The Hunt

Dear Bobby,

Sorry it's been so long since last I wrote. You know how it is in this crazy business. Truth is, I have gotten myself into a bit of a situation, which is why no return address. I can't involve anyone else in it, not even you, old friend. I just wanted to let you know what's going on in case things go completely to hell, no pun intended. Hey, who am I kidding...pun TOTALLY intended.

I was hoping to stop by for a visit in January when I came off the station for holidays, but I never even made it back to the old home town. There was heavy snow in the mountain pass and the bus had to lay over to wait for the plows. Greyhound put us up in a hotel. I decided to make a trip down to the lounge for a little nightcap before turning in, since I'd been asleep for most of the last 6 hours or so on the bus.

The lounge was pretty packed, but folks were being quiet...not really in the partying mood in spite of the live band that was playing. Me, I was just sitting by myself taking it in. Funny how people look after you've been outside civilization for the better part of 2 years. So I just sipped my virgin cocktail (nobody so much as blinked when I ordered the Shirley Temple...kinda took the fun out of it) and watched the people. I almost missed her altogether.

She came into the lounge alone, and got her drink from the bar rather than taking a table. If it hadn't been for the fact that she seemed to be making an effort to be unobtrusive, I might not have paid much attention. Then as she began talking to a young fellow near the darkened window, I got a good look at her in the light of the table candle. I'm not exagerating one bit when I tell you she was the most beautiful woman this kid had ever seen. She had almost unnaturally large eyes, so green I could see from across the room, set in a round, innocent-looking face framed by golden hair.

Even so, it wasn't until the woman took off her coat that she caught the attention of every man in the place. Her hair was waist length and looked like an ad for expensive hair products. She was wearing dark grey slacks and a plain white blouse with enough buttons open to reveal that she wore no bra. Her body moved like rich liquid as she dropped her coat over one arm of the chair and seated herself opposite her companion.

Perhaps I used the wrong word, since the man she sat with gave the distinct impression that he didn't know the woman at all. Nonetheless, it was hard to imagine any man turning away from the attention of a woman like her, especially since she seemed focused on him as though she found him utterly entrancing. Every time he spoke, she leaned towards him, as if enthralled by his every word.

For the next hour and a half (and 5 more Shirley Temples), I, and every other man in the hotel lounge, watched this walking, talking wet dream make her way amongst the apparently single male patrons (and 2 who weren't). Each man she left appeared to be in a completely drunken stupor and gave the impression of losing all interest in her before she moved on. It took me observing only 2 of these encounters before I made the connection.

I had never seen one in the flesh before, but there was no doubt in my mind that I was watching a feeding succubus. If anyone else in the room found the woman's behavior in the least odd, they gave no sign of it. But then, I was always a bit more resistant to glamour than most, and I had yet to bear the brunt of the demon's full attention. In spite of my awareness of the true parasitic nature of that attention, I found myself anxiously awaiting the moment when the creature would turn it on me. Perhaps it was the anticipation of just once being looked at by a woman of such astonishing lovliness the way she looked at each of her "victims".

If it had not been for the complete change in the succubus' demeanor, I would have missed the 2 young women who had come in from the storm. I followed her intent gaze and recognized them for what they were immediately. Vampires. The effect their arrival had on the parasite demon was startling. Her tour through the lounge had ended, and her casual posture had become rigid. She looked around the room with quick, almost frantic movements, and when I got a look at her face, her expression was one of undisguised panic.

At once I thought of your theory on the potential interaction between vampires and cubic spirits. The succubus had been working this room for well over an hour and there wasn't a person in it who hadn't been touched by her glamour. The air was heavy with the supernatural pheremones her body spread like pollen. All of this conspired to create an environment ripe for the raising of hormonal reproductive instincts. Since the 2 vampires reproduced by killing, the overall effect was to make the succubus the supernatural equivalent of a harbour seal in a bay full of killer whales. Clearly enough, she knew it.

The vampires split up, one of them taking a table between her prey and the door, while the other strolled casually towards the bar. The succubus had been on her feet when they entered, and began moving towards the door. The seated vampire rose, and she retreated in my direction. The vampire removed her coat and sat down again, looking directly at the frightened succubus.

Would they actually hit her right here in the lounge, I wondered. Not likely, but the lounge would close soon, and everyone would leave at once, making her easy prey. It was obvious she had the same thought and intended to make her escape attempt before that happened.

I won't even try to explain what happened next, because I'm not even sure I understand it myself. I may have been under the effect of the demon's glamour more than I thought, but frankly I doubt it, and here's why. As soon as the vampires entered the lounge, the succubus' appearance changed. Her hair darkened subtly and her features became slightly more aristocratic. Her cheekbones seemed to rise and her face narrowed almost imperceptably. If the writings are correct, and these creatures appear to their victims as their sexual ideal, then she had just lost her control over me, and possibly everyone in the room. At one point, I actually thought I saw wings at her back and on her head; batlike and somewhat menacing. When I blinked in surprise, however, the impression was gone and I cannot say for certain that I had seen it at all. What I'm getting at, Bobby, is that I believe the decision I made next to have been made of my own free will. When I think about it now, I am unsure of the reasons that went into that decision, although I believe that a large contributing factor was the way the succubus looked around when she realized that there was no getting to the exit. Her expression of utter despair, almost as though she saw complete hopelessness in her situation, and had no doubt that no one in the room, without aid of her glamour, would possibly give a damn.

In any case, my mind fixed on the logistics of what was happening. The vampires were herding their victim towards the washrooms, the entrance to which was only a few feet from where I sat. At that same moment, I saw the demon turn her back on the lounge and head towards me. I got quickly to my feet, deliberately not looking towards the vampires, but noticing that the one near the bar was starting in the same direction. I stepped into the corridor, heart racing, turned the corner, and paused. The instant the demon entered the short hallway, I seized her arm. She almost cried out, staring at me with eyes too wide to be human.

"Come," I hissed and pulled her roughly towards the men's room. She allowed this until we were alone in the 3-stall washroom then broke my grip. With one hand, she pinned me against the porcelain tile. I couldn't believe her strength, and when she leaned so close to me I could feel her rapid breath on my throat, I thought I was dead. Looking down at her face (she stood no more than 5'2" in enormous stiletto-heeled boots), I saw the needlelike fangs between her slightly parted lips. Her eyes were wild; almost feral, and I felt panic stir in me as I wondered if I had made a fatal mistake. She was small in stature, but the delicate hand which held the base of my neck may as well have been polished marble. I realized that if she meant to end my life, I would already be dead.

"What do you want?" she demanded. It was hardly the softly husky voice I had imagined, but it betrayed the fear I was responding to.

"There's a vampire outside waiting for you to make a break out the ladies' room window," I gasped, praying I was right for both our sakes.

The creature seemed to melt before my eyes. Releasing me, she took a step backwards. Her eyes suddenly swam with tears; her lips moved but made no sound. I made my play. If I had misjudged her, she'd kill me right here in the john. If I misjudged the vampires, we both had less than a minute to live. I grabbed the towel dispenser and ripped a length of paper about a foot long off the roll. Grabbing the succubus roughly, I pulled open her blouse, exposing her ample bosom. Trying not to think about her body, and half waiting to feel those steelly fingers around my throat again, I shoved the paper towel under the succubus' arm, rubbing it hard against the soft but unyielding flesh. I avoided her gaze, not wanting to see the wild fury I expected to be there, and shoved the paper down the front of her pants.

"No panties," I thought disjointedly, and realized I was feeling the pangs of panic again. So much hinged on the next few seconds. I had no time to explain to the demon that I wasn't trying to cop a cheap feel. Furthermore, even if she had decided to put her trust in me, I had only my hunch that this crazy idea had even a chance of working. As I tossed the moist paper towel over the door to a stall, I turned back towards the succubus to find her re-adjusting her blouse. I seriously doubted that she guessed what I was thinking, but apparently if I was about to die, it wasn't going to be at her hands. When I placed my hand in the small of her back and propelled her towards the door, she moved without question.

As we re-entered the corridor which connected the 2 washrooms, my heart skipped a beat. The door to the ladies' room was still closed, although I imagined I could feel the vampire on the other side reaching to open it. I gave the succubus a shove towards the lounge and hissed "OUT!" She went.

My vision got unaccountably bright as the demoness rounded the corner into the lounge and the ladies' room door opened. I let my hand linger on the door to the men's room, casting a furtive glance over my shoulder. As I let go of the door and turned back the way I was walking, I bumped into the vampiress. Without a word, she shoved past me and went into the men's room.

The washroom door closed behind me and my heart started beating again. I turned into the lounge and scanned the room. No sign of the succubus, and several people were looking towards the exit door. I couldn't help smiling. If I had guessed correctly, the demoness had had a clear shot at escape. If I had guessed wrong, she was dead. It was that simple. As I turned towards the table I'd been seated at, I caught a glimpse of something outside in the glare of the standing lamp that froze my breath in my throat. The succubus was standing there in the snow!

No one was near her, she was simply standing there! As my mind registered this, I heard the sound of a door being slammed back in the men's room. I dashed to the door, trying frantically to piece together what had gone wrong. "Why hadn't she fled?" I thought wildly. I realized panic was encroaching yet again and fought it. I made it through the door just as the vampire came around the corner from the washrooms. The succubus was staring directly at me with a worried look. Worried? The situation called for blind terror.

"There's one out here," the demoness said.

I stared at her, for an instant unable to speak. Then it struck me...she hadn't understood my plan! She'd gone along with everything without knowing what I was doing! I saw her eyes widen as understanding dawned on her. A faint whimper escaped her lips as she looked first skyward then towards the rear of the building. Her eyes got bigger still as she saw the single pair of footprints that went in that direction and vanished a few feet onwards, evidencing the vampire taking flight on her way 'round to intercept the succubus as she attempted her escape through the ladie's room window.

The succubus turned back towards me as she realized that her chance to flee was gone. We now had a vampire inside coming out and one outside coming in and we were pinned in the middle. I realized sickly that there was no out of this. The vampires would kill me along with the demon. I had no delusions that my training would amount to anything with them.

The demon was on me before I realized she'd moved. Her hands clawed at the front of my shirt and her impossibly wide liquid green eyes looked imploringly up at me. This time, I was SURE I saw wings. The last of her facade was gone, swept away on a tide of mortal terror. Looking down at the demon, the disjointed realization that she was apparently not immune to the cold pulled my attention to the front of her blouse. I bent my knees, thrust my left hand between her legs and lifted her up. She fell against me as I stepped forward out of the entrance alcove, turned, and hurled her unresisting figure into the drift of snow piled against it. As she plunged into it, I slammed my shoulder into the planking, wincing at the explosion of pain as a small avalanche of snow crashed down from the small peaked roof. The vampiress came out the swinging entrance door behind me as I cursed aloud and stumbled, almost going to one knee. I stood up, seeing the second vampire round the back corner of the building.

Straightening my self up as the two blood drinkers came towards each other, I reached into my shirt pocked and muttered under my breath. Looking up at the nearest one I asked,"Do you have a smoke I could buy off you?"

There was an awful instant as she turned towards me that images of every damn thing that could get me killed at that moment flashed through my mind. What if there was some body part sticking out of the snow pile behind me? What if the vampire actually GAVE me a cigarette? What if...She cast me a look that bordered on contempt, and turned away with her fellow blood sucker.

For a moment I wondered if some comment from me would seem appropriate and decided I had played chicken with Fate enough already.

I waited a moment to see what would happen next and try to collect my thoughts. I knew the succubus needed to breathe and wondered if she was going to come to any harm under the snow. Still, I was by no means sure that the 2 predators had left, and if they had, how far away they had to be to be safe. I wondered if the demoness I had helped would flee the moment I pulled her out.

A few steps around the front of the building revealed no sign of the vampires, and I felt slightly silly peering up through the snow to look at the roof of the hotel. I returned to the snowpile and thrust a hand into it. The moment I touched her, the demoness sat upright, looking first at me, then around at her surroundings.

"Ok," I said. "I think you're clear for the moment."

She looked at me blankly. "You're not going to leave me, are you?" she asked in a tone that clearly indicated it seemed to her a rather unpleasant idea.

"You're a demon, right?" I demanded, keeping my voice low. "Can't you fly?"

That worried look was back. "Yes, but if the vampires smell me, there's nothing I can do to protect myself. They won't hesitate to hit me in the sky at night. Besides, I'm cold."

I couldn't stop the indulgent glance before it happened. She was correct. She was also wet, her flimsy blouse clinging to her incredible body in a way that was outright erotic. She reached out a hand and touched my arm. "Please help me."

The idea of pointing out that that was exactly what I had just finished risking my life doing occured to me. On the other hand, here was the most sexually alluring woman I'd ever laid eyes on sitting in a snowdrift with her nipples poking out of a sodden, half open blouse like pistol barrels asking for permission to stay with me. I wrapped my fingers around her wrist and lifted her to her feet.

By the time I got my demonic companion back to the hotel room, she was clinging to me for support and shivering uncontrolably, whether from the cold or from the aftermath of fear, I wasn't sure. It occured to me as I unlocked the door and led her inside, that after all the physical liberties I had taken with her, there was probably a 50/50 chance that, with the imminent threat of being killed and eaten by vampires gone, the demon would decide to rip my innards out with her fingernails. Still, 50/50 seemed like the best survival odds I'd faced since I'd met her, so I decided not to worry about it. I sat her on the end of the bed and went into the bathroom to draw a hot tub. By the time I returned, she was lying nude on the bed, her slacks and blouse tossed carelessly over the back of the chair.

"You saved my life," she said, her voice still unsteady from the shivers. "Anything I have to offer is yours."

Squatting next to the bed, I took her hand. "How about your name, to start," I asked.

"Morrigan," she replied. "Morrigan Aenslaed."

I patted the hand I was holding, trying not to stare at her luscious, naked body. "Tell you what, Miss Morrigan Aenslaed, what say you thaw out in the tub and unwind a bit, then we'll chat, ok?"

She nodded agreement with a smile that was more appreciative than seductive, and let me help her to her feet for the second time that night. She walked to the bathroom on her own while I watcher her, not sure if the wiggle of those voluptuous hips was for my benefit, but hoping it was. I was just realizing that while this being was obviously not immune to freezing temperatures, gravity seemed to hold no dominion over her, when she paused at the bathroom door. Looking across the room at me, she seemed startled to find me looking at her. She favoured me with a slightly sad smile that almost made me go to her. "Thank you for rescuing me," she said gently, and went inside.

Once I heard her slip into the water, I went to the desk and got out pen and paper. Truth is, I am not sure where this is going to lead me, old friend, but I'll be mailing this letter tonight and I promise to be in touch as soon as I can.

All the best,

S