Coming Home

Leona is shaking visibly as she pulls on her pants, the sight of her torn underwear nearly makes her sick. She can't believe what's happened to her, her mind flashes back to the revelation in the bathroom and to the fact that she let him do whatever he wanted afterwards. She should've said no, should've fought him at least a little. But instead she had willingly gone to him.

She still feels high, the warm liquid still within her. It feels almost as if she had eaten pure sugar, pounds of it. Once, when she was just a kid, she had taken a couple sugar packets when they had gone out to eat. It was one moment of rebellion and her parents didn't know what to do with a child filled with sugar. She had run amok within the house until she finally crashed and fell asleep.

What she's feeling right now must have been what she felt like then and any moment she would come off her high and crash. Edward had taught her things about sex that no amount of imagination would have shown her. He had taught her things about her new self as well, things she didn't want to know. Things she just couldn't handle at the moment.

She tries to fasten her bra but her hands are so shaky she can't keep a grip on the material. Edward comes up behind her, she can feel him as he comes to her, though he doesn't make a sound. He takes the straps out of her hand and fastens it for her then leans in close to kiss the back of her neck. Tears fall unbidden and she hates that she's so weak because with just a touch of his lips he's set her body on fire again.

"You'll need to come here tomorrow night. We'll need to start your training as soon as possible, without it you'll run into a lot of trouble. Keep an eye on anything strange happening tomorrow. Whether or not you like it you're different now and because of that men will notice you."

She doesn't want to come back, she just wants to forget about it all. The hardest part about what's happened to her since she first laid eyes on Edward is the fact that she has no regrets. It's as if she's more upset over the fact that everything that's happened has felt right. She's lived eighteen years feeling like the world around her hates her and suddenly she finds that it's not so.

She turns away from him and picks up her shirt, refusing to look at him as she pulls it on and moves towards the door. If only she can keep from looking at him she won't be tempted to stay longer. Right now the last thing Leona wants is to leave, everything inside of her wants to stay, wants to crawl back into bed with Edward and never leave.

"Leona…"

She shakes her head and wipes at the tears that have continued to fall. She doesn't want to be so weak any more. She wants to be strong.

"I-I'm going."

She reaches for the door and it swings open on it's own. She turns her head to

look at him then, surprise registering in her eyes. He just smiles, though his eyes look sad.

"I'll see you tomorrow night."

The tone of his voice, the sight of him standing there, naked. She wants to go back to him, to wake up in the morning with him beside her. With a whimper she turns and runs away, the front door opens when she gets close, her pace doesn't slow until she's well away from his house. The heat burns within her, all consuming and demanding to have its needs met. It's all too much for her mind to comprehend.

****

Edward stared at the door long after she's gone, when she left it felt as if a piece of himself had gone missing and he can't figure out how it happened. He just met her a few hours ago and he already feels like she's a part of him. Being the one that created her, the one that made her a succubus, he is connected to her. But it feels like his heart and soul is connected on a much deeper level.

With a sigh he turns to look at the bed, if he pushes back the strange feelings that are consuming him he is exhausted on multiple levels. Yet, he is afraid of sleep, afraid of the nightmares that have plagued him for over a thousand years. So instead of giving into the fatigue he cleans up the bedroom then dresses and leaves. He had no special destination in mind and ended up outside of town, walking in the woods. It is cold outside, the late night March air unforgiving and he had neglected to bring a jacket. Edward is barely conscious of the cold, his mind lost to what had transpired that evening.

After being with Leona he can't bring himself to seek out distractions in the form of a woman. He is having a hard time blocking the image of Leona out of his mind. Even the wind sounds like her calling his name. Deep in the woods he cleans a small patch of ground and goes to his knees, the earth is cool and wet even through the thick material of the jeans. He chants softly as he lifts his arms to the sky, to the heavens. It's been a long time since he's prayed. His mistress had believed strongly in the gods, in the power of their will. Edward had believed in them because she had, they had brought her to him after all.

That's what she had told him when they had first met, that the gods had sent her to him. When she was killed he had been angry with them, and had said things that he later regretted. His worship of her gods is the only thing he has left of her, over the years they've become his gods as well.

Edward feels peace fill him as he continues to pray. There have been times in the past where he's spent all night praying, it had been the only thing that's kept him going on this long. That and the promise he made to her. Tonight will be another night that he stays up praying until the sun breaks the horizon.

****

Leona stands at the edge of the block and takes several deep breaths trying to clear her brain of the fog that is within it. She hugs herself to try and ward off the cold but it bites into her. Nothing like March in Missouri. When she looks up at the street sign she gasps softly, it's the same street as hers. She glances back to where she knows Edwards house is, at the number of the house closest her.

Harker street, I live a few blocks from here, we're just a short walking distance away from each other. Images spring to life in her mind, things that she could be doing at the moment instead of going to face her parents. She takes off running again, trying to outrun the demons in her mind. She has little hope of it working, though.

She starts shaking again when she turns down the path towards her house, the shaking only grows worse as she reaches for the door handle. Leona is dreading the confrontation that she knows is just behind the door, somehow she knows they're waiting for her. She takes a couple deep breaths and opens the door. The first thing she sees is her parents sitting on the couch, neither of them look happy.

"Come in and close the door."

They stand up as she shuts the door and walks further into the room. Now that she's inside she feels solid, stronger than she has ever been in their presence. Tonight the sight of the antique couch with it's pale floral designs and matching chair don't sicken her, nor the angels that decorate the walls and available shelf space. The room is a museum of pastels and angels, enough to make anyone sick. Both of her parents are dressed in matching dark blue suits, perfectly immaculate. Even her mother's hair is perfectly in place, pulled up into a tight bun. Disappointment is clearly written in their eyes but so is another emotion she knows all too well. You'd think they would have the decency to look like they'd stayed up half the night worrying about me.

"Where have you been?"

Her father spoke first, his voice has the edge of anger, his mask of perfection slipping just a little. Her mother places a hand on his arm to calm him.

"C-Carin wanted to go to a club…"

"Really? And you couldn't just tell her 'no'? Do you know the kind of things that happen to nice girls like you at clubs? Do you know what kind of people hang around places like that? What if someone had seen you, what do you think our friends would think if they knew you'd been at a club?

"I always knew Carin to be a bad influence, haven't I, honey?"

He glanced at his wife and she nodded in confirmation. Leona can feel anger building up inside of her, they hadn't been worried about her at all. The only thing they worry about is their image, what everyone else thinks. Her father goes off on a lecture and she zones him out, her mind on more important things. She knows that she has to see Edward again, it bothered her to leave him and she can't quell the desire to see him again. It's how she will have to think about. She comes back to the conversation when she knows that it's about to end.

"And last but not least you're grounded, there won't be any more going out with Carin after school. Do you understand, Leona?"

"Yes. I'm really sorry father, mother."

She averted her eyes and tried her best to look sorry. After everything that's happened tonight she doesn't feel regret. She's scared and not sure how to handle the person she's become, but strangely she doesn't regret it.

"Just don't do it again. Now go get some sleep, you have to be up early tomorrow for school."

"Thank you. Good night mother, father."

Leona had done her best to not look at her parents, afraid that her eyes would betray her. It's only when she's in the safety of her room with the door locked that she relaxes. She leans against the door, eyes closed as she takes deep, even breaths.

Her parents have never complained about her locking the door, they don't have to deal with her that way. Tonight she needs the security that the locked door will give her. When she opens her eyes she looks around the room, as if looking at it for the first time. Everything about the room screams girl. From the beaded fringe that edges the lamp on the small table beside her very pink and lacy bed, to the pictures of horses and kittens on the walls.

Her mother had decorated it a long time ago and had continued to supply her with things that matched. Leona hates pink, hates seeing so much delicate lace. She also hates cats. But she had given in to her mother, allowed her to create the daughter she wanted.

There is a desk opposite the bed and on it a computer but even the computer is not wholly hers. She knows that her parents come in and check her computer so it, too, must always reflect the person they think she is. She has played the part so well that she's almost afraid to be herself.

Now she may not have a choice. Edward had said that she now possessed the power to be who she wants to be, do what she wants. Could it really be possible? Should she even allow herself the slightest glimmer of hope that she can be the person that's always been in the back of her mind?

Leona pushes away from the door and walks to her dresser. She pulls out her nightgown and changes her clothes. The material of her clothes feels rough against her skin, harsh. Even the material of her nightgown feels heavy as well and makes her want to just shed it all. What would it be like to sleep nude, she wonders as she pulls the blanket back and lays down.

Half an hour later she sits up in bed with a groan. She's wide awake and no amount of relaxing seems to help. Edward had warned that she might have trouble sleeping the first night. He had told her that the amount of energy they were sharing would wire her up for a while. He had also said that eating would become unnecessary if she could draw in enough energy. Though in the same breath, he had also said that it was impossible to find that much.

She goes to the desk and turns on the computer as she flops into the chair, if she can't sleep she might as well keep active. The lights in the room are out and the computer screen is pointed away from the door so that if her parents were to wake up they wouldn't know she is up.

Within a few minutes she's surfing the internet, looking up anything related to succubus or incubus. She's amazed at all the different sites to be found on the internet but the information she finds isn't a comfort. The mythical references paint them to be demons, those who prey on humans for their life essence or their souls. A sort of vampire.

Vampire? She doesn't have the brain capacity to think about their being anything else out there. She finds even less comfort looking up what the church has to say about them, she was better off with the vampires. Modern day explanation; 'wet dreams' is how they define it. Merely an excuse for monks and nuns under celibacy to explain away what is only natural.

She doesn't even want to look at the images, but curiosity said she had to so she does. The images alone made her sick. Pictures of nude, or half nude women and demons. Or creatures that were a little of both. Will I eventually look like that, grow horns and a tail. Become something demonic and entirely inhuman. She shivers, feeling suddenly cold at what she had learned and at where her thoughts are going.

Careful to erase her history she turns the computer off and picks up the backpack that's leaning against the desk. It's a habit for her to drop it there when she comes home from school. In just a short time she's gone off with a stranger, had sex with an older man and lost her virginity because of it, become something that definitely isn't human and looked at porn. Sure, technically it's not but it was pictures of naked bodies all the same. Maybe it was all just a dream, a really bad dream. Tomorrow I'll go to school and everything will be as it was before, I'll continue being the same Leona I've been for eighteen years.

With everything going around in her brain she needs a distraction and the extra credit assignment she had volunteered to take might be what she needs. She takes the backpack to the bed and lays out all her books then proceeds to bury herself in work.