Incubus Nights Ch 03

Hey, everyone, sorry for the short chapter!

Sam wasn't sure where he was at first. All he was aware of was the headache. It was hell, in every sense of the word. He couldn't even open his eyes. A low, pitiful moan escaped his throat, and he was sure he was in hell. That was it.

He laid there, the morning sun pouring in through the window and beating on his face. He wasn't sure of the time. It took him at least twenty minutes of just laying there before he found the courage to reach for his phone. He looked at the front screen. Ten-thirty in the morning. There was also a message on his phone, under the voice notes, marked "LISTEN ASAP. ALINA."

He frowned, then hit the message to play it.

"Hello, Sam, this is Alina. I had a great time last night. I can't wait for our date." Her voice filled his bedroom, and he felt his groin stir just at the sound of it. "You might have some issues remembering some minor details after you ate me out last night. Long story short, I bit you. Now, it's not like you'll catch therianthropy from me. However, I have marked you."

Sam actually groaned. That. Fucking. Bitch. She had marked him as hers.

"I am not entirely sure how it'll react with an incubus, but from what I know, it'll raise your libido. Oh, that'll be fun. I also recommend not letting a strange woman touch you. The results will be...unpleasant." There was a hint of mirth in her voice, and the bubbling urge to hit something filled Sam. "I'll call you about details for our date on Friday later tonight. I suppose that will be enough time for you to recover. Until then, Incubus."

Sam listened to the message again. She was unbelievable. What kind of person did this?

The answer was plain to him. Regular people didn't think like this. She was a tigress. Weres saw possession and ownership. He shuddered a little, and he shook his head.

He got out of bed, eventually, and made his way to the bathroom. Flipping on the lights had him covering his eyes. Great. He looked at his body. Wait, someone had put him in bed, and stripped off his shirt? He was sure it was Hannigan. He saw the bite mark, a set of red marks on his shoulder. Great. His entire body was flush, and he realized that his body seemed warmer than it usually was. He started the shower, and as he stepped in, shook his head. This was going to be a rough two days.

It didn't get worse. Even after a cold shower, he could feel his demon side start to rise. It was more present than it had ever been, a tangible presence in him.

His cock was raging hard as he toweled off. That was not pleasant. Images of last night, of being buried between Alina's thighs, rushed back to him. Her sweet, spicy scent, filling the air, her deep taste. He wondered why she hadn't had things progress further last night. Was she really wanting to wait? He would have done anything to spend the night with her.

Sam was sure she was going to ruin him.

He couldn't help but feel like an idiot. Alina had played him. He realized that now. She had played him like a naive fool. She had gotten him to open up, hell, she had worked him over like she was a pro. It made him feel even worse that he wanted her still.

He walked back to the bedroom, ignoring his erection as best he could. He grabbed his phone and dialed up Darren. He had met Darren when he first came to New York, and he had quickly accepted the man as one of the best supernatural experts in New York.

Considering he was one of the three Princes of New York's vampires, he had to be. For Sam, Darren had been a help and an ally. Darren had earned Sam's trust, not like Alina had in one quick conversation. He shook his head and waited for Darren to answer.

"Hello there, Sam, mate." The rough Liverpudlian voice of Darren came over the line. "What's my little incubus up to?"

Sam let out a frustrated groan. He set the phone to speakerphone as he pulled at drawers. "I had some drinks last night." He found a pair of boxers and pulled them on.

"Well, that's new. You don't let yourself out much, Sammy boy." The vampire chuckled. "Well, why didn't you invite me?"

"I happened to be drinking with someone. A lady." I answered. "Listen, Darren. I need your help."

"Anything." He said. "I'm in a generous mood today, even if it is daylight."

"Oh, you were up anyway." He knew that vampires didn't need to sleep in the day, and that Vincent crash until noon and only then until dusk. "Listen, I need to ask you about the woman I was with last night. Alina Petrov. Does the name ring any bells?"

There was a dead silence on the other end of the line. Sam waited. Vampires didn't breathe as often as normal humans, so he couldn't tell just what was going on.

"Darren?"

"Sam. You need to get a ride over to my place. Now. What happened?"

"She...we had drinks." He tried to sound clinical, to keep calm. "I was into her. Really into her. I performed oral sex on her in the restroom."

"Wait, wait..." He interrupted. "You ate out a woman who is, not only an alpha tigress, but a fucking gangster."

"What?" Sam answered back.

"Your little gal pal is a mobster." Darren groaned. "Fuck, mate. Did...did she mark you?"

"What makes you think she did that?"

"Because I know alphas, man." He replied. "Did she bite you?"

Sam knew he couldn't lie. Not if he wanted help. "Yeah, she did."

"Cain's bloody bits, Sam." He sighed. "Get down to the Playground. Now."

The silence on the end of the line told him this wasn't up for discussion. Darren was so used to power he forgot that sometimes that he dealt with people who weren't his flunkies. Still, Sam needed a favor.

He grabbed a pair of jeans, an NYU tee, and a hoodie that was somehow oversized on his tall frame. He grabbed his phone, keys, and wallet, and grabbed his emergency credit card from the small shoebox he kept under the bed.

The Playground was tame, compared to the Blue Room. It was just a dance club that Darren ran as a front for his many businesses. Though for all that Darren professed in dislike to Alina's criminal activities, the vampire was hardly a saint himself. More drugs passed through the Playground than a Dead concert.

Sam paid the cabbie, then walked to the back of the building. He walked to the back of the building, and checked his glamour in the camera of his phone. Green eyes. Just what he wanted. He swallowed, then knocked on the door, the employee's entrance. The door swung open. Sam knew it was vampire tricks, that Darren was doing it for his benefit.

"You are such a baby." Sam groaned as he walked in and closed the door. The room he had walked into was the employee's lounge, a place done in comfortable, practical couches. It didn't match with the leather decor in the rest of the place, all blacks and metal and industrial looks. It looked like someone's living room.

Darren was sprawled over one of the couches. He was from England at some point, but his heritage wasn't entirely British, Sam could guess that much. His caramel skin looked fantastic in the soft light of the lounge, and his black locks of hair spilled lazily around his head. He lifted a hand, bringing it to his mouth so he could take a drag from the cigarette. "I could be sleeping."

"And I could be doing anything but being here asking for your help." He sighed, and he sat down in an overstuffed arm chair. "Shit."

The vampire let out a hearty chuckle. "You sound like you just got bit by a were."

Sam glared at the vampire. "You're going to need to tell me what's going on."

Darren slid up off the couch. He moved with the grace that the century and older vampires had, like he was entirely weightless. He wasn't particularly tall, with a thin frame that looked sleek more than skinny. He leaned down and put his cigarette out in an ashtray on the coffee table.

"I'm going to need to smell the mark." He said. "Which means you take off the sweater."

Sam didn't question it. He had to lift himself off the seat to pull it off, and he set the sweater aside. He then pulled off the tee shirt next, exposing the bite mark to Darren.

The vampire moved close, and leaned in to sniff at the base of the neck. He lingered on the mark, now pulsing and red. There was no contact, but the proximity, the simple action of his neck being offered up to a vampire made his skin tingle, and it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

"Why bother with the glamour in here?" Darren asked. "It's just me."

Sam shook his head. "If you haven't figure it out about me, then you never will." He whispered. "Now what can you tell me about the mark?"

"What do you know about bites?" Darren pulled away from his neck, but Sam could see the vampire prince's fangs extended. He knew he would have to taste good to a vamp. He wouldn't want to offer himself up, however, no matter how inviting the vampire was.

"Vampire bites are how they feed. Generally, a powerful vampire can mark a victim, make them...attached. The more powerful the vampire, the greater the attachment."

Darren nodded. "Got the right idea. Weres?"

Sam shrugged. "That it's not how they transmit therianthropy. Werewolves use bites to establish in-pack dominance. A more powerful wolf can force weaker ones under their control."

"Good, good." Darren slid back down, then gestured to his clothes. "Put those back on, before one of my vampires decides to come in and jump your bones."

Sam pulled his shirt on first, but didn't bother with the sweater. "How do tigers differ?"

"Tigers can use their bite to grab control of humans as well." He explained. "Basically, she's trying to make you bound to her."

"Fuck." Sam flopped his head back, looking at the ceiling. "Fuckfuckfuckfuck." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "How do I get rid of it? I am

not

becoming some tigress's fuck toy."

"Sam," Darren said. "What were you doing with Alina Petrov?" His voice was soft.

Sam closed his eyes, and sighed. "Tamara was having me, well, have drinks because..." He sighed. "I have student loans, okay?"

"Bloody hell. You agreed to whore for her?" Darren said. "I was okay with you working for her because you were staying out of trouble."

"She paid better for a personal assistant than you were offering." Sam shrugged. "I wasn't planning on it. But, I just...opened up to her. I felt safe, comfortable. I agreed to a date with her. She was paying one hundred grand!"

Darren shook his head. "Jesus, Sam. For an incubus, you're daft about the monsters at times. She was pumping your body full of pheromones. She's an alpha. She's got more powers than she knows what to do with."

Sam slumped further into the chair. "She's old. How old?"

"Don't know. Know she's been a player in New York longer than I have."

"Which makes her active in the nineties." Sam sighed. "How far does her web go?"

"As far as a woman with billions in assets can go." He shook his head. "She picks her lieutenants well. She's got a score of tigers, all female. More than a few straight up killers in there."

Sam sighed. "Great. Listen, Darren, I want her. Like, she's intriguing, and damn, my demon side wants her." He bit his lip, then continued. "But she bit me. Jeez. I've been thinking about her all morning. I need your help. I need shelter. I need you to make sure I don't run to her like a fool."

Darren nodded. "Sure thing, Sam. You're good people, and I like you." He said. "Call your boss. Tell her you quit, you won't do the date." Sam started to protest, but he held up a finger. "You're no whore, my blushing demon virgin. You'll do better working for me. Because, trust me, it's better than ending up in a weretiger's den as their toy."

Alina was not having a good morning. She was supposed to be the calm, collected leader of a business empire and a tiger ambush.

Instead, she had one of her tigers on the floor, with her bare foot planted squarely on the supine were's chest.

"You. Had. One. Job." She growled. "Eve, what was it?"

Eve, the tigress on the floor, was a short woman, with dark hair and amber eyes. She was wearing a pantsuit, though the look wasn't as dignified when she was on the ground.

"Miss Petrov." She whimpered. "I was supposed to keep an eye on Sam Taylor."

"And what happened?"

Eve closed her eyes, looking away. Alina, frustrated, growled and moved her foot off the younger woman's throat. "I lost him." Eve whispered.

"You lost him. You lost an incubus. How hard could it be to lose his scent?"

"He got in a cab, Mistress." That stroked Alina's ego. Mistress was a phrase she liked.

Hannigan, who was sitting on the couch of the penthouse, was polishing a knife. "I believe that a cab can be followed."

"Mistress, please, I tried, but I lose the cab. I couldn't catch up." Eve pleaded, and Alina sighed.

She slid her foot off her follower's chest, and she stamped to the window of the living room of her penthouse. She wasn't dressed for work yet. She was still in her silk pajamas, and had no intention of dressing in anything more professional until she had to tonight. So she was a casual gal, sue her.

"I apologize for my outburst, Eve." Alina said, forcing herself to take a breath. "You are dismissed."

Eve slowly pulled herself off the floor, and she dipped her head in deference to her alpha. She headed for the elevator, and it wasn't until she was gone that Hannigan spoke.

"Madam, why is it so important that you keep an eye on Taylor? He probably went to visit with a friend, or to get the bite tended."

Had it been anyone else, Alina might have snapped at him. Hannigan wasn't one of her tigers. He had been with her for too long to be under the same restrictions.

"I marked him," She shook her head. "He is

mine

. The date is just the first step." She started to pace around the living room of the penthouse. "I wanted to make sure he was safe, that he had no adverse side effects from the bite. Incubus biology is not exactly a strong subject of knowledge."

"Eve should be sent back to Taylor's apartment." Hannigan said. "Abduct him if he matters that much to you, if you desire him so."

The thought appealed to her on a primal level. She felt her beast purr, and an image flashed through her head, of Jason on a rack, all his flesh on display for her.

"He must come of his own consent." She said. "If I mate him against his will, he will hold it against me, he will rebel. If I want a proper concubine, he must embrace that demon, and me."

Her eyes glanced to her phone. She sighed, and she scooped it off the desk. "I'll leave a message. Find out how he's doing. Give him a tip on how to calm the burning of the bite."

"As you desire," Hannigan said in the tone that really meant "your funeral."

She scooped up her phone and started to dial Sam's cell. She needed to know he was fine.

Alina waited for several rings before someone answered. It wasn't Sam who answered.

"Why, hello, hello, Sam's phone. Alina, isn't it?" A British voice answered.

"Where is he?" She snarled.

"He's safe." He said. "Sam Taylor is under my protection, Alina."

"And just who are you?" She snarled.

"Prince Darren. Now, Sam's sleeping off that bite you gave him, but let me be clear. You're not coming for him. You're not going to claim him or whatever you're thinking of."

"I'll rip out your throat, vampire." She growled. "You can't keep me from him."

"Watch me try, kitty cat." He hung up on her.

Alina knew what came next.

It was time to go to war.

Thanks for waiting, everyone, chapter four should come a lot faster!