I can't.

The words echoed in her ears, those two so stricken sounding words before he'd left without another word. She was still sprawled there, nearly half naked, completely unsure of what to do.

This wasn't going to be something she by idly and watched.

Pulling her shirt back over her head, she walked swiftly out of the room.

'Achilles!' She called, yet there was no answer. The house was eerily quiet and she had a sneaking suspicion that he had just left altogether. She didn't trust him enough in that moment to just leave it, the last time he had left he was gone for ages. While that was definitely an irrational fear on her part, she wasn't going to to just let him be this time.

Grabbing a hoodie and storming out she was faced with the entirety of the forest. Ironically, she wasn't actually that afraid of the vastness of the forest, it had something to do with amount of time she was spending around creatures of darkness these days, no doubt. It was making her less scared of the every day things.

It was quite loud actually, the sound of different animals and creatures rustling around in the dark acted as a deterrent to her hearing abilities.

'Achilles!' She shouted out, walking tentatively further and further away from the house. If she kept going on at this rate she was going to get lost.

Nonetheless, she kept on striding through the trees. 'Achilles.' She called out again. 'Where are you?'

'Lisa, what are you doing?' She heard a voice rumbled from above her.

Startled, she looked up to see Achilles, sitting up one of the tall evergreen trees.

'How did you get up there?'

'I can teleport and you're surprised about how I could get up a tree?' he laughed quietly 'You're really something Lisa Farrow. However, you didn't answer my question.'

'I was looking for you, I was worried about you.' She replied, while trying to find some way to pull herself up the tree.

'Lisa, don't' he groaned as she began a futile attempt to climb the tree. 'I'll come down to you.'

She watched as he easily jumped from about fifteen feet with ease.

His eyes looked sad as he made eye contact with her. 'You're not mad at me are you?' He said sadly.

'Mad? No. Confused? Yes. Please tell me what happened back there, if you're not ready or you feel pressured to do anything, I'm so sor-'

'Lisa stop.' He interjected. 'Hell, it's not that I'm not ready or I feel pressured or anything, I do want to have sex with you. Many times, multiple ways.' He laughed slightly, looking awkward. Lisa had never seen an incubus look awkward before.

'Go on.' She encouraged.

'Just not when I'm like that Lisa.'

'What do you mean? When your eyes go red, what does that mean Achilles?'

'I can't explain it very well.'

'Try. Please.' Lisa looked pleadingly at him.

'It's just like I'm more incubus if that makes any sense. The instincts of what I am just take over, as if it's not me, but it is.'

'And that's bad because?' Lisa questioned, she was trying to understand.

'I just become less....human.' he paused, as if in deep thought. 'More like the way incubi used to be.'

'What do you mean by that?'

'Incubi are jealous and possessive by nature. It's like we're hardwired that way. I get more like that. Less grounded, more likely to do irrational things out of that jealously or possessiveness.'

'Oh.' Lisa swallowed. 'How do you get into that state?'

'I don't even know. It's like a fight or flight thing I suppose, usually something provokes it and then bam. I suppose could be....Nevermind.'

'Could be what?'

He shifted uncomfortably. 'Not now Lisa. I think this is something you'll need to have plenty of sleep and be sitting down for. Come on, I'll bring us back.'

When they were back at the house, Lisa hadn't realised how late it had gotten, the day had passed so fast.

When she crawled into bed as Achilles watched she looked pointedly at him. 'You know you can sleep here if you want, I'm not going to combust.'

'Maybe not, with you looking all doe eyed and pitiful for me, who knows what I might do. Really gets me going.' He laughed. 'I'll take the couch.'

Lisa stood up with her hands on her hips. 'Achilles don't be ridiculous.'

He sauntered over to her and placed a hand on her hip over hers and and another on her cheek. he kissed her softly yet passionately and then pulled away.

'Are you still not convinced?'

'Not a hope. Now come on, this is a huge bed and it's cold with just one person.'

'Well that's a truly convincing argument. You have me up against a wall here sweetie.' He laughed.

'Promise I won't sleep naked though.' He winked at her as he just pulled off his shirt and got under the covers with her.

Just before she fell asleep she thought about what had unfolded that day. She was starting to see just how complex this guy was, he undoubtedly had some stuff he needed to sort through, but he wasn't a bad person, far from it. She knew that he would never hurt her. He seemed so hell bent on her knowing that.

'Achilles.' Lisa said softly, she watched the rise and fall of his chest as he sleepily turned to face her.

'Hmmm...' He replied, his grey eyes taking her in. 'You're beautiful Lisa Farrow.'

'Thank you.' She smiled. 'You know yesterday, when you said that something provokes you and you go into that red eyed state, what did you mean?'

He sat up. 'Lisa, it's hard for me to talk about. Bad things have happened to me, being what I am is a curse.'

'What do you mean a curse? What's so bad about being an incubus.'

'It's not that....' He suddenly looked far away. 'Lisa, I'm going to tell you something that not a lot of people know.'

'You can trust me, Achilles.'

'The reason why I am the way I am, that I make you feel the way you do in particular and why I'm such a threat to Hire an Incubus is because I'm part human.'

'What?' Lisa was shocked, 'Well I was not expecting that. Why didn't you tell me this before? What do you mean the way you make me feel?'

He looked slightly embarrassed as he said it. 'Lisa, I'm not trying to be coy when I say this but I knew from the moment you first saw me that you felt strongly attracted to me, more so than the other incubi you had met, I can feel that sort of stuff, that's where the incubus part comes in. Well, and because my mother was human, I have a human part of me, which means you feel more drawn to me because I'm familiar too, not just because I'm an incubus, it's a very dangerous cocktail of species.'

'Wait, if you're half human, and your mother was human, then that means you were born to a human.'

'Yes...' he looked confused.

'So you grew up, you aged?'

'Yes....'

'I thought incubi didn't age? Aren't they all ancient? Does that mean that you age like super slow or something?'

'Oh.' he suddenly realised. 'No, I'm only twenty four. I don't age any different to a human, it's the dying that's the hard part.' He laughed.

'How are you so infamous then, if you're so young, how are Hire an incubus so threatened by you?'

'Well that's an easy one.' He said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. 'You see, most incubi are created, they just appear as what they are. they don't have natural human attributes or emotions, they can't feel emotions as strongly because they don't need to mate because they don't have to reproduce like that. Human incubi offspring are harder to kill too, we're not completely damned so trying to kill me with a blessed cross wouldn't mortally wound me.'

'You're dangerous because you feel emotions?'

'No, I'm dangerous because I can easily reproduce with women. Hypothetically speaking, it wouldn't be hard for me to get you pregnant. Then we'd have our damned human incubi offspring running around and Hire an Incubi would have some serious competition that they couldn't kill off.' He cracked a smile.

'Quick question' Lisa began, 'What's your second name?'

'Starling.' He said softly, and he looked as if it was a name he hadn't said in years. 'My mother's second name was Starling. My father didn't have one, being an incubus and all.'

'Well, Achilles Starling, I have to say after hearing all that terrifying stuff, I truly have to say you are indeed a monster.'

'And you let me in to your bed, Lisa Farrow he said, suddenly moving inhumanly fast so she was below him and he was lounging over her.

She pulled his face close to hers and kissed him deeply. 'You make me feel things Achilles. Things I can't even begin to understand.'

'I haven't even touched you yet sweetheart, I can make you feel other things too.'

He kissed her passionately, there was longing and tenderness but a hidden hunger to it too. His hand found her waist, reaching around to pull the hem of her shirt up. Lisa helped pull it ff and Achilles pulled away for a second to look at her.

'Wow'

She wrapped her legs around his waist and felt him move against her.

'Are you okay with this?' She asked.

'Oh most definitely.' He laughed.