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I swallow hard, refusing to respond.
“For fuck’s sake, you were about to add three days’ travel out of our way just to please her,” he says, jabbing an arm in the opposite direction like we’re back at the fork in the road.
He isn't wrong, but I don't want to admit it. I only want to focus on whatis, not whatcould be.
“She's a succubus,” I say.
Jagger looks at me likeobviously. “Both of us have bite wounds to prove that.”
“She's a succubus,” I continue, ignoring his sarcastic bite. “She's naturally going to draw us to her?—”
“Don't go there,” Jagger cuts me off. “I'm a siren. I know all about hypnotic trances and influence. She's not using any. She may have used some when she danced for you, but she hasn't since the second she decided to let us take her. And yes, I saylet usbecause if she wanted to, she'd be gone.”
“Mmm,” is the only sound I utter as I shrug and start the walk back toward camp. “You need to be careful,” I say. “I know your appetite. And after what I experienced, once doesn't feel like enough, does it?”
“Ah, so youareadmitting you enjoyed her?—”
“I'm admitting it's dangerous,” I cut him off. “The succubus has told us as much herself. I may not know everything about her kind, but I know enough to not want to Link myself to her for the rest of existence.”
Jagger hums through his teeth. “I don't know,” he says. “After tonight?Damn. You have to admit, she's an explosive combination of witty and sexy and dangerous. She has a great sense of humor and a heart big enough to put her life on the line for complete strangers. How often do you come across someone like that?”
“How often do we come across monsters wrapped in pretty packages with the ability to kill us in our sleep?” I glare at him as we walk.
He glares right back.
“I'm just saying,” Jagger continues. “I feel like there would be worse things in this wretched world than to Link with Liv.”
“Liv,” I repeat the way he says her shortened name. “Are the two of you best friends now?”
“Are you jealous she's in competition of your coveted spot?”
“You are not my friend, Jagger,” I lie. “Let alone my best friend.”
“Sure,” he says, glancing around the deserted woods. “You want to point out who is?”
“Keep testing me, Jagger,” I say happy to have returned to some form of normalcy as we clear the trees near camp. “And I will?—”
My words die in my throat. The camp is completely empty. No sign of the succubus.
I move to the bank of the river, glancing up and down it. Still no sign of her.
“Fuck,” I say, anger crashing through me in a fiery storm. I drop the hare near the fire. “She ran.”
The solid hope that’s built in my chest of getting back what I lost from the Collector dissolves at the sight of the empty camp.
“She wouldn't,” Jagger immediately says, not a hint of doubt in his voice. The poor bastard is completely hooked on her. He glances around camp, his keen eyes searching.
“She has,” I say, my blood spiking with the adrenaline. I need to run and hunt her down and bring her back to us. “She fucked us both so we would let our guard down and sheran.”
Jagger steps into the path I've started pacing, gripping my shoulders. “I'm telling you she didn't run,” he snaps, holding up her satchel in front of my face as if that's evidence enough. “She never takes this thing off. She wouldn’t have willingly left without her meds.”
I stare at the satchel, hearing his words and letting them sink past the walls of fury that have constructed themselves in the last eighteen seconds.
My eyes widen, my entire body tensing as fear overtakes anger.
Fear for the succubus.
“If she didn't run,” I say, still eyeing the satchel. “Then where the fuck is she, Jagger?”
