“Guess you’re just not good enough to do anything other than bend nature, anyway,” I called out, keeping my smug grin firmly affixed to my face, but inside my chest my heart beat wildly, and I felt like I might explode from the tension. “Besides. I’m guessing that your succubus power transfers are highly exaggerated.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” He smirked and sauntered toward Leon. Koslov reached up and touched the taller man’s shoulder, then slid his hand down, caressing the salamander’s arm. Leon shuddered, and a muscle in his jaw twitched. Then Koslov stepped away and headed back toward his desk. Leon reached out and grabbed my arm, his grip iron against my skin.
My mouth dropped open and the pieces in my mind fell into place. No wonder the burned bodies had been left in such precarious places. He was controlling the salamander using succubus thrall? Holy hell, I didn’t even want to know the lengths he’d had to go to in order to establish that control. Succubi powers were inseparably linked to sex. Had he been abusing Leon in the same way he set up the succubi he sold to be abused? Was he sleeping with him? Or was it rape?
I swallowed hard against the bile rising in my throat and looked at the salamander. God, was that why he’d stared at me, so oddly intense? I should have seen it. Should have noticed that he was trying to tell me something. Should have picked up on Koslov’s magic.
I shook my head slightly. That’s why Koslov had seemed just a little more charismatic than normal when I met him in Natalie’s office. He carried the unconscious powers of a succubus as well—a small amount, anyway.
I should have picked up on that. But there was no point in berating myself about it now. I’d have all the time in the world to mentally scold myself after Elaine was safe.
Right now I had to concentrate on freeing her.
Across the room, Koslov’s grin widened as he watched my expression. He knew. He knew that I had figured out what he was doing, how he was controlling his pet salamander, and my horror amused him. Leon’s grip loosened on my arm, and I wondered if he was merely waiting for orders or if he again struggled with Koslov’s influence.
If Leon was already struggling against the witch’s control enough to leave hints for the police to find, could I free him with my own ability? I couldn’t reverse Koslov’s thrall, but maybe with a touch of my own power, it would weaken the witch’s hold just enough for Leon to break free. All I had to do was drink in some of his energy, and a small amount of thrall would naturally pass to him. I’d never used it that way, but I knew that it was possible. The closest I’d ever come was trying to make myself appear even more attractive to my prom date in high school. I’d kept his attention, all right. But it hadn’t kept the jerk from dumping me two weeks later for another girl.
“Take her, Leon.” Koslov made his way to the desk, and his voice had regained its coolness, its calm. His interest in me gone.
Leon released my arm and motioned for me to go ahead, down a hallway to the right of where I’d come in. I stiffened my spine and walked past him.
A loud crash sounded behind us, and I pivoted around just in time to see Leon do the same.
“Police,” Costa shouted as he entered the room.
He’d decided on the dramatic entrance.
Hope surged until I saw Leon raise his hands. I didn’t know how his power compared to Costa’s, but I knew Costa could be burned. The OWEA agent’s attention was firmly focused on Koslov, and he wouldn’t even have a chance to defend himself against the other salamander.
I grabbed Leon’s arm, but he ignored me. Desperately I reached for his energy and tried to pull, but failed. I could feel it, but I couldn’t touch it. Of course I couldn’t touch it. Succubi powers were heavily connected to sex and, barring that, desire. Other strong emotions could trigger succubus powers as well, but none so reliably as lust.
Dammit.
Leon tried halfheartedly to buck me off while taking a couple of stumbling steps toward Costa. Koslov had a hand raised at Costa, and was speaking—spewing lies to get Costa to let his guard down, no doubt. But Costa was having none of it. He shouted at Koslov again to get on the ground.
Grabbing energy was tricky business, especially for a succubus who never used that side of her power. But I could do this; it was as natural for me as breathing. It had certainly felt natural last night, when I had to force myself not to take energy from Costa. My heart leaped into my throat.
Costa. That was it.
I blinked through the tears in my eyes and tried again, grabbing the salamander’s body in a full hug. He grunted in surprise, but didn’t move his focus from Costa. He knew who the real threat was, or perhaps he was under specific orders from Koslov to protect him first.
I held on tightly, pain throbbing its way from my hand up my arm, and tried to think of Costa. I pushed away the outside world where Costa shouted at Koslov and Leon tried to squirm away from me. I thought of our night together. Of how he made me feel. Of how Costa’s power felt licking along my skin while he made love to me. All the while, I reached for Leon’s power. After a few seconds, it clicked.
A flash of worry shot through me. Was Costa watching? Would my actions confirm to him that I was just another succubus looking for a fix? And most haunting of all, would siphoning power from Leon change me?
Leon’s power jumped from his skin to caress mine, shoving all of my worries and fears away with its seductive power. I could feel it, just a small drain on him, but it was there. Spurred by my success, I kept Costa firmly in my mind and tried to open the flow even more. The power no longer caressed, it burned with a slow pleasant heat.
Flowing from his skin to mine, it rode my veins, racing through them into my head in a rush of power so heady I barely kept my grip on the large man. I gasped as the energy started to pour into me, and the power combined with the magic and thoughts of Costa heated my blood and made me suddenly ache to be back in his arms.
Then it wasn’t just Costa and me in my thoughts. Leon was there, too. A man I knew almost nothing about. His emotions flitted through me. Despair. Lust. Helplessness.
Love.
Rage so fierce it shook me to my core.
Leon growled and yanked me off his back, tossing me into the room with Costa and Koslov. I landed hard on my side, and the air flew from my lungs. I struggled up to my knees and looked back at Leon. The salamander, as if the small gesture of tossing me had taken his strength, fell to one knee and his head dropped. He looked around, dazed.
My mind fogged, and thoughts—important thoughts— stayed just outside of my grasp. I looked around dumbly.
Only seconds had passed since I’d jumped on Leon, but it felt like forever. Long enough to get caught up in the man’s explosive emotions. Long enough to get to know Koslov’s captive salamander just enough to hurt for him.
Long enough to almost lose myself in a man I didn’t even know.
Costa was shouting something at Koslov, but the witch ignored him and seemed to be muttering under his breath.
A bit of a green plant peeked out from his tightly clasped fist, and I yelled, “He’s doing a spell!” at Costa.
“Put it down, Koslov,” Costa said, his voice loud but calm.
Koslov muttered a final word and tossed the herb at us, and then dove under the desk. Costa shot, but I couldn’t tell if he connected with Koslov because the room was suddenly filled with black smoke that coiled and then sprang around the room like a living thing. Unnatural and dark.
I cursed under my breath. A smoke spell to cover his escape? Nice move, but there were only so many ways out of the room. I resisted the urge to cough and fought to see through the acrid magical air.
As my throat and mouth burned, I realized we weren’t dealing with a simple smoke spell. Dammit. Poison. I struggled to keep my mouth closed, but my eyes burned and my stomach rolled. Darkness threatened to overtake me, but I couldn’t leave, not with Costa trapped. The smoke cleared enough to make out impressions of the men in the room, but I couldn’t seem to shout for Costa, warn him.
My mouth and lungs weren’t working right.
A shape moved next to me and I reached out, grasping at clothes. Koslov, it had to be. The shape struggled and cursed at me, but I clung to it, ignoring the pain as one of my nails felt like it ripped from my fingertip. My other hand still hurt so badly it was hard to hold on, but I held.
Until I saw the fire.
Chapter Fourteen
The flames moved up Koslov’s body, still difficult to see even as the smoke spell began to fade. Because as it disappeared, it was replaced by smoke from the fire licking his body. It traveled fast—too fast to be natural. From his stomach, it moved down to his shoes and up to touch his face.
I scrambled away from the flames, and the burn on my hand throbbed, bile crawled up my throat, and even though the smoke was clearing, it curled up in my lungs. I had to find Elaine and Natalie. Had to get them out before the fire spread. I stumbled to the hallway and then glanced back to yell for Costa. I was able to make out Koslov in the darkened air. His screams cut through the smoke, so loud it was as if they came out of the throat of a banshee.
And Leon, arms outstretched toward Koslov, grimaced, even as he burned the man who’d taken away his free will. Tears trailed their way down his soot-stained face.
Suddenly Costa was there, arm around me, pulling me to the hall that Leon had been dragging me toward. I swallowed the bile in my throat and looked away from the scene behind me. Elaine had to be back there. And given Leon’s frame of mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if he burned the whole damn building down around us. We had to find Elaine and Natalie before that happened and get them— and ourselves—out of the building.
The air cleared the farther down the hallway we got.
Doors lined the walls. My lungs burned, but the farther we moved from the smoke, the more the spells’ effects dissipated.
“Elaine,” I croaked as loudly as I could. “Natalie?”
No muffled sounds greeted us—not that I could hear over the waning screams behind us. “Oh my god, Costa.
What if they aren’t here?”