Kept: An Erotic Anthology (32 page)

I smiled tremulously. “Okay. Can you tell her that I am bonded to her, and that I’m sorry I lied?”

“As you wish. Nothing else? No profession of a deep and abiding love?”

“Don’t be crazy, I just met her. That sort of thing will have to wait
.” For you to leave, so I can scream and cry and eat a few cartons of Rocky Road.

Moth knew how I felt. She didn’t need me to tell her through some crazy game of broken telephone with an incubus.

***

For over a moon the Council had discussed me, arguments chasing their tails in the hall. They allowed me to return to my home to sleep the days away, but the ache in my ribs made it difficult to rest. Instead I lay in Shiloh’s nest and inhaled the faint traces of her scent that remained there.

Fox had returned immediately after ensuring her safety, advising me that she was, indeed, as bonded to me as I was her. Perhaps it should have eased my fears, but instead I worried what would happen if I was imprisoned for a lengthy time. Would she languish in that tiny hovel of hers, awaiting my return? Would she stare out the window for countless nights wondering why I would not come? Guilt was my constant companion. She had been happy enough in her life before I had stolen her but now, apart, the bond we shared would make her uneasy.

The circle of incubi stared at me and I realized that for the first time they wanted me to speak. I hadn’t been listening. Instead I’d been thinking about her and staring at their garb. Their maroon robes with gold trim were ostentatious and ridiculous. I wondered if anyone had been so kind as to point it out.

“What is your defense?”

“I was told I would be given no opportunity to speak.”

Councilman Weevil grimaced. “It is not generally done, but we are at an impasse here. Eight agree you should be punished, eight do not—two of whom feel you should be allowed to keep the slave as long as you promise to breed her appropriately. Selfishness is not tolerated among us, Moth. You cannot have a slave merely for the sake of feeding and pleasure. You had a male slave and no cambion resulted from the match. A succubus with a female slave is a perversion. No child can result from the union.”

I was angry but I pushed it down. “We have all been taught the same morals, Councilman, but love isn’t planned and chosen. It occurs where it will. The taste of her mind drew me to her, and although I attempted to ignore it, every night I ended up there again. Our bonding was an accident. If our purpose is to ensure that good humans repopulate, leaving a bonded girl alone and suffering in the human realm goes counter to that. It is unlikely she will breed without my intervention now, and keeping us apart will make it difficult for me, as well.”

“You’ve been provided with the opportunity to select a mate, and you have declined time and again. Is the Council to believe that if we let you and the slave live together, you will breed? Or will we simply be here in two years’ time with the same issue, but a closer bond?”

Councilman Jay cleared his throat. “If you had allowed Councilman Badger to have her, as was planned, she would have been bred whether she willed it or no. Now the Warder protects her, and no one can get near.”

It was difficult, but I was careful not to let my gloating be outwardly apparent. My plan had worked!

“I mean no disrespect, but Councilman Badger has had two slaves die in the past decade. As her Master, I want Shiloh to be safe and well cared for, not overbred. I swear I will breed her myself when the time comes, with the seed I collect.”

“Breed her yourself? Unnatural! How can you think a good and normal human will result from such a breeding?”

“Our breeding humans is unnatural in the first place. We are interfering with their natural mating patterns, but that is a tradition that does not get scrutinized.”

The circle of old men frowned upon me, Badger the hardest. I would kill him myself before he laid a finger on Shiloh. I shivered in disgust. As good as our kind believed we were, I was relatively certain that Badger was less than good. Perhaps not precisely evil, but dabbling his toes in it, at the very least.

“I think several years imprisoned will teach you to watch your tongue,” Weevil mused. “Impertinent young succubi who won’t breed with males cannot be left free in our realm to influence the younger ones.”

“I have lain with as many human males as has been expected of me, Councilman. My last slave was male. That no cambion resulted puzzles me as much as it distresses you. As for incubi, I have not been approached by one I would have that would also have me. Imprisoning me will not change my bond with Shiloh. It is too late for that.”

Again, whispered arguments flew amongst them and I was hard pressed not to roll my eyes in exasperation as my slave was wont to do. I was sent from the room again and sat, without appetite, in the vestibule.

Fox had brought Ellie to me the day before, but I could not feed from her, although I tried. The pain in my chest distracted me from taking pleasure, reminding me that there was another I wanted, who awaited me.

As though he heard my thoughts, my dear friend appeared, this time bringing the new girl whose name escaped me. She looked vaguely like Shiloh in coloring, but it was not enough.

“Thank you for your kindness, Fox, but I’ve no hunger.”

He sat next to me on the bench and wrapped an arm about my waist, beneath my wings. When he pulled me close, the affection was welcome. I’d been days with men who detested me and considered me tainted.

“If you don’t feed eventually, you’ll weaken.”

“I know. However, I fed from my slave slightly more than two fortnights ago. I feel no hunger.”

“You feel no hunger because of the lethargy that has settled over you with starvation,” he growled. “Have they no compassion? Being apart when you are this newly bonded is very painful. It is easier after several years bonded, but not the next day.”

I shrugged. “They will not listen. They are so conflicted they asked me to speak for myself, but I think I lost support rather than gaining it. The length of my prison sentence is the only point of debate now, I’m certain. I care not. If Shiloh was not awaiting me I think I would throw myself from this aerie and save them the trouble.”

“Shh. No such talk! If you did such a thing, what would become of me?”

“You would go on being loved by the six intelligent women who are slaves to your every desire.” I chuckled listlessly. “If only I had been born incubus, none of this would be at issue.”

“Ah, but the two of you being female is much more entertaining, at least for me.” His face twisted into an exaggerated leer and I swatted him for his levity, but couldn’t help but laugh. “If they allowed you to speak on your own behalf, perhaps they will allow me to speak as well. I am an incubus in good standing with the Council.”

“Only because of your copious fertility. Your aerie runneth over with young.”

“Handsome little things, all.” He grinned.

We sat in silence awhile. The new slave, Carissa, curled in a ball and laid her head in Fox’s lap, but he did not release me from his embrace. I leaned my head on his shoulder and dozed.

***

I was a zombie. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. It was like having the flu but being perfectly healthy other than a pain under my ribs. At work I couldn’t think straight. It hadn’t been long in the human realm, but I knew it had been over a month there. How long could a trial take? Was she in jail, or had she just decided not to come back for me?

At night I waited. I’d devised a timetable that tracked the passing of time there to the best of my knowledge.

“Earth to Shiloh. Come in, Shiloh.” Brad was walking beside me to the diner, having insisted that I needed to get out before I barricaded myself in my apartment again. As soon as I’d come home and discovered I’d only been gone a few hours, I’d decided that a few hours later Moth would be standing in my living room. I was wrong. Day, night, day, night, day.

Every night I watched the gargoyle across the street until he was too dark to see, and wondered if he was the one who’d given Moth a hard time, not that he ever seemed to move. I had the urge to chip him off the wall and let him fall to the pavement, but then I remembered he was the one that was supposed to protect me from being given to Badger.

We were sitting and there was a drink in front of me. When had that happened?

Brad was talking, “… and that’s why you need to drink this. Then drink more of them.”

I eyed the shot with distaste. I didn’t even drink alcohol, let alone shots. When I shook my head, he shoved it closer.

“Drink it now, or I’m calling in the big guns.”

“Why? What do you want, Brad?”

“I want to know where you are when you stare through me like that. Are you having a breakdown? If you are, I’ll take you to the hospital and stay with you through the whole thing. It’s okay.”

He touched my hand and my eyes became Niagara Falls—the Canadian side.

“Oh shit!” Brad started digging frantically through my purse then thrust a wad of tissues into my hand.

I mopped at my face, and didn’t argue when he force-fed me the booze. Fire burned down my throat, but went around the pain in my chest, leaving it untouched. I pictured Moth in a dungeon, enchained, with an incubus hacking off her wings. My tears turned into an obnoxious sob and Brad manhandled me out of the bench seat and dragged me toward the back of the restaurant.

A woman gasped as he ushered me into the ladies’ room.

“Sorry! We have a
total
love emergency here!” Brad said in the heavy gay accent he reserved for emergencies.

The poor woman nodded sympathetically and patted Brad’s arm as she left the room. Worked like a charm.

“I’ve been letting you get away with this shit for days, Shy. That’s enough. Now dish or… or else.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t even know what the fuck to tell you. It all happened so fast.”

“What did, honey?”

“I… I met someone.”

“O… M… G! You’re fucking with me! That’s awesome!” He grabbed my wrists and shook them so hard I dropped my tissues. “So why the tears, then? Is he married?”

“What? No, I…” Where to even start? How much was I allowed to tell him? How much would he believe? Maybe I’d go with being vague. “We instantly hit it off. We met right after you and Nate left the other morning. I’ll give you details later. I don’t want to say it here.” I looked around and a few stalls from where we stood a toilet flushed.

The elderly woman left her stall and took several millennia washing her hands. By the time she was done, Brad was standing by, holding out a paper towel for her. She dried her hands and with a big toothless grin, she fished in her purse and pressed a nickel into his hand.

Brad looked down into his palm as she tottered out the door.

“That’s it,” he grinned. “I’m quitting my day job and becoming a bathroom attendant.” He checked every stall. “Okay, we’re alone. So when you say you hit it off, did you go on a date or something?”

“Uh… no. I stayed over and got my cherry popped.”

“Fuck. Off.” For a minute he stared at me, then he danced around the restroom and spun me in a circle. “If you’re fucking with me I’m going to smack you! O.M.G. You’re totally serious.” Brad was grinning and still bouncing on his toes a bit. He did that when he was over-the-top excited, not that he’d ever admit it. “Was it good?”

I thought back and felt my expression soften. “Yes. The whole thing blew my mind. We were together for a long time and really clicked, you know?” My throat hurt like hell and I had to stop for a minute until it eased off.

“Oh baby, did he ditch you?” Brad hugged me to him. “If he ditched you he’s the hugest and stupidest ass in the entire city. You don’t worry about him. There are plenty of fish in the sea. Now that you got over that hurdle, nothing will stop you from finding someone nice.”

“No, no. She was in trouble. She had to leave, but she said she’d come back for me.”

The sobs started again and Brad held me to him, but now in a stunned silence.

“She?”

“Uh-huh. But I have no way to get a hold of her and see if she’s all right.”

“Like the bitch doesn’t have a cell?”

“No.”

“Whatever. Sounds like a line to me.”

“No really,” I tried not to snort on his shirt. “She’s not… technologically inclined.”

“So a girl then? I can’t say I’m totally surprised, but I thought it would take a few years of therapy for you to admit that you were a lesbian.”

“I’m not a lesbian. I just like this girl.”

“Sure, honey. So she’s a vegan environmentalist type? That’s the only kind of girl I can think of that wouldn’t have a phone. Or is she Amish?”

So vague wasn’t going to work. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to him, but I wasn’t about to tell him the truth in the restroom at a diner. As it was, he’d probably insist on me going to the emergency department for a psychological evaluation.

“I can’t tell you here. Let’s just pay and go back to my place. I’ll tell you everything, but you have to promise to keep an open mind.”

There was no point in telling him, really, except to give me someone safe to talk to. I had to face facts.

My heart sank, bloodless, into an abyss of misery.

Moth was never coming back.

***

“The Council has discussed it. Under the circumstances, we might release you into the custody of your sire or mate, to oversee your rehabilitation. But since you have neither, the majority of us feel it would be a terrible injustice to leave you roaming free. Councilman Bear and Councilman Crow are both desirous of making their objection to this decision known.”

I shifted where I stood, wishing the buffoon would skip formality and simply tell me of their decision. Fox crowded close behind me, the warmth from his body helping me to recall that not everyone in the realm disapproved of my deviance.

How long a time living alone in a tower would cure me of my passion for Shiloh? A year, two, ten? They would be disappointed to discover that rather than releasing a lover of men back into the world after all that time, they would release an angry, half-crazed succubus that still wanted her slave. Only Shiloh could mend this, not whatever tortures they had planned to ‘cure’ me.