Incubus Pupa Ch. 10

Disclaimer: All character engaging in sexual activity in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.

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My fears had just been made real; I'd done it to Ella. She'd never be the same around me. I kneeled on the bed, staggering under the notion that, through my carelessness, I might have eroded the personality of the woman I had cared about so deeply for all these years.

Then again, maybe I was overreacting to this. It certainly didn't seem like my other women were mindless husks.

But what if that was the Fae talking? He was part of me now. Had he corrupted me somehow when I'd absorbed him?

No, that was just paranoid thinking. Taking stock mentally, my morals didn't seem to have changed; rape was wrong, everyone deserved free will, and so on.

It was unsettling, but there was still a larger issue to deal with: the woman lying between my legs, at this moment staring into my eyes with the kind of devotion I'd only seen in my other bonded.

Then again, did I know that for sure? As before, I could see her avatar, but for some reason, still couldn't decode it. It was almost as if it were encased in some kind of barrier. It convoluted her pattern to such an extent that what was left didn't make any sense. All I could get out of it was that she was female.

But what if it wasn't my power that had put her in such a state? Maybe I'd just hit that 'sexy good guy' sweet spot. Wasn't that what women wanted anyway? Passion and unpredictability tempered by warmth and security.

No, that was impossible. With as much power as she'd been exposed to through the course of the night, there was just no way she wasn't bonded.

"Feeling better?" I asked.

She nodded. "Much, thank you."

Ella tucked a stubborn tendril of hair that lay across her face behind an ear. Her eyes flitted from place to place, never finding a comfortable place to rest.

The silence that followed was pregnant with expectation. Her hopeful stare bored into my soul.

"That's good." I gave her a brittle smile. I panicked. This had all gone so wrong. I needed to get out of here and think.

"Well, it's getting pretty late. I should go."

She looked down in disappointment.

Ella said little as I got off the bed. She simply nodded politely at my call to leave before pulling on her sweatshirt. The literal and figurative barrier re-asserting itself between us.

Men's laughter and the warm light from the patio spilled into the still darkness of the hallway as I made for the door, Ella conspicuously distant behind me.

A chorus of crickets singing their late summer song greeted me as I opened the front door. Turning at the doorstep, I caught her hovering several feet away, seemingly unable to pierce the bubble of social distance between us.

"Well, have a good night, Ella."

Not Ells. Not right now. Our familiarity from earlier felt distant.

"You too!"

As I pulled the door shut behind me, I heard her follow with, "and thanks...for helping with my back."

It almost sounded timid. Confused. Not at all what I expected.

Whatever. Right now I needed distance. This was a big decision, and I couldn't make it in the spur of the moment. Maybe I should head over to Ia's...

Reaching for the car door handle, I heard, "Adam, wait!"

I had been so lost in my thoughts I hadn't heard her open the door behind me.

Ella's Amazonian form jogged over to the car, arresting me with eyes that shone with the warm light of the street lamps.

Saying nothing, I stood frozen, right arm resting on the roof of the car.

"Please, can we talk?" She asked tentatively.

Oh, shit, it was Sandy all over again. This was even more painful than I thought it would be. I didn't want to see her like this...

Should I do it now? Sever our connection and erase the fact that she had ever known me? The 'how' was easy now, with the knowledge I'd gained. But it would be like ripping a part of my soul out. Could I do it?

Her eyes pleaded with me as thoughts about the two of us rampaged through my head. Thinking about each little memory that would have to live on through me alone.

It was probably the worst bit of acting I'd ever done, but I feigned ignorance, "Sure, what did you want to talk about?"

"Adam." She sighed. "You didn't feel something tonight? I thought we had..."

The glimmer of hope in her eyes hurt worse than anything that had come before, but the thought of her looking at me as a stranger when we saw each other in school on Monday was anathema.

"Sorry, never mind." She put on her mask, "I had a lot of fun tonight. Thanks for coming, Adam. It was a lot of fun catching up. G'night!"

Turning, she walked back toward the house.

It only took me a second to realize I was being an insensitive asshole. I'd let that girl walk away embarrassed because of my self-pity and indecisiveness. I reminded myself that the Adam that used to act that way was history.

Running to the door, I caught up with Ella just as she was stepping onto the porch, grabbing for her hand.

"Ella, wait."

She turned, hazel eyes dim in the porch light.

Jerking my head in the direction of my Civic, I tugged on her hand. "Take a ride with me."

"What, now?"

"Yeah, now. Why not? It's Friday night. Why, are you busy?" I deadpanned.

She rewarded my humor with the tiniest of smiles, but something else bloomed in her eyes. Hope?

"Well, ok, but I should probably tell-"

"-Oh, c'mon!" I urged, "You know damned well no one in that house is going to miss you for the next couple of hours. They're probably on their fourth round by now, and you know my Dad doesn't even get rolling until his third buy-in."

She exhaled, "I guess..."

Turning, we started to make our way to the car.

"But, where are we going?" she asked.

It occurred to me that I'd never heard Ella this timid before. At least, not since that time after those little bitches in the seventh grade made fun of how much she had grown over the summer. I felt like I could strangle every single one of them for what they had done to her self-esteem.

"Doesn't matter; anywhere or nowhere, I'm good with either."

"Well, okay... Feels weird to just drive around aimlessly though. Why don't we go get a milkshake? I could go for one of those."

"Perfect," I confirmed, opening the passenger door for her and sliding her seat back. Trying to lighten the mood, I acted like a goofball as I gestured for her to enter.

Ella gave me an obligatory titter as she settled into the seat.

"Ooo, what a gentleman. Kinda feels like a date, you opening the door for me and all."

The first thing I noticed was the lack of any real objection in that statement, but I decided to set the record straight nevertheless.

"Hey, can't a guy just be polite without it becoming a romantic gesture?"

I was unsurprised when she acted a little disappointed.

I hopped into the driver's seat and set off, heading in the general direction of the ice cream shop as my mind raced.

The tension had slipped back into the air between us, but I was too focused on the choice before me to worry about it.

Eventually, I recognized that I was being stupid again. The solution was right there the whole time: I just needed to come clean on everything. After all, what did I have to lose? She was bound to me at this point, so there were only two courses before me: preserve that bond or sever it. If I kept things as they were, she'd no doubt gladly accept any truth I decided to share. On the other hand, if I cut it off, my admission of binding her with my incubus powers would be erased along with everything else.

It was a win-win scenario. Or at the very least, win-not lose. And besides, deep down I'd wanted to tell her the truth anyway. We used to tell each other everything -- even the embarrassing stuff.

Thinking quickly, I picked a secluded place and veered off our current heading to the ice cream shop. She glanced over at me after noticing we were headed in the wrong direction.

"Decided against the milkshakes?"

"No, I just want to show you something really quickly."

"Uhh, okay." Her voice was uncertain.

Minutes later we pulled into a small parking lot. It was one of the local rec center facilities with a basketball court and a couple of baseball diamonds. This one was out of the way, just beyond the outskirts of town, so it wasn't often used. Luckily, that night was no exception, as the parking lot was empty.

Turning off the ignition, I looked over at her. "Remember how you asked me earlier about my medical...condition?"

She turned to regard me from the side of her narrowed eye. "Yeeahhh...?"

"Okay, so it's probably easiest if I just show you."

"Uhhh, you're sorta creeping me out here, Adam."

I got out of the car, momentarily considering that she was acting a little oddly for being a new bond.

"C'mon." I motioned to her, but she just rolled down the window, remaining in the car.

"Nuh-uh. No thanks. I'm freaking out a bit, so I'm just gonna stay right here, thanks."

"Come on, Ella, it'll just take a second, then we can go get those milkshakes."

Warily, she got out of the car and followed at a distance.

"Why does this feel so familiar?" she asked, then answered herself, "Oh, that's right, 'cause they did this in that music video, Thriller."

That gave me pause.

"I guess you're right," I chuckled, "but I promise I'm not going to grow sharp claws and try to attack you."

Heading for the privacy of the woods, I realized I'd exhausted her patience, so I decided to risk it. I gave one last look around to ensure we were still alone and started taking my shirt off.

"Woah, Adam," Ella spluttered, "What the hell? This...isn't what I had in mind."

My eyebrows dove in confusion at hearing that. She should have been all too eager to see me in the buff, regardless of whether the situation, admittedly, looked pretty questionable.

"Just...trust me, okay? Like you did earlier tonight. And try not to flip out?" I tried channeling security and trust into her but had no clue if it was working or not.

"'Don't flip out'? I already am flipping out. You got any idea how shady this seems, Adam?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But how about a little trust here? It's all good, okay?"

The small, wary head nod she gave me was probably as good as I was going to get, so I called my wings to mind, appreciating how easy it was now that I had the full knowledge of the incubus.

Trying to avoid shocking her more than necessary, I summoned them in their retracted state. Huge black feathers cocooned my naked torso, encompassing me in an inky pocket of darkness.

Ella's mouth dropped as she looked on, eyes nearly popping out of her skull.

"What the..."

Her outstretched hand reached for me impulsively but stopped before making contact.

I stood there, reveling in her wonder at the exposure of my true form.

"This is what happened to me, Ella. I-I'm becoming an Incubus."

Finally, she tore her gaze from my wings to look me in the eye. Shock still registered in her wide eyes.

"An Incubus? You look like...like those pictures of Lucifer. From the bible stories."

I gave her a dubious look, "The devil doesn't drive a late model Civic, Ella."

"Oh, shut up. You know what I mean."

"I know, I know. It's just too fun to tease you." The sides of my eyes crinkled in mirth.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" She extended a hand and trailed the leading edge of one of my wings with a gentle touch. I shivered from the contact. They were surprisingly sensitive!

"Well, if it were nothing more than a pair of wings and a cut body, I probably would have," I smirked. "But there's more..."

For the next few minutes, I explained about my meeting with Elias when the rest of the group waited in the private room at the club. I shared with her what he had told me about the creature I was becoming, and about how it was caused by this devilish little otherworldly spirit that had taken up residence in my body like some kind of an unwanted relative moving in.

"This is pretty incredible," Ella said. Despite her words, she didn't seem as shocked as I was expecting.

I nodded. "But that's not why I wanted to tell you."

"Okay..."

"I wanted... No, I needed to tell you because of what happened tonight."

"Why? What happened tonight?"

"Well, remember that I told you I have these powers now?"

"Uh-huh."

"...and how I have this thing inside my head that sometimes does things that are a little beyond my control?"

"You mean your Fae?"

I nodded. "Exactly."

Wait, what?

"Go on." She said, inexplicably unperturbed at my explanation.

"Wait a second. I didn't say anything about a 'Fae'."

"No, you didn't," she confirmed.

"Then how did you...?" My mind was doing somersaults.

"Adam, I know about the Fae. I'm one of them."

...The fuck? "Say that again?"

"I'm one of the Fae also."

My head was exploding, so I lacked the mental bandwidth to respond just then.

"Not an Incubus, obviously, but a Fae nonetheless.

"You might have heard of my kind, or maybe something similar. I'm a Dryad."

I nodded dumbly, reeling from how she'd completely turned the tables on me. My brain still had not caught up with the flow of the conversation at present, however.

"But, you... if you knew about the Fae, why did you act so surprised when I showed you?"

She gave me a flat look. "Were you surprised to find out I'm a Dryad just now?"

I gave her a nod.

"Same reason, I'd imagine." She said, as if that explained everything, "I know we exist, but I certainly didn't expect my best friend to be one."

Good point.

Then all the questions started forming. My mind vainly tried to grasp the idea that my friend was a creature of myth.

"How long have you been this way?"

"All my life. Dryads are born with our Fae. I don't think I noticed anything until I started puberty though...then it was impossible not to notice. Everyone else just never knew what caused it, including my Mom and Dad." She rolled her eyes. "You don't even know how frustrating it was to get all those tests done, knowing exactly what was happening to my body, and that no, it wasn't going to stop anytime soon."

A piece of the puzzle clicked into place.

"My mother told me-"

"Your mom?" I cut her off, finding the sound of her calling her mom 'mother' to be strange.

"Not my mom, my 'mother'" she air quoted. "Adam, I'm adopted. Only Dryads can birth Dryads. My real mother wanted me to be raised by a normal family though. It's not uncommon for those of my kind. Dryads tend to live in a somewhat...uh...cloistered community. Mostly with others of our kind. She didn't want to force that on me."

I was still reeling from the information. So many questions, so I said the first stupid thing that came to mind.

"But, Dryads have a tree, right?"

"Well, I'm guessing it's probably similar to your situation: the myths didn't get all of it correct."

I chewed my lip but nodded.

Ella sighed, "Buuut, yeah, as usual, there's a hint of truth in the legends. We do have a...um...bond, I guess you could call it. But it's not with a tree."

Noticing that she didn't say was it was, I remained silent to let her finish. She didn't.

"Sooooo?" I turned my head expectantly.

"So, what?"

"So, what is it? What are you bonded to?"

The look she gave me was so filled with frustration and hurt that I figured it out almost immediately.

The bond was with another person. And that person was me.

I felt a slight sting in my eyes as it dawned on me that the reality was so much worse than what I had been afraid of. What I thought had happened tonight had actually occurred years ago.

"When?"

Seeing my tears welling, her walls crumbled. "Sixth grade," her voice hitched as she wiped an eye with a knuckle.

"My mother told me to be careful..."

"Ella, I'm sooo sorry."

She shook her head resolutely.

"She warned me to guard my heart. Said that it can happen at any time, once puberty sets in."

I stayed silent, letting her tell it as the implications of my seemingly benign neglect crushed my soul with guilt. I had unknowingly neglected one of my bonds -- possibly the most important person in the world to me -- for years.

"You probably remember it. It was that time I went to my Grandma's for a couple of weeks over the summer." I nodded in recognition. "It had just happened; I could feel it. We had been spending so much time together down at the creek that summer, and one day it just appeared. It was still fresh, so I thought I might be able to break it by putting some distance between us. I begged my parents to let me go for an extra-long visit to Grandma's.

"Of course, it didn't work. It just made me miss you."

Being an incubus may have had some downsides, but most of it was pretty great. This, on the other hand... This seemed like nothing but a curse! What a terrible existence, to be bound to someone like that without any say-so in the matter.

She must have intuited the righteous fury that I felt for her.

"Adam, it's okay. I've had a long time to come to terms with this."

All those years of her waiting for me to pull my head out of my ass and pursue her. I'd heard it before: the only actions you will ever truly regret are those you don't take. I'd proven the axiom true.

"But, why didn't you tell me? I thought you knew I had a crush on you."

"Oh, I knew." Her eyes told me how obvious this was. "I would have known even if I hadn't been able to feel every little thing you felt for the past six years."

Oh my God. Well, that certainly explained her uncanny ability to manage my moods.

"No, Adam, I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to feel committed to a relationship you formed when you were eight years old for the rest of your life."

Just when I didn't think it was possible to feel any more guilty... Was there no limit to the goodness in this woman's heart?

She went on. "And more than that, I needed you to come to me. Maybe it was vain, but I needed to know for sure that you weren't 'with me' because you felt guilted or coerced into it. Can you understand that?"

Oh, the irony. Can I? It was the very issue I wrestled with all the time. The reason why I had struggled the whole night to control my Fae, preventing him from binding her against her will.

"Yes, I can."

It was time. I needed to lay it all out there and see where we stood.

"Ella, I care for you deeply. This is more than a childish infatuation -- I've seen your heart, and it's as beautiful as the rest of you." She looked down. "I do want to be with you. More than anything, I want that. But it's complicated..."

"Because you're an Incubus."

"Yes. It's my nature to form a bond with my mate. I wanted that bond with you more than any other, but you need to know that it comes with some strings attached."

"Don't they always..." she deadpanned.

"Yes, I suppose they do. My bond isn't like slavery." I summoned Ia's hypothesis on the subject. "From what I can tell, it's more like a mirroring of my feelings toward you. Buuut, it usually carries with it a sense of... How should I put it? Maybe...a desire to please.

"Just as you said earlier, I didn't want to force that on you. The reason I weirded out on you back at your place was that I thought my Fae had forced that connection with you earlier tonight without my consent. I was racking my brain to figure out how I could undo it, and all I could come up with was to cut your memories of me entirely.

"I decided that I needed to come clean on everything with you, as least as a last goodbye."

She placed a warm palm on my cheek. "Adam, you're sweet, but I doubt it would have worked even if you wanted it to."