What is his deal?
“Bijarki, I wish to speak with you,” Draven called from the door.
The incubus stood up from his chair and, giving a small bow in the direction of Serena, Aida and me, wished us a good night.
Serena
We all left the dinner table and walked upstairs to our bedrooms. I was in a complete daze, mulling over the Druid’s story. The havoc that Azazel had wreaked on Eritopia was clearly severe, but I felt that now I had more questions than answers. What struck me as strange was the lack of involvement of the Daughters. Weren’t they supposed to be protectors of the stars within the Eritopia region? Where had they been while all this was going on? And, if the Druids had known of an Oracle before Azazel’s uprising, why had they not seen that it was coming, done more to stop it? What confused me the most was the question that had gone unanswered—how had the Druids become half serpent? Was it some dark magic at play here, that they had become so evil and corrupted that they had taken on the form of such a creature? I shivered despite the still-humid heat that permeated the house. I would not sleep well tonight.
We parted at the top of the staircase, the boys going one way and us following Aida on to our room. None of us spoke. I guessed we were all reeling from the information that Draven had just imparted.
Another question I had was how the incubi fit into all of this. Had they lived peacefully with the Druids before Azazel’s uprising? To be honest, it did seem strange to me that two such different species would occupy the same space in harmony—it wasn’t GASP’s experience that such coexistence was easy, except for in The Shade, of course.
I turned to Vita, recalling the conversation we needed to have about the incubus. Tonight, he had acted particularly strangely, his eyes fixed on Vita as if she were something he wished to devour. It was worrying, more so because occasionally I felt that Vita almost succumbed to his spell…but perhaps I was wrong.
“I left out some of the conversation I overheard between Bijarki and the Druid when I went with Jovi and Field to spy on them,” I began once we were safely in the room with the door shut. “Draven warned Bijarki away from us in a way that made me think that we—or you, in particular—need to be wary of him. I just don’t trust him.”
Vita blushed furiously, looking embarrassed.
“Of course I will. I’m not interested, obviously,” she muttered.
Worried that I’d hurt her feelings, I blundered on. “It’s just that we don’t know much about them as a species. And what we do know, or what the myths say, well… it’s not great.”
Aida started laughing, collapsing back on the bed.
“If Bijarki’s attentions were on me the way they are on Vita, I doubt I’d be able to hold back. The guy’s smoking hot.”
“And a weirdo,” I retorted, rolling my eyes.
“He’s not a weirdo,” Aida replied. “He’s a cutie-pie. And has good taste.” She leered at Vita, and then fell about snorting again.
“Seriously? Anyway, you’re talking crap, you’ve only ever had eyes for Field—so you can stop pretending anyone else has a chance,” I said, smiling smugly as her eyes narrowed in my direction.
“Honestly, Serena,” Vita replied, smiling at last, “I’m fine. He does make me nervous, but I can hold my own. He’ll get bored soon anyway.”
“Okay,” I replied uncertainly. I didn’t believe that. I’d seen the way the incubus had looked at her—like she was his birthday and Christmas present rolled into one. He wasn’t going to get over that crush, or whatever it was, anytime soon. I made another vow that I would start researching incubi as soon as I could—there were thousands of books scattered about this place, one of them must contain some information on the species, even if it was just a few references in the history books of Eritopia.
Sleep didn’t come. The air was too hot, and I kept going over Draven’s story in my mind, trying to make sense of it all. It must have been around midnight when I gave up trying to rest and decided that I would have a better chance of dropping off reading something—namely, Elissa’s diary.
I picked up the still-lit lamp, and carried it out into the corridor. The house was completely silent, the loudest noise coming from the thumping inside my ribcage as I tried to avert my eyes from the creepy stuffed animals and the hell, fire and brimstone ceiling murals.
Moving swiftly along to Elissa’s room, I pushed the door open and, placing the lamp I’d brought with me on the dresser, I lit another in the corner of the room, trying to remove some of the shadows that jutted out on the walls of the room.