Chapter Four

MORGAN

N ote to self: skimpy little outfits are great for inside but when in Washington bring a raincoat along in case you need to stalk your victim afterwards. It's fucking wet and cold in this tree. My hair is soaked and clinging to my face. I can feel gloopy chunks of mascara running down my cheeks. I'm sure I look like a wet raccoon. Fucking rain . After this one, I'm headed somewhere sunny.

I followed motherfucker one and motherfucker two from the bar to this shithole apartment complex. My plan was to follow them to the casino, let them think I'd changed my mind, and then rip their fucking souls out of their bodies through their cocks as painfully as possible. My teeth are aching to sink into their cocks and feel their blood coating my insides. The rule is thirteen before the blood moon, but there's nothing against taking one extra. Asshole two would have just been a nice little bonus for the year and for my pussy. Unfortunately, when their truck stopped at this run-down building, Kyle hopped out and Will drove off, leaving me to decide which asshole I wanted to kill first. Lucky Kyle will be my victim thirteen, it seems.

Sometimes being an immortal and beautiful succubus is not a glamorous job. Case in point—my current situation. I'm thoroughly unimpressed with my new friend Kyle's living arrangements. It's a small grouping of apartments, with faded white siding and moss sprouting across the roof line. It looks as though they were built in the early nineties and haven't been updated since. The siding is faded in patches, with shingles that have been ripped away from the roof only to be replaced with fuzzy green moss. The windows look old and not insulated enough. I imagine it gets fucking cold in there during nights like tonight. It doesn't really get freezing here, but it's a wet, dreary type of cold that chills you down to the bone. Well, chills mortals down to their marrow. When you're an immortal succubus, the temperature is pretty irrelevant.

I'm sitting in one of the large fir trees that line the back of the building, allowing me a perfect view into his tiny apartment. He lives on the second of three stories, surrounded by neighbors on all sides. That normally would be a problem for me, with what I intend to do to him tonight, but this looks like the type of place where people don't ask questions about your comings and goings. It'll definitely work for what I have planned. The layout of the place seems to consist of a small, shitty kitchen attached to a barren living room with a small bedroom and bathroom off to the side. A sad little bachelor pad for a sad little man.

I wondered to myself how long it will take before someone notices the smell of Kyle's decomposing corpse in this shit-can apartment complex and calls the cops to investigate. It doesn't matter, really. By the time they come, I'll be long gone.

A twinge of something pulls at my core at the thought of leaving this city. Regret? Guilt? Pain? What the hell? I'm a succubus for fuck's sake. I travel from town to town sucking men's souls through their dicks. I don't stay in one place, not for longer than needed anyway.

" Then take her with us, " the demon's voice curls through my mind like wisps of smoke.

No. She was nothing more than a chance, insignificant encounter.

I refocus my attention back on Kyle. After being dropped off by his friend, he went upstairs, grabbed a cheap beer from his refrigerator, and plopped his ass down on his worn-out couch. I climbed to a branch not two feet from his window and watched as he turned on porn and started stroking himself. I should barge in and take what I need from him, but I can't seem to pull my eyes from the screen he is watching. The video he's jacking off to shows some busty blonde girls, so similar in looks that they could be clones, playing with each other.

The image of the two women touching and pleasing one another has my mind wandering back to her . I imagine myself lying on the bed with her on top of me, rubbing her needy cunt against mine as our tongues fight against one another for dominance. I wonder if she's ever eaten pussy before.

Would she eat mine if I asked her real nicely?

I lose myself thinking about how good those pouty little red lips would feel wrapped around my slit, licking and sucking my clit until I came all over her beautiful face. The image of her perfect little form between my legs makes my pussy drip and throb with a need like I've never felt before. I have to stop myself from falling out of the tree as my hips roll in a desperate urge to relieve some of this tension the mere thought of her has building inside me. Fuck. What is this girl doing to me?

I can't handle any more thoughts of her and her soft, luscious lips that I'm desperate to taste. I need to focus. I need to claim my thirteenth victim or there is no future for me, with or without her.

Suddenly the door to his apartment slams open, pulling me from my thoughts. Kyle continues to jack himself, not even bothering to turn and see who has entered the apartment. But it isn't him I'm watching. No, my eyes are glued on the form in the doorway. Her petite frame and jet-black hair make her barely a wisp of life amongst the shadows. Her eyes flare with anger as she looks at the man on the couch. Fuck, her fire is intoxicating. I'm struck with the urge to stoke that fire and let it consume me completely. I'm like a damn moth drawn to her flame, unable to rip myself away from her pull. But just as quickly as the fire burst within her, it extinguishes. She bows her head and moves to hang up her coat and purse.

Why the hell is my princess here? With him? Looking submissive to this shit stain of a human?

The demon roars to life inside me, demanding I storm inside and steal his soul while she watches before claiming her as mine.

Mine.

Shaking my head, I will the monster to calm down. She's not mine. Not yet, anyway. I need to know why she's here, in his apartment.

Is this the male she's with? The one who called her away from me earlier?

No, It can't be. The thought sends anger shooting through my veins. The thought that he'd cheat on such a perfect creature—letting random women suck his dick in a dirty alley while she waits at home for him—makes me see red. If he wasn't dead meat before, he certainly is now.

And then she'll be all mine to take and have and own .

Would it scare her away if I feasted on him in front of her though? Probably . I don't want to scare her so badly that she runs from me. I want to be able to savor her fear.

My sweet princess moves into the kitchen and grabs a glass of water. Just as she tilts her head back to take a gulp, movement in the corner of my eye catches my attention. Kyle is on the move, stalking across the room towards my girl. A sweet little tabby cat rubs its body against my girl's legs, glaring at the man stalking silently toward them as if trying to warn its owner of the evil approaching.

Good kitty.

My girl doesn't seem to notice the clear warning, and I watch as Kyle grabs her roughly by the back of her neck. She chokes on her water and spits all over the kitchen counter in front of her. The cat is still between her legs. Its paw swipes out to claw at the man assaulting its owner. I watch in horror as Kyle shoves my girl down, hitting her face against the countertop, and then kicks the cat out of the way. Before I can think I'm on my feet, bracing against the tree trunk for balance as I gauge how hard I'll need to jump to break through their window.

Fuck . No, I can't. If I charge in there like some fucking succubus superhero I'll scare her away. Shit .

Kyle is leaning over her now, spitting words against her face that I can't hear. Gone is the smooth-talking pretty boy from the club. Now, his face is contorted into an ugly shade of masculine fury. He's drunk. Drunk and mean and horny. It's not a good combination.

Tears fall from my sweet girl's beautiful eyes and roll down her pale cheeks. Fuck me, the urge to storm in there and lick the tears from her face is overwhelming. She'd cry so pretty for me with my fingers deep inside her tight little cunt. I bet she tastes delicious. She deserves to be worshiped and pleasured, not beaten and abused. Anger like I haven't known in centuries crawls beneath my skin and boils in my veins.

I decide right then and there to steal her from him and make her mine. I will rip his soul from his body as painfully as possible, then fuck her in his blood. The last thing he'll see in his pathetic little life is me making her shatter in pleasure. Something I'm sure he's never done.

First, I need to get rid of this motherfucker and suck his sick, shitty soul out of him. I can see how much pressure he's putting on her from here, her face is completely smashed against the countertop as he struggles with his pants. He's trying to pull them all the way down with one hand, drunkenly fumbling over his own ass.

I can't watch this. I'll fucking rip him limb from limb right now if he hurts her.

Maybe if I had finished him off earlier, he wouldn't be here taking it out on her. Guilt racks through my entire body and I feel as though I'm going to be sick if I have to watch him take what's not willingly given to him just because he can. She might be smaller than him but that doesn't mean he has any right to take from her.

She tries to shove him off by bucking her hips against the counter and pushing at his hand. I still can't hear anything, but it looks like she's pleading with him to stop or at least be gentler. Like all other asshole males, he doesn't respond well to pleading. Spinning her to face him upright, he brings his hand down across her face. She recoils back, holding her hands up to block the next blow. He hits her again and something in me snaps. I may not want to scare her away but there's no way in hell I can sit here and watch my girl be beaten and raped.

I might need a thirteenth victim, but I need her just as badly, if not more. I'm willing to wait to claim Kyle's soul if it means keeping her safe. I'm about to fuck up his night.

Ripping off a branch from above me, I hold onto the tree with one hand and throw the branch with my other as hard as I can. The jagged wood shatters through the window, scattering shimmering pieces of glass across the apartment floor. There's some beauty in the violent scene in front of me as the world seems to slow and shift with each cascading shard. The crash breaks through the silence of the night and stops Kyle in his tracks. As quickly as I can, I shift over to the next branch, hiding myself behind the trunk of the tree and praying no one saw me. I can't afford any trouble, not this close to the blood moon.

With the window blown out, I can hear Kyle's footsteps crunching over the glass and her heavyhearted sobbing in the background. The sound nearly rips my heart from my chest. The only tears she should be spilling are tears of pleasure I pull from her.

"What the fuck was that?" Kyle screams, clearly furious about the giant tree branch that just went flying through his window. "The landlord is going to be hearing from me first thing tomorrow! These windows are so shitty that a tree branch can just knock them out? Is he fucking kidding me? He doesn't know who he's dealing with! I will own him, fucking own him!"

Kyle continues his rant at no one, screaming into the night, but I don't hear him. My focus is on the shadow running across the parking lot ahead of me. She runs silently on swift feet to a beat-up old sedan. She moves efficiently and effortlessly, like she's done this before and knows the routine. Without turning on her lights, she backs out of the spot and drives away, leaving chaos and pain behind her.

"Babe, call the landlord now! He needs to get his ass out here tonight to fix this!" Kyle yells at the empty apartment behind him, oblivious to the fact that she's run off into the safety of the shadows. "Babe?"

He spins, finally noticing the apartment is empty and he's talking to no one.

"What in the actual fuck ? Did that bitch take off? You've got to be fucking kidding me?"

I'm really glad I fucked up this prick's night.

A sudden thump next to me has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Something is in the tree with me, I can feel it. It can't be Kyle, he's too big and definitely not limber enough to make that jump. It's decidedly not something human. My Hellish hackles raise in defense, my human skin falling away slightly to reveal the monster within.

With my heart beating erratically and the air struck in my lungs, I move slowly to peek around the trunk of the tree. What meets my eyes on the other side of the tree trunk surprises me. It takes me a moment to register that the two slanted, glowing eyes appraising me belong to a cat. Her fucking cat . The orange tabby sits on a branch staring right at me as if it can see straight through to my soul. Fucking cats.

"You're coming with me aren't you?"

The cat doesn't answer—I mean it can't, it's a cat—but it tilts its head slightly to the side. The slits of its eyes narrow at me. I've lived long enough to know not to mess with cats. They're animals full of instinct, magic, and fury. There's a reason why witches always choose them as familiars, I suppose.

Usually, cats hate me. They seem to be largely opposed to the Hell demon residing in my soul. This one, however, seems to believe it's coming with me. I have a feeling it has something to do with my princess.

"Alright, come on. Let's get the fuck out of here."

The furry beast walks gracefully across the branch and willingly allows me to pick him up. He's surprisingly light. His warmth is comforting tucked in under my arms.

I may not have what I came for, but at least my girl's safe for the night. That stunning and broken creature is mine . She may not know it yet but I feel it in my soul, this consuming need to claim her—possess her. And I'm sure as shit not letting some asshole with a very average dick get in the way of me claiming what's mine.

Now, I just need to find her.