Chapter 9 #3
True to his word, Plin had piloted them back to Earth that morning.
She hadn’t slept a wink. After she had fled, unable to enter her hotel room, she had found a hazy, dark bar to spend the rest of her night in, perched atop the dark wood of the counter, nursing a drink she didn’t indulge in, listening to the mumble of conversations around her. All while she had spiraled.
The flight back to Earth had been tense. As if she feared her luck would run out and the same fate that took Kit would claim her, too.
Her phone beeped softly where it rested on the countertop. She grabbed it, desperate for a distraction.
I’ll be there soon. Wrapping up with a patient now.
She sighed, fingers hovering over the screen as she watched bubbles pop up, then disappear as Lucien typed.
Next time, give me greater notice, Vesperin. I would have picked you up.
Rin typed a quick reply, fingers cold and trembling. You have patients… I’m okay.
His reply made her heart stutter in her chest. I would have cleared my schedule if I knew you were coming home early.
She locked her phone and set it on the counter, bracing her hands on the smooth top as she hung her head low, slightly damp hair falling into her face.
Had she made a mistake? With… what she had done on Sibeth?
Rin had taken the same mission that had killed her best friend; she had eliminated the Rogue and given up her innocence in more ways than one. None of it helped. She still felt hollow. And she still saw Kit everywhere.
A small bottle of her pills rested on the counter near her phone. Maybe death would be a mercy.
She gritted her teeth.
"No," she said aloud. "I can’t think that way. I have… people depending on me. I’m not alone. Right?"
The only answer was a soft rap at the door.
She picked her head up, eyes finding the clock above the microwave. 8:11 PM. Lucien already?
Her bare feet padded to the door of the apartment-style dorm she shared with Xara, who spent more time at Keir’s place than anywhere else as of late. Rin was strangely grateful; she didn’t want or need sympathy. It was stifling.
She opened the door, and what she saw on the other side made her stumble back, her stomach dropping to her toes.
"Hi," said the incubus who had taken her virginity.
Rin floundered, numb hands finding the door, which she was just aware enough of to slam shut in the red-haired incubus’s face.
Her breath ratcheted out of her chest as her head thumped on the back of the closed door.
Was this real? Was he here? Was she hallucinating? Had she passed out or something?
"Oh my god." Rin stared at the door. "What the fuck?"
Another soft rap, and his voice was so close when he spoke, it was like the door wasn’t even between them.
"Let me in. Please? There are a lot of humans out here, and they’re staring at me."
"Why should I?" she called out.
A beat of silence and a soft rustling noise. She imagined Cy leaning his own head against the door, red hair falling into his purple eyes.
"I came all this way for you. Isn’t that reason enough, Ves?"
It was that name that made her unlatch the lock and open the door.
Under the yellow lighting in the hallway, his complexion was more sallow. Yet, he was no less enticing.
He was just as she remembered, but so, so different.
For one, he wore a plain, rumpled hoodie, but upon closer inspection, the material was too soft to be anything but high-quality.
The hood was up, pushed back so far it threatened to fall off his head.
No gems on his cheeks. Those had been fake, then.
His purple eyes were wide, casting glances down the hall as the occasional trainee passed, shooting curious looks at him and Rin.
Rin fidgeted, feeling too exposed in her cozy, cotton shorts and long-sleeved, blush pink top. She tugged the sleeves over her hands, and his eyes fell, an adoring smirk tipping up his sensuous lips momentarily—lips she had tasted…
"Can I come in?"
And what was Rin to do?
She let him in.
The incubus who had been inside her body poked at the water bottles on the kitchen counter and traced his fingers over the snacks. Under his black hoodie, his shoulders were tense.
Rin crossed her arms to hide her trembling limbs. "What are you doing here, Cy?"
In a sudden, fluid move that startled her, Cy turned and fell to his knees before her, the action making his hood fall back, revealing the shock of deep red hair. She stared down at him in surprise.
His hands raised and pressed upon her bare knees as he beseeched, in one long breath:
"I’m sorry. Forgive me for what I did—I know I don’t even deserve to breathe the same air as you, believe me, I know. But you can forgive me. I know you can, you’ve done it before. Let me make it up to you, Ves."
Rin merely… stared at him, holding back a confused curse.
"Cy, what is this?" Her hands raised placatingly. "I think you have the wrong girl." She spoke slowly.
He shook his head, refusing to stand. In the light of the kitchen, she studied him better, finding him even more captivating when it wasn’t under the neon glow of a club or the dim of a hotel room.
Cy’s fingers spanned over her knees, his forehead pressing on her lower stomach, breaths skittering over her skin, even through her shirt.
"You can stop playing now. The game’s over, Ves.
I lost. You won. Just say—say you remember.
Lie, if you have to. I don’t care, and I’ll be okay with losing forever. So long as it’s not losing you."
How could she even begin to unpack this?
She was beginning to worry that this incubus wasn’t mentally well. And how the fuck did he come to be on Earth?
Another knock shattered her inner musings, and this one was undeniably her doctor.
"Vesperin?" Lucien called through the door. "I’m here."
Rin’s eyes widened. Her fingers wrapped around Cy’s wrist, tugging him up. "Go," she hissed under her breath. "Go. Hide! He can’t see you."
Cy allowed her to tug him up, purple eyes dazed as he stared down at her hands on his wrists. "Who?" the incubus asked.
Another knock. "Vesperin?" Lucien sounded worried.
Rin scrambled, tugging Cy back to her room as she called over her shoulder, voice warbling, "Just—just a minute!"
Her heart was racing, sweat beading on the back of her nape.
She shoved Cy into her room. "Under the bed!" she ordered.
"Under it? Sure you don’t mean on it, doll?" Cy gave an impish grin.
She shoved at his shoulders. "Go."
Cy tipped his chin up, a challenge flashing in his eyes. "If you agree to listen to me."
In the heat of the moment, with no other way to get him to obey, she spat, "Fine. Under the bed and be quiet."
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as he shimmied underneath her bed, flashing her a quick wink as she shut her bedroom door and hurried out to the hall.
Frazzled, she took a deep breath, feeling it catch in her lungs. Her chest was tight. It was like everything was finally catching up to her since that moment she had first boarded the ship headed to Sibeth.
As Rin opened the door, she was greeted by the sight of Lucien on the other side. Something within her that had been strung taut loosened when their eyes locked.
"Vesperin," Lucien sighed, and she fell into his awaiting arms.
"Hi," she whispered against his chest, breathing him in. His sandalwood cologne was muted, cut with a thick medicinal scent. "Did you come straight from the hospital?"
"Yes." His voice rumbled through her. "As soon as you told me you were back, I moved all my appointments out.
" He held her away from him, green eyes searching her from behind his glasses.
"How did the mission go? Was Sibeth as sinful as they all say?
" He infused a false sense of brevity into his words.
He seemed tense, on edge, eyes darting around.
She took his hand and stepped back into her apartment, her door shutting behind her.
She didn’t need any gossip about why she had two men standing on her doorstep within an hour of each other.
She stalled at the beginning of the kitchen, not daring to venture deeper into her apartment, lest Cy make any noise.
The words stuck to the inside of her throat.
"It was…" Rin swallowed, dragging a finger over the edge of the countertop.
"Interesting," she finally settled on. That didn’t even begin to explain it.
How could she tell him she had lain with another man, when all she truly wanted was to turn back time and make Kit still be alive, while also maintaining this newfound care she and Lucien had forged?
Sweat prickled on the back of her neck, trickling down her spine. She fanned herself with a hand, angling her body so her back hid the hall leading to her room.
Lucien studied her, brows knitted.
A soft thump from her bedroom made her eyes widen. She blurted, "Thank you for the flowers. The forget-me-nots… I put them on my dresser, so every time I go to sleep, I’ll think of you."
Fuck. Why did she say that?
She was on edge, running on no sleep, and tense because of the incubus hiding in her room.
She had to get Lucien out of here—no matter how pleased she was to see him again, and no matter how desperately she wanted to hug him and never let him go.
Let him taste her lips and replace Cy’s berry scent that still clung to her skin, even though she had scrubbed her flesh raw under scalding water.