Son of a Succubus Series Collection

by Dorie, Sarina

  “Ma chère, I am concerned about your health,” she said with her French accent.

  Lucifer stared, mesmerized by the power radiating from the queen in dark-bright shadows. Clarissa’s drawing moved like an animation, but all in shades of gray graphite as she shifted the pencil across the page. His gaze fixed on Abigail, his heart clenching at the pained expression on her face as the Raven Queen taunted her and tempted her with delicious foods made in the Faerie Realm.

  They were spread out on the table before Abigail, the aroma so tantalizing he could smell it through the page.

  Lucifer meowed, wanting to warn her not to eat anything. He didn’t want her to be trapped in the Faerie Realm forever. Some foods were safe, but not all, and Abigail wouldn’t know which she could eat.

  The Raven Queen spoke again, reeling Lucifer in with her words. “Odette was the one to suggest it. She truly is brilliant when she chooses to apply her creativity.”

  Odette? Lucifer’s sister? Was she alive? It could be a different Odette. It was a common enough French name.

  A malicious smile curled the queen’s lips upward. “She told me we would have to butcher a beast you knew in the Morty Realm in order for you to recognize it as safe. Sadly, there were no lambs in your yard. Nor cows or pigs.”

  Dread settled like a lump in Lucifer’s belly. The Fae servants lifted the giant lid from the silver tray. Underneath was a roasted human—the elderly neighbor who lived next to Abigail in the Morty Realm by the looks of it.

  Abigail screamed.

  Lucifer needed to be there for Abigail. He leapt toward the drawing, knocking the pencil from Clarissa’s hand in the process. He tried to throw himself into the page and through the magic of the divination.

  The vision faded. The paper was simply paper, and the drawing remained graphite.

  “Son of a Fae!” Clarissa stood, glaring at him. “Do you realize what you just did? You made me lose my focus. I’m not going to be able to see her with you in here.”

  Lucifer’s head hunched between his shoulders, more like a guilty dog than a cat.

  She pointed to the door at the front of the classroom. “Get out. You just make everything worse.”

  He jumped off the desk and trudged away. The front door of the classroom was locked. He turned toward the open door at the back of the room that led to the dungeon where she roomed with Felix. Lucifer halted when he saw his brother standing in the doorway. Clarissa gasped, apparently noticing him for the first time as well.

  Felix leaned against the frame. “Why are you yelling at that poor cat?”

  Lucifer was surprised his brother was sticking up for him. Maybe Felix hadn’t yet found the last furball Lucifer had coughed up in one of his pockets. Lucifer shrank past Felix, who would no doubt try to again convince Clarissa the merits of waiting until the end of the school year to rescue her mother.

  Lucifer suspected he had another two weeks at least.

  That gave Lucifer time to fuel his affinity. He set out with renewed purpose. During dinner, he allowed teenagers to pet him to fuel his touch affinity, even though he didn’t like people. He would have preferred to rake his claws against their hands instead.

  It was during this time when he passed as a friendly feline that he heard snippets of information.

  “Did you see the airship that nearly crashed into the greenhouses?” one student asked. “I bet they were with the Silver Court. That Fae prince Miss Lawrence was dating must have been jealous of Mr. Thatch.”

  “No way!” another student responded. “I heard Prince Elric is dating Ms. Bloodmire now.”

  No one openly talked about the Raven Court.

  During daylight hours, when the forest was safe, he found another cat to mate with. Imani was always happy to see him and scavenged saucers of milk to feed him, even though Abigail had always said lactose was bad for cats.

  When Lucifer had been human, he’d always prided himself on not using his incubus magic to influence women to sleep with him. He hadn’t used it to make animals of people so that he could fuel his affinity. He hadn’t been desperate at the time either. He hadn’t been at risk of remaining stuck as a cat forever.

  Lucifer threw ethics aside and found teenagers making out and having underage sex to absorb their energy. He let his affinity lead him toward sources of energy that would benefit him most. He stumbled upon a hairy sasquatch and a teacher he was fairly certain had to be a jorogumo from her multiple eyes and legs. The unlikely pair were both into some kinky spider-silk bondage.

  Lucifer got a little too close and somehow ended up getting caught in a giant spiderweb.

  He was lucky no one ate him.

  It took several more days, but Lucifer stored up enough magic that the next time he mated as a cat, he felt pain lance through his limbs, signaling the change.

  He vomited the contents of his dinner and writhed in pain. It was hard to believe changing from a human to a cat and back again had once been easy for him. Of course, that had been when he’d used a spell to change himself—not when he’d been cursed.

  In the privacy of the forest, he turned into a man. He lay in the ferns, exhausted, for hours. Finally, he forced himself to move. He wasn’t going to be able to help anyone—especially Abigail—if he fell asleep. He needed to think like a human and come up with a plan, but he didn’t know how much time he would have. He would need to store magic to ensure he remained a man.

  He supposed he should have felt more shame walking through a school for youths, naked and filthy, in the middle of the night, but no one caught him, and that was the important detail.

  He returned to the dungeon, on his way to Clarissa and Felix’s private quarters, where he would find Clarissa so that he could go with her to free Abigail. He passed through Felix’s classroom, through a museum full of historical torture equipment, and through his brother’s office where he saw the note on Felix’s desk in Clarissa’s handwriting. It explained they had left to go to the Raven Queen’s castle to rescue Abigail.

  Lucifer slammed his fist down on the desk. It wasn’t the end of the school year. The plan had been to wait until all the students had gone home.

  Lucifer was a man, but it was too late. They’d already left without him, and he had no way to get there himself.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Waiting Game

  Lucifer lived like a wild man. He stole food from the kitchen and took refuge in the forest. He attempted to wear his brother’s clothes, but they were too small, and he didn’t like the way human clothes felt. Lucifer hunted like a cat in the forest and shivered at night without his fur to keep him warm.

  At any moment he expected to turn back into a cat. He refrained from using his magic, but he didn’t fuel himself with activities either. It crossed his mind he could use his incubus charms to seduce a student or faculty member, but he rejected the idea. That was not the kind of person he wanted to become. Abigail would lose respect for him if he did.

  He considered asking Imani for help when he spotted her at the unicorn stables, but he considered how improper it might seem for a naked man to come out of the woods and approach her.

  It was several days before Felix returned to school, and when he did, Clarissa wasn’t with him. Nor was Abigail.

  That didn’t bode well.

  Lucifer watched his brother from the shadows, trying to build up the nerve to approach him. Abigail had trusted Felix implicitly. Lucifer couldn’t help wondering how much of that certainty was misguided affection because Felix looked like Lucifer—and Abigail expected him to be the same person. She had believed Felix loved her daughter.

  Yet Clarissa wasn’t with him now. If Felix had truly loved her, he wouldn’t have allowed Clarissa to go to the Raven Queen and be captured. Lucifer felt like he’d failed Abigail all over again. He hadn’t protected her or her charge.

  Lucifer waited until his brother left the courtyard with his raven familiar. He stalked Felix across the
darkening school grounds as the sun slipped low on the horizon, keeping well away from Felix. Part of Lucifer wanted to believe he had family he could turn to, but he still couldn’t get over his distrust of Felix after he’d abandoned Lucifer to the devices of their cruel mother all those years ago. Felix had taken their younger sisters when he’d run away from home, but he hadn’t taken Lucifer.

  And now it seemed he had abandoned Clarissa as well. And Abigail.

  Lucifer’s feelings spiked between the desire to pounce on Felix and the urge to weep.

  Felix meandered his way across the school grounds to the greenhouses. Lucifer’s eyes were as attuned to the darkness as they were when he’d been a cat. He stalked after his brother, other cat instincts rising in him. He wanted to claw at something.

  His nostrils were assaulted by a landslide of fragrances, so many plants in the greenhouse nestled in one place. The fresh spicy green of basil and the sweet tingle of lavender tickled his nose. He passed catnip, and even though his body was human, he wanted to sniff it out and chew on it, to drown out all sorrows.

  Felix stopped when he came upon a lean figure nearly as tall as he was. Her feminine shape was silhouetted by the light of a wand she’d stuck in a potted plant as she plucked leaves from a shrub. She wasn’t using magic, but Lucifer smelled the aroma of starlight and grave dirt lingering in the air near her. No one smelled like that except Vega Bloodmire.

  “I thought I might find you here,” Felix said.

  Vega snorted. “I suppose you divined it with your Celestor powers of prophesy?”

  “No. I saw you walk this way.”

  Vega continued collecting leaves from plants. “What is it you want?”

  Lucifer couldn’t help smiling at her directness. He’d always hated it when she’d been snotty with Abigail, but he didn’t mind her forthright manner with Felix.

  Vega knew about Lucifer’s secret. He wondered whether he should ask for her help. She didn’t grant favors without a price, though. It was difficult to say who was less trustworthy—Felix or Vega.

  Felix coughed. “I came to see how you were faring. I wanted to make sure you were . . . recovering after the incident.”

  Lucifer suspected Felix meant the attack at their wedding, but he wasn’t certain. There was more being said that he couldn’t glean.

  “As you can see, I’m fabulous as always.” She waved a hand at herself. “Are you done pestering me?” Her words came out more terse than usual.

  “Vega, you don’t have to lie to me. I know you aren’t all right. I wanted to see if you need anything.”

  She slammed a plant onto the table. “I don’t need your pity.”

  “I’m not giving you pity. I’m trying to . . . be a friend.” Felix sounded so lost. “We both lost someone we care about recently.”

  Those words crashed down on Lucifer like a landslide. Did that mean Clarissa was dead? If so, Lucifer had truly failed Abigail. She would never forgive him. He raked his hands through his unruly beard, wanting to tear it out.

  An airy breath sighed close by. Lucifer’s ears pricked with alertness. Someone else was in the greenhouse. If it hadn’t been for the fragrance of all the herbs and the plants thick in the air, he might have noticed the woman’s scent sooner. The air tasted of stream water and dusty books.

  Vega’s voice came out a growl. “I don’t have friends. I have allies.”

  “An ally, then.” Felix said. “I can’t imagine Elric has any understanding of what you must be going through.” His shoulders hunched as if he was carrying a burden of his own. Perhaps Felix hadn’t reached out to console her; he was the one who needed consoling.

  “You don’t know anything about my fiancé.”

  Prince Elric of the Silver Court was Vega Bloodmire’s fiancé? Lucifer didn’t know whom he was more sorry for, her or him.

  Lucifer only half listened to the conversation. He prowled closer to this stranger hiding in the shadows. With the growing darkness outside, he couldn’t make out who this was. He didn’t taste the dark malicious magic that came with the Raven Court, but he doubted all their spies were harpies. Some could be disguised as students and staff. Lucifer slipped closer to the woman where she stood in the shadows, watching Vega and Felix bicker.

  Lucifer was so intent on investigating, he lost track of what Felix and Vega were saying to each other. Lucifer couldn’t make out much of the woman’s form where she hid herself, other than that she wore a long dress and tall witch hat. She wrung her hands and occasionally fidgeted, but otherwise she remained still and silent.

  Lucifer wondered whether she was here to spy on Vega or Felix. A moment later, Vega stormed out of the greenhouse. Felix shifted from foot to foot uneasily, as if uncertain whether he should follow. The woman in the shadows stepped forward and then retreated, apparently unable to make up her mind.

  If she was a staff member and assassin, she might feel some qualms about murdering Felix Thatch on behalf of the Raven Queen. Or she might be fighting a spell to compel her to kill. It wouldn’t be the first time the Raven Queen had possessed someone into doing her bidding.

  Lucifer had no love for his brother, but he didn’t want him to die either. Mostly that was because he would never learn Abigail’s fate if he did. He strategically crept his way closer, blocking the aisle between the long row of tables so that the woman couldn’t get to Felix without intercepting Lucifer first.

  Felix strode out of the greenhouse. The woman picked up her skirts and followed. She truly must have possessed no ability to see in the dark because she walked straight into Lucifer. She bounced off him and stumbled back.

  He caught her arm. “Who are you, and what business do you have spying on Felix Thatch?”

  She steadied herself and wrenched her arm away. “I could ask you the same thing.”

  She whipped out a wand, a bright light flaring from the tip. The sudden light seared Lucifer’s eyes. He shaded his face.

  Lucifer realized the woman was Gertrude Periwinkle, one of the staff members. He couldn’t remember what she taught. She staggered back, her eyes looking him up and down. “Are you a student? Where are your clothes? Don’t think I won’t give you a detention just because I’m not one of your teachers.” Her tone turned authoritative and stern.

  He remembered where he had heard her voice, smelled her fragrance.

  This was the school librarian.

  Lucifer supposed being filthy and naked were not in his favor. He was fortunate he hadn’t been spotted by any students.

  “Don’t come any closer.” She held her wand higher. The light at the tip shifted from white to violet, smelling of starlight. She was readying a spell.

  Lucifer put up his hands and edged back. “I’m not stepping toward you.”

  Her brow furrowed. “You look like . . . is that a spell to make you look like Felix?”

  Ugh! Not another person who thought he looked like his brother. “I don’t look like him.”

  The fragrance of starlight increased, and sparkles drifted from him toward her. There was his magic again, magnifying someone else’s without him intending to do so.

  Gertrude stared at her wand perplexed. “How are you doing that?” She shook her wand, but it only grew brighter.

  More starlight sparkled around them. He hoped he wasn’t losing his stores of magic.

  That was when the first pang hit him. It lanced through his core and radiated to his every muscle, seizing him in cramps. He sank to his knees. He gagged and tasted bile, but he didn’t vomit.

  He thought the pain was a spell of Gertrude’s doing until she spoke.

  “My goodness! What is wrong with you?” Gertrude stepped forward. She waved her wand at him. Violet and blue stars twinkled before his eyes. More energy fell across him, absorbed into his skin.

  He smelled freshly fallen snow, but the sensation that spread across him was warmth. He didn’t know whether that was from the change or from her magic.


  He panted, trying to fight the change. He attempted to hold on to his electrical magic, but he didn’t have enough in his system to keep this human form.

  Gertrude cast another spell, one he recognized from the days he had been an apprentice to Baba Nata. It was Casimir’s Hex-Detecting spell. She was attempting to diagnose what was wrong with him. The light around him shifted to green and smelled of rotten eggs.

  “You’re suffering from a curse?” Gertrude asked. She kneeled down beside him.

  He didn’t want her to know his secret. He didn’t want anyone to know, but the purple magic tingling over him confused his senses. When Gertrude spoke again, her voice was made of honey and silk. He couldn’t resist the urge to give in to her.

  She placed a hand on his forehead. “Why are you here? What is happening to you?”

  “I need sex, or else I’ll—” His voice ended in a feral yowl.

  Hair prickled along his skin, burning and itching. Molten pain spread into his limbs. He collapsed onto his side. His bones felt as though they were breaking. It was an effort to breathe as all of his human self was squashed into the body of a cat.

  The process took several minutes, most of which he was unaware of anything other than the pain. When he was lucid again, he found Gertrude kneeling over him. She stroked his fur and cooed at him.

  “I’ve seen you before. You’re Imani’s cat?” She picked him up and held him to her bosom. “But you’re no ordinary cat, are you?”

  * * *

  Lucifer didn’t know when Gertrude would have seen him with Imani, but it was true he spent more time with her than other students.

  Gertrude wasted no time in fetching her. She called the girl to her office in the library that evening. Lucifer lay at Gertrude’s feet, his ears pricking with alertness when he heard Imani’s voice. He was too exhausted to get up after his transformation and remained on the floor.

  The moment Imani rushed through the door, Gertrude stopped stamping library books and set them aside. “Imani, I have found something that belongs to you.”

  “My library book?” Imani squealed.