Thaumatology 101 (17 page)

Those of more meagre power can only hope to escape by outwitting the demon, or through their skill. While this may seem simple, demons have much more experience of magic than humans do. A skilled wizard will find a way of tricking the demon into freeing him. There is also one tale of a wizard who bent a succubus to his will after falling by beating her at her own game. How this was done, however, is unknown.

Ceri turned off the tablet and sagged back onto the chaise longe. It was after midnight, but she probably had four more hours of relative freedom to plan before Lily came home. A soft moan escaped her lips as her movement moved the egg. She should take the thing out to help herself concentrate… But Lily would know. Somehow she would know and be displeased.

Standing up, Ceri walked as best she could out onto the landing and up the stairs. She had meant to go to her room, but found herself in Lily’s. At least she had changed the sheets when Lily had gone out so she was not surrounded by the thick smell of sex. She lay down, pulling the sheets up to her neck. A minute later she was sobbing softly. What the hell was she going to do?

~~~

There was no scent of lavender this time, just the smell of burning rubber. There was still the cliff edge, the beach below, and the burning car in the sand. And this time there was the urge to jump; leap out over the edge and die in the burning wreck.

‘Hardly a way out which really solves anything.’
The voice was her father’s; she had pretty much expected it.

‘I figured you’d say something like that,’
she replied.
‘You were always big on self-reliance. Then instead of helping me get it, you saddled me with those tattoos.’

‘Yes. So why do you think I did that?’

‘
We
did it, dear,’
her mother said.
‘It was both of us, not just your father. It was all a matter of power and understanding. So much is about power and understanding it.’

‘Everything’s changed since the accident,’
Ceri said.
‘I know the tattoos did something to me other than protecting me. It’s like my personality changed when they went.’

‘That doesn’t matter now, Ceri,’
her father said.
‘What matters now is that you’re standing on the edge and you need to decide whether to jump into the fire or face your fear.’

‘I can’t stand up to her,’ Ceri said. ‘I don’t
want
to.’

‘Of course you can, dear,’
her mother said.
‘You’ve been doing it for years now. You just have to overcome your fear and
do
it.’

‘But I’m afraid of Lily… aren’t I?’

Her mother’s laughter was almost musical.
‘Oh no, she isn’t who you’re afraid of at all. You’re afraid of the same person we were when we made your enchantments.’

‘You’re afraid of yourself,’
her father said. Ceri started to turn to look at him. She got an impression of a shape in the corner of her eye, but it seemed indistinct, foggy.
‘Time to make a choice,’
she heard him say, and below her on the beach, the car wreck exploded…

‘Nightmare, pet?’ Ceri blinked and looked up from the bed. Lily was there, not looking back as she undressed. The sight of her made Ceri’s breath catch in her throat. ‘Not to worry,’ Lily went on, ‘I’ll make all the nightmares go away.’ She turned, her eyes burning red in the dim light of the barely risen half-moon coming through the window. ‘Except for me, of course.’

Ceri felt the wave of heat pass over her, the wetness beginning between her legs. Once again she was powerless to resist as her Mistress stepped forward to take her… And Ceri saw the streams of energy winding out from her demon lover. The rational bit of her shrinking mind kicked into overdrive in a desperate attempt to regain a foothold on reason.

Every vertebrate discovered had two Medians. Running up the spine was the Chakral Median, the centre of power of almost all Earth entities. Running from the sex organs to the pituitary gland was the Tantric Median. In most demons the two Medians were balanced, but in sex demons it was the Tantric Median which provided their power. Ceri watched the flow beginning to establish; her own Median beginning to connect to Lily’s, feeding her energy, giving her power, turning Ceri into a toy to be played with.

So much is about power and understanding it.
What would happen if she took control of that power exchange?

Lily stopped, one knee on the edge of the bed. The light in her eyes went out and back on as she blinked and then stepped back. ‘What… what are you doing?’ she stammered. Ceri said nothing, her eyes pinching as she concentrated on the wisps of energy which curled between them. It was so hard… ‘Stop… stop it, p-pet.’ So hard, but getting easier. The patterns which marked out Lily’s aura brightened around them as the half-succubus reacted, but Ceri shrugged them aside, pushing the lines to slide around herself. ‘Ceri… no!’ Lily’s voice was sounding pleading now. ‘You c-can’t… Please don’t…’

Ceri broke the connection between them, pinching off the bands of force as they emerged from her body. The effect was dramatic as the lines snapped back into Lily and she jerked as if shot. Ceri watched the sudden burst of power at the very core of Lily’s sex, thaumic feedback from the severing of the bond, and knew that that would not be enough. ‘I’m sorry, Lil,’ she whispered, ‘but I have to do this…’ Reaching out with both mind and hand, Ceri focussed on the light in Lily’s groin and made it grow.

Lily fell to her knees. The light in her eyes had gone out and she looked up at Ceri with the same sort of imploring expression that she had received outside the bedroom door as Ceri waited for her. Moving slowly, Ceri slid off the bed. A star of blue fire began to grew in her hand and Lily looked down at it, her eyes begging for… what? A streamer of light squirmed its way out of Ceri’s palm like something out of a hentai movie, bending and twisting until it met Lily’s body. The half-succubus stiffened and let out a long, low moan of pleasure. Energy throbbed along her Tantric median; her eyes rolled back, her body shook, and Ceri poured in the energy, not letting up.

‘M-mistress…’ Lily’s voice was barely above a whisper. ‘Please… make me come…’

Ceri clenched her fist and Lily started screaming as the pleasure washed over her.

~~~

It was not until Ceri was heading down the stairs to the kitchen that she realised that Twill was in there, cooking, and that she had not seen the fairy in days. Bouncing onto the slate tiles, she grinned at the bobbing, nut-brown girl and said, ‘Hey, Twill. Where’ve you been?’

‘Avoiding you two,’ Twill replied. ‘It wasn’t that hard since you’ve spent the last two days going at it like rabbits in the mating season.’ She considered briefly and then added, ‘Hyperactive rabbits in the mating season who haven’t seen any other rabbits in years and…’

‘Uh, yeah, I get it,’ Ceri said, breaking into the train of analogy. ‘You can stop now before my cheeks catch fire.’

‘Actually,’ Twill commented dryly, ‘you’re not even pink. Nor should you be, really; good sex is not something to be embarrassed about. I am glad you finally broke out of it though. It was making both of you miserable.’

Ceri frowned. They had
both
been miserable? ‘Well why didn’t you help?’ she asked, pushing herself up to sit on the edge of the kitchen table.

Not looking around from the frying pan, the fairy shook her head. ‘You had to do it yourself. It’s your house, you have to be Mistress of it. If I’d told you what to do, you’d be relying on me in the future.’ Food began to move into its final stages of preparation. ‘Besides, I had no idea how you could break free.’ Ceri giggled. ‘At least you’re brighter this morning,’ Twill said as the bacon sandwich assembled itself. ‘And when Lily comes down, I’ll be here to help you help her through the next part.’

‘Next part? Got to say, Lily didn’t seem too upset about it all? Actually, she seemed to be enjoying it. A lot.’

‘Her demon side took over,’ Twill said, waving her arm to waft the sandwich into Ceri’s waiting hands. ‘You’ve been her little rock of stability for five years. Your enchantment gave her focus. She had her natural inclination to… solidify your relationship with sex, but she couldn’t because of the tattoos, and so she had to control herself. You gave her a reason to not be a succubus and she
hated
sinking into it again. Now you need to help her get over the fact that she did.’

‘Oh,’ Ceri said. ‘I guess I should’ve noticed…’

‘You probably would have if you’d been thinking with something other than your genitals, dear.’ Ceri pouted in reply. ‘Now,’ Twill went on, ‘you can start using your brain again, but…’

‘But what, Twill?’

‘Just don’t forget you have a body as well. She’s coming.’ There was a shimmer and a blur of movement, and the little fae vanished into the air. Ceri blinked and looked around.

Lily stood meekly in the doorway, black eyes downcast. She waited there, not entering the room, and she said nothing. Ceri looked at her for a second or two and then said, ‘Come in here, Lil.’ The half-succubus walked in, her feet making no sound. Stopping right in front of Ceri, she dropped to her knees, put her shoulders back, and posed, eyes still downcast, the perfect demon pet. ‘Well you can stop that for a start,’ Ceri snapped. ‘Widder take it, Lily, look at me!’

The look on Lily’s face as she did so was heart breaking. She looked like a little girl, confused and frightened. Ceri had never seen her like that before and she did not want to now. ‘You won,’ Lily said, her voice a quiet monotone. ‘I’m yours now.’

‘Fuck that!’ Ceri replied.

‘But, Mistress…’

‘No!’ Now Ceri was angry; there was no way she was letting her friend become her slave, none! ‘You stop this, Lily Carpenter. You’re not some demon I summoned to warm my bed at night, you’re my friend. You’re half human, for Christ’s sake. Get on your feet.’

Reluctantly, Lily stood up. Ceri’s little rant seemed to have had some effect; Lily looked a little more herself, but still not happy. ‘You don’t understand, Ceri,’ she said wearily.

‘Then explain it to me, Lil. I’ve been trying to work things out from text books designed for wizards with full demons, and little bits of Twill’s “wisdom” when she feels like imparting it.’ She knew full well that Twill was somewhere in the room, hidden behind a spell, but if the fairy was going to hide, she could take the odd shot. ‘Give me something real to work with, huh?’

A small smile touched Lily’s lips. ‘Always the scientist,’ she said. She pulled one of the chairs out so that she could sit down. For a second it looked as though she was going to stop and ask permission, but she managed to sit without asking. ‘Half-demon’s not like… half-Irish,’ she said. ‘A doctor tried to explain it to Mother once. Physically I’m mostly human. There are differences, obvious ones, yeah? But I’m more human than not.’ Ceri nodded. Demons did have markedly different physiology to humans, but half-succubi had all the same organs in all the same places. Aside from the odd chromosome, they were identical to humans genetically. There was just enough difference to make inter-breeding impossible.

‘Mentally,’ Lily said, ‘my demon side matured faster. When I hit puberty it more or less took over. That’s what caused “the incident in the gym.” Well, mostly. All those hot, sweaty girls in little shorts… When an entire girls’ school, teachers and students, ends up banging each other for five hours straight… Well, I got kicked out. I couldn’t control it. I
can’t
control it. Maybe someday, but not yet.’

‘But you’ve been living here for five years, Lil,’ Ceri said, confused. ‘You were fine…’

‘Because
you
gave me power over my demon, Ceri.’ Lily was looking down again, not meeting Ceri’s eyes, but this was shame, not submission. ‘When Carter gave you the computer, he said it was for helping me, right? He knows it wasn’t just his offer of a job and his support that got me out of the mess I was in. For the first time since I was twelve, I could have a
friend
instead of a potential lover. And if my succubus-side
did
try anything, you were a threat I could use to beat it down. I had control for once. Then you went and turned into a mage of some sort.’

‘Okay,’ Ceri said, ‘I read up on succubus behaviour, so I can figure the rest. Question is, what do we do now?’

Lily sighed. ‘I think… I think if you’re not going to be my mistress I better go. Find somewhere else to live. On my own. Otherwise it’ll just start again and…’

‘No,’ Ceri said, shaking her head, ‘I’m not having that. You’re my friend for one thing, and on your own you’ll just end up losing yourself. No, there’s got to be another way…’ She chewed her lip, frowning in concentration.
Don’t forget you have a body as well…
‘What if…’ she said, pausing and considering her words, ‘what if we kind of… part time it?’

‘Huh?’ Lily said, looking up.

‘Well, it’s all about power, right?’ Ceri explained. ‘Your demon side wants it, but it also respects it. You keep an eye on it and when you think it’s getting above its station, you let me know and I’ll go all Mistress on its arse. I’m still the threat you can use to control it, plus you learn to control it more. You gain power over your inner-succubus, and I get my friend back.’

Lily’s lips quirked into a grin; this time it reached her eyes. ‘With the added benefits package,’ she said. Ceri giggled. Lily’s face straightened. ‘You’re really prepared to do that?’ she asked. ‘Be my mistress when you need to?’

‘Yeah,’ Ceri said. ‘How hard can it be?’

‘You’ll have to order me about,’ Lily said.

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Order me to pleasure you in all sorts of ways.’

‘Well that’s not exactly going to be an onerous task,’ Ceri said, grinning.

Lily stayed quite serious, but there was a twinkle in her eye. ‘Degrade me at whim,’ she said. ‘Dress me up in sexy outfits and have me parade about the house. Or the garden!’ A little shiver went through her body.

‘Uh…’

‘Spank me! Humiliate me! Bend me over the kitchen table and…’