Suddenly A Succubus
Chapter 30.2

Tessa woke at her usual hour, with just enough time to get to her first final. She was only a few minutes late, but thankfully her teachers were used to her indifference. After powering through her exam, without caring too much about how well she did, she had just enough time to swing by the cafeteria for lunch.

Today it was just her and Chloé, and she wasn’t entirely sure how to compose herself. As much as she’d wanted some time to herself yesterday, Tessa couldn’t deny that she was growing more and more worried about Amara.

And maybe Vee. But not as much.

Chloé was going on and on about some new game that was coming out soon, and Tessa was more than happy to let her ramble. She did her best to pretend to be interested, though her thoughts were mostly fixated on how she might be able to find Amara and Vee.

“—and they’ve got a bunch of different hair styles, including a lot of undercut options! That’s actually pretty rare in games like these, just like having a good variety of hair options for black characters. Anyways, the most exciting thing is that you can play as a trans character!” Chloé said, scrolling through pictures; she was under the impression that Tessa was paying rapt attention.

“I imagine that’s not very common either?” Tessa asked.

“It might be a first, honestly. It’s so cool! I’m hoping I can show it to Amara once she’s feeling better. Actually, have you talked to her at all? She’s not answering my texts, and neither is Vee.”

“Um, I think they’re both just really going through it. I’m going to swing by and drop off some things for them later today, I’ll let them know you said hey.” Tessa continued eating, trying to finish her food as quickly as possible so she could start investigating.

“Oh, could I come with? I’d love to see them before break hits, it’s going to be pretty lonely once you all leave.”

Tessa paused, trying to think of a good way to let Chloé down gently. “I’m not quite sure when I’m going, but I’ll let you know, okay? My schedule’s just a little crazy right now.”

Chloé seemed a little disappointed, but forced a smile anyways. “Sure, that sounds good. Just let them know I miss them, okay?”

“Mmhm, can do. Listen, I’m gonna head out, but I’d love to hear more about this game when it comes out, okay?”

“Okay! Maybe you can come over sometime, and I can show it to you!”

“Deal!” Tessa said, picking up her things. She felt bad ditching Chloé again, but she had no other choice. She’d agreed to meet Nick at Lysander Hall to start their planar investigation today, and he’d just texted her that he’d already arrived.

After tossing the rest of her lunch, Tessa ran to meet up with Nick, finding him waiting by the elevator. After looking around to make sure no one would be joining them on the lift, they boarded and pressed the secret button hidden by an illusion. Nick had never been down here before, and Tessa made sure to show him where the button was for future reference.

“So, what’s down there? I’m not going to end up fighting anything, am I?” Nick asked, nervously wringing the straps on his backpack.

“No, you’ll be fine. I mean, I haven’t been down here since the night of the ritual, so technically I can’t say for sure that the portal hasn’t reopened. Look, if the place is crawling with demons, just stay behind me and we’ll ride the elevator back up.”

“Tessa! That’s not making me feel better!”

Tessa slapped Nick on the back, laughing as the elevator landed. “Oh, lighten up. We’ll be fine.”

As they stepped out, a familiar hallway greeted Tessa. On the night of the ritual, all of the fighting had happened in the main chamber, so this entry hallway was still quite clean. As they approached the chamber, however, the familiar smell of iron washed over them.

The floor, walls, and pillars were covered with week-old bloodstains. Some spots only held small patterns of droplets, while others were positively drenched with the stuff. Tessa hadn’t paid the mess much attention after they’d won the fight, but with a second look, she couldn’t deny the place looked pretty fucking metal.

“Oh god!” Nick gasped, covering his mouth with his hand as he walked into the chamber. “Tessa, this is horrifying! What on earth happened here?!”

“Seriously? Nick, we already told you, there was a huge fight to the death.” Tessa rolled her eyes. “What, did you think that Amara was able to peacefully knock everyone unconscious with a clean bonk on the head?”

“I mean, no, but… this seems somewhat excessive, don’t you think?”

“Look, Nick, you’ve only seen the fun, sexy side of Amara. That night, she was juiced up on a fuckton of energy, and it was kill or be killed. The girl was practically a human woodchipper. Just, you know, with people instead of wood.”

Nick turned away from the chamber, stepping back to the hallway as his breath quickened. “Fuck, okay. It’s not that I didn’t know this, but seeing the aftermath like this is a different story. I saw her get angry once, a few weeks back, but it’s hard picturing her like this.”

“She’s a demon, Nick. The most surprising thing about her is that she isn’t doing this all the time.”

“She’s my friend, Tessa, she’s more than just a demon. Pardon me for not immediately coming to terms with the fact that she killed a bunch of people that night.”

Despite Tessa’s flippant attitude, she had to admit she understood where Nick was coming from. In the moment, surrounded by cultists and hostile demons, Tessa had been overjoyed to have Amara’s rampage on her side. Since then, however, she’d seen the cultists Amara had fucked, and witnessed just how aggressive Amara had gotten in their own hookups. With the benefit of hindsight, it was hard to ignore just how deadly Amara was.

“Everyone Amara fought was already dead, Nick. They sold their souls to demons, and the demons were using their bodies like puppets.”

“You know what I mean, Tess,” Nick said, his breath slowly calming.

Unfortunately, I kinda do.

“Look, I’m going to go investigate the Hell circle. If you want to wait here, go for it.” Tessa took off, walking towards the center of the chamber as she engaged her magic. She looked around at the leylines, surprised at how potent they were this far underground, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Creating a portal that reached into Hell probably took a lot of juice, so it would make sense that it needed to be as close to the Leylines as possible.

She began expanding her senses, poking and prodding at the different magical signatures she found floating around the chamber. Thankfully, the portal to Hell remained sealed, and the rest of the magic she found appeared normal. To the best of her knowledge, it didn’t appear likely that Amara and Vee had ended up in Hell.

“Alright, we can head out. I’m not seeing anything weird here,” Tessa said, returning to Nick.

“That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.” Nick eagerly walked back to the elevator, repeatedly pressing the button to try and call the lift quicker. “When Amara and Vee are back, we should come clean this place up. It feels wrong to leave it in that state.”

“Maybe you just need to distract yourself, talk about something else.” Tessa paused slightly, an idea crossing her mind. “Come to think of it, we’re both sleeping with Amara, and we’ve never talked about it! Have you got any juicy details? What’s it like fucking a demon?”

Nick gave her a slightly perplexed look but responded anyways. “Like you said, we’ve both hooked up with her. You know what it’s like.”

“Yeah, but I’m a girl! Guys have such different tastes, I’m sure things are way different when you two fuck. Does she ever shapeshift for you? Come on, you’ve asked her to turn into your celebrity crush at some point, right?”

“For your information, no, I haven’t. I happen to like Amara as herself. She’s always the one pushing for the kinkier stuff, like the anal play. That was all her idea.”

“Actually,” Tessa said, moving slightly closer, “I was the one that got her started on that particular kink. Was it fun? Fucking a succubus in the ass?”

Nick stammered slightly, looking away from Tessa as she moved closer. “I mean, sure, it was fun. Sex with Amara is always great, I don’t know what else you want me to say about it.”

“Well, Amara said you were pretty excited about it. You know, I happen to love anal myself,” Tessa whispered. She was trying to be a bit more subtle this time, hoping she might discover whatever trick there was to seducing Nick. Unfortunately, her efforts only seemed to be making him uncomfortable.

“That’s, uh, nice,” Nick said. The elevator pinged, signaling that they’d landed on the main floor.

Frustrated that her efforts had failed again, Tessa rolled her eyes and stepped off the elevator. “Ugh, just stay close, alright? There’s another circle we can hit while we’re here, and after that we’ll need to run over to Brandt, then to the Science Building. Hopefully one of them will have a clue.”

Thankfully, the staircase downstairs was fairly close. The bottom floor of Lysander Hall held the very first magic circle Tessa had found, and the area around it always felt a little cold. It was hidden by an illusory wall, but Tessa had plenty of experience pulling it down, and the process was finished in less than a minute. Nick seemed impressed with that particular trick, and held his hand against the wall as Tessa dismissed the illusion.

“Wow, that’s pretty impressive. I always thoughts illusions were visual only, but the wall here was solid.”

“People tend to think that illusions are more like desert mirages, something that you can never physically touch, but that’s never been the case. Illusions are just as solid as anything real, but the difference is in the substance. You ever see those shows where they make a bunch of household objects that are actually cake? That’s kind of how illusions work; they look real, and you can touch them, but with enough force they crumple.”

“Huh. Illusions are just the fondant of the magical world, who knew.” Surprisingly, Nick laughed at the comparison. “So, you couldn’t use illusions to build a house?”

“I mean, you could, but it would fall apart way too easily.” After a quick pause, Tessa remembered what Nick was studying. “That’s right, you’re an architecture nerd.”

“Guilty as charged. I like seeing different elements come together to make something new.” There was a brief pause, then Nick spoke up again. “Is magic something you enjoy? Like, I’m sure the telekinesis is fun, but what about all the language? Learning the runes, figuring out how they interact, building and deciphering all these circles, stuff like that.”

Tessa paused, almost unsure how to answer the question. No one had ever asked her that before; of course, she did everything in her power to keep people from finding out she was a witch. She stammered slightly as she thought about what to say. “I guess I’ve never thought about it that way. Like you said, the powers are neat, but I wasn’t necessarily jazzed to learn all the runes and symbols when I was back with my coven. Although back then it felt like work, like it was being forced on me.”

“What about now? Before you knew about the cult, it was just you and Amara trying to decipher the circles. Was that enjoyable?”

“It’s not like that. I have a responsibility as a Witch to keep tabs on weird magic bullshit; I wasn’t just researching the circles for the fun of it.”

“Is that what witches do? Is that why you’re here?”

Shit, he’s getting comfy with me.

After a brief moment of panic, Tessa switched the subject. “Look, we’re here to find Amara, aren’t we? How about I just start digging into this circle already.”

Nick raised his hands, a playful admission of surrender. “Alright, do your thing. Just curious, that’s all.”

Eager to avoid more probing questions, Tessa kneeled down in front of the circle and engaged her magic. Her tattoos started glowing, and her senses expanded as she started to look for abnormalities. The instant she started, she could tell something was wrong. The other circles she’d investigated had traces of planar energy, normally the residue that leaked through on its own; the vines under the cafeteria, the heat under Brandt Hall, things like that. Here, although the cold was leaking through as it always had, the circle itself seemed much more active.

The strangest thing was the type of magic Tessa found. Some of it seemed to match the circle, it was magic that drained the energy from things, instilling a sense of cold. Her best guess was this magic was from the plane itself, whichever plane the circle was built to connect to. In her opinion, that plane was Purgatory. It could also be an elemental plane, but the lack of any water or ice made that seem less likely. However, there was a second kind of magic present, and it felt dramatically out of place.

The strange magic was incredibly lively and vivacious, filled with hope and potential. It seemed to be completely at odds with the chilling planar energy, and Tessa had no idea what it meant. Was this circle connected to two planes at once? That would defy everything she’d learned these last few months. She kept looking, trying to isolate the two different magics in hopes of finding a better answer.

The more she focused on the second, livelier magic, the more it seemed familiar. Not because she’d worked with it before, but because she’d seen it in action before; it was angelic magic.

Tessa was absolutely certain that this circle wasn’t connected to Heaven, and that only meant one thing.

“Oh fuck,” Tessa said.

Nick, who’d been wandering around the hallway, ran back after hearing her speak. “What?! What's wrong?”

“I found them. Vee and Amara are stuck in Purgatory!”