Succubus Revealed Read Free

angel’s chin-length, blond hair was even more unkempt than usual.
    “Tell us what you really think, Georgina,” he replied. He ran a hand over his hair, but it somehow only made things worse. “I’m saving it for a special occasion.”
    “If I get your name again, I’ll buy you two hats so you don’t have to ration yourself.”
    “I wouldn’t want you to go to the trouble.”
    “No trouble at all. I get a discount at the mall.”
    Jerome sighed and set down his fork. “Are you still doing that, Georgie? Don’t I suffer enough without having to endure the humiliation of a succubus who moonlights as a Christmas elf?”
    “You always said I should quit the bookstore and find something else to do,” I reminded him.
    “Yes, but that was because I thought you’d go on to do something respectable. Like become a stripper or the mayor’s mistress.”
    “This is just temporary.” I handed Carter the elegant crystal wineglass that had been sitting by my plate. He filled it with wine from the box and gave it back. Peter groaned and muttered something about despoiling Tiffany’s.
    “Georgina doesn’t need material things anymore,” teased Cody. “She’s paid in love now.”
    Jerome fixed the young vampire with a cold stare. “Do not ever say anything that saccharine again.”
    “You’re one to talk,” I said to Cody, unable to hide my smile. “I’m surprised you could drag yourself away from Gabrielle tonight.” His face immediately grew dreamy at the mention of his ladylove.
    “That makes two of us,” observed Peter. He shook his head bitterly. “You guys and your perfect love lives.”
    “Hardly perfect,” I said at the same time Cody said, “It is perfect.”
    All eyes fell on me. Hugh even looked up from his phone. “Trouble in paradise?”
    “Why do you always assume that? And no, of course not,” I scoffed, hating myself for the slip. “Things are fantastic with Seth.”
    And they were. Just speaking his name sent a flood of joy through me. Seth. Seth was what made everything worthwhile. My relationship with him was what had caused the rift between me and my former co-workers at the bookstore. They saw me as the reason for his breakup with Doug’s sister. Which, I suppose, I was. But no matter how much I’d loved that job, giving it up was a small price to pay to be with Seth. I could endure being an elf. I could endure the quotas he and I put on our sex life, to ensure my succubus powers didn’t suck him dry. With him, I could handle anything. Even a future of damnation.
    There were just a couple of teeny-tiny things about my relationship with Seth that gave me pause. One had been eating at me for a while, one I kept trying to ignore. But now, suddenly, with my immortal friends watching me, I finally drummed up the courage to address it.
    “It’s just . . . I don’t suppose any of you told Seth my name, did you?” Seeing Peter open his mouth in confusion, I immediately amended, “My real name.”
    “Why would that ever come up?” asked Hugh dismissively, returning to his texting.
    “I don’t even know your real name,” said Cody. “Are you saying it’s not Georgina?”
    I regretted the words already. It was a stupid thing for me to worry about, and their reactions were just proving that point.
    “Do you not want him to know your name?” asked Hugh.
    “No . . . it’s fine. I just, well. It’s just weird. A month or so ago, when he was half-asleep, he called me by it. Letha,” I added, for Cody’s benefit. I managed to say the name without tripping over it. It wasn’t a name I welcomed. I’d shed it centuries ago, when I became a succubus, and had been taking assumed names ever since. In banishing that name, I’d banished that former life. I’d wanted to erase it so badly that I’d sold my soul in exchange for everyone I’d known forgetting I existed. That was why the conversation with Seth had totally blindsided me. There was no way he could’ve known that