Suddenly A Succubus

Vee’s morning classes were every bit as predictable as she’d hoped. She turned in all her homework, took detailed notes on all her new assignments, and participated in class as much as was appropriate; it was important not to answer every question, of course, lest she appear desperate or over-ambitious.

One teacher in particular, Mr. Kokkinos, had also taught a class of hers last semester. As Vee was in the middle of petitioning the school to let her retake all her missed finals, she took the opportunity to check in with him while she had the chance. Unfortunately for Vee, there still was no official ruling on this request. Ordinary rules prohibited students from retaking finals, and while exceptions were sometimes made, the decision needed to pass through several hands before Vee would have an answer.

It sucks I can’t just tell them the truth. I feel like ‘being sucked into Purgatory’ counts as a pretty damn good excuse.

She only had two classes in the morning, after which she’d given herself a break for lunch. After her third class let out, while she was busy packing up her stuff, another student ran up to her with a smile on her face. Her dreadlocks bounced back and forth as she stopped moving, though even then, she continued bouncing back and forth with unusual pep.

“Hey Vee! How’d the weekend treat you!” the student asked.

Dreadlocks, athlete, she’s friends with Naomi, this is…. this is… Natalie!

“Hi Natalie,” Vee said with a calm smile. “Pretty quiet, all things considered. Any weekend I get to sleep in is a good one in my books, right?”

They both laughed, and as Vee started walking towards the exit, Natalie accompanied her. “Oof, tell me about it. Coach has got us up at stupid early hours to practice, and I’m already sick of it. Although I’d rather be running for fun than… well, y’know.”

With a slow nod, Vee acknowledged the open-ended statement. Natalie was one of the unlucky students that stayed on campus over the Winter Break, which meant she’d been swept up in magical nonsense as monsters and witches overtook the school for several chaotic weeks. “Trust me, no one is happier about that than I am.”

“Hey, speaking of that, is our first, um…” Natalie looked around briefly to make sure no one was listening in. “Is our first AV Club meeting soon?”

Vee leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Next Tuesday, the 26th, at Whitmore Hall. You’re in the group chat, aren’t you?”

“I mean. yeah, but I suck at keeping up with stuff like that,” Natalie muttered. “Should I assume Amara’s gonna be there? Is she, like… cool now? I heard you two were dating, and I was kinda hoping that would mellow her out a bit.”

“Everything’s fine, Natalie. Promise,” Vee said, casting a reassuring smile at Natalie.

“Right, yeah, cool. Anyways, I gotta run, I don’t have lunch yet, but I’ll catch you later!” Natalie’s departure was much more literal than Vee expected, and she watched as Natalie started running in the opposite direction, likely on the verge of being late for class.

It only took a few minutes for Vee to make it to the cafeteria, get her food, and start combing the dining hall for her friends. They tried to pick corner tables as often as possible, mostly for Chloé’s benefit, but sometimes they weren’t so lucky. Thankfully, fortune seemed to be on their side today, and Vee quickly found Amara and Chloé at their preferred table.

Amara was wearing a long red jacket that flattered her form perfectly, which made sense given all her clothes were illusory. She was able to summon and resize her clothing on a whim, and she took full advantage of this to give herself gorgeous outfits whenever she wanted.

Chloé was hunched over the table, wrapped in her usual long blue peacoat. A scarf hung around her neck and thin, round glasses sat on her nose, highlighting her bright green eyes as she slowly picked at her lunch. She had soft, petite features, with light brown hair loosely tied into a bun behind her head. Notably, she had a thin streak of white hair that extended all the way from her right temple to the back of her head. As she saw Vee approach, she perked up in excitement and waved hello.

Sliding in next to her girlfriend, Vee gave Amara a kiss on the cheek before digging into her lunch. “Hey Chloé! How are you doing today?”

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Chloé muttered. She looked up at Vee with a weak smile, but Vee didn’t hold that against her. Several weeks back, in their final confrontation against the student that had attempted to strand Amara and Vee in Purgatory, Chloé had gotten trapped halfway inside a portal between dimensions. She now existed in a permanent state of suspension between planes, her natural form being completely intangible and invisible. Although she was capable of reforming her body, it took a great deal of effort, and she was still trying to figure out her new routine now that school had started up again.

Immediately after talking, Chloé winced and quickly returned to hunching over the table, clenching her fists as she grit her teeth. For a split second, imperceptible to anyone not already looking, her form flickered, her body growing slightly transparent. Thankfully, the fit was over just as soon as it began, and Chloé let out a sigh of relief.

Eager to keep Chloé distracted from the complications of her condition, Vee tried to change the subject. “What’s your charity app up to? That’s been going for a while now, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah!” Chloé said, instantly perking up. “We’ve gained a little more traction, and new user sign-ups continue to trend upwards, which is really nice. It certainly helps that our marketing advisor is also our top-performing content creator.”

With a devious chuckle, Amara looked up from her lunch. “Well, what can I say? If the people love quality photoshoots, who am I to deny them the pleasure? Besides, I’m happy to help, and the extra money has certainly been nice on my end.”

“And?” Vee asked, playfully nudging Amara.

“And… maybe it’s a blast showing off my true form and getting a bunch of attention. So what? I’m a succubus, it’s in our blood!”

Vee chuckled to herself as she thought of Amara’s last set of photos. Not only had Vee helped with the camera, but she’d also gotten special treatment after they were finished. “Oh, Chloé, before I forget: I was speaking with Natalie just a few minutes ago. Apparently she doesn’t keep up with the group chat, but she confirmed that she’ll be at our AV Club meeting next week.

“Oh, perfect!” Chloé said happily. “I haven’t asked people to RSVP, but I’m certainly hoping everyone is able to make it.”

“Wait, AV Club?” Amara asked, tilting her head in confusion. “Since when does our school have an AV Club?”

“Amara, please tell me you’re joking,” Vee said.

Looking back and forth between the other girls, Amara started panicking. “No! What am I missing here?”

Chloé sighed. “You’ve been ignoring both group chats, haven’t you?”

“Well, I-I…” Amara’s face turned red as she stammered. “I figured if anything important came up, Vee would tell me about it! She’s way better at keeping track of that shit than I am!”

Placing a hand on Amara’s thigh, Vee leaned in to explain. “It’s a nickname Chloé came up with. We needed a way to organize all the students that know about magic, and ideally some verbiage that would allow us to talk about it in public without giving away any secrets.”

“Since all those students are helping us keep tabs on any potential incursions, I jokingly started calling them the Aurelius Vanguard in my head,” Chloé muttered, her cheeks turning pink for a moment. “But, um, I said it aloud once and Vee said she really liked it, and she suggested we make it official so everyone was on the same page.”

“Ohhh, gotcha,” Amara said. “That’s really clever! And a really good name!”

“You really need to start paying attention to the group chats, Amara,” Vee said quietly. “If anyone finds something magical that needs our attention, that’s how they let us know. What if they send something when we’re not together?”

“Okay, I get it, I’ll unmute the chats,” the succubus groaned.

With a small laugh, Vee returned to her lunch. The rest of the meal passed quickly, the three girls mostly talking about their classes and how the first week of school had gone. Unfortunately, with only an hour for lunch, they were soon forced to part ways and head off to their afternoon classes.

Vee’s afternoon classes were every bit as predictable as her morning classes, and for that she was grateful. The cycle of exchanging old homework for new homework continued, and she took careful notes during each and every lecture to keep herself sharp. Another benefit of the new semester was the chance it gave her to reconnect with friends that had returned home for the holidays. After spending so many weeks surrounded by magic, planar incursions, and otherworldly drama, it was refreshing to talk to students that remained untouched by the chaotic world of magic.

Her last official engagement for the day wasn’t a class, but a private vocal lesson. She’d been singing as long as she could remember, and music was often the perfect solution whenever she needed to shake off the malaise of a long day at school.

Today was especially exciting, as she was beginning to put together her repertoire for the new semester. Many weeks had been spent agonizing over the perfect songs; pieces to illustrate her vocal range, pieces to highlight both her dramatic and lighthearted musical capabilities, as well as a healthy collection of both modern and classical music. She was particularly excited to start work on “Sempre Libera,” a song from Italian opera “La Traviata” composed by Giuseppe Verdi.

After happily catching up with her voice teacher, a delightful older woman by the name of Mrs. Leese, they jumped straight into Vee’s catalogue of music. Many of the earlier songs went well, and she was purposely saving Sempre Libera for last due to how excited she was for it. When the moment finally came, she threw herself into her performance with much the same excitement Amara threw herself into her photoshoots and Chloé threw herself into her games.

“Sempre libera degg´io folleggiare di gioia in gioia, vo´che scorra il viver mio pei sentieri del piacer. Nasca il giorno, o il giorno muoia, sempre lieta ne´ ritrovi, a diletti sempre nuovi dee volare il mio pen—”

Near the end of Vee’s performance, an uncomfortable strain caught her by surprise, and she was forced to finish prematurely. After a few light coughs, she took a deep breath to try and diagnose the issue. “I’m so sorry, I’m not sure what happened,” Vee muttered to her teacher.

“Have you caught something? It is cold and flu season,” Mrs. Leese asked politely.

“No, I…” Vee stopped herself. It would be suspicious to say she’d never been sick before, as true as the statement was. “I don’t think so. Perhaps we should stop here? Just to be safe?”

“Of course, dear. We were almost finished anyways,” the teacher said.

Retrieving all her music, Vee said one last goodbye before leaving. Over the next several minutes, as she slowly made her way to Whitmore Hall, she barely paid attention to her surroundings. Her thoughts were entirely focused on her strange musical blunder.

My voice has never failed me like that before. I’ve never gotten sick, even once, thanks to my angelic lineage. What on Earth was that?

Halfway to her destination, Vee changed her path and redirected through Lysander Hall. On the bottom level of this central building, a small café by the name of Brew Love had been set up, and it was the go-to coffee place for most students on campus. Today, however, Vee ordered a simple tea with an extra helping of honey in hopes of soothing her voice. After chuckling at the cutesy name, After Par-Tea, Vee quickly resumed her trek towards her original destination.

After arriving at Whitmore Hall, she wandered to a back corner where she opened the door leading downstairs. The staircase itself was older, and obviously didn’t see a lot of use, though Vee was starting to grow more familiar with it. Before reaching the basement proper, she heard the door at the bottom of the staircase open, and another student started up the stairs.

“Oh, Vee! What’s up?”

The student speaking was Ruby, a nursing student and member of the AV Club. She had bright, fire engine red hair that was much shorter on the sides, and always styled it to resemble a mohawk. Despite the cold weather, she refused to wear anything but tank tops or tees with the sleeves ripped off, which acted as a constant reminder of how muscular she was.

“Hey Ruby,” Vee answered with a smile. “Just going to check in with everyone, see what’s going on. How about you?”

After a deep breath, Ruby leaned on the railing next to her. “Uh, just… finished up chatting with Imani. About, um…”

“Amara?” Vee asked, finishing the question.

“…Yeah,” Ruby muttered. “She came and talked to me the other day, explained everything that happened with the coven. I’m just trying to figure out how to feel about it, and Imani’s always telling people she’s happy to listen, so why not, right?”

“Do you think she helped?”

“I mean, maybe? I’m honestly still not sure how mad I am about this whole thing. Like, casual sex is supposed to be just that, casual, and it’s not like I didn’t want to sleep with her. I’m not a fan of the lying, obviously, and there’s the extra element that she’s a demon who literally feeds on arousal, and that’s not even touching on what she did with that extra strength.” Ruby took a deep breath before continuing, seemingly talking more for her own benefit than Vee’s. “But then I think about like, how fucking hot the sex was, right? It was amazing, she’s so good at—wait, why am I telling this to you? Ugh, way to go Ruby, brag about sleeping with someone to their literal girlfriend…”

Vee reached out and placed a hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “Ruby, I get it. Amara is super open about sex, and this happened before we got together. It’s not that weird.”

Ruby chuckled. “It’s a little weird. I fucked a demon.”

“Okay, that part’s weird, I’ll give you that. I realize I’m not a part of this, but I’m always here if you want someone else to talk to.”

“Thanks Vee. For the record, you two are really cute together,” Ruby said, forcing a smile. “Anyways, I should head out. The guys are expecting me at the gym, and if I don’t get there soon, they’re gonna start all the fun lifts without me.”

After waving goodbye, Vee walked down the rest of the stairs and emerged into the basement.