Succubi - Ch.26 - Drained (Patreon)

My hands finally stopped shaking as I took another swig of my vodka cooler.

It was like everything just felt worse after the adrenaline was gone. I knew we were ok, those guys scared Amber but they didn't hurt her. And I was really uptight about Jim touching me, but I was kind of impressed with myself for how I responded. Like leaving him out cold on the floor was a pretty neat trick.

I had another gulp of my drink as I thought about the whole thing. Melissa said she never saw me move so fast as when I darted out of the class. I wasn't athletic but I moved through the halls like some kind of sprinter. I knew it all had to be thanks to my demon strength, like my leg muscles were probably way stronger than before so I could run really fast.

The three of us were back at the apartment now, Melissa grabbed us all drinks to try and help us calm down. We were sitting on the sofa, with Amber in the middle and me and Melissa on either side.

"If you're up for it," Melissa asked softly, "If you want to talk about it, could one of you tell me what happened?"

I stayed quiet while Amber told Melissa how Jim and Rahul cornered her when she came out of her last class, and basically herded her into the stairwell and down to the basement. From the sound of it they wanted to rough her up and scare her. And obviously they were deadnaming her and misgendering her and basically acting like a couple transmisic assholes.

In the end though the only one either of them really laid a hand on was me, and I wasn't the least bit sorry for how I responded.

Amber wrapped up her story by telling Melissa how I showed up just in time, then Jim grabbed me and I dropped him with a single punch. 

"Woah," Melissa looked over at me with a wide grin. "Like mother like daughter right? Emma's got a pretty solid left hook, sounds like Mara's the same."

I blushed but pointed out, "I'm part demon remember? It's not that surprising I was able to knock him out." 

"Oh right," my girlfriend frowned. "I forgot about that strength thing."

In fact now that I thought about it, I actually wondered if I might have seriously hurt the guy. Not that I was going to lose any sleep over that.

"Maybe we should have reported them?" Amber asked with a frown. "To campus security or something?"

Melissa sighed, "I'm not sure that's a good idea. If people start investigating, they'll probably be asking questions about your impossible transition. And they might find out about Mara's supernatural strength too. I hate to say it but I think the best thing to do is stay quiet?"

I sighed as well but I knew Melissa was probably right. Lily wouldn't want us attracting any sort of official scrutiny.

Amber nodded slowly then sighed. She had a few gulps of her drink, and her expression became sad and pained. "I can't believe Matt would send those guys after me. I thought he was my friend. I trusted him."

"I don't think he did," I told her. "I'm pretty sure they got it in their heads to confront you without Matt even knowing."

She frowned, "But they knew stuff I told Matt. Me and him talked on Saturday, and they knew what we talked about."

I grimaced, "I'm sure he talked to them? But I'm just as sure he didn't send them. It's an intuition thing. Anyways, I'm just saying maybe don't write off your friendship with him just yet?"

"Ok Mara," Amber sighed. "I'll wait and see what he has to say, before making any decisions."

As the stress continued to fade, a question came to mind that left me curious. I didn't want to ask it in front of Amber and Melissa though.

I had another gulp of my cooler, then I relaxed and let my eyes unfocus as I stepped backwards into Lily's place. 

She was laying on her large leather sofa, and as always she was naked and in her natural demon form. 

"Hello Mara," she said as I appeared. "You did very well this afternoon. I'm proud of you, and I'm quite certain Amber is grateful."

I smiled, "Thanks Lily. Why didn't you do anything though? Like with your magic or whatever? Or even just taking over? Like when my dad grabbed me you took over, before mom pepper-sprayed him and he let go of us."

Lily looked and sounded apologetic as she replied, "I'm sorry Mara. I've been using my magic a little too freely of late, and I may have misjudged the demands on my power that Amber's transformation required. I was confident with your recent enhancements you would be able to handle those two young men, but I should have warned you before-hand."

I moved closer and gave her a hug, "Lily I'm sorry, I didn't know. Are you going to be ok?"

"I'll be fine Mara," she replied with a small smile. "Thank you for your concern though, it is appreciated."

"I don't mean to be rude," I said uneasily, "But how come Amber's transformation is taking so much out of you? You weren't tired or drained when you did Melissa's, were you? You had enough magic to crush Mr. Perry's pick-up truck."

Lily grimaced, "As I said, I made a miscalculation. Amber's transformation is happening some forty-percent faster than Melissa's, while at the same time I now realize my feeding is no longer providing me as much sustenance as it used to."

I frowned, "What? Why not? What's wrong?"

She continued to grimace as she replied, "Since the twenty-first of December, I've been essentially sharing my meals with you. Your body is now taking some of that energy and using it. It was an oversight on my part. As I told your mother back at xmas, I'm not infallible."

With a sigh Lily added, "I may have to start feeding more often. Rather than every two weeks, I may have to make it every ten days. I'm sorry Mara."

I sighed and sat down on the floor in front of her. "It's not your fault Lily, you don't have to apologize. So before, when you fed you got all that energy but it made me all energetic and happy and bouncy. Now that I'm part demon, I'm stealing part of your meal every time you eat?"

"More or less," she nodded. "I can explain it in detail if you wish, but be warned there will be math involved."

"No thanks Lily," I grinned. "So you're ok though? I guess I'm sort of wondering what would have happened if those guys had gotten really nasty or violent?"

Lily gave me another small smile, "I'll be fine. I'm going to eat tonight, I'll be better tomorrow. And I do have some magic in reserve, so if the worst had come to pass I would have ensured you and Amber were safe and healthy. But as I said, I was confident you could handle the situation. Which you did. Now, your friends are starting to worry about you so why don't you return to them?"

"Ok Lily," I got up and gave her another hug. "I'm sorry I keep stealing part of your meal, and I understand if you have to eat more often. I wish there was something we could do to help, something we could do to boost you again. Like you got from Verothilas."

She gently hugged me back, "It's ok Mara. I appreciate your concern, but we'll be fine."

After the hug I moved up to the window then back out with the others. I picked up my cooler and had another sip then apologized, "Sorry, I had to disappear inside for a bit to talk with Lily."

"Everything ok?" Melissa asked.

I hesitated for a moment, but I realized we were all basically family and there was no sense keeping stuff from Melissa, or even Amber.

"She's tired. She said she's been using magic a little too freely lately. And her meals haven't been filling her up as much anymore, since I'm part-demon now."

I added, "She's going to feed tonight, that'll help. And she might have to do that more often."

Melissa frowned, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Is this because she's helping me?" Amber asked nervously.

I shook my head, "It's not your fault Amber, don't worry about that."

She looked relieved to hear that. It left me wondering though. As I finished my drink I thought about how Lily was basically putting herself out to use her magic for Amber. She had to come up with an experimental way to get that energy back, that might not even work. 

It honestly seemed to me like Lily was going out of her way to help Amber, without any real guarantee of reward. It would have been easier and safer for her to just refuse in the first place, like if Amber couldn't do the succubus stuff like Melissa and Susan then there'd be no deal. 

I was glad it didn't happen that way, but after everything Lily said about demons not having friends and stuff, it left me wondering why she was doing so much for Amber.

And that whole line of thought reminded me of the stuff with Verothilas again, how Lily could have freed herself but didn't. I was still convinced she gave up her chance at being free because it would have cost me and Melissa and Susan our lives. 

I puzzled over that for a few seconds, when an idea hit me. With me and Lily being bound together, that was sort of rubbing off on me and making me a bit more demonic. Suddenly I was wondering if that worked both ways. Maybe because of me, Lily was becoming a little more human.

The more I thought about it the more sure I was, except I didn't know if I should mention it to Lily. I was pretty sure she'd deny it, and I didn't want to upset her. I knew she got defensive every time I mentioned the whole friendship thing, she kept accusing me of projecting human emotions and stuff like that.

After a few moments I decided to just keep my idea to myself for now, but I'd definitely be watching out for any other clues or signs that I might be right.

"So what do you think I should tell my parents?" Amber asked. I'd all but forgotten about that problem, after the encounter with the two jocks then the little talk with Lily.

Melissa got us all another round of vodka coolers, and I had a sip of mine then suggested "Let's wait till Sue gets home? She knows your folks right? She might have some suggestions."

I added, "I don't want to ask Lily to get involved. At least not right now. Maybe tomorrow after she's fed, if she's feeling up to it? But let's try and solve this on our own first."

Amber looked a little uneasy but she nodded "Ok Mara."

We didn't have to wait much longer, Susan got in about a half hour later. She greeted us all, then grabbed herself a drink and joined us.

"Ok what's wrong?" she asked. "All three of you look like you got some bad news or something."

We spent the next thirty or forty minutes filling her in on the day's events, from Amber's family to the run-in with Jim and Rahul to the revelation about Lily's low energy. We ended with the question of how Sue figured we should proceed with Amber's folks.

Susan thought it over as she sipped her drink, then finally suggested to Amber "I could go back to your place with you this evening. I'm not a nurse yet but maybe I could try and convince them that I know the process is safe? I could say I know a couple other people who've been through it without any problems."

Amber asked, "What if that doesn't work? Like what if they still want to know who's behind it, or how it works or something?"

Sue looked at me and Melissa, then back at Amber again. After thinking it over for a few moments she replied, "We could tell them it's magic. I don't think we should mention Lily or say anything about her being a demon. Just tell them it's magic and that we really can't say anything beyond that."

"You know they won't believe that," Amber frowned. 

"I know," she replied. "But I have some tricks of my own I could show them, to convince them."

That caught my attention. I was positive Susan got something magical out of her contract with Lily, but she'd only ever revealed one thing to me and Melissa. Back in December she had some little antlers and a demonic tail appear on herself, and she hinted there was more.

Melissa spoke up before I could, "What sort of tricks?"

Sue blushed, "It's uh, complicated. And if I'm going to be doing them later this evening for Mr. and Mrs. Dubois I don't want to do anything now. It's sort of limited... Actually I'm sorry I haven't really discussed it with either of you. I know you're probably curious."

I shook my head, "It's ok Susan. I'd never pry, I know the stuff between each of you and Lily is private."

"I still should have said something," she stated. "This week, one evening when we're all together I'll fill you in on the whole thing."

She added, "The reason I haven't said anything so far was, well, that's complicated too. Once I explain I'm sure you'll understand."

Melissa smiled, "Don't worry about it Sue. Like Mara said, it's ok."

"Thanks Melissa, thanks Mara," Susan said as she smiled at the two of us. Then she looked at Amber and asked, "So what do you think? Can I come over and help you talk with your folks?"

Amber nodded, "Ok. I'm sure mom will be happy to see you, and maybe she'll listen to you since you're studying nursing and everything."

She pulled out her phone and exchanged a few texts with her mom, then told Sue "Mom wants you to come over for dinner tonight, if that's ok?"

"That would be really nice," Sue replied.

The two of them had time for one more drink with me and Melissa before they had to set out for Amber's place.