Drained: The Lucid by E.L. Blaisdell, Nica Curt Page B

someone’s body. She was stunned by the young woman’s ability to turn and control the situation. One minute she was hitting Riley with a baseball bat, the next she was offering the succubus hospitality.
    “Not that I’m complaining about the offer, but you’re puzzling,” Riley voiced her thoughts. “I mean, you were holding batting practice with my head minutes ago.”
    Morgan poured hot water into two cups, each with their own tea bag floating to the top. “I guess I don’t care for baseball all that much,” she said with a slight shrug. “Anyway, I didn’t think you’d complain over my lack of aggression.” She brought the two steaming cups over to a small kitchen table that sat three as it was situated against a wall. “We can go back to that if you’d like. I’m accommodating.”
    “No thanks.” Riley lifted a hand.
    Morgan smirked at the simple gesture. “People can have a change of heart.”
    “Not that quickly they don’t,” Riley pointed out. “You could be schizophrenic.”
    “For a seductress, you’re doing a bang-up job,” Morgan retorted, sitting down in one chair. “Between the insults and tea, I don’t know how we’ll have time to have sex.”
    Riley stared at the cup of tea offered before her. Hot wisps of steam filtered from the dark liquid. “You didn’t poison this, did you?” Dream poison, in theory, wouldn’t have been threatening to her life, but with the mark’s unknown capabilities, she wasn’t so sure.
    Morgan stared at Riley from across the top of her ceramic mug. Her expression was unreadable. “That depends. If you die in my dream, do you die in real life? Do you even exist in real life? Or do you just hop from one victim’s dream to the next?”
    Riley cringed. “They’re not victims,” she repeated. “It’s not like I’m draining their blood in some dark alleyway like a creepy vampire.” 
    She slid with a practiced grace to sit in a chair across the intimate kitchen table. Her hands wrapped around the spare mug and she blew across the steaming liquid. Riley could tell Morgan’s eyes were drawn to her mouth—she’d purposefully pursed her plush lips as she cooled the scalding tea. The aroma from the steam filled her lungs before she gently placed the hot mug back down. She brushed an errant strand of hair away from her face. The healthy mane had returned to its more natural color—chestnut with a hint of California sun-kissed highlights.
    “Are vampires real?” Morgan blurted out. There was a hint of excitement that flashed in her eyes.
    “I don’t know,” Riley answered honestly. She dipped the tip of her finger into the tea and brought the flavor up to her lips. “For as long as I’ve been doing this, I’ve never met one. However if you’re into that sort of thing, think of me as a kind of vampire.”
    “So you’re a soulless demon that drinks blood?”
    Riley’s emotions faded from her face. “Of course you only wanted to confirm their existence. That would have been too easy if you had a vamp fetish,” she whispered to herself. “You seem to have a knack for looking at things in a negative way.” Her eyes narrowed. “Just so we’re on the same page, I have a soul, and I don’t drink blood. What I do is less messy and way more pleasurable.”
    Morgan nodded and they fell into an awkward silence.
    “How old are you?” Morgan asked.
    “Don’t you know that’s not polite?” Riley deflected.
    “You can go any time, you know,” Morgan muttered, playing with her coffee mug.
    “Actually, no I can’t.” It was a lie—she could jump in and out of dreams as effortlessly as she could shed someone’s clothing. “I am officially stuck with you for the next six months, give or take a couple dreams.” The last bit of information, however, was the truth. It was company policy to limit the time a mark could be visited.
    “Fantastic,” Morgan said with a scowl.
    The woman seated across from her offered a challenge. Riley had