by Lucy Auburn
He undid the tourniquet and slowly filled the vials he needed with my blood. “From what I understand, most succubi and incubi drain energy with their mouth and genitals.” I blushed at the word and the suggestions that came with it. “A certain amount of sexual energy is required to make the encounter worthwhile, which is why glamour and seduction is also part of your powers.”
“Like that incubus I saw with the harem,” I murmured, as he gently eased the needle out and put pressure on it. “He had like seven women with him. They all seemed... drugged.”
“It’s exactly like a drug, at least on weaker humans. I’ve even studied its effects.” Grabbing a cotton ball, Tae Min slid it onto my arm and gave me a little smile. “Let’s just say those humans were very happy. It can turn into an addiction quickly. The Elders frown on that—the incubus you met was only able to create his harem because the humans wanted to be in it. But if they ever decide to leave it’ll be tough for them. That’s why most fae like you who feed off sexual energy stick to draining other fae when they’re really hungry. Fae are less susceptible to the seduction—but even they can be drawn into it at times.”
“So what exactly is the energy that I drain?”
“Some might call it power,” he explained. “Others would call it qi, or soul-energy, or even the soul itself. During the moment of climax, the body produces more of it, which is how skilled succubi and incubi can live off repeated sexual encounters without leaving a body count behind them.”
“So I just have to hookup,” I said, relieved. “And that’s it.”
Gently, Tae Min told me, “For a succubus of your level, a few random hookups with humans won’t be enough. You’ll need more energy than that, Selena. Otherwise you’ll get hungry, and the hungrier you are, the more likely it is that you’ll take too much from one person and accidentally kill them.”
He put a bandage over the cotton ball while I blinked up at the ceiling, determined not to cry in front of the hot doctor just because I was afraid of turning into a serial killer.
“You have some time,” he continued, as I sat up on the exam table. “Your powers won’t come on you all at once. I want you to come in every week so I can monitor you, and see how you’re doing. And in the meantime, if you feel weak or hungry, don’t deny your cravings. The sooner you feed yourself properly the better. I’m sure a woman as attractive as you won’t have any trouble.”
“Okay,” I murmured, pushing down the upset feelings whirling inside me. “How do I practice, though? How do I keep from accidentally... going too far?”
Tae Min stared into my eyes, his own sparking with something. At first I thought it was sexual attraction, which was confirmed when he said aloud, “You’ll need to train with someone by taking a tiny bit of their energy. Maybe mine, at first.” It was only when he murmured, “Data...” to himself that I realized it was the curiosity of a scientist. “I’ll take your temperature after, to confirm a theory I’m working on.”
Staring at him, I licked my lips and asked, “So you want me to have sex with you for science?”
“No! No, I—“ His voice burst out of him, hands waving in the air. “I would never take advantage of a patient like that! Sorry, I should’ve clarified—you don’t have to do it the... traditional way. You can just take my hand. The energy taken is less when the connection isn’t fully... consummated.”
“Oh.” I watched as he peeled his gloves off and held his hand out to me. “But aren’t my powers dormant? My foster mother, Maggie, bound them.”
Gently, he told me, “The readings I took just now indicate that your powers are already breaking out of the spell Maggie used. But if you feed yourself now, they should go dormant again for at least a while. Just take your temperature every morning, a few hours after you wake up, and let me know what it is. Until then, the fae energy I have from the Elders should be enough to top you off.”
“Okay.” Reaching out, I clasped my palm to his. “What now?”
“It’s all instinct,” he told me. “You shouldn’t need to be told or shown anything if your powers are even a little bit active. Just listen to the rhythms of your body.”
Closing my eyes, I did just that. It felt silly; what rhythms was I supposed to be listening to, exactly? All I heard was the nervous sound of each breath that I took, my hand against Tae Min’s, the warmth of his skin on mine. I felt like a school girl holding hands with her crush.
It was silly to be so flustered by a doctor just because he was attractive. I’d slept with plenty of men in college; it didn’t make sense that I felt so drawn to Petyr and now Tae Min, too. But just as quickly as I thought about my attraction to the man whose palm touched mine, I felt it.
A tug of energy. It pulsed out of him and into me, filling that spot inside me that had been so empty before Maggie bound my powers again. It wasn’t yawning as wide and dark as it once had, but there was a corner of it that wanted to feed. So I let it do just that.
Opening my eyes, I looked up into his and let a little moan fall from my lips. He stared at me, his voice rough as he murmured, “Fascinating. Your eyes are a different color when you’re feeding.”
Grabbing his hand tight, I inhaled and smelled so much more of the world than I normally could smell. There was the blood freshly pulled from my veins, the bleach and cleaning supplies that had sterilized everything, even the dust that settled onto the distant shelves and the sandwich in Tae Min’s desk drawer. It was like the whole world was open to me.
And still I wanted more. Sliding off the exam table, I pressed my body forward and smelled that Tae Min was attracted to me just as easily as I felt it. I licked my lips and stared up at him, a sharp and primal feeling deep inside me. I could almost taste him through our connected palms—there was a strange and ancient strength layered there.
“Kiss me,” I told him, voice husky. “For science.”
“Right. Science.” He sounded almost hypnotized. “Forget ethics.”
He leaned down towards me, eyes fluttering closed as he opened his mouth. I surged up onto my toes to meet him, pressing my lips against his and licking my way inside him. He moaned as our tongues touched, his arousal rubbing against my hip. I slid my right leg forward so we could get closer, rubbing my thigh along the outside of his leg as I tasted and devoured him. Tae Min answered my hunger with one of his own, deepening our kiss and moaning into my mouth.
It was intoxicating. Nothing like any kiss I’d ever had before. I felt like I could climax just from our lips and tongues. Some part of me wanted to try to make it happen—to rub myself against his leg until I trembled against him. Inside, a little warning bell went off in my head, warning me that I was going too far. But I didn’t listen to it. The thought of stopping was impossible; I had never known a need so great, or satisfied it so easily.
So when two strong hands clamped down on my shoulders and ripped me away from Tae Min, I screamed in an angry voice that felt almost unfamiliar to me. Raking my claws down the arms holding me, I bucked and kicked.
“Stop it!” Blinking, I froze when I realized that the person holding me back was Detective Leon Hardwick—in the flesh. “You’ll kill him.”
That’s when I looked at Tae Min, and a shiver of horror slid down my spine.
Because he was blinking at me, dreary and weak, stumbling forward like a man possessed. His eyes—they looked just like the eyes of those women the incubus had seduced: empty and addicted. The strength that I’d admired was gone as he weakly slid into his desk chair and murmured, “I’m okay, Leon, I’m fine.”
“You’re not,” he snapped, and I couldn’t disagree. Tae Min wasn’t fine. He looked like a pale shadow of the brilliant young doctor I’d admired from the moment I stepped into his arms.
I did that to him; I made him like this. I went limp in Leon’s arms, mumbling, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” over and over again, so horrified that I felt like I was going to be sick.
Chapter Ten
“I’m fine, really.” Wavi
ng Leon’s concern away, Tae Min got up off his chair on shaky legs. “I just wasn’t expecting so much power all at once.”
“Because she can’t control herself.” Leon glared at me from where he stood protectively near Tae Min; I huddled near the door, Maggie soothing me while Petyr tried to smooth things over. “I don’t like any of this. The last thing the world needs is an out-of-control succubus being let loose around defenseless humans.”
There was regret in Petyr’s voice as he looked over at my foster mother and said, “He’s not wrong.”
I kept my mouth shut, shame and confusion a knot in my stomach. Tae Min shot me a comforting look, but that almost made it worse. The last thing I needed to be reminded of was that my victim was a good person.
And that’s what he was: a victim. Because when I used my powers on him, he couldn’t resist their spell.
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, feeling helpless. “I don’t even know how to use my powers.”
Leon snapped out, “You’re supposed to feed off those powerful enough to withstand it.”
“I just wasn’t prepared,” Tae Min protested weakly.
“You shouldn’t have needed to be prepared.” Leon shot him a look. “She needs someone watching her to make sure she doesn’t misuse her powers again.”
“That won’t be necessary. I’ve got a new binding spell,” Maggie said, reaching over to grab one of my hands in a grip that should’ve felt comforting but somehow seemed restrictive. “I read it in your library, Petyr. I can modify it to use on Selena. There’s no reason why she can’t go back to college and finish out the semester.”
Leon glowered at me and crossed his arms over his chest. He was the one who wanted to keep me here, at the fae Collective compounds, like some prisoner. He didn’t think I should be allowed out now that my powers were manifesting so quickly. I couldn’t say for certain that he was wrong, either; everything was happening so quickly. I couldn’t keep up with the path of my own life.
Diplomatically, Petyr brought the situation together. “I understand your hesitance, Detective Hardwick. And I won’t disagree with you. But we have to send Selena out into the world at some point, and it’s better to do that with low stakes and low stress. Maggie, why don’t you try out that spell on her.” Petyr glanced over at my foster mother and gave her one of his most charming smiles. “If it works, we’ll all be happy. Work for you, detective?”
Though Leon didn’t look thrilled, he gave a short nod. “The instant she steps over the line, though—”
“I’ll bring her in myself,” Maggie cut in, her voice as hard and unyielding as steel, her grip on my hand as tight as I’d ever felt. “I’m a mother, detective, not a fool. And neither is Selena for that matter.” Meeting my eyes, she murmured, “You promise that if your powers get too strong to control again, you’ll come to me first, won’t you?”
“Of course.” In that situation, I wasn’t sure what else I could do. “I didn’t want to hurt him. I thought my powers were weak.”
“So did I,” Maggie murmured, and the fear in her voice was the first time in my life I’d ever doubted her strength. “We’ll fix this, Silly. I won’t let you down.”
Though I smiled at her, I wasn’t sure what I believed more: her reassuring words, or the glower on Leon’s face, and the instinct I had deep inside that she was wrong.
Because whatever was growing inside me, I felt its hunger. And I knew that it was too strong to be confined forever. It wanted out, and it wanted to devour. No matter the cost.
When my foster mother told me I had powers, I hadn’t realized what she really meant was that I was born with a monster inside me waiting to be unleashed.
“Now, I need you to hold very still,” Maggie said, leaning forward and grabbing my forearms. “It’ll be fast, but it’ll hurt. I’m sorry for that but there’s nothing I can do to change it.”
I gave her a sharp nod and tried to push down my nervousness. The spell she was performing was for my own good after all.
“After this, I’m going to teach you how to meditate.” There was a grim note in her voice. “And practice self-control.”
“I can do it,” I said softly. “I just need to get used to this new version of me.”
“I know you can do it. Now close your eyes and try not to yelp.”
Now that things were thoroughly awkward in Dr. Lee’s office—and he had other patients to see, once he’d recovered his strength—we’d moved to one of the private meeting rooms. It was here that Maggie was going to perform the binding spell on me, with Leon guarding the door. He’d sworn he wouldn’t let me out of the Collective until he was sure it was safe. More accurately, until he was sure I wouldn’t accidentally kill someone with my new powers.
Maggie began to chant in an unfamiliar language, and I hissed through clenched teeth at the feeling that rose in my arms. It was like one of those burns kids give other kids, grabbing their arms tight and pulling their skin back and forth.
“Almost done,” she murmured as she went into the next phase, which apparently involved wrapping my arms in some bandages Tae Min gave her that she’d soaked in a vinegar and herb concoction.
Before we left, I’d managed to get a private moment alone with Tae Min to apologize again. “It’s okay,” he said with a gentle smile. “I already feel a lot better. I think if I’d been expecting it, and prepared my fae energy, it would’ve been fine. It’s just that I wasn’t born a fae, so things like this don’t come naturally to me.”
“Tell me about it.”
Glancing over at the others, he’d added, “I’ll see you again next week, at your follow-up visit. Unless you feel like you need to come in sooner—if anything happens, feel free to reschedule.”
And that had been that. Just as quickly as the walls between us had come down when I used my powers and we kissed, they went back up again. I would have to get used to that; whatever connection my powers created had been manufactured.
I was attracted to Tae Min, but that didn’t mean he returned my attraction. I was one of many patients he saw. For all I knew he had a girlfriend who would be very pissed to discover a succubus put her tongue in his mouth.
“Okay, all done.” Maggie’s voice brought me out of my introspection. “You’ll want to keep the bandages on until midnight at least. They’ll dry a little stiffly, but there’s nothing to be done about that. We had to use them to make the binding last longer this time.”
Staring down at my hands, I softly asked her, “How long could it possibly last this time? It was barely a day before I was feeding on someone.”
“We’ll figure things out.” She grabbed one of my shoulders and squeezed tight. “You’re not alone in this, Selena. And I know you can do it. It’s what you were born to do.”
I gave her my best, bravest smile. “Can we go now?”
“Of course. I’ll tell the detective we’re done.” She frowned at me. “He really is a prickly sort, isn’t he?”
“You have no idea.”
Naomi
When Detective Hardass called me to meet him at the Collective, I knew I couldn’t say no. Technically speaking Leon and I had a kind of partnership, at least in the eyes of the fae Elders. So if he called me, it was about fae business, and I had to jump if he said jump.
That didn’t mean I had to do it quickly.
Pulling my ’82 cherry red convertible into a gas station, I spent my sweet time filling it up. Then I pulled in, grabbed a few snacks from inside, lounged around in the AC for a while, and headed towards the Collective after wasting a good fifteen minutes or so.
I took the long way, of course, down the roads with potholes and lower speed limits. The air was cool enough to keep the top up, though as always the weather could change in a minute. I’d learned that pretty quickly after moving to Baton Rouge—the poor man’s New Orleans, some would say. It was certainly a change of pace from the northeast, and even more of a change from the Eastern European countries my ancestors once calle
d home.
As I eased into a four way intersection, a little buzz started under my skin. I leaned into the instincts it gave me, and when it was my turn to go I paused. Just on cue a car came speeding from around a blind corner, running the stop sign and sending the cross traffic into chaos. The other cars barely missed it—and I would’ve been one of them if I hadn’t listened to my instincts.
Dark hunting. It was what my people had been doing for centuries, before electricity was invented, in the days when entire families lived in the dark. We were the fighters, the hunters, and the fortune-tellers combined.
My skills had just as much use here in Louisiana as they’d had for my ancestors in the Old World. It was just that here, there tended to be a lot more politics involved. That and rules—including the more annoying ones, like “don’t stab a demon through the heart in front of the normal people, Naomi.”
Pulling in front of the Collective, I turned the engine of my car off and walked straight to the front doors. The guards—both simulacrums without much real personality to speak of—glanced at me and let me in on sight. I was here often enough that they recognized me.
Leon had an office in the ambassador’s wing. He was here only part time, when he was able to get away from the precinct; how he spent so many hours working around all those dense cops I’ll never know. Half of them wouldn’t know a supernatural case if they were bashed in the head with it.
He was waiting in the office when I glanced through the little window set into the door. Sighing, I stepped through and shut the door behind me, crossing my arms over my chest and resisting the urge to pull one of my many knives out and brandish it at him.
We hadn’t gotten along very well ever since I broke up with his sister. She was a half-drunk, disloyal, overemotional drama queen—but Leon would never admit that to himself. When things didn’t work out with her, he’d decided it had to be my fault, and I didn’t bother expending the effort to prove to him otherwise.