Succubus Rising

Author's Note: I would like to thank those of you who have been patiently waiting on this next chapter. Just as with all my stories, comments and feedback are welcome.

*

"Oh my god," the girls behind me in class were whispering so loud I could barely hear the lecture. "Did you hear they found a succubus in town?"

"Bullshit," another girl said. "They don't really exist. I think that's just something they tell us to keep the porn interesting for the guys."

"No," there was some rustling as one of them dug around in her bag. "It's all over the news. A succubus was found - unsterilized - in the Castle Hills area. They say she's the first one to be found fertile in centuries."

I tuned them out in time for the professor to assign a five thousand word research paper on something he had lectured on. Of course, thanks to the chatterboxes behind me I had missed a quarter of the lecture. Good thing he was one of the professors that recorded his lectures and posted them online for the students. I slid my notebook into my bag and then left the class. My truck was parked on the other side of campus, so I had almost a mile to walk just so I could get in my vehicle and then drive home.

It felt as though the air conditioner couldn't get cold fast enough as I pulled out into traffic. Leaving the university at four o'clock was always a bitch. It took me nearly an hour to get to my neighborhood, and when I got there the police were blocking the road.

Great, I thought as I sat and waited for them to wave those of us who lived here through. It wasn't until I got to my street that the conversation the other girls were having came back to me. A succubus had been found in Castle Hills. I live in Castle Hills. The police had parked their Crown Victoria's and Tahoe's in the street and in the yard in front of my house.

An officer was walking up when I pulled into the driveway and parked. He looked very authoritative as he held up his hand and said, "Ma'am, we're going to have to ask you to get back in your vehicle and go home. This is a possible crime scene."

"I don't have to get in my vehicle," I opened the back of the truck and pulled my backpack and purse out. "I live here."

"You're Jezza Reins?"

"Yes, sir. Why are y'all in my house?"

"Uh. . ." he lifted his hat and ran his hands through his hair with the other hand. "There was an incident. . ." He looked around as though someone else could help him through this.

"What kind of incident?" I watched as men and women walked into my house and an older man came out. "Why are y'all going into my house?"

The older man saw me standing with the officer and walked over to us, "Dammit, Jones, I told you to keep the neighbors away."

"I'm not a fucking neighbor. Now tell me why the fuck y'all are in my house!" The officer held his hands out in front of him as though that would stop me from moving toward my house, but it was the older man that actually held me back as I tried to go to the front door.

"Ma'am, you can't go in there right now."

"Why not? Did someone die in there?"

He sighed, "No, no. Nothing like that. The demons are in there handling their business and we've been instructed to keep everyone out for a while."

"There are demons in my house and I can't. . ." just then a large man came out of the house with a woman held in front of him with a bag over her head. The woman was walking, so she wasn't hurt too bad. "Mom? Mom! What the hell are you doing with my mother, asshole?"

The man stopped, but the woman didn't turn around. With a look over his shoulder, a second man came out of the house and started walking toward me. The cops stood aside as the behemoth lumbered over.

Douchebags.

"Jezza?" the man had a surprisingly high voice given how large his neck was. "You need to come with me."

"Like hell," I said, staring up at him. "I'm not following you anywhere!"

The man loomed closer and grabbed me by the shoulder, bending to put his face closer to mine, "You can either follow me, or I can drag you to my truck. Your choice."

I jerked away from him and spit onto his shirt. His hand shot out and before I could react I was lying on the ground looking up at the side of my truck. I gasped for breath as he bent down to pick me up and swing me over his shoulder. Spots floated in my vision, but I still tried to get a good enough angle to hit him. He went a few steps before dumping me on my ass on the lawn.

"Don't you hurt her!" A shrill voice came from the street as I tried to catch my breath and rub my ass at the same time. My mother had finally come out of whatever stupor she had been in and gotten the bag off her head. Her hair was sticking out in all directions and there was fire in her eyes. "Jezza, you get up, baby. They won't hurt you."

"The fuck?" was all I was able to mutter before the other man shoved her into a sedan before getting behind the wheel and driving off. "Hey! Where are you taking my mother?"

I looked up at the big man just as he started to lower a sack over my head. I ducked and rolled away from him just in time, but he was a fast bastard and grabbed my ankle with enough force to make me cry out. I kicked at the man's head with my other foot, but he just dodged and then stood up, lifting me off the ground upside down.

"I gave you a choice," he said before carrying me by the foot toward the road.

"You know, you have a really goofy fucking voice," I said as I kept trying to kick his arm and make him drop me. He didn't respond, but he did catch my other foot and then lifted me above the edge of a truck bed and dropped me. "Hey, fuckwit! Be careful."

I tried to scramble away, but again he was too fast. Instead of grabbing me, though, he resorted to a backhand that laid me out cold. The last thing I saw was the black bag lowering over my vision.

===

My face was flattened against a rough carpet when I came to. I blinked my eyes and tried to sit up, but my hands had been secured behind my back making it difficult to move. After a few minutes my vision cleared enough for me to see that I was in the cargo area of a large SUV, and a few tries later I managed to get myself up on my knees to look over the back of the seat in front of me. The big man that had carried me upside down was driving, and there was no one else in the truck.

I started looking around for a way out. Most modern vehicles had a way to open the back hatch or trunk from the inside, but a quick look around didn't reveal any kind of emergency handle. With another glance at the back of the man's head, I set about pulling the carpeted panel away from the door.

At first, I could barely get my fingertips between the panel and the plastic. Then, with a soft pop, part of the panel came away and I was able to get a better grip. I glanced back to see if the driver had heard the noise, but he still hadn't seemed to notice that I was awake. I worked on the other clips holding the door panel in place, and one by one got them undone as quietly as possible. The parts of the door didn't look like much, but there were a few wires that I pulled loose for good measure. Nothing seemed to happen, so I went to work on the side panels and under the floorboard.

By the time the driver pulled the vehicle to a stop I had managed to find the spare tire, the jack, and a small empty compartment in the side opposite the jack. Nothing I pulled opened the back door, but that didn't matter. After the truck stopped moving, the large man got out and came to open the door for me.

Such a gentleman.

The door opened and the man grabbed my shoulder immediately. "Hey! You're hurting me!"

"Good," the man said. "The less you struggle, the less things will hurt."

He shoved me ahead of him toward the front of a modest house. The door opened as we approached, and we were met in a dining room by three other men.

"Oh, Zachiel, this is too much," the shortest man said. "You're sure the council didn't know Margot had a daughter?"

"Who the fuck are you?" I asked, not caring if any so-called council knew about me.

The man looked at me then, as though I hadn't been the first one through the door, and smiled. His smile looked like it could have curdled milk and made small children cry. I just frowned at him. "Oh, you will be fun to break." He turned back to the man I now knew was Zachiel, "You are sure? They don't know Margot had a child?"

"As far as I know they are clueless," the high pitched voice came from behind me and I was ignored once again. "They took the succubus just as the girl got there and I intercepted her."

"Hello," I said, taking a few steps away from everybody. "Hi, I'm the girl you just took forcibly from her home. Fuck you, untie my arms." All three of the new men smiled at me then, "You heard her, Zachiel. Untie her. Chasing her around the house will just make things later that much more fun."

The big man with the little voice reached into his pocket and brought out a pocket knife that he used to cut the ties on my wrists. My shoulders protested the new position as I rubbed my wrists where the cord had been a little too tight, but then I just looked at the men. "Who said anything about me running anywhere?"

"You'll run," the short man said as the other two men that had been with him moved to flank me. "Just give it a few moments."

"Well, you have her, Darius," Zachiel said as he slid the knife back in his pocket and out of reach. "My money's in the bank, so I'll see you the next time you need something picked up."

"It was a pleasure doing business with you, as usual, Zachiel," the short man, Darius, said as the big man turned and walked back out the door. I turned my head to try to keep the other two men in my sight. As soon as the door shut, Darius turned back to me, "Now is when the real fun starts. Boys," he nodded at the men and they descended on me like vultures on road kill.

I tried dropping to the floor and backing away from them in some sort of crab walk, but they just caught me and picked me up. Darius had turned and walked farther into the house, and the two other men followed him with me between them.

"Feel free to fight, girly," the man on my left said. "The more you fight the more fun we get to have with you."

They had to turn sideways to get all three of us through the door, so it took a minute before the decor of the room caught my eye. It wasn't anything macabre or even really out of place for a small suburban house. The room was plain with a flat screen television mounted on one wall and some comfortable looking chairs surrounding a hook suspended from the ceiling. It was the hook that held my attention.

"Strip her down and tie her up as usual," Darius was standing in front of the TV with a remote in his hands. The goon on my left shifted his hands so he was holding both of my shoulders while the one on my right brought a knife out of somewhere.

"I don't think so!" I began to struggle against the iron-like grip of the man holding my shoulders, trying to get a foot back to kick him in the balls. The man with the knife was smiling as he motioned for the other man to hold me down. With a sweep of a foot that seemed almost effortless, the man holding me took my legs out from under me and slammed me to the floor hard enough that my breath left me in a whoosh and my vision sparkled for a second.

"We told you it would only be more fun for us if you fought," the man with the knife said. The other one had my head between his knees and was leaning against my arms with enough weight that I thought he might break a bone. I kicked my legs and bucked my hips as much as I could, but the cold steel of the knife slid along my ankle anyway. My jeans made a horrible sound as the fabric was cut and two seconds later I was lying on the floor in my panties and t-shirt.

My shirt took less time to cut than my jeans had, but the man abandoned his knife when he moved to my underwear. I lifted my knee with everything I had when he leaned over me and groped my breasts and let out a satisfied grunt when I made contact with something. The man's eyes bulged in pain, but my small victory was short lived when he punched me in the ribs.

"Jake!" The man at my head yelled and moved enough for me to roll over and curl onto my side as I relearned how to breathe. "You know we're not supposed to do that!"

"She kneed me in the junk!" the other man, Jake, was cupping his groin in his hands as though it might fall off if he didn't hold it there. "Shit, that hurts!"

I had closed my eyes and didn't care that my forehead was pressed against the thigh of a man who had been holding me down for his buddy just moments before. My chest hurt with every breath and I wondered if Jake had broken a rib or two with his blow. The man at my shoulders didn't move to help his friend walk off the injury, though, so maybe they weren't close friends.

Doesn't matter,

I told myself.

Just breathe.

I couldn't tell where Darius was; probably sitting in one of the comfortable chairs enjoying the little show we were putting on.

"It will hurt a lot more if you broke something with your little tantrum," a new voice came from the direction of the door. The legs moved away from my upper body and I opened my eyes to see a new man kneeling beside me. He reached out to touch my chest but stopped when I flinched and then cringed in pain. "You are lucky he didn't kill you, girl. Let me heal you or this auction will be worse than it needs to be for you."

The brown slacks gave way to a purple shirt, and it registered that his hand had been tan. I closed my eyes and nodded, wanting the pain to go away more than I was worried about him touching me.

"Darius won't like you touching her before the auction, Turq," the man who had held me down said.

"He will like it less when he finds out you two could have killed her. You're lucky he wasn't in the room." I sighed as the man they called Turq touched my ribcage gently, probing the most tender spot and then laying his palm over it when I groaned. Warmth washed over my entire chest, and within moments I could breathe without feeling nauseous with pain.

"What's going on in here? Turq, you know you can't touch her before the auction starts," Darius' voice rang through the room and Turq lifted his hand from my ribs.

"If you hadn't left her alone with your two idiots, I wouldn't have had to touch her. Jake could have killed her," he rose and all I could see were his shoes.

"If he can touch her, the rest of us should be able to touch her," another voice, this one impossibly deep, seemed to fill the room. The new man hadn't even yelled as far as I could tell.

"Yes," I sat up as Darius looked down at me. Along with Darius and his two thugs, and Turq in his brown slacks, there were four other men along the wall at the door. They all looked at me except one. A large man who looked like he spent too much time at the gym stared at Darius, waiting for the rest of his answer. "You're right. It's only fair if you may all touch her before the auction. Jake, you are dismissed. Kale," he turned his attention to the other man. "Put her on the hook and finish the job so these gentlemen can touch what they will be trying to buy."

Jake stooped around his groin as he stood, but the look of worry said he knew what Darius would do to him as punishment. Apparently even the demons were answerable to someone else. He shot me a glare as he stumbled out of the room, obviously trying not to touch himself as he walked. I smirked and imagined him holding his groin as he walked down the hall.

I looked at Kale from my spot on the floor and rose when he motioned for me to get up. It had to have been magic that Turq used to heal me, but I didn't want to push my luck with a second healing if Kale decided I needed another lesson in breathing. He seemed to sigh in relief when I followed him to the hook. From one of the chairs he took a set of manacles and a rope, and I held my hands out to him. At least he wasn't going to hang me from the hook by the skin of my back or anything. Once the rope was tied in a loop and then placed over the hook he came up with a second set of manacles for my ankles. The chain between my ankles would prevent me from kicking anyone. I was effectively hobbled, but I still squirmed when he grabbed the knife and walked toward me. The look in his eyes said he was imagining worlds of pain at the business end of that blade, but he only cut away my bra and panties.

"Ah, finally," Darius said when I was hung in the middle of the room. "You may now touch her, one at a time."

The large bodybuilder was the first to approach me when Turq spoke up from the sidelines, "I only touched her ribs, so it wouldn't be fair if everyone else gets to cop a feel when I didn't."

"That's. . ." Darius sighed. "Only touch her ribs or stomach so we can get on with this."

The big guy's face fell a little, but he complied. His hand was so large that when he placed his palm on my ribs he had to put effort into not touching my breasts with his thumb. His fingers wrapped around nearly to my spine.

I didn't look at any of the others, afraid that the hatred I could feel in my eyes might earn me a beating that wouldn't get healed. Shoes passed within my sight and hands got ever closer to my breasts. It felt like hours before the parade of touchy-feely men ended and Darius cleared his throat.

Looking up I saw the TV screen with an impossibly large number on it before the men started shouting. Faint flutters passed over my skin and it took a while before I realized it was the men using their powers to influence each other. The number on the screen rose steadily at first as the men yelled out figures in attempts to make the others back down.

Turq and one other man in a red shirt were obvious in their efforts to drive the price out of the range of the others. When the amount reached half a million dollars, one man stood up from his chair and walked out of the room. He was skeletal and his suit hung from his body. The others didn't even seem to notice.

The numbers continued to climb until they slowed to a crawl before any of the men let on that they were getting out of their comfort zones. One, a tall man with dirty blond hair, was the first to break, "You two are deliberately driving the price up! This was supposed to be a fair auction, Darius, even on all sides. You disappoint me yet again, and with such a prize."

"The auction was made even with the buy-in. If you couldn't afford much more than the tiny two hundred grand to walk in here then you should have just stayed home." Darius turned back to the screen, which had started blinking in time with a counter when the bidding came to a standstill at the outburst. The tall man left the room in a rage that resulted in a fist-sized hole in the wall next to the door.

After that the bidding continued at a more sedate pace and the men were quieter about it. It didn't take long for me to figure that they really had been trying to up the price just to remove the other men. Now, they watched each other as the touches of their power lingered longer and the number on the screen continued to climb.

When the amount topped one million dollars, the large man began to bid less often and let the other two battle it out. When it reached a million and a half, he let himself out of the room quietly. The two men bid every two or three minutes after the large man left, only bidding when the numbers began to flash with the countdown. I felt their powers against my skin so firmly the men might as well have been wrapped around me. Then, as though with great reluctance, one of the powers faded away and the man who had healed my ribs got up and shook the hand of the other man before he, too, left the room. The number on the screen was almost two million dollars.