Chapter Three - It won't work

Luxiana Sommeris

“It won’t work. Humans will always sleep—you’ll eventually pass out.” The voice was familiar, jolting me out of bed with a start. 

My heart raced, and my eyes darted to the door. Damien stood there with his expression dark and serious.

Panic immediately set in. I was certain I had done everything to stay awake. I’d downed coffee like it was my lifeline—how could I have fallen asleep? The confusion swirled in my mind. How did he know I was fighting so hard to keep my eyes open?

I followed his gaze and froze. He was staring at the two empty mugs on my bedside table. My pulse quickened. Crap! I must’ve passed out a while ago!

“Y-you... stay back!” I screamed, my voice trembling. He didn’t respond, didn’t flinch. Without breaking eye contact, he moved closer. Each step felt like a magnet pulling me in, though every instinct in my body screamed to run.

Before I could react, Damien’s strong arms encircled my waist. My muscles locked up as if his touch had paralyzed my entire body. It was a helpless, familiar sensation that I hated but couldn’t fight.

“Woman with emerald eyes,” he murmured, his voice low and dripping with smugness, “I’m sure you can’t resist me.”

“You summoned one of the strongest incubi, and that says everything about how strong your desires are,” he added.

“N-no! I told you—I don’t have any desires!” My voice was sharp and defiant, but as he leaned in closer, hovering mere inches from my face, my breath hitched. 

The heat of him, the intoxicating proximity, made me clench my jaw shut. His face was too close.

I knew he was right. I had read something about him not too long ago, and everything he was saying seemed to line up with the facts I’d come across. 

There was no doubt in my mind that what he was telling me was true, even if it was hard to fully understand.

Incubi are summoned when someone harbors desires they can feed from, drawn to those hidden thoughts and feelings that stir deep within. I questioned myself why my subconscious had called someone like him in the first place.

I had never been in a relationship, never experienced the kind of emotions that would make this make sense to me. It left me feeling unsettled, as though there was something I didn’t quite understand about myself, something that had invited him here without my conscious knowledge.

A slow, knowing smile spread across his face. “But you do. You wouldn’t have summoned me otherwise,” he said smoothly, beginning to unbutton his shirt, a deliberate motion that felt like a dare.

“You were the first human to try so hard to stay awake just so you wouldn’t have to see me. Why go through all that trouble?” His voice was teasing, but there was an undercurrent of something darker.

“This is random but do you hold something important? Something your family gave you?” His question was unexpected, catching me off guard.

My eyes narrowed, trying to read the shift in his tone. “W-what do you mean?” I managed to ask, though my voice wavered. His presence was overpowering, but there was something in his aura, a subtle hint that told me he wouldn’t harm me. Not physically, at least.

“Something that belongs to your family. Something you treasure or cherish deeply,” Damien repeated, his voice softening as he loosened his grip and stepped back.

“We’re poor,” I replied bluntly, “If I have anything to treasure, it’s my books... and my grandmother’s necklace.” 

The words came out more guarded than I intended. I didn’t want to explain further; it felt too personal, too vulnerable to share with someone like him.

Damien’s gaze flickered as if weighing the significance of my answer, but he said nothing. Instead, he stood there, watching me with an unreadable expression.

What happened next surprised me when he removed my top, I wanted to scream but nothing came out of my mouth.

I thought he was going to touch me on my mounds again, but he found the necklace that I was talking about.

“You weren’t wearing this the first time we met.” I heard him say, his eyes fixated on my book-shaped necklace with a shooting star in the middle of it.

“I don’t wear it at work, I am terrified I would lose it. It’s the only thing I have left of my grandmother.” I said firmly. What the hell is up with him? He is acting strange, an incubus isn't supposed to ask things aside from touching their victim.

“Crap…finally.” I heard him whisper, “No wonder you can manage to stop me from doing that to you.”

I was utterly confused by what he was saying, my voice trembling as I managed to whisper, “W-what do you mean?” 

The question barely left my lips before I gasped in surprise, feeling the weight of his presence as he loomed over me, his shadow cast long and dark across my bed.

“I found you,” he murmured, his voice low and dangerous, filled with a strange certainty. “I thought your bloodline had been lost forever, but they weren’t lying. It’s you.” The words lingered in the air, chilling me to the bone.

“What the hell are you talking about?” My frustration seeped into my voice, tinged with confusion and growing anger. 

I was losing patience, but Damien—he just stared at me, his piercing gaze locked on mine as if he were peeling back the layers of my thoughts, reading every emotion I tried to hide.

“Do you want to sin with me?” he asked, his voice a whisper, dark and seductive, sending a shiver down my spine. 

“What's your name?” His tongue slid slowly across his lower lip, and the look in his eyes was one of hunger like a predator savoring the moment before pouncing.

I didn't want to tell him. Every part of me screamed to resist, to hold back. But my body betrayed me, my mouth acting of its own accord, as if the very air around us compelled me to obey. 

“Luxiana Sommeris,” I heard myself say, and I mentally cursed the sound of it.

A flicker of something dangerous passed through Damien's stormy blue eyes, his lips curling into the faintest of smiles. 

“Your name suits you,” he breathed, his voice thick with something I couldn’t quite place. “Xiana.”

My heart pounded violently against my chest, each beat betraying my struggle to stay in control, to push him away, to break free of whatever spell he was weaving around me. 

But inside, I cursed myself for feeling anything other than fear. I wanted to scream at him, to make him stop—stop controlling me, stop making me feel this way.

“Sin with me, Xiana,” Damien urged, his voice soft yet commanding, as he pressed kisses onto my skin, each touch igniting something deep within me. His lips moved lower, dangerously close to the top of my chest, sending waves of confusion and heat through me.

“I’ll be gentle,” he whispered between kisses, his breath warm against my skin. “I’ll protect you with my life, just let me take care of you.” His lips grazed the top of my mound, his tongue flicking against it in a way that made me gasp, my body betraying me once more.

But in that moment, something shifted, and I felt a surge of control, however fleeting. Without thinking, I pushed against him, desperate to reclaim my body, my mind—anything that was still mine.

“N-No, please, I can’t give myself to someone I don’t know.” My voice trembled as I spoke, my breath uneven, hands clutching at my top as if it were a shield against the intensity of the moment. 

My heart raced as I hugged myself tightly, stepping backward, desperate to create space between us. Only then did I notice he was already half-undressed—his broad, muscular chest exposed, wearing nothing but a pair of black denim jeans. 

The fabric stretched across his hips, and though I tried not to, my gaze flickered downward, drawn to the undeniable bulge that hinted at his arousal.

I wanted to tear my eyes away, to stop myself from staring, but his body seemed crafted by temptation itself. Sin incarnate. 

Every inch of him beckoned, a silent call to surrender. It was maddening, almost painful, to resist looking, to fight against the pull of his presence.

“You like what you see, don’t you? And you know me already. I’m Damien. Isn’t that enough to give yourself to me?” His voice was deep, smooth, and dangerously seductive, as he moved closer, closing the space I had tried so hard to maintain.

“Are you serious?” My voice wavered between disbelief and anger. “Just because I know your name, you think I should give myself to you?” 

My mind spun, battling between the primal desire that stirred within me and the logic I clung to. How could he be so sure, so brazen in his assumptions?

I remembered what I had read earlier—about how the one filled with desire should be the one to name their incubus. But he already had a name. Damien. 

Was it because he claimed to be one of the strongest incubi? That detail hovered in my mind like a fog I couldn’t shake, and I found myself biting my lower lip in frustration. 

Why was I even considering any of this? My thoughts were a tangled mess, and it was hard to think straight in his presence.

“It’s that simple, right?” Damien’s confidence faltered for a moment, uncertainty flickering across his features, but he stepped toward me again, relentless in his approach. I felt the instinct to run, to put more distance between us, rising like a wave in my chest.

“No, it’s not simple.” I shook my head, forcing myself to stand my ground, my voice firm despite the way my body trembled. “Not everyone is ready to be in bed with someone, even if you are what I desire. I am not like that. I can’t just…” My words faltered as I bit down on my lip again, struggling to articulate the truth I held so close.

If it were ever to happen, it would have to be with someone I loved—madly, deeply, hopelessly in love with. 

That was the vow I had made to myself long ago. I wouldn’t give that part of me to just anyone, not even to an incubus like Damien, no matter how irresistible he seemed.

Even if I knew that there wouldn’t be any effect in real-time, I wouldn’t do it. Once I woke up, whatever we did in the dream did not apply. I also read that in the book.

He just looks too real.

“How can I make you disappear?” I asked.

To be continued…