Page 19 of An Illicit Seduction

The worst part of all of this is that Damon isn’t the Damon he once was. Once we started having sex, the old him disappeared. He used to stop by my office to talk to me randomly throughout the week; he would compliment me on my outfits all of the time. Hell, he used to ask to hang out with the crew sometimes. Now? All he wants to do is fuck. The minimal amount of words he has for me is about fucking or him telling me how many more of my orgasms he needs. He’s like a damn sex monster now. And, SiSi? I know I once said that all I needed was some young dick to put me to sleep and leave me alone, but now that I’ve got something similar, I can tell you that I want to go back in time and punch me in my face.”

Silent tears trailed down Seraph’s cheeks unchecked, and Sierra pressed a bunch of tissues into her hand, giving her some time to process her emotions without immediately bombarding her with the questions that arose as Seraph had spoken.

After a few minutes and a few more tissues, Seraph nodded and said, “I’m good.”

“Okay.” Sierra grabbed Seraph’s hand and squeezed it. “Look, I know this is going to sound crazy as hell, but I need you to hear me out before trying to shut me down. Okay?”

Seraph blew her nose and then turned curious eyes on Sierra. “Okay…”

“I think that Damon might actually be a real—for real—sex demon.”

Seraph stared at her for a second then started laughing. “Girl, what—ow!” The pain of Sierra squeezing her hand cut her off.

“You said you would hear me out, so hear me the fuck out. From what you just described of the interactions between the two of you and Damon’s behavior in the past two months, it sounds eerily like the actions of an incubus. Incubi are male demons that have sex with women in their sleep. You said this all began when you woke up to him on top of you.”

“Yes, but he was basically grinding his dick against my pussy. There was no penetration.”

With pursed lips, Sierra frowned at her, annoyed that Seraph was once again interrupting her. “Non-penetrative sex is still sex, Seraph. Frotting is sex; tribbing is sex. What he was doing was sex. He was having sex with you in your sleep.”

“But,” Seraph stared off in the distance, “when I think about it like that, it sounds like something I don’t want to name. Something that I would have never thought Damon could be capable of. Something that I never would have thought would happen to me. It sounds…bad.”

“Because it is bad! Demons don’t care about morals or consent, and they definitely don’t care about how they make their hosts look! All they care about is getting to live free another day, and incubi do that by making their targets orgasm. It’s like fuel for them. Without that fuel, they are weak and can be bound and cast out. It’s why he fucks you so damn much. He literally can’t survive without it.”

Seraph’s mouth fell open as so many things she’d questioned over the past ten weeks began to make sense.

“Oh my gosh,” she breathed. “All this time I thought he was strung-out on some kind of sex drug, and it turns out that he’s—” Pausing, Seraph turned to Sierra. “What did you say he was?”

“Well, I said I think he’s a sex demon. An incubus, to be exact. I think he’s being possessed, but I don’t know for sure.”

“Okay. How do we find out for sure? And how can I get this damn…incubus…out of my life?”

Sierra’s smile was an almost evil thing—caught between a scowl and a grin—and a little scary. “I know just the people you need to see.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Remedy

The brightly lit street that Sierra had brought Seraph to had surprised her. It had taken nearly a week for them to be able to go—for Damon to have a mandatory department meeting at work—and, from the subject matter that had brought them here, Seraph had expected something dingy and run-down; something… questionable. That wasn’t at all what she found when they stepped inside of Zing’s Sweet & Sour, a candy store nestled in between a furniture store and an old school arcade. On either side of the path that led from the entrance straight ahead to a long counter on the opposite end of the store were half a dozen short shelves filled with different kinds of candy.

Why had Sierra brought her to a candy store? Seraph wondered.

“Welcome to Zing’s Sweet and Sour,” called a gentle voice infused with something warm and soothing that made the tension in Seraph’s shoulders slightly relax.

“Good morning, Zing,” Sierra called back before grabbing Seraph’s hand and pulling her toward the counter where a woman stood watching them, a soft smile on her face. As they drew closer, the smile shrank until it had disappeared completely.

Zing tilted her head at them, her hair—long locs twisted into two plaits on either side of her face—swinging forward as she did so. “Peace and blessings, sistahs. Tell me of the fear that brought you here today.”

Seraph’s eyes widened in surprise, but Sierra just nodded.

“I believe my friend,” she gestured toward Seraph, “is being attacked by an incubus.”

Before Zing could reply, the curtain of beads behind her parted and out stepped an older woman who looked so similar to Zing that Seraph did a double-take. They bore the same mocha-hued skin and thick locs that hung past where the eye could see, and they shared golden-brown eyes and a heart-shaped mouth. However, instead of the thin line where Zing’s smile had once been, the older woman—who was surely Zing’s mother—wore a wide smile.

“Good morning, friends!” she exclaimed after hugging Zing to her side and pressing a kiss to her cheek. When she noticed Sierra, her smile stretched wider, and she came from behind the counter, locs that hung down to her ankles and were seasoned with gray flying in the wind as she pulled her into a hug.

“Sierra! It’s so good to see you, dearest.”

Seraph stepped to the side, her mind reeling as she watched their interaction. As close as she was to Sierra, she’d never known about her friend visiting this place with the strange but beautiful women and their odd phraseology.