“Off you go then,” Mark said, and she turned and left with a huff.
The two of them left looked at me with hungry eyes, but they didn’t move until I spoke. “Circe, I guess.”
“We come as a complete package,” she said, her brother protesting, but she silenced him with a look. “We’re good. It won’t hurt the way we do it, but it’s both of us together.”
“You skim off the top, then turn the rest into crystals,” Aen said, appearing by my side. “Your word?”
The two of them looked at the other, each moving restively as they appeared to commune silently. Finally, they turned to us and Circe said, “Fine. You want us now?”
“The lady is going to watch the show, and you’ll have a taste to take the edge off, then bleed off her residual energy for storage. You do a good job, you’ll earn yourself one of the stones.”
“Stones?” I said.
Aen lifted my arm, holding it out towards the two of them. They moved closer, Circe taking my hand and running a finger along my skin once she had a nod of permission from me. Her fingers came away coated in what looked like sugar, yet when I touched them, they were sharp little spikes of stone. I gasped when she put it in her mouth and sucked the lot off, her eyes bleeding black for a second, before shuddering.
“You’re strong,” Bran said, moving closer and eyeing my hand like it was a giant spider or something. “Just want to get something on the table. I’m not eating the hairy taco, but I’m more than happy to help you with the very full roster of dick you got going. Like what about you, Fanta pants?”
He looked at Aen with a cocked eyebrow and a salacious grin on his face, one that faded as Aen shifted back into her female form. She smiled, turning to me with a challenge in her eyes. That wasn’t all, I could see that, but I wasn’t sure what else. I moved in to meet her as her lips descended, opening mine to touch them to hers.
Her moan was musical, full of heat and surprise as I kissed her deeply, her tongue softer and more mobile in this form, which made me wonder what else it could do. An image of her nestled between my legs, those feathery tresses trailing along my skin, or her lying on the orgy bed, thighs parted, me brushing my finger through her—
She broke away, frowning slightly, and had to shake herself before reverting back to her male form.
Man, I seriously needed to get laid, by either version of Aen. The thought was kinda surprising, since having a female sexual partner had never really been on my radar before, but it didn’t feel any less true.
“Whoa, you guys are next level,” Bran said. “So, we do this here? Rocks for keeping her from imploding? You got yourself a deal. Though I note tall, dark, and green-eyed hasn’t said anything yet.”
“No,” Marlow said. “I have to deal with a wardrobe crisis. Play nicely. There’s plenty of others in Hartley who’d be dying to be in your position right now.” He turned to me. “Stay safe, love.” He leaned over and dropped a quick kiss on my lips before breezing past.
“Later?” I said, the words coming out a whole lot more breathy than I’d intended.
“Who? Me or Aen?” Marlow asked, smiling when I couldn’t answer, my mind suddenly caught up. “I’ll find you.”
“How we doing tonight!” Liam’s voice rang out through the concert hall, only to be met by an animalistic roar from the crowd.
Bran gave me a measuring look and then shrugged. “How are we going to do this?”
Evidently, it was going to be me shuttling between the three of them. It took me a while to remember my camera, my skin flaring bright as the band broke into “What the Devil Wants,” a rollicking rock stomp number from their first album. Billy grinned as he played the opening riff, that smile getting wider as the crowd went wild. Liam grabbed a hold of the mic when it came time and purred out the first lyric.
For a moment, I was just stunned, pinned to the spot by the sound of music I’d heard so many times before, re-enacted in front of me. It felt like it hit me on a cellular level, vibrating all the way down to my core. I watched people get up, cheer, dance, but that was alien to me. There was so much—the driving beat of the drums, the whining howl of the guitar, the bass a more sedate anchor that stopped it all from flying off into incomprehensible bullshit, I couldn’t afford to add to it.
Liam wasn’t like the Rejects’ singer. He eschewed the more theatrical antics many lead singers used. Instead, he just demanded people’s attention and invariably, he got it. Spotlights swivelled to focus on him, bathing him in a blast of light and bleaching that already pale hair to white, until he was just a drawing of a man, all black lines and negative space.
“Here,” Aen said, offering me my camera.
I turned to him and Jen, but she said, “It should be OK. Stop her from getting too high but don’t get in her way. Take enough now to satisfy yourselves, then keep an eye on her.”
The two of them clustered in as the beat thumped behind me, taking one hand.
“Little sting,” Circe murmured, and then I felt it.
It felt the way someone’s mouth would if it was sucking on your fingers or toes. It was a soft yet pulsing, muscular thing. It tugged at me, but I didn’t necessarily want it to stop. I swayed a bit at the sensation. It lulled me, turning my bones to rubber, my body to liquid. There was something kinda sexy about it, though it wasn’t sexual. Aen swooped in to hold me up, the two of them just stroking my palm.
“It’s a singular pleasure, dealing with a good feeder,” he said into my ear. “Having a cluster of them bleed power from you while you’re with a lover… Dangerous as hell, but such a feeling.”
His words painted vivid mental pictures, something I’d apparently gotten really good at. The merest suggestion of sex, and I had a paranormal PornHub channel playing in my mind.
“Aen…” I whimpered.
“I’m sorry, my flower. I shouldn’t tease. It makes you flare so much brighter. You’re entirely too responsive, and I find myself wanting to put aside the necessary steps towards courtship and just see how far I can push you.”
“You’re not helping,” Jen said with a frown. “Hurry it up.”
The siblings nodded and said, “A bit of a tug.”
The sensual pulling turned into something more forceful for a second, and my eyes widened as they curled their hands into my palms, then pulled free glittering diamond like stones. Their fingers tightened around them for a moment, their eyes flicking to each other, but at Aen’s growl, they relinquished them, placing them in my palm. They blinked, each one looking a little less gaunt than before.
“Here, love,” Aen said, holding out a velvet bag. I dropped the two stones in, and he shoved it into my pocket. I looked around, feeling clear-eyed and sharp by comparison.
“My camera?” I said, not looking when it was given to me. My eyes were on the stage, on the lines of Liam’s body as he belted out the song, a kind of infectious joy on his face. The song was about a good-natured slide into temptation, of abandoning any pretence at trying to do the right thing. Something I could relate to, as I pressed down the shutter release. This was it, this was me—my purpose now. I scanned the crowd and the band, analysing every element, my mind composing shots before they even presented themselves and taking them when they did.