Inflamed by an Incubus by Felicity Heaton

It had been that dream again. Fire. Shadowy figures. The feeling that she was burning up and about to explode into flames.

Evelyn tried to shake it off as she sipped water from her violet bottle, each cool drop of it quenching her thirst and feeling as if it was lowering her temperature. She nodded to a few of the men and women she passed in the bright corridor on the third floor of the sprawling building in the heart of London, not stopping to talk to the ones she had worked with in the past.

She was on a mission.

Her black T-shirt stuck to her back as she hurried towards her destination and she grimaced as she tugged at it. Maybe she should have let herself cool down after her training session and the shower that had followed it before pulling all her clothes on, but she had overheard one of the other women in the changing room mention that the alpha team was finally back from their latest trip to Hell.

Evelyn hadn’t seen Archer in close to six months, not since she had been forced to rest up following the incident in the Fifth Realm of the demons. The doctors had refused to sign her off for duty, had kept her locked inside headquarters, stopping her from heading into Hell with one of the teams working there to chart the realm. She had tried petitioning the higher-ups but had met with the same result.

Boring rest.

She wasn’t even supposed to be training, but Rob, the man in charge of the gym and practice rooms, was sweet on her and had turned a blind eye.

For the first time in weeks, the cream corridors didn’t look dreary and dull, and she wasn’t desperate to get out on patrol.

Well, maybe she was a little desperate.

Might be thinking up ways to bend her partner around her little finger and make him agree to take her out. No one would argue with her heading out if her partner was with her. Surely?

Evelyn reached the end of the corridor and glanced at the sign above the twin doors. The Central Archive. He was bound to be here. Her partner was nothing if not predictable. She pulled the door on the left open and smiled as she spotted him sitting at one of the computers spaced along the double row of desks that ran down the centre of the room, his back to the wall of black cases that contained the servers. The screen reflected off his black-rimmed glasses as he leaned on his elbow, his chin propped up on his palm as he worked the mouse with his other hand.

“Couldn’t have guessed I would find you here.” She let the door swing close behind her and ignored the looks the other hunters in the room gave her, ones that told her to be quiet. It wasn’t a library. She was allowed to speak here.

Archer glanced up from the screen, his dark eyes dropping to it again before he lifted them once more and sat up this time. He rubbed his left shoulder through his tight black Henley, his lips quirking towards that side as he massaged it, and then sank against the back of the chair and pushed his glasses up his nose with his index finger.

He pulled off the handsome geek look, had half the women in HQ panting after him and envious of her for being assigned to him as his partner. She’d had more than one run-in with a jealous woman in her time here, something that wasn’t helped by how close she was to Archer. There had been a few times when she had thought about them romantically, but she had never acted on it. It wasn’t that the timing had never been right. It was just a feeling she had that they weren’t right for each other and making the shift from partners to lovers would only ruin this good thing they had going on.

Archer was absolutely her only friend in Archangel, had had her back more times than she could count and was the reason she was here working for them, had joined their mission to protect people from dangerous non-humans.

Because he had saved her from one of them.

She didn’t want to mess up their friendship.

So she had never acted on the occasional spark of desire she felt for him.

Archer ran a hand over his dark brown hair, mussing the longer lengths, and stretched, clasping his hands together as he raised his arms above his head. When he was done, he sank deeper into the chair and placed both hands behind his head, supporting it as he looked at her and drawing the gazes of the other women in the archive.

Those women would probably claw her eyes out if they knew she had seen him naked once, had witnessed him in all his glory, could have drunk her fill of his honed muscles and maybe done more than that if she had accepted his offer to skinny-dip in the lake with him.

The thought of swimming in pitch-black water under a moonless sky and not knowing what else was in there with her had been enough to keep her on the shore.

Archer raked his dark eyes over her, a flicker of a frown dancing on his brow before he relaxed again. “How are you doing? Cleared for action?”

Evelyn touched her side through her black T-shirt and grimaced. “Still a little sore. I’m not sure why I’m taking so long to heal. It’s not like me.”

The doctors had always been fascinated by how quickly she could heal any wound she picked up in the field, and sometimes they had looks in their eyes that unnerved her and made her wary of them. The sort of looks they gave the guests held in the pens downstairs.

So she was worried that it was taking her months to heal, even when the doctors she had seen at her regular check-ups had assured her that it was normal to take a long time to fully recover from a wound like this. The wound was in a spot that was easily aggravated by her moving and there had been extensive tissue damage. Enough that the surgeons who had patched her up had told her countless times she was lucky to be alive.

She wouldn’t have been if not for Archer.

Archer sat up and brushed her hand away from her right side, lifted her T-shirt and didn’t hesitate to sweep his fingers over the still-pink scar on her skin just above the waist of her trousers. That earned him a few gasps from their audience and her a few death looks.

It wasn’t her fault that Archer didn’t operate in the same way most men did. He had never been backwards about doing this sort of thing. It didn’t even seem to register that it wasn’t the done thing for a man to just bare a woman’s skin and touch her. Sometimes, she had the feeling he was nothing like other men.

His fingers were warm against her flesh and seemed to grow hotter as they paused over the scar.

“You need at least a few more days rest. Maybe a couple of weeks. This should be healed by now.” His hand dropped from her side and he sat back in his chair again and tossed her an unimpressed look. “You’ve been ignoring the docs again when they tell you to relax and take it easy, haven’t you?”

She tensed.

Rumbled.

Archer had caught her fair and square, and the edge his dark eyes gained said he wasn’t happy about it.

He sighed.

“It doesn’t take a genius to see you’ve been hitting the gym, Evelyn. Water bottle. Damp T-shirt. Flushed skin. You’re only hindering your recovery.” He glanced at the mouse and looked as if he wanted to take hold of it and continue his work, a few tense seconds passing before he looked back at her. “I’m worried you’re pushing yourself too hard. Take the time to heal.”

“It’s been months already,” she snapped, the frustration of being stuck inside HQ for all that time getting to her. She didn’t like being short with Archer, but the inaction grated on her, had her going out of her mind. “I’m ready to get back out there.”

“It wouldn’t have been months if you had followed doctors’ orders and rested until you had completely recovered.” Archer looked at the screen and grabbed the mouse, scrolled down a little.

“I have been resting!” She glared at him, her hackles rising as she tugged her T-shirt down to cover the scar. “It was just a little gym time. I didn’t want to get out of shape.”

He lifted his gaze back to her.

There was an accusation in that look—a look that set her on edge and had her easing back a little.

“What?” she murmured, a feeling that he knew more than he was letting on rolling through her.

Archer shifted his gaze back to the screen. “Marty snitched on you.”

“Son of a bitch!” she barked and then scowled at the other occupants of the room when they all glared at her.

She turned her frown on Archer.

He smiled easily. “Do you really think I don’t have spies everywhere?”

Evelyn huffed, planted her backside against the edge of the desk beside him and pouted at the servers. “I should’ve known he would tell on me. Fine, I did go out. I was going crazy being stuck inside and I needed some air. Marty swore he wouldn’t tell anyone if I went on one patrol with him.”

Archer rapped a knuckle against the screen, his gaze fixed on her face. “You knew he would have to file a report the moment you got into it with that vampire.”

“The vampire had it coming.” She pulled a face at him, could practically see her shot at getting out of this damned building slipping through her grasp as Archer’s unimpressed look shifted towards anger.

“And some might say you had it coming too.” He jerked his head towards her side, his eyes darkening. “You opened it up pretty good according to Marty.”

Evelyn folded her arms across her chest and made a mental note to make Marty pay for including everything in his damned report. Marty knew how protective Archer was of her and that he would find that report and come down hard on her about this. It was the reason she had wanted to keep it secret from him.

But apparently Archer was right and nothing got past him.

“If Marty had been more help, maybe I wouldn’t have reopened the wound.” Did she look as pouty as she sounded? She mentally waved goodbye to all thoughts of hitting the streets, her hope dying a swift death as Archer gave her that look.

The one that said she wasn’t going to be bending him around her little finger this time.

He patted the seat beside him. “Come do some research with me.”

Evelyn let her head fall back on an exasperated groan. “Not research. Anything but research!”

She let her head fall forwards again and slumped over, her arms dropping to dangle between her thighs and her will to live bleeding from her as she thought about sitting in front of a computer screen, poring over boring documents and sifting through reports. She curled her lip and looked over her shoulder at his screen.

It was filled with a long list of reports.

“Ugh. No thanks. What are you researching anyway?” She scanned the titles of the reports, trying to figure it out before he could answer.

“Witches. Magic.” He casually pushed his glasses up with his index finger as his dark gaze drifted over the screen.

The same thing he was always researching.

Evelyn sighed and nudged his shoulder. “Come on patrol. Getting some fresh air and stretching your legs will be good for you. You’ll only get a flat butt if you insist on sitting around all the time.”

He scowled at her, the black slashes of his eyebrows meeting hard. “I have to remind you I only just got back from Hell? I’ve not been sitting on my backside. You have.”

She grumbled about that.

Archer shook his head and went back to his reports. “Not going to happen. You need to rest.”

“No.” She snatched the mouse from him and refused to give it back even when he levelled a black look on her. She smiled sweetly. “I haven’t seen you in forever. I thought maybe we could catch up while we patrolled.”

His dark eyes narrowed, his broad mouth flattening as the corners turned downwards. She tensed as seconds trickled past, the way he scrutinised her making her painfully aware of him and that he was on to her.

He huffed, gripped her hand and pulled the mouse free of it. “You just want to question me.”

He glared at the computer screen.

“You don’t believe me.”

Evelyn grimaced and pressed a hand to her side, feeling awful as it burned and she saw the anger in Archer’s eyes, together with hurt. The wound blazed as hotly as it had that day as she thought about what had happened in that dreadful demon castle, her awareness of the other occupants of the archive room fading away as she stared at Archer.

“It just seems so…” Her brow furrowed as she replayed everything and her voice dropped to a whisper. “I swore I was dead.”

“You would have been if it hadn’t been for me.” Archer positively growled those words, anger rolling off him as his handsome features pinched tightly. “I saved your life.”

“I know that.” She reached for him and flinched when he leaned away and glared at her, stopping her from touching his arm. She sighed, eased back again, and looked down at her hands as she twisted them in front of her hips.

Archer had led the team that had slipped into Hell ahead of the one Sable, another hunter for Archangel, had been preparing to lead to the Third Realm of the demons to aid King Thorne in his war against the Fifth Realm. Evelyn had been part of his team, together with a dozen other hunters. Their mission had been to document as much about the Fifth Realm as they could, a covert operation approved by those in command and kept secret from Sable.

One of the scientists had identified a non-human in the pens who had sworn they could teleport their team into the Fifth Realm and had done so in order to gain their freedom.

The operation should have been simple—scout the terrain and gather as much information as possible about the demons of that realm, the army Sable’s side might be up against, and anything else that would help them and return to Archangel headquarters in London to deliver it to command.

Only they had been discovered by a group of demons and brought before their king, and he had declared they were spies and ordered their executions.

“I told you, Evelyn. I saw a chance and I took it. When you were stabbed, I made my move. It was risky, but it worked. I managed to catch them off guard and took out a few of the demons with tranq darts and in the ruckus my attack caused, I got you away from them. I carried you to a place nearby where we would be safe and patched you up. You were out for a few days before you came around.” He leaned back in his chair, his face remaining etched in hard lines that spoke of irritation. His deep voice took on a hard edge as he continued, “You passed out again and I carried you to the nearest town over the border and found someone who helped us get back here. What about that is so difficult to believe? Or perhaps you don’t trust a word I say?”

She leaned back and frowned at him, unable to hide her hurt as those words hit her.

“I do trust you.” She reached for him again and he glared at her hand, stopping her. A sigh leaked from her lips as she thought about what she was doing, as that acid feeling scoured her insides again and an urge to apologise rose within her. She scrubbed a hand over her damp blonde hair instead, feeling awful as he continued to scowl at her.

“You said yourself in your report that everything had been a blur. The pain of your wound and fear combined with adrenaline made it impossible for you to grasp what was happening, and you were unconscious for a good part of it too.” He whipped his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose, his broad chest heaving in a deep sigh as he sank against the back of his chair. When he lowered his glasses and hand and looked at her, a hurt edge to his dark eyes, that feeling in her gut worsened. “What do I have to do to make you believe me?”

She shook her head and wanted to tell him she was sorry but she couldn’t find her voice.

Everything had been a blur, and even now, it was still a little hazy. Whenever she sat down and tried to remember what had happened, things slipped through her fingers like smoke. Not just the finer details of what had gone down in the Fifth Realm either. Pieces were missing. Big pieces. Like some of the events that led up to them being in the castle, and some of the things that had happened when they had been held captive. Other things were hazy, like she could remember something but she could never pull it into focus to see what it was.

And she hated it.

“You’ve not seen me in weeks and the first thing you do is question me.” He put his glasses back on and began scrolling through the reports.

Giving her the cold shoulder.

She deserved it.

He was right and it was wrong of her to question him like this. It was hard for her though. He put it down to fear and adrenaline severely affecting her at the time, but something deep inside her said it had been more than that. She pulled down a breath and tried to calm her mind, told herself that he was right and she hadn’t been able to cope with everything that had been happening. She had blanked. It had been too much for her and fear had made her numb, had messed with her head somehow. That was why she didn’t remember what had happened. That was why there was a gap in her memories between the cold kiss of steel in her side and her life draining before her eyes and waking back in the med bay in Archangel.

But it didn’t explain why her memories of the time before they had been captured were patchy.

“If you want, I’ll tell you everything all over again, but it isn’t going to change.” Archer clicked on one of the documents and glared as he viciously scrolled through it.

Evelyn placed her hand on his, stopping him. “I’m sorry. It just… You know how difficult it is for me when I don’t remember things. I hate it. Sometimes I wonder if what those non-humans did to me all those years ago is still affecting me.”

He stilled and looked up at her, his expression instantly softening. His hand slipped from beneath hers as he stood and moved closer to her, raised his other hand and brushed her hair from her face.

“You’re free of that place now, Evelyn,” he whispered. “You’re free of that part of your past. It was just the stress of the moment that made you forget a few details.”

He heaved another sigh and his fingers lingered on her cheek.

“I’m sorry too. I’ve been under a lot of pressure recently and I’m tired. Maybe I need a break.” He smiled softly and shrugged. “Or a drink. I could buy you a drink as an apology.”

“Cafeteria beer? I’ll pass.” She gazed at the servers, seeing beyond the array of blinking red, green and orange lights in her mind, to the world out there. “I just want to be back on the streets. I want to leap back into my work and forget about what happened… which is ironic since I hate forgetting.”

She chuckled.

Archer’s steady gaze drilled into the side of her face.

She kept hers locked on the servers, a heavy feeling settling inside her again. She hated being inactive. It gave her too much time to think and she kept finding herself mulling over all the times she had felt there was something wrong with her.

That she wasn’t right.

“How about we get some decent beer then?” Archer’s hand dropped to his side and he gave her a stern look. “I’m not taking you on patrol, but we could gather some intelligence… something not dangerous… like a trip to Switch or Underworld.”

Two nightclubs run by non-humans.

She gave him a sly smile. “I could use a cold beer.”

He smiled right back at her, shook his head and then nodded towards the door. “Come on then. We can walk. Fix this flat butt of mine.”

Evelyn slid a sidelong look at it as he walked past her, rounding the end of the row of desks. It wasn’t flat at all. She wasn’t sure how he did it, but he could sit in a chair most of the day and not ruin one hell of a fantastic backside. She wasn’t the only one who stole a peek at it either. Several of the women in the room also tiptoed to see past the monitors to him as he strode towards the door, a sensual shift to his movements that made him look like a panther on the prowl.

On a satisfied sigh, she pushed to her feet and followed him, resisting the temptation to continue admiring the view.

“Swing by my quarters first? I need to grab some things.” By things, she meant her favourite tranquiliser gun, just in case things got a little wild.

Archer nodded as she fell into step beside him, and she led the way to her quarters in the dormitory wing of the enormous building. She ditched her water bottle and grabbed her holster, wrangling her arms into it so her pistol sat snug against her ribs, and then turned back towards Archer where he waited in the doorway.

He reached around to his left, unhooked her black leather jacket and tossed it at her. “Might want to cover that piece.”

She slipped her arms into the worn leather and smoothed it over her ribs so it concealed her weapon and then grabbed the pack of darts from the side table near him. He waited for her to pocket them and then turned around and stepped back into the cream hallway. She closed the door behind her and followed him down through the building, across the large bright foyer and out into the night.

The air was cool against her damp hair and she breathed deep of it, savouring it as if it was a fine wine, not thick with the scents of London. She glanced back at the elegant sandstone building as they left it behind, a place that had been her home for years now, since Archer had saved her life the first time.

“Let’s cut through here.” Archer pointed to the park and she immediately went on high alert, her focus narrowing to the shadows that clung to the trees.

If Archer switched his focus to looking for danger, he didn’t show it. He casually jammed his hands into the pockets of his black combat trousers and tipped his head back to gaze at the night sky.

“I’m not sure how you can be so calm about walking through a pitch-black park.” Evelyn scanned the darkness, her cheeks warming a little as she tried to pick out whether anyone was lurking in the patches of black beneath the trees. She absently touched her face when it grew hotter and her head felt a little foggy.

What was wrong with her these days?

She kept feeling flushed, hot all over, and she was starting to worry that her wound was infected even though the doctor at her latest check-up said she wasn’t showing any signs of infection.

“You all right?” Archer stopped and caught her arm. He pulled her around to face him, a soft look of concern etched on his face as he studied her. When he lifted his hand and touched her cheek, she almost gasped. It was so cool against her flesh, a blissful relief from the heat that scalded her cheeks. “Maybe we should forget about getting a beer and head back. You don’t look so good.”

“I’m fine.”

She locked up tight, her muscles clamping down on her bones as movement just beyond him caught her eye and she looked there. Her gaze collided with that of a man who was running right at Archer’s back and she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him.

He was handsome.

Gorgeous even.

And strangely familiar.

Evelyn frowned at him, trying to place him as heat bloomed in her veins and she fought the sudden wave of desire that threatened to steal her breath.

She saw a flash of him in the courtyard of a dark grey stone castle.

Felt the cold bite of steel in her side again.

He had been there.

His gaze shifted to Archer and narrowed, and panic lanced her, the haze of desire swift to dissipate as she realised he meant to attack her friend.

She barked, “Stop right there.”

And drew her gun.