Chapter Five
My face is sweaty and I’m trying hard to catch my breath. Haines is holding my hair out of the way as I finish throwing up in the large, black vase that holds umbrellas of various lengths. It felt like Cloud Nine had come to pay me a visit while Samael was here, but now I feel nauseous and I have a headache. Samael is no angel. At least not any more.
“Perrian, are you all right?” Haines lets go of my hair and starts to rub my back.
He seems sincere, and my heart is touched but my sense of logic comes first. “You son of a bitch.” I swat his hand away from me. “How could you? How could you and my mother not tell me about…about that thing?”
He takes a handkerchief from his coat pocket and wipes it across my mouth, pausing to look at my lips. “It wasn’t up to me. Your mother wanted to wait and since you are her daughter I figured she knew best.”
“That’s bullshit.” I take one more deep breath and stand up straight. “Don’t you dare tell her I said that.”
“Don’t be angry with me. Your mother is the one treating you like a five-year-old.” He gives me a sideways glance. “Don’t you dare tell her I said that.”
I shake my head and walk toward the kitchen. Haines follows behind me, grabs two glasses from the cabinet and fills them with water as I sit down at the breakfast bar. I lay my face against the cool marble and take a deep breath.
The clink of a glass sounds in front of me as Haines gently places one on the counter. I take a long pull of the cold water. “I’m not five years old. And now you’re my husband which I’m pretty sure gives you more say in my life.” I laugh to myself at the thought. “So, spill it.”
Haines takes a sip and gently sets the glass on the counter. “I can’t tell you everything because I don’t know everything.”
“So! Tell me—”
“But I’ll tell you what I do know.” He holds his hands up in surrender. “Have a seat. I’ll make you a sandwich.”
“I just ate.”
“Yes. And your breakfast is now coating my umbrellas.”
I wince. “Dude, I’m sorry. I’ll clean them up, and they’ll be good as new.”
“Don’t bother.” He shudders and then frowns. “I’ll throw them away.”
“Again, I’m sorry. So, spill it.”
He takes the bread from the bread box on the counter behind him and then heads to the refrigerator—love that thing—to grab the lunch meat. “If you hadn’t yet noticed, you are very powerful.”
“Oh, pu-lease! I can’t even control myself.”
“Mmm-hmm,” he says, putting mustard on the bread slices. “You do know your powers shouldn’t even be active yet. You haven’t had sex. You haven’t been fed properly.”
I shrug. “But I’m a succubus. I’m in my twenties so puberty is long past where I’m concerned.”
“Mmm-hum. Puberty doesn’t start the change in demons like us. Sex does. Feeding from prey at the height of orgasm does.” He laughs. “Your mother told you that puberty switched it on. That’s cute.”
I don’t think it’s funny. “Knock it off. It’s not funny so stop laughing. And yes, that’s what she told me. And yes, I believed her. I didn’t think she’d lie to me.”
“Eat.” He finishes the sandwiches and slides a plate toward me. “So, now you know. I can’t imagine what you’ll be like once we’ve consummated our marriage. Your powers are already like fire and as time goes on you will only get stronger.”
“Chips please.” I take a bite of the sandwich and push my plate back to him. “There must be a good reason my mother lied to me, and I want you to tell me. You’re pussyfooting around the question, and I’m only going to ask you once more. What. Isn’t. My mother. Telling me. Damn-it!”
“I think you should ask your mother.”
“I’m asking you.”
“Perrian, it’s not my place.”
“Of course it is. You’re my husband now and you’re the one that’s supposed to teach me how to control myself. That should start with a history lesson.”
He reaches down, opens a drawer next to his leg, and pulls out a small bag of veggie chips. “Once upon a time—”
“Seriously?”
“Perrian, please.” He looks annoyed and tired. I seem to have that effect on tons of people. “A long time ago there were three women and one Goddess—Mahaleth, Naamah, Agrat Bat Mahlah, and our Goddess, Lilith.”
“It already sounds like you’re making this shit up.” I empty the small bag of green, red, and yellow chips onto my plate.
“If you interrupt me again I will stop and will not continue until I have your mother’s permission.”
I hold my hands up and keep my trap shut.
He takes a sip of water and clears his throat. “The first woman Samael slept with was Lilith and after their first, and only, sexual encounter she refused to sleep with him again. No one but Lilith knows why, but we all have our theories. But now that he had his initial ‘taste’, so to speak, he wanted more. So, he went to a temple where people practiced sacred prostitution.”
“Sacred prostitution?” I remember his warning. “Sorry to interrupt, but I have no idea what that means.”
“People used to worship with their bodies and there were places you could go to practice religion. The first three women I mentioned were ladies of sacred prostitution. Samael went to one of these temples and bedded them. And to their dismay, they turned into succubae. These three women were the first of the sex demon blood line. This could be why Lilith refused to have sex with him again.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, maybe he gave her a little more than she bargained for by turning her into one.” Wait a minute. “That’s why she’s referred to as the Mother of incubi and succubae; she was the first! But she didn’t make us on purpose?”
“Light bulb,” he says sarcastically.
I want to give him the finger but I shut-up and shove some chips into my mouth.
He chews and swallows a bite of his sandwich. “The result of an angel giving in to his or her lust is to cause that object to become what it abhors the most.”
My mouth forms an ‘O’ in realization. “Sin. What do you get when an angel gives into lust—a sex demon.”
“Fast learner.” He shrugs. “Moving on. From what I’ve been told Agrat Bat Mahlah married a man she met after she left the temple. She committed suicide after giving birth to her first child. That child was an incubus. Luckily the child’s father, who was a human, didn’t see things her way and protected the baby. He didn’t see his son as a demon that needed to be killed, only a child that needed to be loved. My mother is a descendent of Agrat Bat Mahlah, and my father is a descendent of Mahalath. And when you count down many generations, your mother is a direct descendent of Lilith and Naamah.” He takes a bite of his sandwich like he just told me what day of the week it is.
“You’re too fucking calm about this, Haines. Why are you so okay with this?”
“Why shouldn’t I be? I’ve had more time to digest everything. You’re hearing it for the first time.”
I shake my head and push my plate away. The half-eaten sandwich and veggie chips make me want to throw up. “I don’t know. That you’d be just as freaked out about this as I am? That someone, like my fucking mother, would have told me this shit a long time ago? So she could prepare me for that sicko saying hello? Holy shit, I’m a member of the Line!” I get up and start pacing around the kitchen.
Lilith is the mother of all supernatural beings and her direct descendants are the ones who rule over us all. Each species, whether they be succubae, incubi, werewolf or any other supe you can think of, have a few that can trace their lineage back to her. They are more powerful and have the ability to keep us in line. They are called the Line of Lilith. “Someone should have shared this shit.”
“You should finish your food.”
“You should leave me the fuck alone!” I start walking toward the door. “I need to get out of here.”
Haines follows behind me. “Don’t leave. You need to—”
“Wait a minute,” I say, turning to face him. “What’s your shtick? What are you getting out of this deal? You don’t need me. And you’re not doing this just to help me out. So,” I say, jabbing my finger at his chest. “What do you get?”
He clears his throat and turns around.
“Bullshit! Don’t you dare turn away from me.” I grab his arm and spin him around to meet my gaze. “What’s your perk? You get to screw someone just as powerful as you? Do you have some kind of wonder-cock that no other woman can take because you’re a progeny of two of the first of our kind, and only my super-snatch can get you off?”
He scoffs and looks offended. “Deplorable. Does your mother know you talk like this?”
“I guess there’s a lot of shit my mother and I don’t know about each other.” I step closer to him. “Nice switch, lover-boy. You almost made me forget what I asked you by trying to get me to focus on my mother. So, give it up. What do you get?”
“It’s none of your business, little girl.” He tries to turn around again but I step in front of him.
“What do you get, Haines? No more lies.”
His ears flame red as he backs me against the wall. “Fine.” He looks pissed. “You want to know what I get, Perrian?”
“Yes, just tell me the truth.”
“I get to do something that makes my life and purpose complete.”
“What? You get to fuck me and tame my needs?” I quote the vow that we took to one another.
“Yes, Perrian. Yes, I get to fuck you. And then I get to die.”
Holy shit. I do have a super-snatch!