I parked my car between the snow pile drifts and stepped out. A cool breeze blew by me, and I wrapped my coat closer. The doll lay beneath my coat and hugged my chest. The park was deserted and the walking path partially cleared, so I had no trouble going unnoticed to the small grove of trees where David and I met. I reached the spot and stood between the trees.
A soft snow fell as I pulled out the locket and the doll. I rubbed the locket and wished for David to come to me.
"You called?" his voice spoke up behind me. I yelped, spun around and held the doll toward him like it was a cross and he the vampire. A dark look passed over his face and he stepped back. "Why do you continue to keep me away from you?"
"Because I don't want you, and this is going to save me from you," I told him. I hugged the doll to myself and was glad for a bit of warmth against the coming cold and darkness that surrounded us. "I don't want to be a succubus, much less your eternal flame, so just lift the curse or I'll-I'll use the doll on you." I held it toward him again, and he retreated a few steps.
The darkness passed from his face, and a look of sadness entered his eyes. "Do you not understand what the use of that doll entails? What it even now is doing to your body?"
I pulled the doll against me as though it could protect me from his very words. "I'll take my chances," I replied.
"The chance you take is completely draining your life force. You will be dead if you continue down this path," he insisted.
I squeezed the doll tighter to myself. "You'd say anything to get me to drop it. Why can't you just go away and leave me alone? I never asked for your love!"
His face fell and he sighed as he ran a hand through his elegant short hair. "If only it were that easy, my love."
"I'm not your love!" I argued.
He raised his eyes to me and I saw they were a dark red. "But you are. I would trade my love to save you, but I can't. I also can't cease to love you any more than you can stop the tides or move planets." He chuckled, and there was no mirth in the sound. "My fate has decided that I must give my love to the only human female in the world who would absolutely reject it, and who would put all her energy, even her life, into stopping me from claiming her as my own."
My feminine heart strings were pulled at the sorrow in his voice. It was true, genuine sorrow. I shook my head. "I'm-I'm sorry, but I can't love you. I just can't."
"Not even a tinge of hope?" he persisted.
A sad smile slipped onto my lips and I looked down at the doll in my arms. "I don't think either of us gets that."
"I see." His tone was one of defeat. My heart broke to hear such sorrow, even if I didn't love him.
I raised my eyes to him. "David, I-" He was gone. I was alone with my doll, my protection.
Or was it something far worse? I had to know.
Chapter 9
I hurried from that terrible spot with its sad memories and rushed to Madam Curie's shop. The door was unlocked and I burst into the room bringing with me a gust of snow and wind. The wind whipped at my hair and clothes as my eyes swept over the space. "Madam Curie! Madam Curie!" I shouted.
"What is it?" came her screeching voice. She emerged from the kitchen again covered in flour. One gust of the wind caused her to wrap her arms around herself and glare at me. "Shut that door right now or you'll ruin my souffle!"
She winced when I slammed the door, but I ignored that and rushed over to her. I grabbed her shoulder and pressed the doll between us. "You have to read my fortune!" I pleaded.
"What? Of course I don't. It's been decided, and don't you dare doubt me," she growled.
I shook her. "I have to know if my fate is still set! Please!"
Madam Curie brushed aside my hands and glared at me. "All right, but it'll cost you."
"Anything! Just name your price!" I agreed.
She raised an eyebrow, but gestured for me to follow her. We made our way to the card room and took our seats she shuffled the deck and all the while watched me. Her eyes fell on the doll in my arms, and she nodded at the toy. "One of Magnus' contraptions. I'd recognize that shoddy workmanship anywhere. Trying to protect yourself from your fate?" she mused.
"Yes, but it-well, somebody told me it might be killing me," I told her.
Curie stopped her shuffling and both eyebrows raised. "So that's what has you worried. Well, we'll see what the cards say." She doled out the first three, and they were as before. The Empress, Lovers, and Emperor. "Your path is still intertwined with your lover," she mused.
"But what about my fate?" I persisted.
"Patience, young one," she scolded me as she flipped more cards. The first three cards were followed by the same three cards: the Wheel of Fortune, Hermit, and Star. "You still wish to be left alone, but fate has other plans for you," she reminded me.
"So nothing new," I mumbled.
"We shall see," she mused. She flipped the final three cards. Something was different. There was the Death card that made my blood run cold, and the Judgment card to lead me to a life as a succubus, but the Hierophant was gone. Curie's eyes widened and she let out a soft hiss.
"Where's the Hierophant?" I asked her. In its place was a card that showed a cloven-hoofed man with the words The Devil written at the top.
Her eyes flickered up to me and settled on the doll. "You are committing a mortal sin, and that sin will be your death instead of the Hierophant."
"Mortal sin? What kind of mortal sin?" I asked her.
"In your effort to protect yourself you are killing yourself, and suicide is the worst of the mortal sins," she explained.
My mouth dropped open. "Killing? But it's supposed to protect and save me!" I protested.
Curie gathered her cards and sniffed the air. "That's what I'm sure that coot up in that shack told you, but he can't fight against fate, and my cards show your destinies have not changed. None of that old coot's dolls are going to prove my cards wrong," she growled.
My grip on the doll loosened and I slumped down in my chair. "Death, or with him. . ." I muttered.
Curie stood and walked over to my side of the table. She set a hand on my shoulder and looked down at me with pity in her eyes. "I'm sorry, my dear. The cards have told me you have a gentle heart, but they cannot change your fate, only show it."
I felt numb as I stood and stumbled towards the door. Curie's hand slipped from my shoulder and she didn't try to stop me, nor did she ask for her money. I was grateful for her small show of kindness, but I couldn't make myself show it, or any other emotion. All my trying, all my efforts, they hadn't changed a thing. I was still damned, and even worse with the death option.
I don't remember any of the drive home. There were just hazy memories of my going up the elevator with the doll still wrapped in my arms. I somehow slipped through Tiffany's alarm and into my apartment. The door shut behind me and all was quiet.
In the lonely confines of those walls a sob escaped my throat. The doll dropped from my arms and I fell to my knees. All I could think of was all those journeys to Magnus' shack to find the worthless doll in front of me. My anger arose. I grabbed the doll and had a mind to strangle the thing, but it was still me, and I was still the doll. Instead I tossed it over the back of the couch so it landed on the cushions.
A screech jerked me from my self-pitying thoughts, and I jumped to my feet. A dark shadow jumped onto the back of the couch, and Mo stared at me with narrow eyes. He sat down and twitched his tail. "Is that the sort of welcome you give to all your new roommates?" he teased me.
"Mo!" I rushed over to him and wrapped my arms around his body in a firm hug. All my fears, angers, and worries were sobbed into his furry shoulder.
He purred my face. "You've had a rough night," he mused.
I pulled away from him and tears kept flowing down my cheeks. "It was-sniff-terrible. First-"
"Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" he gently scolded me.
I sniffled. "Then. . .you know. . .I'm dying?"
He bowed his head. "I do
, but I know you have two paths you can take. What about the other one?"
I stood and turned away from him. "I. . .I don't know." I ran a hand through my hair. "I can't think straight. All I want is to-"
"Get out of the trouble? That isn't going to happen, so you may as well think about the two paths you have," he advised.
I wrapped my arms around myself and shuddered. "I know. It's just-well, I don't know." I sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. My voice lowered to a soft whisper. "How long do you think I have to make this choice?" I asked him.
He scrutinized my person and shook his head. "Not as long as you want," he told me.
I forced a smile onto my lips. "So not sixty to eighty years?" I guessed.
Mo stood and rubbed himself against my arm. "No, but long enough for you to make the choice."
I sighed and petted his back. My eyes stared into the distance without seeing anything. I had two choices to make, but maybe I'd let fate lead me down the road that would make me the happiest. At least, I hoped it would. Only time would tell.
Incubus Among Us #4
Chapter 1
"I don't think staring at these things all day is gonna help you choose," Mo commented.
"This stuff takes time," I argued. We sat together on my couch with the doll and locket laying on the coffee table before us. I gestured to the doll. "That's assured death, but human for a little while." I pointed my other hand at the locket. "And that's an eternal life as some sort of a sex goddess."
"And you see something wrong with that last one?" he teased. I tilted my head down to him and glared at the feline. He grinned back and shrugged. "I'm only trying to help."
"Well, you're-" I paused as a sudden thought came to me. My eyes rolled down to stare at my supernatural roommate.
Mo raised a cat eyebrow. "Whatever you're thinking stop thinking it."
"Oh, come on. You don't even know what I'm going to suggest," I argued.
"It has something to do with me, and that's enough to get me to tell you to stop thinking it," he countered.
"But you're of the incubus world, right? I mean, if I needed, say, training to control the power I have over men, you'd be able to teach me something, wouldn't you?" I persisted.
The end of his tail twitched. "Do I look like an incubus?"
I looked him up and down, and a sly grin slipped onto my lips. "You are pretty handsome."
He puffed out his chest and I swear he smirked. "I have been known to woo the female felines," he boasted.
"Well, how about you help a damsel in distress and at least give me a few pointers on dealing with supernatural powers? You have those," I pointed out.
Mo's shoulders slumped and he sighed. "All right, get a mat. This could take a while."
I squealed and gave him a bone-crunching hug. "Thank you so much!"
He squeezed from my grasp and jumped onto the back of the couch. "Don't mention it. Really. To anyone. I have a reputation to keep among the others," he warned me.
I eagerly nodded and hopped off the couch to search for a soft mat. "Sure, no problem. Lemme just find a mat or something."
'Something' turned out to be the option. I wasn't exactly into yoga, but I did find an old, fluffy quilt. I folded and placed that on the floor behind the couch. I sat down on my mat with my instructor seated in front of me.
"All right, let's start with taking deep breaths, and then we'll see if we can clear your self of emotions," Mo instructed me.
I closed my eyes and breathed deep. "Gotta clear my mind. . ." I murmured.
"Feel nothing," Mo chanted.
A tickling of humor swept over me. I furrowed my brow and focused harder on suppressing my amusement, my desires, everything. My body vibrated with the mental effort. I ground my teeth together and tried to control everything at once. I felt a pulse of something exude from my body, and my eyes shot open when Mo purred his body against my side.
"You're not helping," I growled at him.
"And you're not succeeding. You're giving off worse succubus vibes than before," he scolded me.
I sighed, and that little action released some of the tension inside of me. It also got Mo to stop rubbing against me. "This isn't easy, you know. It's not like I'm a robot that can shut off my emotions with a flip of a switch," I told him.
"You're trying too hard. Focus on relaxing your body first, and your mind will follow," he advised. I nodded my head and closed my eyes. Focus on the body. My nice, calm, relaxed body. Feel the relaxing. My body obeyed my soft order and I felt my limbs slip into a state of restfulness. There was quiet around me but for my deep, steady breathing. My emotions were swept away and replaced by a relaxed state of being where there was only a smidge of joy and nothing else.
I took a deep breathing and felt a wind escape from my body. I was too relaxed to be afraid, even when I opened my eyes and saw the wind itself. It was a whitish tornado that slowly spun around me. I could see Mo seated on the other side of the wind. "What's happening?" I whispered to him.
"The wind is a physical manifestation of your succubus self, or rather a beginning succubus. The finished form is more of a fleeting shadow," he explained.
The wind shifted. The swirling waves spun together in front of me and morphed themselves the form of a heart. The winds beat to the tune of my own heart. A heat emanated from the heart and warmed my body much like David's presence. "Is this. . .me?" I wondered.
Mo shook his head. "No, that's the allure of the succubus. It's created the heart to tempt you to accept your fate."
My pig-headed self didn't like that at all, and my eyebrows crashed down. A sudden onslaught of anger swept over me and into the winds that still surrounded my person. The whiteness turned to black and, in one powerful pulse, the winds pushed outward across the room. Mo screeched and pawed at the floor, but it was vinyl and he slid backwards and tumbled into the wall near the back hall. The lamps on either side of the couch blew over, and all the pictures on the walls swung and crashed to the ground.
I looked over the devastation and cringed. "Oops."
Mo righted himself and the end of his tail flickered like an angry snake. "A little more breathing and a little less focus, and watch your emotions," he scolded me as he stomped back to his spot.
I snorted when I noticed his fur was slicked back by the wind. "Sorry."
He plopped his furry tush in front of me and glared back. "Women and their overreactions. . ." he muttered.
I folded my arms and scowled back at him. "I did not overreact."
He snorted. "You're a woman. Women overreact."
"Come closer and say that," I challenged him.
I started when there came a knock on my door. "Liz? Liz, you in there?" came Tiffany's voice from the other side.
"Um, one second." I whipped my head to Mo. "Hide! I'm not allowed to have cats in the apartment!"
The end of his tail twitched. "I may look and act like a cat, but I can go where I please."
"Looks like a duck and quacks like a duck. . ." I muttered as I scrambled to my feet and hurried over to the door.
I opened it just a smidge and smiled at my concerned friend. "Um, hi. Something wrong?"
"I don't know, you tell me," Tiffany returned. She leaned to her right to see past me, and I copied her movements like a reflection. "You got somebody in there with you?"
"N-no, of course not. Did you need something?" I asked her.
"I swore I heard you talking with someone," she argued.
"No, that was the-um, the TV. I was yelling at a game," I explained.
"You weren't yelling, and I don't hear your TV on right now," she countered.
"That's because-um, because."
"Meow." With that self-introduction Mo sauntered up and wrapped his slinky little body around Tiffany's leg.
Tiffany looked at the evil feline in bewilderment and fascination. "A cat? You know pets aren't allowed in the building," she scolded me.
"I didn't have a choice. He s
ort of invited himself in," I argued.
"Doesn't sound like a bad idea." She picked up Mo and slid past me into my apartment. I reluctantly shut the door behind her. "I was wanting to talk to you about a couple of things." Her roaming eyes fell on the lamps, and she nodded her head at the broken items. "Problems?"
I came to stand beside her and nervously smiled. "Oh, those. The-um, the cat knocked them over. You know how klutzy they can be." Mo glared at me from Tiffany's arms, but I ignored him and turned my attention to my friend. "But you said something about a couple of things."
Tiffany set Mo on the back of the couch and turned to me. "Yeah, actually, I've been talking with Ann and -" I held up my hand.
"Wait, as in my coworker Ann?" I asked her.
"Yeah, and she's really worried about you. She thinks you're freaking out about this whole Christmas party-"
"Festive party," I corrected her.
"Whatever. Anyway, she thinks you just need a guy, and I know you need a different guy than that weirdo, so we kind of-well, we kind of set you up on a blind date."
"You what?" I shrieked. Mo jumped from the couch and rubbed himself against my leg. I knew what that meant. Remain calm. I was as cool as a cucumber, if that cucumber was roasting in hell. "How could you do this to me? You know I don't like blind dates! Nobody likes blind dates!"
Tiffany held up her hands in front of her. "Listen, Liz, you need a new guy, and this is the way to go. You two will probably hit it right off. The guy's looking for somebody just like you. I'm sure you'll be perfect for each other," she argued.
"And we'll get married, and settle down, and have kids, right?" I retorted.
"Yeah. Sounds great, doesn't it?"
"It sounds like a fairy tale, and you two are the evil step-sisters trying to set me up with a frog who really isn't a prince," I told her.
She shrugged. "Just as long as I get to be the pretty one. Anyway, we've set up your date for tomorrow-"
"Tomorrow? As in the day after today?" I questioned her.
"Yeah. Ann and I were afraid you'd chicken out, so we made sure if you did think about doing that it'd be short notice and rude and stuff, so you wouldn't do it," Tiffany explained.
My hands at my sides flexed in their eagerness to ring my friend's neck. "You two are a pair, you know that?"
Tiffany grinned. "Yep. Anyway, the date's going to be at one of the snazziest places in town. One of those joints where you can't read the menu and the food comes in small portions. Ann said the guy could read the menu for you, so that'll help with your bonding."