Succubus Awakens

Not to mention the couple of million in cold hard cash, though most of my money was in overseas accounts.

They also didn't see me and Rocco become friends and grow close. They didn't see our late-night conversations, and the time we spent together. All they saw was about six months in I'd just started to fuck him, because he loved me, and I loved him.

My Rocco, the second lover in my life.

I hated that the most, that they saw my amazing and far too short love affair with Bobbi and the much longer one with Rocco. My feelings of affection and my heart being bared to my enemy's minds. It was the worst of their transgressions and violations against me, as far as I was concerned.

The worst part of it was Rocco was still with me. In a cell very close to mine, and he was held alive against the idea that I may have permanently enthralled him. My enemies knew I loved him now, deliriously, and I hated feeling that weakness, of my enemies uncovering that fact which they could easily use against me.

Nathaniel never grew that deeper connection with me. All there was between us was a sense of family, the pleasure, and the access to knowledge that he gave me in return to earn it. He was an odd man, very closed off and careful, but he grew to trust me, if not a true romantic affection as Rocco did.

They didn't see the effort to grow my business and contacts at night. All they saw was part of my dates, as a call girl, and of course the wild fucking immediately afterwards. It built up slowly, and as my reputation built my cost had gone up from five hundred a night to three thousand. Of course, it would continue to grow to five thousand not to mention the ridiculously large tips over the next two years.

It was very close timewise to supernatural emergence in my past, and the incident with the half demon in Manhattan who'd had a sixth of the city in hellfire, though only a handful of buildings were entirely burned down. Most of the fires were small and eventually put out. Even hellfire went out, under the application of water.

At the same time, in the real world I'd subverted most of the cameras on the floor, and I'd broken and replaced most of the wards that would set off an alarm in the building and tell of our escape. I'd be ready soon.

Very soon.

Chapter Ten -- Nightmare Take Three

Dennis smirked, "Two more weeks, and I'll get to kill you and your lover."

I snorted, "Closer to three. I have a lot more sex in the last two years than I did in the year before. Longer client list, more lovers... you'll see."

He scowled.

I wasn't nearly as sanguine, and I let a hint of my nervousness show even though it wasn't about that. It was about getting caught what I was doing. I figured one, maybe two more nights and everything would be ready for the escape. It was really hard to suppress my building emotions of anxiety and hope, the closer I got to reaching my goal the stronger those emotions got. The last thing I needed was for Dennis to get curious.

Nathaniel was also on my mind, the time was closing when my life had changed rather drastically, again, just about two years ago.

I settled in to eat.

Gale asked, "Do you know where that library is?"

I'd been wondering when they'd ask me that question.

I sighed regretfully, "I know, to the council that's probably worse than black market potions. All that truth that inconveniently clashed with their lies. Plus, you know, the upper class hates it when us lower life form outsiders get their hands on any true power and powerful secrets of magic that the snooty bastards would prefer to hoard."

Dennis growled, and I held up my hands in surrender.

"It's gone. It no longer exists. Burned."

Fortunately, I'd been done with my book learning by then, but it was still a loss that I felt. It disgusted me, the loss of all that precious knowledge, but it was what it was. I was still perfecting my craft, experimenting on potions as well, there was always room for growth. But I no longer needed book learning.

Gale asked, "How?"

"Danae Gibson, I'm sure there's a file for the evil bitch if you'd care to look it up. Left-hand path practitioner and earth witch. She wanted to take over the black-market potion business here in Reno, so she decided to take us out. She also had a fire witch on her team, as well as a cougar shifter and vampire."

Dennis smirked, "Is that how he died? I'd have thought you could handle a couple of witches, a shifter, and a vampire without breaking a sweat?"

I shook my head, "I could have. Left-hand path witch, as I said. The bitch summoned a demon to break our wards and soften us up. Even I'm no match for a demon, without holy water, and like me they're completely immune to fire, even hellfire."

Gale tilted her head, "Is that why your house and alchemy building was built on consecrated land?"

I sighed, "Yes, no demon could assail us at home. So that what that cunt did to Nathaniel couldn't happen to me and mine. Just more proof I'm not evil by the way, consecrated ground and holy water is death to demons, or at least it sends them straight back to hell, but they don't do shit to me. I figured it was only a matter of time before another witch willing to summon evil demons from hell came for us, given our involvement with the black market. It made sense."

Gale asked, "Regrets?"

I frowned, "A little. I should've walked away after that night, and started over somewhere else, but I didn't want to lose my escort business. Because of that I was almost forced to take over for Nathaniel's efforts on the black market. Which ultimately is what busted me and is the reason I was discovered and stuck in here. I assume you guys raided the fight night because someone snitched about the illegal potions?"

Gale frowned at me, but then reluctantly nodded telling me my guess was right.

Dennis snorted, "Why not stay, and not take it over?"

I shrugged, "Too many people knew. In the middle class, and the outsiders that bought powerful potions from us at a discount. We were useful to the middle class and other outsider groups in the area as long as I took over and brewed them and kept them supplied. If I'd just stopped, then they'd have no reason not to rat us out, and at least one of them would have done so merely out of spite because they'd been cut off. It worked for two years after all, so I wasn't entirely wrong, I can only assume Gabby misread a new contact somehow."

Dennis smirked, "Nope. One of your customers were careless with where they were putting their cock, and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

Oh, that actually made sense. He'd cheated and had a falling out with his mate or girlfriend, who had run to the council and turned him in for his evil ways out of spite and revenge, because he'd been dumb enough to tell her about his illegal activities. Fuck, how stupid.

I could even appreciate the irony, that sex and pleasure had led to my downfall, even if someone else's.

I shook my head, "Either way, I should've started over, but I won't pretend it wasn't a hell of a ride."

It was the plan now, find a new city, new identities. Work up a new client list as a call girl, and also stick to legal potions the council wouldn't care about. I'd even register with the local council as a potion seller and submit to audits. I was sure my lovers would get behind that plan. It wasn't like we lacked money and couldn't get by in an aboveboard business. Without drawing the eyes of the council, we'd just have to worry about other outsider groups trying to kill us for our honest business. I was confident I could hide my identity and demonic nature without other things drawing the council's attentions.

Potions and call-girl clients for me, the others could figure out their own outside ambitions, and we'd continue to be a supportive family and take care of each other. If we could, we'd leverage it so that we were all doing jobs together for safety's sake. I'd have to discuss it with them first.

If we actually escaped this place.

Dinner was done, and they escorted me to my cell for the night.

Two years ago...

I wasn't all the surprised when I found myself in a nightmare, of the night Nathaniel died. All the memories were so sharp of the last year leading up to that point, and his death had been on my mind. The fact I'd just talked about it with my jailers as well only cemented it. It was late on a Wednesday night, or technically early on Thursday, though I hadn't slept yet, just around three in the morning and we'd just gotten back from fight night an hour or so ago.

We were already aware of Danae and her group, she'd been there that night at the fights, and Nathaniel had already expressed paranoid concerns. Earth witches made the best alchemists, being close to and connected to the land, not unlike the fae though it was a little different. The fae connected to the land through nature, while earth witches connected to nature through the land.

We had a wary understanding with the other six groups in the area, and all of them including us were quite wary of the new arrivals. It was also a worry because there were only three of us, though I was fairly confident because I counted as ten easily, when it came to the weaker supernatural races.

I could feel the horror in my gut, because it hadn't even occurred to me Danae was a left-hand practitioner, and that she was accomplished at demon summoning. My mind was screaming at my old self to get up and get the holy water now, but my dream self was just as clueless as I was on that night two years ago.

That was the one thing I wholeheartedly agreed with the council on. Half-demons didn't inherit the evil of our demonic parent, but full demons were pure evil, fallen from grace, and they had been judged. There was no coming back from that.

Witches and fae that took that path needed to die, summoning demons and sacrificing life for power twisted the soul, that was true evil.

It was only my own mortality and potential for good as well as evil that I highly disagreed with the council on.

I wasn't asleep yet, because I'd just gotten done twisting up the sheets with Rocco. He'd long since invited me into his room, and more than that it was my room at that point too. He was kind of possessive, but for some reason he'd accepted my nature as a succubus. I wouldn't say he liked it, but he never gave me shit or jealousy about the fact I was still blowing Nathaniel three times a day and fucking about twenty clients at least once a month during my dates.

He just loved me, manhandled me in bed, and gave me delicious pleasure every night I spent in his arms.

My body was my own, as was my nature, but my heart and soul did belong to him already that night. He made me feel possessed and cherished, valued and loved, and more than a little bit adored.

I was more than content and satiated, lying against his side shamelessly as I enjoyed the sensation of his strong arm around me and his teasing fingertips on the top of my ass and lower back.

I felt them coming, just a split second before the whole warehouse shook and vibrated, as the demon hit the wards and door like a ten-ton truck.

"Demon! And... fuck, Danae and her group."

We both got up and I got dressed quickly as he transformed into a pony sized wolf, and I pulled my sword from my tiny mound. It looked like it'd just appeared in my hand, and in a way it had. The control spells to do that were long and complicated, and it had taken time and a lot of effort. Totally worth it though, once set up. We ran for the door where Nathaniel was in the middle of a spell.

Boom!

The demon slammed into the wards again, and I could feel them unraveling. It really was suicide to attack a witch in their stronghold, except apparently when bringing a demon along to knock down the traps and wards.

He finished the spell and power flowed, I felt the wards lash out and the demon was struck with lightning and sent rolling away with a dark evil howl.

Nathaniel said, "Holy water, office desk, third drawer on the right side. Go get it, I don't know how long I can hold the wards under this assault."

As if to underscore that, the demon crashed into the wards again, and Nathaniel physically flinched in pain as he kept pouring his magic into the wards. The demon felt it too, but there was no way a single witch was going to take down a demon. Not even with warding spells and traps on their side, that had been built over years.

Full demons were ten times more powerful than a half demon, and half demons were about ten times powerful than witches, vampires, shifters, and fae. Half-breeds were always weaker. Fae included, I was pretty strong with fae magic, but nothing compared to a full fae. Our only chance to take down that demon was the holy water or making him soak up a whole lot of physical damage, and I took off like my ass was on fire. The second option was far more dangerous.

Holy water was their major weakness, as was holy ground. Demons were practically indestructible, but a human toddler could take one out with a vial of holy water. Well if they could hit the demon with it anyway, demons were pretty fast, but fae were faster.

The drawers were locked, and I spat out a quick spell and then pulled the unlocked drawer open. There were several vials, I grabbed three just in case and started to run back with my heart pounding in my chest.

Boom!

The wards fell, and I felt sick to my stomach at the idea of being too late. I booked down the hallway, then turned for the entrance, just in time for a weakened Nathaniel to take a powerful fireball to his face.

As for the demon, it was kicking the shit out of Rocco, though Rocco had gotten in a bite or two in the few seconds it'd taken to run there. I winced on the inside, as I saw his chest splayed open, but it immediately healed with a rush of power. Shifters could heal almost anything, as long as they had the magic left to do it. Once that magic was drained however, they'd die as easily as a human would.

I threw the vial of holy water, which exploded on the demon's chest.

The demon screamed in pain, and started to smoke, smolder, and flake apart.

Demon and fae magic flowed around my body and on the sword. In truth, it was hellfire and a simple glamour, but to anyone reading the ground or even present, all they'd see is a green fae aura around me and my sword brimming with nature magic.

I jumped in front of Nathaniel and took the next fireball on my back, which didn't do jack shit because I was both immune to fire and shielded from magic. I touched Nathaniel and my hellfire sucked up all the magical fire on him, but it was too late.

I felt his heart falter, and I'd never forget the wistful look on his face and the fear in his eyes as it beat it's last. I was too late despite putting out the fire, and it was far too late for even a healing potion to heal him with burns over his whole body.

I was hardly a master sword-woman at that time in my life, just a year since I'd fled my hometown. But I was fae, graceful, fast, well balanced, and sensually so. I'd also taken martial arts lessons from Rocco over the last year and I wasn't terrible.

With the demon gone and banished back to hell, Danae's little group attacked.

As so long ago back in my first home, the vampire was fastest, and I ignored his sword stroke to decapitate me and let my magic handle it. He wasn't expecting that at all, so after being ran through by my sword he went up in flames, much like the first one. The cougar was squared off with Rocco, and I ignored it for now as I charged the two witches.

They looked confident while casting, and their protections probably would hold a full fae back for long enough, so they had no fear of a half fae's power. Except my hellfire covered sword cut through those protections like they weren't even there.

Danae's spell faltered and she screamed in shock as her fire witch's head went flying into the night and I turned toward her grimly.

The witch barked a word of a much shorter spell, which made the ground itself roll like a wave and shake. It did unbalance me slightly, but my fae grace saved me from falling on my ass, and just a moment later her head followed her witch's.

I turned toward the shifter, "Stand still," I whispered under my breath so lightly only a shifter would hear it, and no doubt the earth witch sent to investigate wouldn't.

The cougar froze, but it didn't look like much more than a slight falter, one that Rocco took advantage of as he lunged and snapped his jaws around her neck. He shook and twisted wildly as he snapped the cougar's neck, and a moment later the head rolled off as his powerful jaws bit it off.

No coming back from a beheading, no matter how much magic the cougar had left.

I turned and looked in shock, at the smoke pouring out the door, and the bright flames. The witch's second fireball, that hit my back, it must've splashed off me and ignited the walls. It spread too quickly for normal fire, the whole warehouse was ablaze and that'd only happened less than a minute ago.

Far too much fire for me to put out. The library, potions lab, our stuff, rooms, all of it going up in flames. That had probably been her plan, part of the spell, to fully burn us out and erase all we owned. I was filled with a rage, though I carried most things of importance with me in my mound.

I let go of the magic, let it recede as I sent the sword back to the mound.

In that moment though I didn't care about the books, or the stuff, not yet anyway. It was Nathaniel's death my mind was stuck on.

Shit. What now?

Present...

I woke up with a sharp gasp. I knew of course, I'd used my money to purchase an old church yard, and we'd built a house and potions lab on it. Kept up with his work in a place protected from demons. Just in case another left-hand practitioner decided to force their way in and take our place in the black market.

I'd barely slept three hours, but that was the new normal for me and I felt a little strung out, as I got to work in the quiet of the night. I needed to finish the job, and then get the hell out of there with my people. I was fae, it'd be easy to hide from them, once we'd escaped anyway.

My mind wandered in the past, it was doing that more and more lately with the reprise of memories making it all so fresh. At least, the memories of sex and pleasure, part of it anyway, the part that wasn't focused on the magic and getting things done. I wanted to finish that night, but I also had to be careful and knew I shouldn't rush it.

Magic was touchy after all, and the task of subverting the magic of others was a delicate process, not to mention adding my own enchantments and glamour to cover up the changes. That's why it was taking so long.

It was something the enemy would never expect, because they'd never had to face it before. Most lawbreakers were just killed out of hand, it was only my unique circumstances and the long-term plan that made it possible at all.

It was also a one-shot wonder, because the council may be assholes but they're far from stupid. No doubt if I did escape, they'd add analyzing the wards once a day to their daily routines. It was just a shortfall, that only my ridiculous circumstances enabled me to take advantage of it.

My mind wandered.

Two years ago...

The study was mine. Lightly decorated and warm, and I'd like to believe it reflected the owner. I had on a red sundress the day I'd met Gabby. Rocco nodded at me subtly, as he brought her into the room much how he'd brought me to Nathaniel just over a year ago. All I really knew about her was she was an outsider, a fire witch, and new to the Reno area.

She'd answered our request on the dark web, that we were a group looking for more members if they were the right fit. I'd taken over Nathaniel's job, but it was far too much and overwhelming, I'd been working constantly the last two months, between brewing, maintaining contacts and sales, helping with the fight night organizing, and my own personal call girl service.