A Succubus Hunts Ch. 04

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long. I had a pretty nasty case of writer's block to overcome, but I think I've figured out where I want to take this story. This chapter is a bit shorter than usual, but I'm planning to release more frequent chapters around this length. As always, let me know what you think in the comments.

When their connection had been at its strongest, the tether to Amy's dream had been a beacon in the darkness. Now, that darkness swallowed entire sections, leaving a dim string of fairy lights. It had been fading for weeks, ever since Amy severed the threads, and soon it would be gone. The lights began to twinkle out as her control slipped. Gwen fought back her panic, and forced herself to breathe, or whatever counted for breathing here. The connection stabilized.

She could only see the tether when she strained her senses to their limits, expanding her awareness the same way she shaped human dreams. Unlike human dreams however, the effort was exhausting. Each morning she awoke lying in a pool of her own sweat, increasingly drained with each passing night. More immediately concerning though, was that whenever she focused, the void came alive.

All around her, darkness churned, and distant dreams winked in and out as if enormous shadows swam between them. Shapes danced at the edges of her vision, but whenever she turned, there was nothing. Something out there in the darkness was watching her. Something besides the red sun, now colossal. As if it was so close she could reach out and touch it. As if it was breathing down her neck.

Perhaps aware of her scrutiny, the sun spoke up. "They won't bother you. Not until you go deeper."

The voice was sensuous and smooth. Gwen suppressed a shiver as it washed over her like liquid velvet, sinking in through her pores and filling her with tingling energy that tugged at her concentration. It raised her hackles, and called to the same feral part of her that responded to Remy's presence. It wanted to submit. To bow and scrape and worship. She refused to look over her shoulder as she responded, "Shut up."

All she got in return was ominous laughter.

Four days ago, the red sun had spoken clearly for the first time, startling her so badly that she was thrown back into the waking world. She could only hear it clearly while concentrating though, and even then it dipped in and out of focus. It encouraged her efforts, urged her to push her senses further. To reach deeper into the void.

Normally she wouldn't be stupid enough to take orders from an evil, manipulative orb, but she wasn't going to let Amy's dream go without a fight. Gwen let her focus go, forcing the sun back to its usual incomprehensible whispering. Much easier to ignore. Stillness returned to the void, and Amy's tether disappeared.

She floated aimlessly, brushing her hand along passing dreams and tasting their emotions while she considered her plan.

At the rate the tether was fading, this would probably be the last time she could find Amy's dream. She ignored the pang of fear that came with the realization, and reminded herself that Amy couldn't hide forever. All she needed was another opportunity to bind her in the real world. Until then though, she needed to make this dream count, and there was one card she had yet to play. Even if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Swallowing her pride, she honed her senses again, ignored the churning shapes and the cackling sun behind her, and followed the feeble thread to its source.

*****

Gwen found herself in the shell of a library that had been utterly destroyed. Half-burned books and decrepit, rotting shelves were everywhere. It had been burned down, judging by the soot, still flecked through with smoldering embers. An enormous metal door set into the back wall dominated the dreamscape. Shadow gathered around it and embers spiraled towards it along the walls, the floors, and drifting through the air like fireflies. Orange light licked through tiny gaps around its frame as if something was trying to escape. Amy stood before it, chewing her nails.

"Wow, creepy." Amy spun to face her. Gwen stabilized the dream, and everything lost a bit of color. The embers faded a little, and the room dimmed. "What's in there?"

"I don't know," Amy said, then tacked on, "yet."

The door was obviously dangerous. Or at least Amy thought so. She said as much, but Amy only crossed her arms and countered, "You're dangerous."

"Sure," Gwen said as she began to wander, careful to keep a friendly smile plastered on her face, "But I'm good danger. The kind of danger that comes with unending pleasure and happiness."

Amy called after her, "Is that what you call enslaving people?"

Gwen ignored her, "That door is bad danger. Like, horror movie danger. Get murdered by a poltergeist, danger."

"I'll leave you my car in the will," Amy said sarcastically, leaving the door to join her as she explored the rest of the library.

"I have a BMW now."

"You mean Laura has a BMW."

Gwen shrugged. "Same thing."

This place was a dump. Definitely not the environment for what she was about to confess. She killed the embers and began fixing the shelves, replacing the burned books with intact copies. Hundreds of tomes zipped into place. It was like painting with a brush, sweeping across the shelves with her understanding of what a book was, and allowing Amy's consciousness to interpret.

Amy ran a finger along their spines. "I know all these."

"That makes sense, your mind is doing all the work." Now that the shelves were fixed, they'd need somewhere to sit. Two leather chairs appeared by the stairs. Gwen recognized them from the bookstore they'd visited in the city.

"Interesting. So you can't make anything I don't know about?" Amy smoothed her skirt and sat, watching her.

Gwen plucked a random book off the shelf and the dream rippled as she replaced it with one of the lewd comics she'd scavenged from her old room. Amy blushed as she turned to show her. "I can also make anything I know about. Although the more complex it is, the more effort it takes to make you understand."

"So everything here is a cognition from one of us. That makes sense." Amy leaned back in her chair and tilted her head, thinking. "So if you show me something here that I don't know about by making my consciousness understand it, do you think that means you can teach me things by manifesting them here?"

Gwen chuckled, "What do you think I've been doing every night?"

"I meant more useful things," Amy huffed.

"What could be more useful than learning seduction from a succubus?" she asked. Amy had a point though. What else could she use the dreams for?

"I guess that means you can't show me what's behind the door? Since neither of us know."

"Nope, sorry." Gwen sauntered back, sitting in Amy's lap instead of the vacant chair. Amy was too lost in thought to care.

"You've gotten really good at all this," Amy said. There was a sadness to the words. As if she wished she'd been there to figure it out together.

Gwen didn't respond for a while, letting the silence set the stage. Now for the hard part. She took a deep breath and curled up tightly, pressing her face into Amy's chest. When she spoke, her voice was nearly a whisper. "I'm sorry."

Amy tensed for a moment, then began to comb delicate fingers through her hair. "For what?"

"For everything. Lying to you. Manipulating you....Trying to thrall you."

"Seriously?" Amy's tone was flat. Incredulous.

"Yes."

"I don't forgive you." Amy held her tighter, despite the harsh words.

"I know. I didn't expect you to. I just wanted to tell you. These past few months have been a blur. It's just been so... hard. Changing like this so quickly. I don't even recognize myself sometimes."

"I thought you liked the new you?"

Gwen didn't miss the hesitation. She pressed on, nuzzling into Amy and refusing to meet her eyes. "I do. I don't want to go back, but... I just wish things between us had gone differently."

"You mean you wish I hadn't escaped."

"I mean," Gwen struggled to keep the frustration out of her voice, "that I wish you were here." She waited for Amy to respond, but she stayed silent, so Gwen continued, fumbling for the right words. "I don't want to go back, but I miss you and maybe- " she swallowed. "Maybe I could settle for a tie."

Amy's hand stopped moving. Gwen pushed herself up and finally met Amy's eyes. They were glistening. Gwen knew hers did the same. Amy looked away first and asked, "How would that work?"

"Let me stay this way, and live as a succubus. In return I won't thrall you. We can just... date. Like before. Go to school, hang out. The usual."

"The last time we tried that you were secretly manipulating me into becoming your servant."

"I was," Gwen admitted, "but that was a mistake. And now you have some way to break the threads. So what's there to be afraid of?" Gwen placed her hands against Amy's shoulders for balance as she shifted beneath her..

"What about Laura?" Amy asked, changing the subject. She probably didn't want to risk revealing anything about whatever protected her. Which meant there might be a way around it. Interesting.

"I keep Laura. And I can feed on anyone I want." Before Amy could protest she interjected, "But I won't take anymore thralls. I think I've calmed down a little now that I have one. Like she takes the edge off."

"She's a person, Gwen."

"She's mine," Gwen growled.

"So I'm just supposed to come back and what?" Amy's voice took on a mocking edge that Gwen decided she didn't care for. "Pretend that I don't care? Go on dates and fawn over you, live a normal life, and ignore that you're preying on other humans? That you're treating one of my friends like a plaything behind my back?"

"Ha! Laura is not your friend. I assure you."

"Still-"

"And she likes being a thrall. You were the one who said it doesn't matter where you feelings for me came from. That they were still real to you. Why is it different for her?"

"That's not the same. You didn't give Laura a choice. She didn't know what you were." Amy was glaring now.

"She figured it out before you did." There was more venom in the words than she intended.

"Is this what I have to look forward to if I come back?"

"No, Amy." God, how did she salvage this? "Listen, I can't just be good. These instincts are overwhelming. I'm constantly horny and the longer I go without release, the more they consume me."

"So why do you want to be this way?"

"Because I finally found something I'm good at." she blurted out. Then quieter, "I'm tired of always being second place."

"It sounds miserable."

"If you would just let me show you, you would see that it's not. The sex, the control, the power, is... euphoric." Gwen realized she probably wasn't helping her case and finished with, "I'm just saying that you don't understand what it's like."

"I understand more than you think."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're getting a clear, unbiased education on succubi from the fucking demon hunters."

Amy's jaw tightened. "So you were spying on me too?"

"No. You mentioned that website once, when we were in bed. I assume that this Xavier guy is with them?"

"Leave him out of this." Amy hissed. Her protectiveness of the man stung more than anything else she'd said. If Gwen ever met him... "Besides, I bet you're fucking that incubus."

"So you're allowed to hang out with demon hunters, but I'm not allowed to learn about myself from other demons?"

"He called me 'your prey' once. Is that what I am to you?"

"No! Other humans, maybe. But I'm trying to explain that you're special to me."

Amy interrupted her before she could explain. "Can you even help lying to me?"

"I'm not lying to you!"

"You can't, can you? This is just what you are now. A monster."

"Stop." Gwen felt herself go rigid. This wasn't the plan. She was supposed to be sweet. Kind. Show Amy that she could still be what she wanted. But she was so fucking tired of being judged.

Amy continued her tirade, each word a dagger. "How many others have you fed on now? Do you have any other thralls I should know about?"

"Stop." Her voice was shaking with anger.

"If I come back then how many other people would be suffering just so I can live in a fantasy world with you?"

She snapped. Pinned Amy's arms by the wrists and shouted, "Why do I have to apologize for what I am?!"

*****

Amy wondered if Gwen realized how terrifying she was. If she could taste her fear. If it was blood in the water. Her entire posture had shifted in an instant from a desperate, pining lover to a merciless predator. Her tail was raised behind her, a hook poised to strike. Claws dug into her wrists and a warm trickle of blood began to run down her arm. Amy tried to cower away, but Gwen's strength was inescapable. The entire dream had stopped, as if it too, was held in Gwen's grip. Embers hung frozen in the air, dim enough now that they were drowned out by the purple light of Gwen's eyes. Eyes that were brimming with tears.

Amy forced herself to relax and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Gwen blinked, and let one arm go to wipe at her face. Her tail resumed its easy sway and she loosened her grip on Amy's wrist as she sank back into her.

"Me too..." Gwen sniffed and rolled over, lying in her lap to stare at the ceiling. "I didn't come here to fight."

The ceiling exploded outward, dissolving into a brilliant, starry sky. Amy could make out each constellation with astounding clarity. Gwen chided, "You got one wrong." And poked at the sky. A star winked into existence to complete Pyxis. It dawned on her how powerful Gwen's abilities were here. Like a goddess of dreams. Or perhaps nightmares. It had been foolish to provoke her like that.

Gwen's fingers shifted, entwining with her own as she spoke.

"I've always been in your shadow, struggling to find my place. To find something I care about as much as you care about medicine, but nothing I did ever felt quite right. Not until this."

Gwen stretched, arching her back and showing off. Pressing herself into Amy's lap. Amy found her hand drifting to Gwen's milky thigh all on its own. Her beauty was terrifying too, in its own way.

"I'm not trying to shame you. I just want to go back to how things were," she said, nuzzling Gwen's neck. Breathing in her scent.

"I would rather die." Gwen placed a hand atop hers and guided it inward.

"You won't feel that way once you're back to normal."

The succubus in her lap heaved a sigh as Amy nibbled at her ear, and squirmed as Amy began to explore between her thighs. Gwen tittered musically and twisted to pull her into a kiss. The brush of Gwen's claws against the back of her neck drew out a shivering moan. Her eyelids fluttered as Gwen's tongue began to snake its way into her mouth.

Without uttering a word, she'd made her meaning clear. If I go back to normal, then no more of this. Amy took a fistfull of platinum hair and yanked Gwen's head backward. Gwen let herself be pulled away and watched her, panting. The tip of her nose and cheeks were a rosy pink. Gwen's eyes held hers as she quirked her lips into a smile. Her tongue was still out, shimmering with their saliva. Slowly, as if to remind Amy of everywhere it had been, everything it had done, she began to retract it until she closed her mouth around it and swallowed.

"If we keep going like this, then one of us will get hurt. We should compromise. Neither of us will get everything they want. But," Gwen's voice dropped into a husky plea, and it was Amy's turn to squirm. "We can be happy. Together."

Her hand found its way to Gwen's cheek as she considered. Gwen purred as it drifted up, and traced along the hard ridges of her horn. How much of her best friend was left in this demon? Something about Gwen was different tonight. Vulnerable. Honest. It was the closest to being her old self that she'd seen Gwen since her transformation began.

Twice, her mouth opened on its own, but she clamped it shut. She wanted to say yes. To go home and abandon this aimless searching. But could she? Knowing that others would pay the price? Laura was a thrall. Bound to Gwen's will the same way Xavier had been to his master. Amy pictured the pain in his eyes whenever he spoke about it. Her hand pulled away.

Gwen's expression fell. Her arms were shaking as she breathed, "Amy... please."

It took every ounce of willpower she had to say the word. "No."

Gwen leaned back, bracing herself on Amy's thighs, and stared upward. She closed her eyes and sighed. One by one, the stars burned out, until only one remained. A single speck of light in a sea of darkness, lingering above them where Gwen had placed it earlier. Amy could barely make out Gwen's silhouette.

"There's a part of me that's still human." Gwen's voice was cold. Deadly. Amy felt the hair on her arms stand as she continued, "It's like a candle in this... storm of change. But I've kept it burning. For you."

Night swallowed the last star, throwing them into utter darkness. The only sounds were her own breathing, and the beating drum of heart. Until Gwen loosed a chilling peal of laughter. Something in it sounded unhinged. Broken.

"It's our last night together." Amy felt Gwen's weight shift as she leaned close, and opened her eyes. Inches away, two enormous purple orbs of light narrowed to slivers. "Let's have some fun."

*****

Laura knew her mistress was in a foul mood the moment she felt her awaken. Frustration and anger washed over her, telling her everything she needed to know about tonight's dreamwalking. Trying not to feel smug, she set down her pen and gently closed her notebook. The sun was rising, so she clicked off the desk lamp, leaving her room dim and purple.

She'd gotten into the habit of setting her alarm for five and using the morning hours to catch up on schoolwork, knowing that Gwen would keep her busy the rest of the day. Her grades were slipping, and she'd already had to fend off one indignant phone call from her father. If she didn't improve them, he might start asking questions, and that would mean trouble.

Early mornings were peaceful, but Laura found it difficult to focus. Without Gwen's consciousness leashing her, she was almost like her old self. Still devoted to her mistress, of course, but her mind wandered to places she knew Gwen wouldn't approve of. Ambitious, greedy places. Clarity and order returned now that her mistress was awake. She pushed aside her thoughts and stood, there was work to be done. Before leaving, she checked her appearance in the mirror mounted on the office wall.

Far from the first time, she found herself envious of her mistress. Gwen would roll out of bed the most beautiful thing she'd ever laid eyes on. Meanwhile, Laura had to waste precious hours on skincare, makeup, and styling, only to pale in comparison. She smirked at the tired-eyed slut in the mirror. To think she'd once thought herself so far above Gwen Weston. That her goddess was only a lackey to her class rival.

Laura fingered her collar, a simple band of black leather that marked her as Gwen's. A reward for dumping Jason once Gwen was done with him. Delicious heat filled her as she recalled that terrible, wonderful. Wielding Gwen's power secondhand, and bringing her former lover to his knees had been pure bliss. Despite being engaged for years, it had been so easy to cast him off, without a thought, the moment Gwen was done with him. She much preferred the collar to those gaudy earrings.

A familiar anger built within her. Anger at being tamed and humiliated. At having her life stolen away. The emotion was small and insignificant. She savored it and smiled wickedly into the mirror. The old Laura was still alive somewhere deep within her, hiding among the detritus of her ruined soul, and resentfully watching everything she did. Laura loved to tease her. Gwen's irritation surged, interrupting her thoughts. With a sigh, Laura turned and left. Her mistress came first.