Forget About Midnight (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #9)(88)

I nodded and deleted the note before handing the phone back. Telling someone who wouldn’t judge me didn’t make me feel any better. Actually, I wasn’t sure how I felt. I didn’t really feel anything at all.

Jez shook her head and patted my arm. “You’ve just blown my mind. Try not to freak out just yet.”

“Do me a favor? Get Shaz out of here. I need to be alone with Briggs.”

She nodded knowingly. “Gonna have a little succubus torture session?”

“Something like that.”

We returned to the living room to find Shaz standing over Briggs with his arms crossed. The Fed did his best to appear bored and unafraid, but he was nervous. The smell of it was on the air.

“Come on, Shaz,” Jez said, grabbing hold of his arm. She paused to squeeze his bicep. “Impressive. Anyway, we’ve got to go back to the FPA building and pick up my Jeep and Alexa’s car. You wanna give me a hand with that?”

Shaz’s green gaze landed on me as if he knew I was trying to get rid of him. “Sure. No problem.”

I followed him to the foyer, ensuring I could still see Briggs from where I stood. Then I grabbed Shaz in a hug and squeezed tight. “I’m sorry that I can never stop hurting you.”

He pulled back and grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to meet his eyes. “What’s going on, Lex?”

“I can’t stop myself from doing things that will destroy other people. It’s so f*cking hard, Shaz. I’m not sure I’m going to get through this transition without burning every bridge I’ve built.”

“Don’t talk like that. You have a war going on inside you. I know I’ll never understand what it’s like, but I understand that it’s something nobody should ever have to live with.” He kissed my cheek and turned to follow Jez out.

When they were gone, I turned to Briggs with a smile. “Looks like we’re all alone. Isn’t it funny how the tables have turned after just one night? You’re a man of many talents, Briggs, but learning your damn lesson isn’t one of them, is it?”

He stared at me with disdain and perhaps some blatant hatred. “And I suppose you’re going to teach it to me. Everything you do only serves to confirm that you’re a sadistic monster who needs to be destroyed.”

“Right back at ya.” I could barely contain my growing excitement as I crossed the room to the couch. In a bold move, I climbed onto his lap, straddling him. The deadly, seductive power spilled from me when I touched his face. “I’m going to enjoy this. And so are you.”

Briggs stiffened. With his hands behind his back and me in his lap, he didn’t have a lot of options. All of the torture survival training in the world wouldn’t help him now.

“Do you really think I’m going to fall for your tricks after watching you f*ck a fallen angel?” He laughed, mirthless and bitter.

“Actually, yeah. I do.” I released my hold on the growing power, letting it crawl all over him. He fought it, as they sometimes do, and then he succumbed because, though he might be a well-trained liar, there was no training that could teach anyone to resist the nature of desire that lives in us all.

Briggs made a small noise that sounded like he was exerting much effort to resist me. Against his will his body began to respond. His impressive erection soon strained against me.

“God, how you disgust me,” he muttered, though it came out breathless and forced.

I ran a hand down his neck, over his chest, the simplest of touches that the power turned into a sex-charged caress. Wriggling just a little, I laughed. “That doesn’t feel like disgust.”

He pressed his lips tight together and shook his head, like he didn’t trust himself to speak. It occurred to me that the erection pressed against me had also touched my sister, and for just a moment, I faltered. This wasn’t about sex with Briggs or even feeding off Briggs. It was about proving myself as the dominant of the two of us. Considering all that this man had done to me, it was irrefutably necessary.

There wasn’t a single part of me that wanted him. Like most human victims, Briggs was a means to an end. He just didn’t have what I hungered for most. Sure he was human, and the blood pumping through his veins tempted me as did the arousal between his legs, but there was something missing. Power. He didn’t have it.

Kylarai had been right. She’d once told me that I was power hungry, seeking it out in my lovers. There was no denying that now. What had occurred with Falon was evidence of her accuracy.

I wanted to place some of the blame for that on the evil in the building. Surely it had driven us past the point of reason. But what if it hadn’t? What if Falon had just been a prime source of power that I couldn’t resist? Even worse, what if I simply didn’t want to resist?

I wanted to feel guilty, but in the heat of the moment with the power raging through me and through Briggs, it just wasn’t possible.

“Tell me where my sister is,” I said, a command fueled by a force he wasn’t trained to combat.

“I sent her to Las Vegas,” he said, surprising me. “To keep an eye on your vampires there. I know that the Vegas FPA has been compromised. Juliet took a team to look into it.”

The backhand that I threw at Briggs snapped his head to one side. Blood stained the corner of his lip. I leaned in to run my tongue over it, and he shuddered. Even as he tried to be revolted, his body betrayed him, flooding me in lust and want.