Among Demons : Succubus Divine

Ch. 26 : Another Day Off

“Devin?” I called out to her, letting my friends handle the dying man while I watched her ragged breathing and the still flowing tears that stained her cheeks.

“I’m fine.” She choked out, taking deep breaths in and out without turning to look at me. “Go help them.”

“You can get sick like this, right?” I ignored her words and stepped closer, catching the way she tensed up and inched away. “You told us that strong emotions like this are dangerous to you…”

She nodded weakly before straightening up and patting her pockets, looking for her phone.

“I’ll just call my brother… he can help me.” She muttered, pointing to the side door after realizing that she had left her phone in the car.

“So can I.” The words left me without hesitation and she looked up at me with shock and a little bit of panic in her eyes. “I might not be as effective as your brother, but you told us that physical affection of any kind can soothe you and help you feel better.” I shoved my gun back in its holster and opened my arms a bit, smiling a little awkwardly at her and catching a tiny smile in response.

She hesitated, clenching and unclenching her hands while the wheels in her mind turned over. But when I stepped a bit closer and she looked back up at me, those turning wheels stopped and she smiled a bit more, nodding and mumbling her thanks.

I couldn't stop the sigh that left me once my arms were around her, but I tightened my hold when she gripped my shirt with her small hands. I could tell just how much this had hurt her and I wanted, no, I NEEDED to help soothe her pain and make her feel better. I couldn’t understand why it stung me so much to see her like this, but the almost desperate urge to help her was calming more with every second that she remained in my arms. My chest hummed with my rapid beating heart and I could almost feel the mass of chaotic emotions unwinding and slowly vanishing from her. She soon relaxed against me and I caught myself smiling like a moron as I rested my chin on the top of her head. Her warmth soothed my own anxieties and soon, my entire body was just as relaxed as hers.

“Thank you.” She murmured again as she pulled back, clearly avoiding my gaze.

I watched her as she smiled softly and turned away, still looking a bit tense as she hugged herself and walked out of the house.

“What was that about?” Danny asked from behind me.

I turned to find both him and Izaak watching me with curious looks and I sighed back, feeling strangely confused and hollow.

“I don’t know.” I told them, stepping closer to the corpse and choosing to change the subject before my friends asked me about it anymore.

I wasn’t completely sure about the way I was feeling about her, not when my headaches would increase when I thought of a possible connection we shared. But I couldn’t deny that my attraction to her was growing, and even though many would think it’s wrong after breaking my engagement not too long ago, I wanted her. I wanted Devin not just in a physical sense, even though my thoughts and dreams were filled with fantasies about the dangerously seductive Succubus. I wanted to get to know her, to spend time with her and learn more about her world that I still knew so little about.

But the obvious fact that she was stepping away from me, the mysterious cause behind my headaches that were somehow tied to her, and my strangely rapid and growing need to be near her were stopping me from doing or saying anything about it.

At least for now, I wanted to wait and see if one of those things will be answered as I stay as close as she’ll let me.

Not long after she walked out a few more Demons joined us and helped clean up not just the body of the dead Sorcerer, but the remains of his many victims that were strewn all over the house. A few Demons wept as they gingerly carried out the many jars and body parts of their kind and I watched as Devin took the time to soothe each one of them before it was time for us to leave.

Once we were back at the station we all went to our respective desks and filled out the paperwork needed to completely close the case. And though Danny whined about all the paperwork possibly taking a whole other day to finish, Devin made quick work of most of it and filed it all by the time we were set to clock out. Thanks to her, we were able to gain another long break from work before tackling our next case and my friends quickly made plans and dragged me along with them the next day.

I complained after I was dragged out of my apartment, telling them that there was no point in me going out with them when I didn’t have anyone to shop for. But Danny and Izaak only mocked me and teased the idea of buying something for a certain Succubus since they’re only goal was to buy Valentine's gifts.

The day itself sadly fell on a workday so they had decided to buy their wife and girlfriend gifts now while we had the time. So I was dragged through the many stores within the massive two-story mall while I laughed and mocked my friends as they tried to find something for the women in their lives.

“Are you trying to deny it?” Danny asked me out of nowhere while he stared at the clear display case next to the jewelry shop. “Or does it have anything to do with Hannah?”

“What?”

He turned to look at me with one of his rare serious expressions and raised a brow.

“You know… the whole thing you’ve got going on with Devin?” I tensed a bit as the many unanswered questions rushed back into my head. “It’s kind of obvious, even to Izaak, that you both have a thing going on.”

“Yeah.” Izaak chimed in, joining a second later with a bag from the jewelry shop. “It’s like some weird hot-and-cold game you’re both playing… it’s a little hard to ignore.”

“I don’t know.” I told them, turning to make our way down a path we hadn’t taken yet.

“Don’t give us that, man.” Danny challenged, elbowing my side. “You’ve got to know something.”

“I mean, it’s clear that things are complicated for some reason… but you should at least know where you stand, right?” Izaak added, giving me a heavy side glance.

I chuckled a bit and nodded, knowing better than to leave my friends in the dark like this.

“I want her, I can’t deny that.” Danny smirked at me which gave me the urge to smack him. “But too much is in the way right now for me to do or say anything about it.”

“Alright.” Danny said, slamming his arm onto my shoulders and pulling me in close. “I’ll be a good friend and see what I can find out from her bestie to help you.”

I shoved him off of me while Izaak chastised Danny, telling him that using his girlfriend’s relationship with Devin wasn’t a very good idea. I was about to add on to what Izaak was saying when my eyes locked on someone across the way from us. It was a small cluster of young girls that looked to be High School aged who were all holding shopping bags from different stores and chatting happily.

And in the middle of the group, wearing a tight, knitted sweater dress and matching knee-high boots, was Devin.

She was smiling brightly as she talked to the girls who were all clearly Demons with her own share of bags hanging from her arm. Her long hair was let loose around her delicate face and a silky looking headband helped keep her shorter locks away from her eyes. She looked beautiful smiling like that and I felt my chest flutter a bit as I watched her. She laughed joyfully at something the girls said and her eyes practically glowed along with her warm smile. It was hypnotizing to me to see her like this and I wanted to see it more often, loving how comfortable and bubbly she seemed. I wanted to hear more of her laughter too and no longer see her be so tense and jumpy like she was at work. But I was more than certain that I was the cause of that tension, though I didn’t know why.

Thankfully for me, she was far too distracted by the young girls to notice me standing there seeing this side of her. I was also too distracted watching her to pay attention to the store they were walking into. That is, until she reappeared from inside the store, through the window, holding a lace lingerie set against her body.

I blinked and looked up to realize that her group had walked into a lingerie store and she was holding up the black lace set in front of a mirror.

I swallowed hard and couldn’t make myself look away as she set the black ensemble aside and pressed a different dark purple one against her body. My mind raced with the thought of seeing her wearing it, picturing the purple ring of color in her eyes standing out more with the help of that little set. Then a smokey green colored nightie replaced the lace set and a shiver ran down my body. She was distracted for a moment and turned away, returning as she laughed and held up a silk navy blue robe with a matching nightie underneath. Then a tank top and matching gold satin shorts was next and my mind was near exploding as my body heated up.

Every piece she pulled I pictured her in it, my mind losing control and imagining what it would feel like to gently strip her of those very clothes and devour her whole. To have her body pinned beneath mine while I made her squirm and scream and moan. I wanted to kiss her again at that moment and I had to fight against every muscle in my body to stop myself from walking into that store after her.

“Marcus!” I jumped as Danny called to me and I had to shake my head a little to clear my thoughts. “The f**k man? We’re all the way down the hall now, what the hell are you…” He turned and tried to find what it was that I had been gawking at like a creep, stopping mid-sentence before he whistled. “Ohhhh, so you were getting a little bit of a show huh?” I finally managed to regain control of my mind and my body and quickly shoved him aside, dragging him away from the store and towards the direction he had said they went. “You f*****g perv, you were daydreaming about her, weren’t you?”

“f**k you.” I chuckled out, shoving him ahead of me.

He mocked me some more once we rejoined Izaak and then headed towards the food court, still teasing and poking fun at me. Thankfully, I knew just as many embarrassing things about the both of them, so by the time we sat down with our food and started to eat, they had shut up about it.

We instead talked about previous cases we’ve had and any work gossip that they had heard as we ate. We also made plans to go to the indoor shooting range and release some stress the following day with a few other cops we were friendly with. Soon, we were laughing and reminiscing about past drunken mishaps, which helped calm me even more and pulled me away from my vivid fantasies. But as we finished our food and sat back to relax a bit, I caught sight of Devins group of teenagers as they entered the food court.

My eyes instantly followed her as she got in line to order with a few girls while the others lined up elsewhere. I also took note of the new bag that hung on her arm and wondered which of the lingerie pieces she ended up buying, which excited me all over again, though not as much as before. She sat down with her food a moment later and the girls all took up seats at a table a good distance away from us. It was a little funny to me that she seemed oblivious to me and my friends and I wondered how she would react if she saw us, once again, during our time off.

And I soon got to witness that realization when she started looking around the food court with the straw of her drink still between her lips. Her Purple and pale green ringed eyes locked with mine and I smiled a bit, watching as her eyes widened while she took in too much air. Coincidently, because of the straw between her lips, she ended up sucking in too much soda and started choking and coughing while her body leaned forward and away from her dress. I chuckled as she was patted on the back and helped by the girls around her, some taking her drink so it wouldn’t spill and others offering napkins so she could dab at the small drops that had landed on her lap.

A second later my friends and I got up and started making our way out of the mall, no longer needing to shop anymore. But as we walked she turned to look at us and I couldn’t help but smile and wave at her slightly pink face, earning a playful little glare and an embarrassed smile before she turned away.

I noticed that one of the girls at her table was watching our exchange and she smiled a knowing little smile at me before I turned back, making me wonder who she was.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Danny asked as we left the building.

“It’s nothing.” I chuckled, smiling some more as I replayed the incident in my head.

“I think he’s lost his mind.” Danny joked, leaning towards Izaak as if I creeped him out.

I shoved at him and changed the subject again, distracting my friends while we made our way to the car.