Chapter 2: Succubus

Spirits were clinging to me like pests. The ground trembled. A hot breeze rolled around the subterranean temple and a demonic murmur echoed in the darkness. I could barely see.

I was clutching an athame in my right hand and a ceramic orb in the other. I shook my right foot, trying to dislodge the spirits that clung to it.

I wasn’t scared of the spirits. They were mostly just an annoying interference. The most harm they could do is pull my hair. This was common for ancient temples that harbored magical artifacts. Spirits were normally cast there to guard from human outsiders. These beings clutter the stories of treasure hunters and looters who always dramatically claim they were attacked by a curse. I’m no ordinary human outsider, however, and it takes more than a horde of ectoplasm to scare me away.

The orb I was holding began to glow as I concentrate on a silent spell. A bright light flashed in the temple and the spirits were dispelled. I could see them. Little mists of white energy, some with discernible human forms. Their eyes were blank and hollow though. I had cast a spell for ectoplasmic stasis. They will be frozen until I decide to release them.

The ground immediately stopped shaking. The wind desisted, and silence filled the underground shrine. Spirits affect elements. When they’re quiet, everything else lay still.

“Very impressive trick,” said a voice that sounded like wine or honey.

I froze in my tracks. I wasn’t expecting someone else to be here. Or something else. The fear of being unprepared started in my toes. I was uttering a silent spell to protect myself.

“What is it that you want from this place, witch,” asked the voice.

The client that sent me on this task was a sorcerer who wanted me to retrieve a scepter from this temple, an artifact called Earthwand. The sorcerer told me it used to belong to a succubus who was worshipped by a secret tribe a long time ago. What he failed to tell me was that the succubus might still be alive.

A mocking laughter exploded in the temple. I held my orb at the ready. Whatever it is I’m dealing with, I had enough firepower to break it into smithereens.

“Show yourself!” I shouted.

The laughter stopped and it was replaced by a thundering voice. From honey it boomed like a mountain crumbling from an earthquake. The cave shook. Particles of dirt began to rain down. “How dare you utter commands in a sacred ground you have no permission to be!” The voice demanded. It made my heart thump. It almost made me wheeze.

A yellow light kindled in the middle of the cave. It illuminated an altar and the columns posted around it. The shadows in the temple began to fade against the sudden illumination. Then torches I hadn’t thought were there burst aflame. The sudden glare blinded me. I blinked several times. When my vision cleared, I released a startled gasp. A beautiful woman was standing in front of me, stark naked.

The succubus stared into my eyes, a little smile in her face. She traced her fingers under my chin and pulled it down until I was staring at her breasts and her taut nipples. I wanted to stab her with the knife I was holding, but my hand wouldn't move.

“Have you come for me, my little witch?”

I turned my head away, and I heard the succubus giggle.

A succubus is a demonic enchantress. They are the earthly embodiment of seduction. They fucked their victims until the poor men forgot their names and their memories, until they are consumed by their own ruinous passion. The human body has a threshold for each emotion. Even pleasure. Too much of it will leave one twittering in a mindless existence.

The sexual appetite of succubi is insatiable, and they become more powerful each time they mate. Through the centuries they repaired in caves, appearing only in men’s dreams and getting sustenance from these predatory acts of psychic sex.

By default (me being gay), I should be immune to the enchantments of succubi, but these little demons have one important trick up their sleeves. They can shapeshift and become incubi – their male forms. That’s how they have ejaculations. As incubi, they release the semen they’ve taken as succubi. A regurgitation of man juice. Um, yuck!

And this succubus knew what I wanted. I could already feel her boring into my head, looking for the epicenter of my freshest sexual fantasy. What a wily bitch.

“It seems my little witch wants me a different way.” The succubus whispered, twirling my hair in her fingers. “What does your appetite hunger for?” The succubus smiled. I knew that she already knew, and I found myself utterly helpless under her spell. Not even when I spied the Earthwand sitting on a lighted hole in the north wall of the temple. It was a few meters within reach. But somehow, I had dropped my orb and athame. I didn’t even hear them when they hit the ground. I was already holding the demon’s naked waist. it felt like solid cream under my touch.

“Look at me,” said the succubus. I couldn’t explain the smell that emanated from her. It was something wild, like wet fur, or the musk of trees, the scent of mud, of incense, and myrrh. It was an otherworldly scent but it didn’t repulse. It seeped into my nose and made me pleasantly dizzy. I wanted to taste it, to consume it.

When I turned my eyes to see the succubus’ face, I saw it blur and ripple. I was to wrapped up in a deepening sexual intoxication that I didn’t feel alarmed at all.

The demon’s female features slowly became masculine. Her forehead broadened. Her eyebrows thickened, and her eyes were set slightly deeper. Her little mouth widened into supple reddish lips, and I found myself staring up at them as the succubus grew taller.

“What about now, little witch?” The newly shapeshifted incubus said. I recognized that voice. I knew that face. “Will you let me devour you?”

I coulnd't breathe. I realized I was staring at the perfect copy of Quinn Tolentino.

Damn!