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Trance.

“As humanity has come to realize demons and Hell were real, we remembered magic. For millennia, we have been fighting the threat with prayers, spells, and artifacts. But modern societies relegated religions and sorcery to fairy tales. We forgot how to fight demons. In recent years, historians, archaeologists, and scholars have been digging for lost knowledge about magic from Egypt to Nepal, and South America. As a State Exorcist, a few arcane weapons are at your disposition. In this chapter, we will study them briefly to prepare you for your training […]”

-Extract from the State Exorcist’s Manual , edition of 2047.

LOS ANGELES, 2052

I can’t remember the last time I slept so deeply, my slumber uninterrupted by nightmares. Who knew that the remedy to haunted rest was a mind-blowing orgasm given by a demon of lust?

My room is dark, but soft sunlight filters through the blinders on the window. I get out of bed and put some clothes on. The wound on my lower belly feels much better. It has healed already and I’ll have to take the staples out today.

I find Leo in the kitchen. The tattoo artist is still working on the extensive ink that covers most of Robb’s body now. She looks exhausted, to the point of fainting.

“Have you taken breaks?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “I’m almost done.”

“Thank you.” Then to Leo, I ask, “He hasn’t moved?”

My assistant looks deeply depressed as he says, “No. I shaved him… I thought…”

Robb’s face is now clean-shaven. It accentuates the hollowness of his cheeks, but at least he looks more human and less like a cave-dwelling creature.

“Yes. Thank you, Leo.”

He smiles sadly. “I wish I could do more…”

I sigh and squeeze his shoulder. “He’ll need your kindness when he wakes up.” I turn back to the artist. “I’ll pay you handsomely for today, twice what they promised you.” Her tired eyes widen as she listens to me. “And I’ll give you more if you accept to do just one more thing for me. You can be on your way this evening, and never hear from us again. What do you think?”

She nods slowly, a little dazed.

I find Azeroth on the rooftop, watching the sunset. He surveys me with a smile as I take a seat in front of him.

“Have you slept at all?” I ask.

“Of course. How could I not, after such a delectable meal?”

I flush. So we’re not pretending like nothing happened. I should have known.

“I have a gift for you,” I say. There’s no point in beating around the bush.

His brow goes up. “Oh? You have my attention, ashy one.” He leans toward me, and I have the sudden urge to kiss him.

“Actually, it’s not really a gift. More like a due.”

“Hmm. Now I wonder what you think I’m due,” he says seductively.

“Your freedom.”

That takes him by surprise, and his golden eyes roam over my face. Does he expect a trick?

I stand up. “Come with me.”

Azeroth follows me back to the apartment, where the tattoo artist awaits us in the living room.

“She’ll change your tattoos,” I say. “I’ll guide her through the process. A few well-placed lines should be enough to break the different spells. Once it’s done, no words will be able to send you back to Hell. At least, as long as you don’t stand on ritual grounds.”

He stares at me for a moment, expression unreadable, then he takes his clothes off. Unsurprisingly, he’s not wearing any underwear under his pants. Leo swears before averting his eyes. The artist looks unflustered as she prepares her tools. She must be used to it.

His dark energy is tame tonight, but I realize I need to keep myself busy or I’ll just end up staring at the demon lounging naked on my couch like a creep.

I go back to the kitchen and carry Robb to the spare bedroom. He’ll be confused when he wakes up. It might be better if he finds himself in a quiet environment. Leo helps me tuck him into bed. His rib cage has healed, and no longer has the imprint of Azeroth’s deadly punch.

“Should I stay with him?” Leo asks me.

“No. We don’t know in what state he’ll be in when he wakes up.” There’s a good chance Robb will be in a murderous mood. And who knows what damage the drug brought upon his psyche? “Go home. You need to sleep, too.”

“I’d rather stay with you guys. Can I sleep on the couch tonight?”

I sigh. “Sure, Leo.”

We’re not going anywhere as long as Robb is still unconscious. He holds the answers we’re looking for.

I spend the next hour guiding the artist through the process of breaking down the spells on Azeroth’s skin by adding lines in white ink. Every time I look up from her precise work, I find the demon’s eyes on me. He’s patiently biding his time, like a feline, waiting for an opportunity to pounce. His tattoos are extensive. They travel from his chest and arms to his thighs and ass. Some of them were meant to contain him, back when Milo was still the owner of his body.

When, at last, the artist’s work is done, I offer her a few thousands dollars in cash in a leather bag—payment from one of my dirty jobs. She looks dazed as she accepts it and packs her tools.

“You should leave Los Angeles,” I advise her as we say our goodbyes in the hallway. “They’ll never let you off the hook. And take a taxi. You can afford it.”

She nods, looking dead on her feet.

Leo fell asleep on a chair. I grab a blanket from my bedroom and settle it over him. Now that the three bedrooms are taken, this place is getting crowded.

The apartment is quiet, and I find Azeroth on the rooftop. His wings cut a stark contrast over the Los Angeles skyline, as if Hell and Earth suddenly overlap. Tina’s pink neon sign allows me to see the tattoos that cover his skin. It looks like he forgot to put his shirt back on. He stands close to the edge of the building, unmoving but for the slow balancing of his pointy tail.

“Were you waiting for my return to say your farewell?” I ask.

One beat of his great wings, and he could be out of sight.

Azeroth’s head turns slightly. “Are you so eager to see me gone, ashy one?”

No . “You’re free.”

“Yes. Free to stay here if it pleases me,” he says.

I sigh and look at my feet, but internally, I’m soaring. No matter how strange it should be to be teaming up with a demon, it’s all I’ve ever known. And Azeroth is…

He chuckles. “I can taste your delight, Jon.”

I shiver, liking the way he says my name. “Shut up.”

He laughs.

The silence settles over the rooftop for a moment. Tires screech in a street somewhere below and raucous laughter echoes in another. Los Angeles flourishes, no matter how many demons cross over to our world.

“He’s in you, isn’t he?” Azeroth asks at last. “You’ve devoured him.”

I don’t have it in me for half-truth anymore. “Yes.”

I brace myself for a fight, but he doesn’t move. His tail stops balancing.

“I’ve always known, deep down,” he says. “I can feel him. Like an aftertaste on my tongue when I’m near you.”

The suspense is killing me.

“Do it,” I say. “Take your revenge for what I did to your precious Light Bearer.”

“Tempting. But what would I have left?” Azeroth sighs. “Lucifer was never mine. I was his shadow, but he had eyes only for the light. He warned me that one day he wouldn’t come back. That’s the fate of his species. All travelers eventually get lost.”

He’s not lost. I’ve devoured him. I drank his soul like the finest wine, and now he’s in my flesh and blood.

“And, surprisingly, I quite like the taste of you,” Azeroth adds after a pause. “So, no, revenge is not what I’m after.” At last, he turns to face me. His eyes glow uncannily. “I would like to see this through.”

“What, exactly?” I ask, voice quiet.

“All of it.”

Then he’s walking to me, wings open wide. I let him come. Seconds later, his dark energy wraps around us like the rising tide. We stare at each other.

Does he want me to cower?

His hand shoots up and he grabs my throat. Not hard enough to cut my airflow, but enough to hold me in place.

“You’re a paradox, exorcist. I can feel what you feel; you’re an open book. And yet the workings of your mind and your history stay a mystery. I know what you want, but I can never guess what you’ll do.”

I grin, surprising both of us. I love the idea that I confuse him. It means I’m not the only one being taken under by the rip current.

Azeroth kisses me. I open my mouth to welcome his pointy tongue and my hands slide over his naked chest. He’s so hot to the touch. I want to bask in his warmth like a cold-blooded creature under the sun.

I feel the urge to prove him right and do the unexpected. I lower down, my breath on his skin, until my knees hit the floor. He lets go of my throat and watches me with undisguised lust.

I don’t know how to be seductive. My skill set has never been about human interactions—especially not sex. I can count the number of times I gave blowjobs on one hand. What pleasure can I give an experienced incubus?

And yet, Azeroth looks delighted as I fumble with the button of his cargo pants.

The fact that he has no underwear is suddenly the highlight of my evening as his massive cock springs free, already fully erect.

I don’t know what I’m doing, but I really want to do it all. His dark energy caresses my skin and fills my lungs. Once again, I crave.

I lick the dark tip of his cock, as red as blood, tentatively, and the flavor of him explodes on my tongue. Smoky, and yet sweet. It’s not how I remember my human hookups tasted like. Is it an incubus thing? I have no control over the moan that escapes my lips.

Azeroth hums appreciatively. “Again, you’re full of surprises, ashy one.” He breathes deeply, closing his eyes. “Fuck, you’re delectable.”

His hand appears on my hair and his claws scratch my scalp gently, sending shivers through my entire body. It urges me to open my mouth and swallow the head of his cock. I can’t take him deeper than the center, where the first bulbous part hits my lips, but he doesn’t seem to mind as he moves his hips imperceptibly. I dig my fingers into his thighs and urge him on.

I want more, and I’m not sure how to ask for it. But he knows. He can take his pleasure from me.

I’m tired of fighting; I need more love-making.

Azeroth’s thumb slides between my lips, and I suck on it eagerly. A low growl rumbles in his chest. He opens my mouth wider and buries his cock deeper. The soft ridges of his underside rub on my tongue, making me salivate.

“Are you sure, Jon?” he asks me. “I still have control over my urges, but not for long. You’re too… intoxicating. Now is your last chance to get off your knees, exorcist.”

His energy recedes slightly, offering me space to think. But it doesn’t matter. I’m not doing it because of his power.

I suck on the head of his cock before pulling away long enough to say, holding his gaze, “Fuck my face, demon.”

His fangs shine under the neon light as he smiles wickedly. “Naughty human.”

He gets a hold of my head with his two hands, and as soon as I open my mouth again, he pushes deep. Azeroth thrusts back and forth, hitting the back of my throat. The larger part of his cock barely fits between my lips.

I thought I knew what his power was like until now, but I realize with a jolt that I was wrong. He was holding back. Every cell in my body catches fire and I can feel the balmy air of Los Angeles on my face, the concrete under my knees, and the friction of my clothes on my heated skin. I feel everything, all at once. And, most of all, I feel Azeroth fucking my face, just as I asked. It’s all it takes to make me come in my pants without having to touch myself. I moan around his cock, my mind going blank for an instant. Thankfully, he got a hold of me and I’m not going anywhere.

Azeroth is looking down at me, golden eyes smoldering. “Fuck… Jon…” he rasps. “Your orgasm is fucking delicious…”

He speeds up, and saliva drips on my chin as he takes his pleasure.

He knows what he’s doing more than I do, and in the matter of minutes, he rasps. “I’m coming, Jon…”

A distant voice tells me that maybe I should pull away now, but it sounds so irrelevant. I grab him by the thighs before he can step back. Generous spurts of semen hit the back of my throat.

After a heartbeat, Azeroth pulls out a little, dragging the last drops on my tongue.

I try to follow him, not wanting for it to be over, but he says, “Don’t choke on my knot, sweetheart.”

His knot? I wonder absently.

I swallow his cum and sway as his power recedes. But seconds pass, and I feel… drunk. I reach for him and hold on to his pants for dear life. The world is spinning.

Azeroth chuckles. “I might have forgotten to warn you that an incubus’ seed is powerful and intoxicating. Especially if you swallow them.” He sits on the floor and pulls me onto his lap.

The night sparkles.

“I shouldn’t be able to see stars…” I mumble, my head resting on his thigh. The sky looks purple.

He laughs and caresses my hair. “It doesn’t last long, an hour at best.”

At best? I wouldn’t mind if it lasted forever. I feel so… satisfied.

Time stretches, and I drift on a cloud of contentment, my body still flushed with desire.

Eventually, I wake from my trance. Azeroth watches me from above with a little smile. His tail is wrapped around my arm, almost possessively.

“Oh,” I say, a little self-consciously.

“Welcome back to reality,” he jokes.

I groan. “That was…” Weird. Amazing. Can we do it again? “…something.”

“We incubi feed on sexual energy, so we have evolved to attract and seduce our prey. It keeps them coming back for more.”

It’s working , I want to say. “You’re like those carnivorous plants in the jungle. You lure your victims with bright colors and nectar until they can no longer escape and you gobble them up.”

He laughs. “Victims? I’m pretty sure you’re the one who snacked on me tonight.”

And I enjoyed it a little too much.

I sit up. “I need a shower…” My underwear is uncomfortably wet and sticky.

“Do you want me to come with you?” he asks seductively.

I hesitate, my attention snagging on his chest. Together, naked in the bathroom…

I shake my head to dissipate the lustful haze. “No.” We can’t spend the night having sex with Robb in one room and Leo sleeping on the chair. “And stop using your power.”

Azeroth laughs as I stagger to my feet, still a little drunk on his incubus’ seed —who calls it that?—and go down the stairs before he can lure me to him again.

I take a long shower, mind reeling when I think about all the things that happened in the last twenty-four hours. Robb is here. We haven’t seen each other in ten years. And I’m getting too comfortable fucking around with an incubus.

You still need to find the gate of Hell and close it , I admonish myself. Focus, Jon.

As I finish putting my clothes on, there’s a blood-curdling roar coming from somewhere in the apartment.

I find Leo already rushing to the door of Robb’s room. I grab him by the collar of his shirt before he can put himself in danger. Azeroth appears behind us and manhandles him gently back to the couch. Leo is too stunned to fight the hybrid off, eyes riveted on the door I’m about to open.

Robb stands in the middle of the dark room, head in his hands and shoulders shaking. I turn the light on. He’s still entirely naked, his fresh tattoos looking strange on his pasty skin. Gone are the freckles that covered most of his upper body during our time on Ketron Island. He hasn’t seen the sun in a while.

“Robb?” I say. “It’s me, Jon. How are you feeling?”

For a moment, I fear he won’t answer. That he’s lost his mind and captivity turned him into a beast.

But then he whispers, “She’s… she’s in my head…”

I share a glance with Azeroth.

“Powerful demons aren’t as easily contained,” the hybrid says. “I’m proof of it.”

I close my eyes, regret twisting my gut. “Shit.”

“She never stops talking…” Robb rasps. “She’s so… loud.” Suddenly, he punches his head violently. “Shut up!” Then again, and again.

I rush into the room and get a hold of his arms. “Stop that, you fucking idiot!”

He struggles against my grip, but demon queen or not, he’s weaker than me in his state, even if he’s much taller.

At last, when he can no longer hit himself, he looks down at me. “Jon?”

I smile tentatively. “Hey there, old man.”

I used to call him an old man when he was twenty-three and I was seventeen. I thought I was being funny. Today, he really looks the part, and it saddens me.

“Are you another devil come to torture me?” Robb frowns. “Or do you want revenge for your wings?”

Even now that the scars on my back have healed, I still feel the phantom presence of my stilted wings, the ones he cut with a carving knife.

“No. I’m just trying to keep you alive, against my better judgment,” I say.

Robb stares at me for the longest time. His eyes are the first clue to his healing. They’re no longer unfocused and veiled. His pupils are back to a normal size; the Angels’ Tears are out of his system.

“You… you did this to me…” he says. “You gave my soul to a she-demon—shut up!” he shouts to the voice in his head. “She’s furious, too… She wants to rip your cock out and feed it to hellhounds…”

“Charming,” I mumble.

Robb frees one of his hands, unexpectedly, by twisting his wrist in an unnatural angle. I’m forced to let go, unwilling to hurt him. He tries to strangle me, but Azeroth appears between us before I have time to blink. He grabs Robb by the throat and his feet kick aimlessly in the air. My old friend might be a tall man, but Azeroth is a giant.

“Behave,” the demon says, “or I won’t hesitate to kill you a second time, possessed or not. You’re only alive because Jon can’t seem to let your wretched soul go. Don’t make him regret it.”

A blush creeps over my face. I’m perfectly able to defend myself—I’ve been doing it my whole life—but having someone do it for me is a welcome novelty.

I step up, dropping a hand on Azeroth’s arm to make him relax his grip.

“Lilith might be a dreadful passenger, but she’s the only reason you’re still alive,” I say to Robb. “She’s contained, for now, and her presence is forcing your body to heal and mutate. I didn’t do this to torture you. We need you to find the gate of Hell and close it before Abaddon and his army break through. I know life has been unkind to you in recent years, and I’m sorry. But get your shit together, old man. We have work to do.”

Azeroth puts him back on his feet, and Robb falls to his knees. He looks defeated and on the brink of death once more. But he doesn’t come after me again. He watches us with shiny eyes.

I turn to the door. My assistant stands in the doorframe, shaken. “Leo. Can you fix something to eat quickly for Robb while I order take-away? He needs to eat.”

“Of course,” Leo answers, a little choked up.

“I’ll bring you clean clothes,” I say to Robb.

His eyes are downcast.

As I exit the room, I fear the man I knew and loved has died years ago.