I thought about my options—those men who were actual possibilities. Of course, Marty was at the top of my list, but getting involved with a mundane was a bad idea, no matter how much I might want to. There was no way Marty would be able to withstand my feeding from him. Besides, my experience in dating mundanes so far had been less than stellar. Then again, all my experiences had been pretty terrible. I was starting to believe I’d be forever single because nothing ever worked out between me and whatever man I was dating. What a sad excuse for a succubus I was.

  Plus, I really liked Marty. He was the last person I wanted to use for a sexual thrill to feed my inner succubus. My interests in him were more than that. Lots more.

  “Hey, Fifi. What can I get you?”

  I looked up to see Shelby Stomper, a former co-worker, waiting to take my order. Roy had promoted her from a hostess to a waitress when I’d dedicated all my time to Hallowed Homes.

  “Hey, Shelby. I’m actually not hungry but can I get a glass of ice water?”

  “You’ve got it,” she said and started to turn away, but apparently thought better of it and turned back to me. “You feeling okay, Fifi? You look a little pale.”

  Ugh, was it that obvious?

  “Yeah. I feel fine. I just ate too many snacks at one of our open houses,” I lied.

  “Make a sale?”

  “Not yet, but soon.”

  She nodded and offered me an understanding smile. “I’ll get your water right away.” She gave me a wink, moving down the table to get orders from the others as they piled in. Then she disappeared through the kitchen door with her order pad.

  The meeting attendees were the usual suspects—Blood Witch Wanda Depraysie, vampire Lorcan Rowe, sasquatch Roy Osbourne, and werewolf Louisa Rutledge. The only one of us who was missing was centaur Stanley Stomper. It was then that Shelby returned with my water and a few other drinks.

  “Stanley sends his regards, but he’s at home with one of the girls who isn’t feeling well,” Shelby informed us.

  “Good to know… let’s get started then,” Lorcan said as he took a seat at the head of the table. “I’ve got places to be and people to eat.”

  “Ha-ha, Lorcan, very funny,” Wanda said with one trademarked arched eyebrow as she took the seat beside him. Wanda was very beautiful but in a macabre sort of way. An attractiveness kind of like Elvira’s—good looking but offputting at the same time. Wanda was also one of those people you didn’t want to cross because you wouldn’t want to end up on her bad side. I was glad we were friends… or friendly. I didn’t think Wanda really considered any of us to be her friends, except for maybe Poppy.

  “Welcome, everyone,” Roy said, choosing to ignore Lorcan—which was something he did often. The two didn’t really get along very well. And that made sense because they were night and day different. Strangely enough, even though they were such opposites, I liked them both.

  Roy sat down next to me and looking over, gave me a big and handsome smile. I returned it and then glanced around the table, noting that everything and everyone seemed a little fuzzy—blurry even.

  “Because Stanley couldn’t make it today, I’ll be in and out to take his place,” Shelby continued as she gave everyone a hurried smile and then disappeared again into the kitchen.

  I sipped my water, not really feeling like drinking it, now that Shelby had brought it out. I was a little worried I might not be able to keep it down—I just felt nauseous suddenly—all part and parcel of this constant hunger that never fully went away. I tried to focus on something Louisa was saying about some mundane kids in the woods near her home that she’d had to scare away, but her voice sounded like it was being transmitted through the bottom of the mud bogs on the edge of town.

  Taking deep breaths, I reminded myself the meeting wouldn’t last too much longer and I could get through it, even as I wondered if I really could. Soon, everything began to disappear into the fog around me, growing grayer and less delineated. The gray fog began to move and swirl around me, making me even more nauseous as the spinning room enveloped me.

  “Fifi, are you okay?” Roy whispered to me.

  I looked up at him and nodded, though I wasn’t sure I succeeded. “Does it seem dark in here?”

  “Dark?” he repeated, frowning at me.

  Suddenly, I felt like I was going to be sick, like I was going to throw up right in the middle of the table and ruin the meeting.

  “Fifi?” Roy asked, leaning in closer to me as he put his hand on my bare arm. I could feel the energy coming from him and it helped to clear the fog in my head, but only a little.

  All of a sudden, my body pitched sideways, as if I were getting sucked into the void around me. Roy lost his grip on my arm as I fell in the opposite direction, slipping through his fingers like a slippery eel through a large net.

  I landed with a thud against the cold tiles of the event room, my heart slamming against my chest as everyone stared at me in shock.

  Then everything went black.

  Chapter Six

  I awoke to find myself in a bed—not my bed, but someone else’s. And that couldn’t be good. Suddenly afraid I’d done something I’d soon regret, I sat bolt upright and looked around, all the while struggling to remember what had happened that would end with me being… here. I wasn’t even sure where ‘here’ was.

  The last thing I could remember, I was at the Half-Moon, trying my best to focus on the council meeting as if I were perfectly healthy and fine. Obviously, I wasn’t. I breathed a sigh of relief as I glanced down and took in the fact that I was fully dressed. So, there was probably no possible way I’d had sex with whoever owned this house. And thank my lucky demons for that!

  So how had I returned to consciousness, when I’d clearly been in such a bad way? I tried to take stock of my body and realized with growing horror that I felt… better, stronger, more energetic. Gone was that nauseous feeling and the incredible exhaustion. But, how was it possible that I felt better? I shuddered as the answer occurred to me: I must have fed on someone.

  Yes, I had to have taken someone’s life energy, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to come out of the state in which I’d been and, furthermore, I wouldn’t feel even better now. But if I had fed on someone, who was it? Someone at the meeting? Hmm, feeding on one of them in my blackout and desperate condition could have done permanent damage.

  Unless...

  Unless I’d fed on Roy.

  He was the only person in the meeting who could have withstood a full succubus feeding while the succubus in question was in a state of starvation. Sasquatches possessed superior strength and their life forces were almost indestructible. Roy was one of few species who could survive full, repeated feedings from a hungry succubus. Lorcan would have been strong enough to survive, true, but I wouldn’t have gotten very far with him because he had no life force to give. He was powered by undead magic and that wouldn’t help me.

  No, it must have been Roy.

  I took a deep breath as I worried just how far I’d gone with Roy (if he had, in fact, been the one to feed me, then bring me here). I didn’t feel like I was filled to the brim with life force—no, I just felt marginally better than I had this morning. But I still had that ever-present feeling of malaise that had characterized me for the last five years, the last time I’d taken a lover. So, no, Roy and I hadn’t had sex. And that was a big relief because sex would have just… muddled a friendship that had no business being muddled. Regardless, I still wanted to know exactly what we had done.

  I struggled to my feet, and as strange as it sounded, I was grateful to find I was still a bit weak because that meant I hadn’t broken my five year stint. Still, I didn’t know where I was or how I’d gotten here, and that was causing me some stress. It was also the first order of business. I brushed my hands down, across my clothes, as I took a deep breath and hoped I was at Roy’s. I glanced out the window and saw massive pine trees, but beyond them was the very tip of the white dome of Haven Hollow’s church. That meant I was still in town—in the area that bordered the forest.

  I had an inkling as to where I was now. Roy lived in Haven Hollow, but you wouldn’t know it because his house was located in the thick forest near the town center, giving the illusion of a divide in dimensions.

  As to the room around me, it looked pretty rustic with the roughhewn beams that formed the walls and the matching hardwood floors, the color of amber. The wood motif was continued in the planked ceiling—looking like an old cabin.

  The decor could have been better—‘sparse’ was probably a good word for it. There wasn’t any art on the walls, and aside from the worn plaid blue and red quilt on the bed, the room was lacking color. There wasn’t even a rug on the floor—just a large dresser across the way and matching bedside tables on either side of me, one with a lamp.

  As I continued to grasp my surroundings, the smell of woodsmoke assaulted my nostrils. Hmm, someone must have been tending the fireplace. With my heart in my throat, I padded into the hallway in my socks.

  There wasn’t much change between the bedroom and the hallway. Everything here was wood, too, and the hallway opened up into a decidedly ‘wood’ living room. It was then that I saw a man stoking the fire in a small, rock fireplace.

  Roy.

  I cocked my head to one side and admired his jawline which was captured by the flames behind him. I’d never just looked at him before—studied him when he wasn’t aware I was standing there, staring. But there was something comfortable about doing that now.

  Roy was incredibly handsome, but I’d always thought so. Up until now, Roy’s handsome face and big, burly body had always been one of those things I was aware of, but didn’t give a lot of thought to: not much different from admiring a new dress or a field of freshly blooming flowers. But, now I noticed him and I enjoyed noticing him. Not that his being handsome changed my feelings for him, because it didn’t. Roy was my friend, and that’s exactly how I wanted things to stay. Given my history with relationships, this was one I wasn’t willing to screw up.

  Not only that, but Roy had dated Poppy for a while and even though their relationship was over, and he was now single, it went against girl code to even think of him as anything more than a friend… not that I was thinking of him as more because I was decidedly NOT. Besides, I was head over heels for Marty, despite how stupid that probably was.

  I had a brief worrying thought as I wondered what Poppy would say if she knew I was alone with Roy and that I’d awoken in his bed. It just seemed so… intimate and Poppy was a good friend. So how would I explain this?

  You just tell her the truth—that you blacked out and Roy came to your aid. She’ll understand—besides, there’s nothing going on between you and Roy anyway, so there’s nothing to feel nervous or guilty about, I told myself. In fact, you probably don’t need to tell her anything at all.

  It was then that Roy looked up from the fire, spotting me in the doorway. For a moment, I was hit with a wave of passion that seemed to roll off him like a tidal wave. It hit me full force, and I took a step back as I tried to collect my wits and my breath. Then, as quickly as it had come, the strange sensation was gone, and in its place was an expression of surprise on his face.

  Hmm, strange.

  “Are you alright?” he asked as he swiveled all the way around to better face me.

  “I… I’m feeling better.”

  He nodded and gave me a smile. “You gave us one hell of a fright.”

  “I’m sorry.” I cleared my throat and then tried to remember just what I’d wanted to ask him. “Um… how long have I been out?”

  “Maybe an hour?”

  “Did I… did I feed from you?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. Of course I had.

  “You came to a few times and… took what you needed from me.”

  “Oh,” I answered, finding this conversation completely… uncomfortable. “Um… what does that mean, exactly?”

  He looked at me and didn’t seem to share my embarrassment. “It means you kissed me.”

  “Oh.” I felt my heart drop to my feet before it started pounding, and I was sure I was every shade of red. “I’m… I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head. “Don’t be. It wasn’t like a kiss-kiss.”

  “A kiss-kiss?”

  He chuckled, and the sound was deep and harmonious. “I mean… not on the lips. You could barely lift your head and it seemed enough just to give you my wrist.”

  “I kissed your wrist?”

  He nodded, and I couldn’t help the surprise that seeped through me. Usually I had to make out heavily with a man in order to get enough life energy from him. The fact that I was able to absorb Roy’s power through simple skin-to-skin contact just hinted to his incredible strength.

  The way he looked at me—his smile, his openness—revealed he didn’t regret anything. And that was a realization that caused me some level of calm, even if I was still blushing like an idiot.

  “Are you… are you feeling okay?” I asked, worried that maybe I’d taken too much of his life force, even as I realized such was impossible. As a sasquatch, his energy was basically limitless.

  “I’m fine, Fifi,” he answered and shifted his gaze back to the fire. I took a deep breath, only now realizing I’d been holding it. Exhaling, I then tried to understand the embers of lust that continued to burn deep in my belly. They just… made no sense to me. I shouldn’t have felt this way about Roy—and I never had before, yet now…

  I had to shake myself out of whatever insanity this was. Suddenly ashamed, I felt more heat claim my cheeks as I wondered what in the hell had gotten into me.

  It’s just the succubus hunger trying to take control of your body, I thought to myself and decided to go with that mode of thinking, because it was easiest.

  I watched quietly as Roy stood up and approached me, towering over me, and nearly taking up the entirety of the small space in the living room. He was massive, yes, but standing before me now, he appeared even larger than I remembered. I swallowed hard as he walked across the room, never taking his eyes from mine. And his eyes suddenly reminded me of those of a predator—narrowed and focused. Intent. Truly, he was the ultimate of all predators—there was really nothing that could take a sasquatch down.

  Even unleashing my full succubus on him, I wasn’t sure which of us would win. Thank the demons it wasn’t something I had to worry about.

  For as much as I believed Roy and I would only ever be friends, I was firmly convinced he felt the same. Never in the time we’d worked together had he ever given me even the slightest hint that he was interested. Instead, he’d laughed at my ridiculous flings, given me advice, and treated me like the protective older brother I didn’t have (Angelo wasn’t much of a role model where older brothers were concerned).

  Sure, Roy had kissed me once upon a time, but that kiss had just been a ploy—part of a larger plan to convince my family I wasn’t trying to destroy the succubus side of myself (even though I had been). It was a ploy to make them believe I was feeding from men, and many of them. The kiss hadn’t meant a thing, to either of us.

  So, why was I staring at his lips now?

  “I want you to talk to me, Fifi,” he said and his deep voice reverberated around the small cabin, echoing off the walls and embracing me with its low timbre. And then there was his scent—a scent I was doing my best not to let go to my head. But it was ever-present—filling the air, seeping into the wooden walls and floors, rising up from the furniture. Roy smelled like the forest, like the earth and the rain, but it wasn’t just a natural smell—he also smelled like everything masculine—spice, sweat and strength. He smelled like power.

  Or, maybe that was just my succubus wanting to mate with him.

  Mate with him! Fifi! I inwardly reprimanded myself. Snap out of it or you’re going to make a fool of yourself in front of Roy!

  I couldn’t argue with the facts, though—and mating with Roy was exactly what the succubus wanted. Were I to leave things up to her, I’d have attacked him already, forcing him to the floor and taking whatever control he thought he had away from him.

  Good thing the succubus wasn’t in control.

  “You… want to… to talk to me?” I asked. Why did I sound so breathless?

  “Yes.”

  “About what?”

  “About what’s going on with you.” He took the distance between us until only a few feet separated us. “I want to talk about what you’re doing to yourself,” he continued, his brow knotted together in some combination of concern and disapproval. “You’re obviously still starving yourself and I’m not sure why.”

  “I don’t know… what you’re talking about.” This was my business, and I wanted to keep it that way. Whatever I was or wasn’t doing wasn’t Roy’s problem. But, how was I going to tell him that? Especially when he looked so determined to intrude, or ‘help’ as he termed it.

  “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  “Why… why did you bring me here?” I asked, wanting desperately to change the subject.

  He shrugged. “I figured you wouldn’t want Angelo to find out you aren’t feeding and haven’t been.”

  I nodded, because he had a point. “Thank you.”

  “Talk to me, Fifi.”

  Chapter Seven

  Talk to him…

  I wasn’t ready to face the subject of why I wasn’t feeding. Instead, my brain was still wrapped around the fact that I’d fainted at the council meeting. “Everyone at the meeting saw me pass out?”

  Roy nodded. “I made an excuse for you and said Bea mentioned you weren’t feeling well. Then I said I’d take you home and… I brought you here instead.”

  “Thank you.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t thank me. Instead, tell me what’s going on.”

  “There’s nothing going on, Roy…”