1. Yarilo

CHAPTER ONE

YARILO

Something was off in Purple Haze that night. Normally, my club was full of happy people indulging in whatever form of debauchery they preferred.

The energy zipped through my consciousness, feeding me through the ambient hum of indulged lust and vice.

Tonight, something was different. Off.

The humans hadn't noticed, but when I couldn't focus on the gorgeous blond in front of me in her sparkly red minidress, the wrongness pulsed behind my eyes.

A giant, hungry ache dragged at the center of the room, pulling my gaze down the bar to a young man who was leaning with his forearms against the bar's edge, staring down at his twisting fingers like they held far more appeal than anything in Purple Haze.

Now, that was almost insulting.

"Excuse me, darling," I said to the woman, grazing my hand across her bare knee before abandoning her to, ugh, do my job.

We had bartenders enough that I didn't have to pour drinks. But when someone was there, bringing down the vibe, well, this was my club. My home.

I just couldn't let it stand.

"Hey there, sweetheart. You doing all right tonight?"

When I came up in front of the guy, he stared at me, his eyelids fluttering in his nervousness. As he nodded, he chewed on his lips. "Yup. I'm—I'm good."

Except he wasn't. This was an incubus, but... he was off. Hungry. Starving, actually. And the energy of an unregulated demon threw off everyone around them until they figured themselves out.

So this guy, sitting at my bar and minding his own business, had become my problem. And really, he wasn't the only wayward demon to ever be drawn in by the rampant sin at Purple Haze.

Thing was, he hardly looked like a demon at all. His bright blue eyes practically glowed with innocence, his skin unblemished, his hair perfectly dark and silky, bangs hanging in front of his glasses like he could hide from the world.

Now that wouldn't do.

"What can I get you to drink, love?"

His mouth fell slightly open, lips hanging there so alluringly for a moment before he remembered to answer. "Ah, a rum and coke? Please."

I flashed him a smile. "Like it sweet, do you?"

He only hummed and shrugged, and I thought if he could turtle down inside his button-up and sweater combo, he'd have disappeared. Unfortunately, he was bound by the constraints of reality like any lower-level demon. Wasn't like I could zip around at will, appearing on the other side of the world with little more than a thought. That was for creatures like Breithiúnas or Mammon.

Me? I had to plant myself and grow in place, but being the industrious little seductress that I was, I'd built a life that had everything I needed, right there at hand. Purple Haze was everything to me—home and sustenance, pride and joy—and I always got a little kick out of being the biggest and baddest of the little guys.

I sliced a lime with a little slit down the middle and ran it around the edge of his glass before sliding it across the bar to the young man.

"Thanks," he whispered, cupping the misty glass in both hands before him.

He was staring down again, and I could have left him there to his discomfort, but the aching void of him called to me, resonating in my chest, and it was—oh, it was impossible.

So I leaned across the bar and ducked my head to try and catch the guy's eye. "I'm Yarilo." Turned out, he had nice eyes—a kind of deep blue that flashed to bright when he blinked at me. "What's your name?"

"R-Rauri?"

Such a simple thing, his own name, and he sounded so unsure. I couldn't tell in the flashing purple and pink lights, but his skin had a strange sheen, like he was sweating already, though nothing else about him said he'd been out on the dance floor already.

"And what are you doing here, little demon?"

The man started with a flinch, his shoulders skyrocketing up around his ears. "I—How do you know I'm a"—he leaned across the bar, holding my gaze as his pupils dilating in his panic—"a demon ."

This last, he finished with a whisper. And too right—even in Passage, the existence of our kind wasn't common knowledge.

Still, this was my club, and when I grinned at him, I let my eyes flash bright and purple. "Game recognizes game, pet."

His breath caught, and he straightened on his stool, leaning back from me. I thought, if his glass weren't still on the bar and his hands clenched around it, they'd obviously be shaking.

"It's all right," I promised. "I won't out you. And I certainly won't hurt you. We're mostly harmless, incubi. There's no reason to be so nervous."

Even my best smile had no effect.

"Harmless, right." Rauri scoffed, ducking down again. He finally brought his glass to his lips, and yup, there it was. His hands were shaking, perfect cubes of ice rattling against the glass.

But when he set it down again, his cheeks were flushed, and it was more than just fear that had him on edge.

"Ah," I breathed in deep, drinking down his alluring scent of amber and sweat and something far sweeter. Stretching across the bar, I reached out and hooked a finger beneath his chin. His eyes gleamed bright behind his black-rimmed glasses, and I bit my lip against a smile. "You're hungry."

The sound he made was high and tight, trapped in his throat as his limbs bunched in, almost like he could make himself smaller and smaller until he disappeared entirely.

"It's okay," I promised. "You came to the right place. Purple Haze has all sorts, and plenty of people more than happy to give and take exactly the kind of sustenance we need."

Rauri looked around, a frown on his face. It was a nice face, really—high cheekbones, full lips, a delicately straight nose that I wanted to feel flattened against my skin as he feasted on me.

He was pretty. Gorgeous, in fact. It'd been far too long since I'd taken another incubus to bed, and my mouth watered at just the thought of stripping him out of every conservative layer he'd wrapped himself up in.

Only, he was obviously on edge, and I wasn't that kind of asshole.

Pulling himself out of his wanting, he shook his head sharply. "No. No, I can't do this. I—I fucking can't."

He was out of his seat a second later, abandoning his mostly full drink and taking off toward the back hallway, full of private rooms and secret liaisons and, yes, another fire escape.

And I, despite not being that kind of asshole, darted out from behind the bar to follow him.

He hadn't made it far—only past the privacy curtain into the purple-lit hallway. I could feel the energy behind the doors, pulsing as people sought pleasure. It was just about the worst place for a starving incubus to find themselves.

Rauri was there, clutching his chest, fingers twisted up desperately in the soft fabric. The purple glow shone off his cheeks—off tear tracks on his skin.

"Shit," I whispered. I approached him slowly, not wanting to spook him further. He might be one of us, but clearly, there was more here than I understood.

"Hey," I said gently when I was close enough, "you're okay. Everything's going to be fine."

Rauri shook his head, but when I reached out and set my palm against his overheated cheek, he pressed into my touch.

"I almost killed Jess," he hissed desperately. "I almost killed Jess."

As if I hadn't understood the first time. I swiped my thumbs through the tears on his smooth skin.

"‘Almost' seems like a crucial word there, don't you think?"

Rauri whimpered, because that wasn't good enough. Maybe I could understand that. I'd never really wanted to hurt anybody. It didn't mean I hadn't gotten overzealous when my powers first awakened, or that I'd never caused trouble that I hadn't meant to when I was upset. There was a strange, twisting kind of guilt that spread when sex went wrong. But oh, when it was good, it was so good .

Obviously, that wasn't the experience Rauri had so far.

"You're new to this, aren't you?" I asked.

Rauri turned into my palm, and I could just sweep my thumb out and drag the pad of his across his plush lips.

"I don't know what I am anymore," he rasped.

"You're an incubus. If you think about it like one of those alignment charts, we usually play somewhere in the chaotic neutral sphere. Not all demons are bad, and not all demons hurt people. We just... get our sustenance from sexual energy, not from protein bars or caffeine."

Rauri's brow furrowed—he didn't believe me, not yet. But that was okay. I happened to know what the fuck I was talking about most of the time.

"What if I help you?" I offered. "You won't be as likely to hurt people once you're not starving, and I can show you how to feed the right way, where everyone has a good time and leaves satisfied, hm?" I could see the hope begin to sparkle, sky-blue and bright, in his pretty eyes. "Everybody needs practice before they get good."

Rauri swallowed hard, and behind him, his hands pressed into the wall like he'd push off it. Only, all he really managed was to get closer to me, and I hardly minded that at all.

He had the sweetest little clip in his dark hair, a streak of purple at the front, and he smelled like sex and candy. His whole body was so warm . Demon warm. It was a kind of heat a human could never hold inside.

No, it wouldn't be a hardship to help this little demon. Not at all.

"I can really get good?" he whispered. "Not hurt anybody."

"It's possible. I swear. I can show you, if... Do you want to come upstairs with me?"

Upstairs, where I lived, where it was quieter and the scents of lust and alcohol weren't so thick as they were here.

Rauri bit his lip, and I wanted nothing more than to pry it from beneath the sharp edge of his teeth and suck it red and swollen.

Yeah, I'd have fun with this one—if he let me.

"Okay," he croaked. "Okay, yeah. Let's go upstairs."