smooth glass, glowed like amber, and I could hear Joachim’s sighs of sadness emanating from within. Clutching the halo in my hands filled me with sadness that so much pain and misery was going to be devoured by the queen or Uriel simply for the power it could give them. They didn’t care about the man himself, only what he could do for them.

I wondered if Joachim’s whole mortal life had been like that. It made me sad.

I turned and regarded my distant audience. All eyes were trained on me, from the angel’s lackeys to the vampire goons. The queen was rapt, her hand outstretched as if she could snatch the halo from my hands. Even Uriel seemed dazed by what he was seeing, his mouth hanging open.

I took a few steps forward, the halo clutched tightly in my hands. As I watched all those eyes on me, I wondered-what now? Who do I give it to?

I hesitated, and all hell broke loose.

The queen grabbed Zane and dragged him against her body, her fangs extended a scant inch from his neck. “Give me the halo,” she hissed, “or I will drain your lover dry of every last ounce of blood. His flesh will wither and his soul will become mine to command.”

By the way that Zane blanched, I knew her threat wasn’t idle.

The sound of a gun being cocked brought my attention the other way. I looked over to see Uriel’s gun now aimed directly at Stan. “Bring me the halo, or you will have the murder of this young man on your eternal soul.”

“You can’t kill him,” I bluffed. “You’re an angel.” No way was he going to face eternity stuck down here with the rest of us.

A gun cocked behind him, and I saw one of his crew aim his gun at Stan.

“No,” Uriel agreed. “But one of my disciples will kill him instead.”

“No!” Remy shouted, shaking her head and trying to maneuver herself in front of Stan. “Leave him alone. He knows nothing about this. Take me instead.”

The priest laughed. “Why should I, when I have all the leverage I need?”

“Jackie, give up the halo to Uriel. Let him destroy me-I don’t care.” Noah’s voice was calm as he sat up. Cuts and bruises covered his handsome face, his blond hair was matted against the side of his cheek, but he was still inhumanly beautiful, his chiseled mouth stern as he looked at me. “It’s the only logical thing you can do.”

Compelled by the sound of his voice, I took a few steps toward Uriel. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t refuse a direct order from my master.

“Do something,” I heard the queen hiss to Zane.

“Jackie, stop,” Zane insisted.

I halted just inches inside the boundaries of the temple. Huh?

“Don’t give it to him,” Zane said, his voice strained. “Give it to the queen.”

I turned and headed away from Uriel, my hand outstretching to give the halo to Queen Nitocris. Damn-he was my-

“Stop, Jackie!”

Noah’s voice caused me to stop again. Frustrated, I turned to stare at him, my mind hazy with the conflicting orders.

“Jackie, bring the halo to me … and the queen,” Zane added at the last moment.

I started forward again.

“Stop!” Noah demanded once more.

I complied, extremely irritated now. “Will the two of you make up your freaking minds?” I shouted.

I heard Remy’s gasp of shock. “Zane-he’s her other master. Her vampire master.”

She was even slower than me, but she got there. Suddenly I remembered …

A dark-haired man kissing me on my cheek as he lay me down in a Dumpster. “Sweet dreams, Princess.”

Zane standing over me when I first met the vampire queen. “You’d better tell her.” And I’d blabbed my story despite my fear.

“You have always been special,” he’d argued with me, bending down to kiss my flesh as we lay in bed together.

I’d been such a fool. He’d been so subtle about it that I’d never even imagined, never even dreamed …

“You asshole!” My eyes welled up with unwanted tears. “Did you ever not lie to me?”

“I never lied to you about that, Jackie.” Zane’s expression was solemn as he met my eyes. “You never asked.”

“Yes, I did,” I protested, thinking back to our conversation in the museum.

“So, have we met before? Because you sure seem familiar to me.” I couldn’t help but ask him. “I don’t suppose you hang out in dark alleys near nightclubs, looking for dorky girls to molest?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. I was just wondering if you were my vampire master, or something. Forget I asked.”

He’d never responded directly any time I’d asked. My questions had been met with a smile and a subtle topic change, and I’d been too flustered to notice.

“I did ask,” I protested, glaring at him. “You never answered.”

“I gave you an answer. Just not the one you were looking for.”

“That is totally beside the point, and you know it,” I yelled, my hands tightening around the halo. “How could you do this to me?”

“I have never lied to you, Jackie,” Zane repeated.

I thought hard. “And the slavers thing?”

Zane visibly deflated and his mouth softened as he regarded me. “That was the only thing, Jackie. I swear. Think back. Have I ever forced you to do anything that you didn’t want to do?”

“You mean, besides this whole Red-Light Green-Light game that you and Noah are forcing me to play?”

His head cocked to the side and he gave me an exasperated look. “Have I, Jackie?”

Oddly enough, his repeated words calmed me from the fury that was overtaking my mind. I remembered Zane kissing my flesh, looking up at me moments before I’d drifted off to sleep after we’d made love. I’ll never make you do anything you don’t want to, Jackie.

I believed him, of all bizarre things. And I relaxed.

“Unfair advantage,” Uriel shouted off to the side of me. “Don’t make me do something we’ll both regret, Jacqueline!” He sounded furious, frantic, on edge.

“Jackie,” both Zane and Noah began at the same time, and I backed up, stepping away from the temple’s edge.

I thumped into something solid. Turning, I looked into Remy’s drawn, beautiful face.

“I need that,” she said, pointing at the halo. “Give it to me.”

Confused, I held it closer to my side, the sad whispers echoing through my mind. When had she entered the temple? “Remy, what are you doing?”

“He’s going to hurt Stan, and I can’t let him do that. We’re screwed either way-at least let me save Stan.” She took a step toward me. “I can’t live with an innocent human’s death on my conscience.”

Remy was deadly serious. I took a step backward, glancing over at Zane. His face was drawn, pale, his eyes glued to us. He shook his head and closed his eyes, bracing for the worst. He wouldn’t try to influence me anymore.

It broke my heart. I clutched the halo tighter to me and shook my head vehemently. “No, Remy. I can’t let you give it to him.”

“You can’t give it to Nitocris,” Remy argued. “She’ll turn us all into her underlings. Now give me the halo and let me save Stan!”

“He’s just a human boy,” Nitocris purred behind me, sensing my weakness. “Wouldn’t you rather save your vampire lover? Your master? Your fate is tied to his, after all.”

I hesitated when I heard Zane’s muffled groan of pain. I had no doubt that the queen would torture him to try to get me to hand the precious halo over to her, and even though I had no choice but to ignore it, I still paused.

Remy’s hands slapped at mine, and she made her play for the halo. It flipped in my hands, flying into the air. The world stood still for a moment as the beautiful, shining object became airborne. My fingertips brushed against it and I grasped it once more, only to find Remy’s hand clasping the opposite side of the small band of amber light.

She gave it a fierce tug, trying to yank it from my hands. “Give it to me!” she cried.

“I can’t,” I said, nearly sobbing. “We can’t give it to either of them.”

“I have to save Stan,” Remy said between gritted teeth. “Uriel will save Noah if we give him the halo; I know it.”

“How do you know that?” I screamed.

“What other choice do we have?” Again Remy yanked on the halo, and I concentrated on keeping my fingers locked around the slender band.

What about Zane? my brain insisted. You trusted him and he betrayed you, over and over again. How can you save him now?

I weakened for a moment, and Remy gave a fierce tug. My sweaty hands slipped from the halo and she went tumbling backward, falling against the thick temple flagstones.

The world seemed to slow down. I watched, helpless to move, as Remy tumbled to the earth. The halo lifted from her hands for a moment, then crashed against the stones near her head.

It shattered with a thousand points of light. The golden fragments gleamed for a moment, spilling over her body, then sank into her skin, disappearing forever.

Remy stared up at me in surprise.

The whispers grew loud for a moment, then vanished in the wind.

Twin anguished cries of pain drew my attention. I looked over and saw Nitocris and Uriel screaming in agony at the loss of the halo. The body of the priest shuddered with convulsions, then dropped to the ground, the gun dropping with him.

The queen released Zane and buried her head in her hands, shaking violently. “You dare to thwart me?” she hissed, raising her bloodred eyes to mine. “You have earned my undying vengeance.”

“Hey,” I protested weakly. “It wasn’t me who broke it.” I pointed at Remy. “She’s your girl.”

The queen hissed at me, revealing the largest set of fangs I’d ever seen, then gave an unholy scream. “This is not over!”

As I watched, black wings tore out of the flesh of her back and erupted in a wet coil of leathery flesh and sinew. They weren’t the beautiful, feathered fall that Zane had; her wings were monstrous, leathery creations that unfurled over her head. She flung Zane to the ground and launched herself into the air, followed by the mass exodus of her goons. Black wings filled the sky for a moment, blotting out the sun.

They left nothing behind but a flood of silk suit jackets and one lone vampire. Noah and Stan watched me from the sidelines, untying each other and rubbing their wrists.

I looked down at Remy, who still lay on the flagstones. “You okay, Remy?” I offered her my hand.

“Who?”

The voice that answered me was deep, masculine and hollow, and definitely not Remy.

“Er … Remy?” My blood froze as I stared into her eyes. They were clear as glass, and I saw flashes of blue and red warring in them. “Are you okay?”

I watched her face contort for a moment, then her eyes swam blue. “Jackie?” Her voice was confused, and she took my hand as I helped her up.

“Is something wrong? You didn’t sound like yourself for a minute there.” Fear was clenching at my insides, but I forced my voice to remain casual.

“I’m only half me,” she said, extending her hands in front of her and staring at them as if she’d never seen them before. Her eyes flicked red as she felt her own breasts, then slapped her hands away. “Hey! Quit touching me!”

I glanced over at Noah with a puzzled look. “Do you know what is going on?”

Remy touched her hair, felt her breasts again, then gave me a frustrated look. “I can tell you what’s going on. He’s inside me, hogging my space!”

“Who’s inside you?”

“Joachim,” she said flatly. “The halo absorbed into my body when it broke. I’ve got his powers-and his mind-inside my own.” Her hand snaked up to touch her face, as if feeling out unfamiliar territory. Her mouth trembled a bit at the touch of her fingers.

“Oh lord,” I said, my hands covering my mouth in shock. “Are you okay?”

Remy snorted, forcing a grim smile. “As long as I don’t get the urge to watch football and scratch my crotch, I’ll be just fine.” She stomped across the temple boundaries and over to Stan’s side, dusting him off.

I shook my head, wondering. My guess was that Remy would explain later, when she’d had more time to adjust. For now, we had to get out of here.

But-rush to Zane? Rush to Noah? I eyed the two men for a heartbeat. Noah sat up in the sand, his hand pressed to his forehead as he looked around.

Zane was still crumpled in the sand.

Guilt warred with my anger and my concern for Zane. I raced to his side, lifting his cheek gently off the sand. Blood covered his neck from the gouges Nitocris had bitten into his flesh. She’d chewed on him like he was nothing to her, and the sight chilled me.

His face rolled toward mine and his sleepy eyes focused on my face, his hand reaching up to brush my cheek. “I’m cast out, Jackie. A renegade.”

“We’ll figure something out, Zane,” I said, the words sounding empty in my own mind. Guilt threaded through me. What was he going to do? A liar and a cheat he may be, but I couldn’t abandon him now. Not when he’d risked everything for me.

A sexy half smile touched his face and then he went limp in my arms. My pulse hammered for a moment as panic struck me, until I realized that he’d fallen into the day slumber of the vampires.

I clutched him close to me and watched the others scrambling about. With Uriel’s “possession” ended, his reinforcements seemed a bit lost. They milled around, chattering with each other in confusion. The priest sat nearby, hands on his head as if he had a migraine.

Remy held Stan to her chest, stroking his hair as he sobbed against her breast. I suspected their relationship wasn’t going to survive the trip home. Our world was a little too weird for the common Joe. Not to mention the fact that Remy looked irritated as hell that he was crying on her.

A shadow fell over me, and a hand touched my shoulder. I looked up into Noah’s face, the light haloing around his head with purity. He smiled down at me, a bit worse for the wear, but the same solid, dependable Noah that I could count on. “Are you all right, Jackie?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” I gave him a watery smile.

He chuckled, a familiar, heartwarming sound. “I’ll manage.”

I looked down at Zane in my arms, then up at Noah. “Noah, I …” Guilt coursed through me. While he’d been tortured by the vampires, I’d been fraternizing with one.

“Hush. Time enough for that later.” He kissed my brow. “We’ve had a rough week.”

“I’ll say,” I agreed, fighting the urge to laugh. With a hole in my middle, “rough week” was an understatement. “What now?”

He shrugged off his shirt and handed it to me. “Well,” he said as I put it on, concealing my wound, “right now I suggest we get out of the way of the tour group.” He gestured over his shoulder.

I looked and saw a line of tourists on the horizon, cameras in hand, staring down at us in shock.

Thinking fast, I pointed at Zane, cradled against me, and called, “Can I get a little help here? My boyfriend’s narcoleptic, and he’s having another episode. Anybody got a phone?”

Sixteen phones were immediately handed my way.

EPILOGUE

“I really do appreciate the offer, Remy, but I like having my own apartment,” I said into the phone. “It’s not anything you did, I just like being independent.”

“Come on, it’s the Joachim thing, isn’t it? Look, I told you that I wasn’t trying to watch you shower. He took over in a weak moment, and I didn’t know it was you in there.”

I snorted, flipping through my stack of mail as I cradled the phone against my cheek. A lot of bills had stacked up in the past few weeks, and I needed to go through what needed to be paid with the rest of my savings, and what didn’t. “Well, I can’t say that it wasn’t a little unnerving, but it’s not that.” Not entirely. “I just like having my own place. And since I’m applying for that job with the archaeology team at the university, it might seem a tad weird to be living with a porn star-no offense.”

“None taken,” she said, ever cheerful. “Speaking of showers, do I hear it running in the background?”

“Could be.” I grinned and glanced at the bathroom door. Steam rose from underneath it, along with the sound of masculine humming. “You never know.”

“It’s seven a.m., so it could be either of your boy toys. I don’t suppose you’ll tell me which one it is?”

“Nope.”

“You have to make up your mind between the two of them sometime, babe,” she said, laughing. “Actually, you don’t-but I don’t imagine they like each other much.”

“You’d imagine right.” I heard the shower turn off and the whistling start. “Listen, I’d better go now, all right?”

“Fine, but we’re still doing lunch tomorrow, right? We need to talk about the ‘Jo’ situation and how to fix it, before I go stark raving mad. He keeps trying to feel me up.”

“I hear you,” I agreed, feeling a twinge of guilt. “There’s bound to be a way to fix it, and I won’t rest until we find it. I’m here for you.”

“Thanks, Jackie,” Remy said, relief in her voice. “It’s good to have someone on my side who isn’t in my head and interested in seeing me naked.”

I laughed. “I’ll see you at lunch, then.”

“Later.”

Life had been pretty good in the week that we’d been back from Egypt. Sure, I’d lost my job, but it was due to excessive unexcused absences. Julianna had accused me of hiding out to recover from tons of plastic surgery, and I couldn’t refute her claims. Not looking the way I did.

Besides, the truth was much, much weirder than anything she could have come up with.

I’d been sent packing with my last paycheck. I hadn’t made it two feet out the door before I’d gotten a call from a local university, asking if I was still working at the museum. A position had opened up in their archaeology department, if I was interested.

Was I ever!

“Did I just hear the phone?” Zane’s head poked out from the bathroom door, his black hair still dripping from the shower. One of my purple bath towels hung low on his hips, and he stifled a yawn.

“You did,” I agreed, moving toward him. That towel hung deliciously low, and I was irresistibly drawn to it. That was the kind of girl I was now, after all. I pulled it aside and slid my hand over his flesh, leaning in for a kiss. “Room in that shower for two?”

His wet hands slid over my body, resting on my ass. “Who says we have to get back in the shower?”

Then the doorbell rang. Damn!

“Don’t answer it,” he said, pressing kisses along my jawline. “Let’s hit the floor, and I’ll show you where that third kiss goes.”

A quiver of desire shot through me.

The doorbell rang again, and I sighed. “That might be Noah,” I said, sliding away from him playfully.

He gave me an irritated look and pulled the towel back around his waist. “All the more reason not to answer it.”

I ignored his snide comment and headed for the door, unlocking it.

Noah stood in the doorway in a freshly pressed suit. He smiled at me, holding up two coffees and a bag of doughnuts. The man knew my weak spots. “Good morning, Jackie. May I come in?”

“Of course,” I said with a smile.

He stepped in past me, stiffening when he saw Zane on my couch, clad in nothing but a towel. “I see you have company.”

“Well, he doesn’t have a place to stay, what with being exiled and all,” I pointed out, a blush rising on my cheeks.

Remy had been right. The constant bickering between the two men was pretty darn irritating, since each one was surprised to see the other at any given time. I scowled as Noah grabbed my chin and tilted my head up to his, searching my eyes for blue.

They were bleached silver, of course. I’m not crazy, and Zane’s damn hot.

“I see you haven’t been missing me much.” There was a rigid set in his tone, and I noticed how blue his eyes were. He’d definitely been missing me.

Zane stretched out on the couch, looking rather pleased with himself. “Maybe you should leave.”

“Maybe you should let Jackie decide on her own,” Noah said in a deadly voice. Then he flicked a glance back to me and my silver eyes. “Though it seems as if you’ve already decided.”

I took the doughnuts from Noah’s hand and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m a normal, red-blooded succubus who’s trying to repair the hole in her middle. Your turn will come in about two hours.”

Since I’d been wounded, my body had responded by trying to refuel itself more frequently. Like every eight hours. With two very sexy men at my beck and call, though, I wasn’t complaining.

“I don’t like him being here,” Noah said, his teeth gritted. He crossed his arms and glared at Zane, looking like an angry dog defending his territory.

“Goes double for me, Angel Boy.” Zane glowered at him from the couch. “She’s my girl.”

I rolled my eyes. “Will the two of you leave it be? I’m nobody’s girl.”

But both men had gotten their hackles in a rise.

“I think you should decide who you want to be with, Jackie,” Noah said. “Decide which one you want to choose.”

“Yeah, Jackie. Put this loser in his place and let me get to sleep.” Zane got up from the couch and stood next to Noah, glaring at him. His towel threatened to fall from his waist, if not for the hand holding it there.

My hand.

“Choose, Jackie,” they both said.

Good lord-that was like asking someone to pick which hand or leg they liked better.

“I can’t choose. You both annoy me in completely different ways.”

Two sets of astonished eyes focused on me.

“Noah, you’re a bit too stuffy and set in your ways,” I began. “You want me to be obedient, proper, and ladylike.”

“That’s not true,” he began, a scowl darkening his face.

I raised my hand. “I’m not finished. You’re a bit stuffy, but I like you. You’re always there for me when I need you. You’re my rock, and you’re practical and reasonable even when I’m not. I need you in my life.”

Zane’s face had taken on a shuttered look, and he grabbed a cigarette from the nearby table and lit it. “So this is it for us?”

“No. I like you, too, Zane. You’re impetuous and slick, and you make me do crazy things-things that I like doing. You take my breath away.” He smiled. “But I don’t know you, and I can’t trust you.

“Hence, my problem,” I told them. “I simply can’t choose.”

“Well, you have to,” Noah said, his voice unyielding.

“Pick one,” Zane agreed.

Annoyed, I snapped, “Fine! I pick neither of you.”

“What?” they said jointly.

I shrugged. “If I can’t have both of you, I’ll just have to go with option C: none of the above.”

Two scowls focused on me and I raised my hand, stopping their arguments before they could start. “I’ve actually given this a lot of thought. My new life flows between both of your worlds, so it only makes sense to have both of you in my life, helping me where you can. Your paths will only intersect for a few hours each day, and if you can manage to avoid each other, so much the better. I can’t pick a favorite, and I don’t think you should try to make me choose. We have unusual circumstances, and I believe they call for an unusual solution. So what’s it going to be?”

Zane grinned and winked at me. “You know my answer.”

Noah was silent, then grudgingly said, “I can share.”

“Ditto,” said Zane. “Just not at the same time.”

My eyes glazed over at the thought of being sandwiched between two delicious men. Hmm-if they could come around to the relationship I was proposing, maybe I could get them to come around to that, as well.

A girl’s got to have a goal, right?