Succubus Blues CHAPTER 23

Two, he give tongue to after a moments hesitation. average two.Just two, I repeated flatly, thought oh s seduce. Is that including you?Yes.I rubbed my temples, wondering how I could warn Jerome and Carter that we had two nephilim to deal with this instant. No angiotensin converting enzyme had menti bingled that possibility. individual should perplex realisen that, I muttered, more(prenominal) to myself than to romish. Someone should cause sensed it there would have been two different nephilim signatures. Thats how Jerome knew it was you. You have a unique signature no one else has it.No one else, Roman agreed with a smirk, except my sister.Oh shit.Jerome didnt mention more than one ah. I blinked in sudden understanding. Jerome, by his own admission, hadnt actu every(prenominal) in ally been near for the birth. Twins? Or more? The archdemon could have fathered quintuplets for all I knew.Roman shook his head, still highly amused at my deductions. Only twins. Just the t wo of us.So this is a family act then? You two hit the road together, going from town to town, wreaking havocNothing so glamorous, love. usually its equitable me. My sister tries to proceed a low profile spends more while on her job and living her life. She doesnt really get caught up in grand machinations. thusly howd you rope her into this one? Again, I thought ab bulge Eriks words, how most nephilim evidently wished to be left alone.She go through and throughs here. In Seattle. Were on her turf, so I talked her into going in on the final shoot down with me. She wasnt really into all of the stuff with the lesser immortals.Except beating on me, I pointed out.I am sorry close that. I estimate you pissed her forth.I dont even know her, I exclaimed, wondering which was worsened a nephilim in love with me or a nephilim holding a grudge.He just grimaced. I wouldnt be so sure of that. He reached out to touch me, almost casually, and I backed away, making his smile slip. Now whats wrong?What do you mean? You guess you can just dump this on me and then expect things to be all groovy between us?Well, why non? Honestly, what have you got left to bewilder about? I opened my mouth to protest, except he move before I could speak Ive already told you, Im not going to stomach you or any of your friends. The only person left on my contention is nighone you dont even know or care about. Thats it. End of story.Oh yea? Whatll happen then? After you kill Carter?He shrugged. Then I leave. Ill find someplace to hang out for a while. Probably read again. He leaned toward me, holding my gaze. You could come with me, you know.What?Think about it. He talk eagerly, excitement growing with each word. You and me. You could settle down and do all the things you the similar to do your books, your dancing without any immortal politics to goo your life up.I scoffed. Hardly. Its not like I can comprise being a succubus. I still need sex to survive.Yes, yes, I kn ow youd still have to tag the occasional victim, moreover think about the times in between. You and me. Together. Being with someone you dont have to botheration about lesseneding. Being with someone simply for the pleasure of it, not for survival. No superiors to harass you about meeting your quotas.Seth came to mind just then, area of me idly wondering what itd be like to be with him just for pleasure. break back to my harsh reality, I told Roman, I cant just run off. Seattle is my post. I have people to answer to they wouldnt let me leave.Cupping my face in his hands, he whispered, Georgina, Georgina. I can protect you from them. I have the supply to hide you. You can live your own life. No more respondent to the bureaucracy above. We can be free.Those hypnotic eyes hooked me like a fish on a line. For centuries, I had lived out immortality achingly alone, gamy from one short-term relationship to another, ending any connection that got also deep. Now, Roman was here. I wa s attracted to him, and I didnt have to push him away. I couldnt hurt him with physical contact. We could be together. We could wake up together. We could live out eternity together. I would never have to be lonely again. thirst surged up within me. I wanted it. Oh God, I wanted it. I didnt want to hear Jerome chastise me for my all lowlifes, all the time subjugation policy. I wanted to come home and tell someone about my mean solar day. I wanted to go out dancing on the weekends. I wanted to take vacations together. I wanted someone to hold me when I was upset, when the ups and downs of the world pushed me to a fault far.I wanted someone to love.His words blazed through me, piercing my heart. I knew, however, they were only that words. Eternity is a long time we couldnt hide forever. Eventually wed be found, or when Roman finally got unmake on one of his protest missions, Id be exposed and have a lot of angry demons to answer to. He was offering me a childs dream, an meshugga fantasy with a short-lived, doomed run.Furthermore, running off with Roman meant complying with the topic of this insane plot of his. Logically, I could understand his angst and desire to lash back. I felt for his sister even if she inexplicably hated me who simply wanted to live an ordinary life. I had seen slaughter and declensionshed all over the years, the extinction of constitutional populations of people whose attends and cultures no one remembered today. To live with that over and over throughout these long millennia, to always be on the run, hiding simply because of an accident of birth yes, perhaps I would be pissed off too.Yet, I still could not see that as sufficient basis for the random killing of immortals, simply to prove a point. The fact that I knew these immortals personally made it worse. Carters attitude still unnerved me, yes, but he had dispense withd my life, and my days with him hadnt been unbearable. If anything, Roman should laud the nonesuch. The nephilims biggest complaint was that immortals stayed locked into archaic sets of rules and roles, but Carter had broken the mold an angel who chose friendship with his hypothetical enemies. He and Jerome typified the kind of rebellious, nonconforming lifestyle so advocated by Roman.Too bad that didnt come along to be enough to dissuade the nephilim. I wondered if I could.No, I told him. I cant do it. And you dont have to do it either.Do what?This plot. Killing Carter. Just let him go. Let it all go. Violence only begets more violence, not peace.Im sorry, love. I cant. Theres no peace for my kind.I reached out and touched his face. You call me that, but do you really mean it? Do you love me?He caught his breath, and I suddenly realized he could be just as mesmerized by my eyes as I was by his. Yes. I do.Then do this for me if you love me. Walk away. Walk away from Seattle. I Ill go with you if you do.I hadnt realized Id meant it until the words escaped my lips. Running off was a childs fantasy, true, but it would be worth it if I could avert what was to come.You mean it?Yes. As long as you can keep me safe.I can keep you safe, butHe stepped away from me and paced around, running a hand through his hair in consternation.I cant walk away, he finally told me. well-nigh anything in the world I would do for you, but not this. You cant compute what its been like. You think immortalitys been cruel to you? Imagine what its like always running, always ceremony your back. I have just as much trouble settling down as you. Thank God for my sister. Shes the only one I have, the only mainstay in my life. The only one I love until you, at least.She can come with usHe closed his eyes. Georgina, when my beget was still alive millennia ago we lived in a camp with some of the other nephilim and their mothers. We were always running, always trying to stay ahead of those engage us. One night Ill never forget it. They found us, and I swear, Armageddon itself could never be so terrible. I dont even know who did it angels, demons, or whatever. I mean, when it comes down to it, theyre all the same really. Beautiful and terrible.Yes, I whispered. Ive seen them.Then you know what they can do. They swept in and just destroyed everyone. It didnt matter who. Nephilim children. Humans. Everyone was considered a liability.But you escaped?Yes. We were lucky. Most werent. He turned back to shade at me. His heartache made my eyes burn. Do you see now? Do you see now why I have to do this?You only further the bloodshed.I know, Georgina. For Christs sake, I know. But I have no choice.I saw in his face then that he hated being a part of that bloodshed, part of the same mordant behavior that had haunted his childhood. But I also saw that he was inextricably tied to that. He could not escape it. He had lived too long, so much longer than me. The years of fear and anger and blood had twisted him. He had to see this game played out.Ifight every day to not let the past overtake me. Sometimes I win, sometimes it does.I have no choice, he repeated, face desperate. But you do. I still want you to come with me when Im done.A choice. Yes, I did have a choice. A choice between him and Carter. Or did I? Was there anything I could do to save Carter at this point? Did I want to save Carter? For all I knew, Carter had slaughtered countless nephilim children over the years in the name of good. Maybe he deserved the punishment Roman wanted to margin out. What were good and evil, really, but stupid categories? Stupid categories that restricted people and punish or rewarded them based on how they responded to their own natures, natures they really didnt have any way to control.Roman was right. The system was flawed. I just didnt know what to do about it.What I needed was time. Time to think about all of this, time to figure out a way that would save angel and nephilim both, if such a feat were possible. I didnt know how to buy that time, though, not with Roman standing there staring at me, aflame with his amative notion of running off together.Time. I needed time and had no idea how to get it. I had no powers to help in a situation like this. If Roman decided I was a threat, I would be unable to fight against him. A nephilimcould easily blow one of you out of the water. I could not pull divine strings and contracts like Hugh, had no superhuman reflexes and strength like Cody and Peter. I was a succubus. I changed shape and had sex with men. That was it.That was it