Straight By The Rules. Michelle Scott
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moment later, another hiker followed him. She, too, appeared experienced. Her tank top was soaked with sweat, and her face was red with exertion, but she smiled widely as she crested the mountain. She pushed her bangs out of her face and touched the young man’s arm. “This view is amazing!”
Her companion nodded and walked back to where the trail disappeared. “Jenny! You coming?” he shouted.
The young woman frowned. “Jenny’s holding us back,” she said. “We’re going to have a hard time making the shelter before dark if she doesn’t get it in gear.”
The man shrugged. “It’s her first time. She needs to find her rhythm, that’s all.” He cocked his head, listening. “You hear her yet?”
“No.”
My succubus pricked up her ears at the hint of jealousy blowing in from the young woman. Dark emotions always interested my inner demon. Settle down, I told her. This doesn’t concern us.
A few minutes passed, and still the missing hiker didn’t appear. “Why don’t you go on ahead,” the woman said. “I’ll wait for Jenny.”
The young man rubbed his chin, thinking. “Maybe I should wait, too.”
The woman shook her head. “No. If you get to the shelter first, you can start the fire.” Once more she touched his arm. “You’re the expert fire maker, after all.”
Finally, he smiled at her. “Okay.”
For a human, the girl was a darn good seductress.
Once the man had disappeared, William glanced at his wristwatch. “Show time,” he told me and stood up. “I’ll be right back.”
He approached the woman. “Gorgeous view, isn’t it? My companion and I have been enjoying it very much.”
At first, the woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but when William fired up his incubus demon, she began blushing and smiling.
The realization that William was on assignment and once again doing the Devil’s dirty work took the shine off my afternoon. A few minutes before, the mountaintop had felt special, almost holy, but suddenly, Helen had me back under her thumb. I shouldn’t have been surprised – after all it was William’s and my life’s work to tempt human beings – but I was disappointed. Our time together had been spoiled.
I folded my arms over my chest as I watched William work. The Devil had picked well when he’d chosen William to be an incubus. William was the embodiment of temptation. He acted as if the hiker was the only woman on the planet who interested him. When he said something, she threw her head back and laughed, making me want to strangle her with her own sweat-stained bandanna.
William never looked in my direction, but he knew I was watching. When his victim moved closer to him, he stepped away, mindful to maintain a proper distance between them. When she touched his arm, he gently removed it. He was on his best behavior, but it didn’t stop the incubus from doing its dirty work.
The woman offered William a small bag of trail mix. He accepted it, quickly ate the contents, then threw the wrapper on the ground. The hiker stared at the litter. All the goodwill drained from her face. Seeing this, William went into full tempter mode. What had happened before was a build-up. This was the main event.
I had stopped listening in on them, but now I used my demon’s heightened sense of hearing to eavesdrop. “…want to do something naughty once in a while?” William asked. His eyes were alight with the devilish fire I’d come to know so well.
The hiker glanced at the foil wrapper on the ground.
William revved up his charm a little more. “Don’t get me wrong. I tread lightly on Mother Earth. My carbon footprints are almost nonexistent. But…” he sighed as if he couldn’t bear the weight of so much responsibility “…I’m only human. I mean, I can’t be expected to carry every bit of trash for the entire length of the Appalachian Trail.”
I’d seduced plenty of people over the past year, and I’d even been at the mercy of William’s incubus a few times, but I’d never before watched a tempter in action. It was both fascinating and horrible. I could feel William’s demon assess the victim and search for weak spots to exploit. William’s incubus made him seductive and charming, but deadly as well. If the hiker knew how poisonous William’s demon was, she would have run away screaming. However, he’d trapped her with his otherworldly allure, and instead of fleeing, she was moving closer.
The hiker’s eyes fixed on William. “I know exactly what you mean,” she finally admitted. “I’ve been wanting to burn our trash at night, but Austen won’t let me.”
William beamed at her. “Exactly! Sometimes, we have to cheat. Just a little.” He nudged her. “Your pack is probably heavy enough as it is.”
When I saw the flicker in her eyes telling me William’s devilish mission was nearly completed, my paralysis broke. I couldn’t remain silent while this poor woman did Helen’s bidding. Even though Helen had sent a berserker demon after me the last time I’d disobeyed her orders, I couldn’t hold myself back.
Unfortunately, I’d waited too long. Before I could stop her, the young woman grinned evilly and threw her wrapper on the ground. Then she went the extra distance by taking a few other wrappers from her pack and tossing those as well.
Seeing that the damage was already done, my protest died in my mouth. Littering was a very small sin, of course, but those little acts opened pathways to larger and larger transgressions. Patrick Clerk once told me he’d watched saints turn into monsters all because they’d refused to answer a cry for help. Now that the woman had fallen for William’s temptation, who knew where she’d end up.
“Lightening the load. That’s all you’re doing,” William said.
The hiker smiled wickedly. “Tonight, I will burn the trash.” She glanced down the trail. “And I know who I’ll blame for it.”
Jenny finally trudged into view. Unlike her friends, she struggled under the weight of her backpack, and her legs trembled with exhaustion. She shrugged off her pack with a grunt of relief and collapsed on the ground.
The first woman crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re behind schedule. Austen already went on ahead.”
Jenny looked crestfallen. “Was he mad?”
“He wasn’t thrilled.” The woman smirked. “He thought you’d be able to keep up, but now he thinks we may have to cut our trip short.”
The little liar! Already, William’s temptation was taking root. If those dark thoughts continued to spread… Well, she might do worse things than blaming Jenny for burning trash.
When Jenny reached into her pack for a bottle of water, the other woman scolded her, “You don’t have time for that now. Let’s go!”
With a grunt and a sigh, Jenny stood, resettled her pack on her shoulders, and began plodding down the trail once more.
When the women were gone, William rubbed his hands together. “Delilah is getting better! She had the time and the place spot-on. Of course, she couldn’t pinpoint the temptation, but it all worked out in the end.”
Without a word, I stalked over to where the trash lay, picked it up, and stuffed it into my pockets.
“That’s unnecessary,” William said. “The damage has been done.”
“I know, William,” I said.
“You’re upset.”
He tried to put his arm around me, but I pulled away. “Of course I’m upset!”
“Is it because I had to combine work with pleasure?” he asked, worried. “I didn’t want to, but Helen’s been keeping me so busy that I would have had to cancel on you otherwise.”
“I know.”
He