I stepped back out and glanced at the bar, expecting to find Layla sitting there, looking as uncomfortable as an angel dining in Hell. With her whitish-blonde hair and wide, innocent eyes, that's exactly what she looked like. But she wasn't there.
"What in the hell?" I stopped, scanning the surrounding floor.
Cayman glanced up from behind the bar. "She's... dancing."
My body tensed. "What? You were supposed to watch her."
"I watched her. You didn't say anything about stopping her."
Oh, for the love of all that was unholy in this world and beyond. I shot him a dark look that promised retribution and then made my way around the raised danced floor, scanning the darker recesses of the club. A handful of seconds passed before I found her.
What I saw brought me to a standstill.
To the outside world, it would look like Layla was acting out a teenage boy's fantasy. She was raised up on her tips of her toes, her head angled in way it appeared like she was kissing. Another woman's head was lower, their mouths too close.
Layla was feeding.
An odd mixture of emotions swirled through me. The demon part of me, my true nature, approved of this. It was sitting inside me, grinning from ear to ear. It was thrilled, and yeah, a little bit turned on. But the other part—a part I didn't even fully recognized felt fear. If Layla fed and the other Wardens found it, it would be over for her.
Still, there was a part of me that wanted her to indulge in her demonic side, wanted her to be bad and wanted her to enjoy it. The corners of my lips turned up—
Then I saw the incubus.
The male was behind her, his hands gripping her arms, and the look on his face smashed through whatever approval that was simmering in my gut. He was touching her, and I did not like that. Rage was like a wave of fire.
There wasn't single part of me that missed the fact I was stopping this because of the incubus and not because of what Layla was doing.
Crossing the distance, I grabbed a hold of the woman's shoulder and yanked her away from Layla, breaking the connection. A cursory glance told me the woman's soul was... mostly intact.
I gripped her chin, forcing her to meet my gaze. The moment the woman did, she couldn't look away, and what I said, would not be undone. "You will remember none of this," he said. "Leave this place. Go home and never come back here again. Do you understand me?"
The woman staggered to the side when I let go, and without a backward glance, she shuffled into the thick crowd surrounding us.
A giggle rattled like dry bones from the succubus. "You ruin all the fun. She said she didn't belong to you."
My gaze swung to Layla. "She doesn't belong to either of you."
Layla sighed like a kitten after a belly rub. It was oddly adorable. "Where have you been all this time? It's been hours and hours."
Exasperated with the turn of the events, I barely managed to yell. "I've only been gone ten minutes," I said, and when Layla pouted—actually, pouted—I thrust my hand through my hair. "Shit, Layla... .. Didn't I tell you to stay put? Not to dance?"
She giggled, but hers sounded like wind chimes. "They made me."
"We invited her," the succubus corrected. "We didn't make her do anything. We know the rules."
