My arrival at grandpa's estate was welcomed by the setting sun. The rain had yet to let up and the low light caused a rather gloomy effect on the beautiful gardens. Almost disheartedly, I gazed upon the grounds that once almost seemed to shimmer with life. I punched the code into the gate's keypad and waited for the automatic arms to swing open. Careful I pulled into the driveway and parked just outside of the extravagant garage door. I popped the trunk and grabbed out two of my bags. Walking quickly up the steps, I hurried under the eaves hoping to keep my bags from becoming too damp. I unlocked the door, not with the key the lawyer had given me, but the key grandpa had given me as a child.
Inside, the entry hall was dark. I fumbled around for the light switch which I knew was hidden behind the pillar to the left of the door. When I found it I flipped on the lights. The crystal chandelier illuminated the room with a warm, refracted light as I took in the grandeur of the entrance. Two sets of stairs framed the large room and led up to the second story of the mansion, making a powerful impression. Their oak wood banisters gleamed under the thin layer of dust that had gathered in the absence of care. Two white couches stood on either side of the hall on the main floor, leaning against the side of the stairs. The brightness of the room overtook the grim exterior, fleetingly reminding me of grandfather's warmth.
Suddenly I was horror struck. Sprawled on the floor in between the sofas lay five bleeding men. I didn't recognize these young men. Alarm prickled in the back of my mind as I realized that five strangers had invaded my home. I was sure the building had been locked when I entered. How they managed to break in baffled me. Yet, my sense of being invaded subsided with the intuitive notion I had that these men had not been seeking to trespass, but to find shelter. A desire to protect them against my better judgement nagged at the back of my mind. I dropped my bags. These people needed medical attention, and fast. I needed to contact the police, and emergency medical services. My hands searched my pockets for my phone while my feet carried me swiftly to the boys. Having little medical experience, I was unsure how to handle myself, but I had to do something. I tried to remember where grandpa kept the first aid kit, but it had been so long since I had been here I couldn't remember.
Quietly I knelt next to one of the men. He looked young, and his black curly hair fanned out around his head. Under a brown, puffy jacket he was wearing a blue fleece shirt, one that had a large blood stain soaking into the middle of a white skull and crossbones design. I checked to see if he was still breathing. Damn it, where is your phone? He was still breathing, but there was a lot of blood soaking into the carpet below. Then I remembered where my phone was. I had left it plugged into the car stereo.
Suddenly, I felt a hand pressed against my cheek. Turning to look, I saw a boy leaning over me. He was wearing a green and white leather vest. A silver stud was pierced into one of his eyebrows. His hair was brunet, messy and short. Around his neck hung a pair of silver dog tags flashing brightly in the light. His pants sagged low over his hips, revealing a pair of simple, black boxers. The expression on his face was pained, and I could see him favor his left leg.
"You're going to let me kiss you," he said in a gruff voice.
I felt a tingling warmth emanate from his fingertips into my cheek. My mind went quiet and I felt an urge to be compliant. "Ok," I said.
He leaned over and kissed me, his green eyes closed. I felt perplexed by his sudden advance. Having been kissed before, I wasn't adverse to the attention. However his blatant disregard for even the smallest formalities, like an introduction or asking permission, left me peeved. The boy did have some respect, it was a chaste kiss. Even as I felt him lean into the embrace he did not allow his lips to part. Yet I am human. Through all of my discontent I could still feel an exhilarating swirl in my nether regions. The thrill of being kissed by a stranger, a handsome stranger, stimulated my erotic fantasies. A warm tingle spread itself down my face and into my chest as we continued to kiss. Then there was another tingling.
This one spread from my hips and started the moment two warm hands placed themselves upon the bones. Had I been more cognizant, I may have felt frightened. Two people had me trapped between them and seemed prepared to do anything they wanted to me. I felt another pair of lips caress my neck tenderly. As I had suspected, the person attached to the hands on my hips was interested in joining the sexual activities. I was becoming more distracted. Before I could even begin to wonder why these boys wanted to kiss me, or how such injured people were capable doing so, my mind drifted back to the ministrations. Slowly the hand on my right began to move in circles. The sensation was calming and stimulating at the same time, intensifying my focus on their actions. I gasped into the lips upon mine. This caused the warmth on my neck to become more intimate. Gently, teeth began to knead the tendon in my neck and spread a stronger tingle down my spine.
"Sam, who is this?" someone said.
The boy who was kissing me abruptly stopped, and the hand on my hip stilled. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around to find the source of the disturbance, my awareness returning to me like the fading light of dusk. The speaker was the curly haired boy who had been lying on the floor at my feet. My mind was clear enough to be surprised. He looked pale and grimaced as he placed a hand around his stomach. Seconds before I could have sworn the boy had been dead or dying. Yet here he was, pulling himself into a sitting position as if he had only been resting after a long run. Confusion scraped at the edges of my brain while questions began to spin across my mind.
"Does it matter?" Sam said. "Here, have some, you look awful." His voice sounded stronger than before, and I could hear a cocky attitude buried in the boy's words. Perhaps his tone bothered me, or maybe what he said was irksome. Either way I felt a pinch of irritation around my temples.
However I did not have long to consider this because the curly haired boy grabbed my face and kissed me as well. Again I dove head first into the embrace of a stranger. My reservations were forgotten, my mind muddled, my eyes dropped closed. The warm tingling, which I had not realized had stopped, returned with full force. This boy did not have as much restraint as Sam. He instantly licked my lips like he was begging for entrance. Kissing with tongues was better, but to allow such intimacy with a stranger seemed like overstepping some boundary. As I pondered this my body gave way to the demands of the wounded boy. I opened my mouth and allowed him to slip his tongue over mine. A shiver of excitement crawled down my back. I reveled in the feeling of kissing him deeply. The hand on my hip resumed its circular rubbing as if to steady me.
"Alright, that's enough Mathew," said another unfamiliar voice.
The curly haired boy tore himself away from me and looked up. Leaning heavily against the couch was another black haired boy, clearly older than the others. This one had glasses and a gray dress jacket on. A red tie was done up carefully around his neck holding up a dirty, but white undershirt. He wore matching gray slacks and well-polished, black dress shoes splattered with mud. His demeanor was that of a gentleman, formal and handsome. He looked upset.
"That's no way to treat a stranger, and a lady at that." His voice was controlled and stern.
"Why?" asked Sam, green eyes glaring. He pulled me up off the floor to stand next to him. Again irritation pinched around my head as I was handled so roughly. Mathew and the person behind me also stood. "You know we needed to do that. Mathew looked like he was on death's door."
As soon as I was standing I felt how weak my knees were. I had to rely upon the stranger to keep me vertical, my legs having no strength of their own. The weakness alarmed me, but not so much as to prevent me from hearing what Sam had said. They needed to do this? Who did they think they were? In what disgusting world did taking sexual advantage of me equate to fulfilling a need more important than stopping your own bleeding?
"You are taking advantage of her," said the boy in glasses.
I agreed, and then I didn't. Having not refused, and rather enjoyed, the attention, I can't say I was totally taken advantage of. I wasn't given the opportunity to decline, and I'm not sure I would have anyways.
"And you should too, before you collapse," responded Sam.
That was terrible, and rude. I changed my mind, I definitely would have told him no.
Suddenly I was pushed towards the boy in the gray suit jacket. I stumbled as my knees gave out, and my head began to spin. My eyes clenched shut as I collided with his chest. Slowly I sank down to the ground again, clutching tightly to the jacket I found under my hands. Once I felt the ground firmly under my knees I opened my eyes. Inside my head everything felt like it was spinning, but my vision was steady. This sensation made me disoriented. Coming to grips with the oddity, I realized I was staring directly into the boy's crotch. Embarrassed, I looked up into his amber eyes. The apology I was about to stammer out died on my lips when I saw the forgiving smile already on his face. Tenderly he pulled my hands off his shirt.
"Are you alright miss?" he asked calmly. The tenderness did not reach the pained expression in his eyes.
"What the hell," I said. My voice sounded meek even to my own ears.
He smiled again, and I thought I felt a soft tingling in my hands. I dismissed the notion, deciding that I had made up the sensation. I did not make up the sudden flash of shame that crossed the man's face as he pulled me to my feet. Carefully I was guided over to the sofa and we sat down.
"What is your name?" he coaxed me to begin speaking.
"Mika," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. Questions began to resurface in my mind as my faculties began to return.
"Mika, what a lovely name. Why are you here?" He released my hands and grasped his knees.
Finally the wandering threads of uncertainty connected in my brain. My senses sharpened as confusion and anger sparked within me. "What do you mean 'why am I here,' why are you here." I felt the impulse to stand, but I didn't trust my knees. "This is my home, and was supposed to be empty for me when I arrived. What possessed you to believe that you can be here without prior invitation? You know breaking and entering is a crime right?"
As I glared around the room I saw three boys standing around the sofa, all looking relaxed and steady in the face of my outburst. One of them I recognized as Sam, his green eyes were passive and no longer favoring his leg. Another I recognized as Mathew, curly hair a tangled mess. I didn't recognize the last one. He was tall, with lavender eyes, only one of which I could see. The other was hiding behind a long curtain of peach colored hair with frosted tips. There was a bruise on his chin I could barely perceive. Almost as if the wound had been healing for a week. He was wearing a pink tuxedo vest and wine red button up. Covering his legs he wore black slacks, held up by a black leather belt. His shoes were the same as the boy in gray's, a well-polished black covered in mud.
Sam huffed lightly, bringing me back to what the man had just done to me. I touched my lips. "And why, in all nine circles of hell, did you kiss me." My voice had begun to rise.
They lavender eyed boy chuckled, diverting my attention. "How could we not kiss such a beautiful flower such as yourself?" he said, words dripping with a seductive tone.
My nostrils flared, my chest puffed up. Subconsciously trying to intimidate him I said, "What gives you the right to do that without my permission?"
"Oh darling, would you really have denied us?" he asked, smiling knowingly. His tongue flicked out across his lips.
"Ask me and find out," I snarled.
"Erik, that's enough," admonished the man sitting next to me. "Mika here has put up with just about enough without you antagonizing her." He pushed his glasses up his nose and narrowed his eyes at Erik.
Erik balked dramatically, as if to imply he were wrongfully accused.
Ignoring Erik, the nameless man turned to me and smiled tenderly. "I apologize for our rudeness miss, and I will oblige to answer all of your questions. However, I would understand if you were interested in calling the authorities and being done with us instead. I'm in no position to force you to hear me out. Are you willing to listen?"
I thought for a moment. These strangers had intruded upon my home and my personal space. Common sense would dictate that I ought to be terrified and do anything I could to get away from them. Yet, I felt inclined towards neither. Curiosity, timid and bright, fought to be freed from the restraints of common sense. Fuck my insecurities, I wanted to know more about these beautiful people. I nodded. The motion made pressure build behind my eyes. A headache was coming on.
"Today, my brothers and I were attacked in the woods nearby. We took refuge in this home to recover, not realizing it belonged to anyone. Some of us were badly wounded and we… well, you saw how we ended up. Don't worry though, from the looks of things we are much improved. As far as why he kissed you, that is a bit harder to explain…" he trailed off seeming unsure of how to continue.
"Not that hard to explain dear brother," said Erik.
"Well… it's just that…"
"I'm an incubus," cut in Sam curtly. "We all are."
There was a short pause. They seemed to be waiting for my reaction. "Incubi huh…" I thought aloud. This was just like one of grandpa's stories. Each of the boys were attractive in their own way, and they all seemed confident sexually. I suppose them being incubi wasn't that much of a leap, if you were highly gullible. Daemons only lived in stories or works of fiction. You didn't find five living, breathing supernatural creatures sprawled across your entryway. "Please, do you really expect me to believe that? Can you prove it?"
"Of course we can," said Mathew brightly. He had a boyish charm that was quite endearing. "We are demons who gain strength from sexual energy. You saw us when you came in, we were all badly injured. And now," he pulled up his shirt. Underneath his skin looked smooth and soft. The boy wasn't fit, but you could still see traces of muscles leading down his body towards his pelvis. Just under his ribs there was a tiny scratch. There was no way such a small flesh wound could have caused such a large blood stain on his shirt. My emotions crossed between disbelief to mild realization, which must have shone on my face.
"If you need more convincing I would be happy to oblige you," the flirtatious Erik said. He stepped closer to me and caressed my cheek with his hand.
The boy in the gray suit jacket grabbed his hand. "That's enough Erik," he chastised.
Partially grateful towards the man sitting next to me, and partially exhausted by Erik's continued advances, I looked around at the boys. Putting my thoughts together slowly I said, "So in order to heal yourselves you took sexual energy from me." A few of them nodded. Exhaustion continued to set in as I allowed myself to become convinced of the boy's story. "That seems rude somehow," I said lamely, putting a hand to my forehead.
"You are right," said the boy sitting next to me. "I apologize for my brother's abhorrent behavior."
"You know what," I said carefully. "It's alright this time. I understand your desperation. If I had been in you place, I probably would have done the same thing, as awful as that sounds. Just don't any of you dare do that again." I sank as much venom into my last statement as I could.
"That is more than fair," responded the man in gray, his surprise not as hidden as he may have wanted.
"And I don't think I ever caught your name," I added, looking into his amber eyes.
"Probably because he never told you sweetheart," teased the rose haired Erik.
"I'm sorry, that was presumptuous of me. My name is James," replied to boy in the glasses, ignoring his brother. He gestured to each incubus in turn. "This is Erik," the boy with lavender eyes. "This is Sam," the boy in the green and white vest. "This is Mathew," the boy with curly, black hair. I nodded to each of them in turn, already having gathered their names from conversation. "And over there is Damien," he indicated a boy sitting at the bottom of the steps, holding his head in his hands and looking close to passing out.
He had flaming red hair and a delicate, beautiful figure. His thin shoulders were hunched up, causing his back to bend forward in a protective manner. Although not puffy like Mathew's, he also wore a brown jacket with a wine red undershirt. His jeans were white, covered with grass stains, blood and dirt. He was not much taller than I was, with soft looking pale skin. While we were talking, Mathew had walked over to Damien and began speaking to him in a low tone.
I wonder if he is ok.
"I'm fine, really," I could just barely hear Damien say to Mathew.
"Could I ask a courtesy of you? I know I have no right, but it seems my brother is suffering quite a bit," James asked me tentatively.
"You want me to give him some of my sexual energy." I said, already aware of what James was about to ask of me.
"Well, yes…" James was caught off guard. "I-I would consider it a personal favor," he stammered.
"Alright," I consented. "I've already helped the rest of you, might as well go all the way," I mumbled more to myself. Cautiously I stood up. James helped guide me to the stairs, keeping a firm hand around my waist. Without his help I may have not been able to make the journey.
"All you need to do is give him your hand. We don't need to pressure you into more," James reassured me.
"Really, that's all you needed?" I shot a disgruntled look at Sam, who rolled his eyes in response.
I reached my hand down to the trembling Damien, and he took it in both of his. Gently he pressed my hand to his face. As a tingling shot up my arm and gathered in my chest I could feel his burning flesh under my fingers. The skin was smooth, a wonder to touch. After a moment he opened his eyes and looked at me. They were blue, as captivating and deep as the ocean.
The tingling receded down my arm as my head began to float. Beneath me the ground dropped away with my body as a cloudy abyss opened up where I had been standing. Suddenly, my body floated upwards and a warm, white cloud surrounded me. Then, the white began to fade to black. I continued to drift in the swirling mist and rose higher and higher into the sky. Then there was nothing.