Suddenly A Succubus
Chapter 40.2

Outside, snow continued swirling around on the cold concrete. A thin layer had formed on the sidewalk recently, but as Amara left the building, her fury melted an obvious trail behind her.

“Amara, please!” Vee asked, finally catching up. “I know it’s upsetting, but he didn’t mean anything by it. Everyone’s overwhelmed, that’s all.”

With an angry shout, Amara threw a small handful of fire at the outer cafeteria wall. “I get it! I know why I’m supposed to be here, I know why this is helpful, I know that I’m not helping matters by terrorizing everyone! I just… it’s so hard to care, Vee. I have all this strength, all these powers, and… and it wasn’t enough.”

Vee stepped closer, and Amara instinctively put out her hellfire. The heat remained, but all danger faded as Vee put a hand on Amara’s arm. “Believe me, Amara, I understand what that feels like.”

Amara sighed. “I know you do, Vee, and I don’t mean to blow up at you. Being in there, it’s just… how can Nick and Tessa focus on all that? After what happened?”

“They want to keep us safe, Amara. Isn’t that what you want too? Yes, they’ve found the energy to talk with all those students and try to put together a plan, but that doesn’t mean they’re not hurting.” Vee turned to look away from the building, leaning against the wall. “Look, there’s no need to go back inside. How about we just wait out here and watch the snow while they finish up. Then we can check with Nick and Tessa, see how things went, and figure out our next steps from there.”

“…That’s probably for the best. I’ve been flaring my eyes at everyone that looks at me for too long.” Amara joined Vee in leaning against the wall.

“Well, I promise I won’t tell Nick, but he’ll probably find out eventually. Maybe we can tell him that I’ve already scolded you for it? That might stop him from siccing Tessa on you.”

“Okay, are they a thing?” Amara asked, desperate for a change of topic. “They’ve been spending so much time together, and I can’t figure out what to make of it. Normally I’d just read their auras, but this is more complicated then whether or not they’re fucking. Especially since Nick has been keeping me fed; I doubt he has much energy left for another fuck buddy.”

“I’m not too sure myself, and if I’m being honest, I don’t think they’ve talked about it yet. They’re probably just doing everything they can to stop this from growing out of control.”

They slid down to sit on the sidewalk, Amara’s heat keeping them both warm while they gossiped about their friends. Nearly half an hour passed of them simply enjoying each other’s company, and Amara briefly paused to appreciate how far their friendship had come over the last few weeks. Their bitter rivalry seemed so distant now, and it was easy to forget how close they’d both come to killing each other.

The end of the meeting was obvious to Amara. She heard dull conversation and dishes clattering inside the building, and the familiar smells of cafeteria food heating up. She also heard someone approaching the exit, and braced herself for the presumed scolding from Nick, or possibly Tessa.

Instead, a different voice spoke up, one she didn’t immediately recognize.

“Amara?” the voice asked. It was a masculine voice, though not incredibly deep. Amara looked over to see a slender man with bright blue hair and pale beige skin, a bag slung across his body. His voice was shivering ever so slightly, though she couldn’t tell if that was due to her or the weather. His eyes traced over the edge of the snow, the line where Amara’s heat had melted everything before stepping closer.

“What is it?” Amara said flatly.

With a deep breath, the blue-haired student walked in front of Amara. He slowly kneeled to be at eye level, his movements careful and precise, before speaking again. “I know things are tough right now, but I—well, a few of us—wanted to express our gratitude for all your help, as well as our sympathy for… how everything ended.”

Amara wasn’t sure what to say. She’d gotten so used to everyone being scared of her, it was strange to have someone approach her so casually. She stammered awkwardly for a moment before Vee nudged her, prompting her to say something.

“Uh, yeah, whatever. Who are you?” Amara asked.

“Of course, sorry; my name is Kenji. I didn’t just want to thank you, though. We found something that we wanted to give you.” Kenji reached into his bag and pulled out a small bundle, which he extended to Amara. “It was tucked away in a corner of the dining hall; we noticed it when we moved all the tables for today’s meeting. I believe it belonged to your friend, Chloé.”

Eyes wide, Amara gasped as she reached for the bundle. She quickly unwrapped the cloth, which appeared to be some kind of table covering, then gently placed everything in her lap.

Inside, just as Kenji had said, were Chloé’s things. A small crossbody purse, a lanyard with keys and an ID card, a phone, and her sketchbook. Amara retracted even more of her heat, desperate not to accidentally burn anything, as she ran a finger down the edge of the book. Chloé had always carried this everywhere, constantly drawing and taking notes. She had probably hidden it away when she’d decided to sneak towards their battle.

Tears threatened to fall, and Amara was only vaguely aware of the thanks Vee gave towards Kenji. He stood and left quickly, and once they were alone, Vee spoke up again.

“Do you… want to go to her place?” Vee asked.

Amara shook her head. She squeezed her eyes tight, burning away the tears, before she wrapped everything up again. “No. I’m not… I can’t. Not yet.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I… I want to go home. I don’t want to be around people.” Amara jumped to her feet, starting off towards her apartment before quickly pausing. “Do you want to come with? I can make us some food.”

Vee nodded, then stood up to join her. They stayed silent as they walked, Amara focused on the package in her arms as Vee sent out a few texts. When they finally arrived, Amara placed everything on the counter before she ran off to change clothes. She returned in a pair of loose sweatpants, a racerback tank, as well as most of her true form. She didn’t bring her wings out, they were still too big for her apartment, but she eagerly ran her fingers over her horns as she walked back into the living room.

“Nick still asking you to keep those hidden?” Vee asked, taking a seat at the counter.

“He thinks it’ll be easier to convince everyone to stay quiet if they’re not scared of me,” Amara said, half-heartedly imitating Nick as she spoke. “What’s the point? They already know I’m a demon. They’ve seen what I’m capable of. Weren’t they all watching the fight through the cafeteria windows?”

“To my knowledge, yes. We’re not living in puritan times, though; people are generally less religious across the board. I’ll bet a lot of students don’t care about what you are, they’re more concerned with how you treat them.”

“Yeah, and snapping at them doesn’t help, I know, I know…” Amara rummaged through her fridge, which had recently been filled to the brim with fresh food, as she started preparing for lunch. “Ugh, I’m sorry, Vee. I know you just want to help, and I promise I don’t mean to just constantly vent at you.”

“I get it, Amara. Besides, listening to you vent kinda feels like letting myself do it, at least a little bit. Though, if you don’t mind me saying, it seems like you haven’t been spending as much time with Nick. At least, outside of the fucking.”

A frying pan hit the stove, and Amara’s eyes flared as she started heating it up. “Well, you and I are friends again, and you understand me more than he ever could. Plus, he’s always so… calm and understanding! He’s always trying to talk about feelings and think about what’s best for everyone, and it’s just so infuriating! Why isn’t he angry? Would it kill him to let loose once in a while? To scream and throw something like a normal person?”

“He’s never been a very emotional person, Amara. At least, not like that. Remember, you were a lot like him before you started changing.”

The conversation continued as Amara kept cooking. Desperate to avoid thinking about Chloé’s things that now sat a few feet away from her, Amara even let Vee catch her up about what was happening with the other students. Although Vee missed the end of the meeting, she had been paying attention up until that point. Among all the students that talked, most people agreed that keeping everything hidden was a good idea. Most of the conflict came from hashing out the details, such as what should happen when someone gets hurt or when a fight inevitably spins out of control.

Naomi, and a few others, were constantly pushing for a way to be more transparent, upset by trapping themselves in a web of lies. Tessa had done her best to describe the perils of coming clean, but without hard proof of those threats, it was a difficult conversation to have.

Notably, Kenji appeared to be putting in a lot of work to keep everyone on the same page. He was vocal about presenting a united front, and Amara suspected that’s why he had been the one to approach her with Chloé’s things. The rational part of her brain told her to talk with other students, to get to know them and how they felt, but those feelings were always drowned out by her more aggressive emotions.

“—but who made her the arbiter of truth? I mean, Tessa’s explained the threats, and she keeps pushing back anyways,” Amara said as she finished a bite of food. “Plus, she broke into my apartment! I can’t believe her!”

“It’s barely been a week, Amara. We still have plenty of time left of Winter Break to sort through everything, and maybe that includes getting to know everyone that’s wrapped up in all of this.” Vee shifted in her seat, then quickly looked down at the floor. “How about you finish up, take a breath, and try to reset. Your tail has been going nuts ever since you started cooking.”

“Shit, has it?” Amara asked, pulling her tail up to inspect it.

“Oh yeah. You fidget with it constantly. It’s been whipping around, tapping on the floor, things like that. Do you really not notice?”

Amara gently massaged her tail with her hands as she tried to calm down. “Not really, but I can’t say I’m surprised. When I was little I used to bite my fingernails constantly, so it makes sense that a new body part means new nervous tics.”

Vee looked over with a sigh, then a gentle smile. “Look, lunch was amazing as always. I hate to do this, but I’ve got some things to take care of. I know today was rough, but I’m happy you made the effort to get back out there. Every little step counts, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s easier to do all this with you around, Vee. I really do appreciate you hanging around this much.”

“Us against the future! Right, Hellspawn?” Vee said, smirking.

Amara managed a small chuckle before walking Vee to the front door and hugging her goodbye. She even stood in the hallway for a bit, watching Vee leave, before finally closing the door.

Now alone, she didn’t know what to do next. Her eyes lingered on Chloé’s things, then quickly darted elsewhere; she wasn’t ready for that yet. Instead, she decided to keep busy by cleaning up her mess in the kitchen. She moved quickly, her hands loading the dishwasher while her tail grabbed things off the counter. She moved a pan to the sink, filling it with water and soap before letting it soak, then jumped in surprise when something shattered on the floor. Turning around quickly, she found a dozen different pieces of a shattered coffee mug.

Weird. Must have tried to grab it and missed, or something.

Thankfully, cleaning up this new mess only took a minute. She threw all the pieces away, then saw the garbage can was full and slipped on her shoes to throw it out. When she returned, the kitchen was spotless, and she was once again left without anything to do.

She thought about calling Nick, or maybe Tessa, to blow off some steam, but immediately decided against it. She thought about finding something to watch, flipping through different streaming catalogs, but nothing interesting jumped out at her. In the end, she put on some random crime show she’d seen a dozen times, just to have something on in the background.

It had only been playing for a few minutes when Amara’s phone started ringing.

Her mother was calling.

Amara’s stomach dropped. She still hadn’t returned any of her mother’s messages, she’d been too wrapped up in the aftermath of their fight with Brandon. Now, after finally finding the energy to return to society, it was harder than ever to ignore this call. Instead, she pulled her tail closer, grew out her exoskeleton to hold the phone in place, and demanifested her horns. She cleared her throat, turned on the lamp next to the couch, and answered the phone.

“…Hey, Mom,” Amara said meekly. The camera clicked into focus, and a video of her mother appeared on screen.

“Amara! You’re okay! Oh, thank goodness!” Evelyn said, her stress obvious. “Oh, you are in so much trouble, young lady! You have been ignoring me for weeks, and I’ve been worried sick about you! No matter how many times Nick swore you were alright, I could tell something was off.”

“Yeah, I… sorry about that, Mom.”

“You were supposed to be home days ago! Do you know how close I was to driving over there myself? What on Earth have you been doing?!”

With a heavy sigh, Amara closed her eyes briefly. She saw Chloé, the portal, the explosion, and she had trouble finding the words to speak. “Look, Mom, I… there was…”

There was a pause, and when Amara opened her eyes, she saw a different expression on her mother’s face. The anger was gone, replaced with a look only a mother could give. “Oh, honey, I’m not actually mad at you. I was just so worried, and I didn’t know what was going on. You know I’ll always love you, right? There’s nothing you could say or do that would change that.”

Amara had expected anger. She had braced herself for a scolding, for harsh words and threats, but the love behind her mother’s words was almost worse. As scared as she was, there was only one thing she wanted to say.

“I know, Mom. I love you too, I always will.” Amara took a deep breath, preparing herself for the difficult conversation she was about to have. “There’s… something I need to tell you. It’s going to sound really weird, and you’re not going to believe me, but I need you to trust me.”

Concern grew on Evelyn’s face. “Of course, honey. You can tell me anything.”

Okay, Amara. There’s no easy way to say this, you just have to rip the bandage off and hope for the best.

“Mom, I… I’m a demon.”

Silence. Evelyn’s face shifted to one of confusion, and her mouth opened a few times before words came out. “I-I don’t understand. Is this one of those TikTok things? Am I being recorded? Should I be seeing a filter on you or something?”

“I’m not fucking joking, Mom!” Amara shouted. Evelyn was clearly shocked, but Amara continued anyways. “I’m a literal, straight-from-the-bible demon!”

She jumped to her feet, then summoned her true form with a flurry of hellfire. Flames swirled around her head as her horns appeared, then her wings. “I have horns, wings, and a tail, and I can summon the fires of hell to do my bidding!” To prove her point, Amara angled the phone to show off all her demonic features. She ended the sentence by holding up her hands and engulfing them in flame.

Her words grew more panicked as she continued. “I have no idea why this is happening, but ever since I started changing, my life has been a living hell! So yes, I’ve been ignoring you, but I didn’t know what else to fucking do!”

Evelyn was still stunned. Her eyes were wide, she was breathing heavily, and Amara swore she saw tears forming. Amara was terrified, but before she could say anything else, the call ended.

“Mom?” Amara asked. “Mom?!”

Did she seriously just hang up on me?

The screen went dark, and Amara shouted in frustration. She threw her phone at the couch, then began pacing back and forth in her living room.

Should I not have done that? Did I just fucking ruin everything, again, by telling her this?

Before she had time to examine the conversation again, she felt something else. A strange pulse of energy shook the front of her apartment, one that felt familiar. It was exactly the same sensation as when the vines appeared under the cafeteria, or when the portal under Lysander Hall opened. Unsure what to expect, Amara prepared for the worst.

She summoned her chitinous gauntlets, wreathing them in hellfire as she stared at the source of the disturbance. Part of her was excited, she desperately wanted something to fight, and she was ready to rip into anything that dared to invade her home.

There was another burst of hellfire, but this time it wasn’t hers. It floated near the entrance, then quickly grew in size before vanishing just as suddenly. Stepping out of the purple flames was a figure, its back turned, and Amara braced herself. This new person had large red wings, a thick red tail, and extravagant horns that sat atop her head. Rich brown hair curled down her back, then bounced slightly as the stranger turned around. Her skin was slightly darker, and she scanned the room with glowing amber irises before finding Amara. Her glowing eyes were framed with heavy crow’s feet, and she wore the same look of shock Amara had seen just moments earlier.

Amara, who had almost leapt to attack this invader, froze in place. “…Mom?”

Evelyn sighed, her expression turning from surprise to deep sorrow. A tear rolled down her cheek as she stepped closer. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry. We need to talk.”