“I’m glad you’re getting some sleep,” Byron said. “You’ve been working yourself very hard and not eating enough.”
“That’s how I am in house flip mode,” I said. “When it’s all over I’ll go order a ribeye.”
“Your breezy confidence is very charming,” Byron said, “but you keep returning to this garden, ever vulnerable to my magic.”
“I can’t help that,” I said. “You’re the one invading my dreams.”
“You know very well that’s not how magic like this works,” he said. “Not everyone allows me into their dreams. It’s often the ones who crave affection. I like to think that I can serve a need, that I’m not just here to take from you. If you let me, I could satisfy your desires and fantasies. And that weight will be lifted off your shoulders. You might find that you’re more productive. You won’t be thinking about…certain distractions. Those werewolf brothers, for example?”
“We’re just friends.”
He snorted. Not many people could snort in a sexy way, it was this low arrogant sound that made me want to tame that bull.
“I’m not going to open the gate for someone I hardly know,” I said. “If you can’t tell me about the magical thing, can you at least tell me…how you met Fiore?”
“I think you’ve already found the answer. Fiore fell in love with my apprentice.”
“An apprentice? I thought she might be your sister. What did you do?”
“I was a librarian.”
I laughed.
“What’s so funny about that?” He looked genuinely offended.
“Your…talents seem wasted in the stacks, let’s say.”
“You haven’t even sampled my talents yet,” he said. “Fiore was looking for something. And he found Talin along the way. She shared my belief that we incubi and succubi are not demonic, chaotic, or parasitic. Our reputation is that of seducers who sap energy from innocents. But you could look at it another way. We can heal and soothe the loneliness and frustration of humanity. Our magic is attracted by people who crave us—not the unwilling.”
“I’m really not sure I asked for this.”
“That’s true. That’s why you have installed this gate. You want to flirt with the idea of me, but your subconscious has not given me free reign. It’s unbearable, Helena.” He flexed his powerful wings. “My cock is stiff as we speak at the sight of you, the torture of holding back, night after night. Knowing what I could give you.”
“You’re definitely a demon,” I said. “Just so you know, from an outsider perspective. And what was Fiore looking for?”
“I can’t say.”
“Argh.”
“But it’s the reason I keep waiting. My friends are dead and gone. I’m glad of that, because I swore to them I would never leave this world until our quest was complete. They will have peace.”
“Why not Graham? Someone in the family?”
“He knows nothing of this,” Byron said. “The person who finishes our quest will be a strong witch or warlock who will change our world. Who better than you?”
“Probably a lot of people.”
“Do you really think so? Why not you?”
“Because I’m just a good-average sort of witch.”
“You seem to me to be a very unique sort of witch, Helena von Habsburg Nicolescu. You are tough. Hard-working. Humble. You are well aware that a path was laid out for you, a comfortable path, and you refused to walk it. Your ancestors shaped the world, so why not take the responsibility of reshaping it?”
“You know a lot about me all of a sudden!”
“All I’ve had to do is hang around for your phone conversations, chats with your familiar, and mumblings to yourself, honestly. And I see a kindred soul. I also came from a venerated house in my own world. And I challenged the role I was given, to come live in this world. A royal witch, doing manual labor? Turning away from marriage, wizard gatherings? This is no small thing, and no one knows that better than you.”
“Yeah…”
It was true that I was getting the weird feeling that maybe Byron really did have some view into my soul. And it made some sense if he had already gone through some of the same experiences. Few people knew what it was like to walk away from ‘society’ and all of its heavy obligations. They were drummed into me all my life.
On the other hand, he could just be a horny incubus blowing smoke up my ass.
If I opened the gate, I would find out.
Either he would give me a night of mind blowing dream sex and I would wake up exhausted and satisfied and I probably wouldn’t see him again for a bit until he could drain more power from me, or…I would have mind blowing dream sex and he would keep hanging around, urging me on as I unraveled the secrets of the house. But then I could get attached.
Falling in love with a ghost might not be so bad if the ghost was in my own house. It would be sort of like the romance of a marriage without ever having to lower the toilet seat and if I was having a PMS day I could just tell him to scram to the ghost plane. It wasn’t for everyone, but…for an independent woman, it had its appeal.
But falling in love with a ghost who was haunting a house I needed to sell? No no no no no.
“You know, I don’t think I have ever seduced a woman in dreams who thinks as much about
