Derek opened the dressing room door to see Emma in her regular clothes right there, the red light glowing in her pupils. He slammed the door out of instinct. He let out a breath, then opened the door again.
“Emma, what the hell?”
“I wanted to wait for you.” Her eyes still glowed red. “Thought we could sit together during notes.”
“Why? Why the hell would we sit together? You hate my guts,” Derek said.
She paused, cocking her head to one side as the red in her eyes flickered. Mr. Anderson mentioned that trying to help Mr. Stower remember who he was made the charm not as strong. It was enough for Derek to slip past her and to power walk toward the first few rows of chairs. He motioned for Eric and Bailey to split. At first, they were confused until Emma appeared right behind him. Then they didn’t question. Eric leapt into the empty seat next to him as Derek settled into the seat between them. Emma looked at them, narrowing her eyes, before moving to a seat that still felt too close.
“Ugh. Winning you back, I see,” Eric said.
“The fact that she hasn’t tried yet really threw me off,” Bailey said.
Eric glanced at him. “How did you break up with her, anyway?”
“Oh, you know. She… crossed a boundary of mine. Said I’d have to give up CCNC, and I told her simply that wasn’t possible, and broke things off.”
Baily gave him a strange glance. “Who gave you that bright idea?”
“Um… a non-drama person?” Derek asked.
Eric rolled his eyes. “Obviously. We’re a different breed, Derek.”
Baily nodded. “Emma, a different breed entirely. She’ll keep stalking you.”
Derek groaned, then glanced at Emma, who smirked at him. There was no red in her eyes. He rubbed his hands through his gelled hair. “Okay, so, the logical thing is to…”
“Get back with her and break it off the correct way,” both of them said together.
“The correct way being…”
“Make her hate you so she breaks it off herself.”
They said that together, too, which Derek was lowkey impressed by. He would have mentioned it, but something bigger weighed down his mind. He covered his face. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
There was no way he could do that. Especially with Emma being charmed by Pippa.
“Dude, we’ll totally help you,” Eric said.
“One hundred percent. Get her on a date, and we’ll help you disgust her,” Baily said.
“I… think I’ll try avoiding her for now,” Derek said as Mr. Jensen stood up, looking through his notes.
Eric raised an eyebrow. “You can’t avoid her forever.”
“Of course I can.” Derek lifted his hands, palms toward the ceiling. “I’m graduating this year. Last a few more months, then change cities.”
Baily sighed. “Oh, Derek.” Like he was some sort of child.
“You can try that if you want. But Baily and I will start planning operation reverse kiss the girl,” Eric said.
Baily gave him two thumbs up. “Love it.”
There was no way he could get together with Emma. No. Way. Not with what he just saw. Derek tried to keep his breathing steady. Honestly, if their CCNC characters hadn’t stumbled onto earth, and he didn’t get caught up in trying to make sure they leveled up and got rid of monsters, he would’ve been surprised Emma respected his wishes and left him alone. He broke up with her weeks ago, and she hadn’t contacted him since. She even was cordial whenever he was around her, and acted as though she respected his decision and backed off. Saving Elmwood took so much of his focus, he didn’t realize the warning bells screaming in his head that something was wrong.
Derek half listened to Mr. Jensen as he went through the notes. He tried to focus on his drama teacher. Did everything expected. Nodded at appropriate times, smiled at someone’s joke he only half listened to.
“Derek, it’s ‘give a damn’, not ‘give a shit’. I don’t want movie buffs down my throat,” Mr. Jensen said.
Derek nodded. “Got it.”
“Well, technically, the quote from Gone with the Wind is—”
“Yes, yes. It’s already a misquote—” Mr. Jensen said, already sounding bored. Derek knew the end of notes was coming, so he glanced at Baily.
“Can you and Eric distract Emma as I make a getaway?”
Baily nodded. “We’ve got you.”
They held out a hand, and Derek squeezed them both. “You are the best. I owe you one.”
Whatever people say about drama kids, Derek loved that Eric and Baily would do their duty to distract Emma without question. He didn’t have to explain the dire circumstance. An ex-girlfriend trying to get back in his life was enough for these two next to him to vow to make sure Emma stayed in the theater for the next thirty minutes.
The second Mr. Jensen dismissed them, Derek grabbed his bag and bolted it out of there. He went through the doors, ran down the hall before bursting out the school. He sprinted the short distance, barely glancing for oncoming cars before crossing the road to reach his own. Milo was there waiting, checking his notes. Milo glanced up as Derek hit a button, unlocking his car. “In the car. Get in the car, now!”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Milo was used to these kinds of demands, so he didn’t question it as he opened the door and leapt inside.
“What’s going on?”
“Pippa,” Derek said.
Milo took the news of Akshi being in the bubble with a twinge of fear. Watched a huge dinosaur chase them with an uncomfortable fascination. He took the news of the grey marks turning into scratches with an almost stoic realization and a determination to fix it.
Hearing his ex-girlfriend’s name, Milo’s face grew in horror, his eyes shifting around, his breathing hitching. “Here?”
“Here.” Derek started up the car and peeled out of the parking lot.
“Shit.” Milo covered his face. “Oh, shit.”
Once they were moving, Derek pulled out his phone. “Call Tyler, stick him on speaker. We need to know what exactly Pippa is.”
“She’s a damn succubus,” Milo said under his breath. He found Tyler’s contact and called him. It rang for a bit before going to voice mail. “There are some words that popped up saying he’s at work. His next break is in a half hour.”
“Tell him Pippa has used charm person on Emma, and it looks like it’s been that way for a while,” Derek said.
Milo nodded, texting. It wasn’t nearly as fast as if Derek did it, but Milo was learning.
Derek tried to relax as the school receded into the distance. He wanted to get used to the idea that the gray marks littering his body were actually stab wounds in stasis, and could appear if ever he got hurt by a mythical creature. He was completely blindsided that Milo’s ex-girlfriend was here.
“Oh, he’s calling.” Milo pressed a few buttons.
“Derek?” Tyler asked.
“Hey! Milo’s here too. We’re on our way home from play practice.” Derek tried to pretend like everything was fine, even though it wasn’t.
“Pippa? As in Pippa Calypso?” Tyler asked.
“Who else could it possibly be?” Derek asked.
“Okay, okay, it’s just… so Pippa’s charming Emma?”
“Yes. But my big question is, why did you have Pippa in Torraq’s lair?” Derek asked.
“I didn’t. I swear I didn’t. But five hundred miles is a lot of ground to cover. She must have been somewhere near.”
“It never touched the fae forest. I’ve triple checked, just to sleep at night. Anyone from the fae forest would have been impossible to kill. Pippa shouldn’t be here,” Derek said.
“Is Pippa a succubus?” Milo asked.
Tyler gave a long sigh on the other side of the phone. “Yes. She’s part succubus.”
Milo’s fingers tightened over the phone, his face turning angry. “I knew it. I knew it. That woman is a demon succubus!”
“Part succubus,” Tyler corrected.
“Well, let’s be honest, Tyler. The other half of her being fae doesn’t help much either,” Derek said.
“We need to leave. We need to pack and get out of here,” Milo said, turning to Derek.
Tyler scoffed. “Seriously, Milo? We escaped T-Rex’s big brother, who was a level twenty-two creature last week. You want to face that threat instead of your ex?”
Milo stared at Derek, his face as serious as ever. “I can get packed in ten minutes.”
Derek sighed, grabbing the phone from Milo. “Tyler, she’s charming Emma. Like how Akshi is charming Mr. Stower. How worried should I be about this?”
“Uh…”
“Tyler?” Derek asked again.
“Okay, look. I homebrewed her, since there isn’t exactly a half-succubus, half-fae creature. People online figured the fae part would cancel out the infernal, and I called bullshit on the whole thing, because fae are tricksters of the devious sort, so of course they could be part infernal—”
Tyler was rambling. Hard. It caused Derek’s heart to pound. “Dude, what did you do?”
“Some people figured that a fae-succubus combo would be too overpowered—”
“Tyler?”
“But I tried it anyway. And…” Tyler groaned. “They’re right.”
Derek let out a breath. “Okay, so what does that mean?”
“It means I had her at a challenge level of three when you all first met her in our campaign. But if you noticed when she first battled alongside you, she was far stronger than she let on. I had to hide some of her abilities, but it worked out story wise, because she was still pretending to be something she wasn’t. But now with the whole breakup and everything, she won’t hold back. That woman has draining kiss, stunning glance, and has spells that should really be fourth level. All that together, she should be challenge level six. Whatever you do, don’t engage with her.”
“We’re not. I’m absolutely not going to get engaged to her. I never want to marry that woman,” Milo said as Derek pulled into the driveway.
“No, dude, wrong engage,” Derek said.
Milo didn’t answer. Instead, he stumbled out of the car, sprinting for the house. Derek sighed, rubbing his forehead.
“She was kicked out of the fae forest for her succubus heritage. She wasn’t in the fae forest when Milo blew up everything.”
Derek turned the call off speaker phone and placed it against his ear as he got out. “So she was in Torraq’s lair?”
“No. Five hundred miles near it,” Tyler said. “Which…”
Derek didn’t like how he was trailing off so much. “Dude, what’s going on?”
“I need to do some research about how far the blast reached, and I need to cross reference it with some of my notes. I’ll get back to you,” Tyler said.
“Is there something we should know?” Derek asked.
Tyler let out a sigh. “Princess Clarissa’s brother might be here, too. And if he is, so are his captors. It was supposed to be a short campaign after we finished Torraq’s lair. If my notes play out in real life, Prince Sylvar might be in trouble. And there’s another MED that no one has faced before, and… he’s bad.”
“Shit,” Derek said.
“You guys focus on this Pippa situation. Make sure Milo doesn’t run out of the bubble.”
“Just to be certain, even though she’s part fae, Pippa can be killed, right?” Derek asked.
“Yes. If you can keep her in one place before she escapes.”
At least she was mortal.
If a horrible part succubus part fae wasn’t terrorizing her, Derek wouldn’t bother asking about Emma, but he needed to. “What about Emma? Is this… hurting her?”
In the silence, Derek could almost imagine his friend running his hand down the side of his face. “We’ve got to stop this charm, because it’s causing the two worlds to interact. I… don’t know if it’s hurting Emma.”
He walked into his house, giving his mother a quick kiss on the cheek before heading into his room. “How do we stop it? We’ve been trying to stop Mr. Stower’s for ages, and it isn’t working.”
“We’ll think of something,” Tyler said.
Tyler didn’t sound nearly as convinced as Derek wanted him to be. Derek watched as Milo stuffed his things into his void bag. “I’ll see you later, Tyler.” He hung up, then pointed his phone at Milo. “We’re not leaving.”
Milo’s hands trembled. “I cannot see that woman again. She is a seductress, a temptress, and I cannot trust myself around her. Every time I think I have self-control, I’m back in her arms and she makes a fool out of me.”
“Oh, good god, man, show some backbone,” Derek said.
“Her charisma is off the charts!” Milo said, which caused Derek to make a mental note about asking Tyler what her charisma actually was. “Every time I think I’m strong enough to break her spell, I am lured back in. I am a weakness to the group.”
Derek walked over. “You are not a weakness. We need you to figure out about these.” He lifted his shirt to show many gray marks on his skin. “This is a setback, nothing more.”
“I won’t go to the lab tomorrow,” Milo said.
Derek sighed. “That’s probably a smart idea. For now. I don’t think you should, either. Not until we know for sure what her plans are.” Milo looked distracted, so Derek tried to change the subject. “Hey, while you’re here, you and the others can start watching heist movies so you can be prepared for stealing something from Akshi!”
Milo ignored him, and instead stuffed his fingers in his hair, groaning. “Of all the monsters in the realm, she had to be the one who followed me here.”