Her hands fisted in the sheets of her four-poster, and even through the thick cotton she could feel her fingernails digging half-moons into her palms. Her back arched upwards into the phantom kisses trailing their way down her abdomen, hands caressing her hips, fingertips as soft as the breath of a ghost even as they forced her back onto the bed.

Her eyes rolled back behind closed lids, hot, wet lips whispering against the apex of her thighs tugging a quiet moan from her own, dry mouth.

Her breathing, shallow, quick, hitched as a tongue traced languidly over her centre, once, twice, following her hips as they jerked upwards, and then suddenly disappearing.

Unable to open her eyes, she reached out, fingers blindly grasping at air instead of tangling into long blond locks she knew should be there.

She panicked, tried to get up but it was as if she was pinned to the bed and now she was thrashing, scrambling to get up, but something heavy was covering her legs and it was so, so dark, and she screamed…

"Bo, Bo! Bo honey, it's okay, it's okay, calm down." Bo could feel someone pinning her shoulders to the bed as she writhed, still in the throes of her dream. "Bo, listen to me, it's okay, it was just a dream. Bo, can you hear me?"

She stilled, Lauren's soothing voice washing over her and calming her nerves. She let her ragged breathing slow, until she could speak.

"Just a dream, just a dream," she repeated in a hoarse whisper, almost to herself. "Just a dream…" She felt Lauren get off the bed and opened her eyes. She watched as her expression changed from stony relief (she was still angry, so very angry,) to one of shock. She gasped, taking a step backwards.

"What? What's wrong?" Scared, Bo ran her hands over her face, checking everything was still there.

"Your eyes, I swear they were-" she cut herself off, shaking her head. "Never mind, it was just the moonlight."

"They were what, Lauren?"

The blond had already turned away, climbing back into her own bed. Pulling the covers back over herself, she faced away from the other girl. She didn't speak for nearly a minute, and Bo almost didn't hear her when she whispered: "Blue."


Lauren woke early the next morning, despite the disturbance during the night. She tried to forget the noises Bo had been making before she started screaming, remembering instead that she still almost hated the girl. The dorm was silent, everyone but themselves having headed home for the holidays.

Bo was still asleep, and though Lauren was tempted to check her eyes, to see if they were still glowing as beautifully blue as they had been last night, she didn't, resolving instead to head to the library after her bath.


She sighed as she slipped into the deep pool in the prefect's bathroom; the water was just the right temperature as she ducked her head underneath to wash her hair. Coming up for air, she scooped up the bubbles clinging to her hair, watching them float back through the steam that rose from the surface of the water with a small smile on her face.

"A little old to be playing with bubbles, aren't we?"

Lauren grimaced, watching as the Slytherin prefect Evony Marquise dropped her towel onto one of the low marble benches lining the walls of the bathroom, tugging the tie from her long, wavy brown hair and looping it around her wrist.

"What are you doing up so early? I thought snakes liked to wait 'till the sun came up, at least."

"Oh you're so funny," Evony drawled, slipping out of her yoga pants and folding them. "I'm up because Tamsin woke me when she dropped her beaters bat on Bianca's head. Accidentally of course." She sighed, stripping off her tank top and diving into the pool. Lauren watched the ripples spread out and sincerely hoped she'd hit her head on the bottom of the pool, but, alas, she didn't, breaking through the water in that annoyingly perfect way only she could manage.

She continued almost immediately "-so to escape the noise and the blood and the repercussions, I decided an early bath was in order."

She curled her lip at Lauren. "I assumed it would be empty."

Lauren shrugged as she reached for her shampoo. "Sorry to disappoint."

Evony glanced at her suspiciously, before turning and swimming to the side of the pool, stretching out and closing her eyes. Lauren set about washing her hair, almost finished when Evony spoke up again.

"Just a quick question."

"Mmmhmm?"

"Since you and Bo aren't talking anymore, are you still going to the quidditch match when term starts again?"

Lauren ducked under water to wash the shampoo from her hair, thinking. The quidditch match was a big deal to everyone, not just the students in Slytherin and Gryffindor, the teams facing each other. Both houses were on equal points, this match would decide which of the four houses were still in the running for the house cup at the end of the year.

"Yes," she said when she came back up. "I'm still going. With Nadia."

"Oh," was Evony's reply.

"Why do you ask?"

The brunette just shrugged, eyes still closed. "No reason."

Lauren frowned as she climbed from the pool, reaching for her towel to dry herself. The Slytherin's were probably planning something, but she couldn't ponder it. For now she had something else to do.


She was pouring over an old, leather bound book, perched in her favourite couch in the corner library, oblivious to anything but the neat, curly script on the page in front of her.

The succubus is one of the strongest, and rarest, of the race of creatures known as Fae. Feeding off sexual energy, Succubae, and their male counterparts Incubi, can kill if they do not control themselves when feeding from humans. It is usually around their eighteenth year when they become dependent upon chi to survive, but their nature can begin to show from as early as fifteen years of age. Signs are varied, but often include sexually explicit dreams, and the irises of the eyes turning blue.

Lauren shut the book, coughing when she accidentally inhaled some of the dust that rose from its pages.

Professor McCorrigan had told them once that the world of magic was not limited to humans. She knew about werewolves, had once even met a lovely vampire named Herbert, from Yorkshire, but never before had heard of them being referred to as Fae.

Strolling through the shelves she returned the book, Magicae Non Hominibus, to its place, scanning the spines of the books surrounding it for something, anything else on Fae. Succubae in particular.

She told herself that, though she and Bo had fallen out, though she could not for the foreseeable future forgive her, the brunette still needed her help, especially if she was a Succubus. Lauren tried not to think about that, but as her mind worked she realised it was becoming more and more of a distinct possibility.

The blue eyes as Bo awoke from a dream that at one minute made her moan in her sleep, the next had her screaming in fear. And this wasn't even the first dream. Thinking back to the summer, to the letter Bo had written asking her to visit, she'd mentioned 'dreams' then.

And her mother, Aoife. Assuming Succubae were a species, it was rather obvious Aoife was one herself. Lauren wondered if she'd ever bothered to tell Bo. She didn't seem like that kind of mother.

Sighing, Lauren rubbed her tired eyes. It was only eleven, yet she felt as if she'd been awake for days. How was she meant to tell Bo all of this, without involving herself? A note, she supposed, with the relevant information and the names of the books.

Dear Bo, you're a supernatural creature who feeds on sexual energy and has pretty, blue eyes. Love, Lauren.

No, that wouldn't do.

She huffed a sigh and picked up the books she'd been reading. It occurred to her that maybe she shouldn't tell Bo what she'd discovered. The girl had expected her to do the research, to find out what was wrong with her, even before they'd fought.

Lauren was sick of Bo taking advantage of her like that; maybe it would do her some good to leave her stewing in sex dreams for a while.

Then she remembered how her heart had stuttered in fear when Bo screamed in her sleep, tossing and turning and her expression pure terror.

For five years Lauren had adored Bo, from afar, in the guise of a best friend, and though the past few weeks had shown her the side of Bo she'd never noticed before, a side that made her question everything she'd known about her, she couldn't ignore the overwhelming love she still felt for the brunette, a love that almost commanded her to tell the girl she wasn't human.


Bo sat cross-legged on her four-poster, hair ruffled from sleep, still in her pyjamas – a black tank top and some shorts. The dorm was empty, she didn't know where Lauren had gone, the blond had already left by the time she had woken up.

She needed to speak to her.

The dream replayed itself over and over in her head, her fingers twitching as she imagined them clutching at long blond locks, her breathing hitched when she remembered dream Lauren moving torturously slowly down the length of her body, could imagine the sultry grin on her face as she licked her lips and dipped her head to –

The door creaked open and Bo's eyes shot open, she hadn't even realised they were closed. She shifted, hands moving a safe distance to her knees. Lauren stopped in the middle of the room, taking a deep breath.

She was carrying three thick, leather-bound books, which, steeling herself, she handed to Bo.

"I'm still mad Bo. I've not forgiven you and I don't know if I ever can or will, but there is something about yourself that you need to know, that I need to tell you."

Bo tried to speak but Lauren cut her off. "No, I want you to just listen, for now."

Rubbing the back of her neck, she started, her voice low and steady, almost monotone, her eyes never leaving Bo's. "I don't know if your mother ever told you. I don't think she did, to be honest, because otherwise you wouldn't have needed me when the dreams started. Those books," she indicated the three volumes Bo had placed next to her on the bed. "They contain information on a species of Fae called a Succubus. They're basically like a vampire that feeds on sexual energy instead of blood."

Bo felt colour rise in her cheeks, and Lauren looked away.

"It all fits Bo. The dreams, your eyes changing colour, hell, even your mother was an indication. The books say you'll have to rely entirely on sexual chi once you turn eighteen, but for now you'll be fine. You'll just have to find a way to keep yourself quiet, or at least quieter, when you sleep."

Bo cleared her throat, her voice slightly hoarse when she said "So, what you're saying is, I'm a – a Succubus, whatever that is?"

Lauren nodded stiffly.

"You're sure? You're certain you haven't mixed up your facts?" Her pale face already told Lauren that she believed her. The evidence was overwhelming, but Bo wanted, needed to be normal, her life certainly wasn't, it never had been, really.

Lauren felt her insides clench in guilt, that she had been the one to shatter Bo's world. She recalled the time Professor McCorrigan had turned up on her doorstep, she had been eleven and still living with her abusive father. She remembered how she'd felt when he'd told her she wasn't normal, she was a witch and however horrific her life had been before it was going to get better.

She had been so filled with hope and wonder and happiness, she wasn't normal and that was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Bo must be feeling the exact opposite of that now.

"I'm not human?" Her voice was high, scared. Lauren felt her heart flutter at the look in her eyes, almost went to her, to wrap her arms around her, but she stayed where she was. "You're not human Bo."

Bo shook her head, getting up off the bed and pacing to the window, back again, muttering "How could she not tell me this? How could she let me believe I was human when I'm a thing, some, some monster."

She turned to Lauren, panic in dark eyes wet with unshed tears. A whisper, broken, Lauren's heart shattering along with it. "How could she not tell me?"

Lauren turned away as she felt tears brimming in her own eyes. Even now, as Bo turned to her yet again for the answers, she had to fight to keep her voice steady, cold.

"I suggest you ask your mother."


AN: I am so damn sorry I didn't update for ages. This week has been far more hectic that I imagined and I blame my teachers entirely. I've been trudging around University campuses for the past two days, and before that I was working diligently on my EPQ, but fear not, though this chapter is short, the next one will be longer and full of much smut. Enjoy.