Charles picked me up the next morning and we went over to grab Anna. Anna was waiting for us with one of her brothers, and was bouncing around on her crutches as we approached. Her brother on the other hand had a face that made it clear he drew the short straw. After we got her loaded into the car, we were off to wherever the hell middle of nowhere Charles had picked out. It was a mostly uneventful, just us talking about random stuff and what we are going to do on the minecraft world. That is until Still Alive by Verdi started playing over the radio. Me and Anna immediately started singing aloud together, much to Charles's suffering. By the time the song was over he looked like he wanted to repeatedly slam his head into the steering wheel.

"Can you not, I heard enough of that song from my little sister." He says dismayed.

"Not our fault your taste in music is lacking." Anna fire back.

"Not what I was saying but whatever, we're here." Charles replies.

Here, is the dirt road dead ending into a small little clearing in the forest with nothing but a rotting wooden table with benches in the center. I wasn't paying super close attention to where we were going, but I know we're at least a few miles outside the city. And a bit ways off the beaten path at that.

"Damn Charles, how the heck you find this place?" I ask him as we pile out of the car.

"It's an old spot my family used to visit a lot on weekends before my dad got promoted and started traveling. Help Anna out of the car, I'll get the basket and blanket." He says.

I turn to help Anna get out of the car, only to find her already out and using one of her crutches to close the door. She just gives me a bit of side eye before hobbling over to Charles and playfully poking him in the leg with her crutches.

"Ow, what was that for!?" He asks.

"Thinking I need to be babied." Anna playfully scoffs before going over and sitting down on the blanket.

"So, food first or….?" Charles stats to ask, only to be interrupted by Anna.

"Magic! Magic first! Show me the magic Lucy!" Anna practically shouts.

"No, food first. It's a bad idea to practice or watch on an empty stomach." I scold Anna.

"Buuuuut you've been taunting me all week with it Lucy! I wanna see the magic! It's not fair! Charles has gotten to see it!"

"Actually, she hasn't shown me any. Well OK, aside from the first day when she had to prove she had it, but that doesn't really count." Charles says trying to calm her down.

"Yes it does! I wanna see magic too!" Anna says.

"After food." I sternly say.

Anna pouts but seems to get the message that I'm not going to change my mind. Charles finishes unloading the food, which is a bunch of assorted nuggets, burgers, and cookies from Wendy's. So we sit down and enjoy a fairly good brunch. Anna of course absolutely destroys the chicken nuggets. It's a good thing I planned eating a burger anyways. She's like a dragon but instead of hoarding shiny things it's chicken nuggets. Charles tried to swipe one from her, almost losing a finger for his troubles.

"Jesus Anna, put the crutches down, they're just nuggets." Charles says while tipping over backwards to avoid another light crutch jab.

"My nuggies! Get your own!" Anna playfull replies before jamming another nugget into her mouth.

"We can't, you instantly hoarded all of them like a damn dragon." I reply.

"Sounds like a skill issue." Anna says mid chew.

"Skill issue my ass, you're acting like you're starving. When's the last time you ate?" Charles asks sternly.

Instantly the joyous mood disappears as Anna simply stares straight ahead for a moment. Then she mutters an apology and tries to pass off a box of nuggets, which me and Charles both reject.

"Anna, do you not have food at home again? Did your father drink away all the food money again?" Charles asks.

Anna just meekly nods her head and starts silently crying. I immediately crawl over and immediately give her a hug.

"It's OK Anna, you can have the nuggets. You need to tell us these things, we can get you extra food." I say.

"No, you guys don't need to do that. Its…."

"No buts, we'll stop by Chick-fil-A on the way back and get you some food for the day. You don't need to feel bad Anna, your father is an asshole" Charles says while joining in the hug.

Anna just cried for a few more minutes before finally recomposing herself and asking to move on. Unfortunately next on the agenda was the reveal, since I can't exactly test my mana when it's all being sucked up by mimicry. I shot Charles a look that told him it was time.

“So, Anna, you remember last week right?” I ask.

“I lost half my fucking leg, so yea, I remember.” She replies terse.

Oof, off to a great start. Come on Lucy, stop fucking it up.

“Well, you know my story about how I escaped the demon?” I ask.

“Yea, you got dropped on a roof when a defender started fighting with it? Right?”

“Yea, about that. You see, I didn't actually get away unscathed.” I try to say as calmly as possible.

Immediately Anna freezes mid bite on a nugget like a deer caught in headlights.

“Lucy, what do you mean?” She asks hesitantly.

“Well, um, how do I put this? You see, I kinda got turned into a demon.” I say, opting to just rip the metaphorical bandaid off.

Anna freezes for a moment, a mix of emotions running over her face before finally settling on…. Rage?

“Lucy….. Thats not fucking funny!” she shouts.

“Huh?” Is all I can muster in return.

“What kind of a fucking joke is that? Why?” She screamed at me.

“Anna, she’s not joking.” Charles quickly interjects.

Anna immediately freezes again, and I can tell her brain is running in overdrive to try and process what she just heard. Finally, she snaps out of her stupor.

“Prove it!” She snaps at me.

I take my hat off, revealing my horns for her to see. She is about to open her mouth again to say something when she sees them, and immediately freezes staring at them. A second passes, then another, then a third. Then Anna starts trying to talk, her mouth moving but no words coming out, just incoherent noises. After another moment she just freezes again, then faints. Me and Charles jump forward and I barely manage to catch her before she crushes a box of nuggets.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Shit, I told you this was a bad idea!” Charles yells at me.

“I know, I just, shit! I thought it would go over better than this!” I respond.

“At Least she didn't start screaming.”

“Yea, I fully expected screaming. Maybe even some swinging of the crutches.”

“Think she’ll wake up?”

“Fucks sake Charles, of course she’ll wake up, I didnt kill her!”

We carefully set Anna down on the blanket and wrap her up. But it doesn't take Charles even three seconds after we finish that to change focus.

"Soooooo, testing?" he asks.

"Charles, are you fucking kidding me? Don't make me throw you up a damn tree!" I snap at him.

"Oooh. Let me get my tools out first!" He elegantly replies while bolting for the trunk of the car. It seems that despite being turned into a demon I'm still the most sane one here. Ok, Anna might qualify as more sane, for now…..

After a bit of rummaging Charles comes trodding back over with two gym bags full of stuff, a tripod, and a tool box. Oh dear.

"Charles, what the fuck man! You look like your ready to fuckin dissect me."

"Only if necessary. That's a joke, please don't yeet me into a tree. Most of this stuff is to test and compare your physique and more demonic parts. I also got a handheld scanner to see if we can get it to ping you."

"Where the fuck did you get a handheld scanner?"

"My dad let me borrow it."

"Yea, I'm not gonna ask. Fine let's get this over with."

Charles didn't reply, instead getting straight to work with a measuring tape of all things. He started measuring everything, and I mean everything, and writing those measurements down in his little notebook. When I asked him if keeping records like this was a good idea, he just brushed it off, saying none of it was identifiable to me and no one else would get to read the book anyway. When he got to my more personal measurements, I told him to sod off. So he promptly, and wisely, skipped over them. After that was done, he wanted to see the wings. So I reluctantly stripped my shirt off and popped the wings out. Charles of course, ignored the fact I only had a bra for my top now and immediately started ogling my wings. Boys are weird, but Charles is especially weird. After a bit of poking, prodding, and feeling up my wings, Charles asked me to fully extend them. I happily obliged, quite enjoying the sensation of stretching them out.

"Damn, fifteen feet, two inches wingspan. Slightly larger than your average succubus. Did you know how to use them right off the bat, need to learn, or what? Can you fly with them?" Charles asks.

"Uh, can you please not compare me to those… things. Still a bit of a sore spot." I admit to Charles.

"Oh, uh yea sure, sorry."

"As for flying, I haven't tried. I did seem to somehow know how to move them from the beginning though."

"Interesting. The skin seems tough, probably won't rip or anything. Though I don't know if you could actually fly with just the wings. People are usually too heavy to fly, and I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of other things that prevent it."

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't just call me 'heavy'. I do have natural flight magic, so maybe they're supposed to work with that?"

"Maybe, it could also be a fluke. There are plenty of demons with wings that don't fly."

Charles spent a few more minutes doing whatever it is he does. At the end of it all he wanted to see how much they could lift and it turns out, it's a lot. My wings can individually support up to seventy pounds each before I started to feel the strain, depending on position and what not. Not only that, but the things have punch to them as well if I use them right. But the angles I can successfully smack stuff with them at are limited.

Anna was still sleeping, so before Charles tried to start the next round of mad science I popped over and tried to wake her up. To my surprise, she actually stirred.

"Unnnng, brahh! I don't wanna get….. Nooooo! I fell asleep!" Anna shouts while trying to jump up. Until she looks up and sees me, and immediately lets out a horrified shriek so loud it makes me wince.

"Ah, Anna, calm down, it isn't as bad as ghak!" I try to calm Anna, only to get a crutch jabbed straight into my kidney for my trouble. I honestly could have avoided it, but I thought letting her hit me might make her feel better or something. Unfortunately I underestimated how hard she could swing, thinking my newfound power would protect me from a pitiful strike from weak little Anna. And for my hubris I was left on my knees while clutching my side and groaning. Anna jumped to her one good foot, then quickly hobbled off towards Charles. Who was still rummaging around the back of the car preparing for his next round of 'testing'.

"Charles! Charles! We got a get out of here…. What are you doing! Wait, oh god, oh god no! No! No! No! No! Don't tell me she got you!" Anna screams after stopping mid hobble seeing how uncaring Charles was about the whole situation.

"Nah, it's cool Anna, I got her tamed. Watch this!" He says while pulling out another tool, this one looking like the hand scanner.

What the fuck does he mean by tamed? Am I gonna have to kick his ass?

“Hey Lucy! Come get scanned!” Charles calls out.

“Fuckin busy mourning my kidney!” I yell back.

“Ah quit your whining! She couldn’t have hit you that hard, it's Anna.” he replies.

“Guys….. What the fuck?” Anna murmurs, finally breaking out of her stupor.

“Yea, Lucy got on some weird shit and turned into that. I have verified that it's still her though.” Charles says while walking up to Anna.

“Wah… What? When!? How!?” Anna demands, probably asking about both me and in response to Charles’s claim. And I really hope Charles doesn't answer the ‘when’ question.

“Since last week, remember friday?” Charles stupidly replies. RIP charles.

“What yes I…… Oh my god! You knew the whole time and you didn't tell me!” Anna screams. Moments later she swings her right crutch into Charles’s shin with the ferocity of an angry woman. That is to say, very, very, hard. Might have even been harder than when she jabbed me in the kidney.

“Ouch! Damn it Anna! This equipment is expensive, don't make me drop it!” Charles yells while falling over.

“Fuck you! And you, why didn't you tell me!?” Anna screams while jabbing her crutch at me accusatively.

“I’m sorry! I wanted to tell you, but you just lost your leg in the attack. I wanted to give you some time to recover.” I reply while finally getting back to my feet.

“Bullshit! Why now!?”

“Because I didn't want to keep lying to you.”

That wipes some of the anger from her face, so I keep going.

“I didn’t want to keep it from you Anna, but when Charles told me you lost a leg I knew I needed to hold off. I only roped Charles into it because I needed help, badly. I wanted to tell you, I really did, but it was better for everyone if we held off." I say while slowly approaching her.

"Lucy….."

"Oh how adorable. A hideous child is trying to get along with the mortals." A squeaky, etheric voice calls out from above us.

I look up and what I see has my blood turn icy in my veins. My throat tightens, and my chests feels heavy as a succubus lands high up in a nearby tree. Its red skin contrasts against the bony white horns above its ears. Said horns bend out then curve back in, further highlighted by void back hair that runs down to and proceeds to look us over with orange colored eyes containing a hungry gaze.

"My my, aren't you just an interesting, but ugly little thing." It says while narrowing its eyes at me.

"Lucy, what do we do?" Anna asks behind me in a panic. Charles however raises the scanner and points it at the demon. It lets out a few short beeps, which drawing its attention, before the scanner starts letting an ungodly loud ear piercing ringing.

"Ugh, what an atrocious little noise maker!" The demon recoils at the noise before slowly lifting its finger and pointing it at Charles with an evil smirk.

"Do shut up for me." It says as its finger starts to glow.

I turn back and lunge for Anna and Charles moving faster than I ever have before. My feet leave the ground as I subconsciously spread my wings and burst forward with my yet to be used flight magic at breakneck speed. I slam into Anna first, and she lets out a shriek as I loop an arm around her and simply keep going. A moment later I fly into Charles looping an arm around him and sending all three of us tumbling away at high speed. I tuck my wings around Charles and Anna and try to absorb as much of the impact as possible while we skid along the ground. As we come to a stop I finally register the immense heat radiating from behind us, feeling akin to being much too close to a fireplace in summer. I quickly look back to see the spot where Charles and Anna were standing in a black scorch mark, a hole of molten slag at the center. The car faired no better, its back half being turned into a melted mess, and the remainder of the front is on fire.

"You little shit! You think that will stop me!? I'll show you…." She screams and points her finger at us again, this time it takes on an ominous purple glow. But mid sentence she stops, before curling her hand back into a fist as she screams like spoiled child and stomps, breaking the branch underneath her as she takes flight once more.

"Fuck you! I hope the mangy mutts tear you apart!" She screams as she turns and bolts off into the distance.

Charles immediately kicks off and tries to untangle himself from me and Anna. He stomps on my wing in the process, much to my chagrin, but gets free and stands up. Anna meanwhile continues to lay in my arms, but now bawling her eyes out due to the traumatic experience.

"Shhh, shh, it's OK Anna. It's gone, I'm sorry. It's going to be alright." I try to comfort her in a soothing voice.

"Uhh, Lucy, about that. You can fight right?" Charles asks with a very frightened sounding voice.

I look up at Charles, then over at where he is standing, and see five canine figures slowly making their way into the clearing from between the trees. They look surprisingly dog like, aside from the very lightly glowing eyes and quad split snouts that revealed serrated razors for teeth as they growled.

Those are corjo demons, and they look like they want blood.