Jim rode to the diner as fast as possible despite the pain from the wounds down his back. When he arrived he tied up his Outrider and went in, looking around coldly. He spotted Nova serving a table as any other waitress might. So much for her disappearing act yesterday. He frowned, skipped the notion of breakfast and went straight over to her. "You and me need to talk, Blondie," he demanded, his voice wasn't loud but his tone carried authority.
Nova looked to him and nodded, she turned to the people she was serving and apologized before following Jim to a quiet booth away from anyone.
Jim sat and took off his hat. He looked at her sternly, his gaze following her as she sat.
Nova felt uncomfortable with his stare. Her father had looked at her like that when she was in trouble and now she felt like she was five years old all over again. If only she was five again, life was so much simpler then.
"Tell me what you know about this succubus," he told her. His voice was penetrative, but not loud.
"You believe me?" she asked coldly. She knew he'd seen the book. Something in his eyes had changed since yesterday, they were older, colder. She knew this was the succubus's doing. Last night was the third night, only two more nights and it would be too late.
"Tell me what you know," he asked again. His voice was meaner this time.
"You got the book, you tell me," she replied.
He stared into her green eyes, wondering how she knew he had the book. "You been following me?"
"No," she replied honestly. She wasn't about to tell him she'd planted the book there for him to find and paid off the librarian to call her if Jim checked it out.
"You been in my house?" he asked. He had thought last night for a moment that she was the succubus, but laughed the idea away. Nova didn't look like her, but perhaps the succubus could change her face like she'd change her form. "You been in my bed?"
Nova raised an eyebrow. "You think I'm her?" her voice was full of shock and bemusement. She let a giggle escape her lips.
"Aren't you?" he asked seriously. "You turned up around the same time I started seeing her, you knew a succubus had come to see me," he lowered his voice as he spoke the next part, "I know your finacé died of old age."
Her eyes widened in shock and her lips parted. She took a moment to recompose herself. The memories of her dead finacé stabbed at her heart but she pushed them away. She took a breath and looked Jim in the eye. "I didn't kill him," Nova told him the truth. "I'm not a succubus".
Jim could usually tell if someone was lying to him and he believed she spoke the truth. "How do you know that?" He remembered the book said that the succubus might not even know she is one.
"Because I'm a witch," Nova told him frankly. "I can't be a witch and a succubus all at the same time," she stated.
Jim blinked, unsure of what to say to that. If succubi existed, sure, why not witches too.
She relaxed slightly; silence was a common response. "My coven are drawn to lower level demons, specifically vengeance demons and scorned witches exacting their revenge," she explained.
He wanted to laugh some. A real life witch was sat in front of him in pigtails and roller skates.
"You know I am from Tarsonis?" she asked, if he knew about her financé he likely knew that too.
He nodded.
"You ever been there?" She asked, wondering if he knew what it was like.
"'Fraid I've never had the pleasure," he stated. He didn't know much about it; big city, usual big city problems.
"It's nice, tall skyscrapers, beautiful green parks," she explained as she looked fondly back on it. "It's also a thriving cesspit for the demon underworld," she explained.
He listened carefully to her words. Part of him didn't believe, but to part of him all of this made perfect sense.
"As you can imagine in a large city like that, there were thousands crying out for vengeance," she continued. "For three generations, my coven have been hunting down those who would seek to use supernatural powers for vengeance," she added.
Jim wasn't sure what to make of her story. He believed she believed it. He would have been a skeptic but recent events had opened his mind somewhat.
"Unfortunately, as we targeted them, they targeted us," she said as though the words caused her torment. "I think it was one of the demon lords who sent her after me. Or more precisely after the man I loved."
"Her?" Jim asked. "The succubus?"
Nova nodded, her eyes began to mist over as she thought of her lover. "We were engaged," she forced a smile, happy they had at least had that. "His name was Gabriel Tosh, but I always just called him Tosh. He was so sweet, until she came," her expression turned darker.
Jim knew the 'she' was again the succubus.
Nova nodded. "I felt her dark magic on him like the stench of death," she elaborated. "Like I felt it on you when you entered the diner the other day."
Jim didn't like to be told he had the stench of death on him.
"I knew after the first night," she said. "I could tell something dark had happened. He didn't tell me at first, scared of upsetting me; he didn't want to say he was having fantasies of other women," she laughed at the insanity of it.
"He thought she was a dream, too?" Jim surmised, likening his own situation with Tosh's.
Nova nodded. "After the second night be began to push me away," she looked confused as she spoke. "I knew it was a demon, I knew it, but I didn't know it was a succubus."
Jim could tell she was mad at herself for having missed it.
"After the third night he told me about her and broke off our engagement." She took a moment to remember how hard that had been but pushed away the feelings. She put her hands to her temples and rubbed them gently. She had been over this a thousand times in her head... if only she'd realized sooner. "She was my first succubus. They're rare, something horrible usually has happened to a woman to cause her to become one - else a run of the mill vengeance demon would pick up the cries of scorned women," her speed in which she spoke was faster now as she explained. She realized and took a breath.
"What happened next?" Jim asked calmly, knowing he had just experienced the third night.
"I told my coven and we did our research," she told him. "The 'Book of Suffering' led us to believe it was a succubus. Of course by the time we realized, Tosh had spent a fourth night with her." She looked away from Jim for a moment. She didn't need to see the weariness in Jim's eyes that she'd seen in Tosh's.
Jim had now regretted that he hadn't read the whole section on succubi in that book. "You said the fifth night is too late? What happened after the fourth night?" he asked inquisitively.
"As you know, the 'Book of Suffering' doesn't describe a way to kill her or stop her," Nova stated.
Jim suddenly felt like the kid in school who hadn't done his homework but he nodded at Nova's words.
"However, there is a grimoire protected by an order of priests on Tarsonis," she stated.
"A grimoire? That's just another book, right?" Jim asked simply.
"It's a very powerful book," she corrected him. "Inside it are spells and rituals to turn this very universe into hell itself," she warned him.
Jim frowned. He was sure she was just being dramatic now.
"To even have an audience with a priest to talk about the book is no easy doing," she told him seriously. "But, our coven is on good graces with the priests and I was given the truth to the succubus's demise."
"I'm all ears, darlin'," he told her. He was happy for this to be over as soon as possible.
"A succubus can be killed in her human form with a silver dagger. But finding her in that state is tricky. She won't know what she is as a human and her succubus form would do everything in power to stop her identity being revealed," Nova explained.
"You got this silver dagger?" he asked.
Nova nodded. "But you couldn't find me yesterday, what makes you think you can find her?"
"I don't have to find her," he proclaimed. "I know exactly where she'll be tonight."
Nova raised her eyebrow. "The silver dagger will do nothing to her in succubus form." She looked around the diner to make sure no one was listening or looking their way and she leaned in closer. "There's also a ritual," Nova told him, "to send her to a hell dimension."
Jim wanted to laugh a little. Now, that was just a bit too strange for him.
"We tried it," she told him. "I thought if I could send her away, Tosh might return to me," she said sadly. "But it was too late."
"Too late?" he proclaimed, "but it wasn't the fifth night yet?"
She frowned and blinked away the moisture from her eyes. "It took us the rest of that day to prepare," she stated. "But on the fifth night, I was there, ready, waiting. Tosh allowed me in. He may have dumped me, but he never questioned me or my work. I told him a demon was after me and that I just needed a safe place to stay. He welcomed me in," she told him.
Jim sensed she was uneasy at telling him the story.
"The succubus came, and she wasn't happy to see me," Nova told him. She knew she had tears in her eyes so she stopped herself talking.
"What did she do?" Jim asked softly.
Nova looked back at him and forced a smile. "A succubus can never make you do anything. She can only tempt," Nova stated. "When I saw her I started to say the words to the ritual. She began to charge at me, but Tosh stopped her." She smiled at that fact.
Jim merely stared at her, sensing the story didn't end in 'and they all lived happily ever after'.
"But, the succubus being the alluring woman she was, suggested to him that their love making would be so much better if he wasn't hanging on to me; that the only way he and her could truly be together was with my death." Nova remembered the succubus had put it so much more articulately, more alluring. For a moment, Nova had even been convinced herself. "I remember looking into his eyes and the man I loved was gone," her voice cracked as she spoke. "I don't really remember how I got away, I knew I cast a spell to blind them for a moment and then I just remember running."
Jim frowned and felt her story stab at his heart.
She paused and looked at him sincerely. "Obviously, night five happened."
Jim lowered his eyes, sorry to hear that. This was going to be his fate. A witch couldn't stop her last time, what hope did he have?
Nova placed her hand on Jim's wrist in an effort to make him look at her. "She killed Tosh," Nova stated sharply. "But it wasn't over."
Jim looked at her seriously.
"When you spend your life chasing those who seek revenge, you learn a thing or two," she smirked, removing her hand from his wrist and placing it back on the table.
For a moment Jim saw a darker side to her.
"Suffice to say, I found her and I performed the ritual on her," Nova stated coldly.
Jim sensed that wasn't the whole story. "I'm guessin' that didn't work out too well," he surmised, "what with her being back and all."
Nova's expression shifted.
Jim knew that look. Guilt. He looked at her intently and narrowed his eyes.
Nova relaxed slightly. "Your succubus, she's a different one."
Jim nodded his head, that made sense. "You really did pick up a thing or two about vengeance," he commented sarcastically.
"Don't judge me," she told him. "The succubi are soulless, vile creatures, and I don't intend to make their existence easy."
Jim could tell this was close to her heart. Heck, who could blame her after her story.
"Now, you can help me take her down or die at her hands," she stated coldly. She leaned back against the booth's seat and stared at him, the ball was in his court.
Jim used his index finger and thumb to rub his bearded chin. He thought it made him look tough, but it helped him think too. After a few moments he asked, "you gonna perform the ritual on her? Send her to," he paused, trying to remember the phrase, "a hell dimension?"
"Yes," Nova told him in a voice void of emotion.
Jim lowered his eyes. Did anyone deserve to be sent to a hell dimension? He wanted to say no, but she was a killer, targeting innocent men. Who knew how many she'd killed already, or how many she could kill in the future. He had a chance to stop her, to protect himself and those that come after him. He lifted his eyes to Nova, and nodded his acceptance of the situation, "what's your plan?"
Nova was glad he was on her side. "You have to capture her," Nova told him.
Jim looked at her slightly taken back. He chuckled, "any idea how I'm gonna do that?"
Nova smirked. "I bet a marshal like you has some handcuffs?"
He chuckled. He had no idea the pretty blonde he'd met a few days ago would be asking him about handcuffs.
"She's strong, but getting out of those will be a challenge, make sure you attach them to something strong," Nova advised. "Then get out of there when you can, out of earshot, else she'll try and convince you to let her go."
Jim nodded his understanding. "Where are you staying? Where can I find you?" Jim asked innocently.
Nova looked uncomfortable at the suggestion. "I'll come to your's, tomorrow morning," she replied. "As I said, the succubus can be very persuasive, if she's onto me I don't want her finding me first."
Jim thought for a moment. "Won't she be in human form then? Why don't you just kill her instead of this hell dimension thing?"
Nova smirked.
It clicked. "You want to send her to a hell dimension?" He asked, he narrowed his eyes, surprised by her cruelty.
"Punishment for all the lives she's taken and those ruined," Nova answered honestly.
Jim slumped back into his seat and stared at her. The wounds on his back stung as he did but the pain eased. He thought for a moment before answering, "let's do this."