Seducing the Succubus (19 page)

Noah cleared his throat. “Glad you’re awake. Max can take us back to the truck whenever you’re ready.”

“I must scout the area first to ensure your safety when I return you. I’ll return soon.”
The Djinn vanished leaving her and Noah alone, the tension flooding back like a tidal wave.

“How long have we been asleep?” she ventured when she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Noah laughed, but the sound was strained, a reminder of the sudden awkwardness between them. “Don’t ask Max—he’ll give it to you down to the second—but over twelve hours since you turned into a Djinn.”

She swung her legs off the mattress and stood to walk toward Noah. “Max?”

Noah shrugged, a self-conscious grin pulling at the sides of his lips. “He said he couldn’t give me his real name because that would give me power over him, but he let me give him a nickname.”

Amusement spilled through Jezebeth. Leave it to Noah to find a way around that barrier and get himself on a first-name basis with a soon-to-be-powerful Djinn warrior. “So you named him Max? I like it.” Her gaze locked with his for a long, sizzling moment, and she dropped it deliberately, not sure what to do next other than change the subject. “I should’ve offered comfort to Max long ago. I always seemed to be too busy, and he’s right, I wouldn’t have gotten any energy out of it, and it wouldn’t help me meet my quota, so I always blew him off. It seems pretty selfish now.”

Noah placed his index finger under her chin and tipped her face up until their gazes locked again. His eyes were a dark, swirling gray with tiny blue flecks in them and Jez felt like she was falling inside them the longer she stared.

“Don’t beat yourself up, Jezebeth. He needed you now, and you were here.” Noah smiled and she couldn’t resist reaching out to brush her fingers lightly over the slight stubble that had grown on his cheeks.

He stilled as she touched him, but kept his finger under her chin as he leaned forward, slowly closing the distance between them until he hovered just a hairsbreadth away from her lips as if giving her time to pull back.

Jezebeth held her breath as heat and anticipation curled inside her.

This was the first time she’d ever craved for someone to kiss her, not because of how much energy she’d receive from the contact, but purely because she wanted to know how Noah’s lips would feel against hers and how he would taste. She wanted this connection because Noah would be the one she was kissing.

His lips were firm and warm, and she opened for him. He took his time, slowly delving inside her mouth as if she were a delicacy to be savored. He didn’t touch her beyond his index finger under her chin and their lips, but Jezebeth felt like he held her tighter than she’d ever been held before.

She gave herself up to the slow exploration of the kiss, reveling in the new and wondrous sensations swirling inside her. Her arms hung limp at her sides, and she wasn’t sure if they would even respond to her demands at this point.

What seemed like a languorous eternity later, Noah pulled back from the kiss, but remained so close she could feel his warm breath feathering against her lips.

Her eyes remained closed as she struggled to find firm footing in a suddenly shifting world. She was definitely aroused, which was nothing new to her, but there was more. Much more. Liquid warmth curled through her veins and she opened her eyes to prove to herself she hadn’t dreamed the entire episode.

Noah’s storm-cloud gray gaze searched hers and she smiled. “Wow.” The word was said on a soft sigh, and Noah huffed out what sounded like a relieved breath before he pulled her against him and captured her lips again.

Jez gathered reality back around her as she tried to distance herself from the lingering effects of Noah’s kiss. “What’s wrong, Max?”

The Djinn scowled.
“There are demons stationed around your transportation.”

“Damn. All the supplies are there too.” Noah pinched the bridge of his nose and paced away and back as if it helped him think.

Jez cocked her head to the side and studied Max. “How far away from the truck can you drop us?”

Jezebeth shook her head as frustration spilled through her. “And we only have one more day until the location of Uriel’s house moves to Greece.”

Noah laid a comforting hand on her arm. “We’ll figure it out.”

Lilith stepped inside
Uriel’s large brick three-story and, not bothering to close the front door, hurried up the steps to find the elusive Archangel. She rounded the corner of the hallway and stepped inside his room just as he walked out of the bathroom.

He stood gloriously naked, drying his long multicolored hair with a black towel.

She sucked in an involuntary breath as she drank in the sight of his bronzed body—his broad shoulders, the smooth hairless chest, trim hips, and muscled thighs . . . and especially the large cock that lay limp against his thigh.

“Lilith.” He froze for a long moment before he shook out the towel and wrapped it around his hips, tucking it together, which did nothing to hide his sudden erection. “I apologize. I didn’t realize you required more sustenance already. I’m usually more attuned to your needs.”

Lilith resisted the urge to snort at his blatantly false statement and instead met his gaze in challenge. “If that were true you wouldn’t have materialized out of my chambers without telling me anything at all.”

He dropped his gaze, as if unable to look at her as he spoke. “I had urgent business. I apologize for upsetting you.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit, Uriel.” When he didn’t move, she stepped forward, edging into his personal space. “Look at me, damn it.”

Uriel raised his swirling silver gaze to hers, but his eyes were shuttered, his expression a mask.

“Tell me what was in the journal.”

He studied her for such a long time, she thought he was refusing to answer her, so when he spoke, his soft words surprised her. “I ask for your trust and your discretion, Lilith.”

She stepped back and took a seat on his black leather couch, toeing off her shoes and tucking her feet beneath her. “You have both.” When he raised his brows she added, “Regardless of our disagreement over the state of our relationship, Uriel, you always have my trust. And I have always kept your secrets.”

He smiled as he pulled a black silk robe from his closet and slipped it on, dropping the towel only after he’d tied the robe. “You speak as if I’ve had many secrets.”

It was her turn to raise her brows. “You may think I don’t know any, Uriel, but you forget how my kind survives. My succubi and incubi are privy to all types of information that finds its way back to me.”

Uriel paused on his way toward the couch where she sat. “I suppose I’ve been naïve to think you’re so sheltered in your life, Lilith. I think our relationship will always be colored by how we met.” He slowly lowered himself onto the other end of the couch and draped his arm along the back.

“The journal?” she reminded him.

He nodded. “There are apparently four journals in circulation— well, three other than the one I have—that contain the prophesies for
Har m∂giddô
.”

A heavy lead weight settled inside Lilith’s stomach. “Is the time at hand? Or is this someone trying to jump-start the end?”

“The time is not of His choosing, according to Michael, so this is most likely someone else trying to hasten the end.”

“Lucifer?”

He shook his head. “Lucifer has the most to lose by bringing on Armageddon, no matter what stories all the humans have concocted. If there is no world, there is no playground for the fallen ones and all their minions since they aren’t welcome in Heaven.”

Jezebeth winced as he reminded her that not only wasn’t she welcome in Heaven, she wasn’t even welcome among the rest of those who weren’t welcome either.

He reached out and laid a large, warm hand on her knee. “Lilith, I’m sorry. I always seem to say the wrong thing around you. It’s always been so.”

She thought back to how he’d treated her after he’d refused to kill her when he’d expelled her from the Garden on God’s orders. He’d been polite and gruff, and it had taken him several thousand years to even be able to look her in the eye when speaking to her. Him—an Archangel who was a warrior for God. She smiled at the memory. “Take my word for it, you’ve improved with time.”

One side of his lips quirked, but that was the only sign of amusement he showed. “You haven’t asked me why my letters to you would be included in prophesies regarding the end of the human realm.”

His words were like a punch to the solar plexus, and she caught her breath as a thousand possibilities, all more horrible than the last spilled through her mind at high speed. “Tell me,” she finally managed on a strangled whisper.

“Apparently the succubi are instrumental in these end prophesies. We aren’t sure how yet without finding the other four journals, but so far they seem to center around the four sisters who helped you cage Semiazas.”

Lilith waited for surprise or even fear, but somewhere inside her gut, she’d apparently known the incident with Semiazas would come back to haunt her. The politics of the nonhuman realm were always fraught with pitfalls and were never what they seemed for long. “I’ve sent messengers and guides to bring all four of them home, so they can petition Lucifer to re-imprison Semiazas.”

“I know. And so does everyone else.”

Lilith frowned as anger and a protective spurt of fear sizzled through her. “No one is supposed to know. I can’t be seen as helping them.” She huffed out a breath and raised her gaze to his. “Can
you
help them?”

Uriel’s face remained a mask. “I am forbidden, not officially, but I’ve been warned to not interfere with their paths. Whatever happens with the succubi has to play itself out as it is meant to or we risk changing what is supposed to be.”

Not only were the succubi and incubi like Lilith’s children, they were also an extension of her and helped maintain her energy and her power. Even losing one would physically and powerfully hurt Lilith. Losing four—especially four of the original succubi created—would lessen Lilith’s energy flow and require her to seek out Uriel’s sessions even more often than she did now.

Frustration, sadness, loss, and grief swelled up inside her, threatening to overwhelm her. The nearly weekly sessions were always torture, and especially after the last one with Raphael and Gabriel, she didn’t expect them to get any easier.

Uriel surprised her by pulling her forward into his arms and gently laying her head on his shoulder.

She sank into his offered comfort and let her tears flow.

“It’s all right,
nassah
. I’m here. I’ve sworn to care for you, and I always shall.” He rocked her softly, rubbing her back as he spoke nonsense in low, soothing tones until her tears were gone.

Finally, Lilith sighed against him, feeling empty and broken. The tears hadn’t helped the situation, and she definitely didn’t feel any better. It seemed so unfair that God had created her specifically as temptation for Adam and Eve, and yet it felt like she was continually being punished for fulfilling that very role.

Uriel brushed her hair back away from her face and gently wiped the tears from under her eyes with his thumbs. “You’re low on energy,
nassah
. Let me summon someone for you. What do you wish?”

When she stared into his silver eyes she felt nothing but a heavy ache inside her.

“Raphael?”

Lilith thought about the threesome she’d had with Raphael and Gabriel and imagined Uriel watching the scene again. She cringed. “I’m sorry I hurt you,
ahuvi
.” She laid her palm against his smooth-shaven jaw and brushed her thumb lightly back and forth over the warm skin. “Can you summon Gabriel to meet me at my quarters?”

He pulled back as if she’d slapped him. “Only Gabriel?” he asked slowly. “You don’t wish me there?”

She sniffed back the last of her tears and stood. “I must maintain energy or die, but I don’t have to continue causing us both pain in the process. I’ll work out an arrangement with Gabriel long term.”

A myriad of emotions flowed across Uriel’s features including confusion, hurt, pain, and even panic. He began to speak and she silenced him by laying her fingers over his lips.

“Please,
ahuvi
. I can’t bear this between us anymore.” Lilith savored the feel of his soft lips just under her fingers and then forced herself to drop her hand.

She wanted to tell him she loved him and beg him not to let her make this decision for the both of them. She wanted him to argue and tell her he would never let himself be cut off from her. But instead, she stepped away from him.

“Good-bye, Uriel.” As soon as the words slipped past her lips, she turned and ran.