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The bass hit me first. A physical, throbbing wave of sound that vibrated up through the soles of my shoes before I even saw the house. The Evans residence was a sprawling modern home, and tonight, every window pulsed with colored lights, the front lawn already littered with plastic cups and shadows of dancing teenagers.
I froze at the edge of the driveway, my feet refusing to take another step. The hum in my bones, which had been a steady, manageable presence, sharpened into a frantic buzz. It wasn't the familiar pull of a ghost. This was different. This was a chaotic, overwhelming soup of hormones, loud music, and... something else. Something hungry.
"Subject is displaying signs of acute social anxiety," Lexi noted from beside me, his voice barely audible over the music. He was already holding a small tablet, his fingers flying across the screen. "Heart rate elevated, respiration shallow. Baseline aura resonance is fluctuating. Fascinating."
"Maybe because we're about to walk into a den of underage drinking and poor life choices," I muttered, my eyes wide. "This is a terrible idea. This is so much worse than the mill."
Sage's large hand settled on my shoulder, a solid, grounding weight. "Stay close to me," he commanded, his voice a low rumble that cut through the noise. He was dressed in a simple dark button-down that did nothing to hide his intimidating build. He looked less like a partygoer and more like a bouncer. My very possessive, very personal bouncer.
Yuki, on the other hand, was practically vibrating with excitement. He was wearing a neon green shirt that said 'PARTY SPIRIT' with a glowing ghost on it. "This is gonna be awesome! Real American teenage party! Just like in the movies! Do you think they'll have those little hot dogs in blankets?"
Before any of us could answer, I felt it. A shift. A sudden, intense focus cutting through the chaotic energy of the party like a laser.
My eyes were drawn across the crowded front yard, through the open double doors, and into the thrumming heart of the house. There, standing at the base of a grand staircase, was Chloe Evans.
She was even more stunning than I remembered, wearing a simple red dress that seemed to glow against her skin. But it wasn't her beauty that made the air catch in my lungs. It was her eyes. They were locked directly on me, wide and unblinking. A slow, predatory smile spread across her perfect lips.
And in that moment, I didn't feel like a person. I didn't feel like a student, or a club member, or even bait.
I felt like food.
The hum in my bones didn't just buzz; it screamed a warning. Every instinct I had was telling me to run. This wasn't a sad ghost or a mischievous poltergeist. This was a hunter, and she had just spotted her next meal.
Sage's grip on my shoulder tightened. "She's seen you," he growled, his body shifting subtly to put himself more directly between me and the house.
Lexi's tablet emitted a series of frantic beeps. "Energy spike is off the charts. The entity is fully aware of his presence. It's... excited."
Yuki peered around Sage, his earlier excitement replaced by a nervous gulp. "Ooh. She looks... really hungry, Senpai."
Chloe's smile widened. She began to move, gliding through the crowd with an unnatural grace. Partygoers unconsciously parted for her, their eyes glazing over as she passed, caught in her wake.
She was coming straight for me.
The mission was a go. The bait was taken.
And I had never been more terrified in my life.
Time seemed to slow down as Chloe cut through the crowd. The sea of dancing, laughing teenagers parted for her without seeming to notice, their movements becoming sluggish and dreamy as she passed. Her eyes never left mine. That hungry, predatory focus was a physical weight, pinning me in place more effectively than Sage's hand on my shoulder.
"Okay, Alex," I whispered to myself, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "Remember the training. Stay pure. Good guy. Save the girl. Don't think about how she's looking at you like you're the last slice of pizza at a starving artists' convention."
Sage moved, a subtle shift that placed his entire body as a shield between me and the approaching threat. "Do not engage until I give the signal," he murmured, his voice a low, protective growl that vibrated through his hand on my shoulder.
Lexi was muttering rapid-fire observations into a discreet microphone on his collar. "Subject C is approaching with clear intent. Aura signature is consolidating, focusing entirely on Primary Emitter. The drain field is already active at low level—observe the cognitive dampening in the surrounding hosts."
I glanced at the "hosts"—the other partygoers. Their eyes were glazed, their smiles vacant as Chloe passed. It was creepy.
Yuki, meanwhile, decided this was the perfect moment to initiate "Operation: Wingman." He popped out from behind Sage with what he probably thought was a cool, casual lean against the doorframe.
"Hey there!" he chirped at Chloe as she reached us, his voice an octave too high. "Nice party! Great... uh... bass levels! Really feeling the vibrations!" He gave her two awkward thumbs up.
Chloe's gaze didn't even flicker in his direction. It was locked on me, a predator ignoring a chattering squirrel. She stopped just a foot away, well inside Sage's personal space bubble, and completely ignored his looming presence.
"Hi," she said, her voice a low, melodic hum that seemed to bypass my ears and vibrate directly in my bones. "I'm Chloe. I don't think I've seen you around before." Her eyes traveled over me from head to toe, and I felt a hot flush creep up my neck. It was the same feeling I'd had during Lexi's "resistance training," but amplified by a thousand. This wasn't a clinical test. This was the real, hungry thing.
"S-stay pure, stay pure, stay pure," I chanted in my head, my palms sweating. "Someone please save me from this. Why does doing the right thing have to be so... flustering?"
Sage's hand tightened on my shoulder to the point of pain. "He's with us," he said, his voice cold and sharp enough to cut glass.
Chloe finally acknowledged him, her smile turning condescending. "How lovely for him." Her attention snapped back to me. "But I was talking to him. You look... interesting. Different." She took a half-step closer, and the scent of her perfume—something like jasmine and dark chocolate—washed over me. "I feel like we have a lot to... talk about."
The hum in my bones wasn't just a warning anymore; it was a frantic, screaming alarm. She wasn't just looking at me. She was tasting me. And she liked what she tasted.
The seduction had begun. And I was already losing.
"Different?" I managed to choke out, my voice cracking. "I'm... I'm just here for the... party." It was the lamest sentence ever spoken, but it was all my flustered brain could produce.
Chloe's smile widened, revealing perfectly white teeth. "Aren't we all?" she purred. She reached out, and before Sage could react, her fingers brushed a strand of hair from my forehead. The contact was electric. A jolt of warmth shot through me, followed by a dizzying wave of pure, unfiltered want. It wasn't my own feeling—it was like she was injecting the emotion directly into my veins. "But you're not like the others here. You're... special. I can feel it."
Oh god, she's touching me. Stay pure stay pure stay pure. Think of economics! Think of... of grandma's cooking! Anything!
Sage's grip on my shoulder became vice-like. "He's not interested," he ground out, his voice dripping with a possessiveness that should have been terrifying but in that moment felt like my only anchor.
"Really?" Chloe's gaze flicked to Sage, her eyes glinting with amusement. "He doesn't seem to be objecting." Her hand trailed down, her fingertips lightly tracing the line of my jaw. My breath hitched. The party, the music, Sage's warning growl—it all faded into a distant buzz. There was only her touch, her scent, and the overwhelming magnetic pull drawing me toward her.
"Primary Emitter showing severe bio-signature fluctuations!" Lexi's hissed report cut through my haze like a bucket of ice water. "Heart rate 150 and climbing! Endorphin levels spiking! This is a direct psychic assault!"
Yuki, seeing his "wingman" duties were failing, decided on a new tactic. He suddenly appeared between Chloe and me, holding out a half-eaten bag of chips.
"Snack?" he offered brightly, shoving the bag toward Chloe's face. "You look hungry! They're barbecue flavor! Very... grounding!"
Chloe didn't even look at him. With an almost imperceptible flick of her wrist, the bag of chips flew from Yuki's hand and splattered against a wall across the room. Yuki stared at his empty hand, then at the wall, his jaw dropped.
"Hey! That was my snack!" he whined.
The brief interruption was enough for me to snap back to my senses. I stumbled back a step, breaking the contact with her hand. The dizzying feeling of want receded, leaving behind a cold sweat and a racing heart.
Okay, that was bad. That was really bad. She barely touched me and I almost forgot my own name. Someone, please, for the love of all that is holy, get me out of here.
Chloe's predatory smile returned, undeterred. She seemed... pleased by my reaction. "Shy? I like that." She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper meant only for me. "This party is so loud. Don't you think? I know a much quieter place we can talk. Just the two of us."
The offer hung in the air, laced with unspoken promise and undeniable danger. The bait was not just taken; it was being reeled in. And I was helplessly hooked.
The words "just the two of us" sent a fresh wave of panic through me, so potent it momentarily overpowered the succubus's psychic allure. My internal monologue became a frantic prayer. Oh no. No, no, no. That's the horror movie line! That's how people end up as skin suits in a basement! Someone do something! Sage, glare harder! Lexi, say something clinical and creepy! Yuki, throw another snack!
As if on cue, my three anchors launched their counter-offensives.
"Your proposal lacks proper risk-assessment parameters," Lexi stated, stepping forward with his tablet held up like a shield. He positioned himself at my other side, a solid wall of scientific disapproval. "Isolated environments create uncontrolled variables. I must insist on maintaining a group dynamic for data integrity." He sounded like a robot reading a terms-of-service agreement, but his presence was a welcome chill against the heat Chloe was radiating.
Sage didn't bother with words. He simply moved, his large frame physically inserting itself into the space between Chloe and me, his back now completely blocking my view of her. The message was clear, primal, and unmistakable: Mine.
Chloe's smile tightened at the edges. The glint in her eyes shifted from amused to annoyed. "How... protective," she said, her melodic voice gaining a sharp, metallic edge. She tried to peer around Sage, her gaze seeking me out like a searchlight. "I was only asking him. Don't you think he can speak for himself?"
This was, of course, the worst possible thing to say to Sage. I saw the muscles in his back tense. "He doesn't need to," Sage rumbled, his voice so low it was almost a physical vibration. "The answer is no."
Seeing his opening, Yuki decided to deploy his ultimate weapon: chaos. He ducked under Sage's arm, popped up in front of Chloe, and struck a dramatic pose.
"If you want to get to our Senpai, you have to go through me! His loyal kohai!" he declared, pointing a finger at her. "I know all your tricks, you... you sexy ghost! I've read all the manga! I'm immune to your... your... booby magic!"
The entire confrontation froze. Lexi facepalmed so hard I winced. Sage's formidable posture seemed to slump in secondhand embarrassment. Chloe just stared at Yuki, her expression one of pure, unadulterated bafflement. The phrase "booby magic" had apparently short-circuited even a centuries-old entity's composure.
In that beautiful, chaotic, deeply stupid moment, the suffocating pressure lifted. The succubus's focus was broken, her perfect seduction derailed by a gremlin in a neon shirt.
But the reprieve was short-lived. Chloe's eyes narrowed, her gaze sweeping over my three protectors with newfound suspicion. The hungry predator was gone, replaced by a calculating hunter who had just realized the prize was guarded.
The game had changed. She knew she was being hunted. And from the cold, sharp smile that returned to her lips, she wasn't planning on being the prey for much longer.
The silence that followed Yuki's declaration of "booby magic" was louder than the thumping bass. Chloe's face cycled through expressions—confusion, disbelief, and finally, a cold, simmering anger. The air around us grew heavy, the party noise seeming to fade as if someone had turned down the volume.
"You're not just random party crashers," she stated, her melodic voice now flat and dangerous. Her gaze swept over Lexi's tablet, Sage's protective stance, and Yuki's triumphant pose. "You're here for me."
Lexi didn't deny it. "Your parasitic relationship with the host is causing measurable harm," he said, his tone clinical. "We're here to facilitate a... separation."
Chloe let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "You think you can just take him from me?" Her eyes burned with an inner fire as she looked past them, locking onto me again. "He's mine. I felt his light the moment he stepped onto the property. I've been starving for so long, and he's a feast."
The word "feast" sent a fresh shiver down my spine. Okay, the 'just the two of us' plan is officially back on the table and it's even more terrifying now that she's pissed off!
Sage shifted his weight, his entire body coiling like a spring. "You will not touch him."
"Oh, I'll do more than touch him," Chloe purred, her anger melting back into that predatory hunger. She ignored Sage completely, her voice weaving through the air like silk. "Alex, isn't it? Don't you want to know what it feels like? To be truly desired? To have someone who sees all that beautiful, pure energy inside you and doesn't want to cage it or study it... but to devour it?"
Her words were a physical force, pushing against my will. The hum in my bones responded, not in alarm, but with a terrifying, resonant curiosity. A part of me, a deep, hidden part, did want to know. The sheer honesty of her hunger was a dark mirror to the FLs' obsessive care.
No! Bad Alex! That's the demon talking! Think of... of puppies! And sunshine! And... and doing your taxes!
"His bio-readings are spiking into dangerous territory!" Lexi warned, his clinical facade finally cracking with urgency. "The empathic link is strengthening! We need to disengage, now!"
"Too late," Chloe whispered.
She didn't move, but the world did. The few partygoers still near us suddenly turned, their eyes blank and hostile, forming a loose circle around our group. They were puppets, their strings pulled by the entity's will.
"We can't fight them all without causing a scene!" Lexi hissed, his head swiveling as he assessed the new threat.
Sage's jaw was clenched so tight I thought I heard his teeth grind. "We retreat. Regroup."
But Chloe wasn't looking at them anymore. She was looking only at me, her voice a soft, intimate whisper that cut through the chaos. "They want to keep you in the dark, Alex. I want to set you on fire. Meet me in the garden in five minutes. Come alone, or the girl gets hurt."
With a final, smoldering look, she turned and melted back into the crowd, her human shields parting to let her through before closing ranks again, blocking our path.
The ultimatum hung in the air, cold and absolute. I was out of time, out of options, and rapidly running out of willpower. The team's plan was in shambles. It was just me, a very angry succubus, and a terrible, terrible decision to make.
The moment Chloe disappeared into the crowd, the spell broke. The blank-faced partygoers blinked, shook their heads as if waking from a dream, and wandered off, leaving our group in a pocket of stunned silence.
"We need to evacuate. Now," Lexi said, his voice tight as he scanned the room. "The entity has demonstrated hostile control over bystanders. The risk profile is unacceptable."
"Evacuate?" Yuki squeaked, his bravado gone. "But she said she'd hurt the girl!"
Sage's hand was back on my shoulder, his grip firm. "It's a bluff. A manipulation tactic. We're leaving." He tried to steer me toward the door, but my feet felt rooted to the spot.
She'll hurt the girl. The words echoed in my head, cutting through the static of fear and temptation. Chloe wasn't just a supernatural predator anymore; she was a scared girl being used as a weapon. Mr. Evans's terrified face flashed in my mind. I came here to save someone.
"I can't," I said, the words barely a whisper.
Sage stopped. All three of them looked at me.
"Alex," Sage's voice was a warning rumble. "This is not a negotiation."
"She said she'd hurt Chloe," I repeated, my voice growing stronger. "The real Chloe. I can't just let that happen. We came here to save her."
Lexi stepped in front of me, his expression severe. "That is an irrational, emotional response. The entity is using your morality against you. By going out there alone, you are playing directly into its strategy. The probability of a successful exorcism under these conditions is less than twelve percent. The probability of you being spiritually consumed is eighty-nine percent and climbing."
"I don't care about the percentages!" The words burst out of me, fueled by a frustration I didn't know I was holding. "I care about the girl! You heard her father! She's sweet and shy and she's trapped in there! What's the point of having this... this power if I don't use it to help people when it actually matters?"
The three of them stared at me, and for the first time, I saw something other than obsession or clinical analysis in their eyes. I saw surprise. And maybe, just maybe, a flicker of respect.
Sage was the first to break the silence. His hand was still on my shoulder, but the grip had changed. It was no longer restraining; it was grounding. "You're serious."
"I have to try," I said, meeting his gaze. "It's who I am."
Lexi let out a long, slow breath, his shoulders slumping in defeat. "The data is clear. His resolve is a fixed variable. Arguing will only waste time we don't have." He looked at Sage, a silent communication passing between them. "New plan. We let him go."
Yuki gasped. "But—!"
"We let him go," Lexi repeated, his eyes sharp. "And we follow. We give the entity the isolation it wants, but we don't give it the victory. We'll be watching. We'll be ready."
Sage's jaw worked, a storm of conflict in his eyes. Finally, he gave a single, sharp nod. "Five minutes. If we don't have a signal by then, we're coming in." He leaned close, his voice dropping to a fierce, private whisper. "Do not let her touch you. Your will is your shield. Remember that."
I looked at the three of them—my mad scientist, my chaotic gremlin, my possessive guardian. My team. My family. They were trusting me. They were letting me walk into the lion's den because it was the right thing to do.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, I turned and walked toward the French doors that led to the dark, secluded garden.
It was time to face the succubus.
The garden was a different world. The thumping bass of the party became a distant, muffled heartbeat, swallowed by the rustle of leaves and the chirping of crickets. Moonlight filtered through the canopy of a large oak tree, dappling the flagstone path in silver. The air was cool, fragrant with night-blooming jasmine, and thick with anticipation.
Chloe stood in the center of a small, circular patio, her back to me. She was silhouetted against a stone fountain, the red of her dress like a splash of blood in the monochrome night.
"You came," she said without turning around. Her voice was different out here—softer, less performative. More real. "I knew you would. The good ones always do."
I stopped a few feet away, my heart hammering against my ribs. "You said you'd hurt her."
She turned slowly. The predatory hunger was still in her eyes, but it was tempered by something else... curiosity. "I would have. To get to you." She took a step closer, and the scent of jasmine intensified. "But now that you're here... I find I don't want to share. Even with this shell."
My throat was dry. "Her name is Chloe."
"A name." She waved a dismissive hand. "A label on a temporary container. But you... you're different. Your light... it's not just bright. It's clean. Untouched." She circled me slowly, just as Lexi had during my "training," but her gaze was infinitely more knowing. "They've been touching it, haven't they? The three little watchdogs. Trying to shape it. Control it. Cage it."
I said nothing, my mind screaming at me to stay pure, to remember my training, to think of puppies and taxes.
She stopped in front of me, so close I could feel the heat radiating from her. "They don't understand what you are, Alex. They see a tool. A weapon. A pet." Her voice dropped to a whisper, laced with a genuine, terrifying pity. "I see a king. A source. And you're letting them put a leash on you."
Her words struck a chord I didn't know I had. The constant tests, the protocols, the "management" of my emotions... it was a kind of leash. A very caring, very concerned leash, but a leash nonetheless.
No! Don't listen! This is what she does! She finds your doubts and pours poison in them!
"I'm here to help you leave that girl alone," I said, forcing my voice to remain steady. "That's all."
Chloe smiled, a slow, sad curve of her lips. "Such a noble heart." She reached out, but this time, she didn't touch me. Her hand hovered just inches from my cheek. "Let me show you what you could be without them. Just a taste. No leashes. No cages. Just... power."
The air between her palm and my skin began to shimmer. A warmth bloomed in my chest, deep and resonant. It wasn't the frantic, panicked energy I was used to. It was calm. Vast. And utterly intoxicating. It felt like... coming home.
My resolve wavered. The carefully constructed walls of my resistance began to crack.
This wasn't a seduction of the body anymore.
It was a seduction of the soul.
And I was starting to like it.
The warmth spreading through my chest was unlike anything I'd ever felt. It wasn't the frantic, buzzing energy that usually hummed in my bones, the one that reacted to ghosts and needed to be "managed." This was deep. Calm. Powerful. It felt like a sun was waking up inside me, and for the first time, I understood what Chloe meant. This wasn't a curse. This was... potential.
"See?" Chloe whispered, her hand still hovering, conducting this terrifying symphony inside me. "This is what they're afraid of. This is the you they keep locked away."
My head swam. The image of Lexi's clinical notes, Sage's protective grip, Yuki's chaotic but smothering affection—they all felt like chains in that moment. Chains I hadn't even realized were there.
This is wrong. This is the demon talking. Think of Sage making you coffee. Think of Lexi's proud smirk when you pacified the ghost. Think of Yuki's terrible, wonderful comics.
But the thoughts felt distant, muffled by the intoxicating warmth. My own power was seducing me, and it was a far more persuasive argument than any succubus could ever make.
"I could show you so much more," she murmured, her eyes glowing with reflected moonlight—or was it my own energy shining back at me? "We could be magnificent together. No more hiding. No more being a project."
A small, rational part of my brain screamed in panic. She's not offering you power, you idiot! She's offering to turn you into a battery! She'll drain you dry!
But the rest of me... the rest of me was listening.
I took a half-step forward, drawn by the promise in her eyes, by the feeling of my own unshackled energy.
That's when the garden gate crashed open.
"Get away from him!"
Sage stood there, framed by the doorway, his chest heaving. His rust-red eyes burned with a fury that made the moonlight seem cold. Lexi was right behind him, a complex device whirring to life in his hands. Yuki peered from behind them, his face a mask of worry.
The connection shattered. The warm, intoxicating power receded, snapping back into the familiar, frantic hum. The sudden loss felt like a physical blow, leaving me cold and disoriented.
Chloe spun around, her face contorting in rage. "You!" she snarled, the melodic quality of her voice gone, replaced by a sibilant hiss. "You dare interrupt this?"
"We dare," Sage growled, striding forward. He didn't even look at me, his entire focus on the entity. "The game is over."
Lexi aimed his device. "Energy signature confirmed. Preparing counter-frequency."
The brief, terrifying moment of temptation was over. My anchors had arrived. But as I stood there, shivering in the sudden cold, a treacherous thought echoed in the silence she had left behind.
What if she was right?
The air in the garden crackled with tension, thick enough to taste. On one side stood Chloe, her form seeming to waver, the beautiful girl peeling back to reveal the ancient, hungry entity beneath. On the other stood my team, a united front of defiance.
"You think your little toys can stop me?" Chloe's voice was a chorus of whispers, layered over each other. The temperature plummeted. "I have feasted on kings and priests. I have drained saints dry of their faith. You are children playing with forces you cannot comprehend."
Lexi's device whirred louder, emitting a high-pitched frequency that made my teeth ache. "Your historical boasts are irrelevant. Your current energy matrix is vulnerable to resonant disruption." He sounded confident, but I saw the sweat beading on his forehead.
Sage didn't speak. He simply moved, placing himself directly between Chloe and me once more, a living barrier. His hands were clenched into fists, and the air around him shimmered with a heat haze of pure, protective will.
Yuki, for once, was silent and serious. He held up two fingers, forming a crude 'V' sign. "Back off, lady! You're messing with the P.V.S.C.!"
But Chloe's attention wasn't on them anymore. It was back on me. Her gaze was desperate, pleading.
"Alex, please," she said, her voice softening, becoming just Chloe's again. "Don't let them do this. They'll lock it away again. They'll put the chains back on. You felt it! You felt what you could be!"
I stared at her, my mind reeling. The intoxicating warmth was gone, but the memory of it was seared into my soul. It had felt so... right. So free.
But at what cost? a small, sane voice whispered. Freedom to become a monster's meal? Freedom to abandon a innocent girl to be a permanent vessel?
I looked at Sage's broad back, at Lexi's fiercely concentrated face, at Yuki's determined, if ridiculous, stance. They were flawed. They were obsessive. They were overbearing. They had, in their own ways, put chains on me.
But they were also the ones who had fought a government agency for me. They were the ones who had given me a home when I had nowhere else to go. They were my chains, yes, but they were also my anchors. And right now, with a primordial predator offering me a gilded cage, I needed my anchors more than ever.
I took a deep, shuddering breath, the cold night air clearing the last of the seductive fog from my mind.
I made my choice.
I stepped forward, placing a hand on Sage's tense shoulder. He flinched in surprise, glancing back at me.
"It's okay," I said, my voice quiet but firm. I looked past him, meeting Chloe's desperate eyes. "I know what I am. And I know what I'm not."
Her face fell, the desperate hope crumbling into bitter betrayal. The entity's rage resurfaced, twisting her beautiful features into a mask of fury.
"So be it," she hissed, her voice once again a multi-layered nightmare. "If I cannot have your light, then I will extinguish it!"
The confrontation was no longer about seduction. It was about survival.
The entity's rage was a physical force. The air in the garden turned icy, the jasmine scent twisting into something rotten and metallic. Chloe's form seemed to stretch, shadows bleeding from her outline as she let out a shriek that was part fury, part psychic blast.
The wave of energy hit us like a truck.
Lexi's device sparked and died in his hands, the delicate electronics fried. He cursed, stumbling back. Yuki was thrown off his feet, landing in a bush with a yelp.
Only Sage held his ground, bracing against the onslaught, a low growl rumbling in his chest. But even he was forced back a step, his boots scraping on the flagstones.
The full force of the attack was aimed at me. It wasn't seduction anymore; it was pure, hateful annihilation. The entity couldn't have my power, so it would destroy the source. The crushing pressure threatened to flatten me, to snuff out the "light" it had coveted just moments before.
But this time, I was ready.
I didn't try to absorb it like a ghost. I didn't try to pacify it with empathy. I remembered the mill. I remembered the feeling of pushing back.
I planted my feet, clenched my fists, and I pushed.
Not with anger. Not with fear. But with the simple, unwavering certainty of my choice. I had chosen my anchors. I had chosen my chains. And in that choice, I found a strength the succubus could never understand.
A shield of pure will erupted from me, visible only as a distortion in the air, a shimmering dome that met the entity's hateful wave. The two forces collided with a soundless boom that made the very ground tremble. The fountain behind Chloe cracked, water spraying everywhere.
The entity recoiled, shrieking in surprise and pain. My shield held.
"Now, Lexi!" Sage roared.
Having rebooted his device, Lexi didn't aim it at the entity. He aimed it at me. "Alex, don't resist! Let it in! Guide it!"
I understood instantly. I dropped my shield. The entity, sensing weakness, surged forward for the kill.
But I didn't meet it with resistance. I met it with acceptance. I opened myself up, not as a victim, but as a conduit. I let the entity's corrosive energy flow into me, and then, focusing on the memory of Chloe's father's tears, on the shy girl trapped inside, I did what I did best.
I filtered it.
I took its hate, its hunger, its centuries of parasitic existence, and I purified it. I didn't destroy the energy; I transformed it. The violent, icy force became a warm, gentle wave of release.
A brilliant, golden light erupted from my chest, enveloping Chloe. She gasped, her back arching. The shadows clinging to her writhed and dissolved. The ancient, hungry presence within her let out one final, fading wail of frustration before it was gone, severed, washed away by the very power it had tried to claim.
Chloe collapsed to her knees, sobbing. Not the manipulated tears of the entity, but real, human tears of relief and exhaustion.
Silence returned to the garden, broken only by her soft crying and the gentle splashing of the broken fountain.
It was over.
I stood there, panting, the last of the golden light fading from my skin. I felt drained, but clean. Purified.
Sage was at my side in an instant, his hands on my arms, his eyes scanning me for injury. "Alex?"
"I'm okay," I whispered, and found that I meant it.
Lexi was already at Chloe's side, checking her pulse with a clinical efficiency that couldn't hide his relief. Yuki crawled out of the bush, leaves stuck in his hair, his eyes wide with awe.
We had done it. We had faced our first real case and won. Not by fighting fire with fire, but by reminding a lost soul of its own humanity.
As we helped a trembling, but free, Chloe to her feet, I looked at my team. My brilliant, chaotic, overprotective, wonderful team.
The chains didn't feel so heavy anymore.
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To Be Continue...