Demons Prefer Blondes (Demons Unleashed #1)(47)

Rafe’s eyes blazed, his jaw twitched. “You’ll keep your mouth shut, succubus.”

“Pardon me, I forgot your ineptitude of protecting the fairer sex was such a touchy subject.”

Clenching his fists, Rafe rolled his tongue over his lips. He opened his mouth to retort, but the busy jangle of bells cut him off.

Kalli and Frankie burst in the room on a gust of air. Kalli scanned the room, her eyes narrowing on Lilith. “What is she doing here?”

“I’m here for Lucy. I’ve been watching over her.”

With a sarcastic snicker, Kalli shrugged. “I’m glad they’ve put her in such capable hands.” She scrounged around in her coat pocket. “I’d like to know why there are so many succubi in one single town. Two I can chalk up as a coincidence. But three? That kind of throws the coincidence theory out the window.” She pulled out a photo and handed it to Lilith.

“Oh dear,” Lucy’s would-be mentor murmured. “Not good.”

Rafe jumped to his feet. “What is it?”

“Nothing for you to concern yourself over, Rafael.” Lilith handed the photo to Lucy. “Do you know this woman?”

Lucy blinked. Gerardo and Frankie hovered over each of her shoulders. Their gasps in unison lightened the tense situation, but only slightly. She looked again. There, her tightly wound blond hair in a severe bun, suited up in a dark blue Armani pantsuit that put Hillary Clinton to shame, stood Larissa Harding, Josh’s fiancée—the one who’d stolen him from her. “But she’s so boring!”

“An act, I’m certain.” Kalli wrinkled her nose. “Why she chose to single you out is beyond me. You’re only half succubus.”

Sidling next to Lucy, Rafe snatched the photo from her hand. “There’s more to Lucy than you all realize.” He turned the photo over. His silvery eyes swirled, his breath caught. That look of despair and agony ripped through him again.

“Rafe, are you okay?” Lucy asked with concern. For some bizarre reason, she reached to take his hand. Strangely enough, he didn’t pull away. He gripped tighter.

“This can’t be.” His voice cracked. “She’s dead. I saw her die.”

Kalli flung her dreadlocks behind her head. “I wish I had better news, Rafe.”

“There has to be some mistake.”

Lilith shrugged. “No mistake, I’m afraid.”

“But she was innocent.” Rafe’s eyes clouded as he stared at the photograph.

“You know Larissa?” Lucy asked, her eyebrow arched in wonder. She wrapped her arm around Rafe’s bulky shoulders.

Rafe jerked away and stalked to the far corner. “Her name was Amanda Newell and she died in my arms almost two hundred years ago.”





Chapter 13


What sort of trickery was this?

Rafael’s jaw twitched. Two hundred years of repressed memories threatened to rise to the surface. She’d died; he’d felt her soul leave her body.

“She’s my ex-boyfriend’s fiancée,” he heard Lucy say through the myriad memories wreaking havoc in his mind. “Aren’t succubi supposed to be… you know… sexy?”

Rafael spun around to face Lucy. “She is… was a beautiful woman.”

Lucy gnawed her lower lip—a rather delightful quirk. He stiffened. How could he dwell on Lucy when the woman he thought he killed had come back to haunt him? Then again, maybe he deserved it, as punishment for his attraction to Lucy.

“Sorry, Rafe. I didn’t mean she’s not beautiful.” Lucy balled her hands into tight fists and paced in front of her shiny shampoo bowls. “I mean, she’s not the most outgoing of people. From what Josh says, she’s not that adventurous, if you get my drift.”

“Oh, she’s an adventuress, that’s for sure. At least she was.” Lilith stretched out her long supple legs, stilettos scratching across tile. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Rafe, but your prim and proper Regency miss wasn’t that prim and proper.”

Lunging at Lilith, Rafael leaned over her and grabbed her shoulders. “What do you mean?”

“She’s one of Lamia’s now.” Lilith spoke the name as if it contained venom. “She’s always been under that traitorous bitch’s spell, even when she was a mortal.”

Rafael turned to Kalli, who stood there with stony silence. “Am I as weak as the Fore-Demons seem to think?”

Kalli shook her head. “No, but remember why they sent you there in the first place.”

“They believed it was an incubus attack.”

Lilith nodded. “Miss Newell was bait.”

“For me? Why? I’m nobody.” Why did Lamia have to hold a grudge?

He angled his head toward Lucy, who winced and shook her head. “Oh, shut up. You are somebody.”

“You weren’t the prey originally.” Lilith pulled at her sweater to readjust it. “You’ve improved your grip over the years.” She lounged back and crossed a long leg over the other. “Now where was I? Oh, yeah. They were trying to trap my brother.”

“King Lilu?”

Kalli nodded. “The one and only.”

“Lamia?” Lucy blew out a deep sigh. “More demons for me to remember?”