In Darkness We Must Abide by Rhiannon Frater Page B

sarcastic, demonic bastard!”
    Vanora met his glare. “As long as you keep in mind that I am the only person who might be able to kill Aeron, and you have to respect that! If you want your vengeance, then you better remember that I am not your lackey!”
    Pressing his lips tightly together, Greg punched his foot down on the accelerator and the truck lurched forward. “I’m just grumpy, okay?”
    Annoyed, Vanora said, “I just lost everything in my life that mattered to me, remember?”
    “Well, after setting my club on fire and saving your whi- petite ass, I’m starving over here. I didn’t get to feed tonight and it’s really pissing me off.”
    “By feed you mean…” Vanora flinched at the thought of how the demon probably fed.
    “Yeah. Sex . I’m an incubus. I feed off sex . So I’m cranky, hungry, and horny.” Greg pulled over as a fire truck screamed up the lane behind them. Watching the vehicle speed past on its way to yet another fire, the demon grimaced. “Aeron always has the best timing. He always catches me off guard and when I’m not up to full strength.”
    “Well, you have my sympathies,” Vanora said, sarcasm stealing into her voice. After all she’d possibly lost to Aeron’s purge, she couldn’t muster any pity for the demon.
    “Well, I could use a little more than your sympathies. I mean…a blow job would hold me over until-”
    Vanora raised her hand and the golden, sparkling light intensified.
    “I would ask for a hand job but…” He snorted with amusement while eying the manifestation of her magic.
    “Greg…” Vanora said in warning.
    “Fine! You can’t fault me for asking.”
    “Yeah, I can. Remember the respect thing?”
    “I’d still respect you if you slurped on my-”
    “Greg!”
    “Fine!”
    Flipping on his turn signal, Greg edged the truck onto the road, checking his mirrors. The lack of emergency vehicles prompted him to continue their journey to Sheila and Alexander’s rental home. The incubus drove in seething silence while Vanora texted to Sheila that they were almost to their destination. Even though she knew it was a fruitless endeavor, she also sent a message to Alisha. She didn’t disclose where she was, but merely asked her sister to call. Finger hovering over the face of the phone, she considered trying to contact Armando. To merely think of him was to invite a tumult of emotions she wasn’t capable of dealing with at the moment. What if he was with Aeron? She couldn’t risk compromising the man she loved. So instead she put the phone away.
    “Okay, I’m sorry,” Greg said abruptly.
    Giving him a doubtful look, Vanora said, “For what exactly?”
    “I’m cranky, hungry, horny, and just a little pissed off that you don’t know more about what you are, okay? I was hoping you’d be a bit more…Dark Willow.”
    “You watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” Vanora couldn’t have been more surprise.
    “Sarah Michelle Gellar is my dream woman,” Greg confessed.
    “She kills demons on the show!”
    “Which is kinda hot.”
    “You’re truly fucked in the head.”
    “That I am. But my point is that I hoped you would be…ya know…more educated in the ways of witchdom.”
    Within her mind, the bronze box in the ancient temple waited for her. Vanora only had to direct her mind’s eye to the vision and she was instantly immersed in that other world. “Witchdom, huh? I may not have been instructed by my mother, but…I haven’t been without guidance.”
    “Oh?”
    There was incredible weight in that one word from Greg. It was filled with hope, fear, and other emotions that beat along Vanora’s skin like bat wings.
    “There’s something I need to do today and I’ll need you to help me,” Vanora said, relenting to the concept of depending on Greg. Instead of watching the world around her, she was observing the world within. The three women stood by the pool of water, heads now covered in veils that hid their faces. One poured water into the