A Succubus Awakens Ch. 04

Succubi fall under the Cambian classification of demons. Which is to say that they're actually half demons. Spawn of a twisted union between man and beast. This is largely irrelevant. Their demonic traits overwhelm any humanity within. Do not squander compassion or mercy upon them. I bring this fact to your attention only because Cambians are unique among demons for their ability to dream. In the waking world, one's aura can be strengthened. Reinforced by will and discipline. In the realm of sleep, however, it is diminished. There, succubi stalk our nightmares.

-Sir Arthur Thompson, The Demonic Archive

Amy lay in her bed, on her side atop the covers, wearing only underwear. Nothing like her usual modest garments though. All smoky black and trimmed with floral lace. Panties with tapering waistbands that emphasized her wide hips. A pushup bra that squeezed her prominent breasts together until they nearly spilled from the cups, creating a deep valley of cleavage. A garter belt was cinched around her waist, and clipped to semi-transparent stockings tight enough that her thighs swelled out where the compression ended.

She was in her room, but it was off. Key details were missing. Her bag was in the wrong spot, and the laptop she'd fallen asleep with was nowhere to be seen. Her minimalist alarm clock was replaced by the analog one she had used as a kid. Cheap blue plastic with old-fashioned bell ringers. Behind its glow-in-the-dark hands was a star chart. The edges of the room shifted and blurred. As if she was on a small island of reality surrounded by fog. Eventually, the island would begin to shrink as the fog closed in and swallowed reality with chaos. Just as It did every night before.

A mirror manifested on the wall nearest to her and she studied herself. The lingerie revealed all the parts of herself that she loathed. Her too-thick thighs. Her soft stomach. Her oversized chest. She could feel that the panties did nothing to hide the round flesh of her buttocks.

You're so beautiful.

In reality, Amy would be mortified by her appearance. Here, she felt only a whisper of embarrassment. It was drowned out by an uncharacteristic sense of pride that suddenly filled her. She realized she wasn't wearing her usual glasses. instead, they were a pair with narrow lenses rimmed only on the bottom half. Lying on her side seductively with her hair pooled around her, she looked like a pinup model.

Or a sexy librarian maybe?

Amy chuckled, then frowned. Were the thoughts hers, or was she hearing voices? She was more lucid here than in a typical dream, but it was still hard to think and her clarity faded in and out. Already her memory of what had happened up to this point was blurring. Like the walls. Her door opened, and Gwen finally entered.

"What took you so long?"

"Sorry. I got distracted."

Gwen glanced sideways and blushed. Her bashful behavior roused something within Amy. She was wearing the same cropped tee and frilly crimson panties from this morning. Gwen's platinum locks and the loose hem of her shirt fluttered in some unseen breeze that only seemed to affect her. She wasn't wearing a bra, and two nubs were clearly visible where her nipples pressed against the fabric of the shirt. Amy felt a pang of jealousy as she admired the silhouette of Gwen's teardrop breasts. Her taut midsection and delicate legs. She began to shift to cover her own oversized body.

No. You're perfect.

Amy froze, and the jealousy slipped away. A sense of comfort washed over her, and the jealousy was replaced by lust.

"Come here."

The words came effortlessly to her lips. They were kind, but firm. A command. She patted the bed beside her to add emphasis. With the exception of her academic work, she'd always been meek. It was another thing she disliked about herself, but in the dreams she was instilled with a confidence that eluded her in the waking world.

Gwen, usually fiery and bold, was the meek one here. She simply nodded and moved to obey. She crawled along the bed, back arched and hips swaying. Amy found her eyes drawn along each flowing curve as Gwen reached her. For a moment, a spark of clarity cut through her foggy mind. It whispered to her. This wasn't right. She reached out and cupped Gwen's cheek. At the contact Gwen's form shifted and the childhood friend she remembered appeared before her.

No!

"No!"

Gwen spoke in time with the voice in her head and pulled away. The room shook, and the fog closed in. Anger flashed across Gwen's face and she shifted back into the slender, seductive woman she'd become. The fog halted. It had consumed the walls, leaving the two of them atop a bed floating in a sea of dark smoke bathed in red light. Gwen had regained her composure. What had she just done? Amy couldn't remember, but she apologized anyway.

"I'm sorry."

She reached forward and pulled Gwen into a hug, cradled her against her chest and felt her squeeze back. They shifted sideways until Amy was spooning Gwen's smaller form. Her hand drifted along Gwen's stomach and came to rest on her hip. Gwen took her other hand in her own and their fingers intertwined. Amy kissed the back of Gwen's neck. This was Gwen. This was what she wanted. She ignored the whisper telling her otherwise.

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Amy woke up feeling more refreshed than she had since their predicament began. As she went about her morning routine she silently thanked Gwen for her restraint last night. The memories were already growing fuzzy, but she remembered dreaming of her yet again. Images of them intertwined in her bed sprang to her mind. She shook her head in an effort to clear them, sending her tangled hair flying. The past week providing Gwen with sustenance had clearly had an effect on her thought patterns. It made sense that her dreams would follow suit. Nothing unusual there. Still, she needed to get a grip on herself. One of them needed to keep a level head at least.

Gwen had displayed an impressive level self control so far but it was obvious that her thoughts dwelled on sex more and more as her transformation progressed. At first when Amy caught her sneaking glances, Gwen would quickly avert her eyes, or apologize. Now she flirted openly, and didn't seem to realize that she often stared at Amy in a way that made her feel a bit like a piece of meat. Well, she was a meal to be fair. And though she sometimes felt like a lamb trapped with a lion, Gwen had stuck to the rules so far. Perhaps her restraint last night signified that she was more easily able to keep her lust in check.

They'd planned a trip into the city today, and it was nearly winter, so she picked through her closet and put together an outfit suited for colder weather. At the last minute, an impulse struck her and she replaced the loose blouse she'd selected with a tan turtle-neck sweater that she rarely wore. It had looked so refined on the store mannequin that she'd bought it without thinking, but then of course she'd returned home to find that It clung more tightly than she'd anticipated and drew attention to the rolling curves of her hips and chest. For some reason that didn't bother her today. It looked nice with the outfit, and she'd be wearing a coat anyways.

She showered, dressed, somehow managed to comb out her hair, and gave her teeth a much needed brushing. She considered putting on makeup, but Gwen had jokingly referred to their planned outing as a date a few days ago and she didn't want to encourage that line of thinking. True, her exposure to Gwen's abilities had made her an increasingly willing participant in their daily...encounters, but she didn't want to blur the line between romance and friendship any more than necessary. She was eager to learn more about Gwen's powers and their effects, and was willing to use herself as a test subject, but she worried she was beginning to lose track of where that line was.

Gwen was already awake and waiting for her in the kitchen leaning against the counter reading something on her phone. As Amy entered the living space she set it down. Amy used to be annoyed when Gwen shuffled in for coffee five minutes before they needed to leave, but she realized she'd probably never see that side of Gwen again. Gwen didn't seem to need nutritional sustenance anymore, and had stopped drinking coffee altogether. Her regular feeding seemed to have given her an abundance of energy and she was usually the first one awake now. She felt a bit sad at the thought.

"I made you coffee. How are you feeling?"

"Great, actually."

"Good. I was worried I'd permanently turned you into a zombie."

Gwen beamed at her, and Amy couldn't help but smile back. Her genuine relief was disarming. Hard to believe the beautiful woman before her was one of the monsters described on James Thompson's unhinged blog. But it was also hard to believe it was Gwen sometimes. She looked so different. Part of it was the clothes. Instead of her usual combination of jeans and a tee shirt, she had been wearing more fashionable, and increasingly more revealing clothing. Today it was another skirt, ruffled and brown, and the same pair of black heeled boots she wore the day before. The skirt was long at least, but the white halter top above it would do little for the cold. Amy recalled her dream the night before. At least Gwen was wearing a bra.

She didn't really care how Gwen dressed, but it was a worrying sign that Gwen's personality might be changing along with her body. It wasn't like her to fuss over appearance. Maybe succubuses instinctively sought out ways to augment their already captivating bodies? Or maybe she was just overthinking it. She knew Gwen hadn't exactly loved her body before. Perhaps she was just making the best of a bad situation and enjoying her new form. Amy had her own share of body issues, so she could empathize. She moved past Gwen into the kitchen and began searching for her thermos.

She called back over her shoulder, "You should bring a jacket. You're going to be freezing."

"I'll be fine."

"You always say that. I'm not going to give you my coat."

Amy's usual thermos was dirty so she stood on her toes to rummage around the back of the cabinet. The motion lifted her sweater enough that she felt cool air on the back of her waist. She also felt a tiny spark of pleasure.

"Gwen!"

"What did I do?!"

"You know I can feel that right?"

She finally felt the brushed steel surface of Gwen's thermos and dragged it out before turning to find Gwen smirking at her. She quickly adjusted her sweater with her other hand. Amy hated letting anyone see her doughy midsection. Why had she worn this stupid thing?

"Sorry." She didn't look sorry.

"You're going to have a hard time staying in control if you get aroused every time you see an inch of exposed skin. Get yourself together!"

The words had come out harsher than she intended. She was taking out her frustrations with her own body on Gwen. Strangely though, she felt another whisper of pleasure as she spoke them.

"Yes ma'am," Gwen mocked.

She turned to face away and busied herself pouring coffee so Gwen wouldn't see her blush. Did Gwen like it when she yelled at her? What did that mean? Amy wasn't quite as innocent as everyone seemed to think she was, she knew that there were some people who enjoyed being talked down to, but surely Gwen wasn't one of them. Gwen had always been defiant and proud. And the way the website talked about demons she couldn't imagine them being so submissive. She took a sip of coffee and composed herself. She'd add this to her notes and worry about it later.

"Um, Do you need to..."

Amy trailed off, letting the implication hang in the air. Gwen hadn't fed last night so she was probably hungry. Gwen looked conflicted as she responded.

"Actually, I think I'm okay."

"A- Are you sure? You didn't feed at all last night."

Why was she disappointed?

"You can tell?" Gwen knitted her brows.

"Yeah, now that I've gotten used to it, I can feel it when you, uh, feed."

"What does it feel like?"

"Like you stick a straw in me and start..."

She was about to say sucking, but realized how gross that sounded. It was the most accurate sensation she could think of though. When they kissed she could feel her energy slipping away from her in bursts. Usually in time with the pulsations of the unwanted arousal Gwen instilled in her. She wracked her brain for a metaphor that didn't sound so sexual as she felt her face grow hot. Gwen's brows went up in anticipation.

"...imbibing."

Gwen snorthed, and broke out into laughter. Amy joined her. Once they recovered, Gwen's face went serious.

"It doesn't hurt though, does it?"

"No, it was a bit odd at first, but it doesn't bother me now that I'm used to it."

"Good. I don't want to hurt you."

"Wouldn't you be able to tell if you did? With the... connection?"

"I don't know. I can sense your pleasure and emotions, especially if they're strong, but I don't think I can feel your pain."

Interesting. Pleasure wasn't really an emotion, at least not in the clinical understanding. Odd that she could sense both of them but not pain. Pain was a mental response to stimuli the same way pleasure was, so wouldn't it be more similar than something like sadness or happiness? If she could feel one, why not the other? It would be easy enough to test. Amy glanced around, if she kicked the cabinet would Gwen feel it?

"Do not hurt yourself to test a theory."

Gwen was watching her.

"I thought you couldn't read minds."

"Just yours." She smiled.

Amy felt another blip of pleasure that she wasn't confident she could attribute to Gwen. Her continued exposure to Gwen's abilities was definitely having an affect on her thinking. It both scared and excited her. Gwen's phone buzzed against the counter. She picked it up and frowned as she read the message, and began tapping out a response.

"Something wrong?"

"What? No, just Laura being a pain." Then tacked on, "Aqua Eco stuff."

"Do you need to go to campus?"

Amy glanced at the clock. It was already past nine. She was due to meet James Thompson at two thirty, but she needed to spend a believable amount of time with Gwen before that.

"No." Gwen lowered her phone and looked up. "She's just being difficult. It can wait until Monday."

For some reason Gwen couldn't stand Laura. Amy had always thought the two of them were similar. They were both confident and driven, and filled with passion for whatever they did. In a way, she admired Laura for the same reason she admired Gwen. Gwen would hate hearing that though.

"I know you don't like her but you should try to get along. She's not as bad as she seems."

"I'll play nice." Gwen's expression was hard to read.

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Ten minutes later Amy was driving across the Bay Bridge into town listening to the dreamy, distorted tones of whatever shoegaze band had most recently caught Gwen's attention. Amy would have preferred something more upbeat, but Gwen had given her that doe-eyed pout and she'd immediately caved. Between Gwen's new abilities and that stupid, pitiful face, she suspected Gwen would be getting her way more and more often.

"So I found a bookstore that's known for carrying a lot of old books. I figure we can start there. There's also an occult store downtown that I want to visit."

"Works for me."

"Then I have to run errands, but we can meet back up at the park afterward. It's really beautiful this time of year, I figured we could go for a walk or something."

Amy glanced over. Gwen was staring out the window, bobbing her head in time with the music.

"I feel like you're not paying attention. Don't you want to find out more about what's happening to you?"

Gwen turned to face her.

"Sure. But so far everything has been utter nonsense. Or at best, it gets a couple things right, but a dozen other things wrong. If demons are real, why haven't we found anything convincing?"

Gwen didn't seem to realize that they actually had found one convincing piece of evidence, but she still had a point. Other than the blog, nothing lined up with the changes enough to be anything more than coincidence.

"Maybe demons are exceptionally rare? A few of the myths are right. So every now and then someone meets one and records something accurate. The rest is just people telling stories and it all gets mixed together."

Gwen shrugged. "I don't know. Your binder already has more information about succubi than anything we've found so far. Maybe that's because someone's been keeping it that way. "

Amy's heart skipped a beat. How had she not considered that? Gwen was right. There was no way of knowing how many demons existed, but the New Demonic Archive seemed to imply a great many. Even if the claims were exaggerated, there should be some evidence of their existence. If someone, or more likely some group, was censoring it then they had a terrifying level of control over information. Maybe James' claims about demons in the government weren't far from the truth. Amy was closing in on the car in front of her and hit the brakes harder than she meant to.

"Whoa!"

"Sorry... I think you might be right."

Since the changes began, Gwen had become even more energetic, and she seemed less focused. Amy knew her grades were slipping, and she didn't seem to care. Her thoughts were always on sex. Amy had assumed she'd given up on their search, but what if she just knew it was fruitless? The archive did mention that demons relied heavily on instinct. If her new abilities magnified her already sharp intuition... She resolved not to underestimate Gwen again.

Should she tell Gwen about the meeting after all? She'd made arrangements in case something went wrong. Given her father James Thompson's address. Gwen thought she was running errands for him so she was sure to ask if anything happened to her. She wanted to trust Gwen, to believe in her, but so far Gwen's transformation had proceeded in line with the blog posts describing succubuses. And many of the posts also contained a litany of warnings about how dangerous demons were. If even half of it was true...

No, she'd made her decision. She would stick with it. If she learned anything useful, or found some way of changing Gwen back she would share it. Besides, it was for Gwen's safety too. Bringing a fledgling demon to James Thompson's door didn't seem smart for anyone. The man clearly despised them. Still, she hated lying.

"We can still look. If you want. But we should be careful."

"Agreed."

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The bookstore was breathtaking. Two-stories, and covered floor to ceiling with shelves on every wall. Even under the stairs, angled shelves were stuffed with books wherever they fit, and other odds and ends where they didn't. The building was old, and the glass of the tall windows was warped and pocketed with tiny bubbles that speckled the beams of light pouring into the otherwise darkened space. In one corner was a miniature coffee shop. Customers sat on mismatched chairs and sofas scattered throughout the store, reading and sipping coffee. They both stood frozen in the entryway.

"It's perfect."

"How have we never been here before?"

"You're the one with the car, you tell me."

"I'll start upstairs, you start downstairs?"

"How come you get the floor with the coffee shop?"

"Because I'm the one who drinks coffee."

Gwen pursed her lips. "Fair enough."

Amy spent approximately ten minutes diligently searching before she discovered an old book about medical practices in the early 1900s and found herself flipping through it on an old armchair, latte in hand. Soon, Gwen joined her. Taking a seat in an adjacent chair with her own stack of books. They were in a nook along the wall that led to the coffee shop, and Amy noticed that many of the customers glanced at Gwen as they passed. A few, mostly the men continued staring until their necks were crained around. Sometimes Gwen would look up from behind her book and meet their eyes, as if she could tell the moment they spotted her. Maybe she could. Amy had a bizarre urge to reach over and lay her hand on Gwen's leg. She didn't act on it.