Son of a Succubus Series Collection

by Dorie, Sarina

  The unicorns hummed softly. He recognized the song from the time he’d lived in the Morty Realm. They were singing “I’ll Be Right Here Waiting for You.” The sad melody matched Lucifer’s mood and seemed to speak to his relationship with Abigail. He had taken their time for granted when they’d been together as teenagers. He’d thought they would go to the Morty Realm together as humans and live the rest of their lives with each other.

  He couldn’t decide whether the song was more fitting that he was now waiting for her to awaken or that she was waiting for him to awaken her.

  The unicorns’ sweet voices captured his innermost feelings so thoroughly, he felt as though he could have been singing that song. Tears filled Lucifer’s eyes, and he hastily wiped them away.

  He approached cautiously, knowing he would startle the unicorns and they would leave if they spotted a nonvirgin in their midst. One of the unicorns gently touched his horn to Abigail’s forehead as he sang. Another touched his horn to her feet and then her hands, where she held a bouquet. The gesture reminded Lucifer of Vega Bloodmire using her potion and a unicorn horn as a wand to turn Abigail from a tree into a human.

  Unicorns were more powerful than Witchkin. Surely they could perform magic that Vega hadn’t been able to do. They had no trouble breaking through his wards, which he’d have to mend. He didn’t mind so long as they helped her.

  Lucifer held his breath, waiting to see if they healed her. One of the unicorns lifted his head and sniffed at the air before resuming the song. Another shifted from foot to foot uneasily as Lucifer crept closer to see how Abigail fared. In a gesture that belied nervousness, one of the steeds stabbed his horn into the ground. A new cluster of strawberries sprouted from the earth.

  When she didn’t wake, Lucifer asked, “Can you cure her? Can you bring her soul back?”

  The song abruptly died. The unicorns backed away.

  “Don’t go,” Lucifer said. He should have thought to disguise his scent or use a ward to camouflage what he was. An incubus was the last thing these virgin mongers would tolerate.

  “I should run that donkule fornicator through right now,” one of the unicorns said, his large eyes full of rage.

  Lucifer held up his hands to show them he wasn’t armed. He didn’t want them to think was that he’d used Abigail to lure them and intended to capture them. Wicked Witchkin weren’t beyond such tricks. His mother had been that sort of person.

  “He isn’t worth the effort.” The unicorn’s accent was from the Bronx, reminding Lucifer of Rocky.

  “Plus, if you stabbed him, you’d have to touch that pegasus breath with your horn, and that would be nasty,” another said.

  Lucifer crossed his arms. He understood he wasn’t the chaste virgin that unicorns preferred to converse with, but the insults were uncalled for.

  “If you touch her again, I will stab you,” one of the unicorns threatened.

  They backed away into the forest, watching him warily. Lucifer chided himself for approaching. He’d wanted to see if they could help Abigail, not drive them off.

  He’d failed again.

  * * *

  At dinner, Lucifer dipped a roll into his soup. The bread was burnt, the soup was bland, and the vegetables such a soft mush that even an old woman with few teeth had no trouble chewing them. Nothing tasted as good as what Abigail was capable of making.

  Abigail. She consumed his thoughts. She was so close and so far away at the same time. After he’d repaired her wards, he’d made himself practice changing the resonance of his affinity so he wouldn’t scare off unicorns with incubus magic in the future.

  The spiraling flashes of light within the vial Baba wore caught his gaze and held him momentarily transfixed. Baba hadn’t worn an amulet when he’d been her apprentice before. The glass was clear, but within the bottle, magic shimmered an iridescent green, swirling in response to her touch. It was far prettier than anything else Baba wore. She had always been more practical than one to focus on pretty adornments, but that wasn’t to say the vial didn’t contain healing properties in addition to being aesthetically pleasing.

  The green within glittered like Amni Plandai magic. Like Abigail’s. Again, she plagued his thoughts. Felix had said the soul couldn’t be separated from the body for too long.

  “How will we wake Abby?” Lucifer asked. “What kind of magic do I need to learn?”

  “You must learn to bind soul to body.” Baba eyed her burnt lavender bush out the window. “But first you master simple tasks. You practice basic magic.”

  “But how will we call Abby’s soul back to her if she’s now living inside another body?” That was the part he worried about the most. He’d never studied this kind of magic like his brother had. He hadn’t even known for certain Baba would know how to cure her—but she did know remedies for most ailments.

  Baba fingered the necklace she wore. “We do not need to call her soul if it is in our keeping.”

  His gaze drifted to the shimmers of green. “What do you mean?”

  “The Raven Queen isn’t only one who had ability to drink in souls. I learned trick long ago, though I do not dine on souls as she did.” She touched the vial at her throat. “I keep Abby safe.”

  “That’s Abby’s soul?” he asked in horror. “In there?”

  Trapped by a wicked witch who once had hurt her? He wanted to feel relieved Abigail was near and safe. He didn’t need to steal her soul from a child’s body. At the same time, could anyone be safe while in Baba’s keeping?

  Baba grunted. “It was not easy task, avoiding detection by Raven Court, but I am master of glamour. I snatched Abby’s soul before tether was broken.”

  He gaped at the shimmer in the bottle. “If anyone should have Abigail’s soul, it’s me. You should let me have it.” He wanted to be closer to her, to keep her safe.

  “I see future. If I give you amulet to wear, you will accidentally break vial and lose her soul.”

  The idea of breaking the necklace was enough to make him question whether he wanted to risk wearing it. He couldn’t be certain she was telling the truth, but if she was, he would hate himself for losing her.

  “Isn’t this sort of thing dark magic?” Kelsie asked. “Forbidden magic?”

  Lucifer glared at her. “Haven’t you ever heard, ‘curiosity killed the cat’?”

  Kelsie made a face at him. “I’m not the one who can change into a cat, am I?”

  Baba tore chunks of her bread into pieces and dropped them into her soup. “Lucy, you need to practice your affinity.”

  He nodded solemnly. If he was to cure Abigail, he would need to gain control over his magic.

  “Is a lightning storm coming?” He cast a sidelong glance in Kelsie’s direction, uncertain she knew about his affinity.

  Baba huffed. “Can you not tell?”

  He shook his head.

  Kelsie spoke up. “I don’t feel a storm brewing.”

  Baba grunted. “There is no storm. You would know if you used powers instead of daydreaming.” She raised an eyebrow. “You need to practice other part of affinity, da?”

  Lucifer’s gaze drifted back to the shimmers of green. “I can’t.”

  “You can, and you will. If you wish to wake Abigail, you learn to use your special magic.” Her fingers stroked the amulet hanging from the cord around her throat.

  “Why is his magic special?” Kelsie asked.

  Lucifer blinked, the moment of mesmerism broken. “I’m not going to turn into a cat.” He remembered Baba’s old solution for fueling his affinity. When he’d shifted into a cat, people petted him, and that fueled his magic. Often it had been more practical for finding a mate as a cat to increase his touch affinity than it had as a young man.

  “It is easy solution, nyet?” Baba’s lips twisted upward.

  “Hmm. After being imprisoned as a cat for thirty years, I can’t imagine why I would object to you turning me into a cat again.” He didn’t know if
he’d ever return to his human form if he did.

  “Turn yourself into cat. Or not. Fuel magic another way. Find wood nymph or forest vila.” Her lips curled around her gums as she smiled.

  “Why do you need a wood nymph or vila?” Kelsie looked from one to the other.

  He crossed his arms. “No. I only want Abby.”

  “Then take Abby.” Baba shrugged.

  His temper flared that she would suggest such a thing. “I can’t. She’s asleep still. If you woke her up for me, I could gain more magic.”

  “If she’d have you.” Baba lifted up her nose as if she didn’t think Abigail would.

  Kelsie’s eyes went wide. “Are you talking about sex? What kind of magic uses sex?”

  The Red affinity was no longer a guarded secret—not if Queen Vega and Queen Clarissa were executing their plan to get other Witchkin to accept touch magic as part of their society. Even so, he didn’t want to share what he was with a stranger, much less a teenage girl.

  “Is it fertility magic? Are you a nymph?” Kelsie frowned as if she thought nymphs were inferior in some way.

  Baba shrugged noncommittally.

  It was safer for her to think that than to know he was an incubus. This way she couldn’t slip up and tell the wrong person, who would use his magic against him. Baba was enough to worry about.

  Lucifer lifted his chin. “I’m not discussing this in front of a child.”

  The young woman crossed her arms. “I’m not a child. I’m seventeen. I’m probably older than Abby.”

  With her upturned nose and large blue eyes that matched her azure hair, Kelsie could have passed for a modern high school student—except for the old-fashioned shift and apron she wore.

  Knowing it would irritate her, he said, “I bet you’re closer to twelve.”

  Kelsie stood up from the table so fast her chair hit the shelves of books behind her. From the way her fist drew back, she looked like she was ready to punch Lucifer.

  His eyes narrowed. “Do you truly think that’s wise? I could mop the floor with you.” Because he was feeling especially cantankerous, he added, “Little girl.”

  Kelsie held up her palms and wind rushed away from her. The current was solid enough that Lucifer’s hot pottage fell off the table and onto his lap. He leapt up, but not fast enough to avoid being scalded.

  “Not in house!” Baba shouted.

  Lucifer lunged toward Kelsie, ready to shake her. Or perhaps drag her into the forest, leave her there, and tell her chimeras would eat her—though he hadn’t seen any traces of them in this forest.

  Kelsie dodged around the table. “Touch me, and I’ll poison your soup the next time I make it.” She kept her hands raised, wind gusting at him.

  “Are you sure my soup wasn’t already poisoned?” he asked. “Or is your cooking that lousy?”

  The wind kept blowing, pushing Lucifer with such force he skidded toward the hearth. He would have worried about being burned, but the fire went out. Baba shouted to be heard over the howling gale. Kelsie lowered her hands, but the wind kept whipping around them, pushing back the curtains to Baba’s bed and knocking books from the shelves. The broom in the corner fell over, and the bucket rolled into the door.

  “Kelsie, mind your magic,” Baba said.

  From the wide-eyed horror on Kelsie’s face, Lucifer suspected she couldn’t. No doubt his magic had amplified hers without her even knowing it.

  Without him even knowing it. He hated it when that happened.

  Words formed in the shriek of wind, sounding like a guttural song. Lucifer realized it was Baba chanting. The wind calmed under her spell. She held her hand out, and blue lines of magic whipping around the room condensed into solid strings that reminded him of yarn. The cottage was dark, the fire gone from the hearth. After the wails of wind only moments before, the silence felt oppressive.

  Baba snapped her fingers. “Kelsie, start fire.”

  Lucifer shifted aside and fumbled in the darkness for his chair. He hadn’t heard it fall to the ground.

  As Kelsie used magic to start the fire, Lucifer saw that Baba held a ball of blue yarn. She tossed it into her knitting basket next to her rocking chair before surveying the soup sloshed out of bowls and spilled over the table. She glared at the young woman.

  Kelsie clutched her trembling hands to her chest, her eyes round with worry. “I’m—I’m sorry Baba. I didn’t mean to.”

  “Clean up this mess.” Baba pushed herself from the table. She examined the empty cauldron. “Let that be a lesson to you. There will be no supper for any of us tonight.”

  Kelsie hung her head in shame.

  Lucifer stared at the glitter of green peeking from under Baba’s collar. It reminded him of the dust motes that flickered and flashed around Abigail after she’d finished changing into a tree. He should have known what was in the bottle was more than Amni Plandai magic. Baba could have told him sooner. His eyes narrowed with anger. It was quick to flare after living as a cat.

  Baba stabbed a finger in Lucifer’s direction. “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. That is first lesson to learn.” Her eyes narrowed. “Second lesson is your affinity. It is time you used it, if not as cat, then as man.”

  Lucifer crossed his arms. If she turned him into a cat, he would refuse to let anyone pet him. He would show her it was of no use to force him to be an animal. Nor could she make him be unfaithful to Abigail. He wasn’t going to be tempted by vilas either. He would wait for Abigail to awaken.

  Or he would teach himself and wake her without Baba’s help.

  * * *

  Lucifer lay in the spare bed in the loft, despite Kelsie’s earlier tantrum and threats, worrying about what would happen to Abigail if he waited too long to put her soul back in her body. She was close by, and that was a comfort, but he would feel better when her soul was in his care.

  He remained motionless, listening to Kelsie’s breathing deepen as she drifted off into sleep. He waited until he heard Baba’s breathing relax before he crept from his bed. He avoided the creaky step on the stepladder on his way down before making his way over to Baba’s bed. The cottage was dark, but the fire in the hearth cast enough flickering light across the interior to guide him.

  He peeked around the edge of the curtain and pushed it back. Moonlight from the window spilled over the old woman’s tufts of white hair. With her kerchief gone, he was able to make out bald spots he hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps her system of staying young wasn’t working as effectively as it once had.

  Spotting the cord of the necklace, he leaned closer. If he took it from her now, he’d keep Abigail’s soul safe. He would put it back inside Abigail before it was too late.

  “Lucy, go to bed before I put a pox on you.” Baba opened her eyes, glaring at him.

  He jumped back, startled.

  “Did you truly think you could best me?” She waved him away. “Next time you try that, I turn you into toad.”

  He didn’t doubt she would.

  * * *

  Lucifer was asleep in his bed when a scraping came from under the window outside. He didn’t pay the sound much mind. Baba’s bed groaned below the loft, her gruff voice cursed softly, and the front door creaked open. It wasn’t yet light outside, and Lucifer dozed off again.

  A child’s voice drifted into his dreams. Only this wasn’t a dream. Lucifer sat up. A cry came from under his window. He knew what that meant. He threw back the blankets, rushed past Kelsie’s bed, and practically flew down the ladder.

  “I catch you eating my cottage. Now you are mine.” Baba dragged a child in by the arm. She shoved the dirty little boy into the cage.

  The child wore old-fashioned clothes, meaning he probably had come from the Unseen Realm or Faerie Realm. He couldn’t have been more than six. He grabbed the bone bars of the cage, trying to shake them, but they didn’t budge.

  “Oh no.” Lucifer’s heart dropped to his stomach. “Please, Ba
ba, no.”

  “This child is lost. Now he is mine.” She snapped her fingers, and the fire in the hearth blazed to life. “It is good timing. Yesterday in crystal ball I see visitor. I will need to make restorative elixir. I will have need of child’s fingers and toes.”

  The child screamed.

  “Isn’t there another way?” Lucifer shouted to be heard over the child.

  “Da. I can take Abigail’s fingers or toes instead. She will not miss them.”

  “No,” Lucifer said firmly.

  This was the exact reason Abigail had left this realm. After he’d accidentally drained her magic, she hadn’t been able to regrow her fingers and toes. She had feared being whittled away, a piece at a time, for Baba’s spells. That was the future she’d seen for herself if she stayed—dismemberment and death. He wouldn’t allow it.

  Nor would he stand for playing a part in the death of a child—or the stealing of his toes. When he’d been Baba’s apprentice previously, Lucifer had been too afraid to speak up for fear of her throwing him out. Abigail had thought him a coward, and he had been. He was determined to stick to his principles and not allow Baba to corrupt him with her pragmatism.

  Lucifer clenched his fists, determination burning through him. There was only one way to change Baba’s mind. “Take something from me instead.”

  Baba snorted. “What good is apprentice without fingers or toes? You are more useful whole.” Her eyes narrowed. “Unless . . . ?” She looked him up and down.

  “Yes?”

  “Pain and blood aren’t only forms of touch magic to fuel this spell. Last night did you … ?” She waggled her eyebrows.

  “I didn’t. But I can. I can go to the forest right now.” He could find a wood nymph. Or he could activate his powers without the help of anyone. He’d fueled his affinity through rage in the past. He could do it through self-touch as well. Or at least he once had.

  A knock came at the door.

  “Too late,” Baba said. “Visitor is already here.”

  A lump of dread settled in Lucifer’s belly.