Chapter Text
The door creaked open, and almost immediately Mika clenched her muscles taught to keep her from slamming the door shut. A metal copper scent slammed her in the face, and the lights were on, and she could see splashes of blood everywhere, and bodies and she quickly closed her eyes to keep from imprinting this image already seared into her retinas from staying any longer than necessary. She quickly closed the door behind her and fumbled for her phone forcing her eyes not to pay attention to the pool of blood growing larger and closer to her, fingers slipping in her panic to call the authorities, the police, someone, about this when she heard one of the bodies groan.
Instantly she was frozen; she’d seen horror movies, she knows that that sound means either the body isn’t dead or it is and is still moving, Night of the Living Dead style. Quietly she prayed that it was the former and let her eyes drag over to the bodies, one with brown hair trying to get up. She stood frozen, hunched over her phone and she could almost feel her mind drift out of her body as he stood up and glared at her.
“You, woman.” Zombies don’t talk, so that means he’s alive. “You’re going to let me kiss you.” Mika blinked in confusion, before blinking or saying a word he was in front of her, gripping her chin and tilting her head up for a brief second a forceful telling off danced on the tip of her tongue before she met his eyes.
“Uh…huh… Okay.” She nodded, her mind soothing as his green eyes met hers. Mika wondered why she’d been so against it; it wasn’t like it was something major, it was just a kiss. Before she could continue that mental line of questioning the boy leaned in and kissed her, it was dry, and while her body felt warm at the contact, it felt more akin to a feverish warmth, one where the environment would suck the heat from a person. A voice spoke to one side, but her mind was too fuzzy to fully understand what was said.
A grumble from the person kissing her – her hands itched to rest on his chest, slide up into his hair and tug – and he pulled away, the itch fading just as quickly and her mind becoming her own once more. Her face heated as the realization of what she did, of what she wanted to do, came back to her and she turned her eyes to the ground. She could only see the other bodies stir, so they weren’t dead at least, and a few stood up while a second pulled the guy away from her, Sam she vaguely remembers hearing that name, was he the one that kissed her or the one that pulled the kisser away?
She let her eyes flick up to the speakers’ and made eye-contact with him, he tried to smile it off by apologizing first, but she interrupted him.
“What are you doing in my house?” She almost shouted at them.
The tallest one answered her. “Your house? I apologize, miss; we weren’t aware this home had an owner, and, wounded as we are, didn’t have the time to take that into consideration.”
“The doors were locked, though?” She gestured back behind her to the door.
“Yes, however, the windows weren’t.” His mouth quirked up in a grin for a moment before settling back to neutrality. “I apologize for breaking into your home; we honestly were not aware this house had an owner, we simply needed a place to hide for a while.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Mika muttered, looking back to the blood on the floor. And walls apparently, now that she’s taking stock of the room. And on the furniture as well.
“Yes…” he tried to laugh it off again. However, Mika guessed that from the expression on her face such a thing wasn’t going to work.
“So why did you need to hide? And who are you?”
“Well,” He started. “Our names are James,” Gestured to himself. “Erik,” To one of the redheads beside him. “Sam,” The one that kissed her, she felt her cheeks heat up again, Erik seemed amused by it. “Matthew,” She looked to a happy looking kid with fluffy black hair and bright blue eyes, and he greeted her with an equally bright smile. “And Damien.” The other redhead, nodded to her.
“…Alright, so those are your names, but why are you here.” Mika folded her arms over her chest, looking back to James skeptically.
“Well,” James paused, looking to the others for a moment before turning back to her. “Simply put, we’re being chased. A person who wishes us harm caught up with us and… Well.” He gestured to the blood in the room. “You can see the results.”
“Yeah, how are you not dead from that? It looks like a lot of blood. Should I be calling the police anyway? Do you need medical help?”
Erik spoke up this time, “The only help we need, Princess, is your energy.” He winked at her, Sam rolled his eyes and out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Matthew make a gagging motion to Damien.
Mika paused a moment, looking at him in confusion before turning back to James. “Anyway, do you need actual medical help?”
James chuckled and shook his head. “No, we'll be all right, miss nothing we can’t handle.”
“Well, I feel great,” Sam said, grinning widely at his brothers.
“That’s because you used your abilities on her.” James sighed, gently squeezing the bridge of his nose.
“…Abilities?” Mika asked. The boys froze momentarily, looking to James and then to Damien who made some facial expression she couldn’t understand and then back to James. Erik told Sam off for doing that while James stepped forward to address her question. Mika made an internal note to deal with that later when there wasn’t the pressing matter of what the actual fuck these men are probably insane.
Erik frowned at Sam once more before turning his attention to Mika, pleasant smile returning to his face. “Well, lovely lady, it is truly hard to explain… You see we’re not exactly normal.” He trailed off as though that answered her question perfectly, however when he saw her confused expression he looked to James.
“…I suppose it would come out eventually.” He muttered, crossing his arms and glaring at the other boy. “The first thing you need to know about us is that we’re all brothers.” Mika looked back at them again at this, from the get-go they looked almost nothing alike, but with this new knowledge she could pick up on pieces. Damien and Matthew had the same eye shape, James and Sam had similar noses, Erik and Damien’s hair color. She looked back to James who had kindly allowed her to inspect them again before continuing. “We are brothers, and… We’re incubi.”
“…Incubi. Like what, the sex demons?” She had to let out a giggle, how absurd were these guys? She wondered if she still shouldn’t call 911 and ask for some people from the mental ward as well. Damien only shook his head at her words; the others were letting James handle this, bickering amongst themselves about Sam’s disgraceful behavior, as Erik referred to it.
Matthew laughed and nodded his agreement while James spoke.
“Yes. Precisely so. We consume and use sexual energy to survive.” Mika shifted her weight to one foot while James looked imploringly to Damien. The other boys muttered to themselves about her silence.
“Hello?” Sam asked, “Did you hear him?”
“Do you think she’s still processing it…?” Matthew muttered to no one in particular.
“Yes,” James stated. “And she’ll understand right about-“
“…I’m going to call the authorities and request they send some people from the mental ward,” Mika muttered, reaching back to her phone before Matthew stopped her, gripping her wrist to hold it down with a strength very surprising for someone his size.
“No, we’re telling the truth!” He looked up at her, less than an inch shorter than her. “Come on, what’ll it take for you to believe us?”
“I’ll believe you’re incubuses-“
“Incubi, miss,” James corrected her. “The plural is incubi.”
Mika looked into his eyes a moment longer before continuing, “I’ll believe you when you prove it.”
“Pardon me?”
“Prove it.” She repeated herself, this time gaining the attention of all five boys and almost instantly regretting doing so.
“…Fair enough, Erik, if you wouldn’t mind?” James said, stepping back as the boy stepped forward on his right with a pleasant smile.
“Of course, not.” He said, turning his gaze to Mika, his eyes glittering almost predatorily. He stepped closer to her, and she could feel her heart speed up in her chest, and suddenly everything smoothed out. Erik slid a hand under her chin, lightly tipping her head up to look at him while his other ran through her hair. “My darling, you’re so tempting with your non-belief… Allow me to prove who I am with a tender kiss. I promise that you’ll enjoy every minute of it…” His eyes flashed with mischief as he leaned closer. “And maybe, you’ll even want more.” He whispered against her lips before connecting them.
Almost instantly her mind was floating; it had already been on the verge of questioning itself again, as it did with Sam and her eyes drifted shut even as the warm feeling swept over her body. Mika’s heart pounded in her chest and again that same feeling of draining, of her heat being taken from her, came to her as they kissed. They stayed connected a while longer before James cleared his throat, a signal for Erik to pull away with a groan. “Aww…” He let out a sigh as he pouted. “Very well. Thank you,” He turned to Mika, still red in the face and a look of astonishment across her features. “I feel so much better.” He stepped back away from her while Damien looked at her with a bit of worry.
“Does that provide the proof you were looking for?” James asked.
“I… I think I’m…” Mika said breathily, James furrowed his brows in confusion for a moment before rushing to her side. Mika’s knees giving out beneath her and seeing her tip forward onto the tile, thankfully he caught her before she fell face first, and it was evident that she’d fainted.
“Shit,” Sam muttered, watching as James picked her up bridal style.
“We should probably get her to bed…” Matthew said, worry on his face.
“Indeed…” James agreed, walking with Erik as Matthew, Damien, and Sam split off. “Why don’t you get to cleaning the lobby, it’s… Something of a mess.” He said, looking back to the drying blood on the floor, now streaked around from their movement. James ignored the groans and curses from his younger siblings as they set to work on that.
He glanced at the girls’ clothes, grateful that there were no visible blood stains on them. He could feel his wounds closing, though judging from the spring in Erik’s step he was already completely okay. “She has a lot of energy,” Erik said, stepping closer to look at her sleeping face.
“Does she now?” James said idly, not paying much attention. He maneuvered her in his arms, opening room after room as Erik talked and helped him out as well.
“Over here,” Erik finally called over, this was their eighth room – not that anyone was counting, mind – and while the girl weighed almost nothing to an incubus with supernatural strength, this particular incubus was severely wounded.
He hoped Matthew was making something below. He and Erik placed the girl on the bed, and it was only when James shut the door behind him that Erik’s face sobered.
“I know,” James said. “As a human, she’ll have a soul-mark.” His eyes weren’t focused on anything, walking back to the lobby to see if any of his brothers were still there. “Since our human appearance is only a glamor we don’t have that mark.”
Erik frowned, “She already knows we’re incubi. She’ll ask if we have them as well at some point.”
James nodded again, pausing to think. She could get curious and ask, at which point they’d tell her. However, he couldn’t predict how she’d react. Would she be frightened by the idea? Disgusted? Would their lack of a mark disgust her? Confuse her even more? Erik must have seen the thoughts across James’ face, “Well. I suppose we will handle that when it happens.”
They turned into the lobby balcony where only Damien remained, looking at the bags James could only guess the girl had brought with her.
“Damien,” Erik called out. “Are those the Princess’?”
“Yes, I was thinking about bringing them up to her room,” James remembered the path they took, knowing Damien would see it and take the shortest route there.
“Sounds good, do you know where Sam and Matthew went?”
“They said something about finding where the humans stash their knives.”
Sometimes James couldn’t tell when Damien was joking and when he was serious.
“That was a joke.” Damien helpfully said, reading his brother's mild concern.
“What is the real concern is that I couldn’t tell that it was a joke, to begin with.” James chuckled, nodding his thanks to his brother and leaving in the direction Damien had gestured to.
James didn’t have to look for long the sound of his brother's bickering could be heard clear across the castle back home. “Sam! Matthew!” he called, bursting into the kitchen to find the pair wrestling each other in a battle for food.
“Matthew’s the one that started it!”
“I’ll finish it too if you don’t let go!!”
“I’d like to see you try, pipsqueak!” Sam shifted his weight and the careful balance they had held themselves in toppled, Matthew landing chest fist against the hard tile floor with Sam digging his elbow into his back.
“Enough!” James said again, leaning down to grab Sam and pull him off, Matthew.
“Hey!” Sam shouted, scrabbling at James’ hand to make him let go.
“We are brothers; we need to act like it.” He looked at the pair of them. “Now what happened.”
“I was trying to make some food,” Matthew started “When Sam came over and tried to take the knife out of my hand.” He glared at his brother for good measure. “I told him to bother someone else, and he pulled the knife out of my hand, you basically walked in maybe five minutes later.”
Sam clicked his tongue in annoyance and James turned his gaze to his other brother. “Since you seem to believe otherwise let us hear your side.”
“Fine.” He grumbled, “Matthew was doing something, so I go over to see what it was, and he tells me to fuck off, so I tell him to fuck off instead and he fucking elbows me, so I grab his arm and yea.” His gaze never met James. “That’s what happened.”
James frowned at them both and sighed. “I know nerves are frayed at the moment, but we can’t be jumping at each others’ throats just now. Sam.” He turned and stared at Sam until the other met his gaze. “You shouldn’t have been so ready to pounce at the first sign of provocation.”
“Yeah,” Matthew added and immediately quieted and shrank into himself when James turned to him.
“And you should have remembered that this is Sam we’re talking about and he tends to behave on impulse.” James looked back at Sam, “Though it doesn’t give him an excuse it does explain his actions.”
The pair of them nodded, Matthew too tired to argue back and Sam realizing that he might have been overzealous in his reaction to his brothers’ brush off.
“Now let's make dinner, I am rather hungry, and I am confident that our hostess will be once she wakes up. It is the least we can do after invading her home and causing such a mess for her to her first time here.” James rolled up his sleeves while Matthew turned back to slicing vegetables.
“I wonder what she likes…” Matthew muttered, Sam meanwhile leaned against the side of the kitchen watching them for a moment before waving off and stepping out.
“I’mma go out to the dining room.” He called out, moments later Erik walked in, looking behind him at Sam’s retreating back.
“Erik,” James said, pulling pans out of the various cupboards. In his head he was already creating a different organizational method for these that would efficiently house all the cookware and make it easier for the users to find what they need, the pans need to be together organized by use, same for the pots, the various strainers need to be rearranged and the single-use pieces need to be reallocated, and- James shook his head. If he thought too hard he wouldn’t get anything done, just mentally mapping this kitchen to each speck of dust around the corners of the shelves.
“Making dinner are we?” He asked, sidling up to James and taking one of the sauce pans. “Here, I’ll help.” Erik turned to Matthew noting the veggies and meats already prepped and nodded. “Since we do not know what she likes, how about we make a lot of different dishes?”
“Who said that this was for her?” Matthew asked. The words sounded harsh, but the smile the brothers could hear in his voice gave away his teasing.
“That is why we are making dinner, yes?” Erik went to the pantry to pull out various objects and spices along with a second pan and went back to the stove, placing the items down on the counter space beside it. “It is what I would do, after all. James, could you get the wine? Red and White, if you don’t mind.”
Soon the air was thick with different smells of ranging palettes of food from all around the world. More than once they had to chase Sam off from stealing tastes of the plates as they finished. “Sam,” James finally said after the fifth time they smacked his hand away. “Why don’t you go see if our hostess is up and around yet?”
“I believe Damien is with her.” Erik piped up from in front of the stove, a sizzling steak searing on a pan in front of him. He paused to slide it into the oven and continued while setting its timer. “He took up her bags from the lobby to her room; I’d guess he waited there for her to wake up.” James let out a noise of acknowledgment, Sam just lets out a huff of air and stomped outside. Matthew finished putting the finishing touches on the dessert he’d been slotted to make and slipped it into the refrigerator to chill.
“I’ll go check anyway, can’t hurt after all!” He smiled at the pair of them, receiving Erik’s blessing and immediately ignoring it and left.
Once it was only Erik and James present James began pulling out serving plates, sliding the servings of food onto them and plating an initial course for everyone. “Sam,” He called out into the dining room. “Come help set the table.” He heard a grumble and knew Sam had heard and was coming to help, James set a pair of finished plates aside and began working on more, allowing Sam to come in and grab them to set them on the table.
James hoped the young Miss would be awake soon; it would be a shame if she missed dinner while it was still fresh.
“Mmm, something smells good!” That would be the young lady, James finished plating the last few dishes, grabbing what he could and leaving the rest for Sam to grab and left the kitchen just in time to see Sam ask why they should care about her name.
James’ already frayed nerves just got that much shorter and he set the plates down a little forcefully, snapping “Sam, I will roast that tongue of yours for dinner if it doesn’t stop flapping uselessly in that mouth of yours.”
Sam called his bluff and rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever.” and left to the kitchen.
Mika looked between the two, realizing a little belatedly that James had tried to apologize on his behalf.
“O-oh it’s fine, no worries.” She stammered out, turning her attention to the dinner table James was standing near.
“That’s good to hear, we hope you enjoy the meal we’ve prepared for you.”
Mika frowned a moment, why did they make her dinner..? She remembered then Matthew and Damien both telling her that the brothers’ had spent the time she’d been asleep making dinner as an apology for breaking into her home.
“That’s fine!” She quickly said, raising her hands in a placating gesture. “You didn’t have to!”
“It’s quite alright,” James assured her, Matthew and Damien entering from the lobby and Sam with Erik coming in from the kitchen. “Besides, it’d be impossible to have us undo our cooking, even if you commanded us to do so.” He grinned, showing Erik where everyone would be seated for dinner. Matthew split off from the group, grabbing final touches for the placings and setting them on the table, gesturing to Mika to take her seat at one of the middle chairs
“Dinner’s all served!” He said with a smile, sitting to one side of her, Sam taking the spot on the other side of him.
Mika used this small lull to actually look at the almost frightening amount of food placed before her, it seemed to come from all over. Tuscany, Southern and Northern Italian, French cuisine, German, Mexican, some South American dish, and even more she couldn’t even recognize. It all looked amazing, and she was sure the boys heard her stomach growl.
“It all looks so good!” She exclaimed, looking back at James with a look of astonishment.
“We hope you enjoy it, my sweet.” Erik smoothly added, sliding up beside James.
“That’s enough, Erik,” James said, putting a stop to whatever Erik had tried to pull.
For now, it appears to have worked. Eric huffed out a grumble at his stick-in-the-mud brother and left for the table, allowing James to hold his arm out to her. “If you’ll allow me, Miss. I apologize for my brother.”
“I-It’s quite okay…” Mika said as she took the offered arm. She appreciated James’ presence, a metaphorical fresh wind of tranquility in rather turmoil waters. He was one of the more level-headed brothers, excluding Damien although she had a feeling he was merely shy and would come out of his shell as he became more comfortable in the new surroundings. He seemed to keep them in line well enough, so they held him in respect, he was very well mannered and probably very intelligent if his manner of speech and eloquence was anything to go by.
James broke her train of thought by speaking, “I have to ask, Miss, but why do you live alone?”
“It’s… Kind of a long story.” Mika admitted with a rueful smile.
James only allowed the smile on his face to reach his eyes in response, “We have time, and I have ears if you wish to speak.”
Why not, maybe since he’s impartial with no prior biases he’ll actually listen to her. “Well,” She started. “to make a long story short, I just moved here today.”
“That would explain the luggage you brought with you; we couldn’t remember exactly if those had already been there, however, I am glad that we were correct. By the way,” James added, sounding as if it was an afterthought. “We put your belongings in the bedroom you were sleeping in, I believe that is the master bedroom.”
“I appreciate that.” Mika smiled, “This is my grandfather's’ home. I would visit him when I was younger, even when I would explore the estate back then I don’t believe I ever managed to see it all.”
“Your grandfather? May I ask why you live in your grandfather’s house?” James asked.
“This house was bequeathed to me in his will… He actually passed away yesterday. I was sent to live here almost immediately after finding out, whether I like it or not, really.” Mika tried to laugh it off, make light of what happened in the space of 24 hours.
“My condolences for your loss. If you don’t mind my saying, it seems as though you don’t like the idea of living here.”
“It’s… More of the implication of what staying at this estate means, rather than me not liking living here or that I don’t have fond memories of the place… It’s complicated to explain if I’m honest.” She said, almost not wanting to say more. Staying here meant that she was going to become the next CEO, her future paved out for her by her father’s wishes with no regard for her desires.
“Well then, how do you feel about it?” James asked, a smile twitching at the corner of his lips. Out of all the questions, she thought he’d ask he asked one she wasn’t expecting. Mika appreciated that it was at least different than what she’d heard all day in school and that he seemed willing to listen to her for once.
“I feel…” Once she thought about it the emotions she’d been forcing down to put on a happy brave face for the public - no one wants to see a girl upset at anything - they started pouring out. “Angry, scared, sad, confused. It’s kind of hard picking the different emotions that I’m feeling…” She sighed, lowering her eyes to the ground. “I wish I were stronger, then I wouldn’t be feeling like this.” Like a failure, part of her whispered.
“You don’t have to be strong.” The sentence almost pulsed within her, down to where she could almost feel her soul, and she had to pause a moment to collect herself again.
“...What do you mean?”
“It’s okay to feel those emotions. You’re going through a difficult time, it’s understandable that you’d feel them. You don’t have to be strong at all in this situation.”
Her words almost caught in her throat. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” James smiled again, a moment later frowning and leaning a bit closer to her face. “Are you alright? You have a small bruise on your cheek…”
Mika felt her face heat up. “Uh, yes, yes I'm alright,” He leaned a bit closer, having to actually bend down to look at it with more scrutiny before straightening back up.
“Alright. If you’re having any problems, please remember that I’m here to listen.”
“Thank you for offering…” A small smile came back to her face, though it fell when Sam spoke up.
“Good Christ would you hurry up?” He almost shouted from his seat, plate already heaped with different foods. “Dinner’s gonna get cold while you two chat it up!” He promptly shoved a piece of food in his mouth.
James sighed at the interception and turned his attention back to Mika. “Your seat.” He let go of her arm, taking the chair to her right.
“Let me get your chair for you, sweetness.” Erik slid up behind her, quickly pulling her chair out for her and back under her as she sat down. Erik’s honeyed words and a smile tugged at Mika’s heart, even more so with the distance she could see in his eyes as he flirted with her.
“You don’t have to keep talking like that, you know.” She told him once she was seated.
“Hm? Like what?”
“Like… It feels like all you’re doing is trying to get into my pants.”
“I am simply a lover of beautiful women.” Another graceful smile appeared on his face, causing Mika to giggle.
“Something tells me there’s more to it than that.”
That caused the smile to turn into a grin. “Oh? Would you like there to be more?” She could tell he tried to play it off, but the distance in his eyes only seemed to get larger, and his smile faltered. Before she could question it, the look was gone, replaced by his characteristic neutral smile. “At any rate, I wanted to apologize as well, for stealing your second kiss.”
“Hm?” She furrowed her brows in confusion for a moment before remembered the reason she passed out in the first place. “Oh no, it’s fine! I mean, at least you didn’t just get up and grab a kiss for no reason.” It was something of a pointed jab at Sam, who didn’t seem to be paying attention.
Erik laughed, catching it for what it was. “I’m not as forward, unlike Sam.” He suddenly leaned back in, whispering in her ear “I won’t lie, though… I enjoyed kissing you, and feeling you melt in my arms and against my lips…” Mika felt her cheeks blush and she pushed him away with some nervous laughter.
Erik only laughed in response, heading around the table to his own chair. She only then saw that James had begun serving her, placing several different pieces of the various dishes on her plate.
“I hope you enjoy, my sweet.” Erik said, “I made almost all the dishes myself.”
“And I’m the queen of the nile!” Matthew piped up, hiding a mouthful of food behind a hand. “You, me, and James made dinner together, dummy!”
“You, James, and I, Matthew.” James corrected from her right, causing Erik to chuckle almost derisively.
“Little boys will always make mistakes.”
“I’m not a little boy!” Matthew indignantly said, “I’m barely a year younger than you!”
“You certainly don’t act like you’re a year younger than me.” Erik continued, Matthew stuck his tongue out, and Mika had to giggle.
Even with some of his more childish behavior and total babyface he felt more mature than Erik and Sam did. Not more mature than James, and his maturity compared to Damien’s is about equal, but he felt that the things he did he did out of choice than anything else.
Matthew and Erik looked at her when she laughed, the younger one a bit hurt, “Is something funny?”
“No, no,” Mika said through her giggle fit. “It’s nothing, don’t worry. Thank you all for the meal!”
Instantly the distressed look Matthew gave her was gone, replaced by a bright smile and a laugh. “Oh, well then you’re welcome miss!”
Erik also complimented her, saying “Such a well-mannered young lady! Beautiful inside, and out!”
“Erik, knock it off.” Matthew’s exasperated voice spoke volumes of how often Erik talked like that to ladies. Sam even spoke up from his corner of the table.
“Seriously, you’re getting really annoying with that suck-up act.”
“I’m just trying to be a gentleman.” Erik attempted to defend himself. “The young girl has already gone through so much, she deserves to be treated nicely.”
James spoke in a very calm manner, not even giving Erik full eye contact. “There’s a difference between being a gentleman, and being an obnoxious flirt.” He stated, and Mika had to agree. If any of them was a gentleman, it was James, 100%.
Sam and Matthew laughed at James’ shut-down, The younger poked Erik in the arm, saying “Ooooh, schooled even by James! Man, you’re gonna need some cold water for that burn!” Erik fell silent, and Mika believed that he was only trying to save whatever face he still had after that.
James cleared his throat again, grabbing everyone's attention. “At any rate, let's eat before this meal grows cold.”
“Here, here!” Sam said as he and Matthew dug in with gusto. James frowned at their poor manners.
“Really, you two? You’re both acting like pigs!”
“Oh, let them be, James,” Erik said, picking up his cutlery and slicing up a steak. “It’s not like we’ve eaten recently either, I’m sure they’ve been starving,” James grumbled about how it’s still no excuse and Mika had to work to keep her laugh from coming out. James looked at her with almost grateful eyes that at least someone held decent manners.
“By the way,” James spoke up from beside her, breaking her out of her train of thought - again. “I don’t believe we know your name, though we have already introduced ourselves.
“Ah, I’m Mika.”
“It’s a pleasure to know your name, finally,” James said, the others speaking up about it as well. They began grabbing food, Sam going back to eating the food on his plate when a thought came to her.
“Excuse me...” Mika said, instantly the five boys looked up at her almost in unison.
“What is it, miss?” James asked from beside her.
“I just… I just wanted to thank you for the food, but I still want to know why you all came here… I feel like I don’t understand.” Although Mika wondered how understandable it was that a bunch of incubi randomly appearing would be at all.
Sam growled in frustration, “What’s so difficult to understand?” He almost snapped out “We were attacked, we came here to heal.”
“Yeah, I get that, but happened specifically?”
“Does it matter?” Sam asked, something of a growl lacing his words.
“It does when I don’t know if whatever hunted you is still hunting you!” Mika's voice was loud as she stood up and banged her hands on the table. The boys fell silent at her. “I don't know what's hunting you.” Her voice was calmer but was still firm “Will it find you here?”
James cleared his throat, bringing all their eyes to him. Mika returned to her seat, face flushed as James began to explain. “Well… You see, we’ve traveling around for quite some time, now. We came into town pretty recently but early on in this visit we were jumped by a band of misfits.” James paused in labeling what attacked them, “The fight went about as well as you can imagine, we ended up escaping and coming here for shelter to heal. Again, we apologize for the mess we made in the foyer. As for if they will find us here…” He sighed. “It is a possibility.” He smiled at her, and Mika looked them over a few seconds.
“But, you’re all better now right?”
Matthew spoke then, “Yup, all thanks to you!” His smile was infectious, and she could feel the corners of her mouth tilt up to mirror his while her expression clouded with confusion.
“Me?”
“You have a lot of energy, beautiful,” Erik said, leaning against a hand propped up on the table. “You see, lovely, we as incubi feed on sexual energy.” The way he said ‘Sexual’ almost made the skin on Mika’s back crawl.
“So when you kissed me…?”
Erik nodded, “Yes, I took some of your energy, however we don’t get it just from kissing alluring ladies such as yourself. We can directly touch someone’s hand to obtain the energy we need. Everyone carries sexual energy, you know.”
Mika was quiet while she processed that, passing over bowls to Matthew and Sam who had quickly devolved into kicking each other under the table while they fought over who would get the last of the yeast rolls. She realized that if it wasn’t just kissing, it was everything alongside it that was physical. It would explain why her unconsciousness lasted for hours. Still, her eyes looked beside herself briefly and met whiskey-colored eyes, and she could feel herself get pulled deeper into them even while sirens went off in her head warning her against getting too involved.
James looked at her in silence for a moment before tilting his head in confusion. He swallowed the bite he’d taken and asked: “Is there anything else you wish to know?”
“Well… What do you plan to do now?” The question was light, she brought a bite of a sweet potato - roasted and seasoned in some way that reminded her of a hole-in-the-wall taiwanese place she went to once - but it made the boys go silent.
They looked to James, Matthew taking a breather from his meal first “Yeah,” He nodded alongside her. “What are we gonna do now?”
Mika took a moment to thank Matthew for the sweet potatoes, he only smiled in response before looking back to his elder brother.
James nodded, leaning back in his chair. “That is an excellent question,” He muttered, thinking aloud. “We just got here, and we’ll surely be hunted again if we leave…” His eyes flicked to Mika for a second before Sam finally broke his own silence.
“We can take ‘em. Easily. Get some fuckin’ payback for that shitshow they put us through.” He pointed to James with his fork, stabbing another piece of meat and shoving it in his mouth.
“Well based on our last encounter with them,” Erik looked at him somewhat disdainfully. “Easily is how the fight would go for them. We need more training if we wish to defeat them when we cross paths again.”
They began arguing amongst themselves, Sam arguing with Erik about different approaches (Sam wanted to rush in while Erik wanted them to weigh options, running was always on the table after all) Matthew seemed more put out that it had come up at all, Mika wondered if he even wanted to fight. Damien was silent. He’d been very quiet the entire dinner and wondered if he was shy or was more of them mindset that he doesn’t feel like talking unless what he has to say has meaning.
She watched them all discuss this unknown but real threat realized that they probably couldn’t survive on the run. They hadn’t known it was illegal to break into people's’ homes, and if they don’t know that there’s probably even more that they don’t know. Erik alone could probably cause a traffic accident while poor Damien would very quickly get overstimulated and that wouldn’t be good… Her eyes turned down as her mind went down other roads, if the boys were found out for what they were they would be taken in and questioned by the local police, by state officials, men in suits from the government, made into some highly classified test subjects at some secret military base like Area 51 and… Mika’s mind filled more of images she’d seen from horror movies about the kind of torture that can go on in a laboratory and she shut her eyes a moment to calm herself back down.
Unbidden a memory bubbles to her mind, a time when she was more likely to watch her life go by without her, she’d always been a quiet child, and it didn’t help her that she was the granddaughter of Harold Anderson and given special treatment because of it. At some point she decided to see her grandfather, he was the only one she felt she could turn to, her loneliness sat deep in her soul and Mika didn’t believe anyone could help. Not her mother, her father, not even the other kids in school. She left school that day and went walking to her grandfather’s, however, got lost. Her grandfather luckily found her leaning against a building fighting back her tears and while Mika didn’t recognize him then from that moment life for her began moving, and she took a more active role in her life.
Mika believed she had the opportunity to help them if nothing else she could allow them to stay at her mansion until this person or people hunting them was gone, it shouldn’t take too long, would it? The sirens from before were going off again; they were demons. All five of them were actual honest-to-God demons and that she would probably get visitors and she didn’t want to explain their powers or why Erik was able to pull the things he could or why Sam would be bench pressing some God awful heavy thing as though it were a sack of potatoes.
Other pieces of logistics cropped up in her head as she mulled it over, the boys bickering about where to go next falling on deaf ears. The memory she liked to visit the most, her grandfather telling her that she should do what makes her happy as well came to her and she felt something in her soul harden at it. It wasn’t a particularly smart move. However, it is something that she could do for them, and it made her happy, so Mika cleared her throat. “Well, um…” Her voice squeaked out - so much for a strong start. “You… You could… Stay with me here, if you’d like.”
“What was that, lovely?” Erik asked with a smile.
“You could stay with me here, uh. If you’d like.” Her face flushed and she looked back to her lap while the boys stopped talking and looked at her. “Well I mean it seems like you need a place to stay and uh, this house is giant just for one person so I mean it makes sense? Kinda? I mean if you don’t want to that’s fine it’s up to you now, I just wanted to put it on the table and…” She trailed off, forcing herself to stop rambling.
“Would there be caveats for this kind hospitality?” James asked, turning his body on the chair to look at her.
“Well, um.” Mika hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Well, the first one is that you can’t use your powers or do something deliberately that could hurt me or any guest that comes over. Excluding those people hunting you or general bad guys. Uh, I guess you should use your best judgment on that?”
“Sounds fair,” James nodded, followed suit by Damien and Matthew.
“As the lady desires.” Erik acknowledged. Sam was quiet, waiting for any more conditions.
“And the second is that you’ll have to help me with house upkeep, it’s kind of big for just one person, so… yeah.”
“What?!” Sam shouted, standing from the table.
“Sam.” James warned, his voice clipping with anger. “Be polite or I will make it so.”
“I’d like to see you try!” He told James before looking back to Mika. “Why the fuck should we be required to help you do your chores?!”
“Well would you rather pay, some sort of rent?” Mika asked. “I’m sure I could set up some fees!” She could feel the anger bubbling beneath her skin before James cleared his throat, causing them both - or at least Mika - to start calming back down.
“The stipulations are just fine, it’s a very generous offer, Miss. Are you sure you wish to do this? We don’t want to burden you any more than we already have.”
“It’s just fine!” Already the idea of them living there was turning into something favorable in her head. “I just started living here myself I mean, so… I would appreciate some help around the house.” At least until she can get herself a job so she could afford a maid or something. This house is far too big for just one person!
Erik loved the idea, calling them the servants for a beautiful princess while Damien and Matthew stood to collect the used dishes. Sam grumbled still, upset that the conditions she listed were so easily accepted. Matthew shushed him, causing Mika to giggle as he told Sam to shut up. That earned a few laughs from the others, all of whom, save for Sam, seemed to like the idea.
Sam let out a growl “Fine,” He bit out. “But we aren’t gonna stay here forever. Just until we can beat that group of punks into pulp.” Mika almost expected James to say something to him about his tone, but he only smiled lightly, she could almost see the exhaustion on his face from his past few days and near brush with death.
“I believe that is a reasonable time limit for our stay. We do not wish to burden you-”
“Any longer than you have,” Mika finished. “Listen if it were going to be a burden to me I wouldn’t have offered.” Her mouth quirked up in a lopsided smile. “So just accept some hospitality and kindness okay?”
The exhaustion that had ghosted onto James’ face disappeared and his mouth turned up into an actual smile, “If the lady insists.”