Incubus

by Carol Goodman

  But when I came into the kitchen I found her opening cabinet doors.

  “We have an electric kettle,” she was saying, “but I don’t know where it’s gone to. And I can’t find the sugar bowl anywhere …”

  “Um … I borrowed those, Fe. They’re up in my room.”

  “Well, I’ll just go get them.”

  “We can use the kettle on the stove,” Diana said. “I think you probably should stay downstairs, isn’t that right, Callie? I imagine your bedroom’s a little … messy right now.”

  I nodded and sat down at the kitchen table. Diana and Elizabeth exchanged a worried glance behind Phoenix’s back.

  “I suppose we could try a sleeping spell on her,” Elizabeth said.

  “Not advisable for bipolars,” Soheila said, giving Phoenix an assessing look. “Especially if she’s on Depakote.”

  “Who’s bipolar?” Phoenix said, popping her head out of the mugs cabinet. It struck me that that was the word that caught her attention, not spell.

  “You are, sweetie,” Diana said, putting an arm around Phoenix’s shoulders. “Which means you don’t react well to magic. I’m afraid you’re going to have to be around some tonight. I’ll give you some herbs for your nerves later.”

  “What are you three?” I asked, tired of feeling ignored in my own kitchen. “Witches?”

  Diana laughed. “Well, Liz is, of course. She’s one of the most powerful witches I’ve ever met.” Diana smiled lovingly at the dean and I wondered why it had taken me so long to realize they were a couple. Apparently my gaydar was working about as well as my witch-dar. “But me, I’m just a garden variety fairy.”

  “Oh my dear, there’s nothing garden variety about you.” Elizabeth slipped an arm around Diana’s narrow shoulders. “Diana is from the ancient line of Sidhe who have tended the fairy deer of the Fairy Queen for time immemorial.”

  “I see,” I said, surprised at how unsurprised I was. “And what about you, Soheila – are you a fairy or a witch?”

  “Oh, neither,” Soheila said, smiling. “I’m a demon.” Seeing the expression on my face she laughed. “Or daemon, as the more politically correct of my tribe call themselves now.”

  “Soheila, you really mustn’t be shy about your origins. Soheila is descended from a great Mesopotamian wind spirit …”

  “Really, Liz, I don’t think it’s necessary to go into that right now. The important thing for Callie to know is that most of us are no more dangerous than the fairies – although that’s not really saying much. We can discuss genus and species later when we have more time. I’m afraid all you’ve managed to do with your spell is rile up your incubus. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

  There were a lot of surprises in store for me that night, but the first was how easily Phoenix took to the idea that we’d both landed in a college populated by fairies, witches and demons.

  “I always knew I had some fairy blood in me,” she crowed once we were all seated around the kitchen table with tea and donuts, the wind howling outside.

  “Sorry, dear,” Diana said, patting Phoenix’s hand. “I’m pretty sure you haven’t a drop. But Callie here … I had my suspicions from the start, but I wasn’t sure until she rescued that bird from the thicket …”

  “Well, then I can be a witch, right? I’ve long been a follower of Wicca. Can you train me?”

  “That’s not a good idea given your mental health profile,” Soheila said – a bit too brusquely, I thought. She was clearly the most impatient of the three to get on with banishing the incubus. Maybe it took a demon to know what one was capable of, but I had a bunch of questions of my own.

  “Is the whole faculty made up of fairies and witches and—” I still felt a little uncomfortable calling Soheila a demon “—other supernatural creatures?”

  “Oh no, not at all!” Elizabeth cried. “Imagine the trouble we’d get in with the M.L.A.! But we do keep an eye out for hires who might have fey ancestry or hidden necromantic talents. Not that we can always tell right away, especially with those who don’t know they are descended from witches or the fey. You, for instance. Given your interest in fairy tales and folklore I suspected there might be something there, but I didn’t sense any witch’s power in you …” she paused, a troubled look on her face. “But when you told Diana that you’d released a bird from the thicket, we realized you must have a fey ancestor – and a very particular kind of fairy – one who is able to open and close the door to the world of Faerie. A doorkeeper.”

  “There’s a door to Faerie here—” Diana said, cutting her eyes toward the back of the house “—in the woods. After the fey departed the Old World for Faerie, some found their way through this door back into the human world.”

  “As far as we know,” Soheila added.” It’s the last door to Faerie.”

  “The humans we found here,” Diana continued, “the Native Americans, were happy to share their land with us. And then the first Colonial settlers who came into the area were witches exiled from Salem and other colonies inhospitable to the old religion.”

  “You see,” Elizabeth said taking up Diana’s narrative like picking up a stitch she had dropped, “The Old World witches worshipped the old gods, the horned god …”

  “Cernunnos,” Diana whispered.

  “Mithra,” Soheila breathed.

  “And the Triple Goddess,” Elizabeth continued.

  “Morrigan,” Diana said.

  “Anahita,” Soheila echoed.

  “And so the two groups formed the town,” Dean Book continued, “and named it Fairwick to celebrate the union of the fair folk and the witches.”

  “The witches were helpful to the fey when they came through the door,” Diana said. “New arrivals are often weak and confused.”

  “And the fey taught the witches many secrets of their craft,” Elizabeth added, “just as they had in the Old World. The first witches were humans who mingled with the fey and learned how to use the powers of nature from them—”

  “But then,” Diana interrupted, “during the Middle Ages the Old World witches were persecuted because they worshipped the Old Gods. Some of the witches renounced their connection with the fey …”

  “But others came here and reestablished their connection with the fey,” Elizabeth continued. “It was decided that a college should be formed to store the knowledge that was accumulated. But as more people came to the area it also became important to safeguard the door …”

  “Because not every being that comes through the door is harmless,” Soheila said. “The incubus you’ve encountered, for instance. He came through more than a century ago and latched on to Dahlia LaMotte. I tried myself to get him to go back …”

  “A century ago?” I asked. “So you’re …”

  “Older than I look,” Soheila finished for me. “By quite a bit. But even I couldn’t make this creature go back into Faerie. He’s very powerful. It was Angus Fraser who was able finally to drive him into the thicket … into the Borderlands, but he couldn’t drive him though the door back to Faerie. He died before he could do that …” She paused and looked away. Dean Book laid her hand over hers. After a moment Soheila took a deep breath and continued. “After the incubus was driven into the Borderlands we asked Brock—” She saw me about to interrupt and added, “Yes, he’s one of the Norse daevas, once blacksmith to the gods. He and his brother have been here for more than a hundred years …. We asked Brock to fit the windows and doors with iron locks to keep the incubus out. We believe Dahlia still let him in, though, from time to time.”

  “But she lived a long life,” I said. “I thought the incubi drained their victims until they died.”

  Soheila and Elizabeth Book exchanged a worried look. The dean nodded to Soheila to go on. “This incubus seems to know how to keep his victims alive for a long time. If the story about him is true he once was mortal and believes that he’ll regain his mortality when a human falls in love with him. We think that Dahlia found a way to coexist with him. H
e fed her creativity – but if she grew too weak she could banish him back to the Borderlands for a little while.”

  “Sounds a little mean,” I said, wondering if it was Dahlia’s treatment of him that had left him with such a chip on his shoulder.

  Soheila clucked her tongue. “You’re thinking he’s the way he is because he’s been treated badly. But you read Angus’s letter. This demon killed his sister. Please don’t underestimate him. And don’t try to make nice to him. Dahlia may have lived a long life, but she had no energy for anything but her books. She couldn’t have a normal relationship, even though I know Brock loved her very much.”

  I was about to ask what kind of a normal relationship she could have had with an ancient Norse divinity, but Phoenix spoke up. She’d been following the conversation goggle-eyed, sipping eagerly from her teacup (which I suspected from the smell had been spiked with whiskey). “I’ve been feeling very tired lately. Maybe the incubus has been draining me.”

  “I don’t think so,” Diana said, pouring more tea into Phoenix’s cup. “You’ve been sleeping downstairs in Matilda’s cast-iron bed. Iron keeps him away.”

  “Oh.” Phoenix looked disappointed, then brightened. “But I sleep on the couch a lot.”

  “It’s Callie he wants!” Elizabeth Book said, slapping the table. The sound was echoed by the wind knocking against the shutters. “But we can’t let him have you. You’re too important to us. Now I know you probably have lots more questions, but I believe we should leave them till later – after we’ve banished this demon from your house.”

  “You can do that?” I asked.

  “Yes, together the three of us can – as long as you truly want him gone. Are you sure you’re not harboring any hidden … um, affection for this creature?”

  I considered the question. I’d certainly been infatuated with him – besotted, a voice inside my head mocked, a sex slave – and I’d felt some sympathy for him after hearing that he’d once been human, but I hadn’t liked the highhanded approach he’d taken upstairs. He’d been arrogant and imperious. No way was I going to fall in love with a guy like that.

  “Not at all,” I said. “Let’s show him the door.”

  Once we had gathered fresh supplies – salt, spices, a new covered dish (an iron blue enamel Le Creuset casserole with a heavy lid), fresh candles, a broom and dustpan – we started up the stairs. Dean Book and I went first, Soheila next, Diana and Phoenix bringing up the rear.

  “Is it really such a good idea to include Phoenix?” I lowered my voice even though the wind was so loud I doubted she could have heard me if I shouted.

  “We don’t have any other choice,” she replied. “She’s safer in the circle than outside of it.”

  That gave me a little chill, but I told myself that these women knew what they were doing and that I was safer now with company than I’d been alone. When I put my hand on the doorknob and Diana called “Wait” from the end of the hall, though, I half hoped she meant to call the whole thing off. She was standing outside the closed door to the spare bedroom in which I’d been keeping Dahlia LaMotte’s papers, her eyes wide.

  “We need some iron to keep the circle grounded,” she said. “I can tell there’s iron in here, but I can’t get it. Neither can Soheila.” She turned to Phoenix. “Can you?”

  Phoenix opened the door and gave a little squeak. “Oh look, it’s like they’re waiting for us!”

  I came down the hall and looked into the room. The five iron doormice, which I was quite sure I’d left weighing down stacks of manuscript pages, were standing in a line, their little paws held out like toddlers’ waiting to be picked up.

  “Perfect,” Diana said. “Phoenix, could you …?”

  Phoenix was already kneeling to pick up the doormice. I didn’t see how she could carry more than three so I stooped to pick up the last two – including the one with the paint splotch and broken tail.

  “My little wounded soldier,” I said. “Called back into the fray.”

  Diana gave me a quizzical look and whispered something in Elizabeth’s ear.

  “Maybe,” the dean said, giving me a curious look.

  “What?” I asked, my voice shrill against the moaning wind outside.

  “You’re part fey so you shouldn’t like touching iron, but it doesn’t seem to bother you at all,” Diana said.

  “Your body has found a way to neutralize the iron’s power,” the dean said. “Which might be why the iron didn’t work to keep the incubus out.”

  “Fascinating,” Soheila said. “Casper will want to write a paper on it.”

  “Well, we can tell him about it in the morning,” Elizabeth said with a rueful smile. “If we’re all still here.”

  I thought she must be exaggerating the danger until I opened my bedroom door. In the light from the hallway (all the lightbulbs in the bedroom had been shattered), the room looked as if it had been ravaged by a wild animal. Salt, melted wax, and broken glass were strewn across the floor. The bedsheets had been torn from the bed. The mattress had been ripped to shreds. On the wooden headboard were five long gashes that looked like the mark of a clawed beast.

  “You certainly made him angry,” Soheila said, examining the claw mark. I thought I detected a hint of admiration in her voice. “What did you say to him?”

  I tried to remember our little dialogue, but like most lovers’ spats it was hard to unwind its logic, if any. Somehow it had gone rather quickly from him asking my name to me getting pissed off at him. Oh yeah, now I remembered.

  “I told him that there was more to love than being good in the sack.”

  Soheila’s eyes widened. Diana clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh and glanced over toward Elizabeth Book, but the dean was staring at something on the floor.

  “I think this is his reply,” she said.

  I came around the bed and looked at the floor. Written in the salt were two words: What more?

  “Fascinating,” Soheila whispered. I could barely hear her for the wind roaring through the broken window. It swept the salt and glass across the floor erasing the words—as if suddenly embarrassed by them – and I felt a momentary pang of … what? Disloyalty? As if I’d exposed him to the ridicule of these four women.

  I shook the feeling away. Look at what he’d exposed me to! My boss, neighbor, roommate, and colleague were cleaning up my bedroom, literally picking up the pieces of a supernatural dalliance gone wrong. I hardened my heart to him and pitched in. I held the dustbin for Soheila and dumped the debris into the wastebasket under my desk. He’d pulled out all the little drawers – all but the locked one – and dumped paperclips everywhere. My notes for my book were scattered on the floor. He should be embarrassed. What kind of question was that? What more?

  While collecting the scattered pages, some of which were ripped and water damaged, I found the fairy stone under my desk. I put it into my pocket, and then sat down in the circle between Diana and Elizabeth. Soheila drew a fresh circle of salt around us, intoning something in Farsi that somehow made the salt stick to the floor despite the wind, and then sat down between Diana and Phoenix. There was a candle in front of each of us, each one held now by one of the iron doormice. I was glad to see that I’d gotten the one with the paint splotch and broken tail.

  “It would be safer if the mice were outside the circle,” Soheila said, sounding uncharacteristically irritable. “We would be ironbound.”

  “But then Diana couldn’t be inside it,” Liz snapped. “Just because you’ve trained yourself to withstand iron doesn’t mean she can. I’m not sure even this is good for her …”

  “I’m fine,” Diana said in a strained imitation of her usual cheerful voice. It was hard to tell in this light, but I thought she looked pale and that she was pressing her lips together as though suppressing a grimace of pain.

  Elizabeth Book lit her candle and then passed it to me. When we’d all lit our candles Elizabeth and Diana took my hands, Diana took Soheila’s right hand, and Soheila
took Phoenix’s right hand. When Dean Book took Phoenix’s left hand, I felt an electric charge pulse through me.

  “The circle is complete,” Elizabeth said briskly, as if calling a faculty meeting to order. “Let’s keep it that way. Soheila will recite the banishment ritual. The rest of you repeat these words to yourselves: Begone, incubus. I send you away, demon. I cast you into darkness. Keep repeating them and don’t let any other thought enter your mind …”

  “Like a yoga mantra,” Phoenix said brightly.

  Glancing at her, I noticed that she was the only one who didn’t look terrified. No doubt because she was the only one who didn’t know what was coming.

  “Yes, just like a yoga mantra,” Elizabeth Book said with brittle humor. “A yoga mantra to save your life.”

  Soheila began to speak in Farsi. At least I thought it was Farsi. The words blended into a stream of sound that intertwined with the gusting wind outside, like two rivers meeting. I began reciting the lifesaving yoga mantra:

  “Begone incubus. I send you away, demon. I cast you into darkness.”

  The air coming in through the broken window grew colder. There were ice crystals carried on it, settling onto my skin. I opened my eyes and saw there were snowflakes swirling through the air and dusting the floor.

  Just like a man, doesn’t care what he tracks in on his boot heels.

  “Begone incubus. I send you away, demon. I cast you into darkness.”

  What more? he had asked. That was just like a man, too. Pretending helplessness when anyone would know what more. What about decency and caring and really bothering to see—

  “Begone incubus. I send you away, demon. I cast you into—”

  —who he was trying to seduce. Anyone who knew me certainly wouldn’t mess with my desk or my papers.

  “—darkness. Begone incubus I send you—”

  And any man worth his salt would know that talking was at least as important as lovemaking. He’d share something of himself, too.