Succubus

by Brandon Varnell

  “For starters, it’s not morning; it’s two o’clock in the afternoon.”

  “Whatever,” Christian grumbled. He rubbed a hand over his face and through his hair. “My question hasn’t changed. What do you want? I swear, if you’re just here to annoy me―”

  “As much as I enjoy bantering with you, I’m actually here because Samantha asked me to come get you.”

  Christian was nonplussed.

  “What? Samantha?” He frowned at Tristin, his eyes squinting. By the Almighty, he was tired. “Why would she tell you to get me? Why didn’t she just page me or something?”

  “Two reasons.” Tristin held up an index finger. “One: I just so happened to be delivering a report when she decided she needed to speak with you. Two: you weren’t answering your phone.”

  “Oh.” Christian paused He wondered if his cheeks were as red as they felt.

  “Yeah, I figured you would be exhausted after hunting down those vamps and were probably still asleep.” Tristin shook his head in slight disbelief. “I still can’t get over how many you killed this time. Nine. That must be a new record.”

  Christian sighed. He wasn’t up to listening to Tristin put his accomplishments on a pedestal. While the man didn’t seem to have a case of hero worship, he’d never been good at dealing with praise. The fact that it was now coming from Tristin, the most annoying person in existence, just made that praise worse.

  Time to change the subject.

  “You said Samantha wanted to see me?”

  “Yep,” Tristin said, popping the p at the end. “She said that she wanted to see you as soon as possible.” He paused, and then took a quick whiff of the air around him. His nose wrinkled. “You’ll probably want to take a shower first though; you reek.”

  Christian was embarrassed, but he didn’t let Tristin on to that fact.

  “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you’re so tired that you collapse after fighting over half a dozen vampires.”

  “Indeed,” Tristin nodded sagely. “By the way, and this is just a suggestion, you should also―”

  Christian didn’t hear the rest of Tristin’s words.

  Because he’d just slammed the door in the other man’s face.

  ***

  For the second time in twenty-four hours, Christian stood before his commanding officer. This wasn’t as unusual an occurrence for him as it was for others. He was often called in to meet with Samantha, though he had never been called twice within a six-hour period. That was odd. He didn’t say anything, however, assuming correctly that she would inform him of the reason that he had been called so soon after completing his last mission.

  “I have another mission for you,” Samantha said after taking a moment to look at him with a touch of concern. She probably noticed the bags under his eyes. They were not prominent, but they were certainly dark enough to be noticeable. “I know that you just got back from a mission, and I’m sorry for having to dump this on you so soon, but we don’t have anyone else to turn to. You were specifically requested for this mission.”

  “It’s fine, I don’t mind working a little more than usual. I know how important our work is.” Christian suppressed a frown. Maybe it was just him, but his superior appeared to be uneasy. She spoke with an odd inflection in her voice that he had never heard before.

  It's probably just my imagination.

  Samantha gave him a strained smile before quickly schooling her features, masking her emotions. Opening a drawer on the left side of her desk, she reached in and pulled out a single item: a photograph, judging by its shape, size, and composition.

  “Your mission is to kill this target.” She slid the photograph across the desk to him.

  Christian picked it up and studied the photo, wondering who he'd have to kill this time.

  A prominent frown soon appeared.

  The picture was of a girl, an incredibly stunning girl with brilliant blue eyes, fair skin, and a smile to die for. Long blond hair cascaded past her shoulders in gentle waves, framing a face that combined incredible innocence and extraordinary sensuality. Beautiful did not begin to aptly describe her.

  He looked up from the photo, gazing into Samantha's eyes, frowning.

  “This is not a vampire.” It wasn’t a question.

  “No, she is not,” Samantha said slowly. “She is a succubus.”

  “Ah.” Christian nodded. “That explains why she doesn't have any vampiric traits.” It also explained why her beauty appeared so human. “She’s a―wait.” He paused. “What?”

  Samantha sighed. “She’s a succubus.”

  “A succubus?” Christian stared. Samantha gave him a nod. “A succubus?” he repeated, as if he'd hear something different by asking a second time.

  “Yes, Christian.” Samantha sounded just as off-kilter as he felt. “Your next target is a succubus.”

  “You do realize that succubi are outside my jurisdiction? They’re outside the jurisdiction of all men.” Succubi posed an inherent danger to males; that’s why female Executioners were chosen to hunt them. They hunted mermaids and sirens as well.

  “I am well aware that men are normally not allowed to hunt succubi,” Samantha told him. “However, there have been slight… problems that make sending females to dispose of this one troublesome.”

  This time Christian was sure he had not imagined it. His superior definitely felt uneasy. Did something about this mission bother her? Or was she simply uncomfortable sending a man to do a woman’s job? Few were the times that he wished to be capable of hearing the thoughts of others. This was one of those times.

  “What kind of problems?”

  “The deadly kind.”

  Christian looked down at the photo again. The girl in the picture didn’t seem deadly or dangerous, but he knew better than to judge a light novel by its cover.

  He looked back up at Samantha.

  Seeing that she had his attention, his superior continued. “So far we have dispatched two female Executioners. Our first was Jeanne Oria, a newer recruit. Our reports indicated that the target was an easy mark and would be a good first kill for one of our more inexperienced members to gain some much needed experience.”

  “I’m guessing Jeanne never returned,” Christian deduced, looking back at the picture in a new light. All Executioners, even newer recruits, were extensively trained in their chosen field before being allowed on missions. If the girl in the picture had managed to kill an Executioner, then she must be a dangerous individual indeed.

  And yet, he felt there was something off about Samantha’s words. They rang true, yet he knew that she was not telling him something.

  “You’re correct.” Placing her elbows on the desk, Samantha laced her fingers together and rested her chin on her hands. “About a week after Jeanne made contact with the target, she disappeared. We never saw or heard from her again. At about the same time, our target disappeared as well.”

  Christian listened to Samantha closely, absorbing all the knowledge he could. You never knew what sort of seemingly useless bits of information would come in handy.

  “About a week after that we found the target again. She had not moved far, just a few miles from her hometown on Rhode Island. We don’t know if she had been trying to shake us off her trail, or if she just didn’t care whether we found her. But we weren’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Because our raw recruit died, this time, we decided to send in a more experienced member—Sara Exalise.”

  Christian raised an eyebrow. “The famed ‘Huntress,’ if I’m not mistaken.”

  Sara was well known among their ranks as someone who never let a mark escape, and she always killed her targets in the most brutal manner possible. Her hatred of abominations was as famous as the bow she wielded. She was not one of the XIII like himself, but she was powerful enough to have earned a nickname.

  “Considering what happened to Jeanne, we didn’t want to take any chances.”

  Christian nodded. He could see why they woul
d send someone like Sara. While he had never met the woman personally, it was often said that her talent at using a bow was on par with his ability to dual wield guns and swords. There had actually been rumors that the higher-ups were thinking of changing the XIII to the XIV by adding her as a member.

  And yet…

  “I take it there were some problems?”

  “That would be putting it mildly.” Samantha’s sigh spoke of exhaustion. “Only two days after Sara left for her mission, she disappeared. A month later, she was found out at sea by a passing patrol boat, her neck torn open and her chest covered in lacerations from what we assume were a set of claws.”

  “I see,” Christian murmured, glancing at the picture once again. The girl looked so innocent and pure. It was hard to imagine that she was a monster that sucked the sexual essence out of men, or that she was capable of killing two Executioners.

  Which was probably how she had killed them in the first place. They likely underestimated her because she looked so innocent.

  “It sounds like there is more to this case than meets the eye.”

  Samantha nodded. “That is what we believe as well. When we realized how dangerous the situation was, we decided to send someone else to do the job—Anthony Trekovski.”

  “Isn’t his section in charge of eliminating incubi?” asked Christian. Incubi were the male version of succubi. Just like a succubus sucked out the sexual essence of men, incubi did the same thing, but to women instead.

  “He is. We felt that having someone who had experience with similar creatures would at least be better able to defend themselves against a succubus’s sexual aura.” Samantha breathed a deep sigh. Her shoulders sagged almost imperceptibly. “Exactly one week after we sent him, Anthony vanished along with the target, who's reappeared on the opposite side of the United States just two months ago.”

  “And so you’ve decided to send me?” Christian raised an eyebrow. “Someone who has no experience with killing succubi or incubi.”

  The jurisdiction of the Executioner section that he belonged to exterminated vampires, werewolves, and demons, and while those types of monsters were the most dangerous physically, they were not mentally dangerous like some of the others—certain demons that manipulated the mind aside. The powers of the creatures that Christian hunted lay solely in their ability to greatly increase the strength, speed, and the durability of their bodies. Or, in the case of certain demons, wield supernatural powers that caused wide-scale devastation.

  “HQ is beginning to get desperate,” Samantha told him, a solemn note in her voice. “With one of our best dead and another missing, we’re being forced to turn to someone who we feel can get the job done. You have never failed in a mission before, and you are now the most powerful Warrior of your generation. You’re also incredibly stubborn, which should help counteract the succubus’s Aura of Allure. Honestly, right now, you are the only person we can turn to.”

  There was still something that Samantha wasn’t telling him. She knew something that he didn’t, and it was obviously something that she couldn’t tell him, because if she could, she already would have. Whatever it was, it obviously made her uneasy.

  “And what would happen should I die?”

  Samantha sucked in a breath. “Should you die, then we will be forced to label her as an SS-class threat and order all of our forces to stay away. It wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve been forced to admit defeat.”

  Such a thing had happened on occasion. Christian knew this. A number of vampires and werewolves had been given the SS-class threat, the Executioners proclaiming them too powerful to slay, and there were even more demons that no one human could ever hope to kill. These creatures often lived for well over a thousand years, gaining unimaginable power as a result. Fortunately, the monsters that gained that kind of strength tended to be reclusive, disdaining human contact.

  Christian closed his eyes, contemplating everything he had been told thus far.

  “I’m not going to force you to accept this assignment.” He opened his eyes to find Samantha studying him, her concern more than evident. If he didn’t know better, he would have said that she was pleading with him not to take the mission. “If you don’t want to, just say the word, and I’ll let the higher-ups know. They might raise a fuss, but they won’t be able to do much else. The Bishopric knows they cannot afford to lose you. If―”

  “I’ll do it,” Christian said. Normally, he would never dare to interrupt his superior, but he felt that the current situation warranted it. Samantha was questioning his ability to complete a mission. If there was one thing that he took seriously, it was his job, his duty. He was a slayer of monsters. He protected the innocent from the horrors that hid among them. That was his mandate.

  “Christian?”

  “I’ll do it,” he repeated. I’ll find this succubus and ensure that she can never harm another human again.” His eyes hardened and his fists clenched. “I’ll exterminate her.”

  “Christian…”

  “Don’t try to make me change my mind on this. I have the power to make a difference, so I should put it to good use.”

  Samantha’s stare suddenly went flat. “You picked that up from one of those weird books of yours, didn’t you?”

  Christian turned his head, evading Samantha’s blank stare. “… Maybe.”

  After another moment, Samantha sighed. “I see there’s no stopping you. You’ve always done what you felt was right regardless of the consequences to yourself.”

  “The job of an Executioner is to protect humanity from the creatures that would inflict great harm upon them,” Christian said. “I won’t let myself shy away from danger when my contribution could help further our cause. For the good of the human race, I will do God’s will and protect those who cannot protect themselves.”

  “Very well.” Samantha straightened in her chair and looked at him with all the authority of her station. “Christian, in three days’ time, you are to head for Seal Beach in Orange County, where the Intelligence Division has reported the target is currently located. I would suggest heading to the Science Division before that, and getting yourself equipped as well. Your regular weapons won’t be as effective on this mission; they’re too obvious.”

  “I understand.”

  “Here.” Samantha handed him a folder. “This contains all the information we’ve uncovered about your target: names, associates, where she goes to school and what she is studying; everything that we were able to find is in here. It’s not as much as we normally have, but it should help.”

  Christian took the folder and tucked it under his right arm. He would look at it later tonight. Crossing his left arm over his chest and placing his hand on his heart, he bowed to his superior.

  “I will do as you suggest.”

  “Very well. You are dismissed.”

  The expression on Samantha’s face was indecipherable as she looked at him. Conflicting emotions swirled in her eyes. Christian couldn’t tell what the woman was thinking, but part of him realized that it was probably for the best that he remain ignorant.

  Turning on his heel, Christian made for the door.

  “Christian?”

  He paused, his hand resting lightly on the handle, and looked back at Samantha. Her lips twitched for a moment, and he could tell that she was fighting the compulsion to worry them between her teeth. It was a nervous habit that she'd picked up from when she was younger.

  “May God bless you on your journey.”

  A moment passed. Then two. Christian gave her a nod.

  Then he left, closing the door behind him. The last thing he saw was his superior’s discontented expression.

  Chapter 4

  The Executioners was a vast organization. It had been founded by Pope Sixtus IV in the 1400s after the Church had discovered that Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler, was a vampire.

  While it was not the oldest of the Catholic Church’s religious sects, nor one of the largest, it was the best funde
d and most widely dispersed. Their organization spanned the entire globe, with many agents working undercover, doing God’s will for the good of humanity.

  The organization was divided into several divisions, apart from the Executioners themselves: The Science Division, the Intelligence Division, the Administrative Division, the Medical Division, and the Security Division. Then there were the Executioners themselves. The Cleaners also didn’t belong to any division, but that was simply the nature of their job.

  Within the Executioners, members were divided by a caste system: Assassins, Warriors, and the Casteless.

  Christian was a Warrior. Martial combat was the lifeblood of his caste. No mission for him or his fellow Warriors ended in anything but violence.

  Assassins were responsible for killing aberrations that did not rely on power and strength to kill, but cunning and guile. Succubi, incubi, mermaids, and sirens, among others, were the Assassins’ prey. This particular group had more women than men, since most of the creatures they killed were well known for their talent at seducing men to their deaths. Only incubi, the male version of a succubus, required a male assassin to dispose of.

  Lastly were the Casteless, those who had yet to prove themselves in combat. They were generally newer recruits who had seen little to no action. Members of the Casteless typically killed small-time monsters: undines, griffins, and pixies were among the few weak monster types that Casteless members were sent against. All members of the other two groups had been Casteless until they had proven their worth through accomplishing numerous missions.

  There was a stark difference between Assassins and Warriors. Warriors were combat specialists, trained extensively in the use of various weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. Assassins were taught how to get close to a target, befriending their prey and then killing their target once they had dropped their guard. They were also specialists of long-range combat, and many members were experts at using sniper rifles. It was said that a member of the Assassins could kill someone before their target even realized they were in danger.