Succubus: A LitRPG Series

by A. J. Markam

  I gritted my teeth and walked over to the window.

  The tower looked out over the town walls and into the forest beyond. I peered over the window ledge. The drop was at least 80 feet. If I tried to jump, I was a dead man. The stone walls had plenty of handholds and toeholds in them, I guess – but I’d never tried mountain climbing before, and if I made a mistake…

  On the other hand, if I did die, maybe I could just resurrect somewhere else. It was definitely a possibility.

  But before I went and committed suicide, I figured I would see what my other options were first.

  I inspected my action bar. No go – all of my attacks were greyed out, as were ‘Summon Imp.’ I couldn’t even summon Stig to me.

  ‘Summon Succubus’ was greyed out, too.

  If it hadn’t been, I could have yanked Alaria out of the Baron’s bed by force, where she was probably doing –

  I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth again.

  Stop thinking about it.

  At least the captain had let me keep my staff, but at this point, it was pretty much useless.

  I sighed and turned back around. The wizard’s quarters were pretty nicely decorated – down bed, soft sheets, tapestries lining the stone walls, a plush rug, a table set out with a bottle of wine and platter of cold cuts.

  I didn’t realize how hungry I was until I saw the food. I immediately went over, sat down, and tasted the meat. Not bad – roast beef. I checked the bottle of wine: three fourths full.

  My imprisonment was looking up.

  As I poured a glass for myself, though, something scared the shit out of me.

  “Hey, boss,” a gruff voice croaked behind me.

  I jumped in the chair, splashing the wine all over me, and turned around.

  Stig was sitting there on the windowsill, hunched over and breathing a little hard.

  “Did you just climb up here?!”

  “Yeah, boss,” he said as he dropped down to the floor and padded over to the table. “You mind if I have some wine?”

  “I didn’t know you drank,” I said in surprise.

  “You never asked, boss,” the imp said as he climbed up the chair next to me, onto the table, then grabbed the wine and took a swig straight from the bottle.

  Ew.

  I guess I was sticking with my one glass for the night.

  “So you got away,” I said.

  “Yup.”

  “Do you know what Alaria did?” I asked bitterly.

  Stig looked at me sideways. “Um... I don’t really want to talk about what happened in the wardrobe, boss.”

  “I’m not talking about what happened in the wardrobe!” I snapped – half panicked, half angry he would even bring that up. “I’m talking about afterwards!”

  “Let me guess: she did something to make you mad.”

  “Damn right! After teasing me and sticking her hand down my – ”

  Stig gave me an alarmed look.

  I cut to the chase. “She basically seduced the Baron and took him off to bed! Can you believe that?!”

  He shrugged. “I told you, boss.”

  “Told me what?”

  “Hot chicks… nothin’ but trouble.”

  I sighed in frustration. “I should have listened to you.”

  “Yup.”

  “She’s such a bitch!” I snarled, off in my own little world of jealousy and self-pity.

  “Yeah boss,” Stig said, though he shook his head ‘no.’

  “What?” I asked defensively.

  “What?” he asked, as though he had no idea what I was talking about.

  “You’re doing that thing again!”

  “What thing?”

  “That thing where you say ‘yes,’ but you shake your head ‘no’!”

  “No I’m not,” he said, though he nodded his head ‘yes’ again.

  “Yes you are!” I shouted. “You just did it again!”

  He sighed and took another swig of wine, like he was the most beleaguered imp in all of the videogame world.

  “So I’m the asshole here?” I asked angrily.

  “No, boss,” he said, but shook his head ‘yes.’

  I was tired of the duplicity. No more yes/no questions.

  “So explain to me exactly why I’m the asshole, then.”

  “Well…” he started, then trailed off.

  “What?”

  “She does have a collar,” he pointed out. “You don’t. And you’re the one who put it on her. That’s all I have to say about that.”

  I stared at him – then looked at the tiny dog collar around his own thin neck.

  I wanted to protest what he’d said – but how can you argue with cold, hard facts?

  So instead I just glowered at him. “You’re a real asshole too sometimes, you know that, Stig?”

  “Yeah, boss,” he said, but shook his head ‘no.’

  A familiar female voice suddenly spoke in a playful tone. “I don’t know about that. If anybody’s an asshole here, I would say it was you.”

  I spilled my glass of wine again as I spun around.

  There was Alaria at the window, crawling inside the tower.

  “What – where did you come from?” I asked, astounded.

  “Outside,” she said as she stepped onto the floor.

  “You flew?”

  “I don’t get even limited flying powers until somebody levels up some more,” she said reproachfully. “So I had to climb.” She looked down in irritation at her fingers. “I think I broke a nail, too.”

  “What happened to the Baron?”

  “Oh, that guy?” She shrugged. “I killed him.”

  “You what?!”

  “Yeah,” she said in a tone of voice like What did you expect?

  I knew I shouldn’t have asked – it was like putting a neon sign up over my head saying ‘Insecure’ – but not knowing was eating me up inside.

  “Did you kill him before… during… or after you had sex with him?”

  She smirked. “Why? What does it matter?”

  “I’d just like to know, that’s all,” I said self-consciously.

  I felt like the biggest, most jealous, most fragile-ego’d fool in the world.

  She shook her head in exasperation. “For somebody who’s getting rescued, you sure are nosy, you know that?”

  “Would you just tell me?” I snapped.

  She groaned like a teenager getting lectured by her parents. “By Astar’s twat – NO, I didn’t have sex with him!”

  “Oh,” I said, immensely relieved, and grinned like an idiot.

  “Feel better now?” she asked sarcastically.

  I didn’t answer, but… yeah, I totally did.

  Suddenly there were shouts down on the ground level.

  Alaria winced. “They probably found him. Which means we should probably go.”

  “I can’t climb down!” I said. “I’ll fall and kill myself!”

  “We’re not climbing down,” she said as she grabbed me by my shirt and hauled me out of my chair.

  I looked at the window nervously. “How are we going to get down if we’re not climbing and you can’t fly?”

  “Nobody said I couldn’t glide.”

  She pulled me over to the stone ledge of the window and forced me up onto it.

  Down in the courtyard, I could see guards in the moonlight, heading for the tower.

  “Hey, what about me?” Stig asked petulantly from the table.

  “Get over here, then, and grab my tail,” Alaria snapped.

  “Okay,” Stig said, then chugged the rest of the bottle before jumping down off the table.

  Alaria crawled up onto the window ledge with me, her breasts pressed tight against my back.

  “Don’t get excited like last time,” she whispered in my ear teasingly.

  “That was totally – ”

  She clapped her hand over my mouth and said, “Shut up, master.”

  Then she jumped off the ledge into space, sending all th
ree of us into a suicide fall.

  It’s a good thing her hand was over my mouth, because otherwise I would’ve screamed bloody murder.

  I think I did, anyway – it was just muffled by her palm.

  Then I heard her wings flap open, and suddenly we were gliding over the wall, across the treetops, and down into a clearing.

  We hit the ground and tumbled head over heels, our bodies somersaulting over each other.

  When we came to a stop, I was on my back and she was on top of me. We were lying hip to hip, her breasts dangling down and smashed against my chest.

  “We’ve got to stop ending up in situations like this, master, or people will talk,” she smirked.

  “Maybe if you wouldn’t keep teasing me and leading me on, it wouldn’t be a problem,” I fumed.

  She narrowed her eyes. “You know, jealousy is really unattractive.”

  I didn’t say anything, but I felt my heart sink in my chest.

  She smiled and tapped my nose. “Normally. But on you, it’s kind of cute.”

  ALWAYS teasing me. But my heart lifted anyway.

  As did something else in my pants.

  “I felt that,” Alaria cooed.

  I blushed furiously. “You’re half-naked on top of me, of course I’m going to get – ”

  “Ahem,” Stig coughed a few feet away. “Still awkward, boss.”

  Alaria leapt to her feet. “We should probably be on our way, anyhow. You know – seeing as how we might die otherwise.”

  With the shouts of the guards behind us, we set off into the night and never looked back.

  26

  So began several days of life on the lam.

  After we escaped from the town, we ran for a couple of hours and holed up in a barn where we slept in the loft. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep immediately, scratchy hay be damned.

  We woke at dawn to mooing cows as the farmer began to milk them. Alaria grabbed me and Stig, glided us out the back of the barn, and we set off again through the forest.

  We moved continuously, not even bothering to pick up quests, only stopping in towns along the way to grab some food and drink. And, of course, for me to check the local mailboxes for emails from Westek.

  There was only one:

  Ian,

  We are still going through the diagnostics on the system. Everything’s fine, just enjoy the game. Will have you logged out before you know it.

  John Perkins, Supervisor

  That was it.

  I was starting to freak out.

  I mean, being on the run Bonnie-and-Clyde-style with a gorgeous succubus (and an ugly grey sidekick) had its benefits, but I was really starting to worry that my new bosses had royally screwed up and weren’t telling me.

  Scratch that – I knew they had screwed up. I just wasn’t sure how much.

  We were in our second day of travel when Alaria said to me, “Cheer up, master. It’s not so bad.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re so glum, you’re not even ogling me anymore,” she said with a wink. “A girl could get insecure about her looks.”

  “I don’t think you’ll ever be insecure about your looks.”

  She grinned. “Probably not. Why are you so down, though?”

  I sighed. “I’m worried I’ll never be able to go back to my home.”

  “Why?”

  “There are some problems.”

  “War?”

  “No. ”

  “Famine? ”

  “No.”

  “Plague?”

  I had to admit, she was helping put my problems in perspective.

  “No, none of that.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  I thought about how much I should tell her. “There’s… sort of a curse on me.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t be the first,” she said dismissively.

  I glared at her. “Maybe not, but it’s important to me.”

  “Of course, of course,” she said sympathetically. “I’m sorry, please continue. What’s the nature of this curse?”

  “Well… I’m not actually here.”

  She looked at me like I was crazy. “What?”

  I considered how best to explain it. “This body is sort of like an astral projection.”

  She poked me in the arm. “You seem solid enough.”

  “I know – it’s hard to explain. But basically my real body is stuck back in my homeland, while I’m stuck here.”

  “What’s your body doing back there?” she asked with a suggestive smirk.

  “Sleeping.”

  “Oh – so you’re like a fairytale princess who has been placed in a cursed slumber.”

  “I guess,” I said grumpily. “Except I’m not a princess.”

  “My little princess,” she said in a singsong voice. “So delicate, so rosy-cheeked – ”

  “Stop it!” I said, laughing in spite of myself.

  “Well, you know what they say.”

  “No, what do they say,” I quipped sardonically.

  She stepped right in front of me and stopped, forcing me to halt.

  “That she can be awoken with True Love’s Kiss,” she said, staring into my eyes.

  I stared back at her.

  She looked from my eyes, down to my mouth, then licked her lips to moisten them. Then she looked back at my eyes.

  My heart skipped a beat.

  She moved forward hesitantly –

  I leaned in –

  And then she burst into hysterical laughter.

  “Really?! Really – you thought we were going to share True Love’s Kiss?” she guffawed.

  “That isn’t funny,” I snarled.

  “Oh, master,” she giggled, and patted me on the head condescendingly. “I’m a succubus. There is no true love where we’re concerned.”

  “Oh,” I muttered.

  Out of nowhere she leaned in and gave me a kiss – and not a little peck on the lips, either, but an open-mouthed, passionate, tongue-swirling French kiss.

  I stood there in utter shock, not even realizing what the hell was going on at first.

  All I could do was wonder at the amazing taste of her mouth: cinnamon and vanilla, and sweet as a ripe peach.

  But just as I was getting into it, she pulled away and looked into my eyes like she was inspecting me.

  “Nope, I guess the Kiss of True Lust won’t do it either. Sorry master.”

  Then she turned around and strutted off through the woods again.

  “That was cruel!” I shouted after her, but I couldn’t say I was angry. Not with the taste of her on my lips.

  “Just trying to help!” she called over her shoulder. “Next time maybe we’ll try True Love’s Hand Job!”

  I stood there in shock, wondering if I should say anything, or if she would just poke fun at me again.

  Turns out I didn’t need to say anything – her comedy routine was basically a monologue.

  “Oh yeah – we already tried that and couldn’t consummate it. Oh well.”

  “That’s not funny!” I shouted.

  She laughed again, her giggle like silver bells. “I thought it was!”

  Then she sauntered off again.

  I stood there with a stupid grin on my face… until I felt a pair of eyes boring through me.

  Stig was glaring up at me in disgust.

  “What?” I asked defensively.

  He just shook his head in resignation, then continued walking off through the woods.

  That kiss was as close as I got to the Holy Land I’d experienced back in the wardrobe. Much as I wanted to go back there – figuratively, not literally to the wardrobe itself – she never offered, the opportunity never presented itself, and I didn’t press.

  I know that Rob would’ve called me a loser, but I wouldn’t order her to do anything. I couldn’t think of her as some computer program anymore. She seemed real to me – and I had seen her hatred for a man who had done awful things to her before.


  Plus I’d made a promise never to force her to do anything that she didn’t want to do.

  Even more than that, I liked her. A lot. She was becoming like a friend to me, in a weird sort of way. And the more time I spent around her, the more I liked her, which made trying to talk her into doing something sketchy all the more repugnant.

  I came to a sort of equanimity about the whole thing. If something was going to happen, then it would happen naturally. I wouldn’t try to force it.

  That doesn’t mean I didn’t spend a lot of time looking at her tits and ass, though, and fantasizing about the taste of her lips.

  When I got out of the game, woo boy – I was going to have enough material in the spank-bank to last me the rest of my life.

  27

  We finally reached another land, one far away from goddesses of chastity and barons of dumbassery. There was more of a mix of different races walking around – humans, orcs, blood elves, gnomes – and we spotted a few Warlocks with their own succubi.

  Alaria was surprisingly catty.

  “Oh my God, can you believe what she’s wearing?” she whispered to me about a plum-colored demoness in boy shorts. “A girl with an ass that big really shouldn’t try to pull that look off.”

  I thought the other succubus looked great, as did most of the males walking around – until they got a glimpse of Alaria, that is. She turned every straight guy’s head in every single town we walked into, and she knew it.

  “Don’t you get tired of all the men staring at you?” I asked once.

  She shrugged. “You get used to it.” Then she looked at me pointedly. “Don’t you ever get tired of staring?”

  I thought about lying, but what was the point? We both knew the answer.

  “No,” I admitted.

  She grinned. “At least you’re honest.”

  No more news from Westek. It had been a couple of days now. They’d told me that the unit was designed to accommodate people for weeks at a time – potentially even months – but I prayed that they weren’t going to test that out on me. Every time I checked the mailbox in a new town, I hoped there would be some words of encouragement – but there wasn’t.

  I comforted myself with all the overtime I was racking up. At double-time after the first 12 hours, I was looking at $100 an hour for several days straight. This was going to be an awesome paycheck.