Succubus

by Brandon Varnell

  His Queen was waiting for him.

  Before he could drop his foot on Christian’s skull, a sharp pain in his back scrambled his concentration and caused him to miss. The attack hit the ground right next to Christian’s head, the earth cracking around his foot.

  He blinked once, the time it took to process the pain he was feeling. He then looked down at the tip of a blade protruding from his chest in disbelief. Dark-crimson blood dripped off the blade, falling down to land on Christian’s face. Craning his neck to look behind him, Damien saw Lilith standing there, the handle of the sword that was stabbing him held in both of her hands.

  She gripped the handle tightly, her knuckles turning white, while her entire body shook at being in such close proximity to him. Despite the naked fear she displayed, her eyes were glaring at him, her eyebrows drawn together in a fierce look of determination.

  It would have been a beautiful sight in most circumstances. His Queen had never looked more regal than she did right then. However, the blade protruding from his chest, which she had thrust into him, prevented him from being able to admire the sight.

  “My Queen…” he whispered, right before backhanding the young woman away. Lilith cried out at the stinging pain in her cheek, as she was sent sprawling to the ground. He looked down at the girl, then at the sword in his chest. Reaching behind him, he grabbed the handle and yanked it out of his body without ceremony.

  Damien took notice of the blade’s elegance as he examined it closely. It really was a beautiful sword. Were it not for that disgusting crucifix on the guard, it would have been a weapon fit for a No Life King such as himself. Most unfortunately, it had that guard, and as such was not even fit to be used against him.

  He tossed it away.

  With the weapon no longer an issue, Damien turned his attention back to Lilith. She had recovered from his attack, though he saw how her cheek swelled where he struck. She crawled away from him in fear, her terror-filled eyes filling him with a sense of vindication.

  He took a step forward.

  “So this is what you’ve chosen?” he asked, his voice sounding almost upset, almost anguished. “Thou hath decided to choose that lowly human over me? You would let your beauty be squandered by those who can’t appreciate you? Allow someone as insignificant as that human to taint you?”

  Damien took another step forward. Lilith crawled back some more.

  “I see how it is.” He stopped walking for a moment, and the almost sad grimace on his features twisted into an outraged scowl. “Very well then. If that is your choice, then I shall send both of you to hell together.”

  Damien moved toward Lilith. He barely made two steps before the thunderclap of a gun rang out, echoing ominously across the clearing. His body stumbled forward, while his left hand went to his right shoulder. Blinking in confusion, Damien wondered why he couldn’t feel his arm anymore.

  He looked down.

  “Oh…”

  His right arm from the shoulder down was missing. Gone. What happened to it? Where did it go?

  Before he could question himself further, three more shots rang out. Each shot caused Damien to stumble. The shock of losing his arm soon wore off, and then he felt it: pain.

  He had experienced pain before. Clawing his way up from the muck, fighting against monsters that were much stronger than him in order to claim their power for his own, he couldn't have done those things without experiencing pain.

  That pain paled in comparison to this. It felt like his body was being disintegrated from the inside out. Like something was slowly eating at him from the inside. Molten lava dripped in his veins, setting what should have been dead nerve endings ablaze with torment the likes of which his mind could scarcely comprehend.

  Where is this pain coming from?

  More bullets penetrated his flesh. He spun around, even as he stumbled forward, allowing him to face the source of his pain.

  It was Christian. He sat on the ground. One hand had been placed behind him, acting as support for his torso. The other held one of his guns, the silver one, which was pointed right at Damien.

  “You…!”

  Damien surged forward, intent on killing this annoyance who just would not stay down. He was halted from doing so as Christian unloaded the entire cartridge of ammo into his flesh. His body jerked about as around half a dozen bullets hit him in rapid succession. Each time one of the shells pierced his skin, they went off inside of him like a flare lighting up the night sky. His body began disintegrating. Holes appeared all over him. These large gaps in his flesh expanded, and he could see beams of light coming out from them.

  Do those weapons contain the power of the sun?

  It was in that moment, as his body disintegrated, as the holes appearing on him grew larger, that he realized he was going to die. Even No Life Kings are weak against sunlight.

  Damien’s last thoughts were of Eve, his Queen. If he had one regret, it was being unable to make her his.

  ***

  For a long moment, no one spoke, no one moved, they didn’t even breathe. Christian and Lilith stared at the space between them, at the area where Damien had been standing. He wasn’t there anymore. His entire body had been vaporized by the liquid sunlight bullets. Even a creature as powerful as a No Life King was unable to stand up to condensed light particles containing the power of a miniature star.

  “Christian!”

  Lilith was the one who finally moved.

  Christian would have moved, but he was too injured. The young woman clambered to her feet. She began walking over to him, her feet starting off slowly but picking up pace quickly enough. A walk turned into a jog, which then turned into a full-on sprint.

  “Christian!”

  With nary a thought Lilith tackled Christian, landing on top of him, where she proceeded to hug the life out of him.

  “Oof!”

  A pained grunt escaped him, as he found himself at the tender mercies of the young woman. Despite the pain that flared up in his ribs, he returned the hug as best he could, wrapping a single arm around her waist.

  “I’m so glad…” she whispered. It was only after he felt something wet dripping on his bare skin, where Damien had ripped his clothes, that he realized that she was crying. “… I’m so glad you’re all right.”

  “Yes.” Christian sighed in relief. He didn’t know why, but the tears that Lilith shed onto his skin soothed the wounds he’d received on his chest. “I’m all right. Thanks to you. You saved me.”

  Lilith looked up from where she had been nuzzling his chest.

  “I… I didn’t do much.” Two small beacons of red appeared on her cheeks. Despite what appeared to be embarrassment, it was clear from her smile that she was pleased by his words.

  “I would have been dead if you hadn’t had the courage to come up behind Damien and stab him,” Christian told her. He smiled. “You really saved me back there.”

  “Well, I… I couldn’t let him hurt you,” Lilith murmured, her cheeks darkening in hue. “I love you.”

  “I know,” Christian said. “I love you, too.”

  Lilith looked at him in surprise. Then tears of joy sprang to her eyes and overflowed down her cheeks. A smile that could outshine the sun appeared on her face as she leaned in to kiss him.

  Unfortunately, she never would get to kiss him that day. With the battle over, all the adrenaline that had been pumping through Christian’s body wore off. Without the chemicals produced by the hormones associated with the fight-or-flight instinct running through his system, the pain of having several shattered ribs became intolerable. It overwhelmed all of his senses, causing his mind to shut down in order to avoid splintering into a thousand irreparable pieces.

  The last thing Christian saw was long blond hair and bright blue eyes. The last thing he heard was Lilith’s terrified voice screaming out his name.

  Chapter 29

  I was playing around with one of my action figures, something that I had always enjoyed doing. I was ree
nacting a scene from my favorite movie. Luke and Leia had just been cornered by Stormtroopers in the Death Star. The bridge that led to the other side had been retracted, and the door behind them was slowly sliding open. In a move of incredible daring, Luke decided to use the grappling hook on his utility belt to swing across the giant chasm. He wrapped an arm around Leia’s waist and was about to jump when she kissed him on the cheek “for luck.”

  It was in that moment, just as Luke and Leia were about to leap across the chasm, that several loud explosions rocked the house. The earth shook like it had been caught in an earthquake, and the loud rumbling of what sounded like bombs going off nearly deafened me.

  My parents ran down the stairs, both of them looking frightened out of their minds.

  “Mom! Dad!” I stood up, stumbling a little as another explosion, this one even closer,

  shook the house to its foundations. My mom caught me before I could fall, and I looked into her frightened green eyes, feeling more scared than she looked. “What’s going on? Why are we shaking?”

  Mom didn’t answer. She just looked over at Dad.

  “They’ve found us,” Dad said. I was confused. They? Who were they? “It was bound to happen sooner or later. Quick, take Christian and get out of here. I’ll go to where the fighting is, and help hold them off long enough for you two to escape.”

  “What?” Mom looked startled for a moment, but then shook her head. “You can’t expect me to just leave you! I’m going with you!”

  “You aren’t,” Dad snapped. “Someone needs to stay with Christian. I’m sure the others are mounting a defense already, but they’ll be outnumbered! And besides”—Dad grinned a sharp-toothed grin— “it’s a man’s job to protect his wife and child.”

  “Don’t you dare put that sexist attitude on display with me.” Despite her narrowed eyes, Mom almost looked amused. “I might not be able to fight like you can, but I’m a damn good shot.”

  “I know that, but you still can’t come. If you go with me, who’ll be there to protect Christian?”

  Mom bit her lip, but was forced to concede the point.

  “Fine. Just know that if you get yourself killed, I am going to drag your ass out of hell and beat the crap out of you.”

  “Now there’s some serious motivation if I’ve ever heard it,” Dad snarked back before kissing Mom on the lips. I never liked it when they kissed. Kissing was yucky. But I didn’t mind it this time. I was too scared by the sound of explosions to pay attention to my parents getting all lovey-dovey with each other.

  They soon broke apart. Mom rushed upstairs to “grab something important,” and Dad knelt down next to me, placing his hands on my shoulders and giving me a warm smile.

  “Christian, I want you to listen to me and listen well. When you are older, you will likely find yourself in a position where someone you love is in danger. There are only two choices you can make during times like this: the easy choice and the right choice.” His grip on my shoulders became firm. “Promise me that you will always make the right choice.”

  I didn’t know what Dad was talking about. Right choice? What did he mean? Still, even if I didn’t know what he meant, I nodded my head dutifully. I felt tears running down my cheeks as I did so, even though I couldn’t understand why.

  “Good. Now be a good boy and protect your mom for me, okay? She’s a stubborn woman and will need your help in the years to come.”

  I wanted to ask why he was telling me all of this. To ask why he couldn’t just protect Mom himself. I had seen him train. Dad was strong. He could break boulders with his bare hands. I wasn’t that strong. I couldn’t protect Mom like he could.

  But I couldn’t ask. I couldn’t ask why because I was afraid. All I could do was nod my head.

  “There’s a good boy.” My dad gave me that cocky grin of his. His grin always reminded me of Han Solo. “And remember, even if I’m not by your side, a part of me will always be with you.”

  With those parting words, Dad rushed out of the house.

  That was the last time I ever saw him. It was the last time I ever saw Mom as well. Not even a second after Dad left, my entire house became consumed with flames, and I ended up blacking out as a powerful explosion blasted me straight through a wall.

  ***

  Inhaling a sharp breath, Christian woke with a start. His eyes flickered about wildly for a second, trying to see the flames that were devouring his house. Only there were no flames. He was not in his house. All he saw were the white walls and ceiling of his hotel room.

  As the tension in his body slackened, his mind put together the pieces of what must have happened after he blacked out. It was clear that someone―likely Lilith, or maybe Catherine―had brought him back after the battle. He wondered how long he’d been unconscious.

  A groan escaped his barely parted lips as he thought about what had transpired to land him in this situation… again. It was happening far too often for his tastes. First that werewolf had caught him completely unprepared. Then, after facing down an assassin, he’d wound up in a battle for his life against a creature that he really had no chance of defeating. The only reason he was even alive was due to Damien’s arrogance and Lilith’s courage.

  Speaking of Lilith…

  Christian’s ears twitched as the sound of running water alerted him to someone in the shower. He assumed it was Lilith, as she was the only person who would take a shower in his hotel…

  Well, Tristin might also take a shower at his place just to screw with him, but since Tristin was all the way in Los Angeles, he was betting on it being Lilith.

  Wanting to know the state of his physical condition, he ran a mental checklist of the injuries he could feel. There were surprisingly few. In fact, aside from a bit of stiffness in his chest, shoulders and back, he couldn’t feel any of the damage that he had received during his fight with the No Life King.

  While he checked the extent of his injuries, the sounds coming from the shower cut off. Christian pushed himself into a sitting position, groaning as his muscles stretched uncomfortably after however long they’d gone unused. The door to the bathroom opened and out walked Lilith, a towel wrapped around her curvaceous figure.

  Maybe it was because his brain felt more than a little muddled because of having just woken up, but Christian couldn’t help but admire Lilith’s figure. With nothing more than a towel wrapped around her, he could see the generous proportions that made up her body; her slender shoulders, her incredible bust, her thin waist and flat tummy, her sensual hips that traveled down into even more incredible legs, which ended with a pair of small, dainty feet.

  It had never occurred to him before now, not even the other day when they slept together, but Lilith was truly the most bewitching woman that he had ever met.

  The young woman in question continued walking, toweling the water off her hair for several more seconds. She strode nearly halfway into the room before finally noticing that he was no longer lying unconscious on the bed. She stared at him, blinking for several seconds, as if she was not quite sure what to make of him.

  “Good morning, Lilith,” Christian said into the silence.

  “Christian…” she whispered. A second later the towel was fluttering to the ground as she bounded toward him. “Christian!”

  Christian’s eyes widened.

  “Wait! Lilith, I’m still―OOF!”

  Just like what had happened after his battle with Damien, Lilith bodily tackled him. Fortunately, he was on a bed and not the ground. He also wasn’t injured, which was a very good thing, because he didn’t want to undergo the feeling of his ribs being crushed by the overzealous woman wrapping her arms around him.

  And just like that, Lilith began crying… again. He seemed to have a knack for making her cry.

  “You’re finally awake!” He could just barely make out the words between her sobs. “I was so worried! You passed out and wouldn’t wake up! We took you to the hospital, and these people kept trying to stick you with
things, and I didn’t like it. And then they tried to revive you, but you wouldn’t wake up! I thought you were dead! And then they said that you were healing and that you would make a full recovery, and I was so relieved that I… that I…”

  Guilt settled in his gut and refused to leave. Christian felt like a jerk. How many times had he made this woman cry? Two times? Three? Maybe more? He could only hope this didn’t become a common occurrence. On their own, women were trouble. Crying women were trouble to the tenth power.

  With nothing else to do except comfort the young woman in his arms, Christian did the only thing he could think of. He hugged her back. His arms went around her waist and pulled her in. Her body conformed to his, allowing him to feel all of her pressing up against him. Her head found purchase in the crook of his neck, where she proceeded to continue bawling her eyes out.

  He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, with him holding Lilith as she cried out her worries. Time didn’t seem to have as much meaning in these instances, or maybe the passage of time had slowed down because God was playing a prank on him. He’d never heard of God being a prankster, but with everything that had happened on this mission, someone up there had to be finding entertainment with the utterly ridiculous set of circumstances that he’d been finding himself in.

  Christian could only be thankful that the waterworks eventually stopped and, save for a few sniffles and hiccups, Lilith calmed down.

  “I’m sorry for worrying you like that,” Christian murmured softly, pressing his lips to her forehead.

  “You’d better be sorry.” Lilith hiccupped. “Stupid man. You could have died. Do you know what would have happened if you died? What that would have done to me?”

  “Uh, well, I guess it would have made you sad?”

  When Lilith lifted her head and glared at him, complete with dangerously narrowed eyes and thinned lips, Christian knew that he had said the wrong thing.

  “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you died, Christian. I don’t think you realize how important you are to me. How much I love you! If something had happened… if I hadn’t been able to save you in time… I wouldn’t have been able to go on living…”