Alex sat on the edge of his mattress, feeling his pulse hammering against his ribs long after the initial panic had faded.
Sleep was completely off the table tonight because a literal succubus was currently squatting in his chest.
From what he understood, she was just a soul at the moment without a physical body, and out of all the people on Earth, she had picked him for a life raft.
He ran both hands through his messy black hair while a chaotic mix of disbelief and sudden heat battled with his basic instinct for survival.
'So... are you going to help me? I promise to make it worth your while.'
Elizabeth's voice echoed directly behind his eyes, sounding soft and incredibly sweet. It still carried that playful arrogance from earlier, but underneath the teasing tone he could sense a genuine sharp edge of desperation.
Pressing two fingers to his temples, Alex explored the strange new bond linking them.
Through it, he caught faint echoes of her actual emotions, feeling her anxiety and a deep, simmering rage that felt older than human history.
Demon or not, she was backed into a corner.
Accepting her terms blindly, however, was not an option he was willing to take.
"I need answers first." he whispered to the empty room, keeping his voice low so his mom wouldn't hear through the walls. "Honest answers."
'Fair enough. Ask away, darling. We share the same heart and soul right now, so you'll know if I lie and I'll know if you try to pull anything on me.'
Her tone warmed up to become almost reassuring.
Alex closed his eyes and focused on his chest, finding her presence undeniable since it felt exactly like a second heartbeat syncing up perfectly with his own rhythm.
Every time her mood shifted, a faint electric charge buzzed through his veins.
He took a steadying breath. "Alright. First question. Who are you, really? You said you're a succubus, but I thought that stuff was just fantasy from novels and movies."
A bitter laugh hummed in his skull.
'I was the Succubus Queen of the current era.' Pride bled into her voice. 'I had absolute power, endless territory, and palaces hand carved. I had everything you humans write about in those silly books of yours, ruling perfectly until the other high demons decided I was too dangerous to leave on the throne.'
Pausing for a moment, her voice dropped and became noticeably darker.
'Specifically, that narcissistic, arrogant bastard, Lucifer.'
A massive spike of inhuman fury rushed through their link and actually leaked out into the bedroom.
The temperature in the room dropped noticeably, and for a split second, the crickets outside his window went dead silent as if nature itself was terrified.
Alex widened his eyes in the dark. "Wait. Lucifer? As in the actual Devil?"
'Yeah. The very same.' Elizabeth huffed, letting the heavy and suffocating rage slowly dial back down to a low simmer in his chest.
'He rules all the overarching territories down in Hell. It's not just succubi down there, you've got demons, ghouls, vampires, and dwarves from dozens of distinct races. Lucifer sits at the very top, and with that bricked brain, he decided my growing power was a direct threat to his crown.'
Leaning back against his wooden headboard, Alex tried to process the completely insane scale of this situation. "Why? What did you even do to piss off the "King of Hell"?"
'I existed!' she snapped, sending a crackle of static painfully through their bond. 'Succubi don't just gain strength from physical intimacy. We absorb the passive desires of every living creature around us, meaning my domain was thriving and my charm grew stronger with every passing century. Lucifer got paranoid and thought I'd eventually bend him to my will to take his seat.'
She let out a dry, sharp chuckle that lacked any real humor.
'So he put together a quiet little coalition, feeding the other lords a bunch of lies about me and turning my own trusted generals against me. I put up one hell of a fight, but there were too many of them and they eventually killed me.'
Alex reached down and wrapped his blanket tightly around his shoulders to fight off a cold chill creeping up his arms. "If they killed you, how are you here inside me?"
'Bodily death in Hell isn't the absolute end for a high-tier soul' she explained smoothly.
'If your spirit survives the destruction of your body, you can manifest a new one, provided you have enough life force to weave it. I barely dragged my fractured soul through into the human world, finding the main gates completely unguarded for some reason... Usually, there are thousands of high-ranking angels stationed there, but the post was totally empty.'
Her voice trailed off, trembling under a massive weight of betrayal and grief.
Alex stayed perfectly still on his bed, feeling the heavy and suffocating sadness echoing right inside his chest and making his own heart ache.
"I'm... sorry that happened to you..." he said quietly. "So... were you actually planning to take his throne all along?"
'No.'
The absolute truth of her word rang clearly and cleanly through their bond.
'I was perfectly content with my own kingdom and I liked my life. But now? Oh, absolutely. I'm going to drag his face through the dirt. First, though, I need to get strong enough to build myself a physical body again.'
Rubbing the back of his neck, Alex frowned at the dark wall across the room. "Okay, I get it now. But how is a completely average guy supposed to help a former demon queen? I can't throw fireballs, and I definitely can't fight demon lords..."
'You don't have to fight anyone, silly!' Elizabeth giggled, replacing the heavy and depressing tension with warm laughs. 'I just need raw energy, specifically lust energy, because that's our primary fuel source. If you let me feed on your desire, little by little, I can regenerate.'
"Oh..." Alex felt a hot flush creep rapidly up his neck and into his cheeks. "So I just..."
'Exactly.' She teased him with a tone dripping in amused malice. 'Enjoy yourself, indulge in those filthy thoughts you hide from everyone else, and let me sip the energy you give off. It's easy, it's painless, and it's infinitely more fun than studying!'
He cleared his throat loudly, trying incredibly hard to ignore the sudden and aching tightness in his sweatpants. "Right. Well, my body doesn't exactly have a lot of practical experience in that department... You could've picked a better candidate."
Shifting uncomfortably on the mattress, a sudden and burning curiosity pushed through his embarrassment.
"Speaking of bodies... what do you actually look like? In books, succubi are always described a certain way, usually really beautiful but obvious monsters. What's your real form?"
A delighted, velvet laugh hummed through his head and sounded exactly like a cat purring.
'Curious, aren't we? Well, I can show you a glimpse if we overlap our memories for a few seconds. Just try not to completely lose your mind, alright?'
Alex tensed up instantly, tightening his grip on the blanket. "You aren't going to hijack my body while I'm distracted, are you?"
'No, paranoid boy. Even if I wanted to, I'm far too weak for a full possession right now, so you are completely in the driver's seat.'
Alex couldn't sense a single lie in her words. "Okay..." He took a deep breath and leaned his head all the way back against the pillow. "How do we do it?"
'Just relax, close your eyes, and focus entirely on the sound of my voice.'
Alex shut his eyes and took small breaths.
The quiet sounds of his bedroom started fading away, replaced suddenly by a violent surge of color exploding behind his eyelids.
Images flooded his mind, bringing vivid and terrifying memories that clearly weren't his own.
***
A sky stained in bruised and unnatural crimson unfolded before his inner eye, featuring a pale, dying sun hanging over endless jagged peaks of red stone. Rivers of actual liquid fire carved through the landscape while millions of monstrous silhouettes crowded the burning wasteland below.
They were roaring with a deafening and world-shaking sound, surging toward a colossal and shadowed figure draped in dark wings known as Lucifer.
And kneeling in the rubble, right in the center of the crushed and burning earth, was the Succubus Queen.
Even battered and bleeding, she looked devastating. Her pale, flawless skin radiated a soft glow that completely defied the ash and dirt around her.
A silky silver hair cascaded down past her waist in smooth waves. Two delicate black horns curved gracefully from her head, looking more like a crown than a curse, while a slender demon tail tipped with a sleek, heart-shaped spade curled weakly behind her.
Her eyes looked like polished rose-quartz pearls, striking, dangerous, and impossibly beautiful all at once.
Her torn black lace outfit barely held her together. Plump, heavy breasts strained against the ruined fabric, rising and falling heavily with her labored breathing.
Her narrow waist flared dramatically into wide, sculpted hips that led down to thick, smooth thighs designed entirely for temptation.
Every single curve and every inch of her seemed built for pure sin.
***
Alex gasped out loud, feeling his breath hitch hard in his throat. His lower body reacted instantly by squeezing painfully against his pants. Heat scorched straight through his veins, making his heart hammer against his ribs so violently he nearly lost his balance on the mattress.
He was completely paralyzed by the sight.
Staring into the mental projection, he found himself unable to look away while gazing at her beauty.
He could smell ash mixed with blood and something incredibly sweet, like crushed dark berries and vanilla.
Then, Elizabeth abruptly severed the connection.
Alex snapped violently back to reality, gasping for air as if he had been drowning. His dark bedroom rushed back into view, and sweat prickled at his forehead before sliding down his neck.
His whole body trembled from the massive sensory overload.
"Woah..." he rasped, his voice cracking badly. "You're... you're actually out of this world."
'Thank you, handsome~' Elizabeth purred, practically glowing with smug satisfaction inside his mind.
'And every inch of that body can be tangible again, yours to touch and hold, if you just help me get it back fufufu~'
Alex swallowed hard, staring up at his dark ceiling while his heartbeat gradually slowed down.
It felt impossible, but there was no denying it anymore.
No hallucination could do this, and no stress-induced dream could feel this vivid.
The Succubus Queen was alive inside him.
His quiet, lonely life was officially over.