Lilith
The bar was loud that night, as I sat there, sipping my beer with my back half-turned to the group of crowing men.
Their voices overlapped as each vied for attention, with their petty shows of dominance. I rolled my eyes. Monster hunters.
One in particular had a drawl that scraped along my skin. The reaction was so visceral that I had to look at my forearms, expecting to see red lines there, as if he had dragged his nails through my flesh.
There was nothing. Of course there was nothing. There was always nothing.
This wasn’t the first group of hunters in my little mountain town, and it likely wouldn’t be the last.
They didn’t know what they were dealing with.
“Hey, little lady,” one of the others slurred, as he weaved in front of me. “You’re looking awfully pretty tonight. You need another?”
Alcohol permeated the air between us. I felt dirty with his breath on me. “Nope, I’ve had all I can take tonight.”
“I bet you can take a little bit more from me,” he leered.
I looked him up and down, slowly, putting as much disdain in my expression as I could muster. “It would be a little.”
His face darkened, and it gave me a tiny thrill. “Bitch.”
“You have no idea,” I said, smiling sweetly as I laid a twenty on the counter and pushed open the door to the waiting night.
A half an hour’s walk brought me to the edge of my property, surrounded by a thicket of trees.
I checked and rechecked the wards around the outside of the house. They were secure, as they were every night, but it was worth being extra careful because of the hunters. Yes, they were idiots, but sometimes even an idiot will trip into what they’re looking for.
The warm night breeze rustled through the leaves of the ancient cottonwoods, and I stood there for a moment, feeling the depth of their roots through the earth. The slow, rumbling turn of the planet gave me some comfort, and I recentered myself on that cosmic energy. I would need to feed soon on something more substantial, but this would keep me for tonight.
The aching hunger in my body was yet a tiny thing, but it thrummed to life as I thought about it.
Soon, I told myself, breathing in the sweet air that smelled like water and mud. As soon as the hunters have gone.
No use antagonizing them.
I thought about my last meal. The weight of the man above me, the sound of his exertion, the power that creeped along his muscles in glowing tendrils. I liked human men because they were stronger and bigger; the power that dripped off of them in the heat of passion was delicious. I didn’t know if they ever realized why they felt so drained at the end of the night, but it really didn’t matter. Those interactions fed me, kept me alive and strong.
When a man loves a woman, she becomes his weakness. When a woman loves a man, he becomes her strength.
Did this make me a monster?
Maybe, in the same way that humans were monsters every time they ate a hamburger. At least I didn’t kill them. …. Usually. If I didn’t have to.
It had been a long time since I had had to. I had been young, naive. I hadn’t known that men could be so willing.
An old rush of regret swept through me, and I swallowed it. I was better now. Now, I knew better.
I threw the bolt on the heavy door and ran my fingers over the grooves of the wood, following along to the roughness of the dry mud walls of my house. The wards flared to life under my fingertips, unseen by mortal eyes, but there nonetheless.
I snapped my fingers and a fire roared to life in the center of the room, the flames deep green. It was a fire to warm and protect, not to destroy. I knew it would burn all night, to chase away the real nightmares.
Aleister
“She shut you down hard,” I laughed, as the newest hunter scowled. He wasn’t older than about twenty five, so I knew it couldn’t be helped. We all need to learn our lessons the hard way.
I took the last swig of my beer, and thought about when I was that young. Gods, I had been dumb and eager, too. Now, I knew better.
Hell, I had been chasing her for decades.
There was some perverse joy in it, following her from town to town, mountain ridge to desolate prairie. I was an expert at teasing the rumors of this woman from the locals, but somehow she always escaped my grasp at the last minute. All I ever found was an empty house and a yard of bones.
She wasn’t really a woman, I knew that.
I adjusted my tools on my belt, running my fingers idly over the cold iron shackles that I knew one day would fit around her wrists. One day.
Years of waiting, hunting. In my head, I could picture the snap of the metal, her frantic expression, and all that power that circulated through her blood… it would be mine. I was going to capture her, and all her power that she had stolen from men over the centuries would be mine. Every inch of her would be mine.
She wasn’t a woman, though I knew she looked like one. Some said she was a witch, but that wasn’t quite true, either.
She was a succubus, a demon. And she was going to be mine.
I had done my research and spent half a lifetime chasing her. I knew her weakness.
The bottle in front of me was empty. “I think I’m going to call it a night, boys,” I said. “We’ll set out in the morning.”
There was a general murmur of approval, and they resumed talking amongst themselves. They didn’t know that I had my own plans for the rest of the night. Fuck if I was going to wait for the morning.
The breeze outside the bar was warm and wet, heavy with the scent of mesquite trees and the afternoon’s rain. She was here, I could feel it. Somewhere close.
She’d never be in town, I knew that. Too many real people. Too many watching eyes. She’d be holed up somewhere in the woods, surrounded by trees and rock. She had had centuries to learn to protect herself and hide, and that’s always where I found her empty houses.
It was the bones that alway gave it away, though. The bones always let me know it was her.
I walked towards the valley, towards the faint sound of running water.
It was almost a sixth sense, at this point. I could almost feel her presence.
The thought of draining her of all her power made my mouth water, and I hurried toward the river.
It was nearly a physical ache by the time I found myself surrounded by trees. The breeze rustled the leaves, a thousand tiny movements that teased of more rain. The earth was soft underneath my boots, slippery with its layer of decomposing leaves.
I heard the faint hum of her ward before I felt it; a light buzz like the shiver of a rattlesnake.
I took another step forward, and it prickled along my skin like a crawling insect. It was something to make a person step back, something to discourage further encroachment.
I recognized it for what it was, I knew her tells.
I pushed forward, gritting my teeth as the gnawing sound grew louder, the creeping sense of wrongness overwhelmed my primal brain, telling me to run the other way. No, I told myself, trying to calm my heart rate and breathing. This is it. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
I pushed through the first of her defenses, and it was like the air itself shivered. The earth tripped, and I felt her eyes open.
They were green. Green unlike any other, green like the forest, like the trees in the night.
My breath caught in my throat.
Green fire. Her eyes burned with green flames.
I turned around, nearly stumbling on my own boots. I had never seen those eyes before, and any fear I thought I had experienced before, I knew was only a shadow of the real thing. Terror swept through my veins and iced my tendons, despite the heat of the night.
Fuck, she was powerful.
My throat was dry. I thirsted for that power.
My desire propelled me through my fear, as I took another step toward the monster I had hunted for so long.
Lilith
I was jolted awake by the breach of my wards. A drop of fear ran down my spine, as I closed my eyes again to search for the break in my consciousness. I knew that my fear was a waste of energy, but something about this seemed wrong, even to me.
I formed a sphere of luminescent flame with my hands, a perfect image of my home and property to examine. Right there, at the bottom edge, there was a figure – a man – pushing his way toward me.
This wasn’t some random idiot, and this wasn’t accidental.
He must be strong, to resist the defenses I had laid there.
I cocked my head to the side as adrenaline filled my body. I took a deep, calming breath, and pushed my hands together, extinguishing the observation sphere back into the lines of my palm.
Strength.
I could feel him now, with so much strength. Pushing, violating, destroying the safety of my space. I stood up and pulled the t-shirt I was wearing over my head. I looked down at the lines of my body, muscles hewn with a lifetime of magic taken from others. My breasts stood small and pert, my nipples hardened to tiny buds. I padded over to the door, nude, fingering the bolt and trying to decide if what I was about to do was a good idea.
The man’s presence grew nearer, and I could almost make out the shape of him, in my mind’s eye.
Muscles, bones, determination. A good build. Good stamina. He was hardly breathing heavily.
My mouth watered.
I was so hungry.
I took another deep breath and snapped my fingers. The fire was gone, not even a wisp of smoke remained. I could feel the warmth of the flame fill up my eyes.
I threw the bolt and opened the door to the night.
It was time to eat.
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