Selene was tired of Todd anxiously staring back at her as if she was going to do something. Lily had fallen asleep in Aiden’s arms. Meanwhile Jeremy was driving. It had already been twenty-minutes on the road but it had felt like a lot longer.
They had stopped at a rest stop and Selene had checked her phone and shivered. Still no phone service.
“What did you do to my friends?” Todd asked. “Why does Jeremy look like that and why are Emily and Andrew like that.”
“Aiden and Lily are themselves as they are in soul as they are of body,” Selene said. “As for Jeremy, I’m not sure. But they both wanted it.”
“They did?” Todd’s eyes widened as if not believing her.
“Could it be, Todd that you’re interested as well?"
“No…I’m a man. But I’m still weird. Have never wanted it or desired something that a man should desire. You called me out.”
“And I feel terrible about that.”
“Could you make me want it?”
Selene did not look at him with judgment or pity. “I would never change the shape of your soul if it was not in pain. You can still have affection for others. I’m sure Jeremy wouldn’t mind.”
“You noticed?”
“It’s not exactly a secret.”
“Promise you won’t tell the others.”
“I promise, although I think they might already suspect it. Besides it’s endearing what ya’ll have. Like two lava dogs nuzzling at one another.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at.”
Selene just made a low sound in her throat. “Don’t worry about it. It’s cute.”
“Cute huh.” He stared her straight in the eye and she respected that. “I just wanted to be normal,” Todd said, gripping down on his wrist.
“There is no such thing as normal. What you find is normal,” Selene said. “Is what us demons see as monstrous. You wrap yourself up in these conventional constructs as if they hold power over you when they’re made up of fragile habits and age begone rules. You try to please those constructs as if they constitute anything as normal, when there is no such thing.”
“My parents…they won’t pay for my tuition. They’ll cut me off. They expect me to settle down with a woman. I can’t be…gay.”
Selene sighed. “I can’t speak to that but living as yourself will lessen the burden on your soul. You are what you are. It would bring you more pain to deny yourself that much.”
He didn’t seem to care about the suffering all that much. Sometimes it was difficult to understand humans. Why wrap yourself in something that just made you miserable when you could change it. Even if other people couldn’t understand it. Selene had a hard time understanding because well, she was a succubus.
He dug his fingers into his thighs. “You can see them? Souls?”
“All of them. Sometimes like Lily’s and Aiden’s, they scream out, retching as if trying to claw to the surface of the bodies they are trapped in.”
“They were like that?”
“Yes, very much so.” Selene said and realized she sounded a lot like Nyssa. Maybe it was the exhaustion or the bitterness she felt for these creatures or of being so far away from Amelia but she felt for this creature.
“And they didn’t tell me,” Todd pressed his fingernails into his palm. “Why not?”
“They were scared? The same reason you are. Of smothering your soul for the sake of what others perceive as normal.”
“Is my soul screaming out? Like theirs.”
“No…” she said, still unsure but she could not hear it. “You and Jeremy have silent souls.”
“And I suppose that is a good thing.”
“It doesn’t mean you’re not suffering.”
Todd shivered, standing in silence.
“If you cannot pay your tuition,” Selene said. “And cannot find a stable way forward, there are many ways the supernatural world may accommodate you. If you decide to become an incubus that could be a fine role, or peacekeeper between the worlds, or a scribe. You would have to learn our language, but I suspect you would adapt nicely.”
“Why would you say that? I don’t know what I want in life? Nor do I know many languages.”
“Empathy is a sort of language, and the demon language is well in-tuned, very close to that. If you remained a surface dweller then you would have a harder time but it would still be manageable,” she said.
“Why me?”
“Because you care about your friends. I can see that you are ambitious and if you ever encounter a succubus with three horns never tell her that I said you remind her of you when she was younger. She has amassed a lot of power, and we’re not close anymore. She might even punish you.”
“Rip me in half?”
“In other ways, but she would get no pleasure from your soul.”
“Because I’m broken.”
“No, because a succubus gets no pleasure from a soul not seeking transaction, not that sex is purely transactional. Why do you think you were able to summon me?”
“Do you ever get summoned to terrible people?”
“If they lack empathy or emotional intelligence they cannot summon me. It is impossible. That’s not how the demon language works. My sisters. Some of them have found their way around it, but they willingly get themselves into scarier situations to earn more thralls. But it does not nourish them. They see it as long-term gain.”
“What about Jeremy? What if he does not accept me? What if he wants more than what I can give him?”
“Then the relationship may not work out,” Selene answered. “But you won’t know if you don’t try.”
“Okay,” Todd sighed. “I’ll go talk to him.”
Selene trudged back to the car, and crawled in, nearly bumping her head on the way in, and saw Lily and Aiden kissing each other fervently.
“It’s going to be a long ride home,” she muttered. The two barely seemed to hear her as they continued to play tonsil hockey with one another. “I should have brought a spray bottle.”
They barely seemed to hear her or so she thought.
“Are we bothering you mistress?” Lily said while Aiden buried his face in her shoulder. Maybe they were more like the lava dogs.
“Go back to your heavy petting,” Selene groaned. “And drop the fanaticism. I am not my sister.” Even that sounded too much like all of them. She shivered. A bad omen indeed.
“Whatever you say, mistress,” Lily said.
Oh so they were teasing her now. Fair was fair. “For the last hour of this car ride both of you will be incredibly aroused, but neither of you will get to cum. And no one will be able to hear you. Don’t want to interrupt your friends.”
Both of their eyes shot open at that. Good. “Wait, wait, wait—"
“Ah, silence.”
She could almost feel them squirming around back there, reckless abandon as the lust crawled up their bodies, hot and squelching.
Todd closed the door barely noticing his friends caught up in near orgasmic bliss. Their bodies were writhing with pleasure as they clung to one another dripping and pliable. Selene thought of Amelia and of doing the same to her, only if she consented of course. And only if you find her. She fought back the growing panic, distracting herself by giving these two intense pleasure. And these two, they could handle it. She wouldn’t make it last the whole ride. Just maybe twenty minutes.
Todd had decided to drive, his hands intertwined with Jeremy’s. Excellent. This trip was worth something. Maybe more than just something. She thought as the felt the intense sexual bliss that both were enduring flow into her, sating her momentarily.
“Oh looks like we’re going to be hitting traffic. Might just have to add an extra hour,” she said so just the lovely couple in the back could hear her. They moaned in her ears.
“This is too much fun,” she thought.
At the end of the ride she had released the heat on the two, but not the silence. That didn’t stop Lily from snuggling up to her, as if she had just received the greatest gift in all the hells, and Aiden would not let go of the girl. She could hear sweet moans pressed against her ear. How was it that the girl was still in heat? Fantastic. She muttered to herself. She stepped out of the car as Jeremy wilted as he had to leave Todd. There was something so off about him. Should I offer my number to keep tabs on him? She wondered, but he was already gone before she sensed it, and somehow. She knew she would be seeing him again.
Todd was crestfallen as he climbed back into his seat. Then he opened the door and she watched as he rushed over and said something to Jeremy. Even from here, she could not hear it. But she watched as he kissed Jeremy, a bit too chaste. Then Jeremy pressed his lips to Todd’s and kissed him harder. She felt a tinge of satisfaction, even though she barely had anything to do with it. Amelia would have probably had better advice. She was the romantic of course. She heard the door shut and looked at the text he’d sent her.
“Oh, looks like Todd’s not coming back. Looks like you’re both coming with me.”
She restored their voices. “Apparently, this is Aiden’s car.”
“It’s my brother’s.”
“Mistress Selene. Can we stay with you tonight.”
“For the last time, Lily, just call me Selene or would you like another round.”
“Yes please,” they both said.
She groaned. “That’s it, I’m driving. I need to find my girlfriend.” Usually it was a poor idea to drive into the city at night but it was almost four am at this point. “You can stay with me only until we find Amelia.”
Another text message. Her eye twitched. The skosgra had found Amelia. She was relieved but maybe it would have been better if Nyssa had found her. Amelia was at her apartment. Thank Goddess. She felt like she could breathe again.
“Everything okay?” Lily asked.
“They found her.”
The lights burned bright as Selene drove over the East River.
Selene nearly tore the door off its hinges trying to get inside. Behind her Lily and Aiden were quieter than they had been the entire night…well sort of. Quieter than twenty or thirty minutes. They looked a bit haggard but that was normal. She wondered what Amelia would think. And then that blasted skogsra opened the door. They looked concerned. Selene tried not to stair at their chest. Even the skogsra had bigger boobs than she. Oh well.
“She’s inside,” Sam said, maintaining a façade of calmness. Not looking at her directly. “Resting. Who are these two?”
“Your new bunkmates.” Selene said.
“This isn’t my apartment.”
“Exactly.”
“New thralls of yours?”
“I don’t take thralls.”
“I’m only teasing.”
“Hi, I’m Lily,” the newly minted woman stepped forward and raised a hand, smiling so brightly, so different than when Selene had first met her in that awful state. She could not believe that Amelia had, had to endure that as well for so long. “And this is Aiden,” she said, who also nodded.
“Nice to meet you,” the enby looked them over once. “Are you sure they’re not thralls?”
“Don’t you dare,” Selene said, shooting a look over at Lily. “They like to think that they are.”
Sam opened the door slightly more. “The more the merrier,” they said.
Selene did not care that her senses were telling her that Amelia was fine. She needed to see her. Despite Sam’s protests, she opened the bedroom and Amelia was sleeping. Softly snoring. At peace. For a moment Selene thought of crawling into bed with her. This is all my fault. I wasn’t here. I couldn’t look for her because that stupid summoning circle. And yet…she had done some good.
Another scent made her hackles rise. Was that vampire. There were vampires in the city. She would have to warn her sisters. That kind of conversation could be uncomfortable but if they had to flee then…no, no more running again. She shut the door in silence.
“Thank you for taking care of her,” she said to the enby. “Do you have a place to stay for the night? I’m kidding,” Selene said.
“No bacon welcoming this time? No I’ll be taking my leave.”
“Amelia would want you here.”
“Is that right?”
“I…you’re the one who found her. It should count for something. Where are the humans.”
“I sent them away.”
“YOU did what?”
“They asked to leave.”
“I got Irish goodbyed. Damn.”
“It almost seems like you care for them.”
“I do. Wait here.”
Selene tore down the steps, seeing the couple narrowly out of focus. They were only a block away. Without realizing it she realized her tail was out. She quickly glamored her tail before anyone could see, racing after them. It was slightly raining now, but she did not care about getting wet. She met the couple. She was nearly out of breath as she stopped them.
“Do you have a place to stay?”
They looked at her in slight bewilderment. “It felt wrong of us to linger,” Aiden said. “We were going to sleep in the car.”
“Absolutely not.”
“There are vampires about,” she said in a hushed tone. “And Goddess knows what? And now you have my scent on you. Which really doesn’t matter because I sleep around with a lot of people but I want to make sure you’re safe for the night,” she rambled.
“See I told you she cares about us,” surprisingly that came from Aiden.
Lily nodded. “I know.”
“Please come back to the apartment. I can’t let you wander around out here.”
“Wait, did you say vampires?” Lily asked. “That’s actually really cool. Does that mean if you don’t take us as thralls that the vampires might. That’s a pretty tempting offer.”
Selene rolled her eyes. “On second thought maybe I will have the vampires have you. If you don’t want to come back with me there’s a diner up the street that has all-night donuts. We could grab some, wait till daylight and you’ll never have to see my face again.”
It was better that way. Safer for them. Besides, they wouldn’t remember her in the morning so why did she care if they left now?
“She really likes us,” Lily said. “Donuts it is. But you’re not getting rid of us that easily, Selene,” she said. “I mean it.”
Selene was numb. Aiden asked if they could exchange information. She was surprised as he hugged her. “Thank you,” he said. “For everything.”
Lily also hugged her fiercely. “Don’t forget about us.” She said.
“After donuts,” Selene said.
“After donuts,” they both agreed.