33. Evalee

EVALEE

M y eyes snap open, and I bolt upright in bed, panting, sweaty, my mind completely wired. The lamp is on, filtering light through the darkness blanketing the room.

As my sleepy mind begins to process where I am, that I’m in my bedroom, Hunter sits up in my bed, too, the panic and confusion in his eyes mirroring mine.

Wait a second? Hunter is in my bed? Why?

“What are you doing in here?” I ask, trying to ignore the frenzy taking over my body.

Even awake, I want him. Too much.

Crappity, what if the feeling doesn’t fade?

The panic in his eyes subsides as a faint smirk touches his lips. “You told me I could sleep in your bed, remember?”

I rack my mind for what in the magical kingdoms he could possibly be talking about, and the moment comes rushing back to me. Then I frown and shake my head. “Yeah, but that was before everything happened.”

“Yeah, but you never said otherwise, so technically, your offer’s in place, right?”

“Are you only sleeping in here to keep an eye on me?” I question.

“Partly.” He wets his lips with his tongue while staring at my mouth. “It does have its perks, though.”

I swallow hard, wondering what he means by that. “Did you …?” I pick at my fingernails, my cheeks flushing. Okay, so apparently, my dominant powers are strictly a dreamland thing. “Did you, by chance, have a strange dream?”

“Yes.” His husky tone draws my attention back to him. The same desire he had in my dream now fills his eyes. “Did you?”

I nod, feeling unsettlingly guilty. Should I tell him what I think was happening? Do I dare?

“I think it might have been …” The words are stolen from my lips as he presses his lips to mine, kissing me with so much passion I can scarcely breathe.

Pull away, Eva. This isn’t right. No matter what Hunter’s done to you, you don’t want him kissing you simply because he’s being seduced by your succubus paranormal powers.

Sucking in a deep breath, I pull away. But then he cups the back of my head and guides me back to him.

“Don’t go yet,” he whispers. “Just give me a few more minutes. Then you can return to being mad at me.”

He sounds fully coherent, like he knows exactly what he’s doing, which befuddles me. In my dream, he seemed so dazed. And why doesn’t he seem more concerned that we both had a strange, probably similar dream? Does he not realize that? What does he realize?

I want to shake my head—I really do—but instead I nod.

A faltering breath fumbles from his lips them he seals his lips to mine again. The old Eva takes over, the one who is in love with her best friend, and I end up kissing him back.

“God, I’ve wanted this for longer than you can possibly imagine,” he murmurs between kisses.

“What?” I whisper, feeling a little dazed from the kiss.

“I want you,” he breathes out, his lips a silver of an inch away from mine as his hands find my hips. “I’ve wanted you for a few years now.”

His words barely register before he’s kissing me again and pulling me on top of him. Nervousness bubbles through me as I straddle his waist, feeling way out of my element, unlike I did in my dream. And then he kisses me deeply while rocking his hips against mine. I gasp, clutching onto his shoulders as stomach flutters and my skin tingles.

“Good Gods,” he groans while repeating the moving again and biting on my bottom lip.

I whimper and he rocks his hips against mine again, over and over again, both of us out of control…

So, so out of control…

I jerk back, realizing what’s really going on, that he’s only kissing and touching me because I’m a succubus. My lips part, ready to tell him the truth about why he probably wants to kiss me, when my attention wanders to the doorway as movement shifts in the shadows.

“What the heck was that?” I whisper, starting to get up.

Hunter grabs my arm and yanks me back against him. “Don’t.”

When my lips part to ask him why, the question fades on my tongue as Ryleigh appears in my doorway.

“Ryleigh …” I trail off as she steps fully from the shadows and into the light.

Her skin, which was pale from death to begin with, is now pallid and tinted blue; her veins beneath her skin are visible and purplish black; her lips are stained blood red; and the gleaming hunger in her bloodshot eyes can only mean one thing.

This isn’t my fake older sister Ryleigh.

This is the brain thirsty zombie Ryleigh.