01- Succubus! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  End Notes

  Michael-Scott Earle

  Chapter 1

  Damn. She was so beautiful.

  I’d almost passed out when I first saw her, and then I’d almost fainted again when she sat in front of me in class. I couldn’t believe my luck. Not only was it my last year in this hellhole of a school, but I would get to sit behind the most wonderful girl I had ever seen. I felt blessed. Even if she never turned around to look at me.

  I actually had two classes with her. The first was physics at eight in the morning, and I’d always arrive early. I’d sit at my desk in the back of the room and watch her strut in through the door. She always entered three minutes before the bell rang. I knew her daily schedule by heart. Well, first I’d documented it with pen and paper. Then I’d created a spreadsheet calendar to observe her habits, and then I had memorized it.

  She was too cool to talk to Mr. Roberts, and even though the fat, bald devil man would always give her a warm welcome, the girl of my dreams would only nod at him before she walked in my direction.

  As soon as she turned her eyes my way, I would pretend to look down at my school work, or sometimes I’d read one of my new mangas, or a normal comic book, or even one of my video game magazines. I knew that she probably thought I was a nerd, everyone at school did, but I prayed that she would one day ask me about the stuff I read, or even mention that she also played video games. All that was a fantasy though; after three months of adoring her she’d never said a single word to me in the morning, or after lunch when we had our history class and sat in the same spots.

  Instead she ignored me. Just like everyone else at high school had these three and a half years.

  I was okay with being ignored though. I wasn’t like my school mates. I didn’t have fangs, or fur, or tails, or glowing eyes. I wasn’t a vampire, werewolf, lizard, goblin, demon, or any of the other interesting races that filled the world. I didn’t have super strength, speed, or the ability to use magic.

  I was just a boring human like my parents, and I didn’t want to attract too much attention. I’d made that mistake once when I walked through the cafeteria to my lonely corner. She floated toward me to get in the lunch line, and the Gary Wright song “Dream Weaver” played through my head like it did for Wayne in that funny movie. I’d kept walking without looking where I was going and spilled my lunch tray all over Tommy the vampire.

  Vampires did not like having red pasta sauce on their school uniform.

  Fortunately, Mr. Roberts had been on cafeteria duty that day, and the over-muscled devil teacher stood almost half a head taller than Tommy. My classmate backed down, shot me with a glare of hatred, and then mouthed that he would consume my soul later.

  Fortunately, he’d forgotten about me by the end of the day and had never said a word to me since then.

  Most seemed to forget about me.

  “Sherman, can you answer question number seven please?” Mr. Roberts’ menacing voice called out through the classroom. I panicked, and my heart tripped over itself. He never called on me in class, and I had been too busy studying the beautiful leathery wings of the girl who sat in front of me. I felt twenty-five pairs of eyes turn to me, and I glanced down at the question on the page of the textbook sitting my desk.

  “Uhhhh, I ummm. Hmmmm,” My voice caught in my throat and came out like a rat squeak. I heard someone chuckle in the front, and I cleared my throat to speak.

  “Heating a solution makes the velocity of the molecules increase?” My voice tilted in a question at the end even though I knew that the answer was correct.

  “Good job, Sherman! Alright. What is the heat energy required to completely vaporize ten grams of water starting at zero Celsius… Charlotte?” I tried my best not to gasp when he called my dream girl's name. Mr. Roberts must have been in a strange mood today. He almost never called on her.

  “Twenty six point two kilojoules.” Her voice was like a golden harp being played inside a cathedral covered with velvet and filled with dark chocolate. Even the angel girls didn’t have voices half as beautiful, or half as sexy.

  “Good, Charlotte. I can tell you’ve been studying. Okay class, turn to page two hundred and seventy four, we are going to talk about next week’s lab assignment.” The sound of Mr. Roberts’ growling voice faded into my subconscious, and my brain slid into a daydream while I focused on the girl’s leathery wings.

  The appendages were wide, I guessed maybe six feet when fully extended, but Charlotte always kept them pulled close to her back. They were a dark pinkish-purple and changed shade a bit depending on the light. In the daytime, they seemed closer to red, and when it was night, I imagined they were purple. They looked like bat wings, but all the bats I had seen seemed to have some fur or hair on the wings. Charlotte’s were smooth and perfect.

  Her tail was also the same kind of leathery muscle as her wings. It was pretty short, maybe only two feet at the most, and it came out of her back end right here her spine curved into the top of her pert ass. Most of the time it just hung flaccid behind her chair at my feet, but occasionally the cute little thing would twist around and dance. It happened when she was bored, or so I guessed. I had to pull my legs under my desk as far as I could to avoid the scorpion-looking stinger at the end of the tail. I didn’t know if the poison would kill me, but I had read in my mangas that succubus poison acted as a super-powerful Viagra. I didn’t want to fall in love with the beautiful demon even more than I already was.

  “The lab is going to be performed in teams of two,” Mr. Roberts said. “We’ll be testing the heat dissipation of various metals in air versus other forms of liquid. You’ll need to work with a partner after class hours to discuss the metals and liquids you will use. You will have to submit a materials request to me by the end of the week. Then you’ll have the three sessions next week to document your theories and results. The guide is in the textbook. Any questions?”

  There was silence in the classroom for a few moments, and one of the angel girls, Betanna was her name, raised a delicate hand. She had cream-colored feathery wings and hair that glimmered like gold. She looked as if she could be one of those Victoria’s Secret girls, but when I closed my eyes at night, all I could ever think about before I slept was Charlotte.

  “Do we choose our own partners?” the girl asked, and I felt my blood chill to ice.

  I hated group assignments. No one ever wanted to be my partner, and I ended up being the last one left or being shoved off onto one of the groups by the teacher. I didn’t even mind doing all the work; I just didn’t like the humiliating process of trying to find friends.

  “You all chose your teams for the last lab. I’ll assign them this time. Odd number rows, turn around in your seat. That is your partner for this exercise. Shake their hand and get to know them.” He let out an evil laugh, and the rumble almost sounded like dozens of screaming voices lurked inside his lungs.

  But it wasn’t my devil teacher’s laugh that made my heart suddenly beat in quadruple time.

  Time seemed to slow down as the beautiful winged woman in front of me turned her head. Her dark brown hair twisted around her shoulders, and her purple eyes flashed under the florescent lights. Her face was perfect, and I felt the entire classroom spin. My body broke into a sweat, my hands started shaking, and I had trouble breathing.

  “We don't need to meet after class. I will pick half of them, and you pick the other. We'll just talk tomorrow and confirm that we didn't make the same choices,” she said with a whispered growl.

  “Mr. Roberts said we need to meet,” I said. M
y voice came out half whine and half squeak.

  “I know what he said. I just don't want to meet. It's a waste of time.” Her eyes drifted down my face and to my desk. I had my school book lying on the table, and there was an open manga concealed in the pages there. It was the latest issue of this series where the protagonist got stuck in a video game, and the cover showed him surrounded by a harem of beautiful elf women wearing bikini armor.

  “Okay,” my throat caught at the first syllable and only the ‘ay’ came out.

  I thought she would say something else, but the bell rang, and everyone in class jumped up from their desks. My love moved quickly, and by the time I scooped up my textbook, mangas, and pencils, I looked up to see the back part of her purple wings slide out of the door.

  Chapter 2

  I’d packed my lunch. My parents gave me a few dollars every day to buy something in the cafeteria, but I’d learned that they didn’t pay much attention to what was in the fridge or cupboards, so I got away with spending the money on comic books.

  I arrived at the white, polished eating hall at my usual time and found my usual seat in the farthest corner from where the other kids sat. My spot was nearest the door to one of the teachers' lounges, and I figured that it would have probably been the choicest table if not for the proximity to the school authorities.

  I took my seat, unpacked my peanut butter and banana sandwich, and then opened the manga that Charlotte had caught me reading in class. I’d been devouring the series for the last few weeks and felt a little twinge of regret that I was almost to the end of it. Fortunately, I had a bunch of unread comics waiting for me at home. I’d only gotten a few pages into the book and a few bites into my sandwich before my watch dinged.

  I poked my eyes over my comic and waited for the beautiful winged girl to walk into the cafeteria. I had her schedule memorized, set to my watch alarm, and I looked forward to this particular time of the day. On cue, Charlotte strutted into the dining hall as if she was queen of the domain.

  I had always thought that the different species of kids would have sat with their own kind, but that wasn't really the case. I often saw vampires hanging out with the werecreatures, or devils and elves laughing together. The different races all seemed to be friendly, or, at least, the only real segregation came from the two sexes. If a boy and a girl sat together, most would think they were dating. The only other kids who seemed highly segregated were the angels, and my love blessed a group of the feathery-winged girls with a smile as she strolled past them.

  I watched her thread by a trio of girl vampires sitting with a pair of medusas and then stand in line at the food counter. Charlotte’s shoulders relaxed a little as soon as she got into the line, and I guessed from her posture that she was feeling a little stressed. Maybe she was worried about our upcoming test in history class? It was a massive exam on the Bolshevik Revolution and the fates of the seven members of the first Soviet Politburo.

  My mind strayed from thoughts of my crush as I considered the upcoming test, but then I focused back on her when she sat alone at her usual spot across the hall from me. For not the first time, or the thousandth, I debated picking up my tray and sitting next to her. Charlotte was so beautiful, so wonderful, and so intelligent. I didn’t understand why she didn’t have more friends. Sure, she would occasionally sit with some of the werewolf girls, or maybe the reptilian nagas, but there weren’t any other succubi at our school.

  I would have thought that my love would have befriended the beautiful erinyes, with their charcoal-black wings and their ferocious beauty. Or maybe even the angel girls, with their white wings and glowing hair. Or even the medusas, with their lithe athletic bodies and flirtatious snake hair. But no, my crush seemed to be the only gorgeous girl at our school who didn’t hang out with the other gorgeous girls.

  Charlotte really needed a friend.

  I took another bite of my sandwich and swallowed it with a painful gulp. Today would be the day. I would gather my courage, pick up my lunch, walk across the cafeteria, and then sit next to her. We were partnered together for the lab, so I would open the conversation by saying something clever like… damn, I couldn’t think of anything clever to say. I let out a long breath and leaned back on the bench. Maybe I should just introduce myself to her again and bring up our lab assignment?

  “You just need to do this. Be brave like Shinji,” I whispered the name of my favorite anime hero. Then I reconsidered and thought about Spike Spiegel, who was much more mature than Shinji from Neon Genesis. Yes, I’ll be more like Spike for sure. The hero of the Cowboy Bebop anime wasn’t afraid to talk to pretty girls.

  I placed my books in the nook of my arm, lifted up my lunch bag with shaky arms, and took a trembling step toward the other side of the cafeteria. I half expected the loud murmur of voices to cut into silence and for someone to point at me before laughing at my pathetic attempt to approach Charlotte, but no one paid me any attention when I took my first step.

  As usual.

  Crap. What was I going to say? Each step took me closer to the girl, and I felt my heart spin in my chest like a flat tire. I definitely couldn’t tell her about the nights that I’d ridden my bike to her house so that I might catch a glimpse through the curtains of her upstairs bedroom window of her towel-drying her hair. I also couldn’t tell her about the mornings I woke up early so that I could see her jogging through the park. I really, really, really couldn’t tell her about winter break, when I’d spent the entire two weeks sitting in the mall food court so that I could watch her work at Hot Dog on a Stick. Charlotte had looked so adorable in that silly uniform that I’d almost wanted to take a picture of her with my phone, but that would have been a little weird. I mean, I wasn’t exactly stalking her or anything. I just thought she was wonderful and loved her with every part of my being.

  Now I stood across the table from her.

  My hands were still shaking, and I set my lunch down and slid onto the bench before I could let my terror take control. Charlotte’s eyebrow raised when I sat, and she put her fork down next to her half-eaten slice of pizza. She ate everything with a fork, and almost always got pizza from the cafeteria lunch lady.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “I--” my voice came out as a squeak, and I had to clear my throat. I was trying hard not to tremble. Ugh, what was I doing here? What had gotten into me today? Was it the lab partnership? I should have stayed at my table. The palms of my hands were beyond wet with sweat, and my voice had retreated into my shoes.

  “I. Wanted. To. Talk. About. The. Lab.” My words came out forced and halfway between blurts and cries.

  “The lab?” she tilted her beautiful head slightly. The movement caused her brown hair to swirl over her shoulders like poured chocolate.

  “For our physics class?” I asked. “We have to test the heat dissipation--”

  “Oh, that’s right. Wait, you are in my class?”

  “Yes, I’m your partner. We spoke briefly at the end of the class. You don’t remember?” My voice was still a squeak, but some of the tremble had left it.

  “I remember saying that I would do my half, but…” she stared at me again, and pursed her perfectly full red lips, “I don’t really remember talking to you.”

  “That’s okay. I get that a lot, actually.” I felt my shoulders relax a bit. Spike would have been proud of me. This was the longest conversation I could ever recall having with a girl, besides my mother. But she didn’t count and also didn’t seem to want to talk to me that often.

  The succubus girl gazed at me with her swirling purple orbs, and I tried not to let my soul fall into them. Charlotte was so darn beautiful, I stared at her eyes, then her face, then her lips, and then I found my vision falling down to the top curve of her school uniform blouse.

  “You wanted to talk about the lab?” she asked a split second before I ogled her boobs like a creeper.

  “Yes, ummmm. I was thinking about using silver and brass in different motor oils. What do you t
hink?”

  “Okay. I’ll choose different metals.” She looked down at her pizza and picked up her fork.

  “Oh, great. Ummmm, which metals were you thinking about?” I watched her cut a piece of pizza with a plastic knife and then lift the bite to her perfect mouth.

  “It doesn’t matter does it? As long as we test out differences and document them,” she said after she had chewed her food.

  “I guess not. Ummmm, did you study for the history test?” I asked as she cut into her pizza again.

  “History test?”

  “Yeah, after lunch we have AP European history together?”

  “You are in that class with me?” Charlotte asked, and her purple eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “Yes, I… uhhh, I actually sit behind you. Just like in physics.”

  “Hmmm.” She ate another bite of her pizza and looked at my lunch bag. “Are you going to eat?”

  “Yes!” I blurted out a little too enthusiastically.

  My shaking hands pried open my lunch bag and grabbed my half-consumed sandwich. I took a small bite of it and then chewed. Charlotte was three quarters done with her pizza and had started to eat some of the sickly-looking peas on her plate. She didn’t really look at me while she ate, but that was fine.

  I was eating lunch with a girl.

  ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!

  It wasn’t just any girl either. It was the girl of my dreams. The girl who I thought about almost every second of my existence. The girl who I wanted to spend the rest of my life, marry, have kids, and grow old together with. I knew that we were still in high school, but this lunch was the start of it all. As long as I didn’t mess it up by being weird, I knew that I’d eventually have the courage to ask her out.

  I heard a ring across the table, and the brown-haired succubus reached into her backpack. Unlike most of the kids at school, Charlotte had an old-style flip phone instead of the latest smart styles. It was pink, covered with stickers of cats, and even had a tail of beads coming out of the bottom. She flipped it open and stared at the screen for a second before she closed it.