Counterpart (Succubi & Incubi Assn.) (32 page)

“Penelope mastered the ability to make you see, feel, and hear
whatever she wanted you to. When she first started, it was a celebration. But
as the time moved forward, her control wore out. She eventually started killing
people that she fed off, made them think they were in a fantasy land that they
did not return from. It takes a human many times to die with a succubus or
incubus, but with her, she could kill a victim within a few minutes.”

She was more advanced than I thought and this worried me. How could
I take down a succubus that's four times my age? I had no powers other than
pissing off Ethan, and causing pain through people. My worst fear was starting
to become a reality and I don't even have time to come up with a plan.

“I will send you up there, Maya.” My thoughts vanished. After
scaring me, now she wants to send me up there? “I trust you can do this.” My
worry must have been obvious. “But first, we need to find the location of her
and Tristan. I have tried tracking her down but it seems that she is not
showing up.”

Instantly, I was confused. “How come this hadn't happened before?
You seemed to be able to track her then.”

Rosa
nodded once, confirming my thoughts.
“I am starting to think she wanted us to find her, to find out what she was
doing. Now that she has her prize possession her guards are up.”

Tristan was that prize possession. “Why is she doing this?”

“Because like Cassandra, Penelope did not accept the fact that I was
letting it happen.”

I couldn't even stare
Rosa
in the eyes. I was watching the ground and it was a stupid idea. My
mind ran to places not even I wanted to go. Penelope was hurting him. Because
of me, Tristan was involved in a fucked up world.

A world I had to get him out of.

But where would they be?
“How can we
find her?”

“When you saw her, what happened?” The first thing that came to my
head was:
She knows I spoke to
Bethany
. But when I thought about it, I gathered that it was Tori—or
Penelope—that she was talking about.

I tried to recall the memory. Even though it just happened not so
long ago—it felt like it was distant and out of reach. “She popped up out of
nowhere. There was fire. She told me to listen to his heartbeat.” I remembered
the thumping, like it was still ringing in my ear. “It was slow. She told me to
hurry. I told her I would find her. She said that's what she wanted.”

Rosa
nodded along while I talked, taking
everything in. “If she wanted you to find her, then she knows that you know.”

“Know what?” I asked.

“Where they would be.” I felt hands on my cheeks and I was so close
to
Rosa
's face that I could
just see the outline of her pupils amongst the darkness of them. “You know
Tristan more than anyone else. Where would they be?”

Why was she asking me that? If I knew where they would be then I
wouldn't be here right now.

“Think about it, Maya. I know for a fact that they are not together,
and he would not go with her willingly, so she would go to him. He knows
something is up, and after this I am sure he will be positive that Tori is not
who he thinks she is. Right now, only you can find him.”

I wasn't even listening to half the things she said. I wasn't even
acknowledging that
Rosa
knew
about Tori and Tristan before me. All I could do was try to dig into my brain
on the whereabouts of Tristan and... that bitch.

Then it hit me.

“The gym,” I murmured out-loud. It was the most obvious answer. “He
always went there to think. He might've gone there.” Actually, I was pretty
positive that he would've, after the conversation we had. “Do you think that's
where she has him?”

Rosa
's hands slipped from my face and she
shrugged. “It is a high possibility.”

“Alright then.” I nodded, mostly in attempt to motivate myself and
find the confidence that I can do this. “So that's where I'm going.”

“Wait.”

I was looking around for an exit again. I didn't know why I kept
looking for one when I knew there wasn't any around. I looked back to
Rosa
and waited, this time my patience was
wearing thin.

“She can only access a human’s mind. To stop her you need to
convince Tristan that everything he is seeing is not real. Once he is
convinced, I will send one of my agents. I would let them go with you now but
that would risk another escape on her behalf.”

Finally, one of my questions was answered. But now another one was
itching in my skull. “Where's Ethan?”

“He said he needed to do some things so I am not sure when he will
be back. Maya, before I send you back up there, you need to know something.” I
was hoping it wasn't another thing that was going to make this difficult.
“Don’t believe that the vision is real. Tristan may be the main one
experiencing it but if you believe it, so will he. You have to not believe it
for him to do the same.”

You can't trust that it's real
. That's
what
Bethany
said to me before
she... disappeared. That's what she meant.

“What?”

I froze. I said that last thing out-loud. Or maybe
Rosa
was in my head too?
Hello?
Nothing. Good. “Nothing.”

She watched me for a few seconds and then nodded, taking a few steps
back. “I will try be as fast as I can with sending help. And as much as you
want to, try not to kill her. She may be the answer we need to find Cassandra.”

Just the fact that I couldn't kill her just made me angry. “I hold
no responsibilities for my actions.”

“Maya,” she warned, “it can save a lot of lives if we can find
Cassandra.”

I didn't want to let her get the final call but she was right. If we
can find Cassandra, this whole nightmare can end. I can move on with my life.

But I was starting to question if I wanted Tristan a part of that or
not.

“You have to be quick. We don’t know how much time we have,”
Rosa
said, lacing her thin fingers around
my wrist. I looked into her eyes and not only did I see concern, but I saw
worry. This was the first time
Rosa
ever looked worried, or even something that wasn’t calm.

It made me nervous just by looking at her.

“What did she do?” I asked, referring to Penelope, and how
Rosa
said she tried to interfere with
Conrad and Bethany’s relationship.

Even though it was a change of subject,
Rosa
still caught on. “Before or after
Bethany
died?”

“There’s more than one?”

Rosa
nodded once. “Penelope never gave up.
The first time she sent
Bethany
to another town, telling her that if she was away from Conrad she won’t feel as
much guilt as she would when she was within a mile of him. While
Bethany
went for a day, Penelope attempted
to...” I could see
Rosa
trying
to find the right word for what she wanted to say. “Persuade Conrad to leave
Bethany
. That didn’t work.”

This sent a feel of relief through me. I was glad Conrad didn’t fall
for Penelope. It kind of gave me a form of hope that maybe—just
maybe
—Tristan
will turn around. But that's where I was starting to wishful think. Tristan
actually fell for her from the beginning. He actually let her into his life.

He went there
... and everywhere else as
well.

“What about the second time?” I asked, a warily tone setting in my
words, “after
Bethany
died.”

Rosa
was back to her emotionless face, and
she shrugged. It seemed unnatural. “She did the one thing any possessive,
controlling succubus would do. She killed him.”

So not only did I have to worry that Tristan was going through some
sort of torture, but the fact that Conrad died in Penelope's hands was enough
to almost send me over the edge. She killed him. She got so frustrated that she
just ended up killing him, like it was nothing.

I guess you can feel her frustration though, going through all of
that only to be completely unsatisfied in the end. It makes sense why she's
here. She's trying to make amends for her past mistakes, trying to fix the fuck
up that she caused.

But it also made me wonder... was Penelope working with Cassandra
the whole time, or was this all a solo mission? Also, am I calling Tori
“Penelope”? I'm starting to get confused with all the double identities going
on.

And speaking of double identities, apparently I was the giving the
sense that I was a victim of this...

“Maya, I don't understand,” Melinda said.

Oddly enough,
Rosa
had sent me back to the exact spot where I passed out. I didn't know how long I
had been there, I didn't know how long I'd been away, but I gathered that it
wasn't long when I walked back into the arena, only to find that Daniel and
Melinda were still at the bar. And after I quickly hurried to Daniel's side,
asking for the keys, I've been trying to explain as much as I could to them,
all while pulling them outside. They just weren’t understanding. Then again,
I've only told them that I need to go to the gym because Tristan is dying and I
may be the only one that can bring him back. Nothing else. It all seemed like a
really long story, and I didn't have all the time to fill them in.

“Melinda, I can't do this on my own right now,” I begged helplessly.
Why can't she just understand what I'm saying and just go with it? You know,
ask questions later.

“Maya, you're not making any sense,” Daniel sighed, running a hand
through his hair. “And your scent is starting to overwhelm.”

Lucky for me, the pain hadn't fully come back, and neither did the
heat. It was still there, lingering inside me, but it was bearable—except for
the occasional thumping inside my skull.

And apparently, all the anger inside me had formed a scent coming
from
Bethany
. It was always
when I was angry. It's a pretty inconvenient time.

“Okay, so we'll try this again. You answer our questions, okay?”
Melinda nodded, even though she was the one asking the question. “Okay, so tell
me.” Her hands moved up to my shoulders and I felt them grip, hard. “What the
fuck is going on with you tonight?”

My teeth clenched together and my hands followed suit. I wasn't
entirely sure if it was to avert the pain evolving inside me, or if I was starting
to get angry at the two people in front of me. Either way, they both sent the
same reaction out.

Impatiently, I pushed Melinda's hands off my shoulder, not wanting
to deal with explaining right now. “Don't worry about it.” I walked around her
and held my hand out to Daniel. “I'll go by myself.” I nudged my hand forward
when he wouldn't hand over the keys, and after several glares and a pretty
intense staring contest, he sighed and placed them in my hand.

I hadn't taken a single step away from them before a hand wrapped
around mine, forcing me around to face Melinda. She watched me carefully,
searching my face for an answer. I figured this could be my last attempt at
getting her to help me. “Mel, please,” I whispered.

She was fighting with herself, I could tell. The way her lips pursed
out, and the sudden narrow of her eyes, confirmed that. Eventually, I saw her
shoulders slump and she released a sigh. Holding her hand out, she said, “Give
me the keys. I'll drive you, but... you need to explain anything and everything
along the way.”

Relief flowed through me. I knew I couldn't drive myself, knowing
the condition I was in and the fact that something could happen along the way,
I couldn't even trust myself, so I gave her the keys. “Deal.”

****

“Okay, so Tristan is in trouble, that’s why you’re acting like you
just got accepted into the world of crazy?” Melinda said, keeping her eyes on
the road as we drove towards the gym.

I nodded.

“And Tori is some powerful demon whose real name is actually
Penelope, and she can make you see and feel whatever she wants.”

“Pretty much.” I was drawing in slow breaths, trying to beat the
heat from turning me into a portable sauna.

“How did you get an injury, but not have it afterward?” Daniel
inquired from the backseat, referring to my hand.

“It’s happening to Tristan,” I mumbled, “it’s in our heads. She’s
using him to get to me. I need to find him and I have to make him believe it’s
not real.” A single throb pounded in the base of my skull and I clenched my
eyes shut.

“Just take a deep breath Maya,” Daniel said calmly from behind me. I
couldn't be anymore grateful that he and Melinda came. Every time a throb or
twinge of pain would hit me, he would calmly tell me to take a slow breath, not
that it was really helping or anything but he was trying. They were both
trying. Especially after I explained everything—well, most of it.