v2 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: In which razors, safes and robots entwine technology and magical change.

Una set her phone on the kitchen counter and hurried past Jay Sigma to the clothes hamper. A lot of dirty clothes I left here over a month ago, she thought. I was planning on doing laundry that day. She picked up her lace dress; inspecting it, Una realized it probably no longer fit her. When she’d last worn it, she’d been substantially slimmer in the bust.

Jay watched her with a bemused look on his face, which she did her best to ignore. “Urgent appointment?”

“Like you said, Susan’s been trying to reach me. Something’s happened, and I don’t have time to explain—I told her I’d get to the West Village as fast as I could.” She picked up her bike suit. It was scuffed and dusty, still covered with a faint residue of moth scales, and smelled like old sweat.

Una frowned, dropped the jacket and turned to Jay. “Look, is it all right if I leave some things here? I know you want the place back, but I’ll come back when I can.”

Jay shrugged. “I don’t need the whole place back. Hell, I have another place in Coney Island, although this one’s easier to get to. You’re welcome to the guest room; it’s not like anyone’s waiting to use it. But don’t you want some clean clothes?”

“That’s what I’m looking for right now!” Una dug through the hamper, searching for something less filthy than her motorcycle clothes, something baggy or stretchy enough for her chest.

Jay stepped towards the trunks and crates he’d brought home and started fiddling with the fastenings. He opened the latches and threw back the lid, then looked over at her. “Hey. Take a deep breath, then find something in here. There’s a range of sizes.”

Una blinked and peeked inside; the contents looked as if someone had raided the costume department of a cabaret. Feather boas and satin dresses, sequined tops, fishnets and a rainbow collection of panties and bras.

“My drag stuff.” Jay Sigma didn’t meet her eyes. “For performances, and dress-up occasions. Oh wait, you’ve been to my party, right? SUBMISSION?”

Una nodded, then pulled out a shimmering blue cocktail dress with a plunging neckline and a slit up the thigh. “I know SUBMISSION. I… found it a very liberating experience, I guess you could say.” Una looked down at the dress, then held the clingy material up to her chest, imagining how it would fit. More of a statement than I was going for, but it’ll work with my hoof boots.

“While you slip that on,” said Jay, “Can I see those leathers you were wearing?”

Una picked up the jacket and pants and tossed them in his direction. “I’m impressed that you have such a range of clothes, and you’re not worried about anyone seeing them. But that suit is pretty form-fitting… I don’t think you’ll be able to squeeze into it. I barely can!”

Jay rolled his eyes. “Ha ha. I’m genderqueer and proud, baby. But that’s not why I wanted to take a look.” He pulled his phone out, inserted a round object in the charging slot, and ran it back and forth along the jacket’s seams. Then he checked the phone screen.

“You’re not… scanning the suit, are you?” Una stared, sliding her right hand through a sparkling blue sleeve. “What for?”

Jay looked up. “That’s exactly what I’m doing. You’re not the only thing that set off sensors here last night.” He unzipped the hip pocket and removed the padlock key, along with two cards. One bore a picture of an orc in a ballgown, while the other was blank.

“Duchess! I saw them at the Bowery Ballroom a few months ago. Hmm, that’s not it.” Jay touched the other card, and his expression darkened as words appeared on its blank, linen surface. He looked over at Una, who had pulled a pair of smoky stockings from the truck. “Do you need this card from… Matt Kyber?”

Una scowled. “Wait… are you telling me that card’s got some kind of tracking device? How do you know?”

Jay tapped the device plugged into his phone. “I’d have to do much more analysis, but it’s definitely emitting magical energy, and not just the kind that makes words appear. It’s a regular pulse, some sort of signal. I’ve heard of this kind of thing, but…” He studied the card carefully, turning it in his hand.

Una shivered. “Fuck! That bastard Kyber.” She stomped a hoof and balled her fists. “I should have known better than to take anything from him! But why would he be tracking me?” She took a deep breath, then smoothed the skirt of the dress over her hips. “Wait, is it possible he’s listening to our conversation right now?”

Jay shrugged. “Could be; hard to say. But I can do something about the possibility. You get dressed.”

Una slid the stockings over her hooves, then added her hoof boots. Her tail slithered out from under the skirt, and Una reached behind her to smooth it down. Almost normal, she thought. For a girl who’s the color of burgundy wine.

“I’m not looking forward to getting on the subway again, or I would have raced out of here,” she muttered to herself.

Jay was opening a floor safe that Una had never noticed before, concealed beneath a wooden panel at one end of the kitchen. He bent to let a scanner examine his eye, then inserted his hand inside and withdrew a small metal box. “Cold iron lined with lead,” he explained, then nodded approvingly at Una’s outfit. He opened the box, dropped the card in, then replaced everything in the safe.

“That should do it,” said Jay. “Shall we?”

Una had found a blue cloth headband and was adjusting it over her horns. Positioned correctly, it almost made them look like hair accessories, as long as no one looked too closely. “I’m sorry, what? Are you coming with me?”

Jay grinned, his eyes sparkling. “Hell yeah! If Susan has some crisis that needs the attention of a succubus, my curiosity’s definitely piqued. That is… as long as you have no objections?”

Una crossed her arms. “You know, I can’t figure out if you have bad boundaries, or are helpful, or just plain infuriating, but… I can’t think of any objections, and I don’t have time to argue.” She started walking towards the door.

Jay skipped after her, grabbing a messenger bag. “Tell you what… there’s no reason you should take the subway, especially looking all dolled up! I’ll call a car.”

***

Una had to admit that a car service was preferable to the subway. Her outfit had attracted some stares on the street, but dressing up had the paradoxical effect of making her style look entirely deliberate, from the sparkling evening wear and high boots to her red skin. The driver didn’t blink an eye as he navigated the Brooklyn streets towards the Manhattan skyline.

“I can’t help but notice that you’re trying to be… how should I put this? Incognito?” Jay lowered her glasses and peered at her, so Una took her own sunglasses off and stared back.

“You could say that. I ran into some trouble the last time I took the subway, and I’d rather not attract attention from the Church right now, either. Or Matt Kyber, or his backer…” She sighed, looking down at her crimson hand.

Jay looked curious. “I thought succubae had transformation powers? That’s what the stories say, at least…”

“They do—we do. That’s related to why we’re going to meet Susan, actually. But I haven’t…” she trailed off, feeling embarrassed under Jay’s inquiring gaze. “I haven’t exactly mastered the ability yet, okay? I’m a little… self-conscious about being red, and having hooves. And a tail. And horns.”

Jay nodded. “It sounds like a lot. But have you tried just… I don’t know, concentrating on what you want to look like?” He was still watching her with an intensity that made Una nervous. The car sat in traffic, waiting to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. How would he know anything about transforming as a succubus? Her thoughts carried a rueful edge.

“I haven’t really tried,” she admitted. “Maybe there’s a reason for that.”

“Try it right now!” When Jay saw the mistrustful look on her face, he added, “I don’t mean take your clothes off or turn into a different person. Just… make your fingernails shorter, or something like that.”

Una raised an eyebrow, but regarded her nails. As usual, they were long and black, and slightly pointed. What would it feel like to have shorter ones, less like claws? She pictured her fingernails shrinking, but nothing happened. Nails… smaller! Saying the words to herself wasn’t any better.

“Okay,” Jay continued, “maybe try relaxing. You’re practically shaking. Take a deep breath.”

Una glared at Jay, but she had to admit, this was the least stressful situation in which she’d attempted transformation. Even so, she could feel the tension in her body, and the way the seat belt banded tight between her breasts. I’ve gone through too many traumatic transformations, she thought. Maybe that makes it harder.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with oxygen. Her diaphragm moved against the constricting seat belt, and Una reached up to adjust it. I’ll try that again. After a few breaths, she opened her eyes and gazed at her hands, letting energy flow into her fingertips.

To Una’s surprise, the nails on her right hand shortened. She stared, willing the process to continue, and the nails became translucent and rounder, until they resembled a normal woman’s. Una flexed her hand, marveling at the change, then looked at Jay in delighted surprise.

“Hey, it worked!” Jay looked pleased. “You want to keep going?” They were moving faster now, speeding over the East River into Manhattan.

Una raised her other hand to repeat the process, but felt a tingle in her right hand as she did. The short, ordinary nails grew again, lengthening and sharpening into the same dark talons she’d had before. She glanced up at Jay, confused.

“Hmm. Snapped back like a rubber band.” Jay took her by the hand and inspected her nails. His skin was dry and warm. “I guess there’s something that ‘knows’ what you’re supposed to look like?”

“Maybe,” Una mused. She concentrated for a moment, then stared at her left hand in wonder. It looked manicured now too, with round, white nails atop her deep-red fingers. She laughed. “This is something, at least… even if it’s just a party trick that leaves me winded.” Once again, the nails grew out and darkened.

“Have you ever considered nanotechnology?” Jay’s tone was casual, but he was studying Una as carefully as if she were a specimen.

Una blinked. “Um, you mean like the stuff people use in high-end makeup? I’ve heard of it… well, some kid at a store thought I was wearing some the other day.”

Jay shook his head. “That stuff’s pretty primitive. It’s for temporary cosmetic uses. But nanites could help with your transformation issue, in theory. Typical nanotech uses raw materials, like protein or amino acids, as fuel to reproduce, then restructures tissue at a molecular level. The tricky bit is controlling what you get, and how it happens, but trans-portal technology has made many things possible.”

Una nodded slowly. She’d heard of nanotech imported from other worlds, of course; everyone had. The media was mostly full of scary stories about plagues of nanites that turned everything into goo, or little gray robots, or something equally catastrophic. But that terrifying apocalypse hadn’t materialized on Earth, and apparently hadn’t wiped out other worlds that used the technology, so now scientists and engineers were cautiously exploring applications for medicine and robotics. And some kind of simple version as body paint, she thought. Maybe it just spreads out over you?

Jay kept talking. “There are two major classes of problems in nano-engineering: resources and direction. Sophisticated nano-activations require a lot of energy and a lot of compute, and achieving a desirable outcome takes extraordinarily tricky programming. It’s not as if we can write instructions for each cell. But with access to a magical source of energy, and an etheric entity that can guide transformations mentally…”

Una looked at him sharply. “Are you thinking you could program a set of nanites to… to just fix my appearance? To look more or less human, change my skin color and my eyes?”

Jay’s eyes were gleaming. “That’s the beauty of it. You would program it on the fly, just like you changed your nails just now. Think of it like… having a cybernetic arm. Or a leg brace. OK, this is clearly a lot, but let me know if you’re interested? I have an experimental treatment I’ve been working on.”

Una pursed her lips. “Jay. This sounds great in theory… too good to be true, even. But I barely know you, and it sounds like you’re looking for a guinea pig? What if something went wrong?”

Jay’s expression turned serious. “Of course, your safety would be the highest priority. And this procedure would use temporary nanites, designed to dissolve. But I could explain to you the risks involved and help you make an informed decision. Just think about it.”

Una was about to say something further, but the car had pulled up in front of a large brick building: the Bleecker Street Haven and Community Commons. She opened the door and swung her legs out.

“Thanks for the ride, Jay—and the clothes. I’m going to go on ahead.” She caught his gaze. “Based on what Susan told me, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t barge in. It might be a… sensitive situation.” The succubus stepped onto the sidewalk in a swish of blue sequins and heels, then disappeared into the building.

***

“That’s her?” Una whispered, peering cautiously towards the row of sinks at the far side of the Haven’s locker room. She winced. “I’m sorry, I mean… that’s him? Cesar?”

Maria nodded, shifting a little as Susan taped an electrode to her armpit. “Yep. My poor victim… and yeah, he’s still a guy. But I can see why you mispronouned him. He’s a hottie even with his head half-shaved.”

The tall blonde girl elbowed Una in the side. “But I gotta say, he’s trying harder to look like a guy than you did when we first met.” Una winced again, reminded of her long-ago attempts to pass as an ordinary man.

Cesar was attacking his luxurious chestnut locks with scissors and clippers, apparently trying to find a style he’d be more comfortable with. The occasional curse in Spanish drifted towards the lockers.

“Everyone’s different, Maria.” Susan clucked her tongue as she taped another strand of copper wire to Maria’s inner thigh. “By the time you met us, Una had taken charge of her transformation, and you actively wanted your change. Neither are true of Cesar.”

Maria sighed, leaning back against the lockers with her hands behind her head. She displayed the svelte curves she’d wished for, only wearing underwear so that Susan could attach electrodes to her forehead, nipples, and… Una blinked. Susan was threading another wire into Maria’s underwear.

Maria squirmed. “Ooooh! You even have to put it down there? Can’t it go up my nose or something?”

Susan shook her head. “To diagnose what’s happening with your powers, I first need baseline measurements of your aetheric signature’s sexual energy levels while you’re at rest and aroused.” Susan seems stressed out, Una thought. Normally, she’d wink at me impishly if she mentioned arousal. Of course, she might reserve that attitude for me and not Maria…

“Una?” Lost in thought, she’d apparently missed Susan’s question.

“Huh? Yes, sure! Of course.” Inwardly, she cursed her distraction. There was still too much going on for her to concentrate easily.

Susan narrowed her eyebrows, then smiled in a familiar way. “I know that look. What did you just agree to do? Did you catch any of it?”

Possibilities scurried across Una’s mind. One stopped and brightened. “You were saying you need a measurement when Maria’s… oh. Oh! You want me to…”

Maria was already on all fours, crawling towards Una with an exaggerated leer. “The scientist commands you to arouse me, dark mistress!”

Susan slapped Maria on the behind, and the leggy blonde yelped. “Get back here! You’re going to pull the wires off. And I need you to be calm for the first measurement, not aroused.”

Maria pouted. “But… what if I’m aroused by cute li’l nerds taping wires to my pussy, Susan? Hey… what happened to your huge muscles, anyway?”

Susan ignored her and gave Una a pointed look. “You’re distracting my first test subject. Could you go help Cesar or something?”

“Your first test subject?” Una got to her feet, glancing again at Cesar. “Who’s—oh, it’s me, isn’t it?”

Susan nodded once. “Why do you think this had to wait until you got in touch? I need to figure out the resonance between your energies and what we could do about it…”

“But who’s going to handle my arousal?” The succubus raised one eyebrow, and Susan returned her glance with a knowing smile and a lick of her top lip.

Una’s eyes darted right as the door of the locker room opened to a narrow crack. “Hey ladies,” Jay Sigma’s voice said. “Anything I can help with in--”

“Get out of here, Jay!” Susan yelled, just as Una barked, “No, close the door!” They looked at each other with astonished mirth.

“I see you already understand a little about Jay despite having just met him,” Susan said, rolling her eyes. “I swear, he’s like the brother I never had… but a very obnoxious little brother. Why did you bring him along, anyway?”

Una shrugged, her dark lips twisting. “He just insisted on tagging along, saying he thought he could help somehow. I didn’t want to tell him to back off and get into another fight.”

Susan sighed. “Well, he has a way with tech. And he’ll respect your boundaries if you’re clear about them; he couldn’t operate in a scene like SUBMISSION without a healthy respect for consent.” She finished taping yet another wire to Maria, then made a shooing motion at Una. “Go on now, I’ve got to start the readings.”

Una walked carefully over to Cesar, who was running an electric razor up the back of his slender neck. The look on his face suggested intense concentration, but then his gaze flickered to Una’s reflection. His eyes were startlingly large, and an interesting hazel mix of warm brown and clear green.

“You the succubus, huh?” Cesar’s voice was high and musical, but he tried to make his delivery gruff. His eyes roamed up and down Una’s body in an even more overtly masculine manner. Una nodded, a little unsettled by his appraising stare.

“Damn, now you look like a demon demon. If you hit me up for some strange, I’d have known what I was getting into.” Cesar tossed his head sarcastically, his shorter locks flaring out. He turned back to the mirror, resuming his shave. “I hear you’ve done this before—made a boy into a girl?”

Una shrugged. “Yes, that was Maria. But… you’ve already met her.”

“Maria wanted to become a girl.” Cesar ran the razor down the nape of his neck again. “What about you? The other girl said you used to be a priest, before the demon in you changed you. That true?” He peered at her in the mirror, his eyes studying her face.

Una stared at him for a moment, unsure what to say. “It’s… hard to explain. I’m still me, still the same person as that priest. I just… feel like Una, now.” She felt awkward, like she was explaining colors to a blind man.

Cesar switched off the razor and tapped it against the edge of the sink. “Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come,” he said.

Une smiled and continued the quote smoothly “…and the years draw near when you will say ‘I have no pleasure in them’; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with rain. Ecclesiastes 12. Satisfied?”

Cesar nodded. “That’s my mom’s favorite Bible verse. But she’d freak out if she met you. Or me, right now.” His eyes remained fixed on his reflection, but Una could see his lip tremble.

She hesitated, then put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I hope there’s some way I can…”

He shrugged her hand away. “The other girl, with the glasses? She said there might be, if you change me like you did Maria. But for that we’d have to…” He trailed off.

“Have sex?” Una finished. “I don’t really know. It’s been different every time it happened. I’ll be honest with you, Cesar… I’ll do anything I can to help, as long as you’re comfortable with it.”

Cesar smiled. “Padre, I can also tell you’re a priest because you’re awkward as fuck about this kind of thing. You’re probably not comfortable with it either. Kind of funny for a succubus.”

He’s right, she realized with a start. I couldn’t just… hook up with him. It was one thing to be intimate with John or Susan, friends like Maria and even random hookups, but this situation was more daunting. She felt more responsibility for Cesar’s condition than for any of the others, and she didn’t want to harm him. “That’s correct, I guess,” she admitted. “I’m not… that good at being a sex demon sometimes.”

“Well, don’t worry. I don’t want to be stuck like this…” He hefted his breasts, flattened slightly by a compression but still impressive. That’s the same brand of underwear Susan bought me, she realized. “…but I’m not really eager to get fucked with this new equipment. What does that feel like, anyway, having sex as a lady?” He made a strange face.

“…different?” Una started. “I mean, it’s weird at first when you’ve never been on the receiving end, but… kind of awesome when you realize what your body is capable of. I can’t really explain it.”

“Do you have sex with other women now? Besides men?” Cesar’s hazel eyes were curious.

Una frowned. “I’ve had some sexual encounters with both genders, yes.”

Cesar looked thoughtful. “Huh. So, lesbians are into demon chicks?”

“I’m not really sure,” Una replied, surprised at the direction of the conversation. “Why do you ask?”

Cesar made a sour face. “I’m stuck like this for a little while, at least until the nerd figures out what to do. I might as well look hot.” He combed gel into the short locks he’d left on top of his skull.

Damn, thought Una. He does look like a hot dyke with the half-shaved head, and that sports bra cleavage. Maybe a badass tattoo would complete the look…

“And we’re done!” Susan’s voice called out from the corner of the locker room. “Next!”

Just then, the locker room door opened a crack again. Una was about to yell at Jay for a second time when she heard John Hayes’ voice.

“Hey Maria…? Or Una or Susan too, I guess. There’s someone here I think you should talk to.” John sounded unusually tense, but the familiar rumble of his voice washed over Una like a balm, and she hurried to the door.

She slipped through and threw her arms around John, nearly knocking him over. The broad-shouldered priest wore a black polo shirt with a white collar and a pair of black work pants. He caught her like she was a dancer leaping into the pair portion of a routine. They hugged each other tightly.

“Una…” John murmured into her hair and kissed the top of her head. Una squeezed him, taking in his scent: laundry soap, a slight hint of sweat and the faint tang of incense. “Um… I don’t know if we should hug like this, Una. Especially in a semi-public place.”

“Fuck it.” Una hugged him tighter. “I was worried about you. About leaving you at that place. You know that.” She wanted nothing more than to drag him down to the floor and mount him, but restrained herself. If he was feeling any similar urges, John did more than restrain himself: he gently pushed Una away, giving her a sheepish smile. “Later,” he murmured. Una just nodded.

She turned to see who John had brought and frowned in puzzlement. The nervous-looking woman standing a few paces away wasn’t anyone Una recognized. She wore a navy twill jacket over a pair of overalls and a plain white work shirt, all of which fit her poorly, in places bagging and in others clinging to her generous curves. She’d pulled her long red hair back into a messy ponytail, and her freckled face was tired and sad.

The woman raised two fingers in an awkward salute. “Ah… hi there, Miss Una. You probably don’t recognize me.” There was something about her mannerisms and the tone of her voice that Una found familiar, though.

She squinted at the woman. “No, I don’t, but… you sound familiar. Were you upstate, at the compound we… visited?”

John folded his arms and glanced towards the locker room, where Maria had poked her head out.

“No, ma’am. I mean, yes ma’am. I was there, but… it’s me, Bill. The bus driver. But uh…” the woman gestured at herself. “Then this happened, just a day after I dropped you all off here.”

Una stared at Bill, who’d been a bearded bus driver with a “dad bod” just two days ago. Now he’s definitely closer to MILF, she thought.

Maria let out a howl. “Holy shit. Susan! You’re not going to like this… but I transformed someone else!”

Una waved Bill over. “You’d better come on in. Susan usually buys too many sports bras and compression binders for situations like this… maybe we’ll have something in your size.”