Suddenly A Succubus
Chapter 25.3

In the chaos of trying to stop the cult, everyone had forgotten about one crucial detail; the following day was no ordinary Thursday, it was Thanksgiving. Amara woke to a very confusing text from her mother, asking when she was planning on driving back, causing Amara to panic and share that she was spending the holiday with Nick. When she ran over to Nick’s to make sure they were on the same page, she’d discovered that he’d spun a similar lie.

“Ugh, Nick, I feel so bad lying to her!” Amara complained, falling onto his couch.

“You’re not technically lying, we are spending today together,” Nick said, cleaning up his kitchen.

“You know what I mean! Not only does she think I’m with your family, but this means she’s going to be completely alone.”

“Can you remind me why? I always forget. Her family… lives far away? Something like that?”

“She always said they were awful, and she moved to get away from them. Obviously my dad was never in the picture, so there isn't family on that side either. Plus, y’know, since I'm pretty sure he's an incubus, I'm not sure we'd want to hang with his family anyways.”

“Well, you can make it up to her on Christmas, assuming there’s not a secret second cult somewhere on campus.”

With Nick’s roommate away for the holiday, Amara was free to manifest her tail, which she immediately used to throw a pillow at her friend. “Don’t say that! You’re gonna jinx us!”

Nick dodged the pillow easily, laughing to himself as he started pulling bags of food out of the fridge. “Come on, it’s just a joke. Now get over here and help me get everything ready.”

“Ready for what? It’s way too early for lunch,” Amara said, sliding off the couch and joining Nick in the kitchen. She was surprised to find a massive spread of food, probably enough to feed a dozen people, including a giant turkey. “Hold on, are we actually doing Thanksgiving?”

“Why not? We’re here, there aren’t any classes, and it’s not like you can spend the entire day sparring with Vee. I heard last night was… interesting.”

“What did Tessa tell you? Because whatever it was, she’s lying, and that’s not what happened!” Amara’s face turned red, still flustered from last night’s events. She made a face at Nick, who was far too pleased with himself, before diving in to help prepare all the food. The two continued prepping in silence for a few moments before she spoke up again. “Wait, speaking of Tessa, should I tell her about this? There’s no way we can finish this by ourselves.”

“No need, I already took care of it. You’ve been busy with Mr. Wellington, and I’ve been busy making sure we all have a home to come back to.”

“Nick… you’re such a dork, you know that?”

The rest of the morning was spent preparing their holiday dinner. Nick blasted music the whole time, singing and dancing like an idiot as he tried to shake Amara out of her malaise. It felt weird, doing something so frivolous with a cult prowling underneath the campus, but after a while, she let herself get swept up in the holiday spirit and joined in. She even ran back to her apartment to change into a stuffy, beige sweater, one that had plenty of room for her tail to be out.

When she returned, she found Tessa sprawled on the couch, happily recounting the events of last night’s tumultuous training session.

“—so they look into each other’s eyes, right? Amara’s tail is flicking in excitement, Vee is out of breath, and— No! Get away!” The witch, tragically, was unable to finish her story. An enraged succubus leapt onto the couch, pillow in hand, eager to shut her up. Both girls laughed as Amara tried to smother Tessa, who was failing to hold her own. “You can’t silence me! The truth will come out eventually!”

By the time Nick needed more help in the kitchen, Amara had pinned Tessa to the ground and was relentlessly tickling her with her tail. The call to action spared Tessa from any further torment, though she seemed to have learned her lesson, and stopped talking about last night. After another few hours, during which all three friends did their best to ignore the impending chaos of the ritual, dinner was ready. It was earlier than usual, but everyone was eager to dig in after spending all day smelling the food.

“Amara, where’s the oven mitt?” Nick asked, ready to take the turkey out of the oven.

“Psh, beats me.” Amara pushed Nick out of the way with her tail, then grabbed the roasting pan with her bare hands and pulled it out.

“I guess that works too. Huh.”

“Hey, you’re the one that got me into cooking. I learned pretty quickly that this was way easier than dealing with that fussy glove.” As Amara looked for the tools to move the turkey, it suddenly rose up on its own, floating lazily through the air until settling on the plate Nick had put out. She looked over at Tessa, her tattoos starting to fade, and smirked.

“What? You two have been doing all the work, figured I might as well pitch in a little bit,” Tessa said.

As Nick started moving all the side dishes to the table, someone knocked on the front door. Amara quickly looked at him, her head cocked to the side, silently asking who it might be.

“Could you get that, Amara? I’m busy,” Nick said.

Slightly nervous, Amara tucked her tail into her sweater and demanifested her horns before answering the door. Thankfully, there were no cultists on the other side, but instead a girl with bright blonde hair and a serious look on her face.

“I heard we’re meeting early for tonight’s training?” Vee said.

“I, uh…” Amara opened the door further, looking for answers from Nick, while also revealing the Thanksgiving spread. Nick looked over at the two girls, smiling wide.

“Vee! You’re just in time!” he said.

“You… tricked me into coming here for dinner?” Vee asked, refusing to enter the apartment. She looked on in confusion for a few moments before finding something to say. “This is hardly the time, and… honestly, I don’t think I’m in the mood. Just text me when you’re ready to get some practice in.”

Vee turned to leave, walking down the hallway, and Amara quickly glanced back at her friends. Nick had his hands full with dishes, and Tessa seemed to have no interest in helping. Amara ran into the hallway after Vee, the door closing behind her. Amara caught up quickly and grabbed Vee’s arm. “Vee, wait!”

Vee spun on her heel, pulling out of Amara’s grasp. “Come on, Amara, Thanksgiving dinner? Is this supposed to make everything right between us?”

“I didn’t do this! I mean, I helped make all the food, but I didn’t know Nick had tricked you into coming over.”

“There’s always a convenient excuse, isn’t there?”

“He’s trying to help! We all had to cancel our plans; he just wants to give us something else to think about other than a fight to the death.”

“We don’t holiday together, Amara. I know you’re new to this, but angels and demons don’t just… hang out. That’s not how this works.”

“Yeah? And what if we all die Sunday? Do you want to spend your last days moping around your apartment?” Vee went quiet, her eyes falling to the carpet. When she didn’t answer, Amara huffed and rolled her eyes. “Fine, go be miserable for all I care.”

Amara turned away, angrily taking a few steps, before pausing. She was almost at Nick’s door, but she couldn’t bring herself to open it. She continued waiting, expecting to hear Vee walking away, but that didn’t happen. Vee moved closer, and when she finally spoke, her voice was incredibly quiet, as if she were nervous about someone listening in.

“This… doesn’t change anything, Amara.” Vee placed her hand on the door, carefully pushing it open before walking inside. Amara followed, almost surprised that she’d managed to talk Vee into joining them. The angel nervously sat down at the table, her posture picture perfect, as Tessa glared at her. Amara unwrapped her tail from her waist and used it to close the front door, bringing her horns back as well. By the time she made it to the table, Nick was finally cutting into the turkey.

“Ah, shoot,” Nick said. “This isn’t quite done yet. Amara, could you finish it up?”

With a smirk, Amara’s eyes flared as she focused on the heat inside the turkey. She stared intently at the oversized dinner, the tantalizing smell filling her senses, as she carefully finished cooking the turkey from the inside out. It took a few minutes, mostly because Amara wanted to play it safe, but soon enough everything was ready to go.

As Nick started handing out slices of meat, Amara looked up at Vee only to catch her staring back. Vee immediately averted her eyes, her look hardening as she spoke. “We couldn’t have just stuck it back in the oven? You had to use hellfire?”

“I can control all heat, Vee, it’s not like I opened up a portal to Hell inside the turkey to finish it. I just tweaked the temperature a bit,” Amara said, shoveling sides onto her plate. She’d recently begun to notice that her appetite seemed to be increasing, though it was nowhere near high enough to handle the feast in front of them.

“Would Heaven care if it weren’t an open flame?" Tessa asked. “At what point does heat stop being associated with Hell? If Amara heats up a room, is the whole room considered evil?”

Vee clearly wasn’t amused. “I’m not justifying that with a response. I’m here to eat, not to have my faith ridiculed.”

Nick spoke up next, having finally finished cutting up all the meat. “Hey Vee, did they tell you about our codewords?”

“Doesn’t sound familiar,” the angel said.

“I was planning on bringing it up tonight, but now’s as good a time as any.” Amara wiped some cranberry sauce off her lip before continuing. “I’m a shapeshifter, right? It’s probably safe to assume other demons might be able to do something similar, so we all have specific codewords to verify our identities. If you’re ever suspicious of someone, just ask ‘What’s for dinner tonight?’ and we’ll know what you mean. Tessa’s code is lentil soup, mine is hand-seared chicken.”

“Mine is pad thai, extra spicy,” Nick said.

“That’s honestly a good idea. They shouldn’t be able to shapeshift, since they’re in human hosts, but I suppose we don’t know what the point of the ritual is. I’ll say… spaghetti carbonara. I still can’t find any place in the states that can compare to when I first had it in Italy.” Vee smiled slightly, seemingly lost in her own memories.

“You’ve been to Italy?” Amara asked, surprised.

“It was a Church thing; angels do a lot of traveling. I had to visit the Vatican.”

“No fucking way! Did you meet the Pope?” Tessa asked.

“No, he was busy at the time. I probably could if I wanted to, though…”

“You should totally go back, bring us with, and then we steal the Popemobile and take it for a joyride!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Okay, but picture this. Amara, wings out, crammed in the back of the Popemobile while we’re leading a high speed chase through the Vatican!” Tessa started laughing, her own conjured image clearly too much for her. Her laughter grew more and more intense, and soon she was gripping her sides. While Amara didn’t find the thought as funny, the sight of Tessa losing her shit soon became contagious. She started laughing as well, which led Nick to join in soon after. Vee, unsurprisingly, was clearly annoyed by this, and didn’t seem interested in playing along. However, after a few moments, her face softened slightly, and she even started quietly chuckling along with everyone else.

The four of them continued eating for well over an hour, and as much as Nick tried to keep things light-hearted, Amara could tell that Vee was still very conflicted about being here. At times, Vee seemed to be genuinely relaxed, laughing and talking with everyone like everything was back to normal. On several occasions, though, Amara caught her friend staring down at her lap, with a strangely mournful look on her face. The look always vanished quickly when Vee realized she was being watched, and Amara couldn’t bring herself to broach the topic.

After everyone finally threw in the towel, a mountain of almost finished food in front of them, evening had dawned. Amara, Tessa, and Vee decided that they were far too full to visit the gymnastics building today, and Nick tried to convince everyone to move to the couches so they could throw on a movie.

Vee, however, had other plans. As everyone stood from the table and stretched, she spoke up. “I’m… going to head out. Thanks for having me, Nick, but… I need to leave.”

“O-oh, are you sure?” Nick asked.

Vee nodded. “I’ll see everyone tomorrow for practice. We can’t lose sight of what needs to happen this weekend.”

Nick looked to Amara, silently asking her to say something, while Vee quickly moved to the front door and grabbed her coat. She seemed strangely driven, especially given how much she’d just eaten, and when Amara finally agreed to say something, the door was already closing behind Vee.

Amara ran after her, shapeshifting back into a human form, and finally caught up once they were outside. She ran in front of Vee, stopping her in her tracks. “Vee, what’s going on?”

“Look, don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, okay?” Vee said, taking care to avoid looking Amara in her eyes.

“Why not? I’m a demon, I’m supposed to make things difficult, aren’t I?” Amara said, trying to lighten the mood. Vee didn’t seem to appreciate the joke.

“That’s entirely the point, Amara, you’re a demon! We tried to kill each other! How are we supposed to move past that? We’re literally being compelled by forces beyond our comprehension to be at each other’s throats, but you think we can just ignore that?” Vee paused, her voice tense as she sighed heavily. “Even… even if I wanted to, I can’t. Once this is finished, if we survive… we can’t be friends, Amara.”

Vee stepped to the side, her pace quickening as she walked away. Amara watched her leave, trying to think of something to say, but nothing came to her. She was never one for big picture arguments or ideas, and trying to picture the will of Heaven was not something she felt prepared to deal with.

She finally walked back inside, her mood soured despite the hours of good company she’d just enjoyed. A part of her had started to wonder if Vee would come around, that maybe they were starting to patch things up, but now she didn’t know what to think.

Would Heaven really care if two people happened to be friends? What does it matter to them?

Inside, Amara manifested her tail and horns again, then collapsed on Nick’s couch. She rested her head in Tessa’s lap as she remained lost in thought.

“I take it that didn’t go well?” Nick asked.

“I don’t know, Nick. She ate with us, which made me think things were getting better, but then she storms out like that… Why is this so confusing?”

“She’s an angel, Amara,” Tessa said, starting to play with Amara’s horns. “I’ve dealt with Church people before, and it’s like a giant cult. They’re all brainwashed into thinking there’s only one right way to live, and that they have all the answers. You know all those people that are convinced they’re better than you because they happen to be religious? Now imagine how insufferable those people would be if they were literally Heaven-sent.”

“Ugh, I don’t want to think about it right now. Can we just… put on a movie or something?”

Nick stayed quiet, giving Amara a knowing look, but likely decided that he didn’t want to force the issue any longer. Amara ended up falling asleep in Tessa’s lap before the movie ended, her thoughts a tangled mess as she tried to make up her mind about Vee.

—

For better or for worse, the next two days passed without any significant developments. On the one hand, no cultists tried attacking anyone in their sleep, but on the other, Vee seemed determined to keep her distance from everyone. The girls still continued meeting up in the gymnastics building to practice, but the Vee that had willingly shared Thanksgiving dinner with them was nowhere to be seen. Still, although things with Vee remained unresolved, Amara was at least happy that she had someone who could genuinely match her strength. She could feel herself improving with each hour that passed, and she had a sneaking suspicion that Vee appreciated having a chance to vent her frustrations.

Tessa continued studying her notes about the circles, and even managed to learn a few things from the decoy circle. While it had been a fake, many of its runes were still demonic in nature to sell the deception, and that proved to be an invaluable learning tool for her understanding of the circles.

Vee spent most of her free time creating small trinkets to help in the fight, all things she’d used against Amara on Halloween. Salt, holy water, rosaries, she even blessed Tessa’s switchblade temporarily.

Before long, the night of the ritual was upon them. Amara met up early with Tessa, both girls working out their tension with an intense hour of fucking, which left Amara feeling more then ready for their assault on the cult. When Vee arrived at Amara’s apartment, she had a sizable collection of holy items that she distributed between herself and Tessa. She even gave a bottle of holy water to Nick, who had helped finalize some of the logistical planning for the night. If everything went well, they were all hoping to meet up at Amara’s apartment after the ritual, where Nick would be ready to help with any recovery that might be needed.

“How’s everyone feeling?” Nick asked, clearly nervous about the upcoming fight.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Amara said, warming up as she checked the fit of her current athletic outfit. “Do we all remember the plan?”

“I’m reverse engineering the circle, Vee is creating a barrier to block out the demons, and you’re beating up everything on the outside.” Tessa recited the plan half-heartedly, which had been burned into her memory after hours of practice.

“I also need to stop Mr. Wellington as soon as possible. We have no idea what he’s trying to bring through, but it’s safe to assume it’ll be worse than the demons all the other cultists are getting,” Amara said.

“I’ll be waiting here. I know I can’t do much, but when this is all over, I’ll do my best to patch up any wounds that need attending to.” Nick held up a first-aid kit he’d recently bought.

With a heavy sigh, Amara looked around at everyone. It was weird, finally preparing to interrupt this ritual after so many weeks of sneaking around to figure out what the cult had been up to. She checked her phone one last time, watched the clock turn over to 2 AM, and handed it over to Nick. “I guess it’s now or never. Who’s ready to kick some—”

Amara was unable to finish the sentence, as her entire body seized unexpectedly while she let out a scream of pain. Hellfire erupted from her body, growing hotter and hotter until it enveloped her completely. With one last burst, the flames vanished, as did Amara. There was nothing left but a scorch mark on the carpet, leaving her friends to stare at each other in shock.

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