Synopsis:

Archie was an orphan who never suspected that there was anything out of the ordinary about himself. After bedding a beautiful stranger, he soon finds a strange hunger has awaken within him and learns he is anything but ordinary.

Author's Note:

Well this is my foray into the DarkRealms Universe, hopefully I did it justice. This story was originally posted as a serial on BigCloset Topshelf and is exclusive to that site. Shout outs to Enemyoffun for creating this wonderful universe and for allowing me to write in it, Loki for allowing me to use several Cordays in his story and for his help and suggestions, and djkauf for the superb editing.

I conceived the basic idea for this story long-ago as a stand alone, but one day after reading one of EOF's DRU stories I was struck with the idea that it with a little bit of adjusting it would fit well into the Dark Realms Universe. I apologize in advance for the protagonist, he's a bit of an ass and he has a rather foul tongue.

WARNING: This story is much darker than what you will typically see from me. It has explicit content including, sex, scenes of rape, suicidal themes, and language. If any of these things offend you please read no further.

It was dark and damp, an altogether unpleasant night, but Leena didn't notice. She walked through the streets seemingly unaware of the rain that had soaked through her clothing. In her arms she held a child, her infant son. He let out a high pitched wail of pure misery and she did her best to sooth him.

The child continued screaming despite her best efforts and she wept that he would have to experience so much pain. She moved through the streets thinking perhaps she had taken a wrong turn somewhere, but felt relief flood through her when she saw the red-brick building with the covered stoop porch. She wished there was another way, but she knew there wasn't. The child would be far better off in the hands of humans until he awakened.

She was one of the Unseen, beings believed to be nothing more than a myth by the humans who populated the world. Vampires, weres, and fairies, they were all real and the human world knew nothing of their existence. Her particular breed of unseen, were wanderers by nature,never staying in one place for too long. In ancient times her kind had been called demons and monsters and nearly hunted to extinction. Memories of these times were so deeply ingrained in their minds that they dared not ever trust a human. Humans feared that which that they didn't understand.

She was old for one of her kind, she remembered those times, if somewhat vaguely, so she was especially wary of humans. Leena sobbed and gently placed the child down on the doorstep. This was not the first she had placed on a doorstep, and she doubted it would be the last. She kissed the boy on the cheek, rapped loudly on the door and ran for it. She turned around the closest corner and watched as the door swung open and a woman wearing a nun's habit stepped out onto the porch.

The nun looked down at the weeping child and lifted him from the porch. A piece of paper, a note Leena had scrawled hours before fell to the ground and the nun bent over to pick it up. Leena didn't stay to watch for the Nun's reaction; she turned her back and walked away. She couldn't bear to watch anymore, each time she abandoned a child it only seemed to get harder.

Leena walked a few more blocks then returned to the battered old Ford that she had left parked on the street. Once inside, she sat and stared blankly at the steering wheel then she wept for what seemed an eternity. When she was finally able to blink back the tears she started the car and put it into gear. Then she drove off her thoughts on the child she knew she would never see again.

"Goodbye my dear," she whispered as she merged onto the freeway. It was time to move on...

The wall next to me came alive with the most ungodly noise and I groaned irritably at the sound of my roommate Daniel Corday's snoring. I sometimes thought that he shook the whole apartment. Shit, it was fucking unearthly! How could that inhuman sound come from the throat of a human being? The closest I could come to describing it was rocks grinding in a blender, but this was worse, much, much worse. I stumbled to my feet and grabbed the pillow off my bed. Maybe I would sleep better on the couch. At least I didn't have class tomorrow since it was a Saturday.

I stumbled into the small living room and collapsed on the ratty sofa that occupied almost an entire wall. I closed my eyes and was almost asleep when I heard Daniel's damn snoring again. God, I wanted sleep! I let out a deep sigh and suppressed the urge to sneak into Daniel's room and smother him with the pillow in my arms. Instead, I sat up on the couch and groaned, running a hand through my hair.

If he weren't one of the more tolerable roommates I'd ever had, I probably would have tried to find another apartment months ago. Daniel was always respectful and never ate any of my food, or touched any of my things without asking. Not that I had many possessions. We had hit it off almost immediately and had become fairly good friends in the short time that we had shared the apartment. He was the perfect roommate, well at least when he wasn't shaking the whole goddamn apartment with that unholy snoring.

As great as Daniel was, sometimes I couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of the guy. He was born and raised in Ravencrest and knew nearly everyone in town. His mom and dad were always stopping over to bring him food or just to visit. I didn't have that, hell sometimes I thought I'd kill for that. I had spent my entire childhood drifting from orphanage to orphanage and from foster home to foster home. I didn't have ties to anyone or anything.

It sounded like some stupid cliché, but when I was just a little baby I was left on the doorstep of an orphanage, in Virginia of all places, with a note that said simply, "Please find my child a loving home, he deserves far better than I could ever hope to provide." Whoever wrote the note didn't ever bother telling them my name, if I had ever been given a name. So instead the nun that found me stuck me with the name Archibold Tucker. Yeah, that's my name; I took a lot of shit for that such a freaking weird ass name growing up, so I go by Archie which is only slightly more tolerable.

Despite being bounced around from school to school in my teen years I did pretty well. I figured my only way of making a future for myself was getting good grades in school. I did well, not spectacular mind, but pretty damn good nonetheless. I spent a lot of time, studying on my own to keep myself from falling behind and even convinced one of my foster parents to let me take the SAT. I scored well enough to get a scholarship to Ravencrest University and that's how I ended up in this shit hole of a town.

Daniel's snoring continued in the other room and I sighed, and sank back down into the sofa. Even though I could still hear that damn racket I was too tired to go back to my room. Shit, I really needed to get some earplugs or something. I closed my eyes and eventually managed to drift off to sleep despite all the noise.

"Crap man," Daniel said as I stumbled over to the small card table that passed for our kitchen table. "You look tired."

"Yeah, well who could sleep with your snoring," I said with a grunt and collapsed into the chair opposite my roommate.

"Sorry man, I can't help it," Daniel said with a sheepish grin.

"You should really see a doctor or something. That sound you make... It's unnatural," I said with a shake of my head.

Daniel chuckled. "It can't be that bad can it?"

I glared at Daniel but didn't say another word. Instead I got up and stumbled across the room to the single cupboard that housed all our dishes as well as what little dry food we kept in the apartment. I grabbed a bowl as well as a box of Loco Kokos then nabbed the milk out of the small black mini-fridge and sat back down at the table.

"So there's this club, everyone's talking about, called The Pit. It's supposed to be pretty sick. I was gonna check it out tonight. I hear there's usually a lot of hot chicks hanging around the place. You want to come with?"

"Shit no," I said after pouring cereal and milk into his bowl. "I need to study."

"Oh, come on man! You hardly get out at all except to go to classes. You can study tomorrow."

"You know I have to work tomorrow, and those places are always so crowded and they probably won't let us inside anyway," I said after swallowing my first bite of cereal.

Truthfully, Daniel rarely had trouble getting into those places. He was six-foot-three and was packed with solid muscle. He wasn't exactly handsome, but that didn't seem to bother the women who dated him and were usually pretty hot. Conversely, I was five-nine, had a long hawk-like nose, red-hair, and a face-full of freckles. I had never had much success at night clubs or girls in general. Most girls usually had eyes for much better looking guys. Let's face it I've never been much of a looker.

"The doorman is my cousin. I can guarantee I can get us in. Tell you what. We'll go for two hours if you don't want to stay after that we'll leave."

"Thirty minutes," I said flatly. "That's as long as I'll stay."

"An hour," Daniel countered with a grin on his face.

"Fine, an hour," I said feeling for all the world as if I had just been handed the raw end of a stick. Shit, how did Daniel do it?

"God Damnit," I said when the can of chili I had been holding fell to the floor. I reached down and brushed it with the tips of my fingers, but it rolled away before I could get a hold on it. Still bent over, I watched it spin clear to the end of the aisle. With a sigh I walked over to where it settled and bent over to pick it up, but before I could reach it, some freaking asshole with boots that were so well polished I could see my reflection in them came by and kicked it. I don't think it was on purpose, but shit he should have been paying attention.

I growled under my breath and chased after the can snatching it off the floor just before it could roll into the bakery. I worked as a stock boy at Kona's a small market in Ravencrest. The pay wasn't great, but it was enough to cover rent and a few other things my scholarship didn't cover. Maybe if I got that specialist position that had opened up, I'd have a little extra cash.

I absently looked over into the bakery and noted two men facing each other. Normally, this wouldn't have caught my attention, but there was something about the men that seemed just a little off. They held themselves stiffly and they stuck out like a sore thumb. I moved a bit closer and started to pull forward some bags of sliced bread that been pushed to the back of the shelf. I didn't know why, but those guys really put me on edge. Then I noticed that both men wore polished black boots like the one that had kicked the can of chili.

The first, a tall gray-haired man with an unlit cigarette in his mouth spoke, "Son, you didn't find what we are looking for, did you?"

"Not yet, but I think I will find it in town," the second younger man said.

"Good," the father said. "I'll plan everything for tomorrow morning, I'd hate for your sister's surprise to be spoiled if you can't find it."

The son grinned, "Trust me, si- uh, Dad. I'm confident I'll have found it by then."

The father smiled coolly, "Very good then. I have things to see to, if you need any assistance I'm sure your brothers will be willing to help out. If there are any problems call me."

The older man pulled a lighter out of his pocket and made as if to light it. "Sir," I said. "You can't smoke that in here."

The older man ignored me and lit the cigarette, damn what a fucking asshole. He turned to leave and blew smoke into my face as he passed by. A few seconds later the gray-haired man left the store. Thankfully, the smoke didn't seem to have any effect on the fire system.

The younger man glared at me for some weird reason and shook his head, "If you know what's good for you kid. You'll stay home tonight," he told me then followed his father out of the store.

What the Hell? Stay home tonight? Somehow I got the feeling these two assholes were knee deep in some pretty scary shit. I shook my head and laughed, yeah fucking right. For a minute I had even convinced myself that the men were speaking in code like they did in those over-the-top spy movies, but that was just ridiculous. Nothing like that could ever happen in Ravencrest, nothing interesting ever happened in Ravencrest.

With another chuckle, I remembered the can of chili I still had clutched in my hand and turned away to go put it back on the shelf.

"Dan my man!" The giant mass of muscles that was the doorman said bumping fists with Daniel.

"Hey man," Daniel said. "Archie, this is my cousin Stu. Stu this is my roommate Archie. You know the guy I told you about."

Stu gave Daniel a hesitant look. "I'm sure your friend is cool, Danny boy, but you know this place has certain rules about who can enter."

"In other words I'm too big of a loser for you to let me in," I muttered bitterly, fucking asshole. "I might as well go home."

Daniel clamped a big hand on my shoulder and pulled me close before I could take a single step. "No, you're not going home man. Stu let us in. Come on, I promised him, man."

"Fuck, Mr. Breem is going be so pissed if he finds out I let him in. Go on get in before I change my mind," Stu shook his head motioned us both inside.

Before I could mutter a single freaking word of protest Daniel clamped down even harder and dragged me into the club. "This is for your own good, man. You spend too much time alone. You need to get a girl."

"Shit I don't know, man, I don't belong in a place like this. All these girls are way out of my league," I said looked around at all the hot girls.

"Dude," Daniel said. "It's all in the attitude. You got to act confident and the girls will flock to you."

"Easy for you to say," I grumbled glancing at Daniel's broad shoulders and heavily muscled arms enviously. I had never once seen my roommate work out, yet somehow he seemed to be able to maintain his physique.

"See that girl over there she just looked your way. I bet if you offered to buy her a drink. She'd dance with you," Daniel said giving me a gentle shove.

I looked to where my friend had motioned to and felt my jaw drop to the damn floor. He couldn't be serious, could he!? Shit! A girl with long brown hair and a sultry smile looked across the room at me or seemed to. That girl was a total bombshell, I couldn't hope to get a girl like to even glance at me. Yet she was, or I thought she might be.

I nervously stepped onto the dance floor and approached the woman. She smiled, "You came in with muscles?" She asked giving Daniel an appreciative glance.

"Uh, yeah," I said with a nervous gulp.

"Is he seeing anyone?"

"Uh, no. I don't think so," I replied stupidly and before I knew it the damn woman had stepped past me. Damn fucking whore. I didn't have to look back to know she was moving toward Daniel.

I worked up the nerve to approach a couple more girls, but each time it ended badly. One outright laughed at me, another walked off without a word and the rest almost seemed to cringe when I neared. With a sigh I left the dance floor and headed right for the bar sitting along the north wall.

I glanced over and was surprised to see a familiar face sitting a few seats down from him at the bar. It was one of those assholes that had come into work, the son. "Did you ever find whatever it was you were looking for?" I asked.

"Why's it any business of yours," the man spat glaring at me then downed the rest of his drink.

"You should have stayed home kid. You might find yourself involved in the worst sort of trouble. Go home before it's too late," he said then stood to leave.

The man strode off before I could even think of responding. Shit, something was up with that guy; I just wish I knew what it was. I wasn't about to be scared off by some weird ass mother fucker who got his jollies from telling people weird ass shit. I sighed and shook my head; it was time for another round of humiliation. Daniel would never let me hear the end of it if I sat at the bar the whole time.

"Tough luck on the dance floor?" a sultry voice asked just as I was about to stand.

I turned to look and felt my breath catch in my throat. The woman that was leaning against the bar a few feet from me was easily the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. She had long red hair, bright blue eyes, a figure to make any man weak at the knees and a black form fitting dress that clung to her hour-glass figure as if it might blow away at any moment. She oozed sex from every pore and I couldn't help but undress her with my mind. She almost gave the impression of a wild animal ready to spring on its prey. It was a ridiculous thought, but I couldn't get it out of my mind.

"I'm Selina," she said with a purr.

"Archibold,"I said trying my best not to gape at the bombshell, "But everyone calls me Archie."

"Nice to meet you, Archie. You’re a virgin aren't you? I like virgins they taste good," she said. "And what they lack in ability they make up for with their zest."

I swallowed hard, how the fuck had she known I was a virgin? Something in the back of my mind told me this woman was dangerous and maybe I should steer clear of her. I got the feeling that the stranger's warning to go home had something to do with Selina, but like almost any guy my cock won out. I almost told her to buzz off, but I couldn't bring myself to. I shook my head and cast all doubts aside. I must be freaking nuts, how often did someone like me get a chance to score with a girl like that?

"Y-yes," I said.

"Good," she said with another purr. "Let's dance."

Without another word she grabbed my hand and led me out onto the dance floor.

I was usually an average dancer at best, but that night I moved with the music effortlessly. As good as I was Selina was better. Each move, each sway of the hips had a grace that few women could match. It felt like hours that we were out there on the dance floor, but it couldn't have been more than three or four songs. When they were finally done, I would have done almost anything to get her in bed. I had never wanted anything so bad in my life.

"You want something to drink?" I said.

Selina smiled, "I would love a drink."

"I'll have a Jack and coke," I said. "And they lady would like--" I stopped short and looked to Selina with the question in my eyes.

"--would like sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist," Selina finished for me.

"You're an excellent dancer," she said.

"Uh, thanks," I said rubbing at the back of neck. "You're good too. No, fuck that you're amazing. I've never seen a person move like that."

"Do you have a place nearby?" she asked suddenly.

"Sure," I said in shock. Shit, was this really happening? "I live a few blocks away."

"Take me," she said and grabbed hold of my hand possessively.

In a shocked daze I led Selina through the club. Half-way to the door I locked eyes with Daniel who flashed me a surprised but approving smile then gave me a thumbs-up. A few moments later we were out of the club. Stu was just as surprised, but he didn't say a word as Selina and I left together. When I glanced back, the big doorman gave me a thumbs up and an approving smile that was nearly identical to the one Daniel had given me.

Selina was quiet as we walked to the apartment. I was still shocked that such a beautiful woman would want to see my apartment. Shit, I was afraid that if I said anything I'd scare her away. It was pretty damn chilly, so I offered Selina my jacket but she declined with a weird glimmer of amusement in her eyes. Finally we reached the apartment and I fumbled for the keys for what felt like an eternity before finding the right one. My hands were shaking as I fit it into the lock and turned the handle. "It's not much, bu--"

"It will suffice," she said walking into the apartment and looking around.

"Uh, make yourself comfortable then," I said looking around the place, half expecting someone to pop out and tell me I was a victim of some strange practical joke. I stared at her chest and quickly looked away when I realized I staring. She was so hot, I couldn't believe she was standing in my apartment. Again something in the back of my head tried to tell me that something was seriously wrong, but I didn't listen. I would do almost anything to score with Selina.

"Let me be blunt with you, Archie. I'm only here for one reason, I want sex. I don't care if we talk or what the place looks like," she said with a sultry smile.

"Uh, well then I'll show you to my bedroom," I said disbelievingly as I swung my bedroom door open.

She walked in then turned back to me with that sultry smile on her face. My knees almost gave away at the sight of her, but I managed to stumble into my room and swung the door shut behind me. She stroked my cheek then suddenly our lips were locked and I thought I was going to die from shock. I don't know who had initiated the kiss, but damn it felt good.

We broke away long enough for Selina to slip out of her dress and began to unbuttoning my shirt. I fumbled with her bra for a minute before I could figure out how to undo the damn hooks and then the bra fell to the floor and we were both naked. I was really dizzy for some reason and there was this weird sensation like something was tugging at me from the inside and it was then that I knew with a certainty I had made a terrible mistake bringing Selina home. Something was seriously wrong, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't stop myself. Whatever was happening I felt like I was being sapped of energy. The moment my cock finally pierced her was a moment of pure exquisite agony. The pain exploded through my body and Selina moaned in delight seemingly unaware anything was wrong.

Again and again I pierced her and I grew weaker and weaker until everything faded into darkness and I lost consciousness.

Selina moaned in delight as energy poured into her. She had never imagined that anyone could have so much pent up sexual energy. She wouldn't need to feed for days perhaps even a week after tonight. A human woman would have been disappointed by the boy's poor performance as a lover, but Selina didn't care. He was a virgin, after all, he couldn't be expected to perform as well as a more seasoned man. Truthfully, it was his sexual energies she sought.

She gasped as another orgasm trickled through her body and she shivered in pure ecstasy. Selina was a succubus. She fed on the sexual energies of men. Ancient lore labeled her kind as demons, but nothing could be further from the truth. She was one of the unseen, beings of supernatural origin that remained hidden to humans. She wasn't evil, and wished no harm to humans, but she needed to feed on them in order to survive. Tomorrow the boy would wake feeling weak and would have a terrible headache, but would otherwise feel fine.

She gasped again, but this time it wasn't from pleasure it was from shock. No wonder she had found herself so strongly drawn to this boy. She felt a familiar pang of hunger and it took her a moment to understand that it was not coming from her, but from the boy. Had she realized what the boy was she never would have seduced him. Self-loathing and anger flooded through her as she climaxed and felt the boy collapse from exhaustion. She had drawn more from the boy than she had intended, but not enough to cause any permanent harm.

Normally once she had fed on someone she would leave and let them wake wondering if it had all been a dream if they even remembered at all, but this time she wouldn't. No, she couldn't not after what she had done. He would need someone to guide him and to teach him how to feed. He would have awakened eventually on his own, but by feeding on him she had accelerated the process. Now it was just a matter of time.

Poor boy, he would discover the truth soon enough...

I groaned as the light to my bedroom flicked on. "Holy Fuck, it wasn't a dream," was the first thing out of my mouth.

"No," Selina said with sad smile. "It wasn't. I need to tell you something. It won't be easy for you to hear, but it cannot be helped."

I shook my head in a vain attempt to clear my thoughts. Why was I so tired? Why the Hell did I feel like I'd had the shit beat out of me? I felt weak, like I was sick or something. I had some strange recollections from last night, but they were jumbled and didn't make much sense. I vaguely remembered having sex with Selina and growing weak, but there didn't seem to be any reason for it.

"Uh, yeah okay," I muttered

"There is no easy way to say this so I'll just say it. I am a succubus; I feed on the sexual energies of men, and the occasional woman but they are never as filling as a male lover."

"A succubus? Uh, okay whatever," I said sitting up.

"I am telling the truth."

"Shit, this is a joke right? Who put you up to this?" I asked in disbelief.

"It is not a joke," she folded her arms across her naked breasts.

"Please just listen," she said before I could say anything. "I am a succubus and so are you."

"Okay," I said standing up and looked down at my naked body. I teetered on my feet. Shit, why was I so weak? It took a lot of effort, but I was able to stumble across the room where my pants and boxers lay in a heap. "I think it's time for you to leave."

"Listen to me!" She said throwing up her hands in frustration. "I knew there was something different about you when I found you last night. I thought it was because you were a virgin, but that wasn't it at all. You had so much pent up sexual energy I didn't realize it was because you were a succubus."

"Right, I'm a female sex demon. Did I sprout breasts last night when I wasn't looking?" I said looking down at my flat chest.

"Shit this is getting weird," I muttered as I pulled on my boxers and pants and reached over for my shirt which lay a few feet away. "I knew there was something odd about this whole thing. You're a fucking loon."

"Men!" she said angrily. "You are an orphan, right?"

"How the hell did you know that?!" I demanded angrily.

"Because almost all of us are! When a succubus gives birth to a child she abandons it. It is in our nature to wander and a child will only hinder our ability to feed," she said. "You are the offspring of a succubus and an incubus and by feeding on you I awoke the succubus within you."

"Okay, I really think it's time you leave. I don't know what sort of shit you're hopped up on but--"

There was a loud thud from somewhere in the apartment. What the hell was that? I, stopped to listen then moved across my room and poked my head out the door. Daniel was just passing my bedroom when several more thuds sounded from the front door of the apartment and it collapsed out of its frame.

I watched in disbelief as men wearing plain clothes and toting guns rushed into the apartment. I probably would have stayed there gaping if it hadn't been for Daniel. "Get out of here!" he growled then forced my head back through the door and slammed it shut behind me.

"They've come for me," Selina said, but my eyes remained on the door. I tried to force it back open, but Daniel must have put his weight against it because I couldn't get it to budge.

There was a scream from the other side and a something that almost sounded like a wild animal roaring. What the hell was that? I shook my head then turned around to find that Selina had somehow dressed herself in some of my clothes in the short time that I had been at the door.

"Shit," I muttered even wearing my clothes she looked smoking hot.

"We must leave," she said.

"I am not leaving Daniel to those people whoever the hell they are! He's the only friend I have!" I said shouting angrily.

Another roar and another scream came from the other side of the door. A rapid succession of dull thuds pounded into the door. I looked at it, and felt my heart sink. There was no way Daniel could survive not with those assholes shooting at him. I moved toward the window and a cold blast of wind blasted me in the face as I shoved it open. God, I wanted to make those assholes pay, but if I stayed I probably would die too.

"Shit, I don't know what you've gotten me involved in."

I kicked the screen out then helped Selina climb through. There was a bit of a drop to the snowy ground below, but Selina jumped through and landed effortlessly on her feet. Shit she made it look easy. I looked back at the door on more time, and watched wide-eyed as the door collapsed in the frame. Something big occupied the doorway; it stood on two massive paws, had a short nub of a tail, a thick coat of brown fur and looked for all the world like the rear end of a bear on its hind legs.

"What the hell?" I said and scurried out the window. It couldn't be what it looked like, could it? I tumbled to the ground and landed gracelessly in the cold wet snow below.

"Come," Selina said gripping my shoulder. "We must hurry."

'What the hell did I just see?' I thought to myself as I let her lead me away from the apartment window.

I stumbled and almost fell to my knees as we walked. Wondering, not for the first time, what the hell was wrong with me, I crawled back onto my feet and followed after Selina. Jumping out the window had taken a lot more out of me than I cared to admit. It took a lot of effort, but I managed to put one foot in front of another. Each step was harder, but I kept standing out of sheer stubbornness.

We hadn't walked very far when two thugs with tranquilizers guns appeared in front of us. "Don't move," said the one on the left, a brown-haired man.

Selina smiled seductively and took a few steps forward. "Why don't you boys put those weapons down and I can show you a good time."

The man on the right, a blond man with a scar running from left to cheek to just below his jaw line, let his gun fall to his side, but it lasted only a second and his weapon was once again pointed at Selina.

"Get down on the ground, freak," the one with the scar spat.

For a moment Selina's smile faltered, but when she fell to her knees it returned with a wicked cast to it. Her skin seemed to ripple taking on an almost purple color, a set of curled ram-like horns appeared on the side of her head a few inches above her ears and a pair of leathery bat wings shot out from her back tearing a big hole in the back of the shirt.

"Damn, that was my favorite shirt," I muttered. I know it was a weird thing to say under the circumstances, but it was the first thing that popped into my head.

Scarface's hands were shaking, "Don't move!" he yelled as Selina stood back on her feet.

If Selina had been attractive before, she seemed even more so after her transformation. Before she merely oozed sex from every pour, with her transformation she was sex defined. The bat-wings and the ram horns didn't detract from her appearance somehow they made her seem more alluring. She walked over to the two thugs and traced her hand across Scarface's cheek.

"Put the guns down," Selina said softly.

Scarface complied, but the brown-haired thug seemed more in control of himself. "I'm warning you!" he screamed.

"Kill him," Selina said with a pout of her lips. Scarface responded immediately, dropping the tranquilizer gun, he pulled a handgun from a holster under his jacket and shot his companion between the eyes.

"Very good," she purred with another seductive smile.

Scarface didn't say a word he merely stared at her chest with obvious lust on his face.

"Holy Hell," I said nearly hysterical.. "You really are a succubus!"

"Yes, I am," she said her smile faltering. For a brief moment a deep sadness seemed to pass across her face. For some reason I got this weird urge to go over and hug her and tell her everything would be alright. Then that look of sadness was gone from her face and sanity returned to me.

"You are a very good boy," she said glancing down at Scarface's crotch where he had a massive erection and lopsided grin on his face. "Maybe later you and I can have some fun. Take me to your car, and deal with your friends should any try to resist us."

"Come, Archibold," Selina commanded turning to follow Scarface.

Yeah right, like I was going anywhere with her. Not after what I had seen. Shit, she was just as dangerous if not more so than the thugs that had attacked us. "No," I say planting my feet firmly on the ground.

She stopped and motioned for the thug to stop as well. "Why?"

"Why?! After that shit you just pulled you need to ask why!?"

"You're far better off with me," she said. "If they get hold of you they will do worse than kill you. Even if you don't believe me about you being a succubus they'll kill you just to make sure you don't tell anyone what has happened here."

"No," I repeated, "I'll take my chances with them. How can I trust you?"

"If I wanted you any harm to come to you, you would be lying there on the ground in a puddle of your own blood," she said calmly. "Please Archie, you cannot survive without my help. I did what had to be done. I would gladly undo it if I could. If there had been any other way... Please, there is no time. If they don't know we've escaped yet they soon will." she said a pleading tone in her voice.

"Watch out," she screamed suddenly and I dove to the ground. Pain exploded on the top of my head and I reached up to feel blood trickling down my scalp.

"Take care of them, my lovely." I heard Selina say sweetly. For a few moments bullets whizzed overhead then everything fell dead silent.

"Get up," Selina said. "It's safe now."

"God damn you!" I screamed in fury. "Can't you see I've been shot?"

"Where?"

"My head, shit it hurts!" I yelled back at her.

Selina hands grasped my head and I heard her snort. "You were just barely grazed. You'll be fine. Please, we need to leave. There will be more of them soon."

I got back on my feet and grimaced, "Shit I need some damn Tylenol."

"Are you coming or not?" she asked already moving away from me.

"Damn, I'm probably going to regret this," I said, but moved to follow. I didn't trust Selina, but she hadn't tried to kill me, so I was probably better off with her than them.

"Take us to the car, dear," Selina said turning back to Scarface.

Scarface nodded and led us to a dark-blue SUV parked on the other side of the building. "Darrell, what the he--" A short man with close-cropped brown hair started to say, but was stopped short as 'Darrell' pumped bullets into his chest. Without even so much as blinking he pulled the dead man out of the car and killed the man in the driver's seat before he could pull his weapon from its holster.

"Collect their weapons and sit down in the passenger seat, my lovely," Selina said patting Darrell's cheek and smiling happily.

"Archie, can you drive, please?" Selina asked as Scarface bent over to collect the discarded weapons.

"Me?" I muttered in protest. "Why the fuck do you want me to drive?"

"Because our dear friend is too enthralled to focus on the road, and I need to maintain this form in order to keep hold of him," she said her wings twitching. "I think it best if I sit in the back where I cannot be seen."

"This is too freaking weird. God, I hope this is all a dream," I said with a shake of my head and walked around to the other side of the car.

I pulled the door open and the corpse in the driver's seat tumbled out of the car. I started dry heaving at the sight of the dead body. I turned my head away, but it was already too late. I vomited on the ground next to the corpse. There hadn't been much in my stomach so it was mostly bile. Shivering I stepped over the body and climbed into the car.

Selina hopped into the back and Darrell’s eyes followed her every move. The big thug had a huge grin on his face, and he turned back in his seat so he could keep his eyes on Selina. It creeped the hell out of me. "So where to?"

"After we find another car I think we need a place to hide. You're too exhausted to go very far or I'd recommend leaving town." Selina said leaning awkwardly forward from the back seat.

"Fuck! Why the hell do we need another car?" I muttered.

"Do you want to drive around in a stolen car owned by the people chasing us? If they have some means of tracking this car we'd be in a world of a trouble. Worse yet they could report it missing and we'll have the police after us too."

"Okay, okay I get your point. So what, we go steal another car?"

"Drive and I will tell you," she said.

"Right," I muttered as I turned the key in the ignition.

"Find an office parking lot," she said. "It's almost ten, most offices will be open for business," she said blandly.

"And?" I spat at her.

She shrugged, "And we steal a car. It will be several hours before anyone notices it’s missing. Long enough for us to find a place to hide and ditch the car."

We met no resistance as the SUV pulled out of the parking lot. "Okay, who the hell were those guys?" I asked after several moments of silence.

Selina sighed and shook her head, "I don't really know much about them to be honest. I know only that they call themselves the Tenebris Petentibus. A few months ago, they captured me, and did all sorts of things to me."

"Things? What sort of things?"

"Some sort of surgical experiments. There didn't seem to be any reason behind it all. They never explained themselves," she said with a shudder. "I managed to escape, and they've been chasing after me ever since. I thought I had lost them when I came to Ravencrest."

"Yeah well, you thought wrong and now I'm caught up in this mess," I growled staring back at her through the rear view mirror. "Shit, what did you say they called themselves?"

"The Tenebris Petentibus," Selina replied with downcast eyes.

"Sound like Latin, Daniel would have known what it meant," I muttered angrily. Daniel didn't look the type but he was minoring in linguistics and was a wiz when it came to languages.

"He's probably dead now thanks to you," I added with a growl.

"The muscular fellow you came into the club with? I wouldn't be so quick to count him out," she replied with a knowing smile.

"Yeah sure, those guys just let him walk out of the apartment," I replied my voice dripping with sarcasm. I slammed on the brakes as the light turned red. "Just give me one reason why I shouldn't get out of this car right now. I'm beginning to wonder if coming with you was such a good idea. You're a freaking sex demon for Christ sakes! How can I trust you?"

Selina shook her head, "I do not serve the devil, if he even exists, if that's what you're worried about. I do feed on sex, but believe me when I say I wish I didn't have too."

"And what about our friend?" I said jerking my head toward Darrell as the light turned green again.

"What exactly did you do to him anyway?" I asked slamming my foot down on the accelerator.

"He is a slave to my will," she said with a shrug.

"Well gee, that sure cleared things up didn't it?"

Selina sighed, "It is not an ability I am particularly fond of using. When I am in this form I can sometimes form a link between myself and a man. When I do so they become mindless thralls who will do anything to please me."

"Can you at least try and get some information out of him? I mean if he's a slave to your will like you say, can't you just ask him about his buddies?"

"He can no longer speak and the longer I keep my hold on him the more of his mind is lost," she said sadly.

I shuddered, "Shit, I'm glad you didn't use that on me."

"As I said it is not an ability I like to use. I only use it in dire circumstances and it only works on people with weak minds. Besides it wouldn't have worked on you."

"Oh, right. Because I'm supposed to be a Succubus too."

"Yes."

"Shit, and I'm supposed to just take your word for it? No offense, but that's a load of bullshit," I growled suddenly swerving into a parking lot.

"Will this place work or do you want to steal your car somewhere else?" I spat glaring at her through the rear view mirror.

"It will suffice," she said calmly as the SUV came to a stop.

"You know I've never stolen a car," I muttered.

"I have," she muttered with a shudder as her skin started to ripple and her horns and wings shrunk back into her skin and disappeared.

"What the hell are you doing? I thought you needed to stay like that to keep control of him!" I said yelling at her hysterically.

Darrell frowned then glanced at me for a moment, then that stupid grin returned to his face and he looked back at Selina.

"There is no cause for concern," she said as her changes completed. "He won't be a problem. He is mine now, no matter what form I am in."

"Well, that's reassuring," I muttered swinging the door open and hopped out of the car.

Besides still being really weak, I was starting to feel really odd. I don't know exactly how to describe it, but there was this strange need building inside of me. I didn't know what would satisfy it, but it was getting stronger by the minute. It was freezing cold out, but despite that I was sweating my ass off. My hands were shaking and I felt as if I might collapse from sheer exhaustion at any moment. My teeth started to chatter and I could feel a headache coming on.

"Archie, oh god, not now," Selina said somewhere nearby.

I blinked and shook my head trying to clear it, "What?"

"It's starting," she said, but it seemed as if she were speaking from really far off.

A small part of me wanted to ask what she meant, but that part of me was rapidly diminishing. What really mattered was my need and how I might fulfill it. I looked around and spotted Darrell and a slow smile crept across my face. Darrell had what I needed; maybe he would give it to me. I walked over to him and reached for his crotch. 'No!' something inside of me screamed. I quickly snatched my hand back and looked down at it disbelievingly and fell to my knees. What the hell was I doing? What had I almost done? The need was strong, but I couldn't let myself give in. The need continued to grow in me and I wasn't sure how much longer I could resist. I looked up at Darrell, at his erect crotch, and licked my lips. He had what I needed, why shouldn't I partake?

"Archie, no!" Selina said. "Not here!"

"Step off bitch. He's mine! I need what he has!" I growled jumping to my feet and rounding on her.

"No!" I screamed suddenly and fell back to my knees. No, no, no... My head was spinning, everything was wrong and I starting yelling at the top of my lungs. Distantly I remember hearing the sound of footsteps nearby, but it wasn't until the man grew close that it really registered.

"Miss, are you okay? Are these guys bothering you?" he said. He looked down at me with a disapproving thrown then over to Darrell with the same look.

I looked up at the newcomer. He had what I needed, he had lots of it. He was a big fellow, but if I acted quickly I might be able to pin him to the ground and get what I needed. I leapt at him and laughed with glee as we both fell to the ground in a heap. We struggled for a few moments, but in the end I managed to reach for his pants and unzip them. For some reason his dick was limp, a part of me, a very small part now, was happy about this. The rest of me howled with rage then I reached inside of myself and it was like I flicked on a switch.

A stupid grin formed on the man's face and I laughed triumphantly as I wrapped my hand around his now erect appendage and began to suck what I needed from him. God, it felt so good! I could never have imagined anything feeling so invigorating. Why hadn't I done it sooner? His energy filled me up and I laughed from the sheer ecstasy, but something was missing. It wasn't enough. There had to be a better way to get what I needed. He stopped struggling and I think he must have passed out, but I continued to drain him.

Suddenly, I was being pulled away and I screaming in rage. "Let go!"

"Archie," Selina said. "Please you have to snap out of it. I promise I will let you feed when we are somewhere safe."

"You don't understand," I said with a sob. "He has what I need! Why won't you let me have it!"

Something slammed into my face and I thought I might black out, then suddenly everything snapped back into focus and I gasped. "Shit," I muttered feeling bile rise in my throat. "What the hell did you do to me?"

"I slapped you," she said staring at me blandly. "Darrell, my sweet let him down."

Darrell let go of me and I fell to the ground. "God that hurt," I groaned.

"What is happening to me?" I said curling up into a fetal position.

"I'm sorry Archie, I really am, I tried to tell you that you were a succubus," she said putting her hand on my shoulder.

"Fuck, I practically raped that I guy," I said with a shudder.

"You nearly drained him dry, he will wake feeling extremely weak and in all likelihood have no memory of what happened. No lasting harm has been done to him," she said with a sympathetic look on her face.

"Is that what you tell yourself to make you feel better about preying on people?" I said between gritted teeth

"Please we need to go, they could--"

"No! I don't want to be like you! Just leave me to die!" I screamed in rage and misery.

"Please, Archie," she said practically begging me.

"No!"

"Darrell, pick him back up. If he won't come willingly then we'll have to do it the hard way," she said sadly.

Darrell bent over and locked a huge arm around my waist then he lifted me up and draped me over a shoulder like a sack of flour. I tried to resist, but it was to no avail, Darrell was just too damn strong. I tried to kick and punch him, but the blows didn't seem to have any effect at all.

"Put him down," a voice said suddenly and stared in shock at the person holding a gun just a few feet away.

"Holy Shit! Daniel you're alive!" were the first words out of my mouth.

Daniel looked pretty battered and bruised and he had a blood-stained cloth wrapped around his left arm just above his elbow, but at least he was alive. The gun he had aimed at Selina looked identical to the one that Darrell had holstered under his jacket. Daniel had probably picked it up from one of the guys who had attacked the apartment. "I said put him down!" Daniel commanded glaring at Darrell intently.

"Put him down, my dear," Selina said with a faint smile.

Again, Darrell dropped me to the ground. Shit, why couldn't Selina have been more specific? I grunted against the pain then scrambled to my feet. "Daniel," I said. "It's alright you can put the gun down."

Daniel glanced at Selina and Darrell warily, then he nodded and tucked the gun into the back of his pants. "Please tell me you know what's going on," he said with a wary sigh.

"Shit man, you wouldn't believe me if I told you," I replied with a wry grin.

"This is all your fault, isn't it?!" Daniel asked between clench teeth as he rounded on Selina. "I should have never let Archie leave the club with you."

Selina sighed, "If you are referring to the gunmen, they are after me, near as far as I can tell I did nothing to warrant their attention."

Daniel shook head and spoke between gritted teeth, "Let's get out of here. Then you, Archie and I are going to have a long talk."

Selina nodded, "Archie, can you walk on your own?"

"Even if I couldn't I wouldn't let Darrell carry me. Don't we still need a ride?"

"I got that covered. Come on, if we stay here much longer someone is bound to call the police if they haven't already," Daniel said motioning for us to follow.

"Wait, what about him?" I said pointed down to the guy lying there on the ground. I couldn't just leave him there, not after what I had done to him.

Selina walked over to me and placed her hand on my shoulder, "Leave him, he's better off."

"Someone could come by and run him over. We should at least put him somewhere warm," I said.

Selina smiled sympathetically, "Yes, we can do that at least."

Struck with a sudden idea, I reached down and stuck my hand down in his pockets. A wave of dizziness swept over me, and I fought down the urge to start feeding on him again. I pulled his keys out and felt a small sense of satisfaction when I found what I wanted on his key chain, a key fob. With a deep breath I turned away from him, and felt my need to feed dwindle. I handed the key fob to Selina, "We could probably find his car with this."

Selina nodded and pressed a button on the small remote, the horn on a nearby car started blaring. She pressed the button again, and silenced the car. "Darrell, my dear pick the gentleman up and kindly place him in the car."

Darrell bent over to pick the guy up and I moved to open the car door so he could set him down. After the man was seated, I bent down to straighten his legs and felt that same hungry feeling come over me and quickly stepped away. I let Selina finish up for me, she put the keys back in his pocket and slammed the car door shut.

"We better get out of here," Daniel said when it was all finished.

"Yeah, lead the way," I said.

We followed him down a few rows and stopped at a huge silver king-cab truck. "It belongs to Stu," he explained as he opened the passenger side door and pulled the seat forward.

"Why don't you sit in back like a good boy," Selina said tracing a finger across Darrell's cheek.

The big thug climbed into the rear seat with the usual stupid grin on his face and I got in after him. "You sure you want to sit back there with that guy? There's something that sets me on edge about him," Daniel said grabbing my shoulder.

"It's probably for the best. Fuck, I'd be more worried about me if I were you," I said, and received a sharp look from Daniel before I climbed into the back seat. Shit, if I tried to feed on Daniel while he was driving it would spell disaster for us all.

Selina slid into the front passenger seat, and a moment later Daniel hopped in the driver’s side. "So where to?"

"Some place where we can hide until things settle down," Selina said.

"I know just the place," Daniel replied with a shake of his head.

He started the truck and sped out of the parking lot. "Okay, someone tell me what's going on now."

Selina glanced back at me with a warning look then let out a sigh. "How might you answer if I said 'What lies in the shadows remains unseen'"?

Daniel glanced over at Selina with a surprised look on his face, "Well, if you're saying what I think you're saying, I'd say the two of us should talk somewhere a bit more private."

"I don't think that will be necessary," Selina said.

"Yeah, well I disagree," he shot back.

"You're a were, aren’t you?" Selina said suddenly.

Daniel slammed on the brakes and turned to stare at Selina with his mouth hanging open. Selina met his gaze and the two just sat there staring at each other for almost a minute. Cars whizzed past us honking their horns as the passed by, one almost rear-ended the truck.

It was Selina that finally broke the silence, "Don't worry. Archie and I are both Unseen, and Darrell, well he couldn't tell anyone even if I instructed him to."

"You're an Unseen?" he asked looking back at me.

"Uh, what the fuck is an Unseen?" I asked giving him a confused look.

"Some people would call an Unseen a monster," Selina said.

"Well, I'd say that freaking well fits the bill," I spat bitterly.

"I don't like it. How can I be sure your friend won't spill the beans," he said pointing his thumb back at Darrell.

Selina sighed, "He's a slave to my will. He exists only to please me."

Daniel's jaw dropped again then he shook his head and put his foot down on the accelerator and the truck lurched back into motion.

"So what are you? If I had to guess I'd say you were a vamp, but I think I'd be wrong," he said glancing at Selina with a level look.

"Succubus," she said.

"And Archie? What's he an incubus or something?"

"I'm a succubus, too," I muttered bitterly. It wasn't like I could deny it after I had practically raped that guy.

"Crap, I'm sorry man," he replied with nowhere near the amount of surprise I would have expected.

"What about you?" I asked him.

"I'm a Were," he said simply.

"You're aware of what?"

Daniel chuckled, "No, man I am a Were. You have heard of werewolves haven't you?"

"You're a werewolf then?"

"No, no, there's different types. I turn into a bear, a Kodiak to be exact," he said casually.

"Shit, that was you I saw at the apartment!" I said.

"Yeah, that was me," he said with a shudder.

"Something wrong?"

"I just don't like violence is all," he said.

That took me aback a bit; it seemed like an odd comment coming from a guy that could change into a massive killing machine at will. I didn't respond because I couldn't really think of something to say to that. I had this image in my head of Daniel turning into a bear and tearing everything around him into pieces. Maybe, I shouldn't have been too quick to assume.

My attention drifted and my need, no my hunger, started to grow again. I reached over to Darrell and I started to unzip his pants, my hands reached for his cock. Distantly I heard Selina say something then I felt his Darrell's hands lock around my wrists and force me away. I struggled against him, but I couldn't break free.

"Please," I begged. "I need it, why won't you let me have it?!"

"Not here, dear. I promise you can feed soon. Just hold on a little longer," she said reaching across the seat and stroking my cheek.

I don't know exactly why, but I seemed to grow more lucid. The hunger was still strong, but I was able to think rationally. I nodded, "I don't know how much longer I can wait," I said and felt like crying. Darrell's hold on me loosened and I put my head between my knees and clutched it with my hands.

"Did you do this to him?" Daniel said with accusation in his voice.

"Yes and no, losing one's virginity is usually the catalyst and that would have happened eventually with or without another succubus to help the process along," Selina said calmly.

"So when he says he needs something he's talking about sex?" Daniel asked incredulously.

"Yes, but at the moment his ability to feed is hampered by his male form. He can suck a man dry and only gain a small amount of energy," Selina said sadly.

Pins and needles prickled across my body and I felt like vomiting. Dizziness washed over me, with wave after wave, like ocean currents washing against a beach. Cold chills wracked my body and I was sweating so bad I felt like I had taken a shower in my clothes. God, I needed to feed. Why wouldn't Selina let me feed? It seemed so unfair!

By some miracle I kept myself from reaching across the seat and trying to feed on Darrell again, but it was a close thing. The thought crossed my mind a number of times, but whatever part of myself that still resisted managed to keep me from doing so. Every moment was torture, distantly I could hear Selina and Daniel talking, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. They might have well have been speaking in another language. Finally, after an eternity of fighting back my hunger the truck came to a stop and I felt a pair of large hands wrap themselves around me and lift me like a child.

After a short time, that might as well have been another eternity, I fed. It was glorious or at least I thought so at the time. I reached deep in my victim, and drained nearly every last bit of energy I could, but when it was all done I was still hungry. I almost sapped away that last little bit of energy, but I restrained myself. Somehow I knew that if I drained everything my victim would die. Slowly sanity returned to me, and I became aware of my surroundings.

I was lying atop Darrell with my hands over his crotch, I quickly yanked them away and suppressed the urge to vomit. Despite being unconscious, he still had that stupid shit-eating grin on his face, and I shuddered at the sight of him. I stood and backed away from his unconscious form, and noticed that I felt stronger than I had all day. In fact, other than being hungry for both food and sex, I felt amazing.

I looked around and noticed my shabby surroundings. The room I was in looked like it hadn't been inhabited by humans in years. Paint was peeling away from the walls, and what remained of the carpet was stained black and brown with dirt and god knew what else. Darrell was lying on the ground atop a blanket, which, despite being a bit shabby, looked clean.

I shuddered and turned away I couldn't bear the thought of what I had done to Darrell. I looked down at my hands and realized something was wrong. They looked different somehow, not much, but it was enough for me to detect a difference. The fingers seemed just a bit thinner, and maybe even a little longer.

"Shit, shit, shit!" I yelled with my fists clenched. I had a feeling I knew what was happening. Selina had never said anything about it, but it made sense that if I was a succubus that I would transform somehow. I pulled my shirt off, and winced at the sight of my chest. All my chest hair was gone, and my nipples were swollen and tender to the touch. I ran my hand through my hair and realized that it was longer, if only by about an inch.

If I had any doubts about my changes, they were gone after I pulled my pants down. The changes in my crotch were drastic to say the least. My usual equipment had almost completely disappeared. A half-formed mound had appeared in its place, the only remnant of penis was a tiny nub that stuck out from my new cunt. I stared at the damn thing and felt like hitting something. Why the hell did this have to happen to me?

I screamed and suppressed my violent urges. All my dreams, all my hopes for the future had gone down the tube. I couldn't hope to finish my degree, no one would recognize me. There would be no way to prove my identity. It was worse than that though, I couldn't use my social security number, I wouldn't have any documented past whatsoever. I would be starting over with a blank slate, and no way to fill it.

A hand touched my shoulder and I turned to find Selina looking back at me with tears in her eyes. "I am sorry."

I wanted to hate Selina I wanted to yell and scream at her, but for some reason I just couldn't. "You said in the car that I would have awakened eventually with or without your help."

"I didn't think you had been aware enough to hear that," Selina said staring at me with wide eyes.

"I didn't hear much else, but I believe you. God knows why, but I do," I said.

She smiled, "It's not so bad once you get used to it. In time you might even come to enjoy it."

"Selina, I had dreams. I wanted to make something of myself, and now... Now there's no way I'll ever get my degree," I muttered as tears fell down my face.

"You're not the only one who has had their dreams shattered," she muttered sadly.

I didn't respond, I merely stared at Selina. I had never thought of her as anything but the sexy shelf-assured creature that she seemed to be. "I had just gotten married," she continued. "I thought I would spend the rest of my life with Shamus. I had never been with a man before, I was nervous that I wouldn't know what to do or that I wouldn't please him. When we consummated our love I awoke as a succubus and started to feed on him. I drained him dry, and he died."

I stared at Selina with a horrified look on my face, "I just left then, I hated myself for what I did. All my dreams, my hopes of raising a family and spending a lifetime with the man I loved, everything was shattered. I ran away from everything and everyone I knew and I changed along the way. I had always been a plain girl, Shamus told me I was pretty, and he made me feel pretty sometimes. I never really believed him, though. It's funny I always envied beautiful women, but the price of becoming one was greater than I had ever imagined."

"Selina, I'm sorry I had no idea," I said not really knowing what else to say.

Selina shook her head, "Don't be. Ours is a lonely existence, but maybe it doesn't have to be. You could come with me when I leave this town. I've been alone for far too long."

"I'll think about it," I said quietly.

"Get dressed, you need to get some food in you," she said suddenly then turned and left the room.

I looked down at Darrell again, and suppressed a shudder. Then I hurriedly got dressed and followed Selina out of the room.

I took a bite out of the energy bar, the hurriedly devoured the rest of it. "Jeez man, how long has been since you've eaten?" Daniel said from across the battered dining table.

We were in an old abandoned house a few miles outside of Ravencrest. The kitchen wasn't in any better shape than the other room I had seen, but it had furniture at least. "Last night," I said after swallowing.

"Here have another," Daniel said tossing me a foil-wrapped bar.

I had flat out refused the beef jerky he had tried to get me to eat. Normally, I loved the stuff, but the sight of it made me want to vomit. I tore open the package and devoured the bar in mere seconds. The bar tasted awful, but I would have eaten almost anything. Well, except for jerky apparently.

"So, how do you feel?" he asked with a worried expression.

"Weird as fucking hell," I muttered. My head wouldn't stop spinning and I felt like I was being jabbed by thousands of tiny needles.

"So, you're really going to change?" he asked.

"Going to? Shit, I've already started," I growled with a shudder.

Daniel looked at me thoughtfully for a moment, "Now that I think about it you do look a little different."

"Can we talk about something else?" I asked.

"Sure," Daniel said with an apologetic smile.

"How did you find us?" I asked suddenly.

"I tracked you by scent," he said with a proud grin.

"By scent, you mean like a dog?" I asked incredulously.

Daniel folded his arms across his chest and shook his head, "Being a were does have its advantages. Most people don't know this, but bears can smell better than wolves or dogs and even in human form I can smell well enough to track a scent. Especially ones as strong as yours and Selina's."

I stared at him for a moment then burst out laughing. "You realize that you're a were bear, right?"

He stared at me blankly, "Yeah, I don't get why that's funny."

"A were bear," I said emphasizing 'were'. "You know how ridiculous that sounds don't you?"

"Uh, I still don't get it man," he said with another blank look.

"Well, it's nothing, but it sort of sounds like care bear is all," I said barely able to contain my laughter.

It really wasn't that funny, why was I laughing so hard? Abruptly, I stopped, not by choice, but because I couldn't breathe. I struggled for breath, but it just wouldn't come. My limbs seemed to go limp and I fell to the floor with a dull thud. Frantically, I tried to grab for my throat, but I couldn't move my arms. Daniel's shadow appeared over me and suddenly his lips were over my own. At first my air deprived mind thought he was kissing me, but then I realized he was giving me mouth to mouth.

Suddenly, air flooded through my lungs, and I sat up with a start. I could feel the hunger build and I reached toward Daniel. I yanked my hand away when I realized what I had almost allowed myself to do. I couldn't feed on Daniel, he was my friend. "Get away from me!" I screamed suddenly and felt my eyes bulge out of my head at the sound of my voice. Shit, I sounded like a damn girl.

"Archie, buddy, it's alright," he said reaching for my shoulder.

I scrambled away from him, "Fuck, do you know how close I came to feeding on you?!" I screamed again. "Please just don't come near me. I don't want to hurt you," I said with a pleading tone.

Daniel nodded and backed off, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

"I... think I need to be alone right now," I said with long intake of breath. I took a few more steps back then fled into the closest room, slammed the half-rotted door closed behind me and sank to the floor as tears streamed down my face.

"Man up," I said to myself, my newly feminine voice sounding odd to my ears, and started to laugh. No I wasn't nuts, I was just close to the breaking point. Not to mention that telling myself to 'man up' was incredibly ironic since I was turning into a fucking chick. I had wept enough, and I didn't intend to do any more crying if I could help it. I wiped the tears from my face and looked down at my hands and was shocked by what I found. My hands look so different they might as well have belonged to someone else. They were long and delicate; in short they were the hands of a woman.

I stood, and felt a wave of dizziness wash over me. I put my hand on the wall to steady myself, but it didn't help much. I caught a glint of something on the other side of the room scattered among the refuse, and I stumbled over to it. I dug through all the junk, throwing aside rotting pieces of clothing, broken pieces of furniture and old wooden toys as I did so. Then I found it, what I had been hoping to find, a small hand mirror with a crack across it. I studied my reflection and stared at the stranger looking back at me.

There was still a bit of my old face mixed in, but since I wasn't finished changing, I doubted there would be much if any of my old features left when I was finished. Like my hands, my face looked much more feminine and my eyes had shifted color, instead of being brown they were now a vibrant blue. The face in the mirror was quite striking, not pretty exactly, but appealing nonetheless.

"Fuck!?" I said touching my face in disbelief. I hadn't expected such drastic changes in so short a time. I sighed and shook my head, it didn't matter really, it didn't change the fact that I was turning into a sex demon or whatever the hell succubi were. I shook my head and felt hair brush again my neck. It was just a little past shoulder length now and somehow seemed a much more vibrant shade of red than it had been before. I reached out and grabbed it, it was thick, and silky-smooth. I knew some women who would kill for hair like that.

I glanced down at my chest, and shuddered at the sight of the two bulges that poked out from it. They were a little on the small side, but I doubted they'd stay that way. I had shrunk quite a lot, my shirt was now a few sizes too large and my pants seemed about ready to fall off. I sighed and pulled my shirt and pants off. The first thing I noticed was the damn slit between my legs, the last remnant of my cock was gone, and as near as I could tell the plumbing looked right. I hadn't really seemed to develop much of a figure yet, my waist had narrowed and my hips bulged out a little, but other than that my proportions looked quite boyish.

I glared down at the body in disgust; I would never be able to pass for male again. My face alone made that impossible. "Just fucking great," I muttered angrily as I reached down to grab my clothes.

I quickly redressed then vacated the room.

Surprise flashed across Selina's face when I first stepped into the dilapidated kitchen. "I was beginning to worry."

"I needed some alone time," I muttered.

"Daniel told me what happened," she said with a sympathetic smile. "He seemed to think he provoked you into trying to feed on him."

I laughed and shook my head, "That's just like him. He always tried to take blame for things that weren't his fault. Where is he anyway?"

"He's out hunting for food."

"Is it normal? For succubi to change. So quickly I mean," I said sitting down at the table.

"It happens," Selina said with a shrug. "Some change more quickly than others. Usually those that shift genders take longer, but not always."

"Why wasn't I born a girl? I mean it doesn't seem to make sense for me to turn into a fucking chick if I was born a guy," I said angrily.

"It has to do with the way in which we are conceived. At least with those of us that are born and not made," she said standing up and took my hands in hers.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Succubi could be made? I wanted to ask her what that meant, but it would have to be a question for later. My original inquiry was more important to me at the moment.

"It's difficult to explain and I'm not sure I understand it myself, but I will try. Before a succubus or incubus awakens their true self is buried under a false human shell. After a succubus and an incubus mate the mother succubus then mates with a human whose seed provides this shell for the unborn child. That shell begins to crack when you awaken and eventually crumbles away as you start to feed."

"So it's just a random accident that I was born male instead of female. I don't exactly understand how that might work, but I do recall that a child's gender is determined by whether or not the sperm that fertilizes the egg has an x or y chromosome. The sperm from the human must have contained a y chromosome and the sperm from the incubus must have contained an x," I said locking eyes with Selina.

"Possibly," Selina said with an amused smile.

I didn't get a chance to ask, a loud bang sounded from the other room. Selina and I exchanged glances then we both took off running towards the source of the sound. Daniel was standing in the front doorway, he had a panicked expression on his face and he was drenched with sweat. The carcass of a deer was sprawled on the ground off to the side as if it had been flung away as an afterthought.

"We have to leave. NOW!" he said with wide eyes.

"They've found us," Daniel panted.

"How?" I demanded.

Daniel's eyes widened at the sight of me, "Archie?"

"How?" Selina repeated, giving me no opportunity to answer.

"I don't know, I barely managed to avoid being seen," he said with a shake of his head.

"Darrell!" Selina called back behind her then her eyes met mine and she said, "We're leaving."

Darrell came lumbering into view with that damned stupid ass grin on his scarred face and Selina smiled then patted him on the face, "Such a good boy."

Without another word we all piled out the front door and I got a look at the house for the first time. It looked almost as bad on the outside as it did on the in. It had faded green paint that was pealing all over the freaking place and the roof looked as if it were ready to cave in. The windows were all boarded up and judging from the loose boards around the door it had been at one point, too. I remembered seeing the place a while back when Daniel had dragged me along on a camping trip.

We followed Daniel around to the other side of the house and that's when our friends from the Tenebris Petentibus showed up. This time they weren't dressed in civilian garb, they wore full military fatigues, and bullet proof vests. I didn't know much about guns, but the weapons they carried looked like they might have been military grade.

"Come on," Daniel yelled motioning us forward.

We broke into a mad dash toward a copse of trees where I could just barely make out the outline of Stu's truck. "Darrell, cover us!" I heard Selina call out.

At the edge of my vision I saw Darrell swirling around with gun blazing. "Shit, we're not going to make it," I screamed.

"Here," Daniel said tossing me the keys to the truck.

"Where are you going?!" I called back at him.

"I'm going to buy you some time. Get out of here!" he yelled.

Then he turned around to join Darrell, suddenly fur sprouted out on his skin, his mouth elongated into a snout then the rest his body filled out and in his place was a very large and very angry looking bear. I kept on running for the truck until I heard Daniel growl and looked back. Shit, I'd have never thought a bear could move so fast. There was a grace to his movements that seemed at odds with his bulky bear form. He was a great brown blur as he tore into our attackers. Daniel ran straight into one of the guys and was on him in an instant, the man let out a blood curdling scream then Daniel tore open his throat with a massive clawed paw. Another was thrown the ground as Daniel tossed him aside like a rag doll.

"Come on," Selina said pulling on my arm.

"Shit," I muttered realizing that standing around in the middle of a gunfight probably wasn't a good idea even if the bad guys appeared to be using tranquilizer darts instead of real ammo.

I looked back one last time, and noticed a familiar looking gray-haired man standing a few yards away from all the fighting. He lifted a cigarette to his mouth and then his eyes locked on mine and he smiled. The smile held no warmth; it was cold and seemed to promise death. I shivered and turned away. Then with a start I realized why the man looked familiar, he was the fucking asshole who blew smoke in my face at Kona's the day before. Shit he probably had been speaking in code after all. I looked around hoping to spot his supposed son, but I didn't see him anywhere.

Selina motioned me onward with an expression of near panic on her face. I sprang into motion and let her lead me to where the truck was hidden.

We had almost reached the copse of trees when Selina suddenly dropped out of sight, I heard her scream, but before I found out what had happened ,a heavy weight slammed into my legs and I tumbled to the ground. Something had hold of me by the legs, I kicked at it desperately and my pants started to slip away from my waist. I crawled forward and felt them slide the rest of the way from my waist and legs. I was free! I tried to stand up on my feet, but a weight shot into me again and I collapsed back to the ground. "Fucking bitch," I heard a male voice growl.

I felt a pair of hands latch onto my right arm and I was flung onto my back. It was one of the attackers, he had a bloody gash across his forehead and in his hand and he held a wicked-looking switchblade poised over my heart. I recognized him as the man that Daniel had thrown aside. "Freak, I'm going to enjoy slitting your throat," he said and lunged at me.

I tried to hold him at bay, but my arms didn't have the strength they had before my change. Instead, I tried a different tactic; I kicked him in the fucking balls. His eyes grew to roughly the size of saucers and he dropped the blade with a loud groan. Vaguely I remember feeling the blade slide past my arm before the hunger kicked in.

"Not now," I screamed before I lost all sense of anything but my need for sustenance.

"You'll do nicely," I purred hungrily and started to unbuckle his belt.

He tried to resist, but I kissed him on the lips and his hands fell limply to his side and just like that he was under my spell. I pulled my shirt off and flung it aside and felt him reach for my tiny breasts. Faintly, I remembered hearing Daniel roaring and the sound of gunfire, but it didn't matter, I was about to feed. It was pretty damn cold, but I didn't notice or care as I pulled his pants away and within moments he had penetrated me.

There was a flash of pain in my crotch, and I thought that my insides would explode, but then the pain faded a bit and I started to feed. Pure white energy poured into me and I thought I might pass out from sheer pleasure. The first few times I had fed, it had drained out of the victim in a faint stream, now it poured into me like a rapid torrent and I howled with pure delight. He penetrated me again and again and each time I drew more energy until there was none left.

Then the hunger was gone and I was myself again. "Oh god," I muttered and stared down in horror. Quickly, I scrambled off the man and felt my stomach groan in protest. I turned my head and I vomited. The man's dead eyes stared back at me as if in accusation and I wanted to claw my eyes out. I had raped and killed him, and I hated myself for it. It didn't matter that he had been trying to kill me; I would have done it to anyone given the chance.

"Archie," Selina's soft voice said and I felt her hands on my shoulders.

I didn't look up at her; instead I reached for the knife and stared at it fixedly. It was a switchblade, the sort that a military man might carry. I thought of slitting my wrists right there and then, but I worried Selina might try to stop me. "He's fucking dead," I said clenching my fist around the handle of the knife.

"I know," her voice said.

"God, why can't I control it?!" I screamed.

"Once you get on a regular feeding schedule, it will get easier," she said sympathetically.

"Uh," Daniel's voice interrupted and I looked over to where he was standing. The ground around him was littered with corpses and I shuddered at the sight of all the bodies. The battle was over, and it appeared Darrell and Daniel had won. At least Daniel was alive, I don't think I could forgive myself if he died trying to save me.

I met Daniel's eyes which had grown wide and I realized he was staring at my chest. When he noticed me looking, his face turned beet red and his eyes quickly darted away. I looked down at my chest and gasped. My breasts were growing right before my eyes. They swelled up until I thought they might burst then they suddenly stopped, but that wasn't the end of it. I looked down and watched as changes rippled across my whole body. My waist narrowed, my hips widened, and my arms, legs and shoulders all changed. When it was all finished, I had the perfect hourglass figure. My body had curves in all the right places without being overweight or skinny. God, I had a figure to match Selina's except now I was just a tad shorter than her.

"Shit," I muttered.

"The changes have finished, the energy you just gained appears to have been enough to complete your transformation," Selina said with a sympathetic smile.

"Holy fucking shit! Damn, I need some clothes," I muttered feeling extremely self-conscious as I looked down at my very naked body. Not only that, my body was cold and wet, and I knew that if I didn't get warm soon I'd probably freeze to death.

"I'll help look," Daniel volunteered his eyes wandering over to my breasts. Again, he turned bright red and quickly turned away.

Selina found my pants almost immediately and I tore them out of her hands and quickly pulled them up my legs. They were a pretty wet and they didn't fit well at all since my waist was now too small to fit the pants properly so instead they hung uncomfortably around my hips. I had to roll them up as they were about four or five inches too long. Daniel found my shirt a few yards away, but it had a huge tear across the front which made it unfit to wear with any semblance of decency.

Daniel stared at my chest and this time it was me that blushed. I thought I would die from embarrassment just from the way he was looking at me. It was obvious he found me attractive, but there was also guilt on his face. I couldn't understand why at first, but it came to me after a moment. He felt guilty because he couldn't keep himself from looking. That sort of reaction was typical of Daniel.

"Let's just go. We can find something for me to wear later," I muttered folding my arms across my chest in a half-hearted attempt at modesty.

"No, I have an idea," Daniel said and suddenly pulled his shirt off and tossed it over to me.

"Daniel, I can't wear this," I said holding the shirt in front of me. "Fuck, it'll look like I'm wearing a dress."

"It will cover you," Selina chimed in.

She was right; I couldn't exactly go around without something to cover my chest. I may have been able to get away with that as guy, but with my new body that sort of thing was bound to cause trouble. In the cold, it wasn't exactly a good idea either. I quickly pulled the shirt over my head, and grimaced at the sight of the thing. It looked like I was wearing a damn tent.

"Hey what are you doing?!" I protested as Selina grabbed hold of the bottom of the shirt and started to twist it every which way then watched as she tied two ends of the shirt together. I'd seen women wearing shirts that way before, but I never expected to be doing it myself. The way in which Selina had tied it left a lot of skin exposed, but at least it covered those damn huge ass lumps sticking out from my chest.

"Let's get out of here," Daniel muttered and we were all quick to agree. As everyone turned to leave, I bent over to pick up the switchblade, retracted the blade and slipped it into my pocket.

Selina and I sat in the back this time, leaving Darrell and Daniel for the front. I guess she wasn't too worried about me trying to feed this time around. In truth I didn't feel the need to feed quite so strongly as I had so far. Although each time I looked at Daniel's shirtless chest I felt a faint stirring inside of me and the part of me that was concerned over such matters wondered absently how well feeding on him would satiate my hunger. I could feel the sexual energy pouring out of him and part of me wanted to fuck him there and then. I shuddered and pushed all thoughts of feeding on Daniel aside.

Daniel started the truck up, and he blasted the heater as he backed the truck out. The heat felt pretty damn good to my freezing body and I folded my cold hands under my armpits to help warm them. I looked one last time at all the corpses surroundings the house and realized something, Mr. Gray hair wasn't among the dead. I shivered, but kept my discovery to myself. I wasn't even sure anyone else had noticed him. There really was no call to worry anyone. I doubt he would cause us any trouble for the time being. He would be looking for us again, I was sure of that, but not alone. For now he wasn't a danger to us, and I didn't want Daniel wasting his time trying to find him. It was more important that we get away.

"There are some things I need to tell you," Selina said part way into the ride.

"I guess you do," I muttered. I didn't feel like talking, I hated what had happened to me, and I couldn't stand the thought of living as a succubus.

Selina seemed to hesitate, and she seemed on the verge of telling me something, but her mouth clamped shut and she looked as if she were about to cry. For the second time that day, I felt a strong urge to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything would be alright, but I batted the thoughts away and watched as she struggled to say whatever was on her mind. "There was a succubus I met once," she finally managed, "I was maybe twenty-one years ago or more. She confided in me in a moment of weakness. She told me she had just abandoned her infant son on the doorsteps of an orphanage."

I felt cold chills trickle down the back of my spine and I stared at Selina with my mouth hanging open. No, it couldn't be, could it? Then again how often did you hear of a child actually being dropped off at an orphanage like that? It wasn't something that happened very often in this day and age.

"Did she say where she left the child?" I asked feeling my stomach clench into knots.

"Somewhere in Virginia, I think," she said glancing at me as if to gauge my reaction.

"Oh god," I muttered. A part of me wanted to grill Selina for information, but the angry, resentful part of me won out.

"Shit, I don't give a flying fuck about her even if she was my mother. If she cared about me she should have at least given me a damn name," I said bitterly. "Can we talk about something else?

Selina's eyes widened a bit, but she nodded, "There are some things you'll need to know. Not just about being a succubus, but about being a woman."

"Can we talk about this later?" I asked. I didn't intend to talk about it ever, but Selina didn't need to know that.

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet; unsurprisingly I wasn't the only one in a dark mood. It took well over an hour to get back to town. It wasn't exactly the longest car ride I'd ever been on, but it felt like it would last an eternity. I was extremely self-conscious of my new body and Daniel kept glancing back at me through the rear view mirror. I'm sure he thought I wouldn't notice, but each time I was all too aware of his eyes on me. Darrell of course had his eyes on Selina the entire time, but that went without being said.

Near the end of the ride, I let myself become lost in my thoughts. No matter what anyone said, I didn't think I could bare living with the hunger. Selina claimed that if I were to keep on a regular feeding schedule I could control my urges, but the idea of having to live off people that way was abhorrent to me. My thoughts turned to the switchblade tucked in my pocket and I had to restrain myself from pulling it out. Soon I would get my chance.

"We're here," Daniel said suddenly snapping me out of my reverie.

'Here' turned out to be the home of Daniel's parents. I'd never actually been inside, but Daniel had pointed it to me a few times while driving through town. The home was large, not a mansion by any means, but it was about the size you'd expect from the upper-middle class.

"Daniel, why have you brought us here? I don't want to endanger your parents," I said with sigh.

"Don't worry, Mom and Dad can take care of themselves. Besides we'll be safer here with me and some of my cousins guarding the place," he grinned proudly back at me.

I groaned audibly, just what I needed, more people to die for me. I know these creeps had come into town searching for Selina, but they seemed just as willing to shoot at any one of us. Daniel had only gotten tangled up in this mess because of me and now he wanted to involve other people too. Hopefully, it wouldn't be a problem much longer.

We all piled out of the car and followed Daniel up to the doorsteps. I twitched nervously as he rang the doorbell. I'd met his parents a few times before and they were nice people, but I wasn't sure how they would react to seeing me in my new form. Hell if they recognized the shirt I was wearing as Daniel's they'd probably jump to the wrong conclusion.

A tall man muscular man with platinum-gray hair appeared at the door, and as always I was struck by just how much Daniel resembled his father. Aside from the obvious age difference, Donald (call me Don) Corday could have been Daniel's twin brother. Not only did they look alike, but they shared all the same mannerisms and even had similar personalities, except there was a certain tired wariness about Mr. Corday that Daniel didn't have or at least hadn't developed yet.

"Danny, thank god," Don said wrapping his arms around his son. "Your mother and I have been worried sick. The police say there was some sort of shooting at your apartment."

"Perhaps this discussion would be better held inside," Selina said casting furtive glances to the street and back to the house.

"Daniel what's going on? Are you in some sort of trouble?"

"She's right, it's probably better if we talk inside, Don," I added.

Don's eyes went wide when he met my gaze, but he nodded and cracked the door all the way open. Daniel's mother, Linda rushed up to Daniel and threw her arms around his midsection. She held on so tightly that I thought she might never let go, but after a few minutes Daniel was able to coax his mother's arms away.

Linda seemed to notice Selina, Darrell and me for the first time, and I couldn't help but feel self-conscious from the way her eyes seemed to linger on me. "Who are your friends?" Linda asked. It was a simple question, but there was just a touch of accusation veiled in her voice that made me want to scurry away and hide behind a rock.

"Mom, Dad, this is Selina and Darrel," he said motioning at each of them in turn. "And you remember Archie, my roommate, right?"

His parents exchanged odd looks, but nodded. "Well..." Daniel said trailing off looking as if he were trying to find the right words.

"I'm Archie," I cut in.

"I think we better sit down," Linda said with wide eyes.

Once we were seated on the loveseat and sofa, Darrell of course remained standing since Selina hadn't told him to sit. This warranted a few strange looks his way, but neither Don nor Linda commented on it. It was Daniel that started the ball rolling and began to tell what had happened. Selina joined in and together they were able to more or less piece together the whole story. I let them keep at it, and tried my best to look as innocuous as possible. I didn't much like the way Linda's eyes kept straying over to me, and I would just as soon draw as little attention to myself as possible.

When they told Don and Linda the reason behind my transformation, I wanted to run screaming from the room. It took all my willpower just to remain sitting and I thought Linda's gaze might bore a hole into me. The story took a while to tell, and they left a lot of the more graphic details out which I was glad for. I thought I might die of embarrassment if Don and Linda knew that I had tried to feed on their son. The silence that permeated the room when they were finished telling the story, was so thick I could have cut into it with the switchblade in my pocket.

Linda's gaze was now focused entirely on me, and I wanted to sink into the couch and become a part of it just to escape the look of appraisal she was giving me. "Poor dear," she said suddenly and I felt my eyes widen in surprise.

I had felt sure Linda was ready to strangle me, but her face only showed sympathy. Of course, that only seemed to make me feel even more self-conscious. I willed her to look away, but her eyes were like a pair of damn heat-seeking missiles they were relentless.

"What did you call these people that have been chasing after you?" Don asked absently stroking his chin.

I let out a sigh of relief when Linda's gaze left me to focus on her husband.

"The Tenebris Petentibus," Selina said as her eyes darted from me then to Linda.

"Latin isn't my strong suit, but it I think it means, Seekers of the Darkness," Daniel added.

Don and Linda exchanged sharp glances and they both mouthed the word "Hunters" and what sounded an awfully lot like "Order of the Sacred Heart" whatever the hell that meant.

"The Order of the Sacred Heart," Daniel repeated. "You don't think they're related do you? I mean Hunters can't be the only ones out there that hunt the unseen."

Don stood and began to pace back and forth, "This is troubling news, Danny. Related or not these Tenebris Petentibus pose a threat to Ravencrest and all the unseen living here, were, witch, and vampire alike. It doesn't bode well, not at all. Action must be taken, they risk destroying everything."

Weres, witches and vampires? Daniel seemed to have held back on some key information. Clearly Ravencrest was much more than the sleepy little college town it appeared to be on the surface.

"What are we going to do, Don?" Linda asked.

"I think I need to have a chat with Burt," he said walking over toward the front. "I'm sure he'll want to call together the Alphas, but this is too big for just the weres, we can't keep something like this from the Coven or even the girls of Delta Beta Zeta."

That seemed like an odd remark. What the hell did a college sorority have to do with weres, witches and vampires? I'm sure the Alphas had something to do with the weres, and it didn't take a genius to connect the Coven to witches, so maybe Delta Beta Zeta had something to do with vampires. Daniel had always seemed pretty insistent I stay away from them, but that didn't necessarily mean they were blood sucking monsters. A couple of them did have a sort of spooky air about them, but it seemed a bit of stretch to call them vampires. Beside I'd seen them walking around in broad daylight.

"I don't know how long I'll be gone. Whatever you do don't answer the door; I'll see to it that a few of Daniel's cousins are sent over. Whatever trouble has been brought on us, it's not over yet, not by a long shot," he said and just like that he was out the door.

"So, let's see about getting you four cleaned, fed and dressed," Linda said suddenly. Although she had spoken to all four of us, I had the feeling that her attentions were focused on me more than any of the others. I suppressed a groan, all I wanted was some time alone, but everyone seemed to be conspiring to keep me from doing just that. Of course, they didn't know what I intended, how could they?

As I had surmised, Linda did seem to take a special interest in me. The few times I had met her she had seemed intent on mothering me, and that hadn't changed. In fact she seemed even more focused on it than usual. I endured her attentions silently, but when she herded me into the bathroom and showed no signs of leaving I finally said something.

"Could I have some privacy, please?" I asked feeling my cheeks burn.

"Relax dear, you don't have anything I haven't seen before," she said with a sweet smile.

I batted her hands away when she reached for the knot in my shirt, but she merely laughed and ignored my protestations. I sighed, and relented. Short of getting violent and forcing Linda out of the bathroom I saw no way to be rid of her. I wasn't sure I could have overpowered her had I shown the inclination in any case. The woman was head and shoulders taller than me, and while not exactly muscular she had an athletic build. Even before my changes I think I would have had a difficult time beating her, the woman looked formidable. Once the knot had been worked free she pulled the shirt over my head and I quickly grasped at my breast to cover them.

"It's hard to believe that just yesterday you were a boy," she said giving my body an appraising look then continued. "Such a sad thing for you to have to endure such drastic changes.

"Yeah," I muttered forcing back tears.

I don't know if it was my new body or just all the stress of my changes, but my emotions were much closer to the surface than they had ever been and it was hard as hell to control them. Half the time I thought I might burst into tears, the rest of the time my temper flared at even the smallest things. Of course, I had never been very good at holding my temper in check even before meeting Selina. Now it seemed to rear its head at even the slightest provocation.

I glanced over at the mirror and got my first real look at my new body. My breasts weren't nearly as large as they seemed when I looked down at them. They were on the large side, but not huge. A lot of women would love breasts like mine, no wonder Daniel had been unable to keep his eyes off me. My face had changed a lot too, and all traces of my former self, save for my red hair, were gone. I had large, beautiful blue eyes, soft kissable lips, and perfect skin. Not to mention my body, I had curves in all the right places, and not an ounce of fat otherwise. In short I was a walking sex-bomb, just like Selina.

"Come now dear, there worse fates than being transformed into a woman," she said suddenly and I turned away from the mirror.

"I'm no woman, I'm a fucking monster," I spat bitterly.

Linda sighed, and tried to console me, but her words only fell on deaf ears. I nodded and smiled appreciatively and let her think her words had touched me, but inside I wanted to scream. It took me a while to convince her I would be alright, but I finally managed it.

She had me strip out of my pants, then hustled me into the shower, muttered something about finding some decent clothes for me to wear and swept up my dirty rags from the ground as she left. Too late, she had carried off my jeans with the switchblade inside. Shit, if Linda pieced together why I was carrying that damn thing around, I'd never get to use it. Maybe she would see it and just think it was a pocketknife. Well, there was nothing I could do about it without chasing after Linda, and I wasn't about to do that. That sort of thing would give me away more than anything else I could do. So I let her take it and hoped she thought I had it for self-defense.

Sighing I turned on the shower and gasped as hot water sprayed across my body. The water against my skin seemed more, intense, I guess is the word I would use. It wasn't unpleasant by any means; in fact it felt pretty good especially as it splashed against my nipples. I looked about the shower and found some body wash. It was of the feminine variety and I was loath to use the damn stuff, but there wasn't anything else available. I wasn't at all surprised, the Corday home was on the large side and I wouldn't be surprised if it had two or three full bathrooms. The lack of male or even gender-neutral hygiene products probably meant that Don and Linda used separate bathrooms.

I wasn't about to use Linda's loofa, so I made do pouring the body wash into my hands. I worked my hands across my body, and was surprised at how much more limber I was. I could reach areas I never had been able to as a guy. I knew women were more flexible I just hadn't realized how much more. I finished quickly, showering only seemed to stress just how much I had changed and I really fucking disliked the reminder. It was major pain in the damn ass to soap up my hair with shampoo, besides being long my hair was too fucking thick and cleaning it proved to be a chore. Finally finished, I shut the shower off, and reached for the towel that Linda had left on the rack for me. I toweled myself, another act that only served to remind me of the changes.

My hair proved to be a problem, I tried drying off with a towel, but there was just too damn much of it. Linda appeared then with a bundle of clothes, and suggested I get dressed before dealing with my hair. The clothes belonged to Daniel's younger sister, Anna, who was away at college. Linda hadn't brought any undies so I pulled on the pants, they were a bit tight in the hips, but all around they were on the loose side. They were too long, but that wasn't surprising since everyone in Daniel's family was so much taller than me.

Next came the shirt, it was a light blue tank top, but surprisingly it had a built in bra. I didn't even know such a thing existed, but apparently they weren't too uncommon. Of course, the shirt was too tight across the chest, but that was to be expected. Once, I was finished dressing Linda took my hair and wrapped it in a towel.

"I made up Anna's old room for you," she said.

"Thanks," I said playing with the towel wrapped around my head. "I had some things in my pant pockets..."

"Don't worry dear," Linda said. "I put them on the nightstand in Anna's room."

"Okay thanks," I said quietly. "I hope you don't mind, but I think I'll turn in early. It's been a long strange day, and I need some time to myself to try and sort it all out."

Linda, gave me a sympathetic look, and showed me to Anna's room. I found the switchblade almost immediately, along with my wallet, cell and keys, but those didn't matter it was the knife I was after. Finally, I could end it all.

I picked up the knife, and released the blade and started at it fixedly. I wanted to yell at the top of my longs and curse whatever cruel God had done this to me. I had never really believed in a God before, but the existence of the unseen and their supernatural nature didn't fit into my view of a structured universe. If things like weres and succubi existed then perhaps there was a god as well. That begged the question, what cruel god would create creatures like succubi or weres? Maybe we weren't the creation of a god at all, maybe we were the creation of the devil. If god could exist than why not the devil?

I hated what I was, what I had become. I didn't ask for any of it, but I couldn't live with the monster that lurked under the pretty facade I now wore. Being female was bad enough, but I couldn't stand the thought of hurting people just to survive. Especially, if it was Daniel or someone he cared for. The world was far better off without me. I put the blade against the skin of my wrist, and closed my eyes. All it would take was one quick cut into each wrist, I felt my muscles tense and I prepared to take my life.

I couldn't do it. Oh I tried, oh god how I tried, but I couldn't find the strength of will to do that one simple act. No matter how I tried no matter how many ways I justified it I couldn't do it. God, I was such a coward, I couldn't even do the world this one small favor. My hands trembled, and I tried to clear my mind of all distractions, but I couldn't keep the thoughts coming in. It was stupid, but I actually worried about getting blood on the carpet. Of all the things I could think of when trying to take my life I was concerned about staining the damn carpet. It wasn't just that either, a sick twisted part of me liked to feed and that part of me very much wanted to live. My hands trembled and I let the blade fall to the ground and I sunk to my knees and wept.

Hate and self-loathing flooded through me and I latched onto one of my breasts in a half-crazed albeit futile attempt to tear it from my chest. Why the hell couldn't I kill myself? I couldn't live with what I had done, and I wanted it all to end so badly, but I just couldn't do it! I couldn't keep the tears away they came unbidden and I howled in fury.

It wasn't long after that that I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see Daniel kneeling beside me. My screams of grief and anger must have drawn him into the room. I saw sympathy in his eyes, and it made me hate myself even more. "Archie, it will be okay," he said as if speaking the words would will it to be so. There was so much certainty in his voice, I almost believed him.

I was such a horrible friend, he would be better off without me, but I couldn't even take my own life and do him that one small favor. He deserved better than I could ever hope to be. Like a freaking girl I felt this urge to be held, so I selfishly wrapped my arms around his neck and wept. That proved to be a huge fucking mistake; I could feel my hunger start to build. I tried to push it away, but before I realized what I had done I found my lips locked around his. I hurriedly broke away, and stared at him in disbelief. From the look on his face, I wasn't sure who was more shocked him or me. He tried to turn me away, but I grabbed at him and kissed him again.

A part of me screamed in protest, but my hunger quelled any rational thoughts and before either of us knew what was happening I had started to unbutton his shirt. He tried to resist, several times muttering something about 'not wanting to take advantage' but each time I flung myself at him with wanton abandon. To his credit he held out longer than I would have thought possible, but his resistance melted away like snow on a new spring day when I kissed him a third time.

I don't know if it was him or me that removed my shirt, but I remembered him cupping my breasts and a moan escaping my lips as he did so. Finally, we penetrated me and I felt the energy pour into me. Oh god, it felt good, there was so much of it! I tried to reach for every last drop, but soon after I started it just stopped. For a brief panic-stricken moment I thought I had drained everything away, but then I reached out and I could feel it emanating from him. I just couldn't touch it; I could drain anymore of it away. Something was stopping me from taking more. There was a barrier in my way and I could find no way to circumvent it. It was like someone had erected a brick wall between Daniel's energy and me. Daniel's cock pierced me again, and I gave up trying to feed. I didn't give a flying fuck about feeding not when the sex felt so damn good.

Oh, god how the fucking hell could I let myself do such a thing? I had done what I most feared I would do: feed on Daniel, and I couldn't trust myself not to do it again. I clutched the sides of my skull and gritted my teeth against all the emotions running through my head. At first, I felt anger at myself for what I had done, but after that... Shit, I needed to get away and think things over. My carefully constructed view of the world had been torn asunder, and I was so confused that I couldn't tell up from down. Sex with Daniel had invoked feelings I never would have thought possible. Never toward Daniel, or any other man, but they were there and I wasn't sure what to make of them.

Daniel was sound asleep and for once his unearthly snoring didn't seem to bother me at all. Gently, I removed his arm from around my waist and slipped out of bed. On impulse I bent down and kissed him lightly on the lips, and quickly turned away after realizing what I had done. God, this whole succubus thing was really messing with my fucking head or at least that's what I told myself.

I sighed and shook my head, then got dressed. I found my shirt hanging precariously from the closet door knob and my pants partially concealed under the bed. Once dressed, I bent down to where the switchblade had fallen to the floor and scooped it up. I didn't know if I would use it, but it wouldn't do to leave the thing lying around. I grabbed my wallet, cell and keys from the dresser and slipped out of the room.

The house was quiet and I found Daniel's mother snoring in the living room. Shit, she was almost as loud as Daniel. She must have fallen asleep waiting for Don to return. I slipped into the kitchen and exited out the back door. I suspected that the house was under guard by then and I thought it might easier to sneak out the back way. I ran outside and hopped the fence, or tried to. I ended up landing flat on my ass, I had jumped plenty of fences in my youth, but my new body had an entirely different center of gravity. I felt my cheeks burn and I looked around to make sure no one had seen me.

I got back to my feet, and climbed carefully over the fence, and barely managed to climb down the other side without falling off. I left through the gate in the neighbor’s yard and nearly jumped out of my damn skin when I caught site of something lurking in the shadows. It took me a few second to recognize the shape of a bear. For a brief moment I thought it was Daniel, but then I realized it must have been one of his cousins. Don was no idiot; he must have figured that if the Tenebris Petentibus found us again, they might try to sneak up on us from behind.

I took a few experimental steps forward and the bear watched me with disinterested eyes and made no move to stop me. Hopefully Daniel's cousin wouldn't make the right connection and try to stop me. He probably thought I was some teenage girl sneaking out of her parent's home, at least I hoped he thought that. I crept silently across the front lawn and made it to the sidewalk; the bear did not show any signs of following. Confident that he would not stop me I made my way across the street my destination firmly in mind.

"No id, no drink," the thirty-something man of average build said irritably. Marvin's was a quiet little bar that catered to a small group of regulars. It wasn't the sort of place that most college students stepped inside and the proprietors and clientele liked it that way.

Well shit, I hadn't even considered that the barkeep might try to id me. I didn't even bother trying to pull out my own id, I doubt anyone would believe I was the same person in the picture. What the hell was I going to do? I just wanted to get good and fucking drunk and this guy was standing in my way. Well, desperate times called for desperate measures. I reached across the bar and grabbed the collar of his shirt. His eyes widened in surprise and I pulled him forward so that our faces were just inches apart.

"What's your name?" I asked licking my lips hungrily.

"Greg," he said eyes locked on mine in rapt fascination. He had fallen under my spell with no resistance whatsoever, and it made me sick just thinking about it.

"Well Greg, I would very much like a drink." I said staring into his eyes hungrily. Faintly, I could feel my need to feed rise, but I batted it away with very little effort. Clearly, what I had taken from Daniel had been enough to curb my hunger or at least make it easier to control.

"Uh, sure. What will it be?" he said with a nervous grin.

"That Scotch over there would do nicely," I said motioning to a bottle sitting behind the bar with my free hand.

I loosened my grip on Greg's collar and he grabbed the bottle of scotch and put it down on the counter in front me. I threw a few bills down on the counter in front of him then I snatched hold of his collar and kissed him on the lips. It wasn't until we'd broken away that I realized what I had done. I cleared my throat and averted my gaze. Shit, why the hell had I done that?

I waited for him to open the bottle, muttered a thank you then I swiped it off the counter and made my way to a table in the far corner. I sat down and closed my eyes, and took a long swig from the bottle. Shit, it burned going down, but if it got me drunk I didn't care.

"Holy fucking shit," I said slamming the bottle down on the table. My exclamation had nothing to do with the Scotch I had just drunk, but it did have everything to do with the beautiful pale-skinned brunette sitting across from me. She studied me with a set of pale gray eyes, and a predatory smile.

"Well now, this is a surprise. I always knew there was something different about you," she said with an amused grin.

"Lillian," I spoke her name with little more than a whisper. I didn't know her particularly well, but we did have a number of classes together. She also happened to be a member of Delta Beta Zeta.

"I hardly recognized you when you stepped inside the bar, Archie," she said her eyes boring into me.

"How the hell did you know it was me?!" I demanded and averted my eyes so that I wouldn't have to meet her gaze.

"I have my ways," she said with an amused grin.

"What are you doing in a place like this and what exactly do you want?"

She shook her head and laughed, "You don't waste any time, do you? Quick and to the point, I like that. Well, if you really must know I wait tables here on weekends as far as what I want I'm merely curious."

"Well you can just keep on being curious. I don't know much if anything I've heard about vampires is true, but I'm sure as hell smart enough not to involve myself with one," I said glaring at her. Okay, I didn't really know for sure that she was a vampire, but she was definitely unseen.

I reached for the bottle of Scotch and lifted it to my lips; however, Lilly's hand wrapped around my own and she forced it along with the bottle back down. Holy freaking hell she was strong, I tried to lift the bottle with all my strength, but it wouldn't even budge.

"Now now, there's really no need to be rude," she said with a faint smile.

"What do you want? To drink my blood?" I said glaring across the table at her.

She rolled her eyes, "Like I said, I'm curious about you. I have a certain ability that lets me see what you might call auras. Both humans and unseen alike emanate them, but the aura's I see around unseen are much stronger. Yours has always been rather interesting and I always knew you had to be unseen, but I hadn't expected anything quite like this. When I saw your aura I knew instantly it was you, but at the same time your aura had changed. There's a hunger that hangs over you, one very similar to what most vampires have, but you my dear are no vampire. So that begs the question: what exactly are you?"

"I wouldn't know," I lied.

"Now, now, didn't your mother ever tell you it was impolite to lie?" she said gripping hold of my hand even more tightly.

"I don't have a mother. I'm an orphan," I grunted.

"That explains it," she replied with an amused grin.

"If I tell you will you let go," I said, she was holding so tightly I thought the bottle might shatter.

She nodded and flashed a smile.

"I'm a damn succubus," I glared at her angrily. "Now can I get drunk in peace?

"Interesting," she said releasing her iron grip on my hand. "So what exactly is it you feed on? Sex?"

"Something like that," I replied dryly taking another swig from the bottle.

"You know what Archie? I like you and because of that I've decided to help you," she said with a grin.

"Help me how?" I asked warily.

"You've undergone a drastic transformation. No one will believe you are who you say you are. I can help give you a new identity," she said.

Shit, she had to know that what she was offering would be like the jackpot to to kime, well if I didn't decide ll myself that is. "Right, and what exactly do you expect in exchange?" I asked warily.

"Does a girl need a reason to help a friend?" Lilly asked with mock wide-eyed innocence.

"Riiight," I replied with a shake of my head.

"Look," she said flatly. "I like you. I'm just trying to help you. Think about it, we'll talk later," she said patting my face then she leaned in and kissed me full on the lips.

"Mm, you taste good," she said with a dreamy expression on her face as she turned to leave.

I was so shocked that I could only watch in stunned disbelief as she turned away and swept out of the bar.

I frowned down at the bottle of scotch in my hands in frustrated disbelief, I had already drunk half of the damn thing and I wasn't even remotely drunk. Hell, I wasn't even buzzed. I suppressed the urge to hurl the bottle across the room, and took another swig in an ever dwindling hope that it would help me get drunk. Apparently, my new body was incapable of getting inebriated which just sucked major ass.

Sighing, I put the bottle back down and pulled the switchblade from my pocket. I contemplated trying to take my life right then and there, but an ever growing part of me resisted those sorts of thoughts. With another sigh I took a drink from my scotch and slammed the bottle back onto the table. I set the knife down and started at it as if it held the answers to all my questions, but they didn't come. I gripped the sides of my head and tried to think of something, anything that would help me to understand why this had happened.

A hand touched my shoulder and I closed my eyes and willed whoever it was to go away. I wanted to be alone, but the hand's owner didn't seem to get the message. Seconds ticked by but the hand kept its grip on my shoulder. I let out a loud sigh and looked up to find Daniel staring down at me. I knew he'd come searching for me eventually, but I hadn't expected him quite so soon. At the very least I expected to be stone drunk by the time he showed up.

"Archie, why did you run off like that? You scared me," he said taking the seat across from me.

"Yeah, well I scared myself and to top it off I can't even get fucking drunk," I said taking hold of the bottle of scotch by its neck with my thumb and index finger and wagged it in front of his face.

"I know it can't be easy, but it's not safe for you to be out alone," he said with a shake of his head.

I started to laugh, I couldn't help myself. "Safe?! You think I was worried about whether or not I was safe?"

"Archie..." Daniel started but he didn't get a chance to finish.

"Shit, you know I tried to kill myself," I said suddenly tears rolling down my face as I clenched the neck of the scotch bottle in an iron grip.

"It should have been easy. A couple of slashes across my wrists with this and it all have been over," I said releasing my hold on the bottle, picked up the switchblade and clenched my fist around it.

I shook with barely contained rage and anguish as I continued, "I chickened out. I deserve to die after what I've done, but I'm too god damned selfish to do it."

Daniel grabbed hold of my hand, forced the knife out of my grip and held it in front of his face, "That won't solve anything. There's nothing brave about taking your own life."

"Tell me, Daniel, who would fucking care if I died? I have no ties to anyone or anything."

"You're wrong Archie, I would care," he said quietly.

"Why? Why the fucking hell do you give a damn!? Why are you even friends with me? I treat everyone like shit, you included, and after what I did to you tonight I'm surprised that you want anything to do with me," I said sobbing in near hysterics.

"When I first met you I admit, I thought you were a bit of a pain in the ass, but when I got to know you I realized that behind that bitter angry resentful person was a lonely guy who pushed people away because he was afraid of anyone getting too close," he said putting a hand on my shoulder.

"What about tonight? You can't just pretend that didn't happen!" I yelled shame and self-loathing washing over me.

"Look, Archie," he said gripping hold of my other shoulder. "I don't blame you for what happened. I know you're having trouble controlling your hunger, but to tell you the truth I wouldn't mind having sex with you again, it felt good."

"Daniel, don't you understand how dangerous that is?! You are like a damn bottle of fucking water to me and I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep myself from draining you dry," I said with a shudder. Something had kept me from feeding on him completely, but I wasn't about to tell him that. I might have been a fluke, and I didn't want him getting any ideas.

"Look," he said casting furtive glances across the room. "We can continue this conversation back at my parent's house, where it's a little less public."

"Okay, yeah. That's probably a good idea," I said biting my lip.

"I'm not the only one you would care if you died. Selina has been worried sick. It was all I could do to keep her from coming with me. If I didn't know better I'd swear she was your mother or something," he said moving to stand.

"Holy fucking shit," I said staring at him wide-eyed.

No it couldn't be, could it? True there were certain physical similarities, I mean we both had red hair and blue eyes and nearly identical hour-glass figures, but that didn't necessarily mean anything for all I knew that was a trait common to all succubi. My mind flashed back to the truck ride to the Corday home. She told me she had met a succubus who might have been my mother, but why tell me that story if it weren't true? Perhaps she had done it to test the water and see how I might reply. It might explain why she had seemed so upset when she saw how I reacted.

I'd been so intent on the idea of taking my life that I had let all the signs slip past me. The more I thought about it the more sense it made. She had known I was abandoned at an orphanage without me telling her. How the hell could she have known that if she weren't my mother? Shit, it seemed like a stretch, but I had to be sure and the only way I was going to find out was to ask her. Shit, suddenly I was very eager to get back to the Corday place.

The ride back to the house was pretty quiet and uneventful. Daniel tried to get me to talk several times, but I really didn't have much of anything to say. I answered with grunts and vague answers not really paying attention to what he had to say.

My thoughts were centered on the possibility of Selina being my mother. I mean, I really had no reason to believe it was true and the very idea seemed almost laughable but I had to know. We arrived back at Daniel's parent's house within just a couple of minutes. I knew something was wrong as soon as we pulled into the driveway. For one thing the front door was sitting wide open; for another, there were two bodies sprawled on the front lawn.

"Shit, what the hell happened?" Daniel said with a frantic edge to his voice. It sounded pretty fucking weird hearing him curse like that, Daniel very rarely swore.

He scrambled out of the truck and I jumped out following closely on his tail. He went right for one of the bodies on the snow-covered ground which turned out to be Darrell and checked for a pulse. "He's dead," he said between gritted teeth.

"Fuck, if Darrell's dead..." I said leaving the sentence unfinished. If Darrell was dead that didn't bode well for Selina. He must have died defending her. I looked down at the other body, which I assumed to be one of Daniel's cousins, and checked for a pulse.

"Daniel, he's alive," I said with a relieved sigh.

Daniel didn't give a reply he sprang off his feet and practically leapt into his parent's home. I followed just a few seconds later. The place was a shambles; it looked like a damn stampede had passed through the living room.

"Daniel, thank God," Linda said appearing from out of the shadows and flung her arms around her son.

She was joined by two more figures, one of which I recognized as Stu, the other I assumed was another cousin since he had the same muscular build as all the other Corday men. The other man had long auburn hair that fell past his shoulders, looked to be somewhere in his early thirties and looked for all the world like some god out of ancient antiquity.

"Mom, are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," she said with a sob.

"What's happened here?" Daniel said gripping hold of his mother's shoulders.

"It was those Tenebris guys you warned us about they came at us before we knew what had happened. There were so damn many of them we didn't stand a chance," the man with the long auburn hair said with a scowl.

"Where is Selina?" I asked with a lump in my throat.

"The hot redhead? She surrendered herself. She said it was the only way that they'd let us live," Stu said with both arms folded across his chest.

"Fuck! And they just went with it?" I asked clutching at my forehead with both hands, gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to start screaming.

Linda shook her head, "I'm really sorry, Archie. After she surrendered they searched the house. They were looking for you and Daniel. Then they just left."

"What?! That makes no sense. Why would they just leave?" Daniel said with a grimace.

"No, it makes perfect sense. They knew exactly what they were doing. Instead of looking for us in unfamiliar territory, they lure us right to them. They had to know that we would follow them if they took Selina. Shit, if we go after her we'll probably wind up dead," I replied.

"So we just let them get away with this?" Daniel asked incredulously.

"Hell no! That's not what I meant!" I replied in frustration. "I plan on going after Selina even if I have to go alone. I just think we need to be aware what we might be headed into."

"How? I don't see any way," Daniel said looking suddenly very tired.

"Maybe there is a way," Linda put in. "One of the attackers was left behind."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"Upstairs in the ba--," she said and I leapt up the stairs without staying to let her finish.

I raced across the hall, and slammed the door open at the end with an audible bang and found a man sprawled on a bed inside. Blood coated his face and chest, but I didn't see any wounds. I didn't immediately recognize him because of his ragged state, but I realized that he was the man from Kona's who had reappeared at the club later that night. He had warned me to stay home, both times. Shit, if only I had listened. His eyes snapped open and his face contorted into an angry scowl.

He looked ready to spring on me, but thankfully his hands had been tied to the bed post. I stepped over to the bed and brushed a finger across his cheek. I needed to learn what he knew, there was no way I could intimidate him, but he was a man and let's face it I was smoking hot. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I had the advantage of being a succubus. I had this power over men, I hadn't really given it much thought until that moment, but I knew it was there.

"Tell me where they took her," I said running my hand down his face and licking my lips hungrily. I felt the urge to feed rise, but like at the bar I was able to bat it away with almost no effort.

For a moment his anger faded away and his eyes washed over me hungrily, but then he shook his head and the anger swept across his face again. "I'm not telling you a damn thing."

"Okay, let's start with something simple, Tell me your name," I said leaning down and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Lieutenant Robert Barns," he breathed looking up at me with a look of longing.

"Archie what are you doing?" a voice asked from the doorway and I didn't have to look to know that it was Daniel.

"Leave us, I'll learn what we need to know," I said coolly.

"Archie--"

"I know what I'm doing," I said turning around to lock gazes with him. Really I didn't have a damn clue, but I wasn't about to let on especially in front of Barns.

Daniel looked almost angry, and maybe even a little bit jealous, but he bit back whatever retort he had and nodded. Shit, I didn't even want to think about what that meant. "Close the door," I said my gaze returning to Barns. "Me and my friend have some things to discuss."

The door shut behind me and I directed all my attention on Barns. At first he seemed resistant to me, but with enough time I was able persuade him to tell me everything I wanted to know. I think a part of me died while I interrogated Barns. It wasn't something I did intentionally, but the succubus in me seemed to know exactly what to do in order to get what I wanted and I would have done almost anything to find Selina. For the first time I found myself enjoying what I was doing and it scared the shit out of me.

"What did you find out?" Daniel asked as I stepped into the living room.

"Well, I think I know where they took her," I said biting my lip.

"Where?" He asked with an accusing glare.

"A few miles into the forest on the north side of town. Just a little ways past some old warehouse. From the way he described their camp it sounds pretty well guarded." I replied staring at him wide-eyed.

What the fucking hell was his problem? Then it hit me like a damn ton of bricks, he thought I had sex with Robert. He was jealous, which invariably meant he had feelings for me. Shit, I hadn't even been a chick twenty-four hours and he had fallen for me. I didn't exactly know what the hell to say. A part of me wanted to tell him to fuck off, but there was another part that wanted to tell him there was nothing to worry about. Shit, maybe Daniel wasn't the only one with feelings.

"Daniel--"

"We need to act quickly," he said cutting me short.

"Shit, what should we do man?" Stu asked.

"Well you and Arnie are going to get in touch with everyone in the family who can fight and bring them up to where these guys are camped out. Archie and I will meet you there," Daniel replied. I could only guess that the long-haired one was named Arnie.

"Don't move," a cold voice said in my ear just as an arm wrapped around my throat.

It was Barns, somehow he had escaped. I could feel something warm and wet dripping down my chest and I realized it was blood from his wrists. I could only surmise that he worked himself free from the ropes that had tied him down.

"Let her go," Daniel growled taking a few steps toward us. It wasn't entirely lost on me that he had used a female pronoun, but shit I was being held hostage it wasn't exactly a priority.

"Come any closer and I'll snap her neck," he spat.

Something inside of me seemed to come awake and I howled in fury. I reached deep inside myself where my hunger lingered and reached out desperately for a way to break free from my captor's grip. I found something, a power of sorts, and latched onto it. A fiery torrent of pain swept across my skin, and I thought I might burst into flames at any moment. The pain faded away and I knew something was different; Linda and Daniel were both looking at me with shocked expressions.

I could literally sense the lust that was being directed at me. It was so tangible I could almost see it radiating from everyone in the room and I thought I might be able to reach out and touch it. The strongest was emanating from Barns and it had a sort of angry feel to it, but there was a good amount of lust pouring out from Daniel, Stu and Arnie and I even detected a faint trace of it around Linda. I wanted it, I wanted to draw it all deep inside of me until there was no more.

"Holy hell," Barns yelled and I felt his grip loosen from around my neck.

It was enough; my hand reached out for his wrist and slipped out from his grip. I swirled on him and smiled, his hands were trembling and he was looking at me with an expression that somehow managed to convey lust, hatred and fear at the same time. I reached out to touch him, but my hand only met open air as he backed away in hurried panic. I jumped at him and I clutched both of his cheeks in my hands.

"You are mine," I whispered.

I'm not exactly sure how to describe what happened next. The swirls of angry sexual energy pouring out from Barns seemed to change; the anger faded away and took on a feeling of mindless submissiveness. A set of dull gray eyes looked back at me, and I shivered as I realized what I had done. In the same way that Selina had enslaved Darrell to her will, I had enthralled Robert. I backed away from him in a hurry and clenched my hands against my side trying my best to quell the horror at what I had done.

That wasn't all though, I sensed there was something more I could do to him. It was hard to explain, but I felt a faint desire to start pouring some of my sexual energy into him. The urge was easy enough resist and I quelled it with relative ease. I had pretty fair idea of what would have happened had I given in to the urge and I knew then what Selina had meant when she said succubi could be made.

"What just happened?" Daniel breathed behind me.

"I-I just reacted. He won't hurt anyone now. Not unless I tell him to," I said looking down at my hands and realizing for the first time that they had a sort of purple cast to them.

"Archie, what did you do?" Linda said.

"He's mine body heart and soul. He'll do whatever I tell him," I said reaching up to touch the pair of curled ram horns that were now protruding from my skull. They were just like the pair Selina had grown outside my apartment. Shit, if I had a set of horns it stood to reason I had a damn set of wings too. And, sure enough, when I reached for them I found a pair of wings sticking out from my back.

"Good god," Linda gasped.

"Archie--"

"Don't call me that!" I snapped cutting Daniel short.

I didn't feel like an Archie or Archibold anymore. That name belonged to someone else, someone who had died earlier that day. I just hadn't realized it until then. Archie would never have done the things that I had done. "Call me Rachel," I muttered bitterly turning back to face him.

"Rachel," he spoke my new name as if testing it out. "Are you alright?" The lust poured out from him and it took all my willpower to keep my hands to myself.

I laughed bitterly and shook my head, "I'll live."

"Look if you're not feeling up to it you can stay here and I'll--"

"No! I'm going. I can't leave Selina to those people," I muttered cutting him short with an angry glare. I had every reason to hate Selina, it had after all been her that had awoken me and I brought the Tenebris Petentibus down on us in the first place. If she was my mother and she had abandoned me that was yet another reason to hate her, but I couldn't bring myself to feel any malice toward her. I needed to know the truth, and I wouldn't get it if she died.

"Then we better get going," Daniel muttered.

I didn't immediately answer instead I cast a furtive glance at Barns. Like Darrell, he wore a stupid grin on his face and there was a noticeable bulge in his pants. On Darrell the grin looked almost comical, on Barns it made him look like a damn lecher and the effect was creepy as hell. He didn't do anything but stand there and stare at me like a damn fool which just made the whole thing seem even creepier.

I met his stupid ass gaze and shuddered. What I saw in those eyes was complete and utter submission. He would do anything I told him too, even if it meant he would die in the process. There was some sort of link between us and I could feel him in the back of my head. A small part of him resisted what had been done, but that portion of his consciousness was slowly fading away.

"Yeah, let's just get out of here," I said with a grimace and glared back at Barns one final time.

"Hurry up," I muttered irritably as Barns climbed out of the truck.

Barns had long since given over to me completely and I had returned back to my human form. It was eerie as hell having him around, but for the time being I needed him. If we were going to attack Gray-hair and his lackeys, I would need Barns to protect me. Daniel had offered, but after the attack on his parent's home he had become increasingly eager to strike back and somehow I doubted he'd make for a very good protector. I hated that I needed someone to guard me, but I was pragmatist. To be honest even before I turned into a damn succubus I hadn't exactly been very capable of defending myself.

Barns leapt to the ground and just stood there with that damn lecherous smile on his face. I slammed the door shut behind him and glared at him angrily.

"Well don't just stand there," I growled and motioned for him to follow.

It was still dark out in the early morning and I could barely see a few feet in front of me. Daniel didn't speak and neither did I. We walked quietly through the darkness until about ten minutes into our walk.

"We getting close?" Daniel said suddenly.

"Yeah, I think so. He did say it was a little ways off road," I said quietly.

Daniel nodded, "I know an old game trail that might take us close."

The old game path was nearly overgrown; thankfully it was just barely wide enough for us to walk through single file. Daniel and Barns had some trouble getting through at a few places where a tree or branch was blocking the path, but being much smaller I was able to slip through with much less difficulty.

We had only been following the trail a good ten minutes when I heard a sharp crack and when I swirled around to see what it was I found the muzzle of a gun pointed at my face. "Ah, fucking hell," I muttered just before there was a sharp pain in the back of my head and everything went black.

"Oh God," I groaned and the world came back to me in a rush.

"Arch--" Daniel's familiar voice said from somewhere nearby.

My eyes snapped open and I found only emptiness looking back. It took me a few seconds for that we were sitting in the dark and I wasn't blind. "--Rachel," Daniel continued. "Are you alright?"

"Shit, what the hell happened?"

"It was our friends, the Tenebris Petentibus," he muttered.

"Damn, how did they find us?"

"It was Barns."

"Barns? No it couldn't be he's completely enthralled. There's no way he could have betrayed us."

"I overheard them talking when they thought I was still unconscious. He has some sort of tracking device on him," he spat bitterly.

"Shit, Darrell probably had one too! That's how they keep finding us."

"It's a good bet."

"What about Selina? Have you heard anything about her?"

"No, but I can smell her, she's somewhere here in camp."

Abruptly light flooded the darkness and I was blinded. After my eyes adjusted to the new light I looked up to see Gray-hair standing above me. I looked about the space around me and I realized I was in a canvas tent, the sort that was typically used by the military. My ankles and wrists were chained to some sort of metal post that had been driven into the ground. I struggled against my bindings, but it was no use.

"I wouldn't bother. Those chains are made from a silver-titanium alloy. They are particularly effective at restraining weres and vamps but they're strong enough to hold almost anything else." he said coldly as he popped an unlit cigarette into his mouth.

"You!" I spat.

"Why are you holding us? Why haven't you killed us yet," Daniel spat bitterly. I looked back to the source of Daniel's voice, but I could only detect a vague outline, the chains prevented me from getting a full view. If they had me chained it was a pretty sure bet that Daniel was restrained in a similar manner.

"Kill you?" Gray-hair laughed. "Why would you think I wanted to kill you?"

"Because that's what Hunters do," Daniel growled angrily.

Gray-hair threw his head back and laughed, "Oh, I see you think we're Hunters. No, the Tenebris Petentibus has very different goals from the Order of the Sacred Heart."

"What is it you plan on doing with us then?" I growled staring up at him.

"You will learn soon enough," he said as he pulled a lighter out from his pocket and lit the cigarette in his mouth.

"What have you done with Selina?" I demanded.

"Who?" He asked staring at me blankly, "Oh, you mean the other succubus? She's alive for now, but that all depends on whether you cooperate. You see she's outlived her usefulness, it would be a pity if I had to kill her."

"If she dies I swear to fucking God that I will kill you if it's the last thing I do," I growled angrily and meant it.

"I can see you're going to make this difficult," he said coldly. "I just might decide you aren't worth the trouble and kill you. You two have been responsible for the deaths of some of my best men. Don't test my patience, what you did to Barns is reason enough to kill you. Because of you I was forced to kill him. It really was a pity he showed a lot of promise as an officer."

"Colonel Steagan," a new voice said from the entryway.

"Yes, Lieutenant Freeman," Gray-hair said with a touch of irritation in his voice.

"You said to notify you when the other prisoner woke," Freeman replied.

"Very good Lieutenant," Steagan said his lips curling into a malicious grin and he turned to leave. He stepped back through the entry way then he swirled around and locked eyes with me, "Think about what I said, if you cooperate I promise you and your friends will live. I have no desire to end anyone's life unnecessarily."

The tent flap fell back over the entryway and the darkness enveloped us again.

"That bastard! What the hell do we do?" I growled a few moments later.

"I don't know, there's no way I can get through these bonds, not if they have silver in them," Daniel muttered with a touch of resignation in his voice.

"So weres really are weak against silver?"

"Not just weres most unseen have an aversion to the stuff. The bonds must have a pretty low amount of silver or they'd probably make me sick if they didn't kill me. They'd probably have a similar effect on you too."

"You sound like you've given up."

"Not yet, we still have reason for hope."

"What would that be?"

"Stu and the others."

Daniel was almost completely silent as we sat there in the darkness. Shit, I was going fucking nuts sitting there doing nothing ! I was terrified that Steagan would kill Selina and I wasn't exactly very certain about my own life or Daniel's for that matter. There was no way Steagan could be trusted it was obvious he had no compunction when it came to killing people and I highly doubted he'd let us live once our usefulness had been used up. That begged the question what the fuck did he want us for? He obviously had some nefarious purpose in mind, but what the hell could it be?

If only I could see Selina. God I needed to know if she was alright. It was torture not knowing whether or not she was really my mother, but if she died before I learned for certain I don't think I could stand it. All my life I wanted a family, and now when I might finally have found a small piece of what I sought I could feel that piece slipping through my fingers. That's when I started to pray, I'd never done it before, but I thought that if there really was a God out there maybe He might hear my pleas. I know it seemed strange for sex demon to be praying to God, but I was desperate and I needed something to cling to. Praying gave me hope, so I prayed away.

I don't know if God even exists or even if He heard me, but at the time it seemed as if He had. I could hear shouting and then gunshots permeated the air and I knew that we were about to be rescued. Sure enough, there was a scream outside our tent and I heard a loud growl and few moments later the tent flap flew open to reveal Daniel's cousin Arnie, looking for all the world like some vengeful god out of legend.

"You two alright?"

"We'll live," Daniel replied dryly.

Arnie stepped into the tent and let the flap fall behind him. I got a sense of movement, and I felt Arnie's breath on my neck as he bent down to touch the cuffs around my wrists. He must have gotten hold of the keys because I felt something click, the cuffs popped loose and he moved onto my ankles. Finally I was free! Without waiting for Daniel or Arnie I burst out of the tent and felt my jaw drop as I saw the scene that was enfolding in front of me.

A couple dozen or so were-bears weaving through the camp attacking the Tenebris Petentibus, and the Daniel's cousins were wreaking havoc. These were trained soldiers; they weren't accustomed to fighting wild animals particularly ones with the intellect and cunning of a human being. The bears were just too damned fast for the soldiers, whenever one of Steagan's men caught a bear in his sights the bear was on him before he could even pull the trigger. The bears were cutting Steagan's men to pieces and the soldiers were helpless to stem the onslaught.

None of the crazy shit was important though, I had to find Selina before it was too late. My eyes scanned the camp and it wasn't long before I caught sight of Steagan, he had an arm wrapped around her throat and a gun poised over her chest. "Bastard!" I howled. Steagan glared at me and I dived to the ground as he fired a round of bullets in my direction.

I leapt back to my feet once I was sure I was safe, but found no trace of the asshole or Selina. "Shit!" I growled and made for the last spot I'd seen Steagan. I caught a faint trace of movement and I lumbered after it. There was a brief glimpse of him as I rounded a corner, but I was forced to duck behind a tree as he let lose another round of shots in my direction.

"Steagan! You fucking asshole!" I screamed and jumped out from being the tree to continue my pursuit. I changed as I moved, I don't remember calling up what I had come to think of as my demon form, but suddenly my skin felt as if it were on fire and I knew I was transforming. It hurt like hell, but I didn't let it stop me. I just kept running I had to get to Steagan before he did something to Selina.

Abruptly all the air was knocked out of me and I tumbled to the ground. A pair of hands reached for my throat and I struggled to fend my attacker off, but I just couldn't match his strength. Slowly, those hands squeezed the life out of me and I couldn't do damn thing about it. I clawed at my attacker's face in desperation, but he didn't relent. I could feel the world fading away, darkness crept into the edges of my vision and I knew I had almost reached the end. Then suddenly I could breathe again. I looked up and realized my attacker had been flung away.

"Shit, that was close," I coughed rubbing at my throat and looked up to meet the gaze of my rescuer.

"You okay?" Daniel asked sweat pouring down his body as he held his hand out to me.

"Yeah," I answered accepting his hand. God, I wanted to feed. The lust was pouring from Daniel like a torrent, and it was all I could to keep myself from throwing myself at him.

"Why'd you run off like that?"

I let out a long sigh and gritted my teeth. I almost told him to fuck me there and then, but I was able to use my concern for Selina to anchor myself against my intense need to feed. I close my eyes and let rational thought slowly return to me. "Selina," I answered. "Steagan ran off with her as a hostage."

"We need to go after him. We need to--" he growled and stopped suddenly in mid sentence.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Someone's coming," he said suddenly.

"Come on, let's go."

"No, you go. I'll stay and hold them off," he said ripping his shirt off and unbuckling his belt.

"Daniel, I--"

"Go!" He yelled flinging his jean aside as fur started to sprout all over his naked body.

I gritted my teeth, bit back a tear, turned away and started to run. God, Steagan was going to pay.

"Don't move any closer," he growled swinging his gun so that it was aimed right at my chest.

It hadn't taken long for me to catch up with Steagan I had him cornered at a dead end. Behind him was a blunt cliff face that dropped off into a hundred foot or more plunge. His only means of escape was through me and he knew it. Selina let out a soft moan, but she didn't struggle. There was a sort of vacant look to her eyes and it wasn't hard to see that something was wrong.

"What the hell did you do to her?"

"I gave her something to ensure she'd be more cooperative," he muttered with a twisted grin as he slowly backed up to the edge of the cliff.

What the hell was he up to?

"Let her go!"

"If you say so," he said and loosed his hold around Selina's neck, and sent her tumbling over the edge of the cliff.

I screamed Selina's name as I flew past Steagan only to fall to my knees at the cliff's edge, but it was already too late. I watched in horror as Selina fell through the air and as her form became lost among the trees and foliage below. Hot tears rolled down my face and I shook with unconstrained rage and fury. Selina was dead, there was no way she could have survived a fall at that height. Steagan was going to pay, I would see to that.

I wiped the tears away from my face and got back on my feet. Steagan was nowhere in sight, obviously he had used Selina's death as a distraction in order to get away, but why? Why not just shoot me? Fuck it made no damn sense. Well, I wasn't going to catch him by just standing there. I broke out into a run and really started to put on the speed. I hadn't noticed it before because I had been so intent on saving Selina, but shit I could run fast in my succubus form. I think it had to do with my wings; they flapped with each step and helped propel me forward. They weren't large enough for flight, but apparently they weren't entirely useless.

I came to an abrupt stop where a circle of trees had created a small clearing. There I found a bear battling it out with a six of Steagan's soldiers. The bear looked haggard and seemed to be bleeding from several wounds, but that didn't seem to stop it as it plowed into the nearest soldier in a berserk rage. I tried to move around the battle, but one of the soldiers caught sight of me and called out to his friends. One leapt at me with combat knife in-hand, but the bear was on him in a flash.

After the soldier had been dealt with I met the bear's gaze and recognized Daniel's familiar brown eyes staring back at me. Gunfire rippled into Daniel's side and he fell to the ground with a loud groan. "Daniel," I gasped and ran to side. The four remaining soldiers grouped up and moved to form around a circle around the two of us.

"Fucking bitch," a tall scrawny fellow with black hair said putting his gun to my chest. I could taste the sexual energy pouring out from him and I nearly reached out to begin feeding, but I managed to stop myself. There really was no use, if I moved I was dead and I couldn't use my abilities on all of them at once. I closed my eyes and waiting for him to end it, but then nothing happened. There was a sudden growl and my eyes snapped open as all hell broke loose.

Somehow Daniel had gotten back to his feet and was once again on the offensive. I had to act quickly; in the shape he was in I doubted Daniel could keep up his attack for long. There was a blood curdling scream just before he tore into the throat of the nearest attacker. The remaining three opened fire and Daniel let out a loud roar as he fell back down to the ground. I didn't really think about what I did next, I just reacted. I jumped at the nearest soldier, which happened to be the tall skinny one from before, touched him on the cheek and felt his will drain away. In seconds he was mine and I didn't waste any time.

"Kill them" I commanded.

My new slave complied and started shooting at his companions. He took out the other two before either of them knew what was happening and just like that it was over

"Oh God," I muttered and fell to my knees in the snow beside an unconscious Daniel who had reverted back to his human form. He was completely naked and I could see that his side was covered in blood where the bullets had hit him. He was in bad shape and I was worried he would die. Abruptly, Daniel groaned and his eyes snapped open.

"The soldiers. What happened?" Daniel breathed weakly.

"They've been taken care of. Don't talk you need to preserve your strength," I muttered.

"Get your ass over here, numbnuts!" I growled at my bony ass thrall.

"Please talk, I think it'll help me keep my mind off the pain.. Tell me what happened," Daniel replied with a loud gasp.

"Take off your damn shirt," I said glaring back at the soldier when I noticed he had gotten close.

"Steagan ran off with Selina as a hostage," I said turning back to Daniel.

"Crap, I'm guessing you didn't catch up to him."

"No I did. I had him cornered, but he dropped Selina off a cliff ledge to distract me so he could get away," I muttered bitterly as I forced back tears.

"He got away?" he asked with more than a little touch of bitterness.

I nodded and Daniel growled. "Shit, what are you doing here? You need to find that bastard and bring him to justice."

"I'm not leaving you, Daniel. If you..." I trailed off tears cascading down my face. "If you died, I would never forgive myself."

"Trust me I'm not planning on dying anytime soon. Being unseen does have its advantages. I'm sure it looks pretty bad, but weres are much harder to kill than regular people. Beside if I die I don't want to go knowing that Steagan got away."

"Daniel--"

"Rachel, promise me."

"Alright, but if you die on me, I swear to god, I'll fucking kill you."

Daniel started to laugh, "I'll be especially careful not to die then."

I almost turned to leave, but on impulse I bent over and kissed Daniel on the lips. "I thought you didn't..." he muttered breathlessly.

I shook my head, "I'm still not sure it would be such a good idea. I just... I just thought one last kiss wouldn't hurt. Just in case..."

Daniel nodded in understanding, "In case I die."

"In case I do," I whispered softly.

"Hey you fucking pile of shit. Take that damn shirt and put pressure on the wound. Keep your eyes open if anyone shows up and they're a threat shoot their asses," I said turning to face the soldier.

"Rachel!" Daniel called as I turned to leave. "Be safe."

"I-I'll try. Goodbye Daniel," I muttered feeling for all the world as if I was giving him my final farewell.

I had only a vague idea of which direction Steagan may have gone, so I broke out into a run and really began to put on the speed. Time slipped by in a blur and I couldn't really tell how long I ran, but a part of me really wished it would never end. I could have kept running for hours without the need to halt, but I forced myself to come to a brief stop as I caught a blur of motion nearby, but it wasn't Steagan, it was Daniel's mother.

"Linda," I called.

"Rachel, thank God. " Linda breathed running over to me and throwing her arms around me.

"What are you doing here?"

"You don't think I'd just stand idly by when my son had been captured do you? What happened?" she asked

"God Linda, Daniel he's in rough shape."

"Rachel, where is he?"

"He's back that way," I muttered pointed back toward the clearing.

"I need you to take me to him, Rachel," Linda said quietly.

I shook my head, "Linda, I can't. I promised him I'd go after Steagan."

"Who?"

"He's the one behind this whole fucking mess. He killed Selina," I breathed.

"Selina's dead? Oh, Rachel I'm sorry."

"Look, I gotta go. I need to find Steagan before he gets away."

"And I'm coming with you," Linda said folding her arms across her chest.

"What about Daniel?"

I could see the conflict on Linda's face. "I can't let you go off alone, Rachel."

"But Daniel!" I protested.

"And if you die? I've seen the way my son looks at you."

"Fine, do you think you can track Steagan for me?"

"Sure if I knew his scent."

"Shit, well I can't..." I said and started to trail off. "Wait? What about cigarettes?"

"What about them?"

"He smokes; can you track him by the scent of the cigarettes?"

"Yeah, maybe," Linda said closing her eyes and then they suddenly snapped back open.

"Come on. This way," she said and broke into a run.

I hesitated only a few seconds then I burst into motion after her. She ran fast, but I had no trouble keeping up, in fact, I might even have been able to outpace her if I wanted too. She led me through the forest for several minutes and then we came to a brief stop as we caught sight of Steagan. I paused and watched him stumble through the trees, then without stopping to see if Linda were following I leapt back into motion and was on his heels in moments.

Without warning Steagan spun around and a hot stab of pain sliced across my left breast. I fell to the ground clasping at my chest in agony. I gritted my teeth against the pain and with a loud groan I moved my hand away from my breast and found blood on it. I looked down at my chest and found a huge gash across it.

"Bastard!" I spat glaring up at Steagan who held a combat knife in hand. Steagan drew his gun and trained it on me then carefully tucked the combat knife into his belt.

"No, tricks freak. You try anything and the succubus dies," Steagan said his eyes locked on Linda.

And with a flash of inspiration it came to me. I was sure I knew why Steagan had dropped Selina from the cliff rather than fire on me, he was out of bullets. There was no way to be sure, but I didn't really have much going for me. I wasn't going to let Selina's death be for nothing, Steagan would pay for what he had done. I was bleeding pretty badly and I knew that if I didn't act soon, I might not have the strength. So, I leapt to my feet and sprung my body at his legs. We went down in a tangle of limbs and I knew that he would soon over power me. So I latched my hand onto his crotch and I began to suck him dry.

A familiar, and oh so glorious stream of sexual energy poured out from Steagan and into me. I didn't need to unclothe him in my demon form; I fed right through the fabric of his pants. While it wasn't as filling as it might be had I let him fuck me, it still felt quite wondrous. Steagan fell unconscious and with a great deal of effort I stopped myself from taking anymore. I didn't want to kill him, oh no, I had a much more fitting punishment in mind for him.

"Rachel?" Linda said suddenly and I turned to face her.

Our eyes locked, Linda gasped and took a step back. I wondered what she saw in me that would cause her to react in that manner, but I decided it really didn't matter. I could see the sexual energy emanating from her, it wasn't very strong not like it would be coming from a man, but it was there. Briefly I contemplated feeding on her, but I shook my head and shoved those animalistic thoughts out of my head.

I ignored her and turned back to Steagan. This time I unzipped his pants and forced down the urge to feed. Just as I was about to pull open his boxer shorts, something gripped hold of my arm and moved it away. Linda had come over to me and wrapped her hand around my wrist. "Linda," I growled. "Let go."

"Are you sure this is what you want? Killing him won't bring Selina back," Linda said her eyes seeming to bore a hole into me.

"You don't understand. I don't plan on killing him. No, death is just an easy escape." I laughed bitterly.

"Rachel, you don't--"

"Let go, Linda!" I commanded glaring back at her.

For a wonder, Linda's hand loosened around my wrist and I didn't hesitate to act. I don't know if she would have tried to stop me had she known what I was about to do, but I didn't intend to give her time to puzzle it out. I latched my hand around Steagan's crotch and instead of feeding I began to send sexual energy pouring back into him. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to stop, but at the same time every instinct told me to keep at it. It was almost painful, in a way, giving up all that energy, but in many ways it felt almost as good as feeding. I gave him nearly everything I had, and then wrenched my hand away with a grunt of effort.

"Rachel, what did you do?" Linda muttered as I met her gaze. Her face had drained of all color and I was certain she already knew.

"I turned him. He's a succubus now he'll start changing soon," I sighed weakly. God, I felt so dizzy, how much blood had I lost? I tried to stand, but fell back to the ground in a crumpled heap. "Tell Daniel, I'm sorry," I muttered just before everything went black.

Beep... Beep... Beep... The sound pounded through my skull and I felt as if a hammer were striking my head with each repetition. My eyes snapped open and a let out a faint sigh when I realized that I was in the hospital. The source of the beeping was a heart rate monitor to my left.

"Well, it's about time," a voice said from the other side of the bed.

A girl with long brunette hair and green eyes was sitting by my side.

"Lillian, what are you doing here?"

"Well I was out on some errands and I thought I'd stop in for a visit," she said with a slight smile.

"How sweet of you," I muttered sarcastically.

"Isn't it? You thirsty? I know I could use a drink." She said leaning over to reach into a cooler that was lying on the floor. She produced what I initially thought to be a juice pouch, but quickly realized was a bag of blood.

"You want some?"

"No thanks," I muttered suppressing a shudder.

"Suit yourself. You know most my sisters prefer the taste of warm blood to chilled, but there's something about the way the cold blood sends shivers down my spine that just feels so good," she said tearing a tab off the bag and began to suck out the contents.

"Why is it that you're really here?"

Lily closed her eyes and after a long drink from the bag let out a sigh of pleasure, "I thought I'd come by and see if you'd thought about my offer."

Of course, that was why she was here. What other reason would she have for paying me a visit? I almost told her no. I didn't like the idea of being indebted to a vampire and I really didn't think I deserved to have a life. Then again, I really didn't think I was capable of taking my own life. And, there was Steagan to think of. I couldn't just turn him and unleash the monster he was sure to become on the population. He would need to be reined in and tightly controlled, and since I had turned him that responsibility fell upon me. A new identity would go a long way in doing just that.

"Alright, I'll do it," I replied with a long sigh.

"Oh good, I knew you'd see reason," she purred and planted a kiss on my lips.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, by the time I realized what she was doing I was so caught up in the kiss that I didn't really care. I could feel the need to feed rise and I reached over to Lily to do just that. As my hand brushed against the fabric of her skirt something slapped my hand away and I quickly yanked it back.

"Naughty, naughty," she whispered as our lips parted.

I could taste blood in my mouth and I suppressed the urge to spit it out as I scowled up at Lily. "You've really got to stop doing that."

Lily let out a soft chuckle and stood to stand, "Come by the Delta Beta Zeta chapter house once you're well enough. There are some details we'll need to iron out."

I closed my eyes and nodded; when I opened them again she was gone.

Oh, god I was so fucking ravenous, I needed to feed and soon. I wasn't talking about food, of course, I needed sex and I needed it badly. It didn't help that I was currently being undressed by a somewhat attractive female nurse. I had clumsily spilled my morning orange juice all over the front of my hospital gown and they wanted to make sure that I hadn't gotten any in my wound. Really she could have been a seventy-five year old grandma and it probably wouldn't have mattered. I was desperate to feed and anyone who had any sexual energy whatsoever would do. I had never fed on a woman before, but I doubted she would sate me as well as a man.

I was fighting hard not to use my abilities on her, but as she helped me out of the gown my hunger won out. I was just too damn empty, I needed a fill-up and unfortunately that meant feeding on the nurse. I grabbed hold of her by either cheek and kissed her deeply on the lips. For a moment, her eyes glossed over and she was under my spell, but she shook her head and whatever influence I had gained was gone.

She stared at me with wide-eyes and her hands were shaking as she held one up to stop my advances. Clearly, she was shocked by the suddenly attraction she felt toward me. "I've never, I mean--" she said, but I interrupted her protests with another kiss. This time when her eyes glossed over they stayed that way. Even straight women weren't immune to a succubus's charms, although it did take a little more work to get them going.

I hated myself for what I was doing, but my need to feed prevented me from thinking clearly. All I could think about was getting what I needed, and the nurse would be able to provide that for me at least to some degree. I would have preferred she had been a man, but beggars can't be choosers.

I pulled down her pants and her panties followed, my hand latched over her cunt and I began to feed. It felt much different from feeding on a man, but that's not to say it was unpleasant. Her sexual energy had a different flavor to it, it almost seemed light and sweet whereas the sexual energy from a man had a more meaty feel to it. When I was done the nurse's eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap. Although I had taken a lot of energy from her, it really hadn't filled me up as much as it would have had I let a man penetrate me. I pulled the nurse's pants back on, but left her lying on the floor.

I caught my reflection in the mirror and I glared at the eerily beautiful woman in disgust. I hated what I had become and what I needed to do in order to survive. What choice did I have? Hot tears streamed down my face and I turned my back on the mirror. I couldn't bear the sight of that creature.

I was still pretty damn hungry, but the urge to feed was nowhere near as strong. I would likely be able to control myself at least for a while so for the time being feeding could wait. Absently, I patted my left breast where I had been cut and was surprised when I realized it didn't hurt at all. I quickly unwrapped the bandage around it and felt my jaw drop when I looked down and found no sign that I had been injured.

Had feeding accelerated the healing process? Or was it simply a result of being a succubus? There was so much I didn't know and now that Selina was dead I would have to figure it out for myself.

There was a knock at the door, I quickly grabbed the orange-juice stained hospital gown from the floor and slipped it back on. I ran to the door and flung it open to find Linda Corday standing in the doorway. She looked pretty haggard, and judging from her appearance she hadn't gotten much sleep.

"Rachel," she said. "What are you doing out of bed?"

"Well, I..."

Suddenly, she pushed past me and was on the ground beside the fallen nurse. "What happened?"

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh, "I got some orange-juice on my gown and she was undressing me to make sure that none had gotten in my wound when I lost control and fed on her."

Linda started to say something, but I wasn't listening. My breath caught in my throat and I simply stood looking out the doorway in shocked disbelief. "Selina!" I called out. I was ready to leap out the doorway, but then Arnie appeared. He just barely brushed past me, but it proved enough to set me off. Apparently what I had taken from the nurse hadn't really been enough to give me control. Before I could do anything a pair of strong hands grabbed hold of me and I was forced back into the hospital bed.

I tried to protest, but all thoughts of what I had just seen were forced aside as the need to feed rose. Whoever had picked me up had a rather strong sexual presence and I very much wanted him to fuck me. That's about when everything went dark...

Selina... Everywhere I went there she was, but no matter how hard I tried she was always out of reach. I ran through the empty halls of the hospital in the vain hope that I might catch her. Suddenly, she was there right in front of me, but then just as abruptly she was gone. I transformed into my demon form and ran as fast as I could. I turned a corner. A flash of red hair. A blur of motion. Nothing.

Everything was disjointed. Something was wrong. Where was Selina? Why couldn't I find her? Why wouldn't she stay in one place? Nothing made sense. The scenery changed. Flash. I was in the middle of a long road. Flash. I was standing in the forest. Flash. I was at my apartment. Flash. The Corday home. Flash. The hospital again. Flash. I stood in utter darkness. The world shifted, everything started to spin, and I fell to my knees clutching at my head. I screamed and the world was still.

I was in a hallway of sorts; there were rows of doors on either side, but no walls or a floor. Between the doors was only emptiness. I opened the first and watched with wide eyes. On the other of the door there was a bed levitating in the air. Atop it, Daniel was making love to a lavender-skinned succubus which looked exactly like me. The two shared a kiss, and he whispered something in the ear of the other me. She smiled sweetly, and with a set of clawed fingers she's ripped into his chest and tore out his heart. She brought Daniel's heart to her lips, took a bite out of it and moaned in pleasure. I screamed, and slammed the door shut.

"No!"

I turned my back on the door and with shaky hands I opened the one opposing it. I was back at the cliff's edge where Steagan had dropped Selina. Just like before, a figure was holding her over the edge, but it wasn't Steagan, it was my male self. He smiled cruelly and dropped Selina off the cliff and once again I was too late to do anything. I fought back tears and fled, slamming the door behind me.

I opened a door on the other side and watched my female self stab Daniel in the back. Again I fled to the other side only to find my male self chopping a still-living Selina up with an ax. I went back and forth from door to door, each time witnessing the death of either Daniel or Selina by my female and male selves. I couldn't stop. I had to go on. One of the doors would offer an escape.

Finally, I came to the end where one last door stood. I opened it and light flooded my vision. When I could see again, I was in a plain white room. My succubus self and my male self stood on either side of me, each glared at the other with looks filled with contempt.

"We will not give in to the hunger," the male-me said grabbing hold of my arm.

"The hunger is everything," the succubus said with an amused smile and grappled hold of my other arm.

Neither my male-self nor my succubus-self uttered a word. They merely glared at one another and began to tug on my arms. It was a horrible tug of war where my soul was the prize. "Enough!" I screamed suddenly and the tugging stopped almost immediately.

"I will choose for myself which path I will take. I will live with the hunger if I must, but I will never let myself become lost in it," I screamed looking first to the succubus, who smiled and released my arm, then to the male-me, who nodded and let go. They each faded away and I woke...

"Oh, hell, that was weird as fuck," I spat as my eyes snapped open.

"Rachel?" A voice said tiredly.

My eyes snapped to the side where Daniel was lying in bed beside mine. He was banged up pretty good, but it brought a smile to my face just seeing him alive. "How long have I been out?"

"Well, it's been a few hours since they brought you in here, and you've been unconscious since then," he said.

"She's alive, Daniel. I saw her being moved on a gurney outside my room," a muttered. "I have to find her."

"Who? Selina? What are you talking about?"

I didn't reply, I started fumbling with all the wires and tubes attached to me. "Rachel! Talk to me!" Daniel said suddenly.

I pursed my lips and sighed and started to explain how I had fed on the nurse and everything up to when Linda had showed up. "That's when I saw her Daniel. They were wheeling her through the hall, but Arnie showed up I lost control and I tried to feed on him."

"Look, I gotta get out of here. I need to know if that really was Selina I saw." I started fumbling with the IV tube in my arm.

"Well, someone's in a hurry to leave," a voice said with a light chuckle.

"Holy fucking shit, don't sneak up on me like that!" I exclaimed upon catching sight of Linda.

"What's going on?"

"Selina... I think I saw her before I tried to feed on Arnie..."

"Well, she's alive, but only just barely," Linda said sadly.

"I've got to go see her," I said reaching for the IV again.

Linda's hand closed around mine and blocked me from doing anything with the IV. "I'll see what I can do, but you need to stay here for now. You're too weak."

"God, I need to feed," I said with a soft moan. The hunger was building and it was becoming very difficult to keep myself from feeding on Linda.

Linda quickly withdrew her hand and the hunger receded just enough for me to gain a small measure of composure. "The sooner I feed the better. I don't think I'll be able to control myself the next time someone touches me."

"God, another second and I would have let you do whatever you wanted to me," Linda stared at me wide-eyed.

"Yeah, all the more reason for me to get out of here," I muttered bitterly.

I pursed my lips as I looked down at the bandage-wrapped form of Selina. It had been a few hours since I'd first been released from the hospital. Since then I'd managed to feed twice and I was pretty well satiated. Selina had been in a coma since they found her and I wondered if she would ever awaken. The doctors didn't seem to confident about her chances of recovery, but I wasn't about to let her die. The doctors were at a loss to explain it, but I was pretty sure I knew the reason why she was so unresponsive to treatment, she needed to feed.

I didn't know what I was about to try would work, but it was all I could think of and Selina was running short of time. I should have tried it earlier, but I was afraid that it might have an adverse effect. I moved slowly over to her bed, transformed into my demon form as I did so, and knelt beside it then I reached inside her hospital gown and slide a finger inside her vagina. I let a slight shudder as I did so, then I began to funnel my own sexual energy through my finger into Selina. It was more or less the same thing I had done to turn Steagan, and I hoped that it would help replenish her diminished sexual energy.

All my instincts screamed for me to stop, but I kept the flow pouring into her until I could stand it no longer. I jerked my hand back and let out a loud gasp and waited for any indication that what I had done would help. The effects were almost instantaneous, her skin seemed to take on a much healthier glow and there was a sudden intake of breath as her eyes flew open.

"Thank God," I muttered with a relieved sigh and grabbed hold of her hand.

"Archie?" she asked with wide eyes. "What happened? The last thing I remember was being captured by Steagan."

So, I told her what had happened. I even told her about trying to kill myself and feeding on Daniel. I didn't intend to, but somehow it slipped out anyway. There was one thing I managed to keep from her; my suspicions that she was my mother.

"God, there's so much I didn't tell you, but from the sounds of it you figured most of it out for yourself," she said with a sigh.

"Selina there's something I need to know. Are you my mother?"

Selina closed her eyes, "Is that what you think?"

Tears were streaming down my face, "You mean you're not?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head. "The story I told you about meeting that succubus who had just abandoned her child was true. What I didn't tell you is that I strongly suspected she was my mother as well, but I could never bring myself to tell her by the time I worked up the courage she was gone. When I saw you after your transformation. I knew you were the child she spoke of, I mean there's such a strong resemblance to both myself and--"

"--our mother," I finished with wide-eyes. My hand was trembling and slow smile crept onto my lips. Selina was my sister; I think I could live with that.

Then I grimaced as struck by a sudden thought, "You know we had sex right? I mean does that bother you? Fucking your own sister?"

"Technically you were male at the time, but yes the thought had occurred to me. I may not have many sexual inhibitions, but incest is one line I hoped never to cross."

"Yeah, I'd just as soon not think about it."

"Then let's not," she said and I nodded in silent agreement.

"I was wondering when you would show up," Steagan said glaring back at me as I approached. He was chained to the floor in the same silver-titanium cuffs that he had used to restrain Daniel and me.

He had already started to change, which surprised me, but when I thought about it, it made perfect sense. Selina had drained nearly all my sexual energy and it was only after feeding that I had started to change. When I turned Steagan, I'd channeled a good deal of sexual energy back into him which had obviously been enough to start the changes. The most dramatic change, of course, was all the age that had drained from his face. He looked to be around my age and he had thinned down quite a bit. His hair was now raven-black and he had lost some of his height and he had a much smaller build than before which gave him an almost boyish appearance.

"You're probably dying to feed right now. Aren't you?" I said kneeling down next to him and tracing my hand across his cheek.

Steagan trembled and I could feel his need for sustenance wash over me in deluge of longing and despair. "Here's the deal: you tell me what I want to know and I give you some of what you need."

"Never! I'd rather die!" he spat vehemently.

"Suit yourself," I said with a shrug and turned to leave.

"Wait!" he called and I couldn't help but smile. This was going to be even easier than I thought.

It took a great deal of coercing and threatening, but I eventually got what I wanted from Steagan. Normally, I think he would have been a much tougher shell to crack, but his desperate need made the job much easier. What I learned brought cold chills to my spine. Though Steagan and his ilk, called themselves the Tenebris Petentibus, they also refereed to themselves as Seekers as a sort of nickname. Their goals weren't the annihilation of the unseen, like the Order of the Sacred Heart. No, in some ways what they intended was much more nefarious. They believed that by experimenting on the unseen they could make some sort of super human with none of the weaknesses and all the strengths of the unseen.

They would frequently take an unseen and use him or her to ferret out other unseen, sometimes it was willingly, sometimes they were coerced and sometimes their victim was completely unaware that they were being used. Steagan had hoped to use me and Daniel in this manner and had already used an unaware Selina to lure us to him.

"How is it that you've been tracking her?" I growled.

"The same way we found you in the forest," Steagan laughed.

My thoughts flashed back to when me and Daniel were being held captive in the tent and our discussion about the tracking devices. "You had some sort of tracking device placed on her. Like Barns and Darrell."

"Very good," he said with a twisted grin.

"Shit!" I said jumping to my feet in sudden realization and started running for the door. I had to get to Selina and Daniel before it was too late. They were both still in danger.

The drive to the hospital, though only thirty-miles, was one of the longest in my life. Ravencrest didn't have a hospital of its own so everyone that had been injured during the fight with the Seekers was taken to Brendsen. This was only my first trip back after returning to Ravencrest and I could shoot myself for leaving. I should have stayed with Selina, but I was anxious to get the truth out of Steagan. I was convinced that we were out of danger and both Selina and Daniel seemed well onto the path of recovery.

By the time we reached our destination it was dark, and I didn't wait for Stu find a parking spot as I lurched out of the truck followed closely by my thrall. Since I didn't know his real name I'd taken to calling him Tim. I sprinted for the hospital doors and suddenly lunged to the ground as I heard a familiar click. As if in confirmation bullets whizzed over my head, and I knew that I might already be too late. Apparently, the Seekers had given up on trying to capture me which could only mean they believed I was too big a liability to let me live. I reached deep inside where my inner succubus waited and called out to her, fiery pain consumed my body and quickly faded away.

I jumped to my feet and leapt into motion even as bullets whizzed past me. Tim followed me as quickly as he could. God, I could move fast, I was on the nearest of my attackers in seconds. I didn't even feel a twinge of regret as I commanded Tim to kill him.

"Cover me!" I commanded as I lurched back into motion. I moved for the entrance with little concern for my own safety, if Selina or Daniel died my life would mean nothing.

Just before I gained the entrance I transformed back into my human form. I didn't even worry about Tim; he was likely dead in any case. By changing I lost the advantages that my demon form granted me, but it wouldn't do to have normals to see me in my altered state. I kept moving even as the pain became unbearable and just barely managed to make the doors as bullets shattered the glass doors behind me. There was a hot stab of pain in my shoulder, but it didn't matter I kept moving. I didn't even stop to see if it was a bullet that had hit me or glass from the shattered door. My mind was focused on one singular goal, saving my friend and sister and nothing would keep me from getting to them before it was too late.

I raced through the hospital without regard for anyone or anything. Several times I collided with a nurse or orderly, I wasn't sure which, I stopped only long enough to insure they weren't seriously hurt then I burst back into motion. My shoulder throbbed in pain, but I didn't care all I could think about was Daniel and Selina. Several times someone tried to stop me, but I easily dodged them and sped past them on my way to Selina's room since hers was the closest.

I didn't bother with the elevators, that would take too long; it was the hospital after all. There were just too many people using them for me to get anywhere quickly. So I took the stairs, leaping up the steps with as much speed as I could manage. Finally, I made it to the level I needed and left the stairwell behind. I turned a corner, and I caught a flash of motion out of the corner of my eye. I leaped to the ground as gunfire erupted above. I didn't escape unscathed a bullet slammed into my arm as I fell to the floor and I thought I might pass out from the pain.

I crawled into the nearest room, and pushed the door closed with my foot. "Fucking shit," I cursed as I looked at my arm. It hurt like hell, and it was bleeding badly. My shoulder throbbed almost as badly and I was beginning to think I should have thought things through before leaping into the hospital like a bat out of hell.

"Miss, what's going on? Are you alright?" A voice said and I realized with a start I wasn't alone in the room. The woman was pregnant and looked about ready to burst.

"There are some very bad men shooting up the hospital," I breathed gritting my teeth against the pain.

"Oh my god! What do we do?"

"You have a phone, right?"

She nodded and I let out a loud gasp. "Call 9-1-1, and whatever you do, don't leave this room," I said the irony of telling her to call emergency services from the hospital was not entirely lost on me as I climbed back to my feet.

I could hear gunfire outside the room, but for whatever reason my attackers seemed to have abandoned their pursuit of me. Which could only mean someone or something else had managed to grab their attention. God, I needed to get back out there, but if I went as I was now I didn't stand a chance. I looked back at the pregnant woman, I wasn't about to feed on her, shit I didn't even want to think about what that would do to the unborn child she was carrying. Which left me with only one option; I would have to call up my demon form.

I only hesitated a moment, then I reached out to my hunger and felt the burning-pain ripple across my skin. I was still bleeding pretty badly, but my demon form had granted me renewed energy. The woman didn't scream, she merely stared at me with wide-eyes as I pulled the door to the room back open. I expected gunfire to meet me as I flew out the door instead I found a large brown Kodiak which could have only been Stu and two corpses. He was bleeding in a few places, but no worse than me.

"Shit, you go after Daniel. I'll take Selina," I huffed. Stu let out a soft growl then spun around and sped away. I couldn't help but stare after him as he flew through the hallway; it wasn't every day you saw a bear tearing through a hospital.

I shook my head and turned away, only to find a gun aimed at my face. "Holy fucking hell!" I cursed.

"Fucking whor--" the gunman said, but was cut short as I slammed my knee into his groin. He dropped the gun and sank to the floor in a crumbled heap. I hesitated a moment then I bent down and unzipped his pants and looked down at his cock and bit my lip. I knew from my own experience and from Selina, that feeding accelerated the healing process, so I fed on him. When I was finished I could actually feel my wounds begin to close and let me tell you it felt weird as fucking hell. The bullet in my arm popped out and I could feel whatever was lodged in my shoulder pop out as well. The wounds didn't heal completely, but the bleeding slowed to a trickle and the pain faded quite a bit.

I picked up the gun from where it had fallen then I got back to my feet and started back towards Selina's room. Shit, I shouldn't have stopped to feed. I just hoped I wasn't too late.

As it so happened I wasn't too late. In fact Selina had taken care of things rather nicely. When she found herself under attack she did the one thing succubi did best, she fed. When I came into the room I found her in the process of fucking the guy. My cheeks burned and I turned my back so I wouldn't have to watch. I know I'd seen it all before, hell I'd been on the receiving end, but since finding out she was my sister I had no desire to see it again.

I tucked the gun into the back of my pants and waited for her to finish. It didn't take long, once a Succubus started to feed it only took minutes for her to drain her victim dry. There was a dull thud behind me and I looked back to find that Selina had finished. The body of her attacker had collapsed to the floor.

"Shit, thank God you're alright," I muttered bending over the man and checking for a pulse, he would live.

"How do they keep finding, me?" she asked with a loud gasp as her eyes suddenly bulged out of her head. The energy she had just taken was starting to heal her injuries and I could actually hear some of her bones pop back into place. If I hadn't shared my sexual energy with her twice already, I doubt she would have been in good enough shape to feed on her attacker.

"Steagan said they put some sort of tracking device on you," I said after the healing process had finished.

"I led them right to Ravencrest... and to you," she said with a sigh.

Before I could reply a huge burst of pain slammed into my back and I fell face-forward to the ground. It took me a moment to process what had happened and to realize that I had been shot. Shit, I shouldn't have been so damn stupid. I heard footsteps from behind and I held perfectly still as they approached. With any luck whoever shot me would think I was dead.

"Oh God, Rachel," I heard Selina say.

"Who would have thought a couple of succubi and a handful of weres would cause us so much trouble? Well, Colonel Steagan underestimated you I'm not going to make the same mistake. All you are is a liability. You know too much," a male voice growled.

The pain was agonizing, but I knew that if I didn't act Selina would die. So I reached for the gun still deposited in the back of my pants and rolled onto my back, opening fire as I did so. I'd never used a gun before, but all I had to do was pull the trigger. I mean at that range it was almost impossible to miss. He didn't stand a chance as I emptied the entire clip into him and he fell to the ground dead.

"Rachel, thank God, you're alive," Selina said from above.

"Yeah, hurt... like hell though..." I breathed weakly just before losing consciousness.

When I woke in the hospital I was a patient again. Stu had managed to get to Daniel in time, and no one tried to get to Selina after I blacked out so all in all everything turned out all right. After feeding a few times my injuries healed rather nicely and I was released from the hospital. Daniel and Selina were both released a few days later. Daniel still had a lot of healing to do, but he was well enough to walk if somewhat gingerly. Selina seemed to be in perfect shape, feeding had done for her what it had for me and she showed no signs of ever having been injured. Which was pretty amazing when you considered how close she had been to death.

The really weird part was that no one remembered the attack on the hospital besides Daniel, Stu and myself. I even ran into the pregnant woman who'd seen me transform and she didn't even bat an eyelash at me. I asked Daniel about it, and he said only that it was best not to think about. He inferred that the Coven was responsible, but didn't seem to know much more. I'd never met anyone from the Coven and I was beginning to think I didn't want too. If they could make people forget what happened at the hospital what else could they do? Maybe Daniel was right, it was best not to think about it. Not even the doctors commented on me and Selina's miraculous recoveries. I'm sure the Coven had something to do with that as well.

Of course, there was still the matter of what to do with Steagan. Selina and I had taken turns feeding 'her' and she finally finished changing. The really disturbing thing is that I seem to have a small measure of control over her, but only to a certain extent. If I tell her to do something she will have a hard time not doing as I say, but with a great deal of effort she does seem to be able to resist. Selina says it's always that way with Succubi that have been turned. Of course, if anyone saw 'Stacy', as we had taken to calling her, no one would ever suspect that she was Steagan. She was a bit slimmer than Selina and myself, but no less beautiful. She had raven-black hair, startling green eyes, a deceptively innocent face and a body that any straight man would have a hard time not soaking up.

Selina and I had grown pretty close over the last few months. With the tracking device removed she had decided to stay in Ravencrest with me. She was a godsend, and I knew that without her, I probably would have driven myself fucking nuts during that time. I was convinced she really was my sister; we looked too damn much alike for it to be a coincidence. I was content with that, even if we didn't share blood, we were sisters at heart and that was enough for me.

And there was me and Daniel, when I was with him I could almost forget about being a succubus and just be a human being. After losing control again, and making love to Daniel I found that, like before, I could only drain a fraction of what he had. Selina was able to confirm what I had already come to suspect, weres were resistant to a succubus' ability to feed. She had never fed on a were herself, but she had heard rumors from other succubi.

I knew that what little I took from Daniel would never be enough to sustain me, so I told him in no certain terms could we ever have a relationship. There was no way I could be loyal, and I knew Daniel well enough that no matter what he said, that it would tear him apart to see me take other men as lovers. So we tried to be just friends again, of course that didn't really work out all that well. I kept losing control of my hunger around him, even when I was more or less satiated. The problem was that no matter how much I denied it, I had feelings for Daniel and deep down inside I wanted to be with him.

I almost left Ravencrest altogether, I knew it was the only way to keep myself from hurting Daniel, but I kept finding excuses to stay. It wasn't until Anna came home for Christmas break that we found a way for us to be together. Before her return I'd never met Daniel's sister, but I guess the time she'd spent at college she had changed a lot. It came as a pretty big surprise when brought her girlfriend, Roberta, home to meet the family. To their credit, Daniel's parents took it pretty well, but it came as pretty big shock to find out their daughter was a lesbian.

It was a few days after her return and I thought I was alone at the Corday house. Daniel was off with some friends he had tried to get me to come along, but I just needed some time alone. Linda and Don were both at work and Selina was off doing God knows what. I thought I had the house to myself, I was wrong. When Anna had returned I volunteered to sleep on the couch in the basement so that Anna could have her room back. When I came up the stairs and found Anna and Roberta snuggled up in the living room I was a bit surprised, but I shrugged it off and made my way for the kitchen not wanting to disturb them.

It was about time for lunch and I was getting pretty hungry, so I made for the fridge and pulled out one of the salads Linda had set aside for me. I'd found out the hard way that my new body didn't do meat so well, so now I was a strict vegetarian. I really didn't suck so bad since my taste buds seemed to have changed along with just about everything else. It was fucking weird broccoli tasted a hell of a lot better than it used too, spinach too. Before the fridge closed I grabbed some dressing and a fork from the nearby drawer and plopped down at the table to eat.

A second later Anna pulled up a chair next to me and sat down. "We need to talk."

"Okay," I replied after swallowing the bits of salad in my mouth. I'd been afraid something like this might happen, judging from some of the odd glances I'd been receiving from her.

"I need to know what you're intentions are toward my brother," she said folding her arms across her chest.

Oh, great I'd really been hoping she wouldn't open that particular can of worms. "It's complicated."

"Complicated how?"

"Is it safe to talk? I mean if there's anything unseen..." I trailed off giving her a pointed look.

"It's safe. Roberta went upstairs. Besides even if she overheard us she's a were so there's really nothing to worry about on that front."

"How much did Daniel tell you about what happened with the Seekers?"

"I think I more or less got the gist of it, though he seemed unusually close-mouthed about you. I know you're some sort of unseen but not much else."

"I'm a succubus. I feed on sexual energies of anyone I have sex with," I spat glaring down at my salad.

Anna pursed her lips and tilted her head back with a long sigh, "Yeah, I'd say that's pretty damned complicated. So what? You're afraid of what will happen if you have sex with Daniel?"

I could feel my cheeks burn fucking hell this was Daniel's sister I was talking too! "That's not the problem. Weres have some sort of resistance to the feeding process. The problem is that I want to be with him, but I can't be loyal. I need to feed in order to live and I can't get what I need from Daniel at least not enough of it."

Her eyes lit up with sudden understanding, "Oh god. Poor Danny."

"I know," I muttered shaking my head as tears streamed down my face. "I didn't ask for any of this. I mean just a few weeks ago Daniel and I were just roommates and I had no idea that the unseen even existed."

"You're Daniel's roommate? He told me about Archie on the phone and he's--"

"--A guy? Yeah it came as huge fucking ass surprise when I found out I was a succubus."

"What happens to the person you feed on? I mean it doesn't harm theme does it?" she asked suddenly.

"It can kill them if I'm not careful and take too much, but if I feed often enough I can control myself enough to keep that from happening. Usually, the person I feed on wakes up feeling a bit drained, and most the time they won't even remember having sex with me," I said with a slight shudder.

"God, you've never killed anyone have you?"

"Yes," I admitted quietly. "I was still changing and one of Seekers attacked me. I lost control when he got too close and I wound up draining him dry."

Anna nodded as if coming to a decision, "So you're not going to do it again?"

"What?! No, of course not, not if I can help it!"

"Easy there, I didn't mean any offense. I just had to know before I made this suggestion. I can tell you care deeply for my brother and I'm inclined to believe that you'll do your best to keep yourself from harming anyone. I know my brother wouldn't much like it if the girl he was dating was having sex with other men, but there might be another way. Can you feed on women?"

"Well, yeah but--" I said stopping mid-sentence as I realized just what she was saying. It was something I never would have thought of on my own, but would Daniel go for it? I mean a lot of guys thought lesbian sex was pretty hot, but it would still mean taking other lovers besides Daniel. I would have to feed a lot more frequently, since women didn't fill me as much as men, but it might work.

"You've given me something to think about," I muttered quietly.

"Whatever you decide just be warned if you hurt my brother, you better hope I don't catch wind or I will hunt you down and make you pay," she said matter-of-factly then stood and left me alone with my thoughts, my salad all but forgotten.

Fuck, I really loved to run, I don't know why but there's just something about it that really gets my blood pumping. That was one of the few things I liked about my new body, when I kept myself well fed I had pretty much boundless energy. Running gave me a way to focus that energy and it helped me stay sane. After my conversation with Anna, I needed some time to think and since my change some of my best ideas came to me while I was running. It was pretty damn cold out, but I didn't care so long as the sidewalk was clear of ice.

I didn't really have a particular destination in mind, but then I never really did when I ran. I became lost in the feel of my hair in the wind and the feeling of my feet pounding against the pavement. The sports of bra I was wearing helped to keep my breasts from bouncing too badly and I was glad I let Linda buy it for me. The Corday’s had put down a lot of money on me since I'd been living with them and I hated it, but what choice did I have? It wasn't like I had any money of my own.

I stopped abruptly and was a bit surprised to find that I was on campus. I'd been avoiding Ravencrest University like the plague since my trip to the DBZ chapter house. I mean on the surface all the vampires I'd met seemed nice, but there was a sort of predatory air that lurked just below the surface that creeped the hell out of me. They didn't just help me out of the goodness of their hearts and I had a feeling I hadn't seen the last of them. The new identity hadn't exactly come with no strings attached, there were two conditions. The DBZ girls got first dibs on any of my potential lovers and they didn't want me making any more succubi. They didn't want any competition after all.

The trip hadn't been all bad; I did get a new identity out of the whole thing. And, I had to admit I didn't dislike my new name, Rachel Linsey McKenna, it had a certain ring to it and best of all it wasn't near as fucking weird as Archibold. McKenna had been Lily's idea apparently I looked Irish, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

I don't know if I would ever get used to the way people looked at me. Even if I wore the frumpiest outfit I could find it still wasn't enough to keep those looks of barely disguised lust from the men and the looks of envy and contempt from the woman. Whenever I went out in public I got the same look and I was beginning to wonder those looks weren't, at least to some extent, influenced by me being succubus. I know I was drop dead gorgeous, but the way people acted around me was just ridiculous. Maybe, people really did behave that way around attractive woman, and I was just over thinking it.

I turned my back on the University and made my way across the street and into the general direction of the Corday home. I still hadn't made my mind up, but I was hoping maybe Daniel would be back and we could talk things out.

"Daniel, shit we need to talk," I said folding my arms across my chest as he entered through the front door. I had beaten him back, but only by a few minutes.

He grinned and shook his head with a light chuckle. "Sometimes I have a hard time believing that you were ever Archie."

"Oh? What is that supposed to mean?"

"It's just that all your mannerisms have changed and you don't act much like Archie, well aside from all the cursing," he said with a grin.

It was true, I think in large part the way I carried myself had to do with being a succubus. I instinctively knew how to move in order to catch people's eyes, and I did it without thinking. I supposed I had changed in other ways too, but I really didn't think that had come with my physical transformation at least not directly. Everything that had happened had really brought a lot of my character defects to light and I really didn't like a lot of what I saw about myself. I'd pushed people away for far too long, and I couldn't take the thought of being alone any longer. Most importantly, I realized, I needed Daniel.

That final revelation had come to me with the strength of a physical blow and my hands trembled a bit at the mere thought of it. Archie really was dead, he never needed or wanted anyone at least not in the way I did. "Can we go somewhere private?"

"Sure," he said a look of concern and worry passing across his face and quickly faded away.

We hurried up stairs and Daniel closed the door as he followed me into his room. "What's up?"

"I-I. Oh fuck it. This is killing me. I need you, Daniel, I think I might even love you," I said breathing heavily and staring at Daniel with wide-eyes.

"I thought we couldn't be together. That your need to feed would never allow for it," he said quietly wrapping his arms around me. As usual I could feel my need to feed rise, but I'd fed enough lately that it was a very faint stirring of my hunger. I pushed it back and looked up into Daniel's eyes.

"I know what I said, but I talked with your sister and I think... that there might be a way, but it probably won't be easy maybe not for either of us," I said quietly.

Daniel took hold of my hands, "What exactly are you saying?"

"I need to feed and there's no disregarding that, but men aren't the only source I can turn too. I can feed on women."

I watched Daniel's face for any sign that he understood, but confirmation came in a different way. He kissed me and felt my legs turn to jelly as he swept me off my feet and we both landed on his bed. I wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what we did next. Feeding felt pretty damn amazing, but what Daniel and I did was on a whole other level.

"So should we go downstairs? Mom’s making a big dinner tonight. She'd probably be upset if we don't show," Daniel said after a whole.

"Oh, I think we still have a little more time," I said with a smile and planted a kiss on his lips.

Daniel grinned back at me as our lips parted, "You know I think you might be right about that."

Daniel and I really pushed it to the last minute and we were finally forced to break away and make our way downstairs. We both looked a mess, and we reeked of sex, but no one said anything, well, no one except Tammy, but she really didn't know any better.

"Rachie," she said coming over and giving me a hug.

After the showdown at the hospital, I was a little surprised to find that Tim, my thrall, had survived. After the Seekers had been taken care of, there really seemed no reason to keep him around. That being said so long as he lived he would have been completely reliant on me and I really didn't like the idea of being burdened with him forever. So I turned him, and Tammy was born.

"You had sex!" she grinned at me proudly.

Tammy had no memory of her previous life and she was essentially an entirely different person. When I bent Tim to my will, I had destroyed almost his entire consciousness and only a small fragment had remained. He was able to understand my commands and do as I told him, but not much else. When I turned him into a succubus, the result was a sex-crazed bimbo with the mind of a five-year-old child.

"Tammy, inside voice," I muttered quietly.

"Sorry, Rachie,"

"Come on, Tammy it's dinner time."

"Okay," Tammy grinned and bounced after me as I made my way into the dining room.

Dinner was delicious and as always Selina, Tammy and I had our salad and the Corday's ate a meal that was just a little too undercooked. The table was a bit crowded, but with the addition of a second leaf everyone fit. All my life I'd been looking for something and had never been able to find it. A family was what I had needed, and as I looked around the dinner table I realized I didn't need to look any further. I'd found my family at long last.

The End

If you enjoyed this or any of my other stories please leave a comment on either Bigcloset Topshelf, Fictionmania, or TGStorytime if you haven't already.

As with all my stories this is a work of fiction and as such any resemblance to real life individuals events or locations is purely unintentional. Only Bigcloset Topshelf has permission to post this story.

I am currently working on a sequel to this story, but progress is slow so please be patient. I do also hope to write a back-story for Lillian somewhere down the line, but knowing the fickle nature of my creative process I can't say when or if it will happen.