Succubus Rising Ch 12

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A tingle across the back of my neck woke me with a shiver. Chaz was asleep next to me, half spilling off the bed. Bane was wrapped around me from behind. I nudged Bane and grabbed Chaz's arm so he wouldn't fall off the bed when he woke up.

"What time is it?" Bane grumbled against my shoulder.

"I don't know, but something's wrong," I wiggled until I could sit up and scoot to the end of the bed. Chaz hadn't even moved, and Bane just pulled the blankets back around himself and went back to sleep.

I pulled one of their shirts from the floor around me like a robe and went out into the main room. As I climbed the stairs, the tingle raced along the back of my neck again and I shuddered. It felt like some sort of bug skittering across my skin and into my hair. At the top of the stairs I stopped and stared at the walls.

"I know y'all are here somewhere," I said quietly, and sure enough a door I couldn't see opened in the wall to my right.

"Madam, ah," the servant seemed to just be waking up though he was fully dressed and pressed. "You need to stay on the second level where there are no doors for the next few hours. The council is searching and checking wards. Bael has been contacted."

"Did the wards go down? Is that what I'm feeling?" I shuddered again as another tingle ran along the top of my spine.

"No ma'am," but he looked annoyed about something. "They can't breach the wards, but you may be feeling them try. Bael will be here to stop their tampering soon."

I nodded as though I knew what that meant and turned back to head downstairs. Bane was standing in the door to the room in his undies, and sighed when I turned to the kitchen instead of going back to bed. He went into the room for a moment and came back to hand me a pair of leggings.

"What's wrong?" He was quiet. Apparently Chaz was still asleep.

"The council is trying the wards," I shuddered again, wrapping my arms around my middle before shaking it off and grabbing a glass for some water. "I can feel it and it woke me up."

"It's probably because you pushed that power through the wards, connected to them somehow."

"The servant said Bael is on his way here to stop their tampering, so I don't know if they're just trying the wards or actively trying to get past them. He said I needed to stay on the middle floor where there are no doors."

Bane cursed quietly then pulled me around so I was leaning back against his chest, keeping my hands and the glass of water free. The next wave of tingles must have traveled through the contact. Because he stiffened until it passed.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we're told to go to chambers soon," he muttered next to my ear. "That feels like they're right outside the building."

"What's going on?" Chaz shuffled into the kitchen, rubbing his face and still naked. I handed him my glass and he finished the water. "It's two in the morning."

"The council is trying the wards here and Jezza can feel it," I shuddered again, as if on cue. "Bael has been called because apparently they're doing more than just trying to get through them."

"Well, there's no point standing around out here waiting for him to arrive," Chaz put the glass on the counter and walked back to the room. "Come back to bed. I can help block out the wards so you don't feel all of that."

I looked at Bane and he shrugged, so I followed Chaz to the bedroom. He was already in bed, on his side with his back to the edge and motioning for us both to lay down. When I climbed in, he pulled me so my back was against him and he buried his head in the hair at the back of my neck. "Concentrate on something else. Look at Bane, think about whatever you want, but try not to pay attention to me," he mumbled against my shoulders as I shuddered at another tingling wave from the wards. "This isn't going to hurt, but it probably won't feel great, either. And don't turn it into sex. We all need to sleep if there's even a possibility of meeting a king."

I just lay there and shut my eyes. I didn't know what to think about, but when his power washed into me, my eyes flew open. I could feel his power coating me, and it was...weird. It started out feeling like the pin pricks when a limb goes to sleep, but then smoothed out and just felt oily. I could feel his lips moving along my shoulders, but he wasn't kissing me. He was mouthing something as his power moved within me. When he was done, the icky feeling subsided and he did kiss the back of my neck, and I relaxed. I hadn't even noticed how much I'd tensed up. I waited a minute, then a few more. I couldn't feel whatever was going on with the wards anymore and I started to drift back to sleep.

===

"He's here," Bane shook me gently awake.

"Who's here?" I asked, still groggy from the interrupted sleep. I could still feel Chaz's power coating me and it felt like I couldn't move comfortably. But I wasn't tingling anymore.

"The spell will wear off in a few hours," Chaz said from the closet.

"Bael got here a few minutes ago and we've all apparently been asked to meet him in the garage at his convenience," Bane said, buttoning up a shirt. I sat up and started removing the shirt I'd kept on, but Bane motioned for me to stop. "Keep that on. We think the others will make an effort in their appearances and test his patience. If you look like he pulled you from bed and you scrambled to meet his demands, it will look better for you. The kings aren't used to having to wait."

I looked at them and focused, then. They were both in jeans, and Bane's shirt was buttoned crooked. Chaz was actually wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt. I hadn't even known he owned t-shirts. They were both barefoot, but I slipped on a pair of flip flops. I didn't know what was out on the floor of that garage.

"It's about fifty degrees outside after the front that hit yesterday," Bane said as we walked up the stairs and a servant met us at the door. "Stay close to Chaz and he can keep you warm."

"Madam," the servant nodded to me as he opened the door. "Bael is near your own vehicles."

Chaz reached out and lifted the keys to my truck from a small end table beside the door and slid them into his pocket. I didn't think we were going anywhere.

The garage was windy and fucking freezing. Fifty degrees my ass. The wind cut through the thin cotton shirt and I might as well have been without the leggings for all the good they did. Chaz slipped his arm around my waist as we walked across to where we had parked. A small group of people had gathered around our vehicles, all dressed immaculately and looking incredibly bored, except for one man.

He was about my height, and was looking at my truck absently. Chaz squeezed my hip and slipped me my keys and whispered, "Go open the tailgate so he has a place to sit."

I felt like a waif walking between what seemed to be a small royal court in my flip flops and man's shirt, but they moved aside for me. The tailgate of my truck opened silently, looking absolutely nothing like a throne until the man that looked a lot like me leaned against it. He did nothing so crass as lifting himself onto the platform, but stood in the center, letting the truck frame him as though it were made of solid gold.

"Thank you, Jezza," his voice was quiet and I backed away from him to feel Chaz at my back, warming me. He took the key back from me and slid it into his pocket again. "I do hope having the others here wasn't an issue for you."

"Not at all," I lied, and Chaz shocked me with a hot flash of his hand. "Ah, nothing I couldn't handle."

"How delightful," he said. "Your Broken One there knows the finer manners. Quite unexpected." I felt Chaz tense behind me at what sounded like a title. "I thought you all had been culled."

"I believe I'm the only one left, sire," Chaz said.

"That is very likely," his eyes slid to Bane beside us. "And this one knows what he is, and is oddly tolerant of him."

"My apologies, but what are you talking about?" I nudged Chaz with my elbow when his arms tightened around me, trying to get me to be quiet.

"I believe my own offspring may speak freely here, Broken One," Bael waved a hand through the air. "The runes carved into his flesh, surely you've seen them by now. So many of those spells, and experiments, and modifications failed spectacularly and were culled. Tell me, boy, what made you?"

"Pain and pleasure," his arms had wrapped around my middle while Bael spoke, as though he were hiding behind me.

"Mmm, yes. I suppose that would be the combination that actually worked." I heard a door open from across the garage and a minute late Hannah walked up with her three. They were more fully dressed, but only in that they all had shoes on and had put on coats. "Ah, Hannah. You are the spitting image of Sitri, child. Tell me, which one of you managed to breach my wards?"

"Jezza did, sire," her answer was clear and short, but she was as nervous as I was because she jumped when we heard the others come into the garage.

"Good to know his ceiling is still below mine," Bael frowned at the others when they stepped in front of him. The women were in dresses, the men in casual suits.

They all looked at us in disgust and one woman, a little taller and curvier than me, stepped directly into Bael's line of sight and held out her hand to him. "Sire," her voice was disappointingly normal. I had half expected her to have a high-pitched girly voice. "I am..."

"I know very well who you are, and who your sire is, girl," Bael interrupted her, glaring at her hand until one of her mates pulled her back away from him. "And I know exactly what you tried to do - twice - under my wards."

Bane took a small step into me and Chaz, pushing us closer to Hannah, separating us from the others. One of Bael's courtiers noticed and I think I saw a small smile, but it was gone and then the other woman tried to catch some benefit from the obviously powerful man in front of us.

"Sire," she dropped her eyes and I think she tried to curtsy, but it looked awkward and fake.

Bael leaned back against the tailgate of my truck and just looked at them. "You two will die tomorrow at the council. I should have known better than to let Orobas and Stolas breed. As for your mates, there is no reason to lose them. I can sever the mate bond of anyone who doesn't want to die with these harlots."

The second girl panicked when one of her men stepped forward, but the first one turned to me and glared as three of her men stepped aside and away from her. "This is her fault! She messed up the wards and ruined everything!"

My power rose as Bael simply leaned back and watched me. The little bitch didn't even know what was going on. Admittedly, neither did I, but I knew better than to have a complete tantrum in front of a king. Little k or not. I felt the full force of my power rise within me. We could kill her and make her enjoy it. Then I felt a burning pain on my shoulder where Chaz had wrapped his hand up and over me, bringing me back down. "Control it, or I will do it for you."

I deflated, leaning against him as my power pulled back inside me. The woman across from me smirked and raised her chin as though she had won something, when Chaz had probably saved her life. Then she opened her mouth, "Need your little pain whore to control you, huh?"

Chaz let me go and Bane made no move to stop me from crossing the space and punching her square in the face. She went down screaming, but no one had moved to stop me, and now no one moved to help her. "He just saved me from ripping you apart, little thief. Or didn't you like the show?"

Bael was clapping and laughing, "Oh, I should get succubi in a garage more often. That was delicious. Can she heal herself?" The men around her shook their heads. "Can you heal her?" He turned to me.

"Do you want me to?" It was out before I could stop myself, but he just smiled.

"I didn't ask you if you would heal her, only if you could," he spoke casually, as if she wasn't still on the ground wailing.

"I could, but I won't," I started moving back to Chaz. It was still fucking cold out here and he was better than a heater.

"Hannah," he turned to her and went back to lean against the truck again. "Have you learned to heal?"

"I have," she swallowed, watching the other woman stand without help. She had blood running down her face and dripping from her chin, so I had probably broken her nose. "But I'm not sure if I could heal anybody who isn't close to me, sire."

"Such honesty," he waved at the men who had stepped forward to have their bonds severed, and they slumped. I felt the smallest wash over my own bonds, but they were otherwise untouched. "Jezza, did Margot leave you the books I told her to?" When I nodded, he continued, "Did you read them? Could you do the modified runes she drew in there?"

"I haven't tried, sire," I sighed as a Chaz healed both the slight burn he'd given me and my now aching hand. "I don't have the paint with me to even practice them."

He waved that away, "You won't need regular paint, and the council would see it. Use semen. It's a succubus rune, so it should fit the succubus. You will anoint the four of you, but use each one's own mates for the fluid. It may only actually work for you and Hannah, though. I wasn't expecting such mediocrity from these two, but it has been a few millennia since either of their sires had been allowed to breed. Maybe it just went stale." He shrugged as though it was no consequence to him, and it probably wasn't.

"When do we do this?" Chaz asked, though there probably wasn't anybody besides Bane or me that knew why.

"Before the sun sets. I will be removing the wards here at midnight tonight," he looked at the other two who were both glaring at me now. Great. "You two can refuse the rune if you wish, it's no skin off my back. If you want the rune, I believe going to Jezza's apartment would be best." He made a motion and one of the men walked over to hand me a leather pouch. When I looked, it was filled with paintbrushes like they'd planned this. Hell, he knew about the modified protection rune, so he probably had planned this.

Hannah made a small motion with her hand and when I noticed she motioned toward my door and I nodded. This shouldn't be awkward at all. Then I remembered the journals were at Chaz's house and I groaned inwardly.

The royal party walked away without a word, taking the men who had broken their bonds with them, and Chaz gave me the key to my truck again. "The three that were your mothers are in the center console. This was the safest place I thought there could be." He kissed my shoulder and let me go. I put the tailgate back up and then climbed into the truck to grab the journal with the runes.

The other two were arguing with their men. Apparently, the men thought they should have the rune, but the women didn't think I would be able to do anything for them. I shrugged and looked at Hannah and smiled, "Y'all can take some time and come over after collecting the, ah, paint. Or whatever. We're over in one whenever you're ready."

She looked at the other two and then at her men and shrugged, "We can do this now. How much, uhm, paint are we going to need do you think?" I could see the wicked glint in her eyes as our mates started looking worriedly between each other.

"I don't know, might take a bit. It's a big ass rune," I looked at the pouch with the brushes and then glanced at Bane. "At least we have brushes." But I could feel Chaz's worry across the bond, though he said nothing and didn't look uncomfortable. I led the way to the door and didn't even have to knock to get back in this time.

The apartment was blessedly warm and I kicked the flip flops off beside the door before heading down to the main living space. "You two need showers," I said to Bane and Chaz. "No telling what's on the floor of that garage." I started rummaging around in the kitchen, but stopped when a servant appeared at the table and cleared his throat. He had laid out five silver chalices, several pieces of cloth that looked like silk, and a jug of distilled water. When I nodded, he slipped away again. "Well, looks like we can thin it out a bit."

"So, do they just go off and jerk one into a cup?" I hadn't known her long enough to tell if this was awkward for her or not, but it looked awkward for the guys.

"Are they sizing each other up?" I leaned toward her to stage whisper, and every single one of them except Chaz looked embarrassed. He just looked uncomfortable as hell.

She giggled, "I think they might have been. Hey, he did say it was a succubus rune and to use a paint a little more natural to us. Why not get the paint in a little more natural way?"

"I call a shower," I said, glancing at Chaz. I had a feeling his discomfort was more about being titled Broken than anything else.

"We can all share one," Bane said, motioning to the room we had been using the most. "They'll need a little more space than we do."

Hannah was already walking toward the farthest bedroom and called out, "She who comes first, loses." Then their door closed and left us there.

Bane pushed me toward Chaz as he passed us going into the bathroom, "How hot do you need it?" He called back.

"Not hot enough to scald her," Chaz said, pulling me toward him, but I twisted loose and went back to the kitchen to grab a couple of the chalices and a pile of silk. "Jezza..."

I leaned against him and kissed him softly. "It's okay. We're all broken somehow. Let's get this paint and make really bad innuendos about it today. We can fall apart later."

"Sometimes I think you're too good for us all," he said, taking the cups and silk hankies from me. "Bane doesn't like the pain."

"I know," I sighed.

"Can you...?" He didn't finish the question but I knew what he wanted, and he sighed when I nodded. "Thank you."

Bane was standing in the shower, soap already sliding down his body, and Chaz joined him to get clean. I stripped out of the leggings and the shirt, and then had a thought that had me in fits of laughter as I stepped into the shower between them. "What about now?"

They looked at me with blank stares until Bane groaned and Chaz smiled, pulling me toward him and under the spray to wet my hair. They both liked washing me, but Chaz would probably mess with my hair all day if I let him. I stood between them, swaying, as they both tried to touch all of me at once. But any time I reached for them, they moved away. It was frustrating and exhilarating all at once.

I'm not sure who turned the shower off, or who started moving us all to the bed, or who grabbed the silver cups and silk. We moved into the bedroom and I got to see them both kneeling on the bed together. Bane was hard and standing against his stomach, but Chaz was soft and dangling. I went to Chaz first, but when his power reached for me I stopped it gently. "Please, let me do this?" For a moment, we stared at each other and I could see the war behind his eyes. Then he nodded.

I leaned in and kissed him, breaking away from his mouth to kiss and nibble down his neck, over his chest, lower and lower until he was all but panting above me. His cock was soft, but not small. I looked up at him before flicking my tongue over the tip of his head and he moaned, his eyes closing as he leaned over me. Even limp like this, he filled my hand when I lifted him and wrapped my lips around his head. Slowly, I swirled my tongue over him, letting myself enjoy the softer textures as I worked to get my lips to meet his body. I could feel the head resting against the back of my tongue when I pulled the thinnest ribbon of power through him. As he grew, I had to slide more of him out of my mouth, stroking what I couldn't suck.