A large hand clasped around her head, completely ignoring the tentacles as they lashed out to attack the invader of her space. The carnivean’s legs dangled beneath her as Zagan lifted her off the ground with the single hand. She was a good few feet off the ground—she was only about half as tall as Eva and yet Zagan had his arm almost parallel to the ground. He twisted his wrist once she made it to eye level, facing her towards him.
As soon as she saw who had a hold of her, Qrycx went still. Her tentacles dropped to her sides, not a single muscle in them even twitched. With her tentacles smoothed over her body, her tiny form looked even smaller.
“You will participate,” Zagan said with a smile. Qrycx’s stillness failed as she started shaking. “There might even be something in it for you.”
Qrycx actually stopped her trembling to glance up at Zagan. Or she tried to. Zagan released her. She fell the short height and landed on her feet. Without sparing a moment for hesitation, she moved out of the way as Zagan continued towards his position.
It still took her a moment to move to her spot. Her fists clenched and her teeth ground together. Yet she went with no verbal complaint.
Lucy was under no such reservations. Between the bounces in her steps and the occasional giggle, she actually looked excited to participate. Devon did have to fuss with her a bit to get her facing the proper direction–a task complicated by the fact that Lucy was an axopodia. How was she supposed to sit with her back to Catherine when she was just a bunch of tightly wound spaghetti noodles?
Once everyone got to position, Catherine stepped into the center. She rotated once, eyes roving over the ritual circle for one final check. Satisfied, she knelt and gave Devon a short nod.
He replied with a scoff.
Kneeling down himself, Devon placed his hands at the edge of the circle and started channeling magic.
Eva watched with rapt attention. She had never actually seen someone else’s treatment before. The terminal child from the hospital was the only one who had received Devon’s treatment to her knowledge, and she had been simultaneously groggy from her own treatment and off helping Ylva clear enigmas out of her domain. She had only caught the tail end of it.
Of course, this wasn’t anything like her old treatments. And it really didn’t resemble what little she had seen of the hospital kid’s treatment.
Catherine sat, much like Eva had, as a cloud of blood gathered overhead. Streams of blood descended and entered her wrists. Catherine didn’t scream out. Apart from gritting her teeth and her tail stiffening, her body remained very still.
On the surface, at least. Beneath her skin, Catherine was definitely feeling something. Her heart rate spiked. Her organs–which were, for the most part, remarkably human-like–trembled as her breathing sped up.
Now that Eva wasn’t in agony, she could actually see what the blood was doing. The blood didn’t spear
Fascinating to watch for the first few minutes, but Eva quickly found herself growing bored. Her own treatment had lasted from noon to nightfall. She had no reason to believe that Catherine’s would go any faster. In case something strange happened, she still wanted to watch.
But first…
Eva went back to the women’s ward and grabbed a tome and a chair–Devon, Serena, and Lucy had not had a chair the entire time for some odd reason–and dragged them back to the basketball court.
The tome was her book on blood rituals. Eva had promised both herself and Nel that she would hunt down Sawyer after her treatment. She had no intention of breaking that promise. There was a particular ritual that she had come across in the past and wanted to refresh herself on before using it.
Settling into her chair, Eva kept the corner of her eye on Catherine and her ritual while she flipped through the pages of her tome.
— — —
Succubi were fools. Incubi as well. Every last one of them.
Obsessed beyond measure with the pleasures of the flesh and other such carnal desires.
And for what? What did sex get any of them?
Momentary pleasure that vanished as quickly as it came, a reputation—not a good one in Catherine’s opinion—and perhaps the largest subset of demons simply due to breeding practices. Though true succubi were far rarer than cambions, lesser succubi, and other such derivatives.
