Page 67 of The Wickedness of Man

“Consequences?” I said, vaguely recalling the conversation. Everything seemed like it had happened in a dreamscape. “Of being cambions? Or because I’m… whatever you think I am?”

“Of what could happen if you continue to have sex with Caleb.” My mouth fell open, but before I could interrupt, she held up a finger to stop me from replying. “The more time you spend with each other, the more your auras will draw you together. Small feedings, such as kisses, touching—as you’re doing now—aren’t really going to do anything, though it will effectively keep you both calm right now. You’re both desperately in need of energy as you awaken—hence why you might find yourself passing out occasionally. Keeping incontact with each other will allow energy to pass through the both of you, like a loop. Sleeping together, however—especiallyanything penetrative—will lead to you becoming inextricably entangled.”

“You’re saying that if Caleb and I keep having sex, that eventually… what?”

“Like I was saying earlier,” Carmilla continued, “I think it was no mere accident that you were both awoken at the same time. Someone may have been specifically using him for this very reason—hence what I meant about the ‘arranged marriage.’ I doubt the archdiocese has any real idea what they’ve done, because those old bastards only want to play whatever game amuses them for the moment, but?—”

“You’re saying Caleb and I becoming demons now… was an experiment? By this Church organization?” I gazed down at him, afraid I might cry. We’d both been trapped… abused… tortured… for these people to control us.

Carmilla massaged the side of her head, as if fighting off a migraine. “I could always be wrong, but… this isn’t the first time I’ve witnessed the organization attempting to engineer things between succubi and incubi, Magda. The man in charge of that place—” She shook her head, as if chasing a particularly bad memory from her brain. “I pray I’m jumping to conclusions.”

“What does it mean for us?” I asked, unable to stop myself from gripping him tighter.

“Put simply, if my theory is correct, then you will eventually end up bonding with Caleb. It won’t stop either of you from having relations with anyone else—perhaps even enough interaction to get energy to give you a bit of sustenance—but it will create an unbreakable bond in which you’ll only be able to attain true satiation from feeding with each other… or you will eventually end up starving to death. No matter how far apart you are, bonded couples are able to sense each other, so it'sunlikely that such a thing would happen, but… right now, since you’re both awakening, your auras are probably calling to each other out of deep need. It will calm down, but your feelings at the moment might become intense… as you experienced in the condo.”

I gaped at her, mouth hung open, terror climbing at the back of my throat. “It’s because of me? I-it’s my fault because of this aura thing?—”

“No,” said Carmilla, but then with a slight twist to her mouth, “but also yes. Someone within the organization did something. Just… let me show you.”

Carmilla’s forefinger extended into a claw, and she reached down and drew a thin cut in Caleb’s shoulder. I had to clamp down on the worry as a trail of blood began to slip out of the wound, but Caleb didn’t appear to notice, so I forced myself to focus as she maneuvered the blood into a floating orb in her hand. It rolled like it was trying to coagulate and slip away at the same time.

“Look—do you see?” she asked, pointing to the blood as it twisted in her hand.

I leaned closer, and there, among the natural red color were flowing bits of purple and shining gold, like silky threads woven throughout.

“Is that normal for a demon?” I whispered. It was strangely beautiful.

“For an incubus, the gold bits, yes—those are from the family line, I suspect—but the purple…” Carmilla reached over with her other hand and scratched my arm—it didn’t hurt. My blood flowed into her free palm, but unlike normal blood, mine was not red, but rather a deep, almost violet color. Inside of it were similar threads similar to the gold, but they were bright silver, shining like starlight.

“That’s… that’s me?” I asked, watching with rapt attention.

Carmilla nodded. “Now, if I stop trying to control them…”

The orbs in her hands flew together as if magnetized, into one singular ball. The violet and red entangled, the gold and silver braided themselves together. Then, as if the cells had a mind of their own, the mixed blood broke into two perfectly even orbs, then returned to the cuts on both of our arms and sealed our wounds. I looked up at Carmilla, eyes wide in horror.

“Do you… do you think it’s already happened? Do you think I?—”

“We don’t know anything for certain,” she said quickly. “These things take time, but… the connection between you two—you can feel it, can’t you?”

I nodded, mute.

“I don’t think it’s just happenstance that you two are so drawn together.”

Tears stung my eyes. “But what about Caleb? Did I do this to him?”

“No, Magda, I believe he may have been madeforyou. Or in the very least, a succubuslikeyou. Regular incubi and succubi are typically able to hold our own against the temptations of other demons, but you and Caleb are not regular demonsorcambions. I think someone within the organization made sure he wouldn’t be able to resist the pull of your aura… nor you, his. You two have probably been circling one another indirectly for years, kept at a safe distance by the organization… until now.”

“But why?” I whispered. I wanted to break into tears; I wanted to scream; I wanted to run. “Why would someone do this to us?”

“Remember, Magda, this is all speculation so far, all right? It could be side effects of the transition for you both, but… when I kissed him earlier,” Carmilla paused, shivering pleasantly with the memory, “he should have been entirely focused on me. At some point, however, I realized that he was feeding off theenergy between the two ofyou,and it was coming through as I fed. He was kissing me physically, but the power was all coming from your lust for each other.”

I stared down at Caleb, afraid that the fear building within me would wake him up. I knew she was telling the truth, and it terrified me. I recalled the moment I first woke up in the condo with him. I’d felt like a crazy person, trying to remind myself not to get closer to the strange man. I’d had to constantly remind myself about the normal sense and logic that seemed been shut up tight in the back of my mind. And when I’d gotten close enough to him that I’d first imagined him holding me like that… driving himself into me… It hadn’t just been arandomorgasm at all. If Carmilla was right, it was the first time I’d encountered his aura while I was conscious—and the moment he’d come to my side, our fates had been sealed.

Who would do this?Why?

“I…” I started slowly, uncertain of whether I wanted to admit this to Carmilla or not. “When we were having sex the second time, I… I felt this intense need to… to…”

“Claim him?” she supplied casually, and then at the flushing panic in my cheeks, she grinned. “I told you before, I could sense your aura literallyallover him. That’s just good, old-fashioned horniness, dear—succubi and incubi attributes aside. You like him, your sexual natures are compatible, and your demonic nature compelled you to ‘mark him’ with your energy. You might not be able to see it, since it’syourenergy, but I can—as would other succubi. There’s a purplish cloud around him that tells other demons that they shouldn’t feed from him—without permission.”

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