Page 46 of Succubus

This time he writes back, and he doesn’t sound surprised: U can kill him hes mortal.

Oh good. It hadn’t actually occurred to me that he might be immortal. Holy crap.

I write: Did you know the hunter was an angel? Is that actually what they’re called?

He responds: Course not that’s the most human shit ive hgeard but sure angels whatever. fuckin cops is what I call them.

You knew?

I figured but they haven’t been around in a long time that I heard of. its been nice. Much more relexkin They used to be a bigger deal army of light and shit. Didn’t I tell you that?? Guess we all used to be a bigger deal haha.

Do they have a weakness? I am mentally crossing my fingers.

We can do the same stuff to them we would to a normie. it works. problem is they’re like a drug for us that’s what I heard.

Like Grub said in his unnecessarily secret message. I wish he had just texted it to me. I wish. I wish. I make myself stop wishing because it hurts too much.

I think of the first time I saw Joel. The shimmering deliciousness of him. And every time after that. Like a drug. And then that hurts, too, the thought of Joel, before, when he was perfect to me.

Dick Face writes: I never met one that’s why I’m still here! But I knew this guy that killed one. U got act first and fast. Don’t let him have the first move.

He would’ve had the first move, if he’d taken it. Or did he do something to me that I don’t know about?

No, he said he’d kill me later.

And its gotta be ur power, Dick Face continues. unless u shoot his whole head off w a sniper rifle which is actually a good idea. They can heal themself.

Sheesh.

Or maybe a bomb, he muses.

Ok great.

But prob just ur power.

Will he hurt my family? I write.

No. Fuckers are sworn to protect humankind. Thats their whole fuckturd thing. They say their keeping the normies safe from US. Like were so bad!!

Are you sure?

They can’t kill regulars. against their nature I SWEAR to all the gods.

I feel my ribs unclamp. I take a big, free breath. My family is safe. Ella is safe.

Mom is still on the phone, telling Barry he should want to keep talking. He should want to learn more relationship skills.

I text Dick Face again to ask if he knows how Joel will kill me. He doesn’t answer for a while. Then he says he heard something about angel magic making our hearts pop like a balloon. Or maybe it’s the brain that pops. He isn’t sure because he was lying low for a bunch of that time. He tells me to watch out for the glow. They start to glow when they do their thing.

And now Mom is sliding out of the bathroom. She squints at me for a long moment, ruffling her hair absentmindedly. “Okay,” she says, her voice slow but tart. “Now tell me what the heck we’re doing here.”

I take a breath. I’m going to recite the lie again. Or some abbreviated version of it. But then, for some reason, I say instead: “You know how I can’t date anyone, Mom?”

She nods, fingering a lotus-shaped pendant on one of her dangling necklaces. “Your men curse.”

“Yeah. If I sleep with them, they get sick and die. For real. It’s from my father.”

I don’t know why I’m telling her, of all people, now, of all times. Maybe I just need to tell someone. Someone who is high enough to forget by morning.