Chapter 3

"Here’s your coffee, please come again," I say to a customer in a stiff voice. God, I hated this job.

It wasn’t the fact that I had to spend six hours on my feet with only a fifteen-minute break, serving coffee to overly cheerful customers while having to force out a smile each time I addressed them. All that might sound bad, but it was my boss who really got to me.

I didn’t even need this job. Both of my parents were against it. But I needed a sense of independence in my life. Today was even more difficult than usual because I was in a sour mood. I felt terrible about what happened last night. I had tried to apologize, but Bill had beaten me to it. Why was he even apologizing when I was the one with the problem? Even my mom kept giving me those sympathetic looks, almost as if she felt guilty for what happened.

Silas. Silas wasn’t home when I woke up. Bill had said he went off to a friend’s house earlier that morning, but I had an eerie feeling he was avoiding me. I was such an asshole!

I would make sure to apologize to him as soon as I saw him. I mean, what kind of freak says she’s frightened of her own family?! Like, who cares if they drink blood? I think Bill mentioned it was animal blood. Ugh... whatever!

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the soft chime of the doorbell. I raised my eyes to see the new customer who had walked into the shop. Despite myself, I felt my heart skip a beat at the sight of him. It was a boy who appeared to be around my age. He had honey-blond hair that formed a slight bang over his face, his eyes were a deep shade of blue, and his skin was incredibly pale. Just the sight of him had me clenching my thighs together. His scent was incredible and mouthwatering.

I shook my head to snap out of my daze. I rolled my eyes, feeling incredibly stupid for falling so easily for his charms. He had "incubus" written all over him. One thing I knew was that incubuses were even harder to shake off than vampires.

Thankfully, there were only older people in the shop. I would hate to have to handle the screams of teenage girls who couldn’t control themselves better. His eyes scanned the shop before landing on me. He approached me.

"Hello, what can I get you?" Despite knowing the person in front of me wouldn’t need anything, I still had to ask. It was only common courtesy, I guess.

"Hi, um... do you offer your services?" Even his voice sounded sultry and pleasant. I only knew a few incubuses in school and hadn’t interacted much with them, so I wouldn’t know if the sexy voice was also a trait passed down.

"Of course I do. I make coffee."

"No... not that. I mean... well, you know what I mean." He ran his tongue across his bottom lip, and I noticed how dry his lips were. He also seemed sweaty and a bit breathless, like he had just run a marathon.

"Do you want coffee?" I asked with a slight frown.

"No," he sighed in frustration. "I mean, do you offer your services... sexually?"

"This is a coffee shop, mister!" It took everything in me not to scream that part out. I mean, I would have assumed it was obvious to everyone who came in here that we didn’t offer sexual relief to our customers. "We do not do that here."

"Of course you don’t. Damn, that must’ve sounded so creepy." He ran a hand through his blond hair. "Hey, are you getting off work soon? Maybe we could..."

"Can you just fucking go away?" My annoyance finally slipped out. But I think I had the right to be offended. I mean, how else would someone feel when they’re asked if they could whore themselves out? Damn incubuses. All they ever did was think with their dicks or, in some cases, vaginas. I get that they needed to feed off human lust to survive, but it didn’t mean they had to go around harassing people, did it? "I’m trying to work here."

"Right." He looked embarrassed now. Good. He turned around and walked out of the shop.

Not a moment after he was gone, my boss walked out of the back office.

"What was that about, Kerina?"

"It’s Kerry, and I know you must have heard everything already."

Brad gave me a slight glare. It only lasted a second before his gaze turned thoughtful. "Do you think it would bring more money to add sexual services to the menu?"

"This is a fucking coffee shop, Brad! So no, I do not think it would be wise to add that to our menu."

"You know, I have a right to fire you for your attitude."

"Good luck finding someone else who would work for you at such low pay." I grabbed my purse and made my way from behind the counter toward the door.

"Where are you going?! Your shift’s not even over yet!"

"I don’t care. I’m done for the day." I ignored Brad’s cursing and stepped out of the coffee shop.

I took in a deep breath, relieved to finally get some fresh air into my lungs. I hadn’t even bothered to change out of my work clothes due to my haste to leave that place. The sun was going down by now, meaning the evening was approaching. I didn’t want to go home yet. I didn’t want to face my family yet.

There was a park right across the street from the shop. I crossed over and found a bench under a shady tree to sit on. I stared into the green patches of trees that made up the space. This would make a nice painting. There was once a time when I was into that, back when my dad was still alive. We would go to the park on weekends along with my mom. She would read a book out loud, and Dad would try to paint the scenery. We weren’t very good at it, but it was still fun. Those were the good old days, the ones I wish more than anything I could go back to. But we all know that’s not possible. Dad left, and Mom remarried. I have a new family now. I should get used to it. It’s been two years already.

"Hi."

I nearly fell off the bench in fright at the voice. My wrist was pulled, preventing me from crashing into the soft grass.

"Sorry."

"You again! Don’t you take a hint? I told you to go away."

"Technically, you told me to leave the shop. Besides, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable."

"Uncomfortable? You asked me if I were a whore! That was sexual harassment."

"I know. I was kinda desperate back there. I’m sorry. How about a fresh start, yeah?" He smiled at me. Once more, I found myself momentarily taken aback by his good looks. Dang it! Get yourself under control, Kerina!

"Not." I made to get off the bench and leave, but he held onto me once more.

"Don’t touch me."

"Okay, okay, I’m sorry." He raised his hands in surrender. "But can you please hear me out?"

"What do you have to say?"

"I mean, I don’t want you to get a bad image of me, even though we don’t know each other yet. I mistook your shop for a place my friend recommended. Believe it or not, I don’t just go around asking pretty girls if they want to bang."

"That’s hard to believe."

"I know," he chuckled. "I forgot to feed earlier before leaving home."

"Okay."

"You don’t believe me, do you?"

"I don’t know you."

"That’s right." He looked toward the tree line, and I followed his gaze to find a small puppy peeing in the bushes. "Well, my name is Matt. Can I at least have yours?"

"It’s Stella."

"I know you’re lying."

"How can you tell?"

"Your emotions shift when you lie. I can sense them."

"Can all incubuses do that?" I couldn’t keep the amazement out of my voice as I asked this.

Matt nodded, then shook his head. "I don’t think all of us can garner that much focus to do it."

"Right, because you’re always thinking with your privates."

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Is it just toxic to me, or is it to all the incubuses you meet?"

"I am not toxic." He gave me a look, and somehow at this angle, his blue eyes almost looked a shade darker. Matt was breathtaking. Did he even realize that? "Maybe I am a bit, but it’s only because every incubus I meet either wants to have sex with me or... wants to have sex with me."

"I don’t want to have sex with you. I mean, that doesn’t mean I won’t have sex with you if you want to, do you want to have sex?”

“Matt!” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Matt grinned down at me, displaying those pearly white teeth. He didn’t have needle-like fangs like vampires or werewolves, but he could still bite you and leave a mark without even trying.

God, did he smell nice. I almost gave in to the urge to bury my face in the crook of his neck and inhale more of his scent. I cleared my throat, clenching my thighs. Matt noticed my little action, and I’m guessing he knew where my thoughts were headed, but apart from a small smile, he didn’t say anything.

We sat there in comfortable silence. I looked up and noticed the sun was going down, and the evening was fast approaching. I needed to get home.

“I should go. Here’s my number,” I said, offering him my phone.

“You want me to call you?” He seemed taken aback by my simple gesture.

“I wouldn’t give you my number if I didn’t want you to call me, Matt.”

“Right. Then I’ll call you…”

“Kerry.”

“Kerry. That’s a pretty name.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you sometime, I guess.”

“Definitely.” I held back a smile and walked away. My sour mood was much better now, and it was all because of Matt.

---

The house was rather quiet when I walked in. I knew both my mom and stepdad wouldn’t be around at this hour, but I had seen Silas' car in the parking lot, so I knew he was home. I felt relieved at the thought that maybe he wasn’t avoiding me after all. Still, I had to talk to him and apologize for last night.

As I prepared to go upstairs to where Silas and I had our rooms, I heard something crash in the kitchen. Retracing my steps, I thought it might be my stepbrother attempting to make lunch for me again. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all.

A girl was sitting on one of our counters with her legs parted, and Silas stood between them, kissing her passionately. For some reason, my heart clenched painfully in my chest.