'Okay, so what is this place?' Lisa said as they stood outside what looked like a hole in the wall.
'It's a bar, believe it or not.' Achilles said thoughtfully 'A lot of incubi who left Hire an Incubus hang out here. Some of them I consider friends.'
'Do you trust them?'
He looked at Lisa and strained a smile. 'Trust is a strong word Lisa.'
'Well that's....assuring.'
'No one will tell on us here, don't worry darling, now after you.' he held the door open and motioned for her to go inside.
It definitely reflected what it looked like on the outside: a dive bar. There were very few people there, but the few who were gave Lisa strange looks as she walked in.
'What are you doing here, human?' A man, who was quite clearly not actually a human man said, raising his eyebrows at Lisa.
Before she could say anything, she could hear Achilles's deep voice rumble from behind her as he walked in.
'She's with me.'
'Oh, hell, Achilles, I didn't see you there.'
'Yeah, didn't think so. Come on Lisa.'
They walked up to the bar.
'Who exactly are we looking for?'
'A friend of mine, I need someone who isn't me to try and see how your resistance against incubus powers are.'
'I see. and why are we looking here?'
'She runs the bar Lisa.'
Lisa sat up on a bar stool and looked around the bar. Achilles was looking cautiously around the place, his eyes darting back and forth between the few incubi that were dotted around the bar.
'Achilles?! Is that you?' A distinctly female voice called from behind the bar. Achilles suddenly looked forwards and smiled briefly. 'Naomi.'
A tall woman with braids halfway down her back came out from behind the bar. 'Hell, I haven't seen you in months! How are things going?!'
'Good, this is Lisa, my....girlfriend.'
Lisa put out her hand. 'Hi Lisa, I'm Naomi.' Naomi smiled. Her presence was different to most of the incubi and succubi that Lisa had been around, it made her feel warm and happy.
'Look, I'm going to be honest Naomi, because I don't have a lot of time, this isn't a social call, we need your help.' Achilles said pleadingly, it was one of the first times she had seen him look vulnerable to someone that wasn't her.
Naomi's demeanor changed slightly. 'Sure, of course, anything for a friend.'
'We're trying to see what my resistance to incubi powers are like.' Lisa piped up. 'And it went kind of wrong with Achilles and we need an outside party.'
'Gosh, sure.' Naomi said, 'Just come around the back.'
'I'll stay out here.' Achilles said quietly. 'Let me know if you need anything.'
Lisa followed Naomi to a back room/, where they both sat down.
'It's nice you know.' Naomi said. 'To see him with a girlfriend. It's been a while.'
Lisa smiled politely. 'How long have you known eachother? He's never actually, um, mentioned you I'm afraid.'
'Oh, I'm not offended or anything, we're not best friends or anything, we just both know eachother from our Hire an Incubus days. I don't know him so much now. I knew him when all that horrible stuff went down with him getting fired and that, he went a bit off the rails after that.'
'What do you mean?'
'Ah, he just, well, he very rightfully so I guess, tried to kill Damian, the boss.'
'Oh, I see. He said before he's going to kill him one day.'
'And I'm sure he will. That being said, that bastard definitely deserves it. Anyway, let's see what you can do.' Naomi said briskly, very blatantly trying to come off the topic.
'Okay,' Lisa began, adjusting herself, 'I'm ready.'
Naomi stared intently into her eyes, and looked like she was trying to concentrate.
After about twenty seconds, Naomi spoke. 'Lisa, can you feel anything?'
Puzzled, Lisa replied. 'No.'
'That's odd. You should definitely be able to feel something.'
'Hmm, maybe try as hard as you can'
'I will.'
After a few minutes, Naomi who was looking very confused suddenly blinked and sat back.
'It's not working, is it?'
'No.'
'And you're certain that it worked with Achilles?'
'It did, I blacked out.'
'That's really strange, because it's not working even slightly for me.'
'Maybe it's only for Achilles, because of our relationship.'
'I don't know, it could be, this has never happened before.' Naomi scratched her head and looked back at Lisa intently. 'Do you love him Lisa?'
Before Lisa had time to answer, a crash came from the front of the bar and Lisa could hear yelling. She got up straight away and sprinted to the front, where Achilles was lying sprawled out on the floor, with five guys in protective gear with guns aimed at him.
'These are bullets laced with holy water, don't even think about moving you monster.' One of the men shouted at Achilles. Naomi, who had followed Lisa, took a few steps back.
'Achilles!' Lisa yelled.
The men looked up o her. 'That's the one.' she heard a male voice say, and out from behind the men, stepped Damian.
'Lisa Farrow.' He said, 'It's a pleasure to see you again.' He looked purely evil now, it was like learning what she had about him had distorted her ability to view him as anything other than scum.
'Damian.' Lisa said, her voice level.
'What did we say to you Farrow? To stay away from this.....' he gestured to Achilles; 'infection.' He continued to talk 'But what did you do? You started fucking him.'
'Oh go to hell!' Lisa yelled at him. She was about to keep going, to defend Achilles when she was cut off by him.
'She doesn't know anything Damian. We're just sleeping together, get over it, you and your stupid company messed up and then I found her, and while I was killing all your agents, I thought I'd embarrass you further by sleeping with the girl you're trying to protect.' He snarled at Damian. He looked pleadingly up at her, hoping she would take the hint. She could see through his attempt to make her look innocent but she hoped Damian wouldn't and tried to play along.
'Oh shut up and let her speak for herself you creature.' Damian said, his voice heavy with disgust and he kicked Achilles hard in the side.
'What?' She said, feigning betrayal. 'So everything you said was a lie?' She tried not to wince as she watched him grunt in pain. He closed his eyes momentarily but with a strained grunt he just said;
'Yes.'
Damian scoffed, obviously seeing this as an opportunity to hush things up, stepped forward. Kicking Achilles in the face, he spoke 'So, the evil scum, turns out to be lying scum too. Take him away, I have no need to cause a scene. And you,' He turned to Lisa. 'are coming with me.'
Lisa looked woefully at Achilles, she wanted to reach for him, to say something but as she went to open her mouth he spoke again.
'Damian just leave her alone she hasn't done anything, just let her go. She's very obviously in my thrall, just look how dazed she is.'
Lisa had no time to anticipate Achilles's influence this time and it came rushing over her like a wave and then she certainly wasn't in control. It was like she was a spectator to herself and even though she didn't say it, she heard her voice say; 'Wow you look just as ugly from this angle than as you do on the floor.'
'Oh wow Achilles, full on possession of a human, I'm not surprised someone as yourself would do something as diabolical.'
'Well, as I said, she is enthralled.' Achilles hissed from the floor.
His influence waived and Lisa felt like herself again, albeit a bit confused.
'So you'll understand if we have to bring poor Miss Farrow here under protective custody on fear for her life from a rogue incubus.' Damian said, not very gently grabbing Lisa by the arm.
'What?' Achilles yelled.
'Somebody shut him up.' Damian growled, roughly pulling Lisa along with him, and she didn't get to say anything to him as she felt Damian teleport away with her. The last thing she saw was someone knock him unconscious.
As they arrived where ever he was taking her, Lisa sprung apart from Damian and hit a wall. It was dark and dank and for all Lisa knew, it was a cell of some kind.
'Where am I you filthy creep?! What are you doing to him?!' Lisa growled at Damian, who was only partly visible in this light.
'So you are loyal to him after all, how.......interesting. I have someone who's very eager to meet you again Miss Farrow.'
Suddenly she felt the presence of someone else, another incubus had teleported into the room.
'Who's there?' Lisa shouted, confused, 'What's going on?'
'Goodbye Miss Farrow.' Damian said as he closed the door on the two of them, leaving Lisa in near complete darkness with an unidentified presence.
Without warning, she was thrown up against the wall was an inhuman force.
'Lisa, fucking Farrow, you don't know just how long I have waited to do that.' A familiar voice snarled.
Grunting as she rose shakily to her feet, she tried to pin point who the owner of the voice was. She recognized it, she was sure of it.
'Who are you?' She tried to squint in the darkness to see but before she could focus on anything, she was struck again.
'I'll give you a clue.' The voice hissed as he grappled her again. Hitting the ground hard she could feel sharp pains where the impact was, there was definitely going to be a nasty bruise there.
'Your dim friend was easy to manipulate. So easy for me to play. I thought that when Debbie assigned me to her it would be difficult but that imbecile made it so easy for me. I didn't even have to charm her.'
Then it clicked.
'Thom?!' Lisa cried, surprised.
'Yes you stupid cow.' He was in her face then and he slapped her so hard it brought tears to her eyes.
'You may think because your Achilles's new trophy that you're something special but you bleed just like a regular human.' Thom said as Lisa lay stricken on the ground. Rising tentatively to her feet again, she swung her fist out in the darkness, trying to hit something solid. She connected with something and after she heard a pained intake of breath, she was suddenly shoved forcefully up against the wall, with a hand around her throat. Staring into mercilessly red eyes she tried to breathe as Thom continued to speak.
'First, I'm going to kill Alison, for Debbie. Next, we're going to kill you. Then, we're going to kill that bastard Achilles. For good this time.'
'You....won't........do....shit.' Lisa spat at him. His grip on her throat tightened further.
'You know what you idiotic human? You think just because we look pretty on the outside that we're not dangerous? well you're wrong.' Lisa felt what she thought must have been claws trail down her cheek, drawing blood.
It burned horribly, like a sharp knife with acid on the tip and Lisa screamed,it was awful and guttural. Thom looked sadistically in her eyes and smiled maniacally.
'Why don't you scream for him? See if he comes?'
Lisa didn't say anything until he deepened the cut. 'Call for him!' Thom snarled inhumanly.
'Achilles!' Lisa screamed, her face burning painfully.
'I don't think he can hear you, you're going to have to be louder!' Thom laughed, increasing pressure.
At the rate it was going, Lisa was going to pass out, her face was in immense pain and her breathing was restricted, she knew she wasn't going to hold out much longer.
She continued to scream, not hearing the commotion that ensued outside of the door. It burst open and just as her eyelids started to close, she was released to the floor. Lisa's vision was blurred and hazy and she could scarcely make out anything apart from a distinctly female voice.
'What is the meaning of this?! Strangling and torturing the poor girl to death?! If you don't have Damian down here right now with a explanation that checks out I will personally have you and him hauled over to the pens!'
As her vision improved Lisa could make out a woman, no taller than 5ft 1 with an afro that was bouncing around nearly as much as her voice. The lady drew her attention to Lisa now and she helped her to her feet.
'Hello Miss Farrow, I'm awfully sorry about this.'
'Pardon?' Lisa said, groggily.
'Ah! Sorry! Where are my manners?' Putting out her hand to Lisa, she shook it firmly. 'My name is Alma Stack and I represent an organisation called Hercules.'
OOOOOH IT'S KICKING OFF NOW.
- C xx