Son of a Succubus Series Collection

by Dorie, Sarina

  “I don’t care. I’ll help her relearn.”

  Baba tapped him with her cane. “You will care if you fall out of love. She will be . . different. More tree than human, just as you were more cat than young man when you were first restored. You will be too much like parent. It will be trial.”

  There had been times when he’d been a cat that he’d forgotten he was a human altogether. When he’d become a man again, he wasn’t as much the eighteen-year-old boy he’d last been; he was an animal. Abigail had been a tree for less time than he had been a cat, but he imagined she would need time to readjust. He could help her better than anyone else after what he’d been through.

  “I’m not going to fall out of love.” He lifted his chin. Through sickness and health, richer or poorer, cat or coma, they loved each other.

  “Nyet? And your magic? You think you can control your magic enough to be with her? How will this be any different from before? You will go mad with pining, nyet?”

  He already was going mad from pining. Each day he saw her but couldn’t speak with her. She couldn’t kiss him back. They were together and not together. He couldn’t wait any longer.

  “Clarissa said souls can’t be parted with their body for this long,” he said.

  She shrugged, wielding her indifference like a shield.

  “If I mind you, will you stop cutting off her fingers and toes?” he asked.

  “You will work for what you want.” Her lips curled over her teeth into a wicked smile. “I will stop cutting off her toes when you can make me stop.”

  Lucifer knew then it wasn’t just that he needed to learn about souls and putting them back into the body. He needed to learn the skills to protect Abigail from the Witch of Nightmares.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Teaching to the Test

  Lucifer supposed Baba wasn’t completely heartless. Had she been, she wouldn’t have shown him how to use his magic to heal Abigail.

  “You will kiss her boo-boos and make them go away.” Baba cackled like it was a joke.

  When he’d kissed Abigail after she’d first changed back into a human, she had started to turn into a tree again. He didn’t want to do that to her. It had taken Vega Bloodmire’s magic elixir to restore Abigail to her human form, and he didn’t have that potion now.

  Outside, they stood over Abigail in the starlight. Lucifer leaned down to kiss her face.

  Baba hit him with her cane. “Only touch her where you wish her to grow. If injury is in toes, kiss foot.”

  He felt self-conscious with Baba watching, and even more so when he realized Kelsie had her face pushed up against the glass of the window.

  “Concentrate,” Baba said.

  He parted the strawberry blossoms and shifted the blanket aside so he could stroke her ruined foot. Seeing her injuries again sliced him open and made him hurt, even if she couldn’t feel the wounds herself.

  Baba nudged him. “Channel affinity into your hand and feed her.”

  It was challenging to feel enough desire to stoke the fire of his affinity when all he could think about was Abigail’s wounds. She was so fragile and vulnerable. He closed his eyes and massaged her heel. He pressed his face against her calf and inhaled her perfume of earth and plants. Out here in nature, her scent was changing, growing greener and wilder.

  He thought about the last time they’d been together, both of them human. He had temporarily changed from being a cat, though neither had known he would change back at the time. He had kissed her with the yearning of a man who had waited thirty years to consummate his love. He’d satiated his magic—and his body—while in the form of a cat with other cats. He’d experienced passion as a young man with wood nymphs and vilas, but in each of those instances he’d felt like an animal. Always, something had been lacking. His purpose had been pleasure so that he might fuel his magic.

  With Abigail, he’d craved her to satisfy the need in his soul.

  Now as he kissed her ankle and stroked her heel with tenderness, he infused his love into his lips. He touched her toes, and they lengthened, sprouting roots that snaked across this arm, searching for a home. It wasn’t just her injured toes that grew, but all of them.

  “Stop,” Baba said. “Contain your magic and hers.”

  Lucifer tried, but she kept growing. One of her roots dug into his skin, and he had the distinct feeling she was trying to burrow.

  “Release her foot,” Baba said.

  Parting with her was torture, but he did so.

  “Connect with her magic. Will her body to respond to your bidding.” Baba leaned heavily against her cane.

  Lucifer reached out with his awareness, but it wasn’t like when someone experienced pleasure or pain and the sensation radiated out to him. This was more difficult to grasp without the connection of touch.

  One of the roots wormed closer to his hand.

  “You are not trying hard enough,” Baba said.

  Lucifer spent half an hour at it before he was able to make the roots recede back into toes. Her legs were healed of bruises and gouges. In his exhaustion and relief, tears filled his eyes. He had healed her.

  “Good,” Baba said. “With more practice, your skill will improve.”

  Those words set his nerves on edge. “More practice.” He hoped she wasn’t implying what he thought she was.

  “Da. Next time I need fingers or toes, you can now mend her.”

  She intended to use Abigail’s body again? He didn’t know what was worse, that Baba would continue to cut off Abigail’s toes or that he was now her accomplice.

  * * *

  With the numerous chores Baba gave him, it only left the evening hours for studying. Baba was right about the books in Old High German; he was too rusty in foreign languages for those to be helpful. It wasn’t just one book on forbidden magic, but three she gave him. One was more of a journal than a book of spells, but from what he could see, they documented experiences with spells.

  “How’s your Old High German?” he asked Kelsie a few days later.

  “Better than yours. Not that I’m going to help a slimy maggot like you after that nasty trick you did to me.” She turned away, not deigning to speak with him. No matter how many times he’d apologized, she’d been vexed ever since he’d accidentally made her lust for him.

  Lucifer was stuck studying on his own. Every day, he checked on Abigail’s fingers and toes to ensure Baba didn’t take from her. On the occasions patients came to Baba when he was away collecting water, berries, and herbs and Baba did steal from Abigail’s body, he was there to heal her afterward.

  As much as Lucifer hated turning into a cat, he listened to Baba when she told him to do so, for fear that she would retaliate by doing something to Abigail. When Baba gazed into her crystal ball and told him wood nymphs were in his future, he didn’t fight it. He went to the forest and recharged his affinity so that he could use his magic for her spells.

  He did it for Abigail.

  That didn’t make him hate the part of himself less that was dependent on sex and sex magic. Whenever he could get away and be alone, he stimulated himself on his own and practiced using his magic. He felt slightly less guilty about that.

  Each morning, he practiced divining, searching for children lost in the forest so that if there were any, he could find them before Baba’s cottage lured them in. Once she captured them, he would be tempted to release them, and he didn’t want to incur any more consequences that Abigail would pay in his stead.

  Most nights he slept outside beside Abigail’s bed to guard her. And to avoid Kelsie.

  Each day, Kelsie ogled him from the other side of the window as he chopped wood or weeded in the garden. At meals, she avoided his gaze. He supposed he would have been just as uncomfortable around someone whom he thought had purposefully tried to seduce him with forbidden magic.

  After weeks of this, Kelsie came out of the house carrying a plate of rolls. She held the dish away from h
erself as if he might try to touch her. “Baba said to ask you if you want one.”

  “That’s a thoughtful offer.” He took one.

  She didn’t go back into the house. She watched him bite into the bread. It was tough and overcooked. The flavor was bland compared to something Abigail would have made. From the way Kelsie lingered, he couldn’t tell whether she wanted him to taste her cooking and compliment her or she wanted him to choke.

  He chewed, trying to think of something to say. “Not bad,” he lied. “You’re improving.”

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “You’re being nice to me.” He offered her a smile. “Does that mean you poisoned this?”

  “No. Baba said that if I want to poison my enemies, I’d have to improve my skills in baking first. Otherwise no one will be tempted to eat more than a bite.”

  He remembered Abigail’s motivations for practicing her cooking skills. Revenge was a strong motivator to learn.

  So was love.

  “Whom do you want to poison?” Lucifer’s lips curled into a sardonic smile. “Me?”

  Kelsie smirked and inclined her head in affirmation. He didn’t doubt Baba was using Kelsie’s spite to improve the apprentice’s skills in baking, which they would all benefit from. It was clever and manipulative, not that Lucifer minded the old witch’s schemes—so long as they didn’t involve Abigail.

  “Did you know Baba taught Abby how to poison her enemies?” He took another roll and seated himself on the stump he used for chopping wood. “It isn’t easy creating poisons that would trick a Fae, but Abby succeeded.”

  “Did she?” Kelsie’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “She got her revenge?”

  “Indeed, but Abby was sorry afterward. She wasn’t wicked. Hurting people didn’t suit her.” He studied Kelsie’s youthful face. She had to be about the same age Abigail had been at the time. Sixteen or seventeen. He wondered what kind of person Kelsie was, a wicked witch in training or someone who wanted to be good.

  He broke the roll in half. “Revenge doesn’t undo the past. It doesn’t relieve the burden of heartache. In Abby’s case, hurting her enemies meant she also hurt someone she loved. Things might have been easier if she had left them alone.” He couldn’t tell if Kelsie was wise enough to see that poisoning him wouldn’t undo what he had done.

  Kelsie’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe if you had enemies who had hurt those you loved, I bet you wouldn’t be so keen on letting bygones be bygones.”

  “My enemies aren’t the problem,” he said. “It’s my supposed allies who keep hurting the one I love. Or those who stand by and watch as Baba hurts her.” He wasn’t certain with whom he was angrier, Baba or Kelsie.

  Her face flushed, but she didn’t leave. He half hoped she would.

  “Who did your enemies hurt?” He realized she might truly have a reason to practice poisons other than to use them on him.

  She didn’t answer.

  “You’re probably right,” he said. “I’m the last person who should preach forgiveness.” He still couldn’t forgive his brother for abandoning him as a child. But he supposed it was healthier not to hold a grudge forever—especially when Witchkin lived so long.

  Lucifer cleared his throat. “I am sorry about before. I didn’t mean to use my magic on you. I was trying to persuade Baba to teach me how to wake Abigail.”

  Kelsie turned away. “Yes, well, you could have warned me.”

  “Perhaps I should have. And perhaps you should have warned me that Baba was taking Abby’s toes. We can’t undo the past, can we now? All we can focus on is the future.”

  “Don’t you sound all wise and grown up.” She sniffled.

  “I am sorry I hurt you.” He fought the urge to place a hand on her shoulder or hug her. In this circumstance, he suspected, that would only make things worse. “Do you think we can be friends?”

  He waited for her to answer. When she didn’t, he asked, “Do you think we can at least not be enemies? You need an ally if you have enemies. And I need an ally to help me protect Abby. If I can wake her up, she’ll be safer from Baba.”

  “I am sorry about letting Baba cut off her toes. Abby isn’t the only one Baba has taken her tithe from.” She rolled up her sleeve and held out her arm.

  Scars lined Kelsie’s arm where she had been cut in the past. His brows furrowed as he took in the sight.

  She quickly rolled down her sleeve. “I suppose you think waking up Abby is going to keep her safe, but it isn’t. If Baba needs power, she’ll take it however she can get it. From whoever she can get it.” She started for the cottage but stopped short. Her head was bowed, and she remained turned away. “I can’t help you resurrect your girlfriend. And I can’t stop Baba from ‘being pragmatic’ as she calls it.”

  He had to step closer to hear those last words. “I’m not asking you to. It would put you in an awkward position.” He had feared Baba when he was seventeen. And more than that, he had feared losing his home.

  He lowered his voice. “Just tell me, does she ever remove the amulet she wears around her neck?”

  “No. Why?”

  “You heard what she said, didn’t you? It’s where she keeps Abigail’s soul. I want the necklace so I can wake her.”

  Kelsie whirled, her eyes pink, and tears clung to her lashes. “How is that possible? She’s worn it for three seasons. You’ve only been here for one season. She probably made that story up to string you along.”

  One spring season in Baba’s realm could be years in the outside world. He shrugged. “That’s probably how long ago Abigail became a tree. Two years.”

  “She’s trapped her soul in a bottle for that long?” Kelsie glanced at Abby lying in her bed of blossoms. “That’s awful.” The sympathy on her face melted away as she looked at him again. “But that doesn’t give you any right to be a sexual deviant and use your incubus magic on people.”

  He placed a hand on his heart. “I give you my word I won’t use it again on you or near you.”

  “Whatever,” she said and stomped back toward the house. “Maybe you’ll choke on my cooking, and I won’t need to poison you.”

  He wouldn’t use incubus magic. It made everyone hate him and all his problems worse. He would find another magic from Baba’s book of spells to help him.

  * * *

  Lucifer sat outside, translating each of the titles in the book’s table of contents in the dying light of the sunset. He sat close enough to the cottage that Abigail was in his line of sight when he looked up. Seeing her always reassured him.

  And tormented him.

  He was so engrossed in verb conjugation he didn’t hear Kelsie until she leaned down to read over his shoulder. “I hope you aren’t planning on using that spell with necrophilia because that’s just nasty.”

  He started and dropped the book.

  “Plus, Abby isn’t actually dead, is she?” She held out a plate covered in ginger biscuits.

  He retrieved his book and selected one from the plate. “Still trying to poison me, I see.”

  “Shut up. It was Baba’s idea to make the cookies and her idea to bring you one.”

  Covertly, he performed the new spell he’d learned to check for poisons, hexes, and Fae foods that would trap him in the Faerie Realm forever. The biscuit glowed violet before fading. That meant she hadn’t poisoned him. He bit in.

  Or tried to anyway. It was as hard as a rock. Perhaps Baba had run out of lard. He could have dunked the biscuit in a cup of tea if he had one. He sucked on it instead.

  “It’s a good flavor.” He forced a smile. “Abigail used to make these.”

  “Yes, but Baba said she added her own fingers and toes to the recipe to make a boy fall in love with her. Were you the boy she did that to?”

  Lucifer hadn’t thought to check for blood. He eyed the biscuit again, hoping Kelsie hadn’t laced it with body fluids in an attempt to make him fall in love with her.

  She kicked him in the
leg, though not hard. “I didn’t put any of my flesh in there, moron. The last thing I need is you drooling over me.” Kelsie sat on the ground beside him.

  He was surprised she would sit next to him. She loathed him, didn’t she? Then again, there was no one else to talk to besides Baba. He was probably the lesser of two evils.

  “I didn’t need a spell to fall for Abby. We were friends first.” It felt nice talking to someone. “The man she used the spell on, he was a Fae. It was part of her plan for revenge. The one I told you about that ended badly.”

  “Because she fell in love with him?”

  “That was part of it.” He wished he could have spared Abigail from that heartache. He had tried. “She didn’t listen to Baba, and her plan went all wrong—just like Baba had told her it would.” Abigail had been so set on solving things her way that she hadn’t been willing to listen to reason.

  “Hmm. Sounds like someone else I know.” Kelsie gave him a disapproving look.

  “You don’t mean me, do you?” This was completely different. He was a good apprentice. “You’re the one Baba says doesn’t listen.”

  “No, she says I’m incompetent, but she puts up with my lack of skills because I mind her. You’re the one who doesn’t listen.” Kelsie selected one of her instruments of torture. She gnawed on the biscuit like a dog given a bone. “I saw Baba take off the amulet once.”

  “Yes? When was that?”

  “It was when we went to some hot springs for a bath.” Kelsie tried to break her biscuit in half but failed. “Not that there are any springs around here. It was a different forest.”

  Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t ever seen Baba take a bath, though he knew she washed. They didn’t have a tub large enough for an adult, and she rarely left the cottage. The stream was too far for her to walk.

  “So I need to convince Baba to take a bath?” he asked.

  “She’ll suspect you if you try.” Kelsie made a face. “And that’s if her soul is even in that bottle. Think about it. She knows how sneaky you are. Do you really think she’d tell you where she has your girlfriend’s soul? She probably just told you that so you wouldn’t find out where she really has her soul.”