CHAPTER TWO: SPENCER'S SUCCUBUS

'Succubus'—in medieval times, a female demon who sought sexual relations with a male human, often in dreams.

Spencer Reid could have sworn he heard something outside his door. He couldn't sleep—he rarely slept more than a few hours at a time—so he decided to check it out. To see if any of his teammates were still awake. He especially wanted to make sure Emily was alright. This case had been extremely hard for his favorite female profiler, and this was only their first night in the small southern Indiana town.

And Hotch wasn't making it any easier for Emily. Reid wondered why the supervisor seemed to be short with Emily, as far as Reid knew Emily hadn't done anything she shouldn't have. But that didn't always matter with Hotch. Reid might have been somewhat awkward when it came to social situations, but as a behavioral analyst he hadn't missed the way Hotch and Emily had seemed to rub each other the wrong way almost from her first day on the job. But that was almost exactly two years ago, and Hotch had taken what Reid considered to be several huge steps backward in his interactions with Emily. It wasn't fair to Emily, not at all.

Reid was actually thinking of confronting his mentor about it. This last twelve hours had been literal hell for the team, especially Emily, and it had nothing to do with the case. And everything to do with Hotch.

He'd been relentless, pointing out all the flaws in Emily's logic, snapping at her when she got too close to him. When she'd tried to help him understand what the local LEO was saying. Hotch's hearing still wasn't quite up to par. He'd almost shoved her away. She'd looked…hurt. Vulnerable.

Reid wasn't used to seeing her that way, and it made him inexplicably angry. He didn't care what sort of problems Hotch was going through, he shouldn't take them out on Emily that way. Reid had already been down that road. He'd taken his issues out on Emily, too. He'd hate to see her become the unofficial whipping girl of the BAU.

After a while, Emily had reverted back to her early BAU actions. When she'd first arrived, she'd stuck pretty close to Morgan. She'd done so this afternoon, too. Reid couldn't blame her. He'd seen the looks Morgan shot at Hotch. It had been a very tense day for all of them. Reid hadn't been surprised when Emily had ate her dinner more quickly than she normally did and hurried to the B&B a few blocks down the street long before Hotch had finished his rare steak. She'd claimed she was tired and needed to sleep. No one had contradicted her. Hotch had barely even looked up at her.

They'd arrived in Indiana late, and had settled into the hotel around five a.m. with instructions from Hotch to take a brief nap and meet in the B&B's small lobby by eight a.m.. They'd all followed his directives, like they always did. Emily had been one of the first up the stairs, taking the room directly across from the one Reid had found himself in. Hotch's room was on one side of Emily's, JJ's on the other. Penelope's room was between his and Morgan's. Rossi was between JJ and the stairs.

Reid thought nothing of it, they always tried to make sure the girls were as surrounded in the hotel as possible, though they'd never said anything directly about it. It was just safer for the girls. Reid knew all the statistics involving female travelers as victims, and knew the rest of the male members of the team did too. Emily and JJ were not going to be victims. Not on their watch.

Reid heard a second sound, and opened his door to investigate, thinking briefly he should probably grab his gun. Still, if it was one of his teammates, he didn't want to scare them. Or have them think he was scared of ghosts or something. Morgan would never let him hear the end of it.

Nobody was there. But he did see something lying in the midst of the hallway between his door and Emily's. He bent down and retrieved it, fingers tightening around the cotton. It was still warm, so the sock hadn't been lying there very long.

Reid shrugged, figuring that one of the women must have been wondering the hall to the others' rooms. He'd return it in the morning. He returned to his own room, and closed the door tightly against any drafts. Reid hated old houses, hated old B&B's more, they were cold, drafty, musty, and if he admitted it secretly to himself—slightly macabre. He wanted to finish up this case and get out of there as fast as possible.

He lay back down, shutting his eyes and willing his body to sleep. It wasn't long before his lanky frame obeyed.

He didn't see the ethereal hand as it reached out to stroke the hair from his brow, didn't see the mist as the female demon moved to cover his body with her incorporeal own.

No, he didn't feel a thing as his body began to dream.