Chapter 16: Succubitch

REYNA

Derek’s eyes were glazed over as the succubus straddled him and shot me an evil smirk. Her grotesque wings fluttered on her back as she writhed on top of him, moaning.

“Get the hell off of him!” I screamed.

“He was ~so~ sexually frustrated,” she said, running her tongue across her lips slowly. “I barely even had to use my powers to seduce him.”

The rage inside me was building. I started to feel a sharp pain in my mouth that was so intense I almost doubled over.

The succubus continued taunting me. “He clearly wasn’t being satisfied by ~you,~” she said, laughing. “So what’s the harm in letting him have a little fun? Well…I guess I do have to kill him after I’m finished, so maybe there’s a ~little~ harm.”

I felt like something was ripping through the roof of my mouth. My eyes began to water, and I started to feel dizzy.

The succubus started to unzip Derek’s pants, her wings excitedly flapping back and forth.

“Fine, if you’re going to be a bore, you can just watch,” she sneered. “He won’t take long to finish anyway.”

~Okay, this bitch is really pissing me off.~

The pain in my mouth suddenly disappeared and I stepped toward the succubus, gritting my teeth. “I said…Get. The. Fuck. OFF!”

As the succubus whipped around, she looked startled. “You…you’re a vampire?”

~Wait, how does she know that?~

My fingers began feeling my teeth until they found the pointed ends that had emerged from my mouth.

~Fangs…~

~This is definitely new.~

As the succubus crawled off of Derek, looking threatened, her appearance changed even more.

Small pointed horns curled out of her head.

A slithery tail with a heart-shaped tip descended from her lower back.

She was ready for a fight.

And so was I.

The succubus lunged at me, using her wings to propel herself forward. She grabbed me and flung me into the ceiling.

We grappled in the air, her tail wrapping around my neck, constricting my air flow.

She smiled at me as I struggled to breathe. “Pity, I thought this would be more fun.”

I grasped the end of her tail and shoved it in my mouth, biting down ~hard.~

She screeched in agony, dropping me to the floor. I spat out the little heart-shaped tip and glared at her. “I’m just getting started.”

“You stupid cunt!” she shrieked, her eyes growing fiery. “I’ll throttle that pretty little neck of yours until your corpse is cold!”

“Not if I bite into yours first!” I retorted, feeling more powerful than I ever had before.

She lunged at me again, but this time I was ready. I rolled to the side and grabbed her wings, catapulting her into a shelf full of Derek’s musical equipment.

~Shit, that stuff is expensive.~

The succubus lifted up her chin, disheveled hair in her face as she flicked her forked tongue at me.

~I’m sure he’ll understand.~

I eyed a guitar amp that was plugged into the wall. As the succubus got to her feet, I ripped open the front and pulled out some wires.

“DIIIIEEE!” she screamed, swooping down on me, her face an ugly contortion of wrath.

She grabbed my throat, but I managed to grab what was left of her tail and shoved it into the exposed wires.

A current of electricity surged through the succubus, cooking her like a bat on a barbecue.

She dropped to the floor, fizzling, no more fight left in her. She looked up at me as I stood over her. “I just wanted to fuck some powerful men, okay. And I sensed a power in your little boyfriend. But you can have him. There’s ~much~ bigger fish in the sea.”

Her words took me off guard. ~She senses a power in Derek? What does that mean?~

Before I could interrogate her, the succubus jumped up and launched herself out the window, sending shattered glass everywhere, and fled into the night.

I turned around and Derek’s eyes cleared up as he regained control. “Oh my God, Reyna…I’m so sorry…I didn’t—”

“You don’t have to explain, Derek. She was riding a power high from the Haze. There was nothing you could’ve done,” I said, sitting down next to him.

As I placed my hand on his, my fangs retracted. Derek pulled away.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, a hint of distrust in his voice.

“Tell you what?”

“That you’re a ~vampire,~” he said, looking at me like I was a stranger. “That’s a pretty big secret to keep.”

“First of all, I’m only a half-vampire,” I said, correcting him. “And second, I haven’t even taken the ritual. That doesn’t happen until I turn twenty, and I don’t even know if I’ll do it.”

“Well it seems like you’re already on your way. The fangs sure as hell came out tonight,” he said.

He was right. That was strange. Maybe the Haze imbalance was affecting me somehow too?

“Look, I’m sorry that I kept it from you, but it’s just…it’s very personal for me. I can’t confide in just anyone about it,” I said, staring deeply into his eyes. They weren’t filled with distrust anymore, but understanding.

“But you’re confiding in me?” Derek asked, smiling.

“I guess I am,” I said, smiling back.

He scooted closer to me and brushed my messy hair out of my eyes. “You can trust me, Reyna.”

I nodded, knowing that was true. “It’s hard for me to open up to people, but you’re…you’re different,” I said, placing my head on his shoulder.

“I actually feel privileged that I’m the first person you’d confide in.”

“Well, Jed knows too, but I—”

“Jed?” The accusatory tone was back almost instantly. Derek pulled away to face me. “Who’s Jed?”

“He’s just a friend,” I said, getting a bit annoyed.

“But you said that you didn’t confide in just anyone. You said you had a hard time opening up to people. But apparently not. You opened up to ~Jed.~”

He was being so irrational. I was willing to give him a pass because he almost got his head bitten off by a succubus, but I didn’t like this jealous side of Derek.

“I don’t think of him like that at all, Derek. He’s like a brother,” I said exasperated. “I’m allowed to have friends that are boys.”

“Ones that you conveniently never talk about,” he replied suspiciously.

This wasn’t the time or the place for this conversation, and I was still amped up from my fight. If he kept going like this, the fangs would be coming out a second time.

“Derek, there’s nothing going on with Jed. I promise you.” I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and stood up. “Anyway, this conversation will have to wait because that batty bitch is still out there, and I’m ready for round two.”

Derek looked a little turned on by my aggression. “What should I do if she tries to come back?” he asked.

I looked at him seriously. “Find a ~really~ big can of bat spray.”

EVE

I paced back and forth, tapping my finger against my chin. Reyna and Killian stood in front of me. “So the succubus is not only stirring up sexual bedlam across all of Lumen, she’s also sleeping with men and then killing them?”

Reyna nodded. “She almost got to Derek.”

“How did ~you~ fight off a succubus?” Killian asked, sounding impressed.

I was also curious to hear that answer. Reyna had been training hard, but there was no way she was powerful enough to take on a succubus alone.

“I…I grew fangs,” she said quietly.

“~Excuse me~?” I said, not sure if I’d heard that right.

“It’s not like I did it on purpose,” she said defensively. “It just kind of happened in the heat of the moment.”

This wasn’t good. It meant that the Haze imbalance was probably starting to affect Reyna, too. This was way too early for her powers to be surfacing. I’d have to keep a closer eye on Reyna during our sessions.

I knew from experience that too much power too fast was never a good thing.

“What happened before she fled? Did she say anything that might help us figure out where she’s going next?” I asked, tabling thoughts of Reyna’s emerging powers for now.

“She specifically said that she’s only seeking out powerful men,” Reyna replied.

“I’m not so sure about that theory,” Killian said somewhat quickly.

“And why is that?” I asked, whipping around, ready to hear my ward’s explanation.

“Because she hasn’t tried to fuck ~me~,” he replied with no sense of irony.

Reyna and I exchanged a knowing look, and she rolled her eyes.

“Yes, well, in any case Killian, that mystery will have to be solved another time,” I said with a smirk, causing Reyna to giggle. “But right now, we need to figure out who she’ll target next.

“That’s easy,” Killian said, sounding a bit miffed. “We just need to ask who’s the most powerful man in Lumen.”

All of our eyes widened. We didn’t need Snow’s powers to figure out this one.

~The Alpha of the Millennium.~