Hellacious Hospitality Ch. 03

Fuck, she's cute when she's mad. That definitely ruled her out of his list of current suspects. She was far too giving with her emotions, and her bright disposition was the furthest thing from the brooding image the cryptic language suggested. Her capacity to hide some deep, dark secret that was harmful enough to warrant an intervention seemed unlikely.

"Are we sure you're not part incubus?" She tilted her head quizzically, studying his features suspiciously.

"What, for my brilliant 'powers' of female seduction? I mean, pretty sure I told you already. Abstinent since my college days. Four years ago. If I had sex demon in my veins, don't you think I would have died of starvation by now?"

"That's... not how that works. But okay, I'll believe you." She seemed to regain her composure. "Actually, that was a joke. Demi don't crossbreed that way, anyways." She glanced aside, to someone behind him, over his shoulder, and raised her hand lightly to signal.

"So enlighten me, then. How do demi work?"

"That's not really a conversation we can get through in a single session. Let's cross that bridge organically, as it comes up. Until then, how about we start here: what do you know about magic?"

Before he got to answering, a plate of food and a place setting levitated over for her, too. Although, he could see now, not actually floating. Carried aloft, by a small, winged person. A faerie. About nine inches tall. When she placed the plate on the table, he got a better look at her. She was quite beautiful in her own right. Human-ish in shape, but with segmented joints like an insect. Completely naked, her carapace varied in color, almost pearl-white over her chest and stomach, but smoothly fading to a deep magenta tone towards the ends of her limbs. Her proportions would have looked quite obscene on a full-sized person, with an honest-to-goodness hourglass figure with a full chest, almost literal wasp waist, wide, curvy hips, and long, sharply-tapered limbs. She had a cute face, with shiny black eyes, and a tousled mop of vibrant rose-red hair. She was held aloft by two pairs of the delicate dragonfly-like wings he had seen earlier.

"Say hi, Rosie!"

Benson stretched out a hand to shake, but realizing that was a bit much for the small creature, curled back all but the index finger. The faerie instead cowered behind Caeli's shoulder.

"Don't worry, he doesn't bite. Unless you ask nicely." Caeli winked at him, her voice dropping into a low, sensual purr. Shameless.

Rosie timidly peeked back out, and tentatively floated over to his outstretched finger. She grasped it firmly between both of her tiny hands, and gave it a couple of emphatic shakes. She was surprisingly strong, despite her diminutive size, with how much force she was able to put into that shake, even though she had to put her whole body into it. He couldn't resist giving her a gentle pat on the head with his other hand. A light smile from Caeli told him that would be alright.

"Hi Rosie, I'm Benson," he said, calmly. The little creature held still, transfixed by the sudden attentive gesture. The moment the head-pats stopped, though, she zoomed out of sight, but probably still spying from a distance.

Caeli giggled lightly. "Don't mind her. The faeries are all pretty shy. Guess that cautiousness is something of a requirement, when you're that small. But they've very friendly, once you get to know them. Rosie's probably the most curious of them all."

"Can they talk at all?"

"They do, amongst themselves. But their voices are much too light, too high-pitched for you to hear, so don't bother trying. They've gotten quite adept at playing charades, so you'll manage. Anyways, back on topic..." She looked at him expectantly, while beginning to tuck into her meal, simply a pair of quite large blood sausages.

Upon seeing her choice of food, his imagination couldn't help but conjure the image of her swallowing them whole, all while giving him a suggestive side-eye. But she tackled them just like any normal person would, with a fork and knife. The sooner he could know her fully, and purge those stupid stereotypes from his mind, the better. Certainly, she was a lustful woman. But that wasn't the only aspect of her character, and he deeply appreciated that.

Benson cleared his throat, attempting to dig into his own thoughts, rather than the distraction of the nearly-naked knockout sitting across from him.

"So, when you say 'magic', I assume you're not asking about the 'pick-a-card', 'I will now reach into my hat' variety? Well, up until now, I didn't believe it was something that was actually real. So anything else I'd know on the subject would probably come from fantasy novels and video games. Primal forces, mana, ley lines, all that jazz. Is that what you're talking about?"

She nodded. "So, these sources of yours, is this why you're so readily accepting of my kind? How you were so quick to identify me?" She asked, between mouthfuls.

"More or less, yeah. I suppose so. I mean, none of those are truly original ideas. They're all amalgamations of things culled from folklore all over the world. If you're saying that those myths and legends actually had some factual basis behind them, then I find myself surprisingly well-informed. Pop culture's to blame."

"Indeed. Your generation is perhaps the farthest removed from the magical history that it's ever been, and yet, the knowledge of it, albeit corrupted, seems to be closer at your fingertips than ever before. I find that... perplexing. But that makes things a lot easier for me." She fidgeted a little in her seat, "And actually, I find it quite nice. That you're curious, I mean. Your first reaction is always of intrigue, not fear. Thank you." She shrunk back, blushing, her last words barely audible.

A lump formed in Benson's throat. It was this emotional unguardedness that constantly grabbed for his affections.

She polished off her plate in silence, embarrassed at how much she had divulged in the heat of the moment.

Noting her discomfort, Benson tried to change the subject, just to get her talking again. Something about her meal choice had awoken a long-dormant question in the back of his head, that had existed long before he came to this place.

"This might seem out of nowhere, but I have to ask. Vampires. Real? Even knowing demi exist now, they've always seemed just a bit much to me. And so much overlap with demons, especially succubae." His eyes flicked in the direction of her bat-like winglets.

Caeli threw her head back, cackling, fangs bared, which especially caught his eye, given the proposed topic. "You really do ask the right questions, you know that? Gods no, those made-up posers? Come now. All-powerful night terrors, that fly, transform into bats, possess hypnotic sway over humans, and subsist on drinking blood? That's just ridiculous on the face of it. You think you could do it, drinking only blood to survive? Where's all the protein supposed to come from? Your body would wither before long, let alone the body of some supposed apex predator."

"And that's not even getting into all those silly weaknesses of theirs. They fly, yet can't cross running water? They turn to ash at the first hint of sunlight? FYI, a wooden stake through the heart or decapitation kills darned near anything. And seriously, they won't enter a house without permission? Most courteous bloody murderer ever, especially a hungry one desperate for a meal. Don't even get me started on the sparkles. What kind of half-baked, delusional mind made that a thing?"

"No Ben, your observational instincts prove astute once again. Complete works of fiction. You're probably right about the role succubae played in that myth, though. The sucking of blood is an option for us, if a bit unorthodox. But hey, everybody's got their kinks, no shaming." She played with her fork a bit, scraping it against her empty plate. "That what got you thinking?"

He nodded, smiling. He enjoyed getting her to talk.

"A succubus's stamina takes its toll, and we can be quite prone to anemia as a result. A little supplemental iron in the diet goes a long way. But honestly, all those stupid, stupid weaknesses? Really now, garlic is delicious!" To prove her point, she leaned over the table, to exhale in his face, revealing the sausage blend to have been positively loaded with the stuff.

He crinkled his nose a bit, more out of reflex than disgust. It was silly little things like this that made her the most attractive, in his eyes. Her unparalleled physical beauty became almost secondary to the strength of her spirited, unpretentious personality. Her looks were just good genetics. Her mind was her own, and he couldn't imagine her being any more perfect. He constantly waited for the other shoe to drop, but that moment never seemed to come.

"Hey Ben, did I lose you somewhere? Daydreaming again?"

When he snapped back to attention, she was still leaning towards him, but more relaxed, propping her head up with an arm, heavy breasts lightly squashed, resting on the table. He didn't think he would ever grow tired, looking at those miraculous things.

"Oh, so that's what has you distracted." It was her teasing smirk that she wore on her face, while she used her free arm to press her bosom together into an even more inviting cleavage. He felt a gentle stroke at his thigh, and realized that her long black tail had reached across to him, under the table. It tugged at his zipper, and reached into his pants to free his stiffening cock.

"H-hey! Is this really the best place for that?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. Everybody here expects a little mischief, when it's me. Besides, I'm doing this because we have an audience." She pointed across the table. Sure enough, Rosie had come out of hiding at some point when he wasn't paying attention and was openly staring at the two of them intently, with stars in her eyes. "This little one's got a naughty obsession with steamy Brazilian telenovelas. I keep telling her that she'll rot her brain with all that trashy romance and sex, but she never listens to me. Wonder why that would be? So how about we show her what real heat looks like, hrm?" Caeli smirked.

"You really are evil, you know that?" Benson said, jokingly.

"So, spank me later." She purred.

While Caeli's steamy comments had him a little hot under the collar, they were sending the little faerie over the edge. Her face flushed and knees buckled, as she actively started to feel herself up.

Just as his erection twitched in response to the brazen sexuality on display, Caeli's tail lashed out and wrapped around it firmly like a snake, and with its pointed tip, wiped up the small bead of precum that had gathered at its head. Her coils loosened, the appendage slinking away toward the end of the table, where she then brought it to dangle over Rosie's face. The faerie sniffed at it, and then began to suckle on it, as her own self-explorations grew more intense. Before long, the little creature was a quivering mess, furiously pawing at her crotch and chest, and emitting silent screams of ecstasy.

"Alright, you've had your fun now Rosie, saia daqui!" Caeli waved her off, and the sex-drunk faerie clumsily flitted away. Benson could see just the tiniest puddle of fluid on the table, where Rosie had been. Caeli wiped at the spot with a napkin, while she cleaned the tip of her tail off between her own lips.

"You can put your thing away now, too. As tempting as it is, I'm not ready to go another multi-orgasm session with that beast between your legs." He complied with a bit of difficulty, feeling a bit blue-balled. The way her eyelashes fluttered, she didn't seem as sure as she made herself out to be. That decision was probably for the best, though.

"Is it always like this around here?"

"So sexually charged? No, not always. Not usually. But it's a very real hazard of my succubus nature. If I get riled up, it won't be hard to find someone to join me. Regardless, we girls have to let off some steam once in a while. I'm supposed to be their caretaker, but really, we all help each other in our own ways."

Her words confirmed something that he had been wondering for awhile now. The more of them he met, the more it stood out to him that all the demi he had encountered so far were female. The odd setup in Iara's bath house certainly made more sense, in that light.

"Just girls, you say?" An uncontrollable, lecherous grin crept upon his face. He remembered the suggestion earlier planted by Iara, and Caeli had practically admitted to it. His imagination ran away with that thought.

"Umm... yeah. Ahem." She faked clearing her throat, blushing. "In a roundabout way, this kinda brings us around to what I really wanted to talk to you about. So, I had ulterior motives for having you meet Iara. Yeah, you needed to clean up, badly, but we do have normal showers here. But knowing about her makes telling you what I have to say a lot quicker. Bear with me, as even with that shortcut, this will take a bit of your time."

"Since it's you, I've got all the time in the world."

She composed herself, sitting up straight to look him seriously in the eyes. He did his best to regard her respectfully, which was difficult because of her near-nudity. But there was a stray shock of bright pink hair that dangled loosely over her forehead, between her eyes, that at least made it surprisingly easy to focus just on her face. He returned the sentiment by straightening his posture as well, eager to listen to what she had to say.

"Yesterday, I characterized the notion for you that havens like this were created for the sake of our safety. While such intent was true, the end result may perhaps be murkier."

"How so?"

"It's a bit complicated to say, but this is why I involve Iara. Her situation is clearer than most, existing as a microcosm of the tribulations we face here. For instance, did you know that she is the last of her kind?"

"What!? How?"

"Truthfully, I'm not even sure if she herself realizes it. Her concept of reality is... contemporaneous. Elemental spirits like her are not born biologically. They possess neither flesh nor blood. They spring into being at the intersections between the ley lines and human will -- well, I say human, but enough concentration of will of any type would do, in theory. Because humans are the most plentiful form of sapient life on this Earth, that theory's never really been tested. That's why she acts the way she does, by the way. She doesn't really have a concept of 'self', the way you or I do. She speaks in entities, or 'one's because her own being is the summation of many separate wills. She views herself from an outside perspective. And from that estranged view of self, also comes a detached relationship with time."

"Well, shit. I suddenly wish you were my high school philosophy teacher. Err... and not in that 'hot for teacher' sort of way. That probably would've been counterproductive. But what you said just totally made sense, as an expression of self-identity. That might actually be a big help, if I ever chat with her again. Alright, to understand this better, I think you'll need to expand on the magic stuff a bit more. Not sure how well my video game experience will carry me through the specifics, there."

Caeli blushed at the praise, but tried to keep things on topic. "I'm sure Iara must have mentioned it herself. She talks about her 'Mother Origin' a lot, or water as 'life-blood'." When Benson nodded, she continued. "She thinks a bit too highly of herself, in that way, but water is indeed a conduit. As far as you or I are concerned, she's talking about Earth. Within it is great power, that which creates life itself. The ley lines are the veins within the Earth that channel this power, the power called 'mana'."

"Ben are you aware of what the Greeks called them? I mean collectively, not just the naiads and nereids, but also the stone oreiads, and the woodland dryads. All the elemental spirits." He shook his head no. "Nymphs. That was the word they used. In a different context, it's still a word you might still hear today. Don't be shy about it."

There were actually a couple of different answers, but that last-minute clue of hers clinched it. "Nymphomania..."

"Yup, that's the one. That's no accident. She is a rather beautiful, and hands-y being after all, is she not? But, that's just the nature of mana. It's an elemental force, like magnetism and gravity. But just as those forces bind rocks and minerals, mana binds life. In its purest, strongest form, that irresistible need for connection might easily be construed as lust, could it not?"

She really was an excellent teacher. The true workings of the magic world were completely foreign to him, but he was already starting to make the connections in his head. It made sense.

"This marks where the paths of humans and demi diverge. Demi continue to rely on mana as a means to survive. By contrast, humans sought their independence from it. And that's where our troubles begin. Losing reverence for what the Earth provided, humankind became forgetful of that history. In that ignorance, they grew envious of the powers that demi still wielded. Over time, ignorance begets fear, and then hatred. In the meantime, in order to expand their cities, their towns, their homes, they carved up the land, disrupting the flow of mana via the ley lines."

"Many conflicts arose as a result of those incursions. A mistake that has cost us dearly. The most significant being the loss of most of our male population, our most fearsome warriors. The females survived in greater numbers only through our value as chattel -- as slaves."

Benson felt sick. History was not his strong suit, but it didn't take an anthropologist to know the extent for the human capacity for cruelty. "You told me before on this matter that you don't blame the humans for demi persecution, but that's sounding an awful lot like we're at fault."

She shook her head fervently. "Violence is not the answer to ignorance. We -- my ancestors, they could have concentrated on protecting their homelands. One or two disrupted ley lines was not worth the sacrifice forced upon our peoples by going on the all-out offensive. Instead of leading by example away from that cycle of animosity, they ensured our kind would be feared forever!" She seethed, hands trembling.

She closed her eyes, and took a number of deep breaths to calm herself. "Sorry, I'm just meant to be relaying the story. Ignore my outburst, it was irrelevant".

Benson merely sat there, in awe of her mental fortitude. "How are you so pure? The way you tell it, I would've been ready to crack some skulls alongside you, if I thought it would help."

He reached across the table to her shaking hands reassuringly, but she sharply recoiled. She blushed, shaking her head again. "Please, don't do that. Don't pity me. This is not my personal history. By all comparison, I've lead a life of contentment. I just want you to know why things are the way they are, so you can make an informed decision in the future. But for now, let's continue."

He acquiesced, but prepared to leap across the table again, if she appeared in need of emotional rescue.

"Where were we? Oh, yes. You've grown up in a world without magic, but the magic is not dead. Like all other energy, it can never be destroyed. But with the ley lines that circulate it all but destroyed, it is fragmented, and long dormant. The demi can never return to the prosperous life they once enjoyed. Benson, what I'm really trying to tell you is that life in this haven is that of a gilded cage."

"Really? You've all seemed so happy once I've gotten to know you."