Incubus Denied

Chapter 2

What the f**k? Incubi were supposed to be perpetually horny s*x demons. That was the whole point of them right? Raina shook her head, trying not to take the rejection personally. It was proving difficult though. She hadn’t known succubi to be particularly discriminate about their partners, and she felt she was perfectly attractive. Weird. In any case there were more important things to focus on than the stupidly handsome, tall and sweet incubus who had just kissed her then flung himself away from her in revulsion. Raina wanted to speak with her brother Tirroth; he usually had decent advice when it came to committing horrifying acts on living beings.

Raina suspected Tirroth would be at his apartment, she sent him a text then prepared to teleport over there. Being able to teleport wasn’t an inherent capacity of demons, but rather a gift bestowed by The Malgoth to their employees. The process involved using a vial filled with spiritual energy, how they harvested it Raina didn’t want to know. Creatures outside The Malgoth had found their own ways to travel, ways that involved more human blood and the theft of souls. Nasty stuff. Each vial given was good for about a month of teleporting, then they would need to hand it in to be recharged. Raina’s was relatively fresh, she’d only charged it a week ago. Raina had her own jet black, diesel Mustang, but teleporting saved a s**t tonne on fuel.

As Raina had suspected, Tirroth was in his apartment. He’d chosen not to work with The Malgoth, and instead spent his time developing video games. Demons lived long lives, prior to developing video games, Tirroth had been a strategist for the military; so the trajectory made sense to Raina. Others thought he was wasting his skills, Andras included. Tirroth was uniquely lacking in any desire for blood or violence, Raina sometimes wondered if war had changed him.

Raina used her spare key to let herself into Tirroth’s apartment.

“Heyoo”, she called out.

A voice called back from a room lit only by a computer screen, “sister!”.

Tirroth emerged from the room, wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown, his long brown hair unbrushed. He embraced Raina warmly, giving her a whack on the back as they parted.

“Happy to see you Rai, I heard some s**t is going down”, he flopped onto the big couch in the centre of the lounge room.

Rain sat on the armchair opposite him, stretching her legs out on the arms. “Oh yeah, big s**t. A big s**t called Dazomar, though Andras is calling him dickface”.

Tirroth chuckled, flipping a bottle opener between his fingers. “Dickface wants control of the Malgoth right? That’s usually what this stuff is about”.

“Bingo”, Raina said, smiling at her brother.

“So why are you involved? Can’t they just fight the fucker and you heal everyone afterwards?” Tirroth narrowed his eyes/

“Problem is, the weapons we’ve tried to use against him don’t work. And he’s warded himself against spells…”, Raina dipped her head, waiting for Tirroth to realise.

Tirroth thought for a moment, furrowing his brow. “f**k”.

“Yeah.” Raina ran her hand through her hair.

“Are you gonna do it?” Tirroth leaned forward as though trying to peer into Raina’s soul.

“I mean I kinda have to. Andras and Rygel are pretty insistent”. Saying Rygel’s name out loud caused a sting in her chest. Whatever, he didn’t matter.

“Who the f**k is Rygel?” Alongside violence, Tirroth entirely lacked tact.

“Ah he’s a spy for The Malgoth, he’s the one getting all the intel on dickface.” Raina tried not to reveal that anything unprofessional had happened between her and Rygel.

“Uh uh. Is he hot?” Again, entirely lacking tact.

“It’s not like that i***t”, Raina threw a cushion at Tirroth.

Tirroth chuckled again, “if you say so sis”, he winked at Raina, causing another projectile to be thrown his way. “Well anyway, those guys can’t force you to do it, I know how much last time f****d you up. Please don’t do anything that will destroy you”.

Raina smiled, Tirroth had always cared more about his friends and family than the greater good. Raina both loved and hated him for it. She respected how consistent his ethics were, he seemed so effortlessly to know what was right, at least for himself.

“I want to do it. I want to help. I’m just… scared I guess. I mean what if it doesn’t even work? What if it’s worse than last time? What if I can’t even do it?”, Raina held her head in her lap, sighing deeply.

Tirroth stood and squished his narrow frame onto the armchair next to Raina. Raina laughed and tried to make room for him. “My darling sister”, Tirroth started, wrapping his long arms around Raina, “I love you more than anything in the world. I know you can do this. If you choose to. It might be hard, but you’ll get through it. You’re never alone, you know that right?”

Raina tried to breathe her way out of crying, but failed miserably. Great, this was the second time she’d cried today. She leaned into Tirroth and let the tears flow. “Thank you brother. You’re the best”.

Whoever said that demons lacked compassion, or that demons couldn’t feel love, had never met Tirroth.