Incubus

FIVE

"Amélie? Did you hear me? Hey!" Leah nudged Amélie firmly in the ribs as the silence dragged on, making her friend flinch. "Say something? Please?"

Peering into Amélie's dazed, deer in the headlights looking brown eyes as she internally struggled to piece two and two together, Leah couldn't help but feeling slightly guilty. She couldn't exactly blame her for being shocked. Not when she hadn't even given her the courtesy of letting her know that she had started seeing someone. Leah had only met Adrian a little over a month ago, although it felt as though she had known him her entire life. She had been almost as shocked as Amélie was now when he had arrived at her doorstep two nights ago and asked her to consent to being his wife. Shocked, but pleased.

And yet, although Leah understood why Amélie was stunned, she couldn't help but feeling as though something else was weighing on her friends mind. She had been acting strange from the moment Leah had greeted her fifteen-something minutes ago, not at all her usual, welcoming self. Something was off, and she wanted to know what, because the Amélie she knew would have been just blown away by Adrian's six-foot-two, sex-on-a-stick, strikingly handsome figure and intoxicating green eyes, as she had been. She was certain of it.

Amélie, who could feel Leah's eyes boring anxiously into the side of her head,  knew she had to say something. Trouble was, she didn't know what. Unable to find it within herself to congratulate her friend when she knew she was making a terrible decision, she eventually managed to calm her spinning mind enough to ask instead, "How long have you been seeing each other for?"

Leah bit her lip uncomfortably; just she always did when she knew she had done something against her better judgment. Like buying a pair of boots with a price tag high enough to feed a small village for a week, or getting herself suspended for experimentally smoking on school campus during the lunch hour. Amélie knew Leah was aware that she was being rash in her decision now, too. She just didn't know how much so.

"A little over a month," Leah admitted bashfully, making Amélie feel sick to the stomach. "But it sounds so much worse than it is," she pressed on quickly. "I mean, we've practically been living together since we met. And it just... Adrian, you agree with me when I say it just feels right, don't you?"

Narrowing her eyes, Amélie turned her attention back to Adrian and shot him a murderous glare. A glare he pointedly ignored as he reached across the table and took hold of Leah's hand. "I agree completely," he purred, making Leah swoon and stare almost drunkenly across at him, the look of absolute adoration spreading across her sun kissed face.

Unable to sit there a moment longer, Amélie was out of her chair and on her feet in an instant. "I need to use the bathroom," she bit out, the only valid explanation she could think of before turning sharply on her heel and marching in a silent rage across to the female bathrooms on the other side of the room.

Inside the ladies room, Amélie raked her fingers through her hair, bent over almost double, and opened her mouth in a silent scream. She couldn't believe what was happening. Or how it had happened, more to the point. Somehow, Leah had been bewitched by Adrian's charming words and handsome figure, unable to see the predator lurking just below the surface. She had fallen straight into his well laid trap, completely blindsided to the kind of man he really was.

A few moments later, Amélie heard someone else enter the room. "Amélie," Leah said, closing the door quietly behind her and taking a small step in her direction. "What's going on? You've been on edge since I arrived, and I know it doesn't have anything to do with me getting engaged. Well, only partially, I hope. Tell me what's wrong, please. Maybe I can help?"

Rolling her eyes, Amélie rounded on her friend, unable to hold in the fear and anger brewing beneath her skin a moment longer. "Leah," she said in exasperation, shaking her head and pointing her finger towards the closed door. "Do you know who the man out there is?"