"What's going—"
"I'll explain on the way."
Dice is messing with the coffee maker, slapping the side of it, as we walk by. He never even looks up.
"We'll be back. Alyssa needs some air."
"Whatever," the incubus grumbles, cursing the inanimate object in front of him.
As soon as we reach the outside, Chaz steers me toward Kane's old home, which is right next door. With a flick of his wrist, the garage door opens, and a car starts.
"Get in and buckle up."
I do as he says, though I'm actually starting to freak out a little.
"Chaz, what the hell is going on?"
He doesn't speak as he throws the car in reverse, and then makes a hard turn to barrel straight ahead. We bypass the lake homes at warp speed on our way to town.
"You curious as to why you're completely in love with Kane, yet when you're alone with Gage, you want him too much to deny it?"
My tears teeter but don't fall. There's an explanation?
"What's happening to me? Is this because of what I am?"
He takes another hard turn that jars my body, but he gets us back on the road, heading out of town.
"Ever heard of the Aphrodite spell?"
"Yeah. It's a love spell. A complicated love spell most can't successfully cast."
He nods slowly. "Do you know what happens when you use that spell on someone who is in love with someone else?"
I think hard about it. Love spells always seemed juvenile to me, so I never really studied up on them.
"No."
He takes another sharp turn, and then we level out on the interstate, heading far away from Pine Shore.
"If you cast the Aphrodite spell on someone who's already in love, the spell can't work properly. Instead, it heightens the feeling of lust, which is an emotion that can easily be confused for love when thrown out in strong doses. Not to mention, you almost lose control over your body and desires. You wouldn't notice it at all unless you had a reason to need to deny that person but couldn't. Have you by chance ever been with Gage even though youreallydidn't want to?"
My mind flashes back to the night I caught Gage cheating on me. I couldn't refuse him. I wanted him even though I didn't want him, almost as if I had no control over my actions. I wipe my tears away. I knew something was wrong then, but I never sought the answers because of the far worse chain of events that were in play at the time.
"Yes," I almost whisper. "Are you sure it's a spell?"
His jaw tenses as he stares straight ahead. "I'm positive it's a spell. Your succubus is giving it away. It makes so much sense now. What does a succubus feed off of?"
"Lust," I murmur in a nearly muted tone, getting sicker.
"Exactly. So when you feel the extreme feelings of lust, your succubus rises to the surface. The closer you get to your change, the more it leaks. You don't feel any differently, but you secrete the scent, making everyone around you feeltheheat, so to speak."
"But who—"
"Gage. Your lust is targeted toward him. The spell probably started while the two of you were dating, from what I've gathered from the books I've been reading today. It died down when you and Kane got back together—well, it died down for you. For him—it's starting to drive him crazy. The spell can't work at all if one of the two people isn't already in love. The problem is—if the other person finds love in another, then the caster is the only one to suffer. He's been suffering alone. With Kane out of the picture, he's not suffering by himself anymore because the spell is dragging you back down. It's probably why your creature goddess freaked out when you were alone with him that day at the widows."
I swallow hard, trying to digest everything. Gage wouldn't do this. He couldn't.
"If I'm meant to be with Gage, and he did cast this spell, why would my creature goddess half of me freak out then but not this time?"
