v2 CHAPTER SEVEN: In which colleagues discuss free will, summer camp and the supernatural appetites that bind them.

Breakfast concluded when John pointed out that time still wasn’t on their side, especially if they hoped to return to the “campsite” before anyone else. After hugs and waves from George and Carol Miller, the five guests piled back into the van. A tense silence persisted as they pulled away down the street, back towards the highway.

As he drove, John glanced over at Una, reclining next to him in the passenger seat. She still wore the tight-fitting leather bike suit, with the zipper down to expose a generous amount of cleavage. He wanted to ask about what had happened over breakfast, but the words wouldn’t quite leave his lips.

Una broke the silence. “Carol seemed like she was returning to normal, don’t you think?” She glanced towards where Susan sat in the second row of seats. “Perfectly happy to give me a hug and a peck on the cheek, but not too friendly.” Una’s winked, with a pained smile.

“Hmm,” said Susan. “I’ll call her tomorrow to check, but I suspect she’ll be fine.”

John coughed. “Una… you gonna tell us what you whispered to Mrs. Miller? A post-hypnotic suggestion, something like that?”

Una waggled her finely arched brows. “I don’t know if I’d say post-hypnotic, although I asked her to remember my advice. Just some classic relationship counseling, quite pastoral!”

The succubus reached over to run a finger along Father John’s jawline, and he flinched away slightly, but couldn’t help but smile. “I told Carol that she ought to take charge of her sex life, that she deserves to take ample pleasure from her relationship with Mr. Miller. And I said she should take steps to realize her fantasies, especially in the bedroom.”

Susan groaned theatrically from the backseat. John quirked his mouth in a frown.

“Don’t worry so much,” Una said. “It’ll have a positive effect on their marriage.”

He glanced at her sideways. “How so? It sounds like you’re putting her in the driver’s seat.”

“Yes,” agreed Una. “I am.” She rested one ebon-nailed hand on his shoulder. “But that’s what he wants too. I could sense it: he’s settled, comfortable, and he doesn’t want to be in charge. I know the type—after all, wasn’t I like that not too long ago?”

John grunted in tacit agreement. They’d been “settled, comfortable” partners at the parish of St. Andrew’s for years. John had always taken the lion’s share of dealing with disruptions to that status quo.

Una leaned back. “So yeah… I figure he’ll go along with her. Let her sit on his face, and he’ll eat her out like a good boy.”

“Could you stop already, please?” yelled Susan. “These are my parents you’re talking about!” Una giggled.

“Obviously it was my idea, so I can’t fault you…” she grumbled from the back seat. And then, in a softer voice, “Plus, I can’t say you’re wrong about their relationship dynamic.”

“Oh, yes…?” Una asked, folding her legs up to place her hooves on the dashboard. The round, firm shape of her ass was clearly visible, taut leather stretched across it like a second skin. John couldn’t help but glance over and stare for a moment too long before he returned his eyes to the road.

“Yes,” Susan said after a moment. “He already lets her boss him around in their day-to-day life; you could tell that much. But if he also gives her permission for whatever she’s missing out on in the bedroom—then yes, maybe she won’t be so discontented. Obviously, that would help the rest of their relationship. But I didn’t go home thinking I’d fix their sex life or change their marriage dynamics.”

She let out a heavy sigh. “I just wanted her to… to calm down. And to stop saying such mean, bigoted things to me. I just wanted to get out of there in one piece.”

Una turned her head to look at Susan. Seeing her lover’s expression, she put a hand on Susan’s knee. “Being back there reminded you of… times when you had difficulty dealing with her feelings?”

Susan nodded, looking uncomfortable. “Yes,” she replied in a small voice. “She’s never been happy about my sexuality. Or anything about me… she just wanted a perfect little adopted Asian doll who she could show off to her friends.”

Una was silent for a moment, and even Maria stopped chuckling. “I’m sorry, Susan. That must have been extremely hard, growing up with someone who couldn’t understand you.” She squeezed Susan’s knee. “I got the feeling that she loves you, even if she wasn’t good at accepting who you really are.”

Susan sighed. “Yes. I know she means well, even if she can’t really comprehend it. I mean, she has trouble imagining why I would ever be interested in, well…” Susan trailed off, gesturing toward Una with her hands and shrugging.

Una shrugged in return, and Maria piped up. “Smoking hot demonic sex goddesses?” she asked with mock innocence. “I don’t know, Carol seemed pretty into Una… maybe the gay runs in the family!”

John growled under his breath. “Or maybe that was just the secret ingredient in her drink? The other aspect to all this is whether it’s all right to change people… to command them to think differently, without their full and informed consent. Am I wrong to worry about that?”

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” said Una. “I trust your judgement, John.”

“In that conversation I saw Carol Miller say things, and accept ideas, that probably contradict her own desires and beliefs.” John took his eyes off the road for a moment to stare at Una. “Even if those beliefs are ignorant, or hurtful to Susan… they’re hers, and she didn’t agree to have them… modified. How does that fit with your convictions about freedom and self-realization, Micki? Shouldn’t she make her own choices, of her own free will?”

Una sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t have any experience influencing people’s thoughts or feelings like this. Did she do something she might not have wanted to otherwise? Would she have preferred to call the police on us, or the Vatican?”

She ran her fingers through her sleek black hair, and up the arc of one of her horns. “I’d like to hope that at some level, Carol deeply wants to accept Susan and her love, her friends… even if she wouldn’t casually accept a demoness as a houseguest. Eventually, the nectar will wear off; then she’ll have to find her own way.”

“Even if it’s deeply buried, isn’t it her own process to go through? It still sounds like you’re telling me it’s okay to compel someone—using magic—to accept another person’s sexual preferences.” John gazed at her seriously.

“But I didn’t order her to accept Susan’s sexual preferences!” Una protested. Susan looked increasingly uncomfortable with the topic. “I only asked her to calm down and talk. I told her everything was all right, and that we’re all friends of Susan’s. That’s true, of course. As a result, she… just seemed to accept an awful lot more than she had before.”

“It was a complete 180. She was horrified at first,” John insisted. “I was the one who tried to talk her down first—and with no magic powers. She was incredibly upset about the two of you, and I suggested I wasn’t even a real priest.”

Una shook her head. “I don’t know the contents of her thoughts. I don’t know what exactly made her freak out and flip her shit like that, John.” The priest glanced at her with a hint of alarm; in her past life, his former mentor had never spoken so crudely.

“There was tension built up, right? She couldn’t accept a lot of things that were—let’s be real—thoroughly present in her life.” Susan nodded at Una’s words, tapping her lower lip. “My command opened her to that reality, allowed her to show her open-minded and accepting side—at least temporarily.”

“You are playing with dangerous forces,” interjected Cassandra, sitting next to Susan in the back seat. The demon hunter broke her long silence with a scowl. “And now you’re making excuses for them. Beware relying on such things.”

Una nodded. “All right. That is what worries me. I could see this power becoming an addiction; once you’re able to influence others, even for the better--” she shuddered. “The ends don’t justify the means. You all have a point. But look, we’re potentially up against the whole Vatican. I might have to do this again to protect us.”

“If you claim that dangerous power for our sakes,” said John, his eyes fixed on the horizon, “then perhaps we should get a vote?” Una leaned back, then silently motioned for John to continue.

“My proposal would be that you restrain yourself. You don’t want to succumb to temptation or violate someone’s mind in far less ethical ways, so you need a serious prohibition. No using that nectar, or whatever it is, unless someone understands what it is and agrees to it.”

John glanced back at the others. “Miss Miller wants to play around, or someone wants you to help them quit smoking? Sure. Force racists to accept my black ass and give me a hug? No, find another way. I don’t know, maybe an exception if it’s a life-or-death situation.”

Una frowned. “I think I can judge what circumstances are severe enough to warrant using this power. They might not all be life or death; we have to consider—”

Susan leaned forward between the front seats; she seemed eager to speak. “I don’t know how many life-or-death situations will involve a convenient chance to slip a tail in someone’s mouth, or squeeze out a drop.”

The tension in the car was palpable; Una felt like she was in the middle of some terrible family argument. “Given that,” Susan continued, “I’m with Una. I trust her to judge the situation and only use it in times of need. And I’m just saying because I drank her delicious green mind-control cum.”

Cassandra shook her head. “I agree with John. Such powers need guardrails, not simply judgement.” She pointed one finger of her lean, muscular hand at Una. “Besides, you don’t know the extent of your power. This may only be the beginning. Could you absorb other demon seed, succubus? Gain the powers of Pazuzu, Lord of Secrets? Or the Pestilence King? What horrors might those unleash?”

She leaned back again. “You should conduct yourself with utmost stricture.” Susan turned to stare at Cassandra. It was the most she’d ever heard the hunter say in one breath, and it sounded like the philosophy of a warrior monk. Maybe it is, she reflected. Kind of hot.

Una leaned to look back at Maria. “That’s two votes saying I should use my best judgment about when to break out the Nezz nectar, and two votes to only use it on willing participants or to save lives. You’re the tiebreaker, Miss Johannsen. What do you say?”

Maria shrugged and leaned, uncharacteristically somber. “You all probably think I’m going to say, yeah, to heck with it! Mind control those bitches!” She waggled her fingers for dramatic effect.

“But actually—yeah, no. If you go around forcing people to behave how you’d like them to act, even if they’re total assholes… that’s still the opposite of liberation and freedom. It’s not part of your gospel, Una… the idea you shared with me, of becoming who you’re meant to be. You need strict rules for that, Una.”

Una blinked in surprise, then nodded. “Thank you, Maria. It’s decided.”

The tall blonde nodded. “Mind control ooze: only with fully informed consent or to avert imminent risk of death. Anything else, you should at least consult with the rest of us, since we’re the ones who voted on this.”

Susan turned and blinked at the other girl. “Are you putting together bylaws for the use of demonic powers? Should I take notes as your secretary?”

Maria waggled her eyebrows. “Please prepare a memo, Miss Miller. You all keep forgetting that I have an MBA from Wharton.”

Susan made a face. “I didn’t even know that, but duly noted. I’ll just add that we still don’t know exactly how it works…”

“Ooooh,” exclaimed Maria, bouncing on her seat. “More research. I want to help; can I try some? I’ve never been mind controlled!” She stuck her tongue out and crossed her eyes. “Dark Mistress… I want nothing more than to wash your toes with my tongue…”

Una felt her cheeks grow warm, and even John laughed. “Well,” he said after a few moments’ reflection, “it’s better than nothing. I appreciate you consulting us, Micki—” He stopped himself. “Sorry, Una. I keep calling you by your old name.”

Una gave him a sweet smile. “I guess you can still call me Micki if it’s easier, John. Because… I am still Micki in so many ways? Just also… more than Micki. I don’t know how to explain it. I felt like a new name. Micki Belmont, now also known as Una.” She reached over and placed her left hand over his right hand, atop the steering wheel, as the van rolled deeper into the mountains.

***

It turned out that the Vatican black site also went by another name: “Camp Ignatius.” At least, that was the name etched on a fading wooden sign next to the main gate. None of them had seen it when arriving in the past; Una had been sedated when agents of the Curia for Supernatural Warfare had abducted her and brought her here. The others had taken a back entrance while trying to rescue her.

“As in… Ignatius of Loyola? Really?” asked Susan.

“Oh yes,” Una replied. “There are a bunch of Catholic summer camps and retreats named after former popes, founders of religious orders….” John nodded in agreement.

“Wow,” said Maria, swinging her legs down to the floor. “I keep forgetting you used to be a priest! Most priests don’t have tits like juicy red peaches, though. That’s my excuse!”

Deciding to approach on foot, they walked up the gravel road, staying under the trees on one side. The day was incongruously peaceful; the sun beamed down from above like a benevolent eye. Birds sang and butterflies flitted through the air. The sky was clear blue—unlike their moods. They did not know what they would find inside the compound: a burned-down wreck? Vatican forces waiting for them?

They passed the second gate without incident. Nobody was inside the gatehouse, and the chain links of the gate itself had bent, pushed out as if by something large moving past fast. Inside the fence stood a few white tents scattered across grassy fields. Beyond that lay a cluster of old buildings in various states of decay and disrepair. Una remembered those buildings well from the weeks she’d spent as a near puppet of Spencer’s will. Several vehicles sat parked haphazardly around the perimeter of the campground, but they all looked abandoned.

John stopped and unslung his pack, at a grassy spot inside the gate. “Doesn’t look as if anyone’s around.”

“This might be a good time to charge up.” Susan looked meaningfully at Una. “Are you feeling… low on energy?”

Una frowned; she hadn’t thought about it before—but now that she did, she realized how hungry she was. How long had it been since she ate anything? She blinked. I ate a stack of pancakes for breakfast, with bacon, fries and orange juice, thanks to Carol Miller. I shouldn’t be hungry at all—but then she realized with a twinge in her belly that she wasn’t hungry for food.

John, Maria, and Susan were staring at her with a quiet intensity she found both exciting and unfamiliar. Cassandra seemed to stand guard, her gaze scanning the treeline. “Wait… what is it?” she asked, hesitating. “By charge up… you mean…”

“Sex,” said Susan. “You’re a succubus, remember? Sex.” She grinned impishly; then added in mock seriousness: “The rest of us talked about this earlier, while we were packing the van. Now that you’ve gone full succubus, and based on what happened here the other night… I’m fairly sure you’re going to need sex regularly.”

Una blinked. “But… it’s not like I’ve gone that long without it. I know Carol interrupted you and I earlier, but before that…”

Susan held a finger up. “You’ve also been flying around, and whatever happened with Nezz sounds like an ordeal. We don’t know what we’re about to run into here, so we decided we’d charge you up first. You’re the most powerful asset we’ve got.”

Una blushed deeply. She didn’t know why the others were acting so strangely. They almost felt like a pack of wolves, surrounding her like prey. Or like an alpha wolf, a quiet thought whispered. “By we, you mean…”

Susan grinned wickedly. “We’re not going to all go at you at once, though that might be fun sometime. We agreed to share the responsibility of keeping you satisfied, taking turns. After all, what’s a sex cult without some ritual sex?” She gave a little shiver of anticipation and leaned in closer to whisper: “I want to finish what we started last night… but that can wait!”

“Can’t you sense it, Una? Our desire.” John looked at her frankly. “I don’t know how to describe it. And I’m sure as hell weirded out by it. But you know I’ve felt… drawn to you, ever since you began changing, weeks ago. We all have. We want you, and that’s impossible to ignore. You must sense it too?”

Una felt her cheeks burning even hotter. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? When she attuned her succubus senses to the patterns of yearning and desire, she could sense it clearly: each of the four humans around her burned with lust; they wanted to fuck and get fucked, and their attention was on her.

Only Cassandra’s tendrils of desire snaked around her with uncertainty, but the others’ feelings strained towards her as if she were vacuuming them in. Those feelings now pulsed in her awareness like an electric current through her veins. It was overwhelming now that she tuned into it. Had she missed it because she was new to these feelings? Or had she simply blocked it out?

Una coughed. “So, if you’re sharing me… how do we, uh—”

Maria stepped forward. “First, my dark lady,” she said with a grin, “we could start by getting naked.” She stepped out of her jean shorts and flung them aside, leaving her in her tight t-shirt and black thong. Maria’s legs were long and shapely as when Una had first watched them form. The night they’d met and first fucked, after which Maria’s body had rapidly changed from that of a handsome, toned man to a curvaceous, feminine girl. We have that in common, Una thought. Maria and I both had such different lives before, but… she was sure right away that she wanted to be a woman.

Una approached Maria, putting one hand on the taller girl’s thigh. “It’s your turn now, is it?” she murmured, letting her hand move up to Maria’s stomach, tracing her belly button. Maria shivered with excitement.

Susan smiled. “Maria hasn’t had the pleasure of your attentions for some time. Something she pointed out earlier today. There’s Cassandra, but she…” Susan glanced sideways at the rangy girl. “…isn’t ready yet.” Cassandra said nothing, but turned her head to regard Maria and Una with an intense gaze.

“That means I get to enjoy you myself,” Maria purred, raising a hand to stroke Una’s face. She lifted her arms and peeled her t-shirt off over her head, revealing full round breasts with hard pink nipples, perfectly proportioned to her slender frame. She took Una by the hand and pulled her down to the grass.