Mallory of Strange Valley (Strange Valley Immortals #1) (2 page)

“I assume he’s smoking hot?” Claire brightened a little.

“He looks like a Greek god come to life.” Mallory sighed again.

Mortal folklore said Incubi took the form of ugly old men, but that was completely inaccurate. Incubi were every bit as hot as Succubi. Male and female sex demons both needed sex with mortals to survive, so it only made sense that both would appear as appealing as possible to their prey.

“Well, hopefully he’ll put most of his attention toward the chicks and leave you the guys. I seriously do not want to relocate again. Strange Valley has really started to feel like home,” Claire said.

Mallory stuck her hand out the window, letting the wind of the car’s motion push against her palm. It was another bright Strange Valley day, a perfect 70 degrees with a cloudless sky the lazy pale blue of Asher’s t-shirt. She didn’t want to leave Strange Valley, either. Did the Immortal High Council place Asher here as competition for her, some sort of test? Or did the council members truly believe that two sex demons could share Mead Community College without any trouble?

Claire drove in typical maniac fashion - running yellow lights at the last possible second, swerving into oncoming traffic.

“Claire!” Mallory grabbed the armrest as the VW’s wheels squealed against the pavement, the front bumper inches away from the car ahead that had slowed to turn. “Just because we’re Immortal--”

“Doesn’t mean I can drive like everyone else is, too,” Claire finished. “I know, I know.”

She yanked the wheel right and turned into the McDonald’s parking lot, and swerved around a pickup to get to the drive-through line.

“Two large Big Mac meals with Cokes,” Claire said into the speaker.

She and Mallory ate fast food for lunch almost every day, partly because it was so much easier than packing a lunch at home, but mostly because they could. One advantage of being Immortal was that they didn’t have to worry about things like calories. And it wasn’t like they were going to die of a heart attack brought on by poor diet.

Back at Mead CC, Claire parked near the Green.

“’Kay, you don’t see him, do you?” Claire said around a mouthful of burger. She chewed and craned her neck.

Mallory scanned the Green and then laughed. “You can sense him just as easily as I can.”

“I figured you might sense him first, being the same species and all.” Claire was clearly amped up about the prospect of a new Immortal in the area.

“You’re already thinking about screwing him, aren’t you?” Mallory eyed her friend.

“Duh,
no
,” Claire said. “I’m just curious.” She gave Mallory a look of wide-eyed innocence.

Mallory rolled her eyes and turned back to the crowds of students spread over the Green. “Sylphs are supposed to be all about beauty and vanity, but you’re hornier than a sex demon.”

 “I can’t help it. I wish I had a better excuse to slut around. Like you do.” Claire giggled.

“Hey, I’m not a slut! I’m just a poor little sex demon, trying to get by,” Mallory crooned in the sultry voice she used to seduce prey.

“Cry me a river, Succubus.” Claire laughed again.

“Oh wait—there,” Mallory pointed at a cluster of picnic tables, where small groups of students sat with their lunches. Asher’s head, with its shining blond waves of hair, stood out inches above most of the others around him. “Looks like he’s already got a fan club.”

“Whoa,” Claire breathed. “He’s ridiculous. I mean,
retarded
hot. It’s like Adonis and Brad Pitt from
Troy
had a love child.”

Mallory didn’t respond. Yeah, he was good-looking, but he was also her competition.

“You think he’s, you know, taken any victims yet?” Claire stuffed the last of her burger into her mouth.

“Probably not. I’m pretty sure he just got here,” Mallory said. But unease laced through her.

Was he aggressive? She had almost zero first-hand knowledge about the behavior of Incubi. Maybe she and Asher could work out some kind of deal, divvy up Mead CC’s male population. Asher could have the gay guys, and Mallory the straight ones. It was only fair that she got a much larger proportion of the males, anyway, seeing as how Asher had the option of also preying on Mead’s girls.

“C’mon, let’s go talk to him!” Claire jumped out of the car and slammed her door.

Crap
.  Mallory grabbed her Coke and jogged to catch up.

“Claire, no.” She hoped the pleading in her voice would slow her friend. “Let’s at least wait til he’s not in the middle of a crowd.”

“Oh, stop being such a pussy. We have as much right to talk to him as anyone else here. Besides, it’s not like he’ll try to do anything to us in front of all these people.”

As they approached the table where Asher sat with his admirers, Mallory tried to decide how to present herself. Should she be challenging, try to give him the message that this was her territory? Or maybe coy and subdued, let him know she wasn’t worried about him?

Claire sashayed right up to the picnic table and squeezed between Asher and a willowy girl with long waves of strawberry blonde hair. The girl scowled as she reluctantly made space for Claire. “Hey, I’m Claire.” She twisted and gestured at Mallory. “This is my friend, Mallory.”

Mallory stood awkwardly at the end of the table. There wasn’t room for her on the end of the bench.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Asher smiled Mallory’s way, flashing his teeth shark-like. He tipped his head at the row of girls sitting across from him. “They’ll make space for you, Mallory.”

The girls obediently scooched over and let Mallory sit in the middle, directly across from Asher. She wanted to grill him with questions. First and foremost, how did he ever get permission from the Immortal High Council to come into her territory? But she didn’t want to have to glamour every girl at the table so she could discuss Council politics.

“Are you from around Strange Valley?” Claire beamed up at him. Her tiny frame looked even smaller next to his tall, muscular one. Sylphs tended to be very petite, and Claire was barely 90 pounds.

“No, but my dad grew up not far from here and I have family in the area,” Asher said. “I’ve always loved it here. Gorgeous weather, the beach nearby.”

It was probably a lie. Unless Asher had just turned, any family he’d had as a mortal was either long dead or unaware of his continued life as an Immortal.

“So you’ll be staying here . . . permanently?” Mallory asked.

“Seems you’re stuck with me,” Asher confirmed, and tossed a charming grin at his audience. A couple of the girls giggled. “I’m very much looking forward to sampling all that Mead has to offer.”

Asher looked directly at Mallory, his eyes full of lust and brimstone, and flashed his true form. For a microsecond imperceptible to the mortals around them, his black wings stretched high above him and flared to their fullest. An unmistakable posture of challenge. Mallory’s heart dipped.

Asher Weston clearly wasn’t interested in negotiating any kind of treaty with her.

CHAPTER THREE

Around midnight that night, Mallory prowled the back of a two-story house in a suburban neighborhood a couple of miles from Mead CC. This was the address Jared Labar had entered into her phone after Western Civ.

The night was still, and the delicious perfume of jasmine blossoms hung heavy in the air. Sensing Jared’s presence inside, she was trying to pinpoint which window was his. She tucked her wings and stopped near the gas barbeque on the pergola-covered patio, her claws softly scraping the concrete, and squinted at a second-story window. It wasn’t that she had trouble seeing—she could see nearly as well at night as in full daylight—but she wanted to make sure she had the right window. It would be most unfortunate to bust in on Jared’s parents or kid sister.

The unmistakable heat along her inner thighs told her Jared was definitely nearby. The faint vibration centered at her most sensitive spot—more of a little shiver, really—indicated he was pent-up and sexually inexperienced, a familiar impression given off by most 18-year-old guys. It didn’t matter how many times a day a guy like Jared masturbated. His unsated urge to ravage a female body practically made the air around his house vibrate.

Once she felt sure she had the right room, she backed up into the manicured lawn, her tiny skirt and sweater rolled into a ball and tucked into her clawed hand. She spread her wings, and pushed up and down twice. Her feet lifted from the damp grass and she rose above the top of the roof. With a swoop around the chimney, she slowed and flapped in a back and forth motion, descending and touching down on Jared’s window ledge with a great swoosh of air.

Changing to the form she could use around mortals—20-something human college girl—she pushed against the window and found it unlocked. She lowered herself from the ledge to plush carpet, careful not to disturb a haphazard pile of sports equipment, and quickly pulled on her sweater. As she was trying to secure the tiny hook-and-eye closure on her short pleated skirt, the smell of charred sulfur assaulted her nose, and she spun around. She started back a step at the sight of Asher. How could she have missed the telltale tingle of another Immortal’s nearby presence?

“I call dibs on this one,” he said from the foot of the bed, his voice low and velvety. He was completely naked.

She glanced at Jared. Still asleep, one arm flung above his head, mouth slightly open.

She planted her feet hip-width and narrowed her eyes at the demon before her.

“I don’t think so,” she said, trying to sound authoritative. “I’ve had my eye on him since before you showed up. Besides, he’s not gay.”

Asher’s body shimmered as he took on his Incubus form, and Mallory couldn’t help staring at his crotch. His cock jutted out erect, at least ten inches long, and a good three inches in girth. He was manipulating his appearance for her benefit, but it was impressive nonetheless. Desire stirred like a swell of hot lava between her legs. The primal urge for life-sustaining sex began to rush through her like a wave building momentum toward shore.

Mallory really, really needed to get laid.

Asher folded his arms. “Fine. Show me yours, and I’ll let you have him.”

Let her have him?
Whatever
. It didn’t matter how much Asher wanted Jared, he couldn’t force a conquest. Despite sex demons’ ability to influence mortals by glamouring them, neither Succubi nor Incubi could have sex with a mortal against his or her will. It was akin to vampires being able to cross a threshold only after an invitation. The
threshold
was just different.

Jared wasn’t interested in Asher’s giant demon cock, and it was time for Asher to stop this stupid territorial act and concede.

Mallory let her skirt drop to the floor and whipped her sweater over her head. “Behold,” she said with a sarcastic flourish of her hands, and changed into her demon form.

Asher’s eyes reflected lust and appreciation as they roamed her body. “Beautiful . . .” he whispered.

Mallory’s cocky façade failed for a split second when she recognized the sincere desire heavy in his voice. And there was something else, too, something deeper—wistfulness, maybe?—that erased the snarky comeback from her mind.

Then, in a flash of leathery black wings, he darted to the window and disappeared.

She stared into the night for a moment, half-wondering if she’d just imagined the entire encounter. She shook her head and changed back to the form Jared would recognize, and slid the window shut. Odd as her exchange with Asher was, she had other things to attend to.

She quickly redressed and turned to the bed. Show time.

As she had in class, she focused her mental energy on Jared, creating caressing waves that rippled over his body and intensified between his legs. He stirred, mumbling in his sleep, and she increased the pressure and speed of her telekinetic touch. Sensing him growing hard, she smiled in anticipation.

She reached out with her mind to peel back the comforter and sheet, and then scoot his boxer shorts over his hips, down his legs, and drop them on the floor. Jared’s eyelids flew open and he blinked a couple of times as he groped for the covers.

Mallory tsked. “Now, now, don’t do that.” She telekinetically pinned his hands against the pillow above his head.

In a flash, she moved to the bedside so he could see her more clearly.

“M-- Mallory?” he stuttered, his eyes wide. His erection grew even harder against his belly, and Mallory sensed it starting to throb. It drew her like a magnet to iron, the source of the unseen energy that both pleasured her and sustained her existence.

She moved with Immortal speed to straddle him, her short pleated skirt fanning out to cover the hot length of his cock. She lifted her skirt a little to show him she had nothing on underneath, and he stared, swallowing a couple of times.

“Is this really happening?” Jared stuttered.

Mallory laughed softly. “It’s fantasy time, Jared Labar. Enjoy it, because you’re not going to remember much later.”

“What do you—?”

Mallory pressed her fingers against his lips, cutting him off.

“Do you want me or not?”

He nodded, eyes wide.

She grasped his left hand and turned it palm-up, pulling it toward the wet heat between her legs. She pushed two of his fingers inside of her and pressed his thumb to her clit.

He took the hint, moving his fingers against her.

“Just like that,” she purred, and closed her eyes, making small rolling thrusts with her hips.

For a fleeting moment, she came back to herself—the normal girl who wanted a normal life—and wished she didn’t want this so badly. But it was her nature. The only thing that sustained her survival.

She grew more and more wet as Jared fingered her, until she couldn’t take it any longer. His fingers weren’t enough. She yanked her sweater up over her head and tossed it to the floor, and ran her palms down over her full breasts.

She pushed his hand away and moved up his body so she could grind on him, the head of his cock sliding against the wet curve of her opening, up to her clit, and back again. He slipped his hands under her skirt to grip her bare ass, and pulled her rhythmically against him. She let this go on for a few seconds, but didn’t want him to come just yet.