Suddenly A Succubus
Chapter 31.4

By the time they arrived back in Vee’s apartment, Amara already felt much better. The pain had mostly receded, and while she was still sore, she was able to walk on her own. She happily moved to Vee’s living room, then promptly sprawled out all her limbs on the floor. “Ohhhh fuck, it feels so good to lie down. That reaper’s tail really nailed me, and I’m sure the fall didn’t help.”

After grabbing a heavy fleece blanket, Vee sat on the couch closer to Amara’s head and wrapped herself tight. “I’d offer to heal you, but…”

“Yeah, we both know that wouldn’t end well.” Amara sat up, groaning in pain the whole time, then began stretching out her wings. “Still, I’m pretty tough. You should have seen some of the hits Mr. Wellington landed on me.”

Vee didn’t answer. When Amara looked over to her, she noticed that the angel’s eyes were locked on her wings, following them as Amara stretched them out. “What’s it like?” Vee asked.

“What?”

“Flying.” Vee pulled her blanket even tighter.

Amara paused, unsure what to say. “Oh, it’s… it’s fine.” She looked down at the floor, avoiding Vee’s gaze.

“Amara, come on. This only works if we talk to each other.” Vee’s words were surprisingly vulnerable, almost as if she were pleading for an answer.

Silence filled the room. Flying was a huge sore spot for Amara, but she could tell that Vee was trying to have an earnest conversation. With a deep breath, followed by an equally heavy sigh, Amara started talking.

“I can’t fly.”

“What? Amara, I’ve seen you fly with my own eyes. You flew away after our fight on Halloween, and you flew after that reaper.”

Amara looked up at Vee, then turned to face her. “Look, I said this earlier, but I don’t know what’s happening to me. When this whole transformation started, I was alone and terrified.”

“Nick was there, wasn’t he?”

“I mean, yeah, but he wasn’t turning into a demon. There was only so much he could do to keep me calm. Anyways, over the first few weeks, changes kept appearing. First my tail, then my horns. Then I started getting hornier and hornier, then learned that I literally needed sex to function. I hated every step of the process, and Nick saw that.”

“I talked with him a few weeks back. He said he tried to push you into accepting it all, didn’t he?” Vee asked.

Amara nodded. “At some point, I found out Tessa was a witch, and I got really self-conscious. She had cool magic powers, and could read all those runes in the circles, while all I had was a tail and a monstrous libido. Nick decided he wanted to cheer me up, because he could tell I was bummed about it all.”

Vee shifted in her seat, leaning closer. “What did he do?”

“He borrowed a key from a friend and snuck me into the Gymnastics building after hours. See, while I’d been focusing on what I couldn’t do, he had been noticing changes that I hadn’t. He made me try a bunch of stuff, and I finally saw what he meant. I was stronger, faster, and my tail was completely prehensile. It gives me near-perfect balance, and it’s strong enough that I can hang from it! That was the night I finally started seeing this whole demon puberty in a new light.”

Vee giggled to herself. “Demon puberty, I like that.”

“Anyways, flight had been a pretty big sticking point for me. After I saw what Tessa could do, I started wondering if I might get wings at some point. I mean, how cool would it be to fly? So, after all our training, Nick and I hooked up, and my wings appeared. I was so excited! They were huge, they felt super strong, and I just knew I’d be able to fly with them. We were still in the Gymnastics building, so I ran up to the observer deck and jumped off.”

“You did not! That’s so reckless!”

“Well, yeah. I managed to glide for a bit but crashed pretty quickly. I spent the rest of the night figuring out how my wings worked, and after an hour or so, I figured it out. I jumped up into the air, and I flew. But I was still inside, and it felt like riding a bike with training wheels on. The air was still, I couldn’t go more than a few dozen feet up, and there just wasn’t any freedom in it. After that night, every single time I was outside, I stared up at the sky and dreamed about what flying might feel like. I used to sit on my roof, wings out, just to feel the wind run across them.”

“That sounds wonderful, honestly.” Vee moved even closer, sliding down to the floor to sit across from Amara. “What happened next?”

“You know what happened next, it was Halloween. I don’t think I need to go over that for you.”

“Wait, Halloween was the first time you flew outside?”

“The first time. And it was terrible. My eyes were filled with smoke, emergency sirens drowned out my thoughts, and all I wanted to do was escape what had just happened. I mean, for fuck’s sake, I almost killed you, Vee! To this day, I can still feel your blood running down my hands, and I see the look on your face while you begged for your life!” Amara was openly crying now and had no energy to burn her tears away. “I didn’t even know if you’d survived! You weren’t answering my texts, no one heard anything from you, I thought I’d killed you, Vee! And before you say anything, yes, I know how fucking selfish I’m being. You’re the one that almost died, but I’m the one breaking down over here.”

Amara stopped talking, and instead tried to focus on wiping the tears from her face. She flinched in surprise when, instead of saying something, Vee reached out with her blanket and helped dry Amara’s face. “I want to hear this, Amara. Yes, that night was hard for me too, but I want to understand what happened.”

After another deep breath, Amara found the strength to continue. “That’s mostly it. Ever since that night, whenever I try to fly, I flash back to Halloween. I remember what I did, hear you begging for your life, and I crash down to the ground.”

Vee went quiet again. Amara had no idea what to expect, as she’d always assumed Vee wouldn’t want to hear any of this. Would she be mad? Furious at Amara’s hypocrisy? Amara was practically holding her breath as she waited for a response. The silence was agonizing, but after a minute, Vee spoke up again.

“Part of me wants to be mad at you, Amara. Yes, you almost killed me that night, but I trained my entire life to fight demons; being killed by one would be the least surprising way to die. I said this before, but what hurt the most was the betrayal, the thought that my best friend had turned into a demon and decided to ruin my life simply because of what I was. When I left the Palace that night, clinging to life in the back of an ambulance, I wasn’t afraid. I was confused.”

Amara sniffed, then rubbed her eyes quickly. “I don’t understand, Vee.”

“All I know is the Church, Amara. I lived my entire life thinking I understood everything about not just the world, but all of creation. I know what happens when we die, I know that angels are real, all I have to do is protect humanity from evil. I spent years training, learning everything I could about the different types of demons, but one thing was always stressed above all else: demons are heartless, ruthless, soulless monsters. They will not hesitate to kill, and always pick the path of greatest misery. Except you didn’t, Amara. Not only did you not kill me, but you saved my life in the end.”

“The confusing thing was that I didn’t kill you?” Amara asked.

“I mean, yeah. For weeks, I didn’t know what it meant. Was it a trick? Did you have a secret, even more terrifying fate in store for me? According to the Church, that was the only explanation. Then, after weeks of you texting me, I return to campus to see that you’d cleaned up the Palace. Why? Why would a demon raise money for charity? The simplest answer was also the most impossible; you felt bad about what happened.”

“Is that really so hard to believe?”

“Amara, if I had accepted that you genuinely felt bad about that night, that would mean accepting that the Church was wrong about demons. But how could the Church be wrong? My existence is literally ordained by God, what does it mean if it’s all a lie?”

“Vee, I… fuck, I had no idea. I thought you were just mad because I almost killed you, I didn’t realize it was so much more than that.”

“Then, in the middle of all my confusion, you showed up asking for help with the cult. I was hesitant to believe you, but ultimately, I knew I needed to try and stop even more demons from being summoned.” Vee was pulling her blanket as tight as she could, even burying her chin in the fleece.

“I’ll admit, I didn’t even think about how hypocritical it all sounded until Tessa told me what you two talked about. Asking you to stop those demons but leave me alone.”

“It was really fucking confusing, Amara. I was scared it might be a ploy to, I dunno, steal my soul, or offer me up as sacrifice to an even bigger demon in a bid for power. Every step of the way, though, the most obvious answer was that you were genuinely trying to work with me. I finally decided to trust you, and, well, you know the rest.”

A question sat on the tip of Amara’s tongue, but she hesitated. She didn’t want to be insensitive, or push Vee too far, but she finally decided to speak up. “What about now? How do you feel about the Church?”

Vee stayed quiet, burying herself even further in her cocoon. When she eventually responded, her voice was quiet, muted by the blankets “I don’t know, and that scares the shit out of me.”

Although she had no idea if it was a good idea or not, Amara slowly reached out and placed her hand on Vee’s arm. “Vee, I’m scared too. I don’t know what being a demon means, and I’m barely holding on. I think that’s why I let my anger get the best of me. I’m sorry I’ve been so nasty these last few days, and… I want to try and be better. To make this work.”

After a slow nod, Vee spoke up again. “There’s still a lot I need to unpack, and it’s not like this conversation is going to fix everything overnight. I really appreciate you opening up to me, but I need time to think.”

“How about I make us some food, and we’ll talk about something stupid and pointless until we go to sleep.” Amara pulled her hand back, smiling at Vee.

“I’d like that. Something cold, please; you need to conserve your strength.”

Amara got up, took a deep breath, and headed for the kitchen. She had not been ready to have that conversation, yet somehow, she'd endured it.

Isn’t this what I’ve always wanted? A chance to explain everything to Vee? I think I just assumed it would never happen, yet here we are. Fuck, who would have thought being stranded in Purgatory would be a good thing.

After rummaging through the fridge and the cabinets, Amara threw together a halfway respectable dinner for the two of them. They sat on the floor, slowly eating as they tried to think of less serious things to talk about. In the end, they spent quite a bit of the night talking about school and complaining about how they were missing finals week.

Amara, although she did her best to hide this fact from Vee, noticed that her sense of taste had vanished. She wasn’t the slightest bit hungry, and had only suggested making food as a way to lighten the mood and do something nice. She forced down what little food she’d given herself, but it was about as enjoyable as chewing cardboard.

By the time they finished, and Amara had moved their plates back to the kitchen, Vee was standing up to go back to bed. As she gathered up her blanket, preparing to leave the living room, she took one last look around before pausing. “Oh, shit.”

“What is it?” Amara asked.

“My wards, the ones at the edge of the apartment, they’re burning out. Fuck!” Vee moved to a corner of the room and pointed out the fading Enochian Runes to Amara.

“Shit. What can we do about that?”

“That’s the thing, Amara, there’s nothing we can do. Normally I use my book to reinforce them, but that’s not an option. If I use my own power, there’s no way I’ll be able to fight the next time a reaper shows up. While they’ve still got some juice in them, if they crap out in the middle of the night, they won’t be able to keep the reapers out.”

“So, we’re fucked?”

“Well, not yet. I layered the wards in this place, and the outer wards are the weakest. However, that means…” Vee hesitated, struggling to finish her sentence. “Um, it means you’ll have to start sleeping in my room.”

“Oh, that’s not so bad. I was prepared for something way scarier,” Amara said. She looked at Vee, who seemed nervous for some reason, but gestured for her to lead the way.

Vee turned towards the hallway, and soon they were entering her bedroom. Amara had seen this room countless times back in the real world, but her presence here now had an unspoken significance to it. Things were still rocky between the two of them, but Amara was starting to feel like they’d taken the first steps to rebuilding their friendship.

She was also faced with a far more mundane problem, one that she hadn’t bothered thinking about until now. Vee lived in an apartment complex that mirrored Amara’s, and so their places were virtually identical. This meant that the bedroom, while not small, could only comfortably fit a single bed. As soon as this thought crossed Amara’s mind, she looked at Vee, who was clearly thinking the same thing. They both looked at Vee’s bed, pushed into a corner just like Amara’s, as the silence between them grew awkward.

“I’ll, uh, go grab my blankets and everything from the living room,” Amara said. “I’m more than happy to sleep on the floor. I don’t need the warmth, and then I’ll have plenty of space to spread my wings.”

“Right, uh, that sounds good.” Vee cleared her throat quickly. “Actually, let me come with you. We should move all the food, or else we’ll have to add starving to our list of problems.”

The girls walked back to the living room, and when they returned, they each had an armful of food and blankets. Vee pushed the food into a corner by the bed while Amara began spreading the blankets across the middle of the bedroom.

Neither girl said much as they both got ready for bed. Today had been incredibly strange, and Amara had a feeling they both wanted to do whatever they could to give themselves more time to think about everything they'd talked about. Amara set up a tiny nest on the floor, taking full advantage of the space by stretching out her wings, and made herself comfortable. She watched Vee do the same, but she was also piling her bed with more blankets than Amara had ever seen in her life.

They both settled in, said goodnight, and tried to find some rest.

Amara couldn’t stop thinking about their conversation in the living room. Had she not been incredibly sore from her fight earlier today, she guessed that conversation would have kept her up all night. Of course, it didn’t help that she could feel her body fading. This had been her third day without sex, and in addition to the loss of her taste, she could feel a similar apathy preparing to steal her ability to sleep. If nothing else, her sore body kept her focused, and she had a feeling she had at least one good night’s sleep in her.

As her eyes closed, her breathing calmed, and she felt the night start to take her, she heard a strange noise coming from Vee’s bed. Despite the massive pile of blankets, and the powerful Enochian Wards, Vee was shivering.

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