Page 30 of Succubus Sins
Through my bleary vision I could make out Anderson waving the bloody scalpel at Sarah. “I only had enough to absorb one supernatural’s power! I didn’t want yours. It’s useless!”
Sarah spat.
Anderson sneered and turned back to me. “Come on, freak. Give me your powers.”
I’d do anything to make the agony end. I babbled incoherently and Anderson didn’t bother to try and understand. He went straight to work plucking out bits of my body, forcing it to scramble into regeneration. I jerked and the IV sticking out of my vein tugged at my wrist. The cold fluid seeped into my body, replacing the blood I was losing by the pint. Anderson gave me a short reprieve as he replaced the bag, tossed it to a building pile on the floor. The damn guy wouldn’t let me wither up and die. He’d keep this regeneration going on forever.
He continued his work, slicing off my ear and holding his hand over the flesh as it grew back. Magic tingled across my forming veins, and added its own burn to my plethora of pain. Yet I kept regenerating, which meant Anderson wasn’t getting any closer to absorbing my powers.
Anderson tossed the scalpel and it clattered across the floor. “There must be a way!” He stomped his foot like a child having a tantrum. “I have to be able to replicate it! I can’t risk the bitch getting the best of me. Just one fuck up and I’m done for.” For the first time, he hesitated. Desperation flashed across his glassy eyes and then all the color drained from his face. He stepped to the tool table and took the rib spreader once again, still stained with David’s lifeblood.
I strained against my binds. But I was so weak and so cold. Anderson had taken off all my clothes just so he could slice up every inch of my skin. The small slits had already sealed. But the larger gash running up my chest strained to close. Anderson forced the rib spreader in before it could.
He pumped the crank once and a crack reverberated through my chest. I screamed, but the mere sound of my own voice could hardly express that sensation. I’d never been so horrified in my life. He was literally ripping me apart.
Another pump of the crank sent me into manic cries for the pain to end. For the sweet darkness of death to finally take me away.
I wished I had blacked out, but my own body seemed to want me to witness whatever horror was about to transpire. I didn’t want to know why Anderson needed to crack open my chest. He’d taken so many organs out of my body, but it’d always been a kidney or bits of my liver. Never anything that I couldn’t have lived without anyway.
But now Anderson bridged that gap between insanity and reality. He reached inside my chest and the burn radiated to my left side. His grip tightened and I sucked in a breath.
No. Surely he wouldn’t go so far.
The thump of my heart strained against Anderson’s grasp. He leaned in, squeezing as a tremor overtook my body. “Forgive me,” he whispered.
My tongue rolled as I tried to speak. I couldn’t. The muse effects were too strong and the pain swept up and down my limbs like lightning.
Anderson closed his eyes and pulled my beating heart from my chest.
Succubus on Steroids
Sonya
Never before had I felt so powerful and yet at the same time, on the verge of losing control.
Emotion overpowered my senses, and at first I thought it was fear. The image of David's pale corpse blocked my vision and I shook my head, struggling to breathe. When I let the tears come I realized it wasn't fear constricting my throat, but the reality of my failure.
With a growl of frustration I ripped off my heels and tossed them into the road. Let them be destroyed, blasted things. My bare feet couldn't feel the pain of the jagged street as I broke into a run. I jerked my phone out of my pocket and took a sharp left to follow the bold green line. I didn't fail to notice my walking icon had been replaced with a bicycle. Stupid Google. Doesn't have a "Succubus on Steroids" setting.
Anderson was going to regret messing with me. I didn't care if he had something to block my powers. He couldn't block my fist. Even if he wasn’t human, he wouldn’t come back from a smashed-in skull.
After jogging for fifteen minutes, my breath still came slow and easy. My heart retaliated against my raging emotion and thumped with a steady beat. The power bubbled from my necklace and merged into my soul, giving me a bottomless source of energy. No matter how upset I was, my body wanted to act as if I was lounging on a beach basking in the sun.
The faster I ran, the more I realized I was bringing attention to myself. Cars slowed. Strangers walking on the street jerked to a halt to stare, men with lust and women with awe. Was I glowing? Maybe. But it didn't matter. I'd failed David. All this time I'd entertained the fantasy I could save him with a fully charged Blood Stone. My mother had told me of its regenerative powers. Although, she'd never specified if those powers could be gifted to another. It was a faint hope I'd clung to in order to justify what I'd done to David. My selfishness was almost crippling. Why hadn't I just let myself die?
Tears evaporated off my cheeks and hoarse sobs scratched in my throat. My legs pumped and I pushed myself into a frantic run as my face scrunched in pain.
Why was I born this way? I shouldn't be on this planet, plaguing men with my poisonous kisses. Being an unfaithful girlfriend to Sarah, who only deserved the best. But it was too late for that now. My mother didn't drown me when I was born as I would have, had I been her. Instead she raised me with the knowledge of what I was. How cruel was she to teach me the difference between good and evil, when I was doomed to sin?
An ancient medical building loomed when I rounded the last bend and I snorted a laugh. Of course. The sign read:
Seattle Biological Research Center
I should have known. This place was the highest running rumor in Seattle for the creepy, haunted bio center that was all but shut down, yet still accepted cadavers and experimental medical patients, and the best possible place Anderson could hide. I'd been dared more than once to brave the mostly-abandoned research center at night, although the dare had always come from an infatuated stranger who wanted to flatten me against a dark wall. Little did they know the favor I did them by declining.
I drew in a deep breath and approached the building. This time not for fun, but for redemption. And as if to encourage why I was here, my necklace sizzled, as if sensing my need and dousing my body with energy. There was no doubt I was glowing now. My skin burned hot and glinted red off the lamp poles like tiny embers.
Four pristine cameras clashed against the medieval, mossy exterior of the research building. Their dark lenses stared at the abandoned parking lot with dead vulture eyes. I rolled my shoulders back and took three more steps. The cameras swirled onto my face and I thrust my middle finger in the air.
