Chapter 2: Part 1/4

It wasn’t the best sleep of my life. I blame the tail, which appeared to have a mind of its own. It didn’t sleep like the rest of her. It was as if it stayed awake just to stab me, the sharp point digging into my calf, thigh and stomach to complete a hat trick of offences that woke me up. Lily slept serenely. She was out like a light, and her peaceful breathing helped soothe me back to sleep until the next time her tail decided otherwise.

I gave up at about 8am, accepting defeat and climbing out of bed to use the bathroom. Lily had clung to me all night. I would wake to her cuddling me, holding my hand or with a leg draped across my waist. But that last time she had disengaged, and rolled to the other side of the bed. For a moment I felt like I was alone, and in that barely conscious second everything was normal again. I stretched and woke myself up, forgetting there was a demon alongside me. I wasn’t disappointed when her shuffling reminded me she was there, in fact it made me quite happy, but it was a reminder that normality wouldn’t exist again until she was gone. I didn’t feel like I was in a rush for that.

I used the toilet and brushed my teeth, before reading the group chat and catching up on a few messages that had been sent the night before. The reviews of Lily were positive. I didn’t think they were likely to see much more of her, though it was hard to plan anything without knowing exactly how long she would be around. I would be back in sixth form after the weekend was up, and she was going to need to find a way to fill her days while I was busy.

Mum and Dad were going to be back soon. That part was going to be weird, but there wasn’t really any other way around it. I needed to tell them I had summoned a succubus. I could just lie about the reason for it, and hope they didn’t get too mad. They were usually pretty easygoing, but this was a weird sex thing and there was no escaping that.

Lily had woken up by the time I returned. She was in her human form, having slept in demon mode. “Good morning,” she said, sitting cross-legged on the bed, playing with the cat.

“Morning,” I said. “I see you’ve met Salem.”

“He’s beautiful, in a weathered sort of way.”

Salem liked her, cuddling up in her lap like they were old friends. He was usually much more standoffish. “I think he’s 23 now. Five years older than me. He’s been through the wars.”

“I have a cat back home.”

“You have cats down there?”

“Well, he’s like our version of a cat. A bit different.”

I had no idea what that could mean. “I still find it crazy that you guys just live normal lives down there. Who looks after your cat while you’re away?”

“He can look after himself, plus time moves differently down there. Or maybe it doesn’t move at all. I never really understood it.”