Save My Soul (26 page)

“Oh, dear. That is a problem because you know I’m allergic.”

Anna nodded sympathetically, trying not to jump with glee and run in to kiss the person who’d decided to put the paint on sale.

“When do you think it’ll be cleared out?”

Damn. She really wanted to see the house. Luc was right about the strength of her mind. It was so strong she was now desperate for the truth. Cece might not realize it consciously, but Anna was willing to bet some dark part of her knew what she believed to be a dream, hadn’t been.

“It’ll be weeks at least. I’m not too crazy about the fumes myself, and I’m repainting the entire house. It could take a while.”

Surely she could get Luc out in that time and redecorate the area Cecelia had been in drastically enough that she wouldn’t suspect anything. Anna didn’t want to explain why the man she was seriously considering taking as a lover had slept with her friend and erased her memory.

Cece’s face fell. “Oh. Well, some other time. It’s not like the house won’t be there.”

***

Anna was in a state of bliss when she arrived back at the house. All thoughts of demons and spells and evil had been temporarily banished under the onslaught of shopping, foot massages, hot pink nail polish, and aromatherapy candles.

The peace lasted until she opened the door. Tam had gotten everything set up while they’d been out. Incense burned in several censers around the room. Cleansing the space , she’d said. What was it with everybody and cleaning space?

The harem sat bunched like sardines on the couch, eating popcorn, while Luc paced the floor.

“Oh good. You’re back,” he said.

He pulled Anna into the alcove under the staircase. It didn’t escape her notice that he was running his fingertips over the scar. The more often he did it, the more she saw it for what it was. Comfort, not possession. He was seeking to make the bond stronger, to connect with her in the only way he could until she finally let him into her bed.

Her irritation with him dissipated, leaching out through her skin as he caressed her and nuzzled his face into her neck. She intended to push him away, but she found her fingers threading through his hair, instead.

She never could have forgotten he’d spent centuries seducing women, finding the right buttons to push. Anna wasn’t aware of any specific signals she’d given out, but he’d zeroed in on her neck as a major erogenous zone. Kissing and licking and sucking there . . .

Goosebumps popped out on her arms as he growled into her skin. Maybe after centuries he knew all the sexual statistics. The percentage of women who like this in bed or that as foreplay. Maybe he was just playing the odds.

A throat cleared. She spun to see Wendi smirking at her.

“We’re ready.”

Anna didn’t let go of Luc’s hand as they went out to the foyer. This could be it. He could be free. The witches might actually do it. And then what? Would he leave her?

It had been the plan all along to get him out of the house, not fall for the seduction. But she couldn’t close her eyes now without seeing his. What if it worked and he left her?

Candles were lit as Tam walked around the circle spilling salt.

“It’s just salt,” Anna said when Luc grasped her hand tighter. Sure, they’d both pretend it was salt on the hardwood floor that upset him.

Luc and Anna stood in the center of the circle. Blood wasn’t required this time, but they were. Anna, because she was the current owner of the house, and Luc because the spell had been cast against him. Even the harem had been asked to join in.

Scarlett and Rhett wove around legs, freely moving in and out of the circle. The harem and coven stood around them, hands linked, chanting in Latin.

For the first time, there was a physical manifestation besides the effects of wind. A pink circle of light suffused them all, then started to rise, binding tighter and tighter. Light wrapped around light as if forming a strong twine, then wrapped itself around Luc and Anna.

Each woman fell into a trance while the chanting rose higher. Anna held onto Luc as light pressed around them. The spell went on, causing tension to coil inside her. Her anxiety ratcheted higher and she wanted nothing more than to get out of the house.

Finally, the glowing band shattered into pieces, and small pinpoints of pink light fluttered to the floor like glitter. The candles snuffed out as the power ebbed from the circle, and they stood in darkness.

“Try the door now.” Tam’s voice sounded ethereal.

Luc attempted to leave and bounced off the barrier. A stream of curses flew from his mouth, and Tam flicked the light back on.

Anna stood in the circle, trembling. Now that it was over, the panic washed over her in a wave she couldn’t stop. Luc snapped out of his own anger long enough to rush back to her.

“Witches,” he spat with disgust. “Always causing trouble. What did you do to her?”

“Nothing,” Tam said. “I love her like a sister. I’d never hurt her.”

“Then why is she shaking like this?”

“It’s just fear,” Mel said. “I think she’s scared of magic.”

“She wasn’t like this with the gypsies or the priest. I want to know exactly what was done,” he said, not placated.

“We redid the original curse with a small change so we could more easily break it. Then we bound the two curses together so that when we broke ours, the old one would break too. It’s worked on similar spells before. But only ours broke this time.”

***

The coven packed their magical knick knacks and left soon after the failed ritual. Anna had never been so happy to see anyone go. Mel was right, the magic scared her.

She didn’t know what made it different or scarier than the priest or gypsies, but it had caused a visceral reaction. After Luc kicked the coven out with a few choice words and the comment that they should all be very happy they were women because it was the only thing keeping him from beating them bloody, he’d carried Anna upstairs.

He hadn’t wanted to leave her, but he needed to feed. She’d sent him away, assuring him she was fine. She hadn’t been prepared to consummate this . . . whatever it was, with Luc. Not while she was still so freaked about the episode with the magic downstairs.

That was five minutes ago. Now, she felt a little differently about the issue. She wanted him with her, and if he had to feed to do that, so be it. She got out of the bed and went downstairs, still feeling a little wobbly.

Drawing a shaky breath, she knocked on Luc’s door before she lost her nerve. Olivia was visible in the background when he answered.

“Anna, are you all right? Do you need . . . ?” He faltered over the words as if he couldn’t quite determine what it was that she needed.

“I’d rather have stolen moments than nothing.” Anna turned to go back upstairs. She didn’t have to look behind her to know Luc would follow.

The door clicked shut, and Anna spun to find Luc standing with his back pressed firmly against it, that predatory gleam in his eyes. Part of her loved that look, and yet . . .

He looked at her as if he was the big bad wolf, and the only weapon she had was a picnic basket. Why couldn’t he choose now to be disarming? She longed for petty arguments over bath towels or holes in the wall. Anything to make what they were about to do seem less scary.

Her heart pulsed out of control as he stalked her, crossing the floor so fast it made her breathless. Then his hands were tangled in her hair, and his mouth covered hers until she gasped for air. A moment later, he broke the kiss, his hot breath in her ear.

“God, Anna, it feels like I’ve waited years for this.” His hands skimmed over her arms like he was trying to be sure she was real. “You’re trembling.”

“I’m scared.”

“You know I won’t hurt you.”

“There’s more than one way to hurt someone.”

If she crossed this bridge with him, it was over for her. No one else would compare to an incubus. When he inevitably left to go off and do what incubi do, she would be the one with the gaping hole in her chest where her heart had been.

His eyes locked with hers. “I’m going for a change of venue. I need you to relax.” He flicked on the small television set. “Sit. Watch. I’ll call you when I’m ready for you.”

Images flickered on the screen while the water ran in the bathroom. The words coming out of the speakers were meaningless sounds Anna couldn’t translate in her head. Nothing could distract her from the knowledge that there was a demon only a few feet away who had plans for her. Ten minutes later, the door swung open.

The light from the bathroom cast Luc in shadow, but she could see he was completely, deliciously nude. She had the crazy impulse to say, meow . He was doing strange things to her, throwing her brain off kilter. Nice girls didn’t openly gawk at a man’s package and make cat noises. Technically, nice girls weren’t alone in their bedrooms with sex demons in the first place.

“See something you like?” He waited a moment, watching her blush and enjoying her discomfort, before crooking a finger.

Anna tried desperately to stop looking at his erection. She’d only been in bed with a couple of men, but they’d done it lots of different times. She wasn’t a blushing virgin.

She’d also watched porn. And she’d watched it so when confronted with other naked males, she wouldn’t react the way she was reacting right now. That plan had failed her.

“Are you sure you aren’t using the thrall?” she asked with a little squeak as she reached him.

His gaze heated her from the inside out. “I don’t have to use the thrall.”

She felt ridiculous wearing what amounted to kid’s pajamas. The only thing missing were feet with rubber grips on the bottom. Couldn’t she have changed into something sexier before she’d gone downstairs to drag him from his meal? Anna shivered. He was going to feed off her. But the part that made her shiver was the fact that she wanted him to. After his brief taste the previous night, she was more than a little eager for more.

As if reading her mind, Luc ripped her top. She’d been so focused on his eyes, she hadn’t seen what his hand was doing. He’d kept his form everywhere else, but had brought out his claws. A neat, sharp cut line in her t-shirt left it hanging open. An inch deeper and he would have sliced through her.

She tried very hard to muster indignation over how he played with her life by centimeters. But the way his eyes bored into hers, half challenge and half that lost look she’d only seen men get in movies, caused her to falter. It was as if she were the only woman that existed for him. Intellectually, she knew this was how every woman he’d killed over the centuries had felt, that she was buying into the same seduction. But she couldn’t resist him even with that knowledge.

“I liked that shirt,” she said.

“We’ll get you another one.”

Before he could shred the pajama bottoms to match the top, she quickly moved to take them off herself.

“Deep down, I think you’re a little naughty,” he said, probably in response to her lack of underwear. He pushed her forward into the bathroom, cutting off her very reasonable explanation.

The room glowed with dozens of candles. Candles she’d helped make. Had he been chipmunking them away for his later seduction? Her eyes drifted to the enormous tub filled with bubbles.

“We can’t have an orgy, but we’ll do what we can.”

The blush crept up the back of her neck again. Luc must have been standing in this spot all invisible and sneaky when Cathy had given her the house tour. Had he been planning this since then?

He frowned. “Why are you still wearing that?”

The gaping t-shirt still hung on Anna like a poorly-tailored jacket, the last comforting piece of fabric between her and complete naked vulnerability. Seeing the look in his eyes, she scrambled to take it off.

There had to be thrall involved. She was officially losing her mind. Otherwise the only reason she wasn’t a wanton slut was because she hadn’t had sufficient opportunities. It was a possibility she didn’t want to entertain at the moment.

The water was hot, just barely tolerable. Anna sank onto the bench, the bubbles coming over her breasts. Luc joined her and leaned against the rim, his arms propped on the edge, completely at ease.

Of course he was.

“I went to all this trouble, and you look like you’re planning your escape,” he said.

“Just touch me.” Just do anything but stare.

“There’s the demanding Anna I know and love.”

He’d said it again. Love. She wondered if he was normally so casual with that word. Now, instead of making her want to get as far from him as possible, it made her want to move closer. She inched forward.

When she was close enough, Luc picked her up like she weighed nothing and placed her on his lap facing away from him. His erection pressed against her, driving her crazy as he rubbed the tension out of her neck and shoulders. Anna arched at the gentle strength in his hands, and her head dropped onto his shoulder. Before she could issue a flimsy protest, he lifted her again and was inside her.

She was about to give him a dirty look for the proprietary way he’d just decided to take her without further fanfare, but that thought left her mind at the same time the mortifying sound left her mouth.