Then she felt another presence right before her. This one was different than the one that had just been here, a fact she knew in her bones.
A hand touched her cheek… then her blindfold was ripped away. She squinted into the dimness of the room, blinking up at whoever was before her.
A woman stood, her dark hair falling in thick curls over her shoulders. She wore fitted dark pants with holsters along the sides, buckling at her stomach. A deep green jacket billowed open, revealing her black bodysuit beneath—sensuality exuded from her. Rin looked straight up into the woman’spurpleeyes with a gasp.
"Who are you? Why did you take us?" Rin forced out, each word making her temples throb.
A door opened behind her, and Rin saw only a glimpse of a gilded hallway before it shut again. A man—an incubus—stepped in, dressed similarly to the succubus. He had deep brown hair, and his golden nose ring glinted beneath the low lights in the room.
"Is he awake yet?" he asked.
"I was getting to that, Volik." The succubus rolled her eyes, then settled her gaze back on Rin. "I can see why he’d try to protect you. You’re gorgeous."
Rin hadn’t expected to be hit on in captivity. "What?—"
"You can stop playing pretend now, Prince. We all know you’re awake," the succubus said.
Rin’s eyes widened as Cyrus made a low sound behind her. His fingers brushed her palm. She tried to turn her head to look at him, but could barely see from the angle. He was tied to a chair right behind her.
The incubus, Volik, stepped forward. The chair groaned as he hooked his hand in the back, pulling Cyrus up beside Rin. She finally could look at him.
The blindfold was pushed down to Cyrus’s neck, eyes a deep purple as he stared at her. "You’re not hurt?"
Rin shook her head. "You?"
"No, nothing like I plan to do tothemfor this."
The succubus laughed. "You’ve been a hard incubus to catch. We’ve tracked you everywhere. You’ve had us chasing you all over—from here, to Lunar City, and back again. And for what this time? A human girl?"
Realization hit Rin slowly, then all at once, nearly stealing her breath. The woman had looked familiar to her, after all. The purple eyes, the wild curls. "You were on the news," Rin breathed, and all three of them looked at her. "In Lunar City, you were on the news. They interviewed you after the?—"
"The rampager? Trust me, I’m familiar." She turned to Volik. "Remind me to ask for hazard pay next time. I could’ve lost my head over that hunt in Lunar City."
None of this was making any sense to her. Cyrus sensed her confusion, his hand twisting in the dark ropes to lace with hers.
"Asura," Cyrus said sharply. He knew her name? "Let us go. I’m done with all of it. You will never see me again."
"Like we haven’t heard that before," Volik said, but it wasn’t bitter, just tinged with a fond exasperation. Like friends.
Rin’s eyes tracked over the room: the polished oval table, the plain walls, and the flagpole in the corner. She’d nearly missed itat first. The flag hung limp, curled in on itself, but she saw it was the flag of Sibeth, with a smaller one next to it, bearing the crest of the Galactic Peace Treaty, granting off-planet travel and entry to Earth for non-Earthen citizens.
This was the Sibeth Embassy.
"Cyrus…" Rin spoke lowly. "Why have they taken us?"
It was the succubus who answered. "Why else? To bring the runaway Prince of Sibeth home to his father."
Cyrus hadto get him and Vesperin both out of here before he was taken back to Sibeth. Asura and Volik weren’t a danger to him—at one time, they’d been friends. And maybe he’d tumbled in the sheets with them both a few times, too. He hoped Vesperin didn’t figure that out. It was the nature of his kind to revel in the pleasures of the flesh. Sex didn’t mean anything—but he found with his Soulbond, it did.
The bindings were loose on his wrists, and he tugged, trying to get free.
"I am not going back to Sibeth," Cyrus growled, his incubus magic sparking in the air, red glimmers flashing like warning signs to the two before them.
Vesperin was quiet, her pretty eyes wide, face pale. In her struggle, the neck of her fleece top had slipped down her shoulder, revealing her delicate collarbones. Asura and Volik’s eyes both raked over her with appreciation. Cyrus growled again, tasting their interest. They couldn’t have her—she was his.
Why shouldn’t they know? He forgot why it was a bad idea to show weakness.
"She’s mine. Stop looking at her," Cyrus spat.
