Chapter 38

Amara took a deep breath as she walked, each stair bringing her closer to the cafeteria. Previously, fresh off her reaper kill, she’d been too exhausted to care about the crowd of students, but now things felt different. The adrenaline had worn off, and she’d fed enough downstairs for her injuries to vanish completely. For a moment, she dwelled on the thought that she’d almost walked in front of a crowd of students without any clothes on.

It made her chuckle quietly to herself.

Maybe Tessa has a point; the old me would have been mortified to show so much skin in public, even my swimsuits were always rather tame. Still, most of them have probably seen my pictures, right? And I don’t even have to hide my true form anymore. Actually, how much should I cover up? Is this too little, or too much?

She looked down at her “outfit”—a complex series of overlapping, chitinous plates that wrapped around her breasts and her groin. At the moment, they covered about as much as a modest, if slightly conservative, bikini.

Hm. That’s no good.

With another thought, the exoskeleton began retreating. Her cleavage grew more prominent, more of her toned stomach exposed itself, and the pert curves of her ass were now on full display.

That’s better. I need to feed again before this fight, so the hornier they are, the better.

Just before reaching the doors, Amara turned to face Nick and Tessa. “Anything I need to know before I go out there?”

“Um, we’ve barely had a chance to get a handle on things,” Nick said. “They started serving food, which I think is helping, and Vee is trying to touch base with everyone. Most of them are obviously pretty freaked out; do you think it might be a good idea to tone down your appearance a bit? You know more than anyone that demons don’t have the best rep.”

Amara briefly looked back at her wings. “I guess I can put these away so I take up less space. Though, personally, I think we’ve got bigger problems than what some random students think of me.”

With a flash of hellfire, Amara’s wings vanished. She rolled her shoulders a few times, adjusting to the strange feeling. She’d been in her true form for more than a week straight, and it felt weird to hide it again. Once she finished, her tail reached out and opened the door, then she turned to walk into the cafeteria.

She immediately noticed that Nick was right; the food seemed to be helping. Rather than a panicked crowd of students all standing around awkwardly, they had broken up into smaller groups and were slowly picking away at their lunches. Previously, Amara hadn’t bothered identifying anyone in the crowd other than Naomi; she’d been far too exhausted from her fight. Now, with no immediate threats, she allowed herself a moment to scan the crowd.

She recognized quite a few faces, though some students had their backs turned. She saw Naomi, obviously, but also Kylie, the three cultists, two guys she recognized from Luxnor’s class, and a few students that had once hired her for pictures. Many of them turned to look at her, some openly staring, and others quickly averting their eyes and realizing she was watching them.

“Amara!” From off to the side, Vee looked up from the table she was standing near and immediately ran over. She threw her arms around Amara and hugged her tight. “Thank fuck you’re alright. I was so worried.”

Amara hugged her back, smiling as she did. “It’s gonna take a lot more than a reaper to take me out. Still, if it happens, at least you know what to do, right, Vengeance?”

Vee pulled away, quickly rubbing her eyes before playfully pushing Amara’s shoulder. “Oh, shut up, Hellspawn.”

They both laughed, and Amara caught Tessa rolling her eyes. “Seriously, though? Still weird seeing you two all buddy buddy again.”

Before she could respond, Amara paused. She’d briefly gotten caught up in the joy of seeing everyone together again, then immediately realized she’d been mistaken; they weren’t all together. “Guys, where’s Chloé?”

Everyone looked around for a moment, then Vee spoke up. “I swear I just saw her in that back corner. I’ve been trying to keep tabs on the entire cafeteria, though, maybe she slipped away? I did ... kinda tell her everything that’s been going on the last few months. Just my side of things, granted, but she’s hard to read; I couldn’t quite tell how she took it.”

“Shit. I’m going to find her; you all get yourself some food.” Amara started jogging to the corner they’d last seen Chloé at and started looking around. When she didn’t find anything immediately, she tapped into her inner fire and tried to fully engage her senses. After a moment of focusing, she found a scent that seemed like Chloé’s. It was incredibly faint, which was hardly surprising; Amara would be shocked if her friend had been horny at a time like this. Still, it was enough to follow, and soon she found herself following a path to a small maintenance staircase tucked away in a corner.

The staircase led upstairs, where a second story held a few small offices, but Amara didn’t sense Chloé’s presence on that floor. Instead, she kept ascending and soon opened the door to the roof. There, it only took a second to find Chloé leaning against a railing, looking over the quad.

“Chloé!” Amara gasped, running closer.

Although she quickly glanced over her shoulder, Chloé didn’t seem to have much of a reaction to Amara’s presence. She turned back to lean on the railing, and Amara saw her shoulders slump.

“Chloé, why are you up here?” Amara asked, joining her at the railing. “It’s freezing, not to mention all the monsters skulking around the quad.”

“I just ... I needed some air,” Chloé muttered, burying her face in her scarf.

She was obviously shivering, so Amara let out a small, controlled burst of heat to warm the area up. She stayed quiet, hoping Chloé would say something, but the next several minutes passed in silence.

“I heard you talked with Vee,” Amara said eventually.

“Yeah. I’m mostly caught up on everything now.” Chloé’s voice was still muffled by her scarf, though it appeared she’d stopped shivering.

“Chloé, I should have—”

“Don’t,” Chloé said, cutting Amara off with unusual conviction. “Just don’t.”

Amara paused, shocked at the statement. Chloé was usually so timid, and the pain in her voice was obvious. “I-I ... I just wanted to—”

“I know what you’re gonna say,” Chloé started. “You’re gonna say that you wanted to tell me, but magic is dangerous. Everyone who learns about it seems to get hurt, and it’s best to just keep everyone in the dark unless they stumble into it themselves?”

“Well, not exactly, but ... how did you know?”

“Come on, Amara, look at me! I grew up with a miserable family, in a miserable town, and I hated every second of it. I buried myself in books, shows, games, anything I could find that would distract me from how awful my life was. I used to lie awake at night, fantasizing that I lived in a world where magic was hiding just under the surface, wishing that some magical creature would show up and tell me I’m special. That I matter, I have cool powers, and I never should have grown up in such a terrible place.”

Amara wasn’t sure what to say, so she stayed quiet.

“And eventually I grew out of that. Obviously, the world just sucks, there’s no magic, no wonder. So, I tried to make the world I had better. I found a good college that seemed welcoming, I started volunteering, I did everything I could to fight for a better life, and I thought it was working! You all were my first real friends! You accepted me for who I was, you encouraged me to open up about myself, it felt incredible. And then ... you all started acting weird. There was confusing drama, I started seeing everyone less frequently, then you and Vee vanished completely. I thought I was losing the first real friends I’d ever made.”

“Chloé, I never wanted that. You’re an amazing person, and I feel awful that you got caught in the crossfire. You have every right to be angry at me.”

“That’s just it, Amara; I’m not. I’m not angry at you, I don’t blame you for any of this. I think you made the right call.”

“I ... I don’t understand.”

“This is literally my childhood dream come true, Amara. Magic is real! It’s just ... not for me. My being here, knowing all of this ... it means something went wrong.” Chloé was crying now, the tears running down her cheeks before soaking into her scarf. “In a perfect world ... I’d still be in the dark. This is just more proof of what I’ve always known: I’m nothing. I’m nobody, I don’t matter, and I never will!”

She couldn’t continue anymore. Her body shook as she wept, and she reached up to push her scarf higher on her face. A cavernous void formed in Amara’s stomach, a horrible guilt over how her actions had affected Chloé, and she wanted to do something to help.

Amara manifested her wings, then reached for Chloé’s shoulder and pulled her in for a hug. Chloé had no energy left to resist and turned to Amara before burying her face in her shoulder.

Chloé spoke up again after a minute, her words choked as she fought through the tears, and it seemed like every thought of hers was spilling out without rhyme or reason. “I’m not trying to make you feel bad, I just ... You look so fucking cool, Amara! Your wings are so big and you’ve got an awesome tail and all that cool armor, and you look just like the Queen of Blades and she’s always been such a badass and I’m super fucking jealous ‘cuz I always wanted to look like her!”

Hugging Chloé tight, Amara slowly rubbed her back and did her best to comfort her. “Let it all out, Chloé, I’m not going anywhere. I’m never going to let you feel alone again.”

“And you can summon fire, and Vee said that you fought a giant demon on Thanksgiving and threw him back into Hell, and that sounds so cool! And it was kinda scary when you showed up with the monster’s skull but also you looked crazy awesome and I wish I were half as cool as you, but I’m not!”

It took several minutes for Chloé’s crying to slow down, and she spent the entire time sharing every thought she’d been bottling up. Amara held her close the whole time, happy to be there for her, even if she knew she was responsible for this breakdown. She hoped that letting Chloé purge all her emotions like this would make her feel better.

Once the tears stopped, Chloé took a few deep breaths before looking up at Amara. “Do you ... do you think you could take me flying sometime?”

Amara wiped one last tear from her friend’s face before responding. “I’d love to, Chloé. Though, at the moment, I can’t really fly. It’s a PTSD thing from when I fought Vee on Halloween.”

Chloé sniffed. “I-I guess that makes sense...”

“I’ll happily show you something else, though. Want to see me blow something up? Or turn my tail into a blade?”

“Your tail is really cool...”

Smiling to herself, Amara turned Chloé away from the railing, and they both took a seat on the gravel-covered roof. She slid her tail into Chloé’s lap, letting her poke and prod it as much as she wanted.

Why does everyone want to see the tail first?

After a minute, Amara moved her tail away and slowly turned it into a blade, manifesting a series of chitinous plates that eventually formed into a sharp edge. She was thrilled to see a smile on Chloé’s face, and she cycled through a few different shapes to try and cheer her up.

“So, who’s this Queen of Blades person? Have I seen her before?” Amara asked.

Chloé shook her head. “No, she’s from this game called Starcraft, and she was originally just a normal person. Well, not completely normal, she had some latent psionic abilities. Anyways, this evil Emperor guy betrayed her and she got captured by aliens, but they saw her psionic potential and...”

The explanation continued for a while, and Amara listened intently to every detail. Chloé was easily distracted and occasionally went on small tangents about the lore of the game, but eventually recounted most of the story of this character. She even pulled out her phone to show Amara pictures, which was very helpful in helping her understand the comparison.

Giving Chloé a chance to talk seemed to help. Her words slowly came more confidently, and her excitement over the game helped lighten her mood. Once she finished her small rant, and had tucked her phone away, Amara spoke up again.

“You know, I think there’s something you could do that would really help us out.”

There was a brief flash of excitement in Chloé’s eyes, though hesitation quickly followed. “Like, actually? This isn’t ... y’know, mindless busywork to make me feel helpful?”

Amara shook her head. “Not in the slightest. I know it’s been pretty hectic, and we managed to find safety for now, but Vee and I have to get back out there and stop Brandon. We don’t understand magic, however, and Tessa has to help us put together a plan. What that means, though, is that none of us can really spare the time to organize everyone downstairs. We don’t know who half those students are, how they’re feeling, stuff like that. It would be really helpful if we had someone that was great with people, who knew how to organize crowds, that could help us put things in order.”

“Oh, I don’t ... I don’t think I’m all that great with people,” Chloé muttered, digging her heel into the gravel as she stared at the ground.

“Bullshit!” Amara said. “Chloé, you put together an entire charity! You organized an all-day cleanup event at the Palace! I was there, don’t forget; I saw how well you handled everyone that showed up. You told them what needed to be done, handed out supplies, it was incredible. I wouldn’t be able to do that in the best of circumstances, let alone now.”

There were another few moments of silence. “Well, what would you need?”

“It would be incredibly helpful if we knew a little bit about everyone that’s caught up in this nightmare. Who they are, how they’re feeling, maybe even if they’ve noticed anything unusual. Plus, if you step up, that gives them a feeling of structure. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most approachable person, not when I look like this, and we all know Tessa is anything but a ray of sunshine.”

Chloé laughed quietly. “She actually attacked Naomi after you passed out. She posted some photos online and Tessa pulled a knife on her.”

Amara rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I’ll talk to her. Although, Nick might have already beaten me to the punch, they might be a thing now.”

“I, um, heard something to that effect earlier,” Chloé said quietly.

“Oh yeah?”

“Well, like, literally. Most of the cafeteria heard you three, um...”

“Oh!” Amara gasped in realization. “I see what you mean. Sorry about that, I needed to feed.”

Looking over at Chloé, Amara caught her face turning bright red. “Feeding? Is that what you call it?” she asked.

Amara nodded. “It’s really the only thing that makes sense. It’s a separate act from having sex, I can do one without the other. I’ve got an innate sense that tells me how horny people are, it manifests as this kind of aura, and once it’s strong enough I can tap into it to regain my strength. But, if I don’t do this regularly, I get really weak. So, yeah, it’s a fitting word.”

Chloé seemed lost in thought, her brows furrowed, then asked another question. “So why the outfit? No offense, but it looks kind of...”

“Slutty?”

“No! That’s not what I— I meant, like, if I saw that in a game I would—” Chloé was blushing even harder now, stammering as she tried to find the right thing to say.

With a hearty laugh, Amara wrapped her arm around Chloé’s shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. “It’s okay, Chloé, I know what you mean. In any other context, yes, I bet I’d consider this outfit incredibly oversexualized. I could grow more plating to cover up more, but I’m going to need to feed again before we confront Brandon and those monsters. I’m flaunting my body to try and figure out who wants to fuck me.”

“This is going to take some getting used to,” Chloé said. “You’re so different now! You sound just like Tessa!”

“I’m a succubus, aren’t I?” Amara paused, thinking back to earlier when she’d almost forgotten about her nudity. “It’s weird, because I completely agree—I was pretty timid before all this. But, once I figured out who I really was, it’s like my life finally started. Everything makes sense now, and I feel like the person I always wanted to be is finally here. I’m probably not explaining that well, am I?”

Looking down at Chloé, Amara saw she had a huge smile frozen on her face. “Not at all, Amara. That makes perfect sense. C’mon, we should get downstairs, it’s cold out here. Or, well, it was. Did you do something?”

With a smirk, Amara held out a hand and summoned a ball of fire. “Heart of hellfire, remember? I’m not going to let one of my best friends freeze to death.”

Both girls laughed as they stood up. Amara went first, opening the door with her tail, and they continued making small talk about her demonic abilities as they walked downstairs back towards the cafeteria. Just before they left the staircase, she remembered her wings were still out and quickly demanifested them in a burst of hellfire.

Thankfully, when they arrived, everything seemed pretty much the same. Students were still sitting around tables and picking at food, which made Amara realize how hungry she was. “Can we get some food? I’m starving, I haven’t had real food in ages.”

They walked over to the serving line, where a girl with bright, unnaturally red hair stood behind the counter. She was leaning over a container of soup, holding the side while she stirred the savory contents. When she looked up, Amara noticed her eyes briefly linger on her cleavage, then her shoulder, but she quickly diverted her attention higher.

“Oh! Uh, Amara, right? Wow, they weren’t kidding about your abilities. How’s your shoulder?” the red-haired girl asked.

“All better, thanks. Why do you ask?”

Chloé spoke up next. “This is Ruby, she’s the one who patched you up after you fainted earlier.”

“They told me you’d heal completely if you just had sex, and I was pretty skeptical. But, hey, seeing is believing. I’m glad you’re better!” Ruby pulled out a spoon to taste the soup and grimaced in dissatisfaction.

“Something wrong?” Amara asked.

“This place just has shitty burners. I made enough soup for everyone but it’s taking ages to heat up.”

With a smirk, Amara raised her hand and snapped her fingers. A flurry of sparks appeared, and within moments, the soup was piping hot and bubbling. “That should be better. Let me know if it cools down again!”

“I, uh...” Ruby blinked several times as she processed the chain of events. The pulse in her aura was undeniable. “Thanks?”

After piling their plates with food, and grabbing a bowl of soup, Amara and Chloé walked into the dining hall to look for their friends. They eventually found Vee, Tessa, and Nick sitting at a table off to the side, and Vee jumped up to wave them down.

Tessa wanted to start tackling the problem at hand, but Vee shushed her and redirected the conversation to Chloé, wanting to make sure she was okay. The conversation eventually switched over to general small talk, everyone taking turns to chip in while they slowly finished their food. For the first time in what felt like ages, they were all together again, and everything was out in the open.

Despite how nice it was to be home again, and surrounded by friends, it was impossible for Amara to ignore the attention she was getting. Even just walking through the tables earlier, nearly everyone was trying to hide their attempts to look at her. She could hardly blame them; even though Vee had explained that she was an angel, Amara was still the only one that was visibly not human. Plus, her choice of outfit was working like a charm. It was incredibly easy to catch everyone that was checking her out, and she hoped she would have her pick of the lot whenever she needed to feed again.

When they finished eating, Amara even volunteered to run everyone’s trays back to the kitchen. She wanted an excuse to flaunt her body, to playfully flick her tail as she walked around, and she loved feeling everyone’s eyes on her.

After Amara returned, Nick jumped in surprise and reached into his bag. “Shit, I totally forgot, but I have all your stuff, both of you,” he said to both Amara and Vee. Soon enough, he’d pulled out two sets of keys and two phones.

Amara snatched up her phone immediately, thrilled to have it back. She unlocked it, happy to see that Nick had kept it charged, then immediately panicked when she saw dozens of missed texts and messages from her mother. “Nick! Were you just ignoring my phone all week? My mom is freaking out!”

Nick sheepishly scratched the back of his neck as he averted his eyes. “I didn’t know your unlock code, so I couldn’t send a text pretending to be you! I tried to smooth things over by texting her myself, saying that you’ve been really busy with school, but that only works for so long.”

“Ugh, I’m gonna be in so much trouble. I’m supposed to be home from break by now!” Amara started scrolling through all her missed text messages as she tried to figure out what exactly was happening. The first few were from Nick and Tessa, back when she’d first gone missing, but most of them were from her mother, Evelyn.

Earlier in the week, she’d been trying to figure out when Amara was planning on coming home. Sometimes students frontloaded all their finals to start vacation early, and her mom didn’t know when Amara’s tests were. Additionally, since Amara had skipped coming home for Thanksgiving, her mom was extra excited to spend Christmas with her. This also meant, of course, that she wouldn’t be able to use Nick as another excuse for missing a holiday.

As time had progressed, her messages had become more emotional. On some days she seemed quite upset, rightfully so, but would then apologize or mention having talked to Nick. Later in the week she’d pivoted to concern, wondering if Amara had gotten wrapped up in something she was too scared to tell her about. The more recent texts were unusually calm and supportive, with her mother stressing that she would always love Amara, and stressing that she wouldn’t be mad if something had gone wrong at school. Reading through all the texts, Amara felt terrible. She loved her mom with all her heart, and hated seeing her this distraught.

“Do you want to give her a call?” Vee asked quietly, gently grabbing Amara’s wrist.

“What would I even say? Had I caught this sooner, I might have been able to make something up, but nothing I say at this point will excuse ignoring her for over a week.” Amara buried her face in her hands, trying to think of a believable cover story, but she couldn’t organize her thoughts. “Ugh, I don’t have the energy to think about this right now, not while there’s a madman breaking down the walls between reality.”

“Hey, Evelyn is really understanding, and she loves you. I’m sure she’ll understand once you have a chance to talk to her,” Nick said. “For now, should we start tackling the aforementioned madman?”

“Yeah, probably.” Amara went to tuck her phone in a pocket, then quickly remembered her lack of clothes. She gave the phone back to Nick, and once he’d put it back in his backpack, the group split into two teams. Nick and Chloé started wandering the cafeteria, making a list of everyone present and trying to put together a picture of how everyone was feeling. Vee, Tessa, and Amara stayed at their table, ready to start thinking of a plan.

Amara did her best to explain her previous encounter with Brandon. The skeletal hand, the strange ethereal chains, and the way he used them to exert control over her and the reapers. One of the most frustrating aspects was not knowing the limits of his abilities; when Amara had confronted him, she hadn’t exactly been at full strength. For all she knew, a big enough orgy might make her strong enough to knock him out with a single punch, but there was no way to tell.

“Ugh, I can’t believe that slimeball survived the ritual,” Amara said. She then quietly added “I had a chance to finish him off, you know.”