Succubus Happens

Chapter Ten

The next weekend, I’m back in the census room with Carter. Kate has gone back out into the real world to do her job. She said she’s be coming back the following week. Her powers make it easy for her to come back and forth. That must be a nice power to have. She doesn’t have to worry about gas or staying awake while driving. It’s just a thought and she’s there. I keep it to myself but I feel like that is the coolest power to have.

That Saturday night is the full moon, so Jake, Tyler and Knox are in the room with us. They’re trying to convince Carter that going out is the best plan for him. I can’t say I disagree. He’s already making so many sacrifices for me. He shouldn’t risk his freedom just because Alex is here too.

“Come on, man,” Tyler says. “You don’t have to stay here. You can come with us. You need to run.”

“I don’t though,” Carter says. “I’m fine.”

“You really want to be locked in a basement with Alex?” Jake asks. “Sure, you’ll be chained, but given enough persistence, someone will break through and one of you may die.”

“What?” I ask, looking up from the information about Sirens. They’re like muses in a way, how they inspire, but they use that inspiration captivate the attention of those around them. Some are dangerous and use their powers for their own gain, as with most supernatural creatures, but the ones in North Grove are about inspiring people for the good of man. “Did you say someone is going to die?”

Carter touches my shoulder. “He’s kidding.”

I look at Jake. “Are you?”

Jake shrugs. “It really depends on how angry Alex is.”

“No,” I say, looking at Carter. “You’re not staying in town tonight. You’re going.”

“That’s not an option.”

I sigh. “Carter, I’m not having you risk your life because you want to stay in town with me. You deserve a night of freedom, too.”

“I’m not doing anything to risk your life.”

“You wouldn’t be able to protect me! You’ll be chained up.”

Carter’s jaw clenches. “So what do you want me to do?”

“Would it be safer for me to hang out here with Aurelia?” I ask, shrugging.

“You could hang out with someone else in town?” Knox suggests. “It may be fun for you to make some friends?”

I glance over at Knox and realize how true his statement is. I haven’t made any friends since I’ve moved here. Any friends besides the basketball team, anyway. How absorbed do the people in this town think I am?

“That’s not a bad idea,” Tyler says, glancing at Carter. “Right?”

Carter thinks about it for a second. “Who do you trust?”

“What about Lily Saivani?” I ask. “She approached me at The Den and she was nice.”

Knox nods. “She’s one of the good ones,” he says.

“You would know,” Tyler says. “You’re dating her.”

Knox grins. “Let me call her,” he says. “I’ll see what she’s up to tonight.”

Knox heads upstairs and I look at Carter. His jaw is still a little tense. “Hey.”

He looks over at me. “I hate the idea of leaving you.”

I shake my head. “I’ll be fine,” I tell him. “If Alex is chained up, the only real threat to me is Natalie. But you said yourself that she’s not dangerous within town lines.”

He nods. “Yeah,” he says. “But still.”

“Carter, you won’t live any kind of life if you’re worrying about me all of the time.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “There’s that perception again.”

I shrug. “What can I say?”

Carter leans over and kisses me.

“You guys are sickeningly sweet,” Tyler says, rolling his eyes. He pulls a file from the bookcase and looks it over.

“Thanks!” I say, smiling at him. I glance at Jake who is sitting at the end of the table bouncing his leg up and down. “You antsy or something?”

“Hell yeah,” he says with a grin. “I’m excited to run. It feels like it’s been too long.”

“It’s literally been one month,” Carter says wryly.

“Yeah, well,” Jake shrugs.

Knox comes back downstairs. “Lily says it’s a go,” he says. “She’ll be here to pick you up in ten minutes.”

“Cool,” I say. “What should I know about her?”

Knox comes to sit down across from me. “Well, she’s a witch,” he says. “She doesn’t mind that I’m telling you because you’re going to find out tonight anyway. And she’s just a ray of light. That sounds cheesy as hell, but we’ve been together a long time. So I feel completely secure in saying that about her.”

“How long is long?” I ask.

Knox glances at Carter who shrugs. “Two hundred years?”

“Just about,” Tyler says.

“How did you guys start dating?” I ask.

“I was constantly flirting with her,” Knox says. “But she wasn’t having it. Put me in my place in front of everyone at school. And then when I went to apologize, she said she found me the tiniest bit charming, so she agreed to a date.”

“And they’ve been nauseating ever since,” Tyler says.

“I haven’t seen any nauseating behavior,” I say.

“That’s because after two hundred years we’ve learned not to be all over each other,” Knox explains.

“Yes, thank god for that,” Jake says. “You guys were…gross.”

I glance at Carter before looking at Jake. “Are we gross?”

Jake laughs. “A little bit,” he says. Carter throws a paper ball at him. “But you guys are good together. Like Knox and Lily.

“Thanks, but we’ve still got a couple hundred years to go,” I grin.

“I’m game,” Carter leans over and kisses me.

“All right, love birds,” Jake says, getting to his feet. “It’s time to say goodbye.”

“You’re leaving so early?” I ask.

“We’ve got to get Alex set up in the cabin,” Carter explains. “And then we’ve got to hit the road so that we can get away from civilization.”

“Right,” I nod. “I guess I’ll let you go then.”

“Knock, knock,” a voice sounds from the top of the stairs and then suddenly Lily’s face appears. She’s grinning at us. “Gentlemen.”

Everyone says hello, while Knox crosses the room to give her a proper greeting. Their kiss is so brief but it’s emanating with love. I turn to look at Carter, who is already staring at me. He mouths the words: I love you at me and I grin at him.

“All right Daphne,” Lily says. I turn my attention to her. “You ready for some fun?”

I raise my eyebrows. “Maybe?”

“What kind of fun does this entail?” Carter asks, suspiciously.

“You don’t get to know,” Lily says, her hands on her hips. “You have your boys weekend and we’ll have our girls weekend.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t go…” Carter says.

“Oh god,” I say, turning to look up at him. “Don’t worry. Once you shift you’re not even going to think about me.”

“Okay, fine,” he says with a slight pout.

I stand on my toes and press my lips to his. “Have fun. Go wild, wolf boy.”

Carter starts laughing before he kisses me again. He glances at Lily. “Take care of her.”

“Always,” Lily smiles.

Carter takes one last look at me before running up the stairs and disappearing. I turn to face Lily, who’s smiling at me.

“What?” I ask.

“It’s nice to see him in love,” she says, with a shrug. “He’s very happy.”

“He’s very worried,” I counter.

“For good reason,” she says. “We’ve never had this issue before.”

“Issue?”

“We’ve never had Alex be so angry for so long. Before, when something like this happened, it would last for a week or two, at most, and then he’d just move on. But he seems very determined to hate you forever. And that’s a little dangerous.”

Her words slightly chill me. “This is why I want to learn how to fight!” I say. “I need to be able to protect myself. You know…just in case.”

“Of course,” Lily replies. “Knox sort of filled me in on how you want to fight and Jake thinks it’s a good idea, but Carter would rather do the protecting for you? It’s very Neanderthal of him and I won’t have it.”

“You won’t?”

“Absolutely not,” she says. “We’re going to train.”

“I get to learn to fight?”

“Don’t get too excited,” Lily says with a slight laugh. “I’m not a physical person. I’m training you in magic.”

“Magic?” I ask, confused. “I don’t have magic.”

“You actually do have magic,” Lily corrects me. “But I’m going to teach you how to use it.”

“But…” I pause. “The census didn’t say that we have magic.”

Lily grins. “Every supernatural creature has magic,” she tells me. “It’s just about knowing how to use that magic. Besides, not everyone is very forthcoming about their species. The Succubi are a very good example of that. They’re incredibly private and proud of their heritage.”

“Are you saying I come from a long line of bitches?” I ask, raising a brow.

Lily laughs. “Not quite, no,” she says. “But their power doesn’t just come from seduction.”

“No?”

“No. The seduction and s****l energy gives you more of an edge when it comes to your magic, but that’s not the only thing that feeds it.”

“How do you know this?” I ask. “This wasn’t in the file.”

“And it wouldn’t be,” Lily shakes her head. “Like I said, they’re very private. There’s no way they want sacred information saved somewhere they don’t have control over.”

“That’s fair, “ I say. “But that doesn’t answer the question of how you know it.”

“Persistent. I like it,” Lily grins. “So I didn’t always live in North Grove. I was recruited in the 1600’s. I had been all over the world…I pretty much know about every single supernatural creature there is.”

“You’re a walking census,” I say.

“Sort of,” She says, shrugging her shoulders. “Except I’ve experienced it all.”

“How old are you?” I ask. “Sorry, if I’m not allowed to ask that…”

“You’re fine,” she says, shaking her head. “I was born in 1072.”

My jaw drops…quite noticeably and Lily laughs. “I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I’m just…”

“Surprised. Yes. I’m quite old.”

“Are you older than Aurelia?”

“No,” she says with a shake of her head. “Now I don’t think anyone really knows how old Aurelia is. She’s the most powerful witch I’ve ever met. I’ve been travelling all over the world for centuries,” she says. “Like I’ve said I’ve met my fair share of supernatural creatures. Werewolves, Wendigos, Vampires, Djinn…”

“Djinn?”

“Think Evil Genie,” she says. “Except they’re not all evil.”

“And the Succubus? When was the first time you met them?”

“The first time I met a Succubus was during the Black Death. She was suffering because her entire family…everyone she cared about was dying and she wasn’t affected. Her name was Lenore and she was incredibly beautiful,” Lily smiles. “She had been around for centuries…but hadn’t really found a place until London. When the disease reached England they weren’t sure what it was…they had heard the stories from the rest of Europe, but they weren’t one hundred percent. The people she had come to know and were dying one by one and there was nothing she could do about it.

“I met her during that time, as I was practicing in secret, but I had potions and things that could ease the pain. I helped her family die peacefully. And in return, she told me about her life and what she could do.”

“You weren’t affected by the plague?” I ask her.

Lily shakes her head. “The Supernatural are not susceptible to human diseases.”

My eyes widen. “That’s very…convenient,” I say. “Does that apply to everyone or just purebloods?”

“Everyone,” she says with a shrug. “Not that we’ve really tested the theory. But it seems to have held up over the years.”

“What brought you to North Grove?” I ask her.

“Aurelia found me,” she says. “Well, we had crossed paths through the years and she came to me with a pitch for North Grove and her idea. I had seem so many of our kind die throughout the years and I wanted a safe place for us.”

“Is that why you said what you did about those who come from humans?” I ask her.

She nods. “They didn’t understand the danger…they thought they were invincible and they ended up trusting the wrong people and it got them killed.”

“How many?”

“It was too many,” she says, shaking her head. “That’s why I think it took me so long to actually come up to you. I assumed you were like the other and I wanted to keep my distance. But Knox helped in that aspect. And so did your speech.”

“That speech was not planned,” I say, slightly blushing.

“That’s a good thing, though. It shows that you’re genuine. And we need a lot of genuine people here.”

“How did Knox help?” I ask.

“Well, he talks to the Sinclair’s a lot and they say a lot of good things about you, as you should already know,” Lily grins. “And I listen to Knox about pretty much everything.”

“He’s said you’d been together for two hundred years?”

“Just about,” she says.

“I can’t imagine what it feels like to even know someone for that long.”

“Oh, I’ve known Knox way longer than that.”

“Really?” I ask, surprised.

“When he first showed up in North Grove, he was flirty, but I wasn’t trying to be in a relationship at that time. And he was persistent. One day it just pissed me off so I snapped at him…in front of everyone and he sulked off with his tail between his legs,” Lily laughs at the memory.

“And then he apologized, right? And you went out with him,” I say. “At least that’s what Knox said.”

“Did Knox tell you that it took him fifty years to apologize?”

“What?”

“Yeah…his excuse is that it took him that long to build up the courage to approach me again. I hurt his feelings,” she grins.

“Oh my god, that’s priceless,” I say.

“He’s my soul mate,” she says, her voice wistful.

“Like for real?”

“Yes.”

“I know that wolves mate for life, Knox let that slip when we were at the Den,” I say. “But soul mates?”

“The supernatural world has a way to determine if two people are really meant to be together. It’s an old magic; something passed down through the years. It started with a witch and two men. The men were both in love with her and she was in love with them. However, it became time for her to settle down with the right suitor so that she could start the next generation. She cast a spell so that a marking would show up on her skin and the skin of her soul mate, binding them together forever.”

“A marking…like a tattoo?”

“Exactly like a tattoo.”

“When does that mark show up?”

“The mark shows up after the soul mates make love for the first time. For her, obviously it wasn’t the first time, but for the generations that followed, it would be. Or at least, it’s defined as the most intimate moment between two people,” Lily moves the strap of her tank top down to reveal a marking on her left collarbone of a full moon. “Knox has a lily in the same place. Legend has it if one soul mate becomes unfaithful and sleeps with another there is a burning sensation and part of the tattoo disappears, breaking their bond just a little bit.”

“What was it like?” I ask her. “Finding out he was your soul mate?”

Lily smiles and moves her shirt back in place. “It was…exhilarating. I think I cried for an hour.”

“Cried?”

“I had been searching for something for centuries and I found it with Knox. It was like a weight had been lifted and I was actually for the first time, very happy,” Lily lets out a breath before clapping her hands. “Okay, moving on. Let’s start training.”

“Right,” I say. “Magic. How do we do magic when we’re inside town lines?”

“We’re leaving town.”

“What?” This is news to me. And something I’m sure that Carter would definitely not be okay with.

“Calm down, we’re going with Aurelia,” she says.

“Does Carter know?”

“Nope,” Lily shakes her head. “If it were up to Carter, he’d always been around to protect you. But…there are instances like tonight when he cannot be here. So this will just be our little secret.”

“Are we ready?” Aurelia’s voice comes from the top of the stairs and Lily and I both turn toward it.

“Coming up now,” Lily says, grinning at me. “Ready?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Well, it’s either that or stay here and just read the same paragraph over and over again, not telling you anything about your magic.”

I glare at her. “Fine.”

She raises her hands in victory. “Perfect. Let’s go.” She pats my butt before shoving me in the direction of the stairs.