Idle Hands Ch. 04

Guided by Althea, she was able to locate five other listening devices. One was in the kitchen, one in the downstairs bath. A third was in the basement. The last two were in her bedroom and the master bathroom upstairs.

Is that it?

~Yes,~ Althea replied, the succubus' voice so familiar in her head by now that she could barely remember a time when the two of them had not been joined. ~That's it.~

She swept the tiny pile of electronics into her hand. She was tempted to take them to Josh's workshop and pound them to pieces with a hammer. But even the tempting thought of violent destruction couldn't get her to leave the house alone. Not with Kincaid at large. Althea assured her he was nowhere nearby. But that was cold comfort. Who knew what other accomplices he had, ready and waiting for them to set foot outside?

Instead, she took the tiny spying devices to the kitchen. She turned on the garbage disposal and dumped them down the drain, one by one. If the tiny blades didn't hack the electronics to pieces, Kincaid and his lackeys would be welcome to listen to whatever secrets the sewers of DuPage County had to tell.

A pounding at the front door interrupted her whirling thoughts. She opened it to find the wide-eyed face of Jeremy Edwards.

"Good. You're here," she said, as if she were hosting a dinner party and he had committed the faux pas of showing up late. "Come into the living room, dear," she continued, gesturing him forward. As she followed, her hands went to the zipper of her skirt. By the time she reached the room where everyone was gathered, she was naked from the waist down.

"Mom! What the hell?" Sarah asked, her eyes glittering with surprise and anger. Jeremy also gaped in astonishment when he turned to see her half-nude. He sat down beside Sarah on the couch, his hand unconsciously reaching out to clasp hers. Of the remaining people in the room, Alex opened his mouth and closed it, looking somewhat like a landed fish. Maria was quietly serene as always, and her husband merely looked on, lifting one sardonic eyebrow as she turned to meet his eyes.

With a slight effort, she willed her tail out, letting it emerge to its full length. Ignoring the gasps of shock, she turned so everyone could see.

"So, it's like this, kids..."

*****

When she finished, she stood still, letting everyone in the room get a good long look.

~No use giving them a chance to convince themselves they aren't really seeing what they're seeing,~ Althea mused, and she could only agree.

"Dios mio," Maria said, crossing herself reverently. Her eyes, when she looked at Rachel, were bright with wonder. "Truly we live in incredible times, when one of God's own angels can take shelter in a human woman."

"Althea isn't an angel," Rachel corrected quickly. "She is merely the daughter of one."

"And of the first wife of Adam?" Sarah said. Her face was stunned.

"So that lady we saw at the hospital earlier today? That was her?" Alex asked.

Rachel nodded. "She asked me to look in on her and make sure her body was being taken care of," she said. "But here's the problem. Althea might be a prisoner in my head, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have skills. Or enemies. And when that creep Fontein touched me, she was able to see into his mind." She swallowed bitter bile. "He's under the control of a demon-spawn."

"A demon-spawn?" Jeremy asked blankly.

Rachel nodded. "The Forsaken, the angels who rebelled against God and were cast into the Pit, escape occasionally. They are able to disguise themselves in human forms, nearly as beautiful as the succubi or the incubi. Jealous of the succubi and their power, they mate with humans.

"The mating of a male demon and a female woman almost always leads to the woman's death," she said. She kept her voice brisk, unwilling to describe the horrors such a mating produced. "The demon-spawn usually dies as well. However, when a female demon mates with a male human, the demon-spawn usually survives. Our enemy is one of those.

"He calls himself Mortimer Kincaid. He is the offspring of purest evil. He knows of Althea's illness. He knows we know about her. Being who and what he is, he will stop at nothing until Althea, and all who are associated with her, are dead.

"We have one hope. It is obvious that Kincaid does not yet know where Althea's body is. Otherwise Fontein would never have come here looking for information. He might suspect I am sharing my body with her. Succubi are notoriously resistant to disease and illness, so the fact her body is hospitalized is strange. The logical conclusion, from his point of view, would be that she has either abandoned her body or been forced out of it. Our only course of action is to rescue her from the hospital and restore her to her own body before Kincaid finds out her location."

"And then she'll kick his ass straight back to Hell!" Alex said, pumping his fist. "Sweet! When do we go?"

Five pairs of eyes looked at him. Maria's were loving, Rachel and Josh's tolerant. Sarah, Rachel was amused to see, looked actively horrified.

"Mom, this is crazy," she protested. "I mean, I can tell you're telling the truth, but..." she made an abortive gesture at her tail, which was slowly swaying back and forth. Her eyes focused on it. "How the hell does that thing fit inside you, anyway?" she demanded, momentarily diverted..

Rachel reached behind her and stroked her tail, shuddering in sensuous pleasure at the feel of warm fingers on its sensitive skin. Heat bloomed in her belly, and she suddenly wanted her husband with a fierce urgency that defied logic and danger. "Althea tells me that the presence of a succubus' soul inside a mortal body causes that body to change to match its passenger," she said. "A succubus has different vertebrae than humans. Rather than the single opening in each vertebra for the spinal cord, a succubus has two. One is for the spinal cord, and one serves as a sheath to provide a place of refuge for the tail when not being used.

"But you're right, Sarah. This is crazy." She shrugged. "If anyone had told me a month ago what my life would be like right now, I'd think they were completely fucking nuts. But it is what it is. I can't escape it. And truth be told, I wouldn't trade what I have right now for the world." She took them all in, her eyes warm. "A husband regained. The love of my children restored. And new friends, who may turn into something more.

"Our path is clear. Get Althea back into her body. The succubi were charged with the protection of humanity from the demon-spawn. If she was at her full power, Kincaid wouldn't stand a chance. As it is..." she sighed. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"But, Mom! We can't just walk into a hospital and...and steal one of their patients! We'll never make it out. We'll be arrested and thrown in jail!"

"Sure we can," Jeremy said. She turned to him, gaping, and he grinned. "It's not that hard."

"To smuggle someone out of a hospital? You're nuts." She folded her arms below her breasts, pushing them upward slightly, a fact that none of the men in the room missed, Rachel saw. Not even her own brother. And certainly not Jeremy or her father.

"When I was an undergrad," Jeremy started, "The dining hall in our dorm served pies about once a month. And being young men, we were always hungry. One guy I hung out with loved lemon meringue. He decided that he deserved not one or two slices, but an entire pie," he continued with a reminiscent smile.

"So he decided to take one. An entire lemon meringue pie. But he was smart enough to know that if he tried to smuggle it out under his shirt or something he was sure to get caught. So he just picked up the pie and walked right out the door with it."

"And your point is?" Sarah asked testily.

"If you act like you have every right to be doing what you're dong, people are way less likely to question you," he said. Around the room, slow, thoughtful nods agreed. "It's always the guy who looks shady and guilty who gets caught."

He leaned forward, his hands clasped. "You still have that trailer out there from when you moved back up here, don't you, Mr. Sunderman?"

Josh nodded. "I was going to return it tomorrow, after the holiday. But please, call me Josh. If we're going to be committing multiple crimes together, it's the least I can do."

"I say we drive the truck up to the hospital a little later on tonight," he said, "After it gets dark. We'll have the trailer attached, so we won't have to move Althea out of bed. I'll park by the main entrance. You all can dress up real nice, in suits and ties. Look official, you know. Maybe you're hospital inspectors. Or insurance investigators, who suspect the hospital is padding the bills. Walk quickly, look official, frown a lot. Put Rachel there at the head of the pack. When she wants to, she can look harder than a coffin nail. You sail right by everyone as if you have every right in the world to be there. You wheel Althea out of her room, down to the front door, I'll pick you up, we drive on home, stuff Althea back in her body, and kick this asshole Kincaid back into the Abyss."

"It's called the Pit, Jeremy," Rachel said, but her tone was impressed. She looked around the room. "Does anyone have a better idea?"

"Not doing this at all?" Sarah said. "No offense, Mom, but if this guy Kincaid is as bad as you say, maybe we should stay out of things."

"We're already in, Sarah. And it's too late to get out." Josh's voice was low and...angry? Rachel blinked at her husband, who was looking at his daughter with a quizzical expression on his face. "When did you start taking the easy way out?"

"I'm scared, all right?" Sarah replied. She put her face in her hands. "For the first time in forever, I'm happy, and now we have to deal with...with succubi and demons and who knows what. Is it too much to ask that someone not try to kill me and everyone I care about?"

At her side, Jeremy patted her back awkwardly. She lifted a tear-stained face and gave her mother a glare. "All right," she said. "I'll help. But so help me God, Althea, if any of my men get hurt during this...this idiocy, I don't give a damn how powerful you are, you're going to have to answer to me."

Rachel nodded, her face solemn. "She hears, sweetheart. And she thanks you."

"But what I still don't understand," Alex said, "is what Jeremy is doing here. No offense, man," he said as the former intern turned towards him. "I know why the rest of us are here. Family, you know? And since Maria and I are together, her being here makes sense. But why him?"

Rachel sat down beside her husband, seemingly oblivious to the fact she was naked from the waist down. She leaned in towards him and smiled as he reached around her and cupped her breast in his hand. She wiggled against him, sighing happily as a firm nipple rose to challenge his palm. "It's very simple, darling. I'm simply protecting everyone me or my family has been intimate with since Althea joined with me. Anyone who Kincaid would view as contaminated by a succubus' love."

Alex blinked, then stared as the full import of her words hit home. Across the room, Jeremy blanched, looking at Josh nervously, as if he were afraid he would leap off the sofa and disembowel him on the spot.

"Mom?" Sarah asked. "You? And him?"

She nodded, unembarrassed. "It was right after Althea joined with me. I think...no, that's not right. I know she had been working on me for several days. Trying to get me to be more open about my body and my sexuality. Jeremy was available. So I took advantage of him. Though I don't think he was terribly upset with the way things turned out." She smiled warmly at the young man, whose face was flaming.

Sarah looked at her potential boyfriend, then at her father. "Daddy? You're...you're not upset about this?"

"If you think about it, your mother and I were divorced at the time, Pumpkin," Josh said mildly. He shrugged. "Hell, to be strictly honest, we still are. I had no idea your mother and I would ever be getting back together again. Why should I be upset? For that matter," he said, his gaze sharpening, "Why should you be upset? It's not as if you had even met Jeremy yet. So don't be pissed at him for sleeping with your mother before he ever saw you."

Sarah nodded, but Rachel thought she looked unconvinced. "So are we agreed on Jeremy's plan?" Nods and muttered agreements followed. "All right, then." She picked out Maria, Alex and her husband with her eyes. "We're going to go out and get the truck and trailer ready for tonight. Together," she stressed. "Until we deal with Kincaid, no one is to leave this house alone.

"What, Jeremy?" she asked impatiently as the young man raised his hand. "We're not in grade school, you know. You don't have to ask permission to speak."

"My parents will be expecting me back home this evening," he said. "Does that rule apply to me as well?"

"Yes. I don't know if Kincaid knows about you. But I don't know that he doesn't either. And a demon-spawn will stop at nothing. He would kill you and your entire family as easily as you would kick over an anthill. And with as little remorse. You stay here. We'll think of some excuse to give to your folks.

She swept her eyes around the room. "Any more questions? No? Then let's get to work."

"Mom." Alex's voice was firm. "You're not going anywhere."

"What?" She thrust out her chin belligerently. "Just try to stop me, young man."

"Really?" he said. He nodded towards her groin, where one of her fingers was idly amusing itself, and her. "You're going to give the neighbors a free show then?"

She pinched her lips together as a wave of loving laughter rolled through the room. "Fine," she said with a put-upon air. "I'll put on clothes and meet you out there. Good enough for you?"

*****

As the rest of the family trooped out, Rachel pausing to pick up her discarded skirt, Jeremy slumped back against the back of the couch, his mind reeling.

How could it be true? Then he thought of the slowly swaying tail emerging from Rachel's back, just above the cleft of her sexy buttocks, and shivered. How could it not be true?

"Did you know anything about this?" he asked Sarah. Even in his own ears his voice sounded strange.

She shook her head, her eyes wide and stunned. "No idea. I mean, I could tell something was going on. Her personality has changed so much over the past few weeks. No, that's not right," she corrected herself. "She hasn't changed. She's just...more herself. More the way she was when Alex and I were kids. Happier. She seems more comfortable with who she is."

"Well, you've known her a lot longer than I have," he said. "But she always seemed...driven. When I was interning at the law firm. Completely focused on her work and on the law. Now she's still driven. But she has a different focus." He took a deep breath. "So," he said, trying not to let his voice falter. "Does it bother you that I had sex with her?"

She smiled faintly, then leaned over, shoving at him with her shoulder and chest until he was laying on his back on the leather couch. She leaned over him, her eyes kindling with desire, much as they had the night before. She took his head between her palms and kissed him with a passionate thoroughness that made him ache. "Only if it bothers you that I slept with my father last night."

"Huh?"

"Me," she explained patiently, as if he had a learning disability. "And my father. You remember him, right? Older fellow, not too tall, sandy blond hair, lives here?"

"You? And Josh?"

"Yup." It would be hard not to call her expression smug. "I've wanted to for years. But what Althea did to my mother...it's spilling over, Jeremy. To all of us. That's why she's protecting us, you know. Any of us who have been touched by Althea's power."

"I haven't-"

"Of course you have." Her voice was slightly impatient. "You had sex with my mother while she was the host of a succubus," she said, giving his head a gentle shake. "Haven't you been listening? The changes are already happening. You can feel it, can't you, Josh? The increase in your sex drive? The way our bodies seem made for each other?" Her body slid down until it was almost lying on top of his. He closed his eyes as their groins touched. He could feel the heat flare between them, his cock rising until it was pressed snugly against the crotch of the loose pair of jogging shorts she wore.

"I'm wet," she whispered against his lips as they kissed again. "Down there. Daddy and I made love three times last night, and again this afternoon while everyone else was at the hospital. And I'm still so horny I feel like I'm on fire. What about you?"

He swallowed thickly, but her blazing eyes tore the unwilling truth from his lips. "Ever since I was with your mother...I'm thinking about sex a lot...a lot more than I was before. I've been masturbating three or four times a day."

"Poor baby," she said. Her hand reached down between them to cuddle his erection. He could feel her fingers working, and suddenly a wash of cool air hit his groin as the zipper of his shorts gaped wide. "Nice," she breathed as her hand slipped under the waistband of his boxers. He arched involuntarily upward as her fingers encircled his shaft. "Not as thick as Daddy's. But longer. Yes," she smiled, her brown eyes deep and dark with lust. "You'll do.

"Who were you thinking of while you were stroking this nice, hard cock?" she asked, rising up momentarily. Before he could protest he found his shorts and boxers jerked down to his knees, then completely off. As if to balance things, though, Sarah stripped off her shorts. Which left her, in unconscious mimicry of her mother, naked from the waist down. Her hand fell back to his crotch, exploring his manhood until he thought he would erupt in her hands.

"Your mom," he said, then tensed as her hand tightened warningly around him. He could feel the gentle bite of nails on the tender skin of his scrotum. "And you. Last night. And this morning. Twice. This morning," he hurriedly finished.

"Good answer," she said, pulling her shirt up and over her head. Her long brown hair, loosely tied back in a pony tail, flowed like a dark river down her back. He cupped her breasts in his hands as she straddled him. "I was with Josh here last night. We didn't finish. But he ate me out until I came all over his face."

Fighting through a haze of desire, Jeremy shifted uncomfortably on the worn leather of the couch. "Um. Maybe we should go to your room? Someone is bound to come through here any second." He looked at the pile of discarded clothes on the floor.

Sarah made a disgusted noise and leaned down to kiss him again. "Men. Why do you think Mom herded everyone out of here? She wanted to give us some time alone."

"Although I did think you two would have the good sense to go upstairs to your bedroom," Rachel Wainwright observed. She was standing in the doorway with Maria. "But you are two beautiful children. Aren't they, Maria? No, don't stop on my account," she said, as Jeremy hastily tried to cover himself. "The more power Althea has for the transfer tonight the better. And I'm sure she'll get quite a lot from you two," she finished with an amused leer.

"But for now, Maria," she said, "I'd like you to take off your clothes. And mine as well."

"Yes, Mistress," the sexy Latina said, immediately shedding her skirt and loose blouse. Her quick, clever hands soon had Rachel naked.

"Mistress?" Jeremy murmured to Sarah.

She shrugged, the motion drawing his eyes to her chest. "Her and Mom and Alex have got some sort of D and s thing going on. I don't have all the details yet."