Back to Ervium.The air ripples, and for a split second, the world is a blur of violet light and nauseating pressure. Then, the smell of damp earth and pine needles hits me.

  I stumble out of a shimmering portal and find myself back in the same forest—the same clearing from where Soris Jones had pushed me off the cliff to erase me from existence.

  The portal behind us colpses into a tiny, humming crystal that Velora catches with practiced ease. She stands tall, surveying the trees with a predatory grace, but I can barely keep my feet.

  My mind is a fog of heat and static. The desire that sparked in the majestic room hasn't faded; if anything, it's intensified, a pulsing roar in my abdomen that demands I turn toward Velora and cim her right here on the blood-stained grass.

  She steps behind me and wraps an arm around my torso, anchoring me in pce. "Focus, Harry."

  Her voice is calm, firm, and threaded with authority. It cuts through the fog like a bde, forcing the animalistic part of my brain back into its cage.

  "Ugh... what was that?" I rasp, leaning against her bouncy chest. The heat recedes slightly, but I can feel it simmering just beneath the surface, a hungry beast waiting for me to slip up.

  Surveying my surroundings, "We are back?" I mutter, looking toward the jagged edge of the cliff.

  "Yes. I had to bring you back," Velora expins. I blink, startled to see a pair of sleek, silver-rimmed spectacles resting on her nose. She looks like a beautiful, terrifying university professor. Where did she even get those? "If you had stayed any longer in my realm, the Ojas there would have permanently damaged your psyche. You would have turned into a mindless, feral Incubus."

  "Ojas?" I repeat the word. It sounds ancient. "And what was that heat?" Being a fantasy reader, I can guess what they are, but crifying my doubts from a living succubus is something else.

  Velora watches me for a second, then sighs.

  SIGH

  "Before that, Mr. Newborn Incubus, let's put some clothes on you." She snaps her fingers.

  Suddenly, the breeze on my skin vanishes, repced by the weight of casual clothes—trackpants and a hoodie that feels eerily like my old ones.

  I reach up and feel my forehead; the horns are gone. My tail has vanished, too. Hers too.

  "Now," she continues, pacing like a lecturer. "Ojas is the universal term for spiritual energy—what your people might call ether or mana. In my realm, the Ojas is heavily tainted with the mark of LUST. For a demon of your level, it's like breathing pure oxygen in a fire. It feeds your instincts until there's nothing left of you."

  She stops and looks at me, her gaze piercing. "And the heat? That is the sign. A sign to tell you that you are at your limit. You are an incubus now, Harry. Incubi survive by feeding on vitality. And the most efficient way for our kind to absorb vitality is through intimacy."She gives me an innocent, dimpled smile as if she's expining a grocery list rather than my new predatory nature.

  "So you're saying I have to... do that... to stay sane?" The reality of it is hard to swallow. For twenty years, I was the shy guy who couldn't even ask a girl for her number. Now, my survival depends on the one thing I have zero experience in.

  "Yes, you have to do S*X," Velora teases. She makes a crude 'O' with one hand and slides her finger through it repeatedly, mocking my wide-eyed shock.

  "Yes, yes! I get it! Please stop doing that," I groan, covering my face. My shame is at war with the heat in my blood, which fres up again just looking at her. "So, this is my life now? I have to find a partner just to keep from becoming a monster?"

  "Exactly. And at regur intervals," she adds, her voice losing its teasing edge. "Otherwise, you become a sve to desire. A mindless beast."She waves a hand dismissively. "You already know this. No need to pretend otherwise." She might have read it in my memories.

  Suddenly, I can feel the heat rising again. It's slower this time, but it's heavier. It feels like a lead weight in my gut. "Sensei," I mutter, only half joking, "why is it coming back? We're not in your realm. Is Ervium's Ojas tainted too?"

  "Fufu, no, my dear student." Velora chuckles. Then her expression sharpens. "You're simply running out." Her voice drops.

  "You lost almost all of your vitality when I first saw you. The small amount I gave you was consumed, stabilizing your body and completing your transformation. You are in dire need of a refill."

  The seriousness of it hits me. I'm like a phone on 1% battery, and the screen is about to go dark.

  "Then... can you help me?"

  The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. It's a mix of desperation and the overwhelming pull she has over me.

  Velora stays silent for a few seconds, her amethyst eyes unreadable. I panic, thinking I've crossed a line, that she'll strike me down for my insolence.

  Then, she ughs. "Fufu, ara ara. This little brother of mine wants to have a taste of his big sister, huh?"

  "Since when are we siblings?" I mutter, though the "big sister" comment sends a confusing jolt through me.

  "Leave that for ter," she says, waving a hand dismissively. "But the answer is no. I can't help you. Not yet."

  My chest tightens. Is she rejecting me?

  She flicks my forehead—hard. "Ouch!"

  "O Silly little brother of mine. It's not that I don't want to… But I also just woke up from a slumber that sted ages. My own vitality is low. If we did it now, my higher-level bloodline would instinctively drain you dry instead of the other way around. I'd end up killing you by accident."

  I feel a strange sense of relief. She isn't against the idea; she's just protecting me. But that still leaves me with a problem. I start thinking about where to go—a red-light district? A club? I've never even set foot in a bar.

  Suddenly, Velora jerks her head toward a thicket of trees deeper in the forest. "Perfect!"

  "What's perfect?"

  "I've found your solution." Before I can ask what she means, a pair of leathery devil wings erupt from her back, tearing through her shirt.

  "Wha –

  She grabs my hand and, with a powerful leap, we are airborne.

  "Woooaaaahhh!"

  The ground drops away. The wind whips past my face, cold and exhirating. For a moment, the hunger is repced by pure, childlike wonder. I'm flying. I'm actually flying over the canopy of the forest where I almost died.

  "You like this feeling?" Velora asks, her hair whipping in the wind like a silken banner.

  "Yes... it feels incredible!"

  "I feel it too," she murmurs. "Spreading my wings after so long... it's exhirating."

  She tilts her wings and begins a long, sweeping bank toward a clearing. As we get closer to the ground, I recognize the spot. It's the exact patch of dirt where my blood is still drying.

  We hover silently above the trees. Velora points downward. "Look closely, Harry."

  I follow her gaze. And there I saw at what or at whom she is pointing.

  Down on the forest floor, a woman is colpsed on her knees. Her shoulders are shaking with violent, racking sobs. She's touching the blood-stained grass, her head bowed in grief.