Chapter 6 Vada
While I’d been in Hell, I became a pro at learning how to use my succubus powers.
Like many in the Pax, I was fucking tired of being pushed around to offer gains to men who used my powers and my curse to their own advantage.
I’d spent my downtime in the libraries, or talking with philosophers who had damned God.
I’d learned what it meant to be a leader by actively working against policies they structured after themselves.
I wasn’t interested in their games, just as I wasn’t interested in Adam’s in another lifetime.
I glanced out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the small courtyard from my apartment, noticing that night had fallen.
I must have been sitting here for hours caught up in my own thoughts.
I didn’t have any interest in reliving my past. I came to St. Louis because I believed in what the Pax were doing here, and something in my being told me that I belonged here.
Not only because a prophecy told to me more than a century ago said I’d be making my way here, but it was something more than that.
I hadn’t belonged anywhere in my life. That was the loneliness I couldn’t let go of. Maybe it was because I was originally a Human and the first to live on Earth, but there was something about this timeline, and this city, that just kept calling to me.
Pan and I had been good friends when he still resided in Hell.
I was happy that he’d found his place in the Pax as head of the Demon Faction.
We had kept in contact through secured channels to avoid catching the eye of Lucifer and his minions once Pan was cast out of the Demon Realm.
Pan had helped me learn who the leadership was in the Pax.
Adaela was fierce, loyal, protective, and above all, she was strong in her convictions to build a system for all supernaturals to exist in harmony.
She was tired, much like all of us. She no longer had anything to prove.
Thanks to chatting with the Crone over a century ago, I understood that she still had Fate nipping at her heels, and I was a reluctant part of that. They weren’t done with us just yet.
The Shifter leadership in their realm changed often because of alpha fights and the pecking order, and that the Gods hadn’t really settled on who would take a leadership role in the Pax, so it often changed between meetings.
The Vampires gave Bram their seat, and rightfully so, since he was the creator of all Vampires.
The Cryptids had changed recently, but I wasn’t sure who took the role.
The Hybrids really worked toward finding common ground, and often took on differing roles depending on what was needed.
The Goddesses had Ma’at and Athena, and the Witches had Hecate and Maren.
Humans changed often due to their lifespans and through entrenchment into differing political systems, and the Seelie had Titania and Bride.
The Angels had Metatron, and the Kings had Arthur and Akbar, and Queens had Amina.
Trying to understand this realm better, I walked out of my new living space and into the nightlife.
I put on what the humans liked to call the “little black dress,” and a pair of black heels.
The heels were a personal favorite of mine.
They resembled dragon claws holding up my feet.
I checked myself over in the mirror and conjured teal ombre eyeshadow and a deep red lip.
It fit my mood for the evening—a little sultry, but also potentially on the prowl.
I left my hair down in loose curls down my back.
My life as of late had been hell, no pun intended.
I was constantly starving—for attention or affection, or maybe it was from unfulfilled desire—I couldn’t tell at this point.
Part of it was that I just wanted someone to see me instead of what I could offer them, or because of who I was in my previous life.
However, the essence that kept me running had dulled my senses to everything else around me.
The only thing that had kept me going was knowing that I would soon have a second chance back on Earth.
I walked into the first crowded bar I could find and ordered a whiskey sour, remembering my first taste of whiskey with fondness.
I went in search of sustenance, making my way through the crowd and toward the dance floor.
The music was unreasonably loud in the cramped space, but my desire to satiate my never-ending need for sex magic took me to the nearest group of human girls gawking at what was likely the hottest man in the bar by the way they were watching him.
Honestly, I couldn’t even tell you at this point.
I was never interested in men, though I’d had my fair share of them over the years.
The men in Hell believed they could change me, and that they were special in some way.
Individual. Unique. They were not. They had so much in common with the next person that they often blended in my head.
The man these women were watching appeared to be breakdancing, and the humans crowded around him to watch.
I swayed my hips to the music, trying to blend into the crowd as I sipped a little bit of their lust into my veins, telling myself that it had to be enough as their interest in him began to wane, and they started glancing around for another potential conquest. As I turned around to move on to the next small crowd toward the back of the bar, I bumped into a small woman whose power about knocked me on my ass.
“Oh, excuse—” I cut off.
She smiled a little sheepishly at me, her eyes glazed over. “Sorry,” she mouthed at me, and I just stood there, spellbound as she moved past me.
Though I had never seen her in person, Adaela’s photos were all over the internet.
As head of the Unseelie faction of the Pax, she made a lot of press throughout the realms, much like the remainder of the leaders in the Pax.
She was simply stunning. I figured she had some glamour on in the videos I’d seen of her, but I was so wrong.
Adaela was shorter than I thought she’d be.
With so much energy radiating off her body, I would have thought that such a tiny package wouldn’t be able to hold such immense power.
She was wearing jeans that molded to her frame, with a cardigan and a green shirt that said, “Kiss me, I’m Irish.
” I didn’t understand what the shirt’s meaning was, but she seemed comfortable, if not inebriated beyond belief.
Her bright reddish-orange hair was pulled back out of her face in a high ponytail, thick enough that it seemed the band she was using was holding on for its life.
I laughed to myself. What a way to meet the person I would spend the rest of my life with—if she’d have me.
I was obsessed, and that wasn’t a good thing for a succubus.
I had never become this enthralled with another being, and I tried to figure out why that was.
I didn’t even understand where that thought had come from.
Why was my first thought at seeing her in the flesh that I would be spending the rest of my life with her?
I watched her stumble her way to the restrooms, mesmerized and amused, until someone else bumped into me. That struck me into action. I started to follow her to the restrooms, but was quickly shuffled away by Az’s son, Sinbad, out to the patio.
“Vada, what are you doing here?” Sinbad asked, finding a quieter spot where we could talk.
“I just moved into the neighborhood. I’m just getting a sense of my surroundings.
What brings you to Earth?” I replied. The large patio resembled an upscale garden with greenery everywhere, hiding curtained-off areas for groups of people to sit.
I’d guess it was a way to let folks cool down when inside got to be too much.
“I’ve been here for about forty years now.
It’s a human holiday today called St. Patrick’s Day.
You know me, I can’t miss a good party,” Sinbad said.
“Are you settling in okay? I’m surprised my father let you leave his clutches.
” He sat down near one of the curtained-off areas, taking a sip of a cloudy beer.
I lifted my lips in something resembling a grin. “He had to let me go sometime. It was time.”
For the first time I could remember, I was finally living for just myself. I knew in the back of my mind that Fate was playing a role, but I’d denied Fate at great cost to myself before. I could stop living in punishment for the sins of men, much like the one in front of me.
“I know the gossip mill is talking about you already. They’re excited for a succubus to be part of the Pax,” Sinbad said.
“I imagine that my arrival on Earth has caused quite the stir. I’m surprised I haven’t been struck down yet.
There’s bound to be a little chaos with me here.
” My attention was pulled toward the alcoves with curtains drawn across them.
“I didn’t think humans were so bold as to have private spaces on a patio for fucking.
” I raised my eyebrows a couple times at Sin in a playful gesture.
Sinbad laughed, sitting back in the chair again. “While you’ll find those places here, this isn’t one of them. It’s relatively quiet out here compared to inside. Do you hear or smell sex in the air?”
I listened for a moment. “No, you’re right. I don’t. I need to remember that not everywhere is Az’s circle in Hell.” I scratched my neck in frustration. “I’m just fucking hungry. Don’t mind me.”