Cherry Creek (19 page)

“I'm not playing games with you.” He motions to the couch. “Will you sit down so that I can explain?”

Hell no.
I cross my arms again and give him a look. “Where's my mom?”

“Your mom is the least of your worries, Livvy.”

“My
mom
is my biggest concern. The fact that you won't let me search for her says a whole hell of a lot. Just tell me the truth, Khristos. Where is she?”

“I don't know.”

“Stop lying!” I yell.

He gives me an unsettling look. “Stop yelling.”

It's then that I realize just how dire the situation is. This man believes he's a demon. He thinks
I'm
a demon. Yelling at him and making him mad is going to make everything worse. If he can believe the things he's telling me, he could very well turn psycho and attack me in a fit of anger. My need to challenge him dissipates like the air bursting from a deflating balloon. I need to be smart about this. He wants me to listen to him, so I'll sit and listen. If he gets whatever he wants to say off his chest, he'll be less likely to keep me from leaving his office. I hope.

“Tell me what you have to say, and I'll listen,” I say reluctantly. To make it clear that I'm serious, I warily walk back to the couch and sit down. I'm going to handle this logically and put my emotions aside for now. I'll freak out over this entire conversation later. When I'm safely on a flight that'll be taking me far away from Minnesota.

I see his eyes narrow with suspicion, and I realize I caved too easily. After a long moment, he turns and grabs one of the chairs in front of his desk. He pulls it over and sets it in front of me so he can face me as he sits down. “I know you're just humoring me, so I guess I'll humor you back,” he says dryly.

My lips clamp together as I fight back a retort.

“Livvy, have you ever wondered why Brad changed so fast?” he asks as he leans forwards slightly, resting his elbows on his knees as his elegant, tan fingers clasp loosely together. I can't help but stiffen up. Khristos nods when he sees my reaction. “You're a very smart girl. I bet that's bothered you, hasn't it? His personality went from ideal to insanely possessive in very short period of time.”

If I weren't worried about his sanity, I'd stand up and walk out right now. It really ticks me off that he's going to try to use Brad's attack to benefit his stupid motives. “I'm guessing you have an answer as to why he went crazy?” I can't keep the hint of sarcasm out of my tone.

His eyes tell me he doesn't miss it. “You're only half-succubus, but even that is enough to cause issues for a human if you feed off them for too long of a period. The pheromones you secrete, they become a bit of an addiction for the human. Like a drug. Once they have too much of it, they want more and more. That's what happened with Brad. Especially if you were having sex with him. It eventually escalated to the point that his body would start going through withdrawal if he wasn't with you enough. It causes obsession and eventually insanity.” He believes everything he's saying. It's right there in his expression, it’s in those unfathomable, dark blue eyes of his.

“Did you tell my mom this?” I'm assuming not, or she wouldn't have put me on the plane. Unless she was somehow blackmailed. I need to find her. As soon as I can escape this place, I'm going back to Missouri to track her down. There's a chance she may have left the state, but even so, I can try to follow her trail.

“No. I figured she's react the same way you're reacting. Livvy, this isn't something we just go around telling people. There are rules to follow, and one of those rules is secrecy.”

“I bet,” I murmur. He's totally delusional.

“Let's move on to your headaches,” he says as he rubs the nape of his neck as if he’s growing wary of this conversation.

“What about them?” I ask. Obviously, I'm not going to believe anything he says. But I’m guessing now he's going to tell me it's my supposed succubus genes that are causing them.

“You can feed through a kiss. You don't have to steal as much energy as a full succubus, so you can take what you need through a kiss, and the human will be non-the-wiser. When any of us grow weak and need to replace the energy we're losing, we get headaches. Kind of like when people sometimes get headaches or stomachaches when they are hungry. We show symptoms as well. The longer we go without feeding, the more severe the headache. We also start getting aggravated more easily, and our tempers become more prominent. If we ignore the signs too long, we get to where you're at. The headaches become debilitating, and eventually they'll put you in a coma.” His eyes sear mine. “Once you're in a coma, you die. There's no coming back from it, and the only way to survive is to feed. You need to be conscious to feed.”

“I need to kiss someone to steal their energy,” I murmur as I force myself to stay calm. Am I taking any of this seriously? Nope.

“Yes. You haven't lost consciousness yet, but it won't be much longer before the headaches begin to knock you out cold. Once it starts happening, there's a good chance you won't wake up from one.” He looks at me regretfully. “I wasn't expecting yours to escalate so fast. I put you in this predicament, and I'm sorry, Livvy. Maybe I should have tried to talk to you earlier, but I knew you'd reject me and everything I tell you. Perhaps I should have just told you anyway, seeing as no matter when you learned it all, you'd still react the same.”

What does one say to all that? I have no idea, so I keep silent. I feel beyond uncomfortable hearing him talk about demons, especially since he believes everything he's saying. So, I look at my clasped hands on my lap and try to hold myself together. Eventually, he'll be done talking, and at that point, I'm going to calmly ask if I can have some time to process it all. Then, I'll go up to my room and wait for a while before trying to leave. I'm pretty sure Khristos will be expecting me to bolt, so I have to be careful. I just need to make it to the garage. Yes, there is a chance I could be followed, but I'll risk it. I can't stay here tonight.

“Tell me what you're thinking, Livvy,” Khristos says quietly. He scans my expression as if it might hold the answers as to what’s going on in my mind.

I shrug. “It's a lot to take in.”

“But you still don't believe me.”

“I don't know. The suddenness of my headaches is confusing, I'll give you that. Right now though, it's all a bit hard to process,” I say carefully. I'll give him a little hope that I might be coming around to his craziness. It'll make it easier to leave the office.

“I can prove everything I say, and it'll take away a lot of your confusion.”

My voice is firm as I say, “I am not kissing Nathan.”

Irritation flickers across his face. “It's the only way to prove that what I'm telling you is true.”

“Look, you can't just dump all this on me, then expect me to test out your...theory.”

“You don't have much time, Livvy.”

“The least you can do is allow me the day to process it all before you try to shove some guy I don't even like down my throat,” I say tightly.

Khristos is silent for a long moment. “You're right.”

“I am?”

His lip quirks in the corner. “You're not going to believe me just because I want you to. If you need time, I'll give you time. But only the day, Livvy,” he warns as his expression turns deliberate. “After that, we're testing out my 'theory' as you so eloquently called it.”

“So I'm free to go?” I ask, needing clarification.

He exudes an unsettling calmness that sets me on edge. “I'm sure I don't have to point out that I'd prefer you stay on the premises.”

“You just did.”

“Then there shouldn't be any confusion. Should there be, and I'll be very disappointed,” he says as he holds my gaze longer than necessarily.

Prepare to be disappointed by a lot of things
, I want to say, but I keep my mouth shut. I give him a tight-lipped smile. “I'd like to go up to my room now.”

He nods. “Very well.”

I rise to my feet and instantly turn wary as Khristos does as well. He doesn't come near me. Instead, he calmly takes a hold of the chair and pulls it back towards his desk. Without a word to him, I turn and walk out of his office. In the hall, I am tempted to make a run for the garage since the hall leads to the back patio, but I refrain from it. If Khristos has been having me followed, he'll have someone watching the garage.

I manage to make it up to my room without running into Adelaide or Roman. Once my door is shut firmly, I walk to my bed and sit down as I stare numbly at nothing in particular. Khristos Deveroux believes he's a demon. I’ve known right from the start that they’re keeping something from me, but I didn't expect it would be this...  I expected it to be something real. Like maybe the Deveroux's are mixed up with the mob or something like that. But demons...

“Oh my God,” I mumble as I press my hands against my face and flop back on the mattress. “This can't be happening to me,” I mutter. The need to get away from these people is incredibly strong, but they'll be expecting it. I'm also betting it's going to turn into a foot race to my car. There's no way I'd make it there without someone noticing. But I'm fast, and if I can just get in the car and make it down the driveway...

The gate.

What if they've got it shut down to guarantee I can't go anywhere? Is that something they’d do? My mind races as I try to sort out an escape plan. But the more I try to come up with a solution, the more my head begins to hurt.

I press my hands to my throbbing temples and try to calm down, because it's the only way these headaches seem to go away. I don't believe for a second that anything Khristos tells me is true. He's psychotic.

A knock on my bedroom door has me tensing on the bed. “Go away!” I yell rudely. My door opens anyway, causing me to abruptly sit up as Roman enters my room. “Go away isn't some sort of code for 'come in,' you know.”

He fixes me with a look. “I know you well enough by now to know that you're freaking out. You might look calm on the outside, but inside you're a mess, aren't you?”

I rise to my feet and give him an annoyed look. “Your dad just called himself a demon. He
thinks
I'm one, too. What part of that
wouldn't
cause someone to freak?” The pain in my temples intensifies, and I know what's coming. Dread fills me, because I’m sure it won’t be too long before I’m writhing on the carpet, clutching my head.

Roman’s lips tighten as his eyes turn oddly troubled. “I wish there was some way to make this easier for you, Vee.”

“There is. Tell me you don't believe him,” I say simply as I stare hard at him. “Tell me, Roman. Tell me you know he's messed up in the head.”

“I can't,” he says quietly

“Not you, too,” I whisper. “Addie? Does she believe him?”

Roman sighs. “There's ways to prove it to you, Vee. If you'll just—”

“NO!” I yell with frustration. “I am not a stupid succubus!” The pain intensifies, and I clutch my head, fighting back a whimper.

Roman curses. “Damn it. You need to feed. You're too low, and this isn't normal—”

“You really want to talk about normal?” I ask through clenched teeth before black dots dance across my vision. My legs buckle as imaginary knives stab at my temples. It's so painful that I can hear my screams echoing throughout the room. I’m barely aware of Roman's arms wrapping around my waist as blackness envelopes me.

***

I wake up slowly, and it takes me all of one second to figure out that something is wrong with me. My limbs feel unusually heavy, and I feel weak. There's something worrisome dancing on the edge of my memory, and I know it's important. Unfortunately, the incessant throbbing in my temples is a distraction. It's hard to think when your head feels like it's being splintered into two.

“Livvy?”

Dread fills me as I pry my eyes open to find Khristos staring down at me. He looks pale, and his eyes are dark with worry. I see that I'm in my room, on my bed. I lick my dry lips and say, “I think I need a doctor. It hurts. Really bad.”

“I know.” His eyes turn grim, and there’s a hard glint within them. “We're going to get you better, Livvy. You just have to trust me.”

Our conversation from earlier unfolds within my mind, causing me to tense up slightly. “I will trust you when you take me to the hospital,” If I can get him to take me somewhere public...

“The hospital can't fix what's wrong with you. Livvy, it's time to test my theory.”

A dry laugh escapes me. “That's right. I'm supposed to kiss Nathan, and it'll miraculously make me better.”

His eyes pin me to the bed. “You'll instantly feel better. I promise.”

“I am not kissing him just because you insist I'm a succubus,” I say flatly, then I wince as the pain intensifies slightly.

Khristos looks me dead in the eye as he leans over me almost threateningly, and I find myself shrinking back slightly. “You are fading too fast,” he informs me in a deceptively calm voice. “There's something in your genetics that is making you deteriorate faster than normal. You were unconscious for almost twelve hours. As time wore on, we've been afraid that you've succumbed to the coma. I don't think you'll come back from another episode, Livvy. I need you to just stay calm and find a way to compromise with me.”

“You're crazy,” I whisper as I stare up at him.

His face hovers several inches above mine, and a hint of desperation is apparent on his face until fierce determination replaces it. “Fine. I'll give you what you want. Kiss Nathan, and if you're not instantly better, I'll call for an ambulance, and we'll get you to the hospital. Once you're released, you're free to go, and you never have to come back,” he says curtly as he straightens up, his hands slipping in his pockets as he goes back to being the cool, almost impassive Khristos that I’ve come to know.

My eyes narrow. “Now, you're just lying.”

“You're so determined to prove me wrong. So just prove it. Kiss Nathan.”

“I'm not going to just kiss him because you tell me to. I don't even know him.”

He gives me an annoyed look. “Be grateful you are only part succubus, or you'd be looking at sex instead of just a kiss.”