Daniel awoke in Kat's bed. Her slender arm draped across his chest and her breath tickled the well between his neck and shoulder.
The events of the previous day came back to him in a rush. The memories were like pictures rather than movies, but then, memories were like that. Pictures of the perfection of Kat's body, pictures of him entering her, pictures of Kat after it all, sleepy and relaxed and beautiful, and -- though he couldn't quite wrap his head around it -- his. Daniel realized that he didn't feel guilty. There was a slight sense of loss but a greater sense of relief.
He had given himself voluntarily to a succubus. He couldn't believe it, but it felt right.
Kat stirred.
He took a deep breath, relishing the simple pleasure of having the warm body of a woman beside him. But she's not a woman, he reminded himself, not really. He pushed the thought away. There would be time enough to come to terms with that.
"Good morning," she mumbled sleepily.
"You've bewitched me," he said.
Kat nestled into him. "No," she said simply.
He believed her. They lay unmoving for several minutes. She was fully awake now. Her fingertips stroked his chest, drawing lazy figures there. He stroked her back. Neither of them, it seemed, wanted to break the spell.
"What now?" he asked finally.
Kat perched her head on her elbow and regarded him for a moment. "I have to ask, but do you submit to being bound to me?"
It was Daniel's turn to hesitate. He tried to imagine what life would be like after uttering the word that played on the tip of his tongue. One night of sin was one thing, but a lifetime? What would be the consequences? Would he be forever damned? Was he willing to risk that for her?
"Yes."
Kat was surprised at the tears that sprang to her eyes. Some demon, she thought. "Thank you." She took his head in her hands and kissed him.
"Now's the hard part. Daniel, I'll try to protect you as much as I can from what I am and what I do, but you must never forget either of those things. It will be hard on you, harder than anything you've done."
It might tear you apart, Kat almost said, but the look on Daniel's face stilled her tongue.
"Can I try to forget for a little while longer?" he said as he reached for her.
"I'd like that."
***
Both Kat and Daniel turned to the door at the sound of running feet in the hallway. The door burst open.
"Kat! Daniel's...." Jean-Paul rushed into Kat's room and then stopped in his tracks. He looked momentarily confused as he took in the scene before him. Then he smiled at the rumpled figures in the bed.
"Good morning, Jean-Paul," said Kat.
"Good morning, I apologize for my intrusion." Jean-Paul placed a wallet on the dresser. "I apologize as well for taking your wallet, Daniel. It was necessary. You'll be reimbursed."
"What?"
Kat thought that Jean-Paul had been avoiding her. God knew that enough animosity had arisen between them of late. Now she realized that he'd been several steps ahead of events.
"Jean-Paul has been to Spain," explained Kat.
"With my wallet?"
"He's been laying a false trail. Buying us some time."
"Ah," said Daniel.
Jean-Paul turned and made to exit the room. "My own enjoyment of Spain notwithstanding, I'm glad that my efforts were not in vain."
He winked as he closed the door behind him.
***
The sun had set. Daniel had been returned to his room with instructions not to leave it. His door was no longer locked. He didn't understand what was happening. Kat didn't want him to know and he had enough sense not to press her.
Kat stood naked before the mirror and remembered what Isabel had told her a few hours earlier.
"You must feed. You must be strong for what is to come. You must sate yourself until you feel that you can absorb no more and then continue. When the city writhes and moans under the thrall of carnal dreams and lascivious thoughts, you know you will be ready."
Kat thought Isabel's description a bit exaggerated, but felt a little frisson of anxiety nonetheless.
She'd forgo the pleasure of materializing in physical form tonight; she didn't have time. Tonight she would occupy dreams only. She would appropriate as many of them as possible and twist them to her purposes. She would be very busy. She would feed like never before.
With a deep breath, she shimmered and vanished from her bedroom.
She floated above the city and projected the promise of dark pleasures to it. The response came back almost immediately -- feelings of desperation, hopeless yearning, and unsatisfied lust.
She picked the most ardent of these responses and willed herself there.
A middle-aged man -- a life-long bachelor if Kat had to guess -- writhed on the bed in a shabby one-bedroom flat. She approached him and spoke into his dream.
"Tonight I'm yours if you want me."
Sadly, it was a line that he'd likely never heard before in real life and it got his attention. His movements on the bed stilled.
"You can do whatever you want," she said.
She insinuated herself into his dreams as a raven-haired temptress and he responded. She straddled him. There was no time and little need for foreplay. He entered her. Years of unwanted abstinence spurred him. On the threshold of climax, she revealed herself as an old hag, a wrinkled old crone more dead than alive. Lust and dread combined and she drank it up.
The lonely man had satisfied her immediate appetite. She felt full and powerful, but she heeded Isabel's words. She left him thrashing and whimpering on the bed with the ghost of his dream and projected once again to the city.
Her next target was a jail. An inmate awaiting trial dreamt of the girlfriend he'd beaten. He was sure that she wouldn't testify. She loved him, after all, and feared him as well. The girlfriend came to him then, naked as he liked her. Her large breasts swayed and wobbled as she approached. He liked that too, the way her breasts hung on her. She knelt at his side and fished his cock out of his pants. She was learning. Spontaneity, that's what it was all about. Nothing better than an unplanned blowjob. He liked surprises as much as anyone. Her technique was getting better too. Hands and mouth, just like he'd told her. She'd overcome her fucking gag reflex too. About time. Who had to gag after taking in one lousy inch? She didn't gag when she put a French fry in her mouth, for fuck's sake. It was a lame excuse if he'd ever heard one. She'd gotten over that, he saw, big time. He loved the way her cheeks sucked in as she went down on him. And she moaned as though she loved it. Well, she ought to love it! Holy shit, she was right down on him! Her nose touched his abdomen and he could feel her tongue undulating along his entire length. He couldn't believe it! He felt that familiar tingling behind his balls as her head bobbed up and down on him. His homely girlfriend had become a fucking porn star. The pressure built. I've got something for you, baby. Oh, yeah! I'm gonna blow. Just before climax, he felt a searing pain from his nether regions. Leave it to the bitch to fuck it up at the last minute. He looked down. First, he noticed that the woman between his legs was no longer his girlfriend, but someone infinitely prettier. Then he noticed the blood that ran down her pretty little chin. He came, and saw a feeble spurt from the bloody stump where his cock had been.
The inmate awoke with a yelp, but not before Kat had drunk her fill from him. She watched as his hands reached for his groin, frantically grappling.
"Oh, fuck," he whimpered. "Thank God."
Satisfied that all was still intact, the inmate muttered something that Kat didn't understand and rolled over.
In another house, she approached a father. She wore the guise of his daughter. Normally he would steal into her room. Not this time. This time, she visited him. She hitched up her nightie and straddled him. He was ready, by God.
"Daddy," she whispered as she descended on him.
He could feel her warmth enveloping him and felt himself coming already. Damn it. They'd just started. He'd be better the next time.
"Daddy, you shouldn't do these things," she said as he came.
He knew. God, he knew, but he couldn't help it.
"This is the last time. Good-bye."
He felt a searing pain in his chest and his eyes sprang open. He half-expected to see the handle of a knife rising out of his chest, but there was nothing. He saw only his daughter, writhing upon him, dancing with such abandon that he almost didn't recognize her.
"This is the last time, Daddy." She held out her hand and appeared to clutch some invisible object. Her fingers tightened around it and that chest pain bloomed again.