A Succubus Hunts Ch. 01

"You know I can't do that Laura."

Laura raised her voice. Still too quiet for Rebecca to make out the words, but it was obvious that they were arguing now. "You never know when to back off. Drop it."

"I'm going to help you, and I'm going to help Gwen."

Laura sighed, and when she spoke her voice was calm, with a patronizing edge. "Amy. You don't want to be a thrall do you?"

Laura turned to look up at her, expression blank. Smokey eyeshadow, Immaculately winged liner. Freckle-kissed cheeks, and lips painted a shade darker than natural. She was so pretty. It was so easy to picture her with Gwen... Amy forced herself to blink the image away.

"No, of course not!"

If Laura had noticed her hesitation, she didn't call it out. "Then we want the same thing. So stay the fuck away from me and Gwen."

Rebecca cleared her throat, "Um, I'm having trouble with the observed concentration in sample five..."

"Zero point eight two milligrams per milliliter!"

They both responded at the same time, and scowled at each other as Rebecca muttered her thanks.

"I know how it feels to be with Gwen, but-"

"Do you really, though?"

"What do you mean?"

"You two were playing house. She took what she really needed from me."

"Laura, I'm sorry. I swear I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't. While you were all starry-eyed, having your first kiss, I was experiencing the full extent of her power. She didn't hold back with me."

Laura's features twisted into a smile. She wasn't upset, Amy realized, she was bragging. She was proud.

"You really don't want to be free..."

Laura rolled her eyes. "Now she gets it."

"Why?" Horror and fascination battled within her. Laura was lost so completely, that she didn't want to escape. Gwen had been so close to doing the same thing to her.

"Power, beauty, poise. Gwen is perfection incarnate." Laura's eyes twinkled. "A goddess, and I'm by her side. I won't let you ruin that. I won't let you hold her back anymore."

"Laura, you're her slave! I've seen the way she treats you."

Laura checked to make sure that Rebecca wasn't watching and leaned in close, to whisper into her ear, "And I've never been happier."

Amy shrank back, shivering at the way Laura purred the last words. Gwen had warped this woman beyond recognition. The fog roiled. What would she have done to me? Amy turned away, and focused on completing the assignment. Laura seemed content not to bother her until the TA called for everyone to turn in their reports. Then she waited by the door and joined Amy as she walked down the hall.

"Listen, Amy. I... appreciate your concern." The way she nearly choked on the word made her true feelings obvious. "But you don't want to be a thrall right? Well I don't want you to be one either. Just leave Gwen and me alone. Eventually she'll move on and you'll be safe, and then everyone wins."

Laura looked up at her, waiting for an answer. It struck Amy that this was the second time Laura had approached her in this hallway seeking to manipulate her and sabotage her relationship with Gwen. Perhaps being a thrall hadn't changed Laura as much as Amy thought.

"Go fuck yourself." Laura blinked, clearly shocked to hear her speaking so aggressively. Amy tried to hide her own surprise, but she kept going. Letting out all the frustration and anger. "I'm going to make Gwen human again." She took a step forward, and Laura backed away. "I'm going to free you." Another step. "Tell your mistress I'm coming for her."

Laura was against the wall, looking up at her and panting. Amy held her gaze while she fidgeted and realized that Laura was enjoying this. Not surprising given how Gwen treated her. What was surprising was the realization that she was enjoying it. Actually, I like it when you take charge. Memories of Gwen's voice as Amy pressed her against the front door. Another little way she'd been twisted. People were giving them weird looks as they passed. Amy took a calming breath, backed away and left without looking back.

*****

The sun was setting behind the empty parking deck as Amy ambled back to her car in a daze. The brutalist structure cast a criss-cross of shadows across the grassy field beneath it. There was no one in sight, and the sunset tinted everything purple and orange making the world feel alien and lonely. The deck was out of the way. Old, barely used, and inconvenient. Usually Amy liked the isolation, but now she found herself wishing there were more people around. That she didn't have to leave the simple, ordered, world of school and return to her new reality.

Laura's words kept replaying in her mind. "I've never been happier." A week ago, she'd watched as Laura gleefully submitted to the demon that had once been her best friend. Despite her terror, Amy had understood. Still understood. Gwen made it so tempting to give in. A week hadn't done much to blunt the feeling. Without classes to distract her the fog was back in force. A constant tingling that grew with each step that brought her closer to home. Closer to privacy, where she would give in. Again. She didn't have the energy to fight it.

By the time she climbed four flights of stairs and stepped out into the open air of the roof, the sun had sunk below the horizon leaving only a pink outline behind the silhouette of the treeline, and of the city behind it. Buzzing radiated from rows of lamps, now the only source of light. Moths danced around them. She fished her keys from her pocket and began walking toward her white Prius, the only car left in the lot, when a voice called to her from behind.

"Howdy."

Amy whirled to find Gwen leaning casually against the wall of the stairwell. Golden light rimmed the edges of her horns. Her tail undulated slowly like a thick black snake. Amy had walked right past her. Her entire body froze. Just that one word had whipped the fog into a churning mist. Amy focused. Forced it down and steeled herself to resist. The ring would, or at least should, protect her aura from Gwen's influence, but it did nothing to stop the rebellious part or her own mind. The corruption within her yearned for its master. She needed to be careful.

"How did you find me?"

"Laura."

Had Laura told Gwen about her despite her promise? Gwen seemed to know what she was thinking, and answered.

"I can sense her jealousy from anywhere. And nothing makes her more jealous than you. So I waited. You always park here. You like the long walk after class, right?"

Amy glanced back at her car. If she ran now, would she make it? Gwen was close. And she was fast now. Much faster than Amy. She took a slow step backwards.

"Chris says you've been skipping class."

"Guilty as charged."

Another step backward. Gwen stayed against the wall. Amy pictured invisible threads probing against the ring's shield.

"We were both going to be top of our class, remember?"

Gwen shrugged, zippers on her half-length leather jacket jingled. "School doesn't have the same appeal it used to. Besides, I have other goals now." She pushed off the wall. "Amy listen-"

Before Gwen could finish her sentence, Amy whipped her arm out and hurled a fistful of holly ash in her direction. A little cloud of dark smoke filled the air between them, and Gwen began coughing. Amy turned and ran. She chipped a nail as she slammed her hand against the car door's handle, threw it open, and practically lept inside. She locked the doors, hammered the ignition, and tore off down the ramp to the lower floors. In the rear view mirror, Gwen glared after her between coughs.

Minutes later, as she drove along the expressway back into town, and the safety of the Watcher's house, her phone began to buzz. She wasn't surprised to hear Gwen's voice when she answered.

"What the hell did you throw at me? That shit burned. You can't just go around throwing burning powder at people."

"What do you want, Gwen?"

"What I was going to say, before you went all Naruto on me, was that I'm not going to come after you."

What? Amy wasn't sure what she'd expected Gwen to say, but it wasn't this.

"I don't believe you."

"I know how important school is to you. I don't want your grades to suffer because of me."

Her voice sounded so genuine. Sweet. Concerned. Just the way it used to. God she missed that voice. If only it wasn't an act. She fought back tears.

"Hello? Amy... please."

"You really expect me to believe you're just going to let me go after what you did?! What changed? Did you suddenly turn over a new leaf or is one slave enough to satisfy you?"

"I never said anything about letting you go." Her voice was cold again, casually cruel. It sent a chill up Amy's spine that she chose to interpret as fear. "But I don't need to chase you around campus. You'll come to me on your own eventually. It's just a matter of time."

Amy wanted to deny it. To stand up to Gwen the same way she had Laura, but she couldn't. They both knew Gwen was right. Time wasn't on Amy's side, and she'd been foolish to pretend otherwise. She knew she should hang up, but instead made one final plea.

"Gwen... it's not too late. We can still fix this."

"There's nothing to fix. This is what I am and I love it."

She cooed the last word, and the fog danced.

"Suit yourself."

"I'll see you tonight love-" click.

*****

All the lights were out and the apartment was completely dark. It smelled musty. Someone had left the sink dripping. She felt along the wall for the switch and flipped it, revealing the room where life had changed forever. Where Laura had been branded and claimed. Where she'd nearly followed. Everything looked exactly as it was. Until now she'd avoided the apartment in case Gwen was here, but she was feeling brazen. Besides, it really wasn't that risky. It made sense that Gwen would be at Laura's. It would better suit her new tastes. Now that she was finally here it felt like a dream. Amy dropped her bag and closed the door. She ran a hand along the back of Mr. Weston's old armchair.

Gwen hated her dad, and Amy wasn't very fond of him either, but they'd both loved this chair. Or they used to. It was hard to think of it as anything other than the place where she'd put on the ring, severing her ties to Gwen, and rejecting a life of servitude to a demonic mistress. Is that regret you're feeling? Amy left the main room down the hall and hesitated at Gwen's door. Would it be worse if the room was empty, or if it was the same? Either option would be a reminder of what had changed. With a sigh she forced herself forward and stepped inside.

The answer turned out to be somewhere in the middle. Gwen hadn't taken any furniture, but her desk was cleaned out, and her closet was mostly empty. The only clothes that remained were old nerdy tee shirts, jeans, and shorts. The old Gwen's clothes. Amy struggled to conjure the image of what Gwen used to look like, but found it impossible. Even in her memories Gwen had become the beautiful monster she was now. Some analytical part of her wondered if it was a similar effect to her glamour, warping humans' perceptions to camouflage herself.

Amy left and went to her own room to pack some real clothes. She barely remembered the drive here. She'd turned around after hanging up on Gwen before she'd even realized what she was doing, and made the rest of the drive in some kind of trance. Now it was starting to fade, and a storm of emotion was nosing its way back into her thoughts. She wished she could keep it at bay forever.

By the time she'd packed her entire closet into two oversized suitcases and gathered her laptop and various possessions, she was on the verge of tears. She was so angry. Not at Gwen, she was a victim too. The changes, the powers, the loss of her humanity. It had all been forced on her. No, this whole mess was her own fault. She'd encouraged Gwen to explore her new abilities. She'd allowed Gwen to push her on the rules. She'd been blissfully unaware that Laura was being corrupted right under her nose, all while she let her infatuation with Gwen undermine her judgment.

No time for regrets, she told herself. Just keep moving forward and find a way to make this right. She loaded everything into the car in four exhausting trips, and went back for one more thing. There was a corkboard in her room, covered with photos and awards from her childhood. One in particular, near the bottom left, showed her and Gwen holding a trophy. County science fair champions from the year they'd entered the team competition. Gwen's dad had taken it with an old polaroid and it had faded over the years, but it was her favorite picture, and it would be a nice reminder of who Gwen used to be. Amy froze in front of the corkboard. It was missing.

All that was left was a tiny scrap still pinned to the board as if someone had ripped the photo off without bothering to remove the pin. Someone impatient. Amy finally lost the battle with her emotions and tears began spilling down her cheeks. She collapsed to the floor, sobbing, where Xavier found her nearly an hour later.

They both sat on the floor of her room. Amy had run out of tears and now stared at the ceiling, vision blurred and eyes stringing. At some point Xavier had wrapped his arm around her. He was silent, waiting for her. How long had it been?

"How did you find me?"

"You shared your location, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah."

Amy felt like she should say something else, but nothing came to mind. All she could think about was Gwen. Their shattered friendship, the relationship she'd lost, her nightly half-remembered dreams. All these things whirled about in her mind like a storm. Worse, now that she'd cried herself out, the fog was back unchecked. She didn't have the mental energy to resist it. It was weird, to be sad and aroused at the same time. She couldn't decide which feeling was stronger.

Heat radiated through her. Surely Xavier could feel how hot she was. His dreads were loose and swept to the side. They brushed against the top of her head. She leaned into him and sighed quietly. He turned to look down and began reaching across her. She breathed in and closed her eyes. Relaxed her legs and braced herself for his touch. Instead his hand fell atop hers, which she now realized had been drifting between her thighs, and held it still. She froze, embarrassed, but perhaps not as much as she should be.

Here she was, sitting in the arms of an attractive man, vulnerable and horny, and he was the one being responsible. He was one of the only people in the world who understood her. Who knew how it felt to be under a demon's thumb. Her body longed for attention.

"Please," she whispered.

"Amy..."

"I can't take it. I need... release." She couldn't bring herself to look at him.

"I'm not going to take advantage of you."

"You're not. I'm... compromised. I know that. But I also still know what I'm doing." She tugged at his hand with hers but it wouldn't budge.

"It will fade with time."

"Will it? Every day without her it gets stronger. When it's bad I can barely think straight. Every morning I... you know. Just so I can focus."

"I erm, do. Actually. That bed is not quiet."

She groaned. "Does Jim?"

"I doubt it, the man snores like a chainsaw."

She smiled, and silence fell on them once again. Xavier's hand and hers rested at mid thigh. From his position looking down, Amy realized that he would have a good view down the loose sweatshirt. For the second time that day, she did what she thought a succubus might, and subtly puffed out her chest, knowing that at the right angle, it would reveal her cleavage. Embarrassment and excitement filled her in equal measure. She squirmed at the idea that she had become more like Gwen. Seductive. Corrupted. She made a decision, and took a deep breath before making her play.

"I want to go to the UK."

"What?" Xavier shifted.

"You were right. It's too dangerous here. I'm vulnerable, and I don't think I can resist her. Let's go to Scotland and look through the rest of the Watcher's storage. We'll work on a cure, and I'll detox."

"Not to play devil's advocate, I'm all for it, but what about your classes?"

"I can withdraw. I'll make up an excuse, and re-enroll next year." The very thought sent a spike of frustration through her, but she quelled it. Xavier was right. Gwen was right. The school was basically a hunting ground. Better to get away.

"Alright then!"

He sounded pleased, as if he'd gotten everything he wanted. It was sweet that her safety was his only concern. But she was angling for more. He lifted his hand and tried to pat hers. She caught it on the downswing and turned to look up at him. He was grinning, and behind his thick rimmed glasses, his umber eyes twinkled.

"There's a condition."

The look of triumph faded, and he let out a disapproving hum. She felt the vibrations in his chest.

"I, um." Amy squeezed her eyes shut and the rest came out in a torrent. "I need you to help me with these urges. I need someone to help me with these urges. I can't get her out of my head and I can't stop thinking about... sex."

The last word was barely a whisper. It turned out her shame was stronger than she thought when looking directly up at him. Xavier was frozen. His arm was like stone. The room felt like it was a thousand degrees.

"Amy. If you're asking what I think you're asking..."

"I won't force you if you don't want to."

"It's not that." So he did want to. "I just... I don't think it's right to take advantage of you when you're like this."

"You're not." He looked at her like she'd just claimed the dog ate her homework. "You're not! I understand your concerns. I do. I've already admitted that I'm compromised. I'm not asking because of that. I'm asking despite it. The ring protects me from her threads, but there's still a part of her left in me. Like an infection." She absently placed a hand over her heart as if the corruption in her aura could be physically located. "It's pulling me toward her. All the time. I can fight it, but it takes effort."

"It will get better with time."

"No, Xavier. It won't. It's getting worse."

"That doesn't make any sense-"

"She's still in my dreams."

"Oh. Fuck."

"Yep."

"What- uh, what happens in the dreams?"

"Honestly, I don't remember. Not clearly, anyways. They're always hazy. But she's there, and we... you know." Here, Gwen would have made a rude gesture with her fingers. Amy resisted the urge. "She talks to me the whole time. I remember her whispering. But I can never recall the words."

"Every night? Amy, that's..." He trailed off looking aghast.

"The ring doesn't help me when I'm asleep. I haven't worked out if it's because the protection only works while I'm awake, or if it just doesn't affect dreamwalking. Either way, I'm vulnerable. Even without the threads, she's found another way to manipulate me."

Amy slipped free of his arm and let his hand go. She turned to face him. His brows were knit and his mouth was turned down on one side. He worked the fingers of the hand she'd been holding.

"So we go to Scotland. We look through the rest of the Watchers' old stuff. Maybe the physical distance weakens her dreamwalking, maybe not. Either way, it will prevent me from making any stupid mistakes. However, it won't stop the ...longing. It's driving me crazy. I need something to distract me or I'll never be able to focus."

Silence. Xavier's face moved through a series of expressions before settling on disappointment.

"So I'm just a distraction."

"Not just a distraction." She laid a hand on his shoulder. Since when was she this bold? "I just don't want you to feel like we're starting anything in questionable circumstances."