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I struggled to swallow so I could whisper, “What do they say I am?”

“Succubus,” she whispered as she lowered her face toward mine. I knew in that instant that she was going to kiss me. “I am seeking another of my kind, Anita. Are you what I seek?” And with the last word she closed her mouth over mine.

6

HER MOUTH WAS warm, so warm against mine. Warm like hot chocolate. Something you wanted to open your mouth and sip from. It wasn’t my idea, opening my mouth, it was hers. Somehow, it was her thought in my head. I didn’t like that, not one little bit. The not liking helped me keep my mouth closed tight. She drew back enough to whisper, “Do not fight me.”

I heard voices around us arguing. Help was coming, I just had to hold on. I just had to hold my shields in place and not let her do what she was trying to do. Just hold on, that was all. I’d held on when help was miles away; now it was just inches. I could do this.

She’d tried gentle persuasion, mind games, they hadn’t worked. She tried force. She kissed me so hard, that either I opened my mouth to her, or she was going to cut my lip on my own teeth. If she’d been a man I would have just let her kiss me—was I really this homophobic? If she hadn’t whispered through my mind that she wanted me to open my mouth, I might have done it, but she wanted it too badly. Part of me was just that stubborn, but part of me was afraid of why she wanted it so badly. I knew she was a siren, a sort of uber-mermaid. I knew that some of her magic dealt with seduction and sex. I knew that she could control the other mermaids. I knew all sorts of things from talks with Jean-Claude; what I didn’t know was why she wanted me to open my mouth.

Her kiss bruised my mouth and I tasted blood, sweet, metallic candy on my tongue. The moment I tasted the blood, it hurt. She’d cut the inside of my lip on my own teeth.

She drew back. “Why fight so hard simply not to kiss me back? Are you so much a hater of women?”

I tried to shake my head, but she still held my face immobile. “Why do you want me to open my mouth? What difference does it make to you?”

“You are strong, Anita, so strong. The walls of your inner tower are high, and wide, but not impenetrable.”

I was getting angry, and I wasn’t sure what that would do to my inner tower and its walls. I did not want the beast to rise while we were still doing introductions. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, but said what my anger wanted me to say; I just wasn’t angry when I said it. “Either let me go, or breach those walls, but either way this ends.”

“How so?”

“I’ve done all that vampire etiquette requires, so either let me go, or I call in my guards and they force you to let me go.”

“Do you need help to break free of me?” she asked, and her voice was singsong again.

“Unless I’m willing to shoot you, yes.”

Graham came close enough to say quietly, “Say the word, Anita, and we move her.” He sounded eager, or angry. I guess I couldn’t blame him. This whole thing had gone beyound grandstanding to just plain rude.

Samuel came to our side. “Thea, this is not the way.”

She turned her head and looked at him. “Then what is the way?”

“Perhaps you could simply ask.”

A look crossed her face, as if that would never have occurred to her, then she laughed, a high wild sound, and for a second I thought I heard the laughter of seagulls. “So simple, my darling Samuel, so simple.” She released the grip on my hair so I could move my neck, which was a relief. She stayed entwined around me, but not so forcefully. We were still too close for comfort, but it was more friendly. “My deepest apologies, Anita; it has been so long since I met anyone who could withstand my desires that I simply kept trying to force. Forgive me.”

“Let me go, and I will.”

She gave that laugh again, and it wasn’t my imagination. When she laughed I heard the sound that herring gulls make, and the whisper of surf. She let me go, stepped back. The moment she moved back the tension level in the room plummeted.