Craved
Chapter 8

Damon:

Outside the shop while Renee spoke with the jeweler, Damon lounged against the stone wall and people watched. A couple each chased a twin boy, a teen snapped gum while she talked on her cell, and a pair of lovers held hands as they walked. Merit was the best craftsman in Turkey and would help Renee with anything. As a dwarf, Merit could whisper steel to look as fragile and elegant as spun gold.

Through the jewelry shop's window, Renee motioned to Merit. When she glanced back in his direction, Damon dropped his gaze and faced away. Didn't want her to think he was spying on her, only a guy waiting for his coworker. So now, why was she acting so bizarre? Overly nervous and not her usual dry wit shining through. The food and a sip of his drink calmed her. She even laughed a few times, and he'd like to hear the sound again.

His phone vibrated. A text from Melanie demanding he bring her more money. He glared at the phone then made his way through the streets to the clothing boutique. Part of him wished he cared for Melanie and she wasn't a means to an end. He wanted someone who'd challenge him, who'd accept him for what he was, who'd desire a future together.

Once he reached her, he handed her his credit card. Instead of thanking him, she smirked and eagerly took his card. Yeah, he was a cash-daddy to her, but then again, she was only a meal to him.

Melanie paid for her last-minute shopping, and the group piled into the minibus squeezing in among the mounds of her shopping bags. Renee sat next to Carla, patches of conversation regarding the urn and Cynthia filtered through the murmur of the others. Damn, the excitement of Renee's discovery was palpable, and he wished he didn't have to dash her hopes that it was just an urn depicting daily life. As he drove back to camp, Damon caught Renee looking his way. When he faced her at a red light, she fiddled with her bag. Had she been checking him out?

Often, he caught her staring at him as if he'd grown horns and manure covered him from head to toes. With her quick mind and sharp tongue, she had the potential to be a great archeologist. Someone who he could spend his life with and not be bored. Someone who wouldn't let him get his way just because he could. A woman he'd want to claim, the highest level of love to an incubus. Even though he and Belinda were going to marry, he hadn't claimed her. Figured he would later. Stop, don't go there!

If he were able to be honest with Renee about his reasons for the crystal, she would be invaluable to his search, but it was too risky for humans to know about his kind, hence the rules for wiping their memory if they were discovered. Everyone on the mission was here to aid him in replaceing his crystal, even though they didn't know the stone was the real reason they were there. During all of his digs, he searched through the debris in case one of the others thought the crystal meaningless. But so far, nothing.

The darkness crept in, and he fought the urge to drain everyone in the vehicle. His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel as he focused on the dirt road they bumped along. His staff, who were squished between Melanie's excess bags of clothes and shoes, grumbled behind him. She'd even gotten them to hold her bags in their laps.

They arrived at camp, and Travis brought Damon a map where he marked an area of the crystal's vibrations, which encompassed a two-mile radius. After speaking with Travis, Damon watched Renee dip into her tent and caught a glimpse of her curvy backside silhouetted through the tent by her lantern. Perfect for his hands.

Inside his tent, he hoped to close his eyes and bask in the noise of the canvas flapping in the night's breeze. Yet here he waited while Melanie tried on the twelfth blouse she'd bought. Wouldn't be too bad if half of them weren't the exact same style but in different colors. The shoes-if he weren't rich, she'd bankrupt him. He knew many women with shoe addictions, but never to the extent of buying thirty pairs in one sitting. Well, they'd be her consolation prize when he left. Next trip, he hoped to bring someone less annoying. He could put Melanie on a plane to wherever she wished to go, but then he'd have to scrounge up another substitute. The idea of Renee seeing him snatch up another woman in a matter of days made his throat tighten. She'd already witnessed him picking up Melanie at the airport bar when he met her. He didn't know why it bothered him that Renee would see him in action. He would have to stick it out. Anyway, each time he was with Melanie, he closed his eyes and envisioned making love to someone else. Lately, Renee's image kept drifting to his mind.

"Are you tired, lover?" Melanie stood before him in her underwear.

He stifled a yawn. She was pretty, but her personality grated on him. The waft of cigarettes and alcohol were nauseating. How could one spend so much time complaining or shopping? He suspected if he went with her to the stores, she'd combine the two.

When her smile faltered, he cringed.

But then again, what did he expect when he purposely chose women where his heart wouldn't get involved? Yet it was the best way until he got a crystal and figured out how to use it safely. Then he could merely kiss a woman and the feast of sexual energy would be equivalent to an orgy. Enough to sate him and yet not kill whomever he was with.

Melanie huffed and flopped onto her cot. He extinguished the lantern as images of a laughing Renee filled his mind. Maybe he drank too much of the Aslan Sütü. Or at least, his weakened state of barely feeding made him more susceptible to the liquor. For several minutes, he debated recanting his frigidness-then clamped his mouth shut as Melanie's snores assaulted his ears. He shoved cotton he'd ripped out of his pillow the night before into them then drifted off to sleep. Damon.

That voice. Drawn, his spirit drifted past the tents. Who called him with such sexual energy pulsing from them? Damon.

Again, the purr beckoned to him. Suddenly, he stood over a woman twisted in a blanket and her face covered. Her legs and an arm were exposed. How had his spirit teleported without his consent? Had she called him into her dream? Desires fogged his reasoning while his hunger took over. He ran his hand over her thigh, and his action coaxed a sigh of pleasure from her.

Following the desperate urge pumping through his veins, he trailed kisses up her leg, then her arm and collarbone. His hand marked the path. Slowly he caressed the length of her. She shifted, giving him better access to her sex, and he chuckled. Not yet. A whisper of her, scent of musk, arousal, and roses, filled him. He slid his hand up her other leg while he kissed her neck. Her hair fell away from her face. Renee?

She yanked him toward her, crushing his mouth against hers. Her tongue stroking against his made him lose focus. Pull away, leave.

Renee nibbled his earlobe, her hot breath against his neck. He growled and hoisted himself onto her cot with her. His spirit form allowed him to touch or become a phantom at will. Her hands raked his back and cupped his ass. With desire overcoming his judgment, his core shook. It took everything in him not to flip on the full demon incubus and drain her dry. She'd die with a grin on her face and sated, but he'd never be able to live again.

He eased his mouth away from hers. "No, we can't."

Renee took the opportunity to run her tongue down his chest, inched past his abs as he reclined, until her hot breath caressed his penis.

"No." His command came out a murmur even as his fingers caressed her cheek.

Pulling back, she ran her hands along his chest. With her lips swollen from his kiss and her cheeks flushed, she was gorgeous, lustful, her hair in disarray around her pale face.

Gripping his erection, she squeezed, then released again and again. Was she purposely driving him crazy? With a growl, he lifted her fully into his arms, shifting until she was beneath him. Her sharp inhale of breath teased him. She widened her legs. His spirit form shivered as he pressed up against her entrance until nothing separated them except the thin cotton of their underwear.

As if Renee heard his thoughts, she grunted and shoved him back. "Get off me, you two-timing bastard!" Her words were somewhat garbled as if she woke from a dream-like state.

The jolt of her tone sent him slamming back into his body. What the shit?

In his demon dream form, she shouldn't have woken, much less been able to throw him out. In dreams, he could seduce any woman from an inexperienced virgin to the most jaded hooker. Was she more than human?

He opened his eyes and the haziness of his dream-walk blurred the walls of his tent and Melanie's sleepy form beside him. What kind of creature could toss an incubus out on his ass in his element? A witch maybe, but Sofia would have told him as she could sense another witch from a mile away. Not a succubus-he'd know if Renee was and feel her energy.

Melanie snorted once. He ran a hand over his face and stopped when he noticed something wrapped around his hand. A dark spiral curl. Renee's.

***

The morning came too early, and Damon grumbled out of bed. He'd barely slept. How had Renee managed to call him, then force him out of her mind so easily?

At least his head didn't pound as it did most mornings. Even sex with Melanie hadn't taken the edge off lately. He must retrieve the crystal and get as far from Renee as possible. Nine months out of the year she was a teacher and away from him. Resist her until the end of summer. In the corner of his tent, he washed up using a water basin and got dressed.

When he poked his head outside, Renee dug a few feet away. She glanced at him with a peculiar expression he couldn't pin down. Did she recall the events of the evening?

He shook his head. After one or two nights, most women might have inklings of a sexual dream. Or think that a famous person or faceless man slept with them and awaken aroused, but no one would remember him or the entirety of the dream. That was part of his magic. Incubi would be hunted if people recollected their dreams clearly.

And yet, Renee's cheeks blushed, as if she did. Impossible. He bet his lack of sleep made him paranoid. Taking a plate of breakfast, sausage, and biscuits, he offered it to Melanie who had painted her toenails each in a different color to match her shoes. Obviously still peeved from last night, she ignored him.

Not that he cared. Fine if the woman decided to break-up with him and leave, but that never happened. But then, with Renee so tempting and calling him to her, it would be too unsafe not to have an immediate replacement on hand. "Damon!" Travis called from the far side of camp. "I must speak with you."

Had he found the crystal? Damon jogged over, and his back itched as if Renee watched him. If she dreamed of him again, he didn't think he could hold himself back a second time. After an incubus dream, sex was all a woman thought about. If incomplete, as theirs had been, the memory left the woman yearning for satisfaction.

A few feet from him, he caught her stare and waved, but she ducked away. She didn't appear seductive or hungry, but coy and possibly embarrassed?

"Hey, man." He stopped beside Travis and ensured no one from camp overheard them. "What's up? Did you replace it?"

"No."

Damon frowned. "Then why the hell did you call me over here? I think I got a splinter in my foot for my trouble." Damn, his anger lashed out without control. "Sorry, continue."

Travis dry-washed his hands. "It's about the crystal. I have some bad news."

"What?" In Clive's hands, world wars were around the corner.

"It's gone." The gnome spread out his hands, his eyes and mouth drooping around the edges.

"Come again? What do you mean gone?" Damon's gut wrenched.

When they'd set camp here, Travis assured him a crystal's energy pulsed nearby. He couldn't pinpoint where exactly, so that's why the man dug so many holes trying to locate it. For days it had been there!

"It was here like I told you." Travis held out his wrinkled hands. "Last night, when we came back from the village, its energy was gone. Not within three miles according to my senses."

Stolen! Someone had taken his crystal. Dread crept into his chest. Did Clive possess the stone? "Go," Damon growled.

"Sir?" Travis swallowed.

He cracked his knuckles. "You can take the bus. Fill it up with gas at the village. Travel the entire countryside if you have to until you locate its energy."

"How long do I search?"

"Until you replace it!" Damon bit his lip. He hadn't meant to shout, but he'd been so close. If Clive controlled a crystal, he was a threat to everyone. "Search the town to the north first. The humans at the gas station asked too many questions about where we were going and our purpose here. Then use your best judgment. Ferret out the crystal and get it back. No matter what."