Lingering Senitments

Las Vegas…Sin City. It certainly lives up to the nickname. From the casinos to the theaters…from the comedy clubs to the adult entertainment. The psychic emanations of so many humans pursuing their desires was enough to fill a succubus’s soul many times over. But for Alurea, she was moonlighting in one of the night clubs. With her drop-dead gorgeous body, even absent her demonic features, she was amazing at hooking the crowd with her hypnotic gaze.

Once, so long ago, during the Hundred Years’ War, Alurea had utterly devoted herself to one man. In fact, among succubi, she had been something of an odd duck. Most succubi simply used men for stretches of time and moved on to the next. Alurea had the eccentricity of actually getting attached to the men she stayed with, often gluing herself to their sides all the way up to their deathbeds.

In the Hundred Years’ War, a count’s son proved strangely resistant to her gaze. Supposedly, he fell in love with her without her ever having to make him do so. In hindsight, this should have tipped her off that he was about to use her, but his promises in dressing her in the finest clothes money could buy were enough to sway her into helping him take his father’s place. Alurea genuinely loved Aleš; she didn’t count on him being so fickle.

Alurea looked at herself in the changing rooms, a solitary tear running down her face. The shattered heart, the feeling of betrayal, the need to utterly tear Aleš apart as he passed his crimes off as hers and had her awaiting the guillotine. It was in that moment - a moment of betrayal and pure, unparalleled anger, that Alurea enslaved the onlookers with her gaze and had them tear into Aleš and his royal guard.

Her sentimentality had made her weak - it took seeing the man she loved condemn her to death to realize that. And if the county wanted their monster, then fine: she would be their damn monster. She became their Countess of Ruin up until the war ended. Exactly like her fellow succubi, she became a user of men.

It came like instinct. It should have been perfectly natural. It was natural...so why did it hurt so much sometimes when she did it? Was it because she secretly longed to have that type of relationship with men, again?

“Stupid…” she trailed, the wine glass in her fingers cracking under her demonic grip. “Stupid. You’re a weakling, Alurea.”

Never again…she’d never again allow herself to love. And to become weak because of it. Drying her tear off, she kept her Glamour on, hiding her demonic features, her silver hair appearing platinum blonde under the right lighting. The only vaguely unusual thing about her when her demonic features were hidden was her eye color: magenta.

As she stepped out in a Jiangnan-style cheongsam, the hem was carried on a light breeze behind her. The lavender-colored gown was touched with intricate floral and butterfly patterns, the cuts on the side of the dress being thigh-high, showing off her slender legs. She hid her inner turmoil under a sensual and carefree smile.

Stepping out of the club, she walked down the Vegas Strip to where one of the casinos were. With the intensity with which gambling addicts chased their desires, she would find herself gorging on the psychic energy in the air. It was a common myth that succubi like her fed on men, and required...well, intimacy to sustain themselves.

That was a misconception. Succubi - at least, succubi of Alurea's caliber - could feed off any form of energy that is generated when a mortal pursues a desire of any type. Intimacy was simply stronger than other forms. The highs of emotion - pleasure, happiness, excitement - from gaining these desires and even the lows of emotion - anger, despair, envy - from losing them were all things she could feed on. The stronger and more positive the emotion, the more satisfying. Negative emotions could do in a pinch, but they got stale - and even toxic - over time.

Alurea thus had an active incentive to improve the spirits of mortals, even if it was only in the short term.

Solomon arrived on the Vegas strip as he arrived anywhere, eyeing every person he saw and determining what grave sins they must have committed. He could sense all the sinners and darkness around him with every step he took. He came to this city to cleanse them, and every step walked him further and further into the severity of his mission. If he had his way, he’d burn the whole city down like Gomorrah. The screams of the sinners would only cause darkness to flood the streets, that is something even he wouldn’t be able to handle.

Solomon sometimes missed his old adventures. From slaying heathens in the Crusades to defending a nice diner establishment from a demon that crawled out of the pits of the 5th circle of hell. It felt like just yesterday he was walking through the streets of his village still a mortal man. His mind shifted to that fateful day when his life changed. Maybe if he could find that creature again and slay it, his mental crusade could be finished. He can still remember her pointy horns and blood-soaked teeth. He will mount one on his wall one day, no matter the cost.

Solomon snapped back to reality as he found himself arriving at his destination. A smile painted his face as he saw the soapbox and speaker his associations set up for him. He removed his coat to reveal a “Gambling and drugs are the devil” sandwich sign hanging from his neck. He soon took his place in the box and started preaching the ‘Gospel of Solomon.’ Whether they listened or not, he was going to preach it.

Alurea quirked a brow up when she heard something that sounded an awful lot like Scripture. She'd heard preaching a lot when she was still at the height of her power, but as a demon born of the Abyss, it hardly affected her. But these words...Alurea had gone through the Bible cover-to-cover, in most known versions of it on the planet. Not once had she read anything this mystery preacher was saying. There was nothing particularly remarkable about his physical appearance, but...

"You're in the wrong city if you're looking for converts," Alurea said, her eyes making contact with the man's own. In older days, she could enthrall a normal human through eye contact alone. Her power had waned considerably since then, but she still was quite adept with charm magic. Even so, there was something about this mystery preacher that made her spine shiver.

"Most men are in the casinos, not passing on the street," she added. "You'd need to go into one of those casinos - and good luck persuading any of the owners to let you in. They won't see it as good business."

Solomon’s head snapped to attention as someone tried to speak to him, his vision landing on some lady in an Eastern dress. This one felt different to him, a strong darkness oozed off of them. His vision stayed on her as his reply formed within his mind, The words spinning around until he found the exact words. Without a second thought, he gave her his well-crafted reply. That, of course, was him pointing at her and yelling “HARLET!!!”

He looked around at those surrounding him before turning his mic back on.
“See this, my dear listeners and monstrous sinners, we find ourselves in the presence of a spawn of satan himself.” he began while using his free hand to add emphasis to his speech.
“Do not gaze upon it or it might swallow your very soul.” His speech echoed around the front of the casino steps as he continued. With every word, his rage and determination increased. His eyes fell back onto the creature before him, a twitch in his upper lip pushing him further.

“Tell us, Demon, how many souls have been stolen today?” he asked, pointing his finger right back at her.
“How many Phalluses have been stolen? How many organs have you drained of its irreplaceable blood and essence?” He paused as he looked over to the crowd, noticing it had increased since he started. He knew he had to end this soon, lest she try to use him to steal more souls.
“Ignore all those questions if you wish but answer me this: How do you live so deep within sin? You Whore Trash heap of Babylon.”

"Hmph. Boys?" Alurea requested, as a few entranced men positioned himself between her and the preacher. Her suspicions were dead on about the preacher being more than he seemed, with the way his words echoed.

"You operate on Catholic interpretations of my kind, preacher," Alurea started. "I sense the age on you, but compared to me, you're still a young boy. I don't feed on souls - I feed on the psychic energy these souls emit when they purse their desires. Whatever they may be. Of course, that changes nothing for you."

She remembered those days, and the legends made about succubi like her. No doubt, succubi of some stripes were exactly like the legends say, but for most, they were exaggerations. It was amusing for her to watch the humans fight amongst themselves for ten decades for the gods they had made. To see the English and the French fighting, and to see the rare discontent start skirmishes in Bohemia.

"I don't need to lift a finger to tempt or sway humans...if anything, they're they're doing a good enough job being self-destructive without me..." she trailed. "You know...the way you talk reminds me of the last human I ever truly loved. Rich, deep voice...resistant to my gaze. A human man who had promised me a lavish life for all of his days...until his poor choices began catching up, and he shifted the blame to me. His smug smile as I faced the guillotine...his anger when I rightly pointed out that everything that went wrong was because of his poor choices. And that's when I finally realized..."

Alurea's magenta eyes began to glow with power.

"How do I live so deep in sin? Because I've seen the reality, preacher: humanity wants monsters to exist so it can ignore its own shortcomings. It would rather blame its sins on something else than admit its inherent darkness," Alurea said, her voice steady, but with barely-contained anger. Taking a few steps back, she venomously said, "If humanity wants a monster to blame, then I'll be its monster. I'll use humanity, just as that man had used me."