A Tangle of Hearts (A Shade of Vampire #44)(34)

But every few steps I felt her giving her leg a rest and depending on me again for support. Her persistence for independence amused me, and I tried my best to be respectful and suppress my childish smirks.

My senses flared, not only in reaction to the potential dangers lurking in the jungle, but also to her physical presence. Her scent in particular, a mixture of freshly cut grass and mild spices, invaded my nostrils with each breath, making it a challenge for me to fully focus on the mission at hand. This succubus was dangerously beautiful, and I had to concentrate twice as hard in order to keep my head in the game.

Serena and Draven walked behind me, mostly in silence. She carried the second duffel bag, while the Druid used her other shoulder for support. Once in a while, I heard them exchange a few words, but I didn’t pay attention to the details, as I was too busy staying alert while holding a gorgeous creature at my side.

Some time passed before I found something interesting to say. I’d thought about ways of starting a meaningful conversation with her, but every time I opened my mouth, I backed down, fearing mockery. Anjani brought out an insecurity in me that I’d never felt before. Whatever I said it had to be smart, and it had to demand her attention and respect. For a guy who normally didn’t give a damn about much, this was new and murky territory, murkier than any shape-shifter-infested jungle of Eritopia.

“Tell me about your tribe,” I eventually said, unable to bear the silence between us anymore.

I glanced sideways at her, enough to see a shadow of a smile animate her delicate, shimmering face. Her hair had been cleaned and combed to the side, pouring in charcoal-colored curls over her crossbow shoulder. It gave me a decent view of the soft line of her neck that made my throat feel dry.

“We’re independent of the incubi nation in general,” she answered, constantly looking around her, following the occasional moving shadows. “We live away from the males and from the so-called civilized societies and their cities. We’ve been doing that for centuries, long before Azazel rose to power and ruined everything.”

I looked ahead at Bijarki, wondering whether he’d ever considered leaving the army and everything else behind to live in the jungle, away from the bloodshed and turmoil, like Anjani’s tribe had done. His broad shoulders and firm jaw answered my question. The incubus had been raised for a military life. Devotion probably shaped his every decision.

“We live in the northern jungles, where few Destroyers venture,” Anjani continued. “We hunt for our food, and the younger succubi gather nuts and berries from the nearby clearings during the day. We keep our distance from everyone. We rarely ever take a partner for life. We haven’t had a male living with us for a long time. We send the sons away to live in the city and keep the daughters. We use the incubi for pleasure and to ensure our tribe’s survival, nothing more, nothing less.”

The last part stiffened my neck a little bit. I thought about Anjani and an incubus in an intimate embrace. I didn’t know what was more awkward, the frosty meeting between a succubus and an incubus, or the fact that I’d spent an entire minute thinking about it.

“You only use men for physical pleasure and making babies, and then you kick them to the curb?” I replied with a raised eyebrow. She nodded, but I couldn’t read anything beyond that. “And they say men are terrible.” I smirked.

“Yes, well, don’t worry, Jovi,” Bijarki called out over his shoulder. “The succubi like us about as much as we like them. They’re wildlings who like to bite and scratch. Most of us try to stay away from them, but every once in a while, a poor sucker stumbles upon one of these tribes, and he’s lost forever. There are cautionary tales about tribal succubi told around the campfires at night.”

Anjani glowered at Bijarki. I wondered whether he could feel the fire on the back of his head. Her lips tightened to a thin line, and her nostrils flared. He’d managed to hit a soft spot, apparently.

I swallowed my chuckle as she narrowed her eyes at him. I didn’t want her focus to shift to me in that moment; I’d felt the occasional wrath of a woman, including my sister, but never that of a succubus.

“With males like you, you can’t blame us for not having much use for the incubi,” Anjani shot back.

“We have no trouble finding ourselves a mate,” Bijarki replied without bothering to turn his head. “Just because you ladies are feral and like it in the jungle doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with us incubi.”

“So, how many of you are there in the tribe?” I quickly asked as soon as Anjani opened her mouth to continue the gender skirmish. I feared she’d eventually snap and shoot a poisonous arrow right into Bijarki’s spine.

A moment passed as she regained her composure. It gave me enough pause to notice something I hadn’t before. Unlike Bijarki, Anjani didn’t have horns on her temples.

“There are six families in the tribe, each with five to fifteen members,” she replied. “Our strength is not in numbers but in our skills as warriors. We are trained from a very young age. We are taught that we must kill or be killed before we learn about how babies are made.”

I found that to be more sad than chilling. I could picture her as a little girl with glimmery skin, golden-green eyes, and curly black hair being given a knife and told to kill. I looked down at her and noticed a fleeting frown before I changed the subject again: