Counterpart (Succubi & Incubi Assn.) (36 page)

“Just add a few sharp kitchen utensils and I'm sure you wouldn't be
far,” I muttered.

I could feel his body behind me before the warmth of his breath
washed over my ear in a laugh. “Only you would get that creative.”

I was distracted by this point and I felt myself swallow when his
hand left mine, the tips of his fingers moving over the inside of my wrist. I
asked, “Tristan, why am I really here?”

It was wrong of me to do so, but I wanted him to keep his fingers on
my skin. The reaction my skin was giving was like a rush through me.

No wonder Tori hated me. She was going to hate me so much more after
tonight—if she found out—I could already feel it.

My control wasn't that great, especially when it came to the guy
behind me.

“I don't know,” I heard him murmur. “I wanted to see you.” His other
hand was following the lead of the first one as it trailed over my other wrist.

Ignoring the rapid acceleration of my heart, I turned to face him,
stepping back. “Tristan.” The words came out as a murmur. I wasn't sure what I
was going to say. My words caught in my throat when my eyes met with his, and I
was instantly sucked in. The captivating color of blue always pulled me in,
emptying my mind from thinking or even processing.

Air left my lungs but I wasn't sure if they made it all the way out
of my mouth. Tristan stepped towards me again and this time, I couldn't find
myself to move—either that or the cage that was against my back was stopping
me.

“Everything I try, everything I do, it never stops you from entering
my mind, Maya.” Fingers touched my cheek, moving down until they rested along
my jaw. “You're everywhere I go.”

I didn't know who made the first move, but whoever did was a legend
to my demon. Tristan's lips pressed against mine softly at first, the texture
of his skin sending me into oblivion. I was still at first, not really
understanding what was going on, but after a couple of seconds, I was kissing
him back.

I pushed back into him, taking his lip between my own while his arms
slid around my waist. My body was soon pressing against the hardness of his, my
arms making their way around his shoulders. He tasted so good to me. The way
his lips moved in complete sync with mine was only pursuing me to do more. I
released a soft moan when his tongue touched my lip, begging to enter, and I
let it. It was stupid of me because as soon as the taste of him fully
registered, I was completely hooked.

My legs were wrapped around his waist, my back finding its place
against the cage. Threading my fingers through his hair, I tugged on it,
causing a growl to come from deep within his chest.

I could feel my subconscious start to make its way through my head.
This was wrong. I shouldn't be doing this.

Hands cupped my ass and my breath hitched when his hips moved into
mine. It only sent my imagination to places that I hated visiting—it didn’t
help my control.

Everything that was happening was only telling me that I had to stop
it.

“Tristan,” I murmured again, reluctantly removing my lips from his.
“I can't.”

I couldn't do this. I just couldn't.

“Maya.” The memory—or dream?—disappeared when I heard the soft
voice.

“You're dreaming, wake up.” I shifted my legs, only to be confused
by the silk against the back of my legs. There was also something soft resting
against the back of my head.

“Maya.” There was the voice again, only this time I recognized the
huskiness of it. My eyes fluttered open and they met with the exact blue ones
that were in my dream.

“Tristan?” I asked, registering that his face was upside down. “What
are you doing?”

“Not much, waiting for you to wake up.” He smiled. “It took you a
while.”

“No.” Shaking my head, I moved my head, now noticing that we were in
my room and the soft thing that was behind my head was a pillow, which was
lying in Tristan's lap. “I mean, what are you doing here?” I didn't even
remember falling asleep on my bed.

When I turned to look at him, his face was strained. I could tell by
the narrowness of his eyes, the stiffness of his jaw and the way his brows were
pushed down like he was finding it hard to say something.

“Tristan.” Instinctively, my hand came up and my thumb rubbed
circles between his brows. “What's wrong?”

A long inhalation and ragged exhale was all I heard before his eyes
averted over my shoulder. “You passed out last night.”

I passed out?

Confused, I asked, “What did we do?”

“It's not what we did—” he stopped abruptly. “I don't know what you
want me to say, Maya.”

My mind was stuck on his words and emotions. Everything he was
saying wasn't processing through me. Not even I knew what I wanted him to say.
Did we sleep with each other?
Oh God
. I looked down at myself. I had
clothes on, but I didn’t remember putting them on.

“Maybe I could help with that.”

The voice got an instant reaction from me and I turned to face
Ethan. He was standing at the end of my bed, the usual black smoke lingering
around his frame before disappearing fully.

“Ethan?” I hesitantly crawled off the bed. “What's going on?”

“There's some things we need to talk about,” he said.

Yeah, apparently.
“I'm so confused by
what's going—” my words instantly stopped when something occurred to me. Ethan
just transported into my room, the same room that Tristan just happened to be
in.

In realization, my head snapped straight to Tristan, expecting a
panicked expression. I was only even more confused when Tristan wasn't even
looking at Ethan. He was just staring at me, like he was waiting for me to
panic.

Then I understood.

“You know,” I said. Tristan's face didn't change the slightest and I
couldn't even explain the confusion inside me anymore. “What—how do you know?”
I asked, my voice rising slightly.

“
Rosa
told him.” It
was Ethan who answered and my eyes moved to him. “He needed to know.”

“What?” I was surprised about this. “What about the rules?”

“After last night, the rules didn't really matter,” he replied.

After last night? “What the hell happened last night?” I asked.

“You passed out,” he simply said.

Really? As if I haven't heard that one already tonight
. The same annoyance that I had with the incubus—when we first met
him—was returning, and the urge to punch him for his simplicity was there.

“I'm going to need a bit more than that.” It was safe to say that my
impatience was wearing thin. “The last thing I remember is…” I thought about it
for a few seconds, and I turned to Tristan. “You leaving me at the cemetery.” I
was starting to wonder if I had been in a coma or something and I turned back
to Ethan. “What's going on?” I asked, then rethought. “Actually, you know what?
I want to see
Rosa
.” At least
with her she would give me an answer without the confusion.

“You can't,” Ethan said. “She's busy. A whole load of succubi and
incubi turned up on her radar and now she's dealing with them.”

“Is that normal?” I asked.

“Sometimes, yeah.” He shrugged. “After the past couple of weeks
though,
Rosa
has been more
focused on you that she pushed back all the other things.”

Focused on me? Oh! “Tori. Have we found her?”

Ethan's eyes weren't looking at me. Instead I noticed that they
flickered over my shoulder and towards Tristan. “Yeah, we got her,” he murmured
before flicking his eyes to me. “Actually, I need to speak with you.” He didn't
give me any time to answer before he walked over to my door, opening it and
waiting. “Now would be great.”

Looks like it wasn’t just my impatience that was wearing thin.

I looked towards Tristan, still trying to get over the fact that he
knew. He held a small smile on his face, nodding. “I'll be here, Maya.”

I wasn't exactly worried if he'd be there or not—okay no, I was in,
a way—I was just more wondering if he had hit his head or something, and
they've put him on a good fucking drug that made him relaxed and completely
unaware of what's going on.

Slowly, I followed Ethan out of the room and he closed the door
behind me, instantly causing me to glare at him. “What the hell is going on,
Ethan?”

“Okay.” His palms came up. “But if I tell you, you need to be able
to trust me, okay?”

“Fine,” I said quickly, just wanting to know what was going on.

Ethan took a deep breath, walking around me and towards the closest
couch, leaning against it. It was now that I noticed that Melinda and Daniel
weren't here. The whole dorm was dark, except for the moons glow that was
coming through the windows. “I can't tell you what, but something happened last
night.”

“What?” I asked.

“I just said I couldn't tell you what,” he sighed.

“That's your fault for saying that sentence then. Why can't you tell
me?”

“Maya, just listen—”

“No.” I knew the impatience was going to overcome me, and I was
taking slow steps towards him. “You listen to me. I don't know what the fuck is
going on, but apparently I passed out, and now Tristan knows about us and seems
cool
with it. So you tell me what the fuck happened before I do
something I won't regret.”

“You need to calm down,” he hissed.

“Why should I calm down?” I yelled. “Give me one good reason why—”

“Because if you don't, we'll have a repeat of last night.” Ethan's
voice was hard, shutting me up. “You want to know what happened, Maya? You lost
control. That's what happened.” He was stalking towards me now. “
Bethany
took over your body last night and
almost caused you to murder Penelope, all while potentially injuring Tristan
while you were at it. You experienced so much last night, Maya, your body
practically shut down.” My back was against the wall and Ethan was so pissed
that it scared me. He must have noticed this because he took a deep breath and
turned his back to me. “
Bethany
was too powerful for you.”

Bethany
took over my body last night? My
body shut down? I almost killed Penelope? “Wait, who's Penelope?” I asked,
confused by this new name.

Ethan was silent for a few seconds. “Tori was Penelope in disguise.”

“How come I don't remember any of this?” I should be able to know if
I at least attempted to kill someone.

Ethan turned. “You don't remember because
Rosa
erased it from your memory.”

“I'm sorry, what?” Did he just tell me that my memory has been
erased? Annoyed Maya was back. “Why the hell would she do that?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “She did it for you. If you
remembered what happened last night, it could hurt you both physically and
mentally. It's too early for you to be able to access
Bethany
so greatly, and if the memory is erased you won't be haunted by
what happened and everything you experienced.”

I wasn't sure if what he was telling was supposed to convince me to
drop it or not. Either way, it just made me more concerned. “What actually
happened?”

“This is where I ask you to trust me, Maya—”

“Low chance of that happening,” I interrupted.

Ethan came to stand in front of me and his hands gripped my
shoulders. “Just trust me.”

“What if it happens again? What am I supposed to do then?” I asked.
“How am I supposed to know what's going on if I can't even remember it?”

Ethan's grip on my shoulders softened and eventually they moved
away. “Forgetting last night would be for the best and right now I think you
should be more focused on that guy that's in your room. He hasn't left your
side since you passed out, and I hate to say this, but the only way you can get
better control is if you give
Bethany
something she's always wanted.”

My jaw tensed.

Tristan
. It didn't take a rocket
scientist to know that
Bethany
wanted Tristan, she always has.

With the urge to rip at my hair, I sighed. “He knows what happened,
doesn't he?” I asked defeated. “You're all not going to tell me, aren't you?”

“He knows, yes.” He nodded. “And yes, we aren't going to tell you
and I think you shouldn't worry about it right now. In the future, you'll understand
why I need you to trust me on this.”

Ethan's green eyes stared straight into mine, and I could tell just
by his expression that he wanted me to do this. It was going to bother me, of
course. It was definitely going to piss me off at some stage, but for now, I
was going to let him do this. “Fine, but don't make me regret this.” I actually
had an ulterior motive for ending this debate. Ethan was a tough nut to crack.
He always has been. But maybe the guy in my bedroom will be a better help.