Author's Note: Sorry this took so long. I know there are some people out there waiting so patiently ("Canadian Fan," I hear you), and I know how frustrating it is to be left halfway through a plotline with all this momentum and then hit a wall. There simply are not enough hours in the day. I decided halfway through to make some major changes to my intended storyline, so it's been a work in progress. I'm still pondering what direction the "novel" will take after this chapter, so I'm open for suggestions, though unless I decide to change it again, I have a good chunk written. As always, thanks for reading.
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*** Three years ***
Sarah yawned, stretching languidly in "her" big leather chair in the corner of Taylor's Georgetown brownstone. Her Kahlúa-colored eyes never left the book in her lap though, as she settled in another position, twisting until her long legs hung over one arm of the chair and her head propped against the other, lolling comfortably to one side as she rested the book on her cleavage. The stupidly cheerful ditty of her ringtone in the soundproofed silence of the empty house made her start.
"Hey, Kev," she answered, carefully dog-earing her place in the book before closing it and laying it on her stomach. "How's Rome? Ana and Nel say they miss you."
"I bet they do. Rome is boring. My parents are making me fill out all their grant paperwork. They keep trying to get information about Tay out of me," he answered. "Are you still reading that book? Put the thing down for an hour for chrissakes!"
"I'm almost done!" she protested, balking at his mocking tone. "You gave me the damned thing!"
"I didn't think you'd read the whole thing in one day. You have all of break; pace yourself a little. What are you going to do with the rest of the week? Taylor's not there is she?"
"Not at the moment. She's in and out. I was planning on sleeping, but now, I don't think that's gonna happen. This is some crazy shit."
"What is?"
She'd lived with a demon with a penchant for melting out of the shadows for long enough that she constrained her surprise to a mild jump, the book falling to the floor as she scowled upside down at Taylor's dark form in the shadows behind her.
"Call me back later," she muttered over the laughter on the other end of the line, flipping the phone closed decisively. Spinning to a sitting position, she bent to retrieve the text only to have it zip across the room to Taylor's outstretched hand.
"What do we have here?" the demon asked, smirking as she left the shadows, looking beguilingly normal in a pair of tight jeans and deep brown corduroy belted jacket. She lifted both arched eyebrows, green eyes flashing with humor as she looked over both covers of the thick book. "Darkness in our Realm: Profiles of the Dark Creatures that walk among us. Fifth edition, no less. Wow, am I in here?"
"Give me that," Sarah scowled, holding out her hand. The book floated across the room to land with a heavy thud in her arms, after which she promptly pushed it behind her against the back of the chair, sliding forward a bit when a corner of the cover stabbed her in the lower back.
"Bits and pieces, but how would I know since you don't think it's important that I really understand you?" Sarah shot at her, eyes blazing indignantly.
Taylor simply regarded her, face impassive for a long moment, then she lowered her gaze and took a deep breath.
"Okay," she said simply, voice deep and throaty; the one she used when she wasn't pretending to be human.
"Okay, what?" Sarah asked, caught off-guard by her sudden shift in manner.
"What do you want to know?" the demon asked, green eyes glazing over until they were solid obsidian. She leaned against the doorjamb behind her, lowering the shopping bags that Sarah hadn't noticed in her hands to the floor, crossing her arms over her ample chest.
"Well, uhm, fine," the dark-skinned girl stuttered. The last thing she had expected was candor. Even though she considered Taylor to be her best friend, the creature was notoriously vague about herself beyond the acknowledgment that she was anything but human.
"Okay," Sarah repeated, nodding to herself, stomach flipping in unexpected excitement. She retrieved the tome, flipping it open to the first page she'd marked with the little sticky note. "First, you've said you're not exactly a succubus, but you sure seem like one to me. What's different about you?"
"Assuming that book is correct in its description anyway, I guess you could say I'm some kind of Dark succubus," she said with a sigh. Craning her neck to look at the drawing on the page in front of the mortal girl, she smiled marginally. "Ash looks like that. Blue wings, skin, hair. I'm obviously not blue."
Sarah was quiet for a moment, picturing Taylor's husband, whom she'd met once. He was indeed the very description of the Incubus in the book, except for the whole vampire part. The Immortal was drop-dead gorgeous, manly in a fantastically sexy way and his eyes were stunning cobalt blue, black hair definitely having a distinct azure sheen. She could easily picture him with the giant purple-blue angel wings described in the book. With a start, she realized she was in the middle of a conversation, blushing as she returned Talera's even gaze.
"No, you're definitely not blue, but you do have wings..."
"Yep, big ones. But they're very different from his. No feathers, no pretty colors, just big and black. And no, you can't see them right now."
"Fine," Sarah grunted, scanning the page in front of her. "As for powers, can you do what they can do? I know you don't have control over everything, but can you do the same things?"
"Like what?"
"You're making this hard for me on purpose, aren't you?"
The other just smiled darkly.
"I know you have the whole touch thing down. I mean, that I know personally," she said, mumbling to a halt, cheeks coloring furiously as she remembered the night Taylor had given her the brief dance lesson. "But the other stuff, you know, living on that kind of energy alone, coming into people's dreams, immortality. Can you make other succubi or incubi like a regular...uh, whatever you are?"
