Chapter 2: Succubus wants some
Consciousness returned to Theo not with a gentle nudge, but with the suffocating sensation of being buried alive in soft, warm flesh. His face was pressed into something impossibly plush and yielding, a scent of jasmine and something darker, coppery, flooding his senses. He blinked, his glasses askew, the world a blur. As his vision cleared, he found himself staring up a vast, sloping plain of creamy skin and black velvet, culminating in two tremendous, gravity-defying orbs that blocked out the moonlight. His head was pillowed on thighs that were both silken and powerful.
He tilted his head back, his neck cracking with the movement, and saw her face looking down at him. Lilith—Lily—her crimson and black hair framing features that were both angelic and utterly bored. Her cold blue eyes held no warmth, only a mild, predatory amusement.
“Oh good, you’re back,” she said, her voice a lazy drawl. “I was starting to think I’d have to drag your scrawny ass all the way to your little hovel. Do you have any idea how boring it is watching a human sleep? You don’t even twitch interestingly.”
Theo’s brain, still struggling to reboot, replayed the last moments before the blackout: the priest, the crunch, the glowing symbol. A strangled yelp escaped his lips. He scrambled backwards, his elbows digging into the damp earth, crab-walking away from her until his back hit a gnarled tree root.
“You—you ate him!” he stammered, pointing a shaking finger at her, then at the spot where the priest had been. Only a dark, damp patch on the leaves remained.
She rolled her eyes, a gesture of profound exasperation. “Yes, and he was dry and tasted like dogma. A truly disappointing meal. Now, about this…” She gestured vaguely at her own stomach, where the thorny, eye-knot symbol still glowed with a faint, ember-like light against her skin. “This is your fault, you know. Your little ‘heroic’ intervention forged a bond. I’m stuck with you, and pal, you are stuck with me.”
Theo’s survival instincts, honed by years of avoiding bullies and social interaction, finally screamed into action. He didn’t understand any of this, but every fiber of his being told him to run. He launched himself to his feet, his legs wobbling, and without another word, he bolted. He crashed through the undergrowth, ferns whipping at his calves, branches snagging on his cargo pants. He didn’t look back. The image of her, of that thing, burned behind his eyes.
He made it maybe ten yards before he ran face-first into something immense, soft, and unyielding. The impact jarred his teeth and sent his glasses flying. He bounced back, landing hard on his rear in the mud. Dazed, he looked up.
She was just… there. Standing directly in his path, arms crossed under the breathtaking shelf of her chest, which he had just intimately headbutted. She hadn’t been there a second ago. She hadn’t moved. She had simply appeared.
“Where do you think you’re going, little man?” Her voice was a condescending purr, laced with dark amusement. She unfolded her arms and in one fluid, effortless motion, scooped him up from the ground. Her strength was terrifying. One arm wrapped around his back, pinning him against the impossible softness of her body, while her other hand tilted his chin up, forcing him to meet her gaze. Her skin was unnaturally warm.
“Let me go!” he squeaked, struggling uselessly. It was like trying to move a mountain made of sex and murder.
“No can do, loverboy,” she murmured, her breath hot against his ear. She smelled like a bakery built over a grave. “See this mark?” She used her free hand to trace the glowing symbol on her abdomen, just above the waistband of her dress. It pulsed faintly at her touch. “This is a binding seal. You, with your spectacularly ill-advised shove, claimed me. My essence is now tied to your… well, your essence. Your life force. Your boring, virgin soul.” She leaned in closer, her lips brushing the shell of his ear, making him shudder. “Which means I can’t be more than a hundred feet from you without feeling like my insides are trying to crawl out through my eyes. And trust me, I’m not into that kind of pain.”
Theo’s mind reeled. “Claimed you? I didn’t claim anything! I was just… I was trying to help!”
“And you helped yourself to a centuries-old succubus. Congratulations.” She sighed dramatically, her chest heaving against him in a way that made his brain stutter. “Look, the upside for you is obscenely good. You get me. All of this,” she gestured with her chin at her own body, “whenever you want. I am literally magically compelled to fuck your brains out. It’s a full-time, eternal all-you-can-eat buffet of this premium demon pussy. No strings attached, except, you know, the metaphysical ones that mean you can never, ever get rid of me.”
He stared at her, horrified. This couldn’t be happening. This was worse than any Brad Costas party. This was a nightmare with tits.
“Now,” she said, her tone shifting from explanatory to impatient. “The foreplay is over. My jeans are metaphorically wet. You have a dorm room, I assume? With a bed? Or even a floor will do, I’m not picky. Now lead me to your dorm so we can consummate this clusterfuck before I get any more pissed off that my last meal was a two-century-old celibate.”
She released him, letting him drop the last few inches to the ground. He stood there, trembling, his mind a blank screen of terror and a faint, traitorous flicker of curiosity he immediately tried to smother.
He looked at her. Really looked at her. The absurd, jiggling curve of her hips, the waist he could probably circle with his hands, the way her chest strained against the fabric with every breath. The mark on her stomach, his mark, glowing like a brand. There was no escape. She was in his head, in his life, tied to his soul.
Swallowing hard, his throat dry as dust, Theo Plimpton turned and, with legs that felt like wet noodles, began to lead the way out of the woods. She fell into step beside him, her arm linking with his in a possessive grip that felt like a manacle. Her proximity was a constant, warm pressure, and the scent of her filled his nose, a promise of heaven and hell rolled into one.
“Try to walk faster, Theo,” she purred, her voice dripping with lewd anticipation. “I’ve been dreaming about draining a nerd for decades.”