Suddenly A Succubus

Chapter 65.1

Vee stood tall, her stance strong as she braced herself against Hope’s full weight. Thick, voluminous red hair obscured Vee’s vision of the den, and faintly glittering tears ran down Hope’s face as she hugged Vee as tightly as possible.“I’m gonna miss you so muuuuuch!!” Hope sobbed, shoving her face into Vee’s shoulder.

“I’ll miss you too, Hope,” Vee said with a smile. She gently rubbed Hope’s back as the two girls held each other. “I wish I could write you, or something, but I have a feeling that won’t be possible.” Glancing over at Zadkiel, Vee saw him shake his head slowly.

“There’s just SO many questions I want to ask you about Earth, and your school, and your friends, and Amara! I bet she’s SO pretty and SO nice and I wish I could meet heeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr!” Hope’s next few sentences devolved into incoherent ramblings about all the things she was going to miss about Vee. Had Nick and Amara not been in mortal peril, she would have absolutely searched for a way to stay a little longer, but there simply wasn’t time.

“It’s going to be okay, Hope,” Vee muttered back. “Who knows what the future holds?”

Wiping her eyes briefly, Hope leaned in close and whispered as quietly as she could, “I see you again, Vee. Even if my dad tries to stop me, I’ll figure something out.”

The girls pulled away from each other, and Vee smiled in acknowledgment as she tucked a strand of Hope’s wild mane back into place. “Thank you so much for the warm welcome, Hope. And for not impaling me with a sword. I’m quite content not going through that again…”

“Wait, again?!” Hope asked.

Vee flashed a cheeky smile. “Perhaps that’s a story for another day.”

“That’s not faaaaair!” Hope turned towards Zadkiel as she sniffled and rubbed her nose. “Daddy, isn’t there something we can do to get more time with Vee? Don’t you have super archangel time powers or whatever?”

Zadkiel extended his arms and pulled Hope into a hug. “Not in this form, I’m afraid, Hope sweetie. We’ll just have to respect that Vee has her own life to live.”

Hope hugged her father tight, but turned her head to look at Vee. “I know… Please say hello to Amara and all your friends for me? And to Aunt Evelyn? And if you ever find a way to maybe come back and visit again, you HAVE to—”

Her words were cut off by Zadkiel, his voice stern while a faint twinkle of magic appeared in his eyes. “Vee. Amara has just returned to Earth. I believe it’s time you took your exit.”

“Thank you, Zadkiel,” Vee said with a nod. “I’ll need to hurry if I’m to catch up with her.”

“Actually, I think I have a better solution,” Zadkiel said. He gently tapped Hope’s shoulder, silently asking her to release him from their hug. “With the seals of Aurelius University no longer functioning as intended, I believe I will be able to transport you directly home.”

“That’s incredible!” Vee said excitedly. “Do you know where I will appear?”

“Likely in whichever runic circle connects your school to The Wilds. In fact, you should be able to guarantee your destination if you aid me.”

Clenching her fists tightly, Vee hesitated. “I… I will do my best.”

As Zadkiel stepped closer, he reached for Vee’s hands. “Just have faith in me, young Vequaniel. I certainly have faith in you.”

“And me!” Hope chipped in. “I mean, having faith in you. Zadkiel doesn’t mean me. I mean, he have faith in me, but that’s not—” Hope shook her head. “Sorry, I’m rambling. You’re going to do amazing things, Vee, and I can’t wait to hear all about them the next time we meet!”

Vee laughed at Hope’s nervous rambling, and whispered one final goodbye before she straightened her posture and turned to face Zadkiel once again. “I’m ready.”

“Thank you, Vee,” he said quietly. “For everything.”

Powerful Enochian magic began swirling through the cottage, rustling the pages of nearby books as it manifested. Iridescent motes of light from beyond this plane condensed behind Zadkiel, revealing six magnificent wings that stretched into eternity. Vee clutched the archangel’s hands as tightly as she could, scared of falling into that endless abyss, and instead tried to focus on his kind gaze. With the archangel as her guide, she reached for her own wellspring of Creation and politely asked it to clear a path home. She closed her eyes and pictured the cold storage room underneath the cafeteria, surrounded on all sides by countless ancient appliances and small plants forcing their way onto campus from The Wilds.

Faint as it was, Vee felt her own magic stir to life as she envisioned her destination. It joined together with Zadkiel’s strength the way a canoe might get swept up in a tsunami, and she fell. Her stomach lurched as space rushed by her, endless sights and sounds from all over The Wilds vanishing in an instant as the impossible magic of an archangel catapulted her out of this plane.

Panic set in as Zadkiel released his grip on her, and for a brief moment, Vee dared to look at the planes as she found herself briefly suspended between them. She managed a single gasp in awe of the cosmos as she fell. Her mind seemed to split from her body, both of which felt eons apart from some third part of her. They circled this other facet in perfect tandem, connected in spirit both to each other and this immense source of warmth and joy that, somehow, felt like home. As difficult as it was to comprehend, she believed herself to be orbiting some kind of star; a massive beacon of potential that was both her and greater than she could ever hope to be. Thin, glittering trails of magic lit her way forward, and this star that both was and wasn’t her pulsed with recognition as she soared passed it.

Tears fell from her eyes as she sped between worlds. She wanted so badly to understand this star, to be one with it and to feel its light as her own, but as she reached out, it shuddered. It was not her, it couldn’t be, and yet she felt her desire mirrored in its blinding depths. Their connection was something beyond Vee’s understanding, and as she accepted that she could not be one with this thing, she finally saw it for what it was.

Her Miracle.

All at once, it expanded beyond her senses before simultaneously landing in the palm of her hand. She whispered a silent greeting to it before releasing it once more, surrendering to the tides of Creation that swept her home.

Vee opened her eyes. She was together again, kneeling on solid ground in a cold storage room underneath the cafeteria. Breath filled her lungs; not the unbearably humid air of The Wilds, but the dry, brisk air pumped through buildings by outdated furnaces. Rising to her feet, Vee briefly tested her balance to make sure she’d properly recovered from her trip. Content that she was all there, she grabbed her things from beside the portal and ran for the exit, holding the power button on her phone.

Initially, her haste was simply due to a desire to reunite with Amara. She’d been worried sick about her love ever since they’d been separated, and while she trusted Zadkiel’s word that she was alive and safe, she still wanted to see it for herself.

Then she saw the pitch blackness of the bistro, contrasted with the sharp moonlight illuminating the campus outside the windows.

Vee stepped outside, and fear gripped her. The moon was practically full, and given what she knew about Amara’s return, there was no way they’d gotten the cure to Nick in time. Taking a brief second to look around the quad, Vee saw nothing of interest, and eventually caved to her desire to check the hundreds of messages flooding her phone.

They sped by at incredible speeds, an endless barrage of information that seemed, for the most part, entirely routine. When the messages finally stopped, her phone decided to display only the most recent text, and her stomach dropped.

Tessa: NICKS AT THE CHAPEL

Vee turned south and took off. She silently prayed for the strength to move faster, but her connection to her powers was still tenuous at best. Heart pounding in her chest, she sprinted as fast as she could in hopes of reaching Amara before she found Nick.