Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (19 page)

“You are very brave, Cain,” Al’bah breathed as she settled into his arms, shivering slightly.

“Why do you do that?” Cain said as Al’bah wrapped her legs around his and tangled her fingers in his hair.

Al’bah blinked her glowing purple eyes. “You are mine,” she said softly.

“I am?”

“You will understand better if you do the same.”

Cain reached out and tangled his own fingers in Al’bah’s hair and waited. An odd heat started to build in the small space between their chests, a strange sensation that pushed them apart as much as it pulled them together. He felt Al’bah squeeze closer, pressing her body against his. “Would you imagine? Could you imagine? Do you imagine greater passion in the arms of another?” Al’bah breathed, emphasizing her words by rhythmically squeezing and rubbing her body to Cain’s.

Cain untangled his hands from Al’bah’s hair; he was about to caress her body when she seized them in her own.

“Please, answer me,” she whispered. Her eyes were wide and full of gentle expectation.

“No,” Cain said, feeling his entire body ache to be near, to be closer to her.

“Then you are mine,” Al’bah purred, letting go of Cain’s hands. “And I surrender to you, my Bond.”

6:30 a.m.

Cain was late to work. The morning was colder than yesterday, or at least the weather channel said it was, but it didn’t bother him; neither did being chewed out by his boss. He grinned to himself, still thinking about waking to Al’bah stroking his face. They both barely slept due to Al’bah’s almost insatiable appetite.
And it’s not just her.
 Indeed, before he met Al’bah, his appetite for women was less than average. Or at least significantly less than Charlie’s.

But now? Cain shook his head, remembering three hours in Al’bah’s arms, three hours of passion; it was just barely enough. After he realized the time, the rest of the morning was a mad dash, with a hasty breakfast that ended all too soon. And a stern warning to Al’bah that if she were to wander on her own, for her to be dressed and her wings hidden.

“I do not feel any desire to walk about without you. I still do not know why I cannot go with you in the first place.”

“I’ll tell you all about this when I get back. By the way, Charlie would like you and him to get along. Could you try?”

“For you? Anything,” Al’bah purred. “I shall be lonely without you. Please, have him come after you and I can enjoy our reunion,” she said, wiping her eyes and caressing Cain’s face with her wet hand.

It was the first time Cain could ever remember not wanting to go to work, for the sake of a woman.

After he finished inspecting the cement job from the other day, he was rotated to moving steel and the hardware to secure them in place. The day moved quickly, and before he knew it, it was time for lunch. Cain’s thoughts were fully on Al’bah while he ate the lunch she had packed for him. He didn’t even notice Charlie until he sat down and spoke.

“Oi’, Cain-sama, you remember how we became friends, right?” Charlie said, breaking his trance.

“Yeah, that whole business with your family’s honor, why?”

“‘Cause if you didn’t know, I’d say that you were some lookalike posing as my best friend. At least that would have made more sense,” Charlie said, looking at the homemade roast beef sandwich.

“Charlie, I know that last night was—um, awkward. But I’m not acting
that
different.”

“Yes. You are.”

Cain took another bite from the sandwich. “Care to give an example that I am displaying today?”

Charlie nodded. “All right. You want a recent example? Try this: you may not realize it, but this is the first time in ten years you have ever brought your own food to the jobsite.”

He looked at his sandwich as if seeing it for the first time.

“Oh yeah, in case you didn’t realize, that’s a sandwich you brought from your apartment,” Charlie said with a playful sarcasm. “Add that up to your hand, your strange girlfriend—no, I mean ‘Bond’—and now suddenly you call out to God when you’re distressed.” He shook his head. “Something is wrong with you, and it is because of that girl. You need to either ditch her or marry her, man.”

“No, what…marry her?”

Charlie shrugged. “Cain-sama, is this girl
really
living with you?”

Cain could hear the hurt in Charlie’s voice, but he couldn’t bring himself to lie. “Yeah, she is.”

Charlie nodded slightly, and his eyes flashed a sense of acceptance. “Okay, and she’s gonna be sticking around for a while, yeah?”

Cain nodded, suddenly realizing Al’bah was likely going to be a permanent part of his life. The realization also brought to mind how she immediately took a dislike to Charlie, and that bothered him. He wondered if it was possible to keep Charlie or, shit, to keep
any
friends in his life with Al’bah around. He glanced at Charlie and realized he was probably thinking the same thing.

Charlie nodded. “Look, man, I can tell this girl is something special. No one ever made you act like this. No girl ever made you look this happy. Hell, no other girl made you a lunch to take to work. So maybe it’s best if you—”

“Hey, Cain!” the foreman called out. “Over here!”

“Go, man, we’ll talk later,” Charlie said, taking the sandwich and placing it in Cain’s bag.

Cain started to walk over; he did not like the feeling he got but couldn’t understand why.

“Cain, this here is Walter Stratton, the senior partner of the Stratton Law Firm.”

Cain found the stare behind the dark sunglasses of the man unsettling. There was an odd quality about this man. His facial features spoke of one who wore his age well. Every single hair on Walter’s head was a stark black that was quite unlike Al’bah’s jet-black hair. It was like a blackness that came from a burn, or ashes that blotted the sun. Al’bah’s hair was like the sheen of a night sky that had the moon and stars to grace its silky flow.

His face had a hardness to it that was slightly creased with a few no-nonsense lines around his mouth that was pulled into a hard line. The man easily reached Cain’s six foot
four and was probably just as muscled. His arms were crossed but relaxed, his hands betrayed his premium attire, and suddenly he had doubts about who this man was, and his profession.

“Mister Stratton,” Cain said in a respectful acknowledgement.

“Thank you, Mister Jones,” Walter said in a flat voice, never taking his face from Cain.

The foreman’s face swiveled back and forth between the two before realizing that he was dismissed. “Anything you might need, Mister Stratton, let me know,” he meekly added before moving on.

“Cain,” Walter began, “perhaps you could walk with me for a moment?” He held his hand out to the general direction of a parked SUV.

Cain’s eyes flicked to the parked car and back to Walter’s face “No thanks, I think we can talk here just as easy.”

“Very well, I would like to know about what you were doing around my former office.”

Cain stood dumbstruck, caught so off guard that Walter noticed and was grinning ever so slightly. Recovering as quickly as he could, Cain said, “You mean the one across from Fourth and Maple?”

“Yes, that’s the one,” Walter said with a slight nod.

Cain described the story of hurting his hand, losing his money and food, and trying to get it back from beyond the door.

When he finished, Walter rubbed his chin and said with a voice that had a hint of amusement, “Is that all?” He pointed to Cain’s hand that was innocent of any recent wounds. “What injury do you refer to?”

Before he could answer, Walter continued. “Getting bloodstains off of white granite is not easy, or cheap. Thankfully, it was insured. I do not know what you think you were doing around my private property, Cain Lamentson. But I can tell I take a dim view on trespa
sser
s
of my property, and so do my clients.”

“Just what are you trying to say or accuse me of?”

“A client of mine is concerned that you might have made off with property that does not belong to you,” Walter said grimly. “Though my client would rather keep this quiet, you can be quite assured it won’t stay that way for long if you do not surrender anything that does not belong to you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cain said, narrowing his eyes and trying not to show the horror settling inside of him. For some reason he knew, he just knew, this man came at Taint’s behest.

Walter nodded slightly, as if he was coming to an internal decision. “Very well, do let me know if you are suddenly reminded of something. A little deference never hurt anyone, Mister Lamentson. Do keep that in mind.”

Before Cain could respond, Walter grabbed his wrist and slapped a card in his hand, turned, and walked away.

“You have an appointment at five o’clock,” it said simply, with no date, just Walter Stratton’s contact information.

“Hey, Cain!” the foreman said. “What was that about?”

He looked up, suddenly feeling the coldness of the season as if for the first time. “I don’t know, he gave me this card for an appointment.”

The foreman looked at him and the card. “Okay then, well back to work! It’s not three thirty yet, and we still have a ways to go.”

“So, what did the suit want?” Charlie said as Cain came back to his spot.

“Nothing much, wanted to know about the door I lost my stuff under, and gave me an appointment card.”

“Huh, funny. I saw that suit before. He stopped Jones from firing both—ahem, I mean me—the other day.”

Cain punched Charlie’s arm. “Damn, man, you’re always getting into fights. By the way, I talked to Al’bah. She said she’d try to be more pleasant. Perhaps you two could get to know each other on Friday?”

“Aww, man, wasn’t Fridays a guy thing? Sure, I’d like that.” Charlie sighed and thought for a moment. “She’s absolutely beautiful, man. How’d you get her to move in with you so quickly?”

“She didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

“You sure she isn’t with you out of desperation?”

Cain felt a cold shock and held his breath. “No, I really think she cares for me.”

“Yeah, me too. So, should I bring the preacher with me? I already know I’m your best man.”

Charlie and Cain burst out laughing as they returned to work.

Afterward, as Cain walked back through the dim and seemingly eternally gray streets of the city, he kept fumbling over the card in his pocket and his conversation with Walter Stratton. He was starting to doubt whether or not Taint was behind him when several police vehicles sped by him.

Where the hell are they going in such a hurry?
Cain thought and slowly stopped.
Oh shit!
He broke out into a mad sprint; the cars had turned right at the end of the road. There was nowhere to go at the right-hand side of the road except the Gabel Apartments—
his
apartment.

Thankfully the cops would have to take the paved road all the way around the chain-linked fence. Cain rushed to the poorly maintained fence and crawled under a loose spot and across a shared lawn to his apartment.

“Al’bah!” he called out, running up the stairs three at a time. He stopped; the door was smashed in, and in his apartment must have been several hundred strange-looking packages. “Al’bah!” Cain cried out, looking in his tiny one-bedroom apartment. Nothing. No sign of a struggle or Al’bah.

Cain quickly whipped out his cell and activated the video camera. “Cain Lamentson, Apartment 221. I returned from work from the construction at 1640 Main Street to see my apartment filled with this shit! Forced entry on the door! Please verify with witnesses and coworkers with Carlton Construction. I am innocent! I was framed!” Cain quickly stopped the recording and sent it to Charlie, Cynthia, and his online data account.

“Freeze! Hands up! Drop that phone!” someone shouted, tackling Cain to the ground, just as he saw “Send Successful” on his screen.

“Hey look, it’s the dumbass with the smart-ass girlfriend,” a voice hissed in his ear.

Cain felt his wallet being taken from his pocket, and the voice shouted out loud, “We got him!”

Before he could catch his breath, he was taken down the steps and shoved into the back of one of the cars and was read his Miranda rights. The cop from the mall that Al’bah had pointed out looked at him with a smug, pudgy grin. “Anything to say, dumbass?”

Al’bah is right; I didn’t know people could be so big.
He shook his head and rested it on the glass window, trying not to think, not to breathe, and not to feel his insides swell with chaotic franticness that threatened to make him vomit. He swore to himself he would get out of this, and then…

And then what? Cain swallowed hard, as the reality of how much of his life he wasted hit him hard.
What am I going to do with my life? What have I been doing with my life?

Captive Interest

“You misunderstand me. I didn’t ask you if you wanted to come with me. I am telling you. Resisting would be a regrettable thing for you, but it would be my pleasure.”