Chapter 17: Just Keep Chopping 🌶️

RAPHAEL

Lately, it felt like all of Lumen was going mad from the Haze imbalance, and all I could do was deal with whatever new issues emerged as they happened.

I was the Alpha of the fucking Millennium, so it was my responsibility to handle an endemic like this. I just wished this particular endemic had chosen a ~different~ millennium to fuck with.

I was stuck in my office all night, trying to deal with the shit storm of complaints coming in. My eyes were barely able to stay open.

So I was a little unsure if what I was seeing was real when one of the most gorgeous women I’d ever seen tapped lightly on my door frame and walked into my office.

She was wearing a barely-there black lace dress that was cut all the way down to her navel. Her perfect breasts bounced up and down as she approached me and leaned over my desk, giving me a front row seat to her cleavage.

“Can I help you?” I asked, clearing my throat. Normally I would’ve been on high alert that an unknown individual was waltzing into my office, unannounced, but for some reason I was just curious.

“Yes, I think you might be ~exactly~ who I need,” she said, pouting her crimson red lips.

Her scent was intoxicating. It was like all of my favorite scents combined into one. But how was that possible?

Either way, it was starting to arouse me, and I needed to get myself in check.

“If you’re here to file a complaint, come back in the morning,” I said in a low growl, trying to set boundaries with this woman who seemed to have none. “I don’t handle requests personally.”

“Oh?” she asked, arching her eyebrows and then her back. “What do you ~handle~?”

Her hands cupped her considerable breasts, and I actually started to sweat. “Could they handle these?” she asked, dropping her dress down over her shoulders and letting her tits spill out for me to see.

~Fuck, why am I letting this happen? I don’t want this to go any further, but at the same time…~

It was like I couldn’t think straight. She crawled onto my desk and sat in front of me, spreading her legs. “Do you want this, my big, strong, Alpha?”

She pulled her panties down to her ankles and shoved my head toward her pussy.

~No, dammit! Why can’t I control myself?~

I was actually struck speechless. It was like her pussy had some kind of power over me.

As my face got closer and her legs spread wider, my eyes widened with horror.

Her vagina had dozens of razor-sharp teeth. Above, her nipples had hardened into spikes. Two wings burst from her back as she smirked down at me.

~She’s a succubus.~

“It will be the ~best~ feeling you’ll ever have.”

~Get control, dammit!~

“And it will be the ~last~ feeling you’ll ever have.”

~You’re the Alpha of the Millennium! This demon whore has no effect on you.~

~GET CONTROL!~

As her hands moved to my crotch and started massaging it, I shuddered from her touch. I needed release. But not in a sexual way…

I needed release from her control.

I roared and grabbed her by the wrists, tossing her across the room like a frisbee. She caught herself in mid-air, her wings flapping furiously.

“If you want to play rough, all you had to do was ask!” she said, her horns and tail emerging from her body. “This is going to be one satisfying fuck—once I make you submit.”

Finally feeling in control again, I partially shifted and swiped my claws through the air. “I’ll rip those puny wings off your back like the pathetic pest that you are, succubus!”

“Oh, will you?” she asked, amused.

“NO!” a voice suddenly boomed in the doorway. Eve was standing there with Reyna and Killian.

“I WILL!” my mate shouted, lunging at the succubus and knocking her out of the air.

They grappled on the ground, but the succubus grabbed Eve by the hair and flew up to the high ceilings of my office, throwing her into the chandelier.

“Eve!” I shouted. They were way too high. I couldn’t reach them.

“I don’t know what you are, but you’re no match for a succubus,” the demon sneered, dragging Eve across the walls, tearing the wallpaper to shreds.

Eve suddenly grabbed the succubus by the throat; her eyes blazed like a fiery inferno.

~Oh shit. I know that look.~

Eve’s own wings suddenly shot out of her back, beautiful black feathers floating to the floor.

The succubus’ mouth dropped open.

“I’m the fucking ~Devil~,” Eve snarled. “You’re no match for ~me.~ And I’m sending you back to hell.”

She squeezed the succubus’ neck tighter and tighter until her body went limp and burst into flames. The ashes rained down on me like a snowfall.

I looked up at Eve and grinned.

~That’s my mate.~

EVE

“They’re getting worse and worse,” I said as I stepped over the pile of ashes that ~used~ to be the bitch that had tried to seduce my mate. “If we don’t get this Haze imbalance under control, there’s no telling what we’ll have to deal with next.”

Raphael nodded as we all gathered around his desk. “Kimbringe needs to bring back some sort of concrete solution soon because I don’t know how much more of this Lumen can take.”

“And just where the hell is Kimbringe, exactly?” Killian asked. It was a question I’d been asking myself. What good is it being friends with a nearly all-knowing Deity if he’s not even around to share that knowledge?

“We’ll just have to figure this out for ourselves,” Reyna chimed in. “We’ve handled it ourselves so far, haven’t we? Whatever the Haze throws at us, we’ll throw it back twice as hard.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Reyna was really growing up lately, and her newfound confidence impressed me.

“I agree with Reyna,” I said, materializing my scythe into my hand. “The Haze is like a Hydra. Every time we cut off a head, two more sprout up in its place. But until we have a solution…

I swung my scythe through the air. “We’ll just keep chopping.”

REYNA

I returned home, exhausted. If my dad knew what I was out there doing almost every night, he would have had a heart attack.

Taking on Vampyres.

Sirens.

Pyromancers.

Succubi.

I didn’t even know if he’d believe it. Sometimes I couldn’t believe it myself.

Four months ago, I was just a normal teenage girl—besides the whole inheriting a royal fortune thing. But now…

I was a half-vampire, fighting to protect my city from supernatural threats.

And I loved it.

I felt powerful.

Was this what it would feel like when I fully embraced my vampiric roots?

~If~ I embraced them.

As I walked into the living room and saw dad cuddling on the couch with Blaire, entangled like a mess of weeds, I was reminded of exactly why I’d been able to get away with sneaking out so much lately.

~Ugh, fucking Blaire.~

“Oh, honey! I didn’t hear you come in,” Dad said, sitting up. “Blaire and I have been…uh, well…a little preoccupied tonight.”

“And this afternoon. And…this morning,” Blaire said, shooting me an annoying smirk.

I knew that everyone had been under the thrall of a succubus, but succubus-induced or not…

~Yuck.~

Anya suddenly popped into the room carrying a huge bowl of popcorn. “Okay, I’m officially ready for movie night,” she said, plopping down on the couch next to Dad and Blaire.

~Okay, what the fuck is going on? Anya hates Blaire almost as much as I do.~

“Are you gonna join, Rey?” she asked, smiling up at me.

~No, no, no. This isn’t going to do at all.~

I grabbed Anya by the wrist and pulled her off the couch. “Can I please speak to you in the kitchen for a moment? ~Now.~”

When we were alone, I instantly started whisper-shouting at Anya. “What the hell was that? Why are you suddenly playing house with that homewrecker?”

Anya just stared at me blankly.

~God, she’s usually pretty dense, but this is ridiculous.~

“What do you have to say for yourself?” I asked, frustrated. Still no reply.

“I can’t believe that you’ve fallen under her spell too!” I said, my voice rising. Now my sister was starting to piss me off.

But the more I looked at Anya, the more she looked strangely like a doll. Dead-eyed, with a slight unwavering smile on her face. Something was wrong.

Anya, are you okay?” I demanded, shaking her by the shoulders. “Answer me!”

Anya suddenly gripped her throat as if she’d lost her voice.

I turned to see Blaire standing behind me. Her hand was pointed at Anya and her hair was rippling through the air even though there was no wind.

Anya wasn’t just under her spell. She was under her ~spell~.

“You bitch! I knew it!” I tried to lunge at her, but she held up her other hand.

I couldn’t move a single muscle, frozen mid-lunge.

Blaire stepped toward me and placed her finger under my chin, staring into my eyes. “Now, Reyna, why don’t you come join us? We’ll make such a ~perfect~ little family…