Succubus

Damon was wondering whether this had been a good idea. The distance from the railway station to the estate was just five miles, he had been told, but the unseasonably hot weather made it seem much longer. Still, it was good to stretch his legs after the long trip up from London in the crowded train, and he liked the idea of showing up a day early with just a backpack, his trunk scheduled to be delivered sometime tomorrow. Geoff was sure to be amused to see his American cousin show up this way!

An estate. He'd been fascinated when he heard that Geoff had married into a family situation that while not strictly speaking noble nevertheless made him and his wife inheritors of a centuries-old manor with dozens of rooms, set in the middle of almost a thousand acres of vast lawns bordered by pleasant, tame forests. There was even a fair-sized lake along the mile-long driveway leading to the mansion, according to the map that had been sent with the invitation to spend the week visiting with Geoff and his family before taking up his new position as a teacher at a school in Northumberland.

He finally reached the open gate on the border of the vast property. He sighed when he realized that after his five mile walk from the railway station, he still had another mile to go before he reached his destination. He took a swig from the water bottle he carried in his pack and set off along the winding driveway that curved ahead out of sight through the trees.

After walking what he judged was about a half mile he noticed light glinting through the trees just up the drive ahead. The lake! He had been looking forward to it as he walked, sweating from the heat. He hurried onto the immaculately maintained green sward between the drive and the water, and sat down near the shore in the shade of some trees. He admired the serene lake for a few minutes, then lay down in the grass and looked up at the clear sky. He closed his eyes.

* * *

"Hello? Hellooooo there!"

Damon looked up, disoriented as he emerged from sleep, momentarily forgetting where he was. Above him he saw bare legs under a short dress, and above that a smiling face looking down at him.

"Oh ... must have dozed off there, sorry!" He got to his feet a bit awkwardly and

looked sheepishly at the girl standing in front of him. She was quite young and remarkably pretty, with tousled blond hair tied back haphazardly, and large blue eyes that were twinkling with amusement. She was almost as tall as he was, and the sleeveless summer shift she was wearing showed off her trim yet voluptuous figure.

"No need to apologize - from the look of you you needed a rest. Been walking far, have you?"

"Well, just from the railroad in town. I hadn't expected it to be so hot today, though."

"Yes, it is rather. Why don't you go for a dip in the lake, it's lovely really. That's what I've come for."

"Uh, well, I don't have a bathing suit with me, so ..."

"I don't either - this is all the bathing costume I need ..." She took a step back and pulled the thin dress over her head and tossed it on the ground. She stood before him now in only pink underwear, a pair of thin, brief panties and a translucent brassiere. She grinned at him. "Join me?"

Damon blushed and looked away. "I ... uh ... I don't think, maybe I should just, I don't know ..."

"There's no need to be embarrassed," she said. "We are cousins, after all."

"We're ... cousins?"

"Of course, silly, second cousins anyway! I heard you were coming today, so I thought I'd walk down to meet you."

"Oh my God - Leticia! Is it really you, Letty?"

"Well, it is unless Mater and Pater had another brat they never told me about!"

"Oh my, the last time I saw you you were about this high ..." He held his hand about three feet from the ground. "But that was what, about ten years ago I think."

"Yes, well one does grow up, you know." She clasped her hands behind her back and bit her lower lip as she looked at the ground. With her arms pulled back her high breasts were pushed forward provocatively, and despite his embarrassment Damon felt the stirrings of arousal. Letty looked up. "So what do you say, cuz - will you join me?" She briefly looked him over then gave him a playful grin. "Hot day like today, looks to me like you could use some cooling off!" She turned and strolled to the water's edge. He gazed at her as she walked, mesmerized by the sensuous motion of her hips and pert derriere under the semi-transparent panties. She looked back at him over her shoulder and smiled. "Come on in, Damon, you'll like it." Then she strode into the water and moved off in a lazy side stroke.

Damon quickly stripped down to his briefs and was next to her in seconds. "Welcome, cuz," she said, and kissed both his cheeks as they stood in the waist-deep water. Then she embraced him in an affectionate hug, pressing herself against him. He worried that she couldn't have missed noticing his hardness.

"Mmm, the water's so nice," she said. She looked into his eyes. "Feels good, doesn't it?" Then she turned and swam rapidly out into the deeper water. Damon followed, keeping up with her as well as he could, but she kept just out of reach, laughing as she splashed him, diving under when he tried to splash her back. After a few minutes she swam to him and gave him another hug. "I've been so looking forward to your visit," she said. "We're going to have a glorious time!"

***

When they finally emerged from the lake Letty took a towel from the bag she'd brought with her and briefly dried herself off, then tossed it to Damon. He did his best to keep it in front of him as he wiped himself down, since his arousal was still evident, despite the cold water. If anything, it had grown, provoked by accidental touches from Letty during their horseplay in the water.

"Well, I don't think I want to have these wet things under my dress walking home," she said. "You can turn around if you want, if you're shy ..." She winked at him and reached behind her back to unclasp her brassiere. Damon's eyes opened wide as he hastened to turn his back, but he couldn't help catching a glimpse of her firm breasts and their erect, pink tips as the brassiere fell away. He stood uncertainly looking away as Letty removed her wet panties and put her dress back on.

"All clear," she called, "decency has been restored!" Damon turned back as Letty stuffed her damp underwear into the bag. She looked at him, raising her eyebrows. "What about you?" she asked. "You going to slog up to the castle in your soggy knickers?"

"I, uh, well I guess not," he said. He returned the towel to her, then stood irresolutely as she looked at him.

"Don't worry," she said, grinning, "I won't look!" She covered her eyes as he turned away and stripped off his wet shorts and quickly got dressed.

"All set," he said, smiling at her as she removed her hands from her eyes. "I guess I'll continue on now - will you walk with me?"

"Of course," she said, "that's why I'm here, to be your escort!" He slipped into his backpack and as they began walking together up the long driveway Letty leaned over and whispered into his ear. "I peeked ... nice bum!" She giggled and ran ahead of him, looking back over her shoulder mischievously. She held out her hand. "Well, do come along," she said. "I want to hear all about you. Just what are you going to be teaching at that snotty school?" He laughed and took her hand as they strolled along the drive to the manor.

* * *

The house - Bythestone Manor - was every bit as impressive as Damon had imagined. From the grand staircase rising from the main entrance hall and branching off to the east and west wings of the upper floors, to the long, ornately decorated halls and passages lined with statuary and even a suit of armor here and there, the place was every bit as overwhelming and overdone as any set for a BBC Edwardian drama. After settling into the enormous bedroom that had been given him on the second floor, with its view over the immense east lawns, Damon wandered in the maze of intersecting hallways that connected grand spaces - libraries, bedroom suites, conservatories and performance salons - even becoming temporarily lost on occasion. His cousin Geoff was the same easy-going fellow he'd always been, though he seemed a bit embarrassed by the opulent luxury he now found himself in. His wife Alexandra was gracious and welcoming, but evidently accepted her privileged circumstances as nothing more than her due. Damon wondered at how Geoff had wound up with her, but in the end just shrugged it off - people were a mystery, they always surprised him.

Dinner that evening was in one of the smaller, more intimate dining rooms. Damon was seated by the butler with his hosts to his left and right, opposite a chair that was currently unoccupied.

"You'll have to excuse Leticia," Alexandra said as the butler filled their wine glasses, "she's never very punctual I'm afraid." As if on cue Letty came running into the room at that moment and flounced into the seat opposite Damon.

"Sorry I'm late," she said. "Had trouble getting this beastly new dress on." She tugged at the rather low neckline of the sleeveless gown she was wearing.

"Well, this is hardly an appropriate way to greet your father's cousin whom you haven't seen in so many years," Alexandra tutted.

"Actually," said Damon, "we met earlier today when I was on my way here. Letty took it upon herself to be my guide."

"Yes," said Letty, "we've already seen quite a bit of each other." She winked at Damon.

"So," said Geoff, "what will you be teaching this time around? I seem to remember you were quite keen on digging into folklore years ago."

"Well, strictly speaking I'm to be an upper form English teacher, but of course that gives me quite a bit of latitude in choosing the material I'd like to inflict on my poor students. I'm in the process of putting together a syllabus, which I'll be able to complete when my trunk arrives tomorrow."

"Well, I hope you're not going to be working all the time," said Letty. "I'm home from school on break, and so should you be until you have to go see to those brats at the hoity-toity school."

"Leticia!"

"Well they are pretty snobby there, Mother, you should know - that's what you used to say, and you went there!"

"Times change," said Geoff, "and besides, you don't want to prejudice poor cousin Damon here before he's even started."

"I suppose," said Letty. She leaned towards Damon. "I'm sure you'll be able to turn them into brilliant scholars, cuz! Too bad I don't attend there, I think it would be fun studying under cousin Damon." She smiled at him as she took a sip of wine.

"Wine, Leticia?" said Alexandra. "When did it become acceptable for you to ..."

"Oh, really, Mother," Letty interrupted, "have you forgotten what day this is?" She turned to Damon. "Actually, we're celebrating tonight! Not only have you come to visit us, but today is my birthday - isn't that a smashing coincidence? I'm eighteen now, just in time for starting university in the fall."

"Well, congratulations," said Damon, raising his glass. "Here's to Leticia, our freshly minted adult!"

Letty laughed and raised her glass to join the toast, as did Geoff. "And here's to cousin Damon, whom I hope to get to know better," she said. Alexandra just frowned and sipped her wine. "A lot better," Letty added.

After the dessert, a lavishly decorated birthday cake in honor of Leticia, served with appropriate ceremony by Mr. MacStoker the butler, Letty put down her fork and addressed Damon in a mock serious tone, adopting an upper-class accent that suffered a bit from the unaccustomed wine she'd downed.

"Because you knew nothing of my birthday when you arrived, cousin, I shan't hold you responsible for neglecting to bestow upon me the customary presents." Damon and Geoff laughed, while Alexandra just rolled her eyes. "However," she added quickly, "in lieu of such material generosity I think I'm entitled to ask of you a boon, which you as a scholar are singularly in a position to bestow."

Geoff leaned over to Damon and said in a loud stage whisper, "She's taken an acting class - can you tell?" Letty scrunched her mouth to the side and frowned at him disapprovingly.

Damon smiled and looked at her, spreading his hands in acceptance. "I am at your disposal, my lady - how may I help?"

"Well," she said, "it's like this - I wanna pick your brains!" She hiccupped.

Damon smiled. "Such as they are, they are at your disposal - pick away."

"Okay," she said, quickly wiping her mouth with her napkin and leaning across the table towards him. "I was talking with some of my mates at school just before we left on leave, and one of them said she wouldn't be surprised if there were a ghost living here in this pile of a house. They're always making fun of me because of where I live." Alexandra sniffed her disapproval, but Letty ignored her. "Anyway, this friend - Gwen, it was - said if I'm lucky it's an incubus. The car arrived just then to pick me up, so I wasn't able to ask her what she meant. So please tell me, dear cuz - just what is an 'incubus'?"

Damon raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Well, your friend was right, the incubus is in fact a kind of a ghost, or maybe more of a demon."

"A demon?" said Letty, her eyes wide.

"Yes, but a special kind of one. The idea is very old, going back at least to ancient Mesopotamia, where it was mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh."

"Special?" asked Letty. "How?"

"Well," said Damon, casting a cautious glance at Alexandra, "the incubus was said to be a spirit that would - uh, visit - young women at night."

"Visit?" said Letty eagerly. "You mean, like, in bed?"

"Yes. The word derives from the Latin 'incubare', which means 'to lie upon'."

"Oh, that Gwen! It would be her that knows about that, she's such a little ... but anyway, what else?"

"Well, the incubus was believed to visit - lie with - women at night as they slept, and in fact could sometimes impregnate them."

"Oh, really," cried Alexandra, "must we discuss such matters at dinner? Filthy old superstitions are hardly things we should dignify with our attention today."

"Superstitions, certainly," said Damon seriously, "but the idea is touched on in early Christian thought as well, no doubt inherited from the older legends. Augustine believed in the possibility of the existence of incubi, because of the numerous accounts of them, and St. Thomas Aquinas thought that women could in fact become pregnant from an incubus, not from the demon itself but from seed stolen from a man."

"Saint Thomas thought that?" said Alexandra. "Well, he was a Catholic, after all. Not Church of England." The others stared at her.

"No kidding, Mother," sighed Letty. "The Church of England didn't exist yet." Alexandra responded with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Damon was warming to the subject. "Even King James I of England ..."

"As in the King James Bible?" interrupted Geoff.

"Yes, the very same. He wrote a book - 'Daemonologie' - in which he stated that the incubus might either be a demon that delivers sperm to a woman stolen from a man, mirroring Aquinas' position, or possibly a corpse possessed by a devil that rises and attacks a woman in her bed.

"Gross!" cried Letty. "Oh, I do hope that's not the sort we have in this house!"

"Oh, Leticia, please," said Alexandra. "We have no demon of any sort here! I shall have to have a word with Gwendolyn's mother about her daughter's unfortunate imagination."

"Just about every culture on earth has some form of the legend," continued Damon. "The Swedes, for example, imagined a kind of goblin, called a mare, that would sit upon a man's chest as he slept, making it difficult for him to breathe and giving him nightmares. It was probably inspired by the phenomenon of sleep paralysis."

"Yes, I've heard of that," said Geoff. "People sometimes see things as well, hypno..., hypno..."

"Hypnogogues," said Damon. "A form of hallucination that probably really terrified folks in the Middle Ages who saw malevolent spirits behind every rock and tree!" He took another sip of wine and continued his lecture. "Even in the present day it's a popular theme in literature, the gothic and horror genres principally, and often appeared in Victorian stories during the nineteenth century. In one well-known tale a man claimed to have trapped an incubus that had been annoying the fiancé of a friend. They somehow managed to trap it under a net of some sort, then killed it - I don't recall how."

"That was mean!" protested Letty.

"Yes, well the lady it had been annoying evidently wasn't sorry to see the end of it! Actually, it was invisible, even when dead, so they made a plaster cast of it to see what it looked like."

"Clever!" laughed Geoff.

"So what did it look like?" Letty whispered.

"Pretty evil-looking customer - rail-thin and wiry, with lots of nasty sharp teeth. They put it in storage, I think, or maybe disposed of it; don't really remember."

"Quite a tale," said Geoff.

"Creepy!" said Letty, shivering.

"Fiction," said Damon. "Don't forget that."

Alexandra looked a bit pale. "Well," she said, clearing her throat, "this is all very interesting, I'm sure, but I must leave you to discuss tomorrow's menu with cook." She rose from the table. "It's been charming to meet you, Damon, I do hope you enjoy your visit with us. And Leticia, please don't stay up too late - you may be eighteen now, but you are still young enough to need your beauty rest!" She smiled briefly and passed from the dining room into the kitchen.

After her mother had gone, Leticia sat thinking for a few moments.

"So," she said, "if an incubus is something that - visits - a girl at night, is there some kind of female thing that comes to visit a man in bed? You know, the same but it's a lady ghost?" She looked across the table at Damon, biting her lower lip.

"Well, as a matter of fact there is," said Damon. "It was called a 'succubus'."

Letty's mouth dropped open. "Suck you ...?" she said, her eyes wide.

"Yes, a succubus. Again, it's from Latin, 'succubare', meaning 'to lie under'."

"Obvious difference," said Geoff, "interesting. It's an old legend, too, I gather?"

"Oh yes," said Damon, "at least as old as the incubus. Sometimes they were considered different forms of the same demon - the succubus would steal a man's seed, then deliver it to a woman as an incubus. The offspring would then be a kind of semi-demon or changeling. In ancient Jewish lore Lilith is sometimes taken to be the first succubus."

"Lilith?" said Letty. "Wasn't she Frazier's old wife on TV?"

Damon laughed. "Actually, Lilith was Adam's first wife."

"Adam in the Bible? He had another wife?" asked Geoff.

"Yes, in an older form of the Genesis story that didn't make it into the Old Testament. She was created from the same dust or clay that Adam was. Because of that she considered herself equal to Adam, and got angry when told she had to be subservient to him. So, she went off to live by herself in a cave, and Eve was then created from one of Adam's ribs, making her naturally dependent on him - subservient in other words."

"Fascinatin'," said Geoff. "So as well as being the first wife and the first succubus she evidently was also the first feminist, eh? Would have burned her bra if they had 'em back then."

"Oh, Lilith is so cool!" cried Letty. "Bras are such a bother. Bet she didn't care for 'lying underneath', either. But I do like that name - 'suck you' - it's ever so much more expressive than 'ink you', don't you think?" She giggled and reached for her wine glass. Seeing that it was empty she turned it upside down and pouted. "Oh, pooh!"

"Well, on that note I think it's time you followed your mother's admonition and repaired to bed, my dear girl," said Geoff. "And I'm sure Damon is tired as well, after the long day he's had."