The Incubus stalked across the waste, sniffing the air and scanning the broken rocks for signs of movement. Hunting, even as it was unknowingly being hunted in turn. It was a big one, half a taller than Logan, and almost beautiful.

The fair features were there. High cheekbones and a chiseled jaw framed an aquiline nose and a wide, sensuous mouth. Sharply defined muscles coiled beneath rust-colored skin and a thick, silken, braid of waist-length, blood-red hair.

But a handsome face could not hide the cruel anticipation of the hunt in its silver eyes. A spade tipped tail coiled and lashed behind it like a snake. Twisted, goat-like legs tore at the dirt with sharp, cloven hooves.

It wore armor that was strangely ceremonial, like a gladiator from ancient Rome. A sheath of black leather plates covered the left arm from shoulder to wrist. Leather straps across the chest secured a massive shoulder plate on the same side. Other than that, the demon was nearly naked, wearing only a toga-like wrap of cured fur and leather belted short sword around his waist.

A noise drew the demon’s attention from off to his left. He looked and saw a naked, female soul. For a moment, she could only stare in fright, caught in the demon’s hungry gaze and all that it implied. As soon as the demon moved, the paralysis shattered. She turned and ran. It grinned and gave chase.

Despite its bulk, it quickly outpaced and caught up to its prey. Claws caught her by the hair and threw the poor soul to the ground. It reached for her. The woman scrambled back on her hands, face stricken with fear.

“No! Stay away from me!”

The demon grabbed her by the legs and lifted her into the air upside down. Laughter rumbled in the demon’s chest.

“Not a bad catch,” he chuckled. “A little small though. Maybe I should let you go?”

“Please!” she begged.

“Sure,” the demon grinned. He flipped her up and around into a bear hug, nuzzling at her ear. The woman’s feet dangled a foot above the ground. “I will let you go if you tell me where I can find the nearest herd. At least three other souls as payment for my generosity. Your freedom in return for theirs. That’s a fair bargain, don’t you think?” His tongue traced a wet line up her neck. “Or perhaps you wish to trade something else? I can smell your desire. I know what you really want.”

“No!” the woman moaned and wriggled in his arms. “Too big!”

The big demon began to laugh, then howled in sudden, biting pain.

Distracted as the beast was, he never heard Logan’s slow approach. Logan’s newly acquired, metal knife tore through the tendon on the back of the demon's leg. The woman dropped out of the demon’s arms as both captive and captor tumbled to the ground.

A maw full of sharp teeth bellowed in agony and anger. The Incubus awkwardly climbed up onto its unwounded leg. Metal hissed against leather as it unsheathed the sword at his side. His eyes glowed with a murderous light.

“Did that hurt?” Logan taunted and fell back into a combat crouch. “That looked like it hurt.” The teasing smirk fell from his face to reveal the simmering anger beneath. “No means no, jackass.”

The demon snarled at him, then laughed. “You will make an even better prize. I will deliver you both to my Mistress… after I make you suffer.”

Logan waved the dagger at it. “I bet you say that to all the boys.”

“Where is your owner, dog?” The Incubus dared a quick look around and bellowed in a thundering voice. “Only a coward would send his pet human to attack me. Come out and face me like a true demon!”

Despite the show of bravado, the demon struggled to stay upright on its mangled ankle while avoiding a second bite of the dagger in Logan’s fist. The two males eyed each other. Logan braced himself to go in for the kill, but did not get the chance.

Beauty leaped down from the rock she had been carefully positioned on and landed beside Logan, facing the larger demon.

Logan cursed. “Dammit, Beauty. You remember that ambush we planned? This isn’t it.”

A slight smile touched her full lips. She gave a slight shake of her head and reached out to give Logan a gentle push back. “Change plan,” she replied.

“Oh, hell,” Logan grimaced. “You want this one for yourself, don’t you?”

The Succubus nodded without ever taking her golden eyes off of the other demon.

Logan’s instinct was to object, to want to protect her from harm, and knew that he had neither the right nor any good reason to try. Beauty was no damsel in distress to be coddled. This was her world, not his. If it was her choice to answer the other demon’s challenge, what could he say except…

“Kick his ass, Beauty.”

Logan stepped away to watch and worry. The enemy was almost two feet taller and a hundred pounds of muscle heavier then she was. He was armed with a sword and armored on one side. Beauty had nothing except her small, razor-sharp claws.

The Incubus sneered at her. “So fierce for one so young, and so foolish. When I am done, I will use your body for my pleasure before dragging you all to lay at the feet of the one I serve.”

The big demon lunged at her, blade first, in a surprising burst of speed. Beauty side stepped, ducked under a wild swing, and leaped back out of attack range.

He laughed. “This will be fun.”

“Yes.” Beauty bared her teeth at him and moved to attack.

The short sword whistled through the air where Beauty had been only a moment ago. By the time either male had realized what had happened, she had already struck twice. Her enemy staggered back in confusion. His arm bled oily smoke from several deep tears. His sword lay in the dirt where it had fallen from numb fingers.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The Incubus had claws as well. He roared a challenge and charged at her in a bull rush of raw strength and fury. Neither did him any good. Logan watched as Beauty opened his gut like scooping ice cream as the lumbering demon staggered past.

She could have ended it then, yet chose not too. Logan watched, caught somewhere between awe and terror, as she destroyed her larger, stronger opponent, one precise strike at a time, like a cat playing with a catch before the kill. Smoke boiled into the wind. Flesh tore.

The Incubus finally fell to his knees. “No more,” he pleaded.

Beauty snapped her teeth at him. “Beg.”

“Please,” he growled, furious at his own surrender.

She opened his throat with a single precise slash of her claws.

“No,” she replied as he fell to the dirt.

Beauty turned to Logan. “Logan ok?”

“Am I ok?” he laughed. “Woman, you are a certified badass. How did you do that?”

She smiled, shrugged, and pointed at the body. “Old. Strong. Much things. We take.”

“Agreed,” Logan said as they began stripping loot from the corpse.

After three successful hunts and a close examination of each one, he was beginning to understand his enemy, at least a little. Every demon he had seen so far, male or female, had been some degree of atractive, and every single one seemed to feed on sex. Older did seem to translate as stronger. Age was hard to determine, but he was beginning to see patterns. Older demons seem to have more exaggerated demonic features such as horns, wings, and tails, as well as being more comfortable with speech.

Best of all, age and status seemed to correspond directly to personal wealth. Like the nomads of old Earth, demons carried their wealth on their bodies in the form of luxury items, weapons, and clothes. This one had been their most rewarding target so far.

Still, it wasn’t a perfect theory. Beauty, with her small horns and limited speech, was by all accounts a “young” demon. It made sense that “older” should translate into “stronger” among her kind. Having fought a few, Logan was all but certain of it.

Until today.

Only minutes ago, he had watched in stunned amazement as his demon lover beat the tar out of a larger, older, stronger opponent. It had been such a one-sided combat that it barely qualified as a fight at all. Was she some superior breed of demon? Older than she looked? There was so much about her that he still did not understand!

Logan looked over and saw that the human woman had picked herself up and stood waiting nearby. The graceful lines of her face and fall of straight, black hair to her shoulders accentuated an Asian ancestry. Under better circumstances, Logan would have described her as having a runner’s build, slim and toned. Here and now, she just looked under-fed. Seeing his attention turn her way, she spoke. Yet it was to Beauty that she directed her question.

“Are you a hunter?”

The Succubus looked up from their gathered loot as if noticing the woman for the first time. The Succubus just shook her head and turned back to examining the edge of the short sword.

That simple gesture seemed to ease the tension radiating off of the woman. To his surprise, the pretty Asian walked up to Beauty and knelt at her feet, head bowed.

“Then you saved me. I submit to you. Please be gentle.”

“Um, what?” Logan muttered as he looked from one to the other.

Beauty leaned toward the woman and sniffed at her. She seemed to be considering the offer, then shook her head. “Not hungry. You go.”

The woman looked up in confusion. “Mistress, I don’t understand.”

The Succubus pointed at Logan. “Fed. Not hungry.” He could hear a faint tone of annoyance in the demon’s reply. “You go.” Beauty turned and started gathering up loot.

“You’re not going to claim me?” The woman stared at Beauty’s back, surprise and disappointment in her dark eyes. Her voice was nearly frantic. “But… why not?” She glanced at Logan. “You and your servant can both have me.”

“What?” Logan said. “What are you talking about, woman? Wait, who are you calling a servant?” He looked from one female to the other. “Pardon the obvious pun, but what the hell is happening here?”

Beauty looked at him and shrugged, then pointed at the woman. “Her want sex,” she replied as if explaining an obvious fact. “You want sex?”

“What?” He stammered again. “No! That’s insane!”

The Succubus just shrugged and turned back to gather up loot.

“Please?” Still on her knees, the pretty Asian woman turned her anxious gaze on Logan. “I have been told I am quite good at pleasuring. Mistress, I can service you and your servant. Anything you want.” She looked at Beauty hopefully.

“Still calling me servant,” Logan grumbled. He took a step toward her and held a hand out. “Miss, please calm down. There is no reason to behave this way.”

A screeching cry somewhere in the distance caused Logan and Beauty to spin, alert for any approaching threat. Nothing rushed at them and the only movement was the wind. The demon snapped her teeth at him in frustration.

“Danger here. We go.”

“Yeah,” Logan replied, still scanning the horizon. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right, Beauty.”

“Please?” The woman asked again.

Beauty snarled. She moved with astonishing speed. He had time to see the succubus open her mouth and reveal vampire-like teeth.

“No!” Logan cried, too late.

The demon girl sank sharp fangs into the woman's neck. Logan heard wet, slurping noises as she drank, saw a thin trail of mist float into the wind from the victim’s neck. The woman immediately fell limp. Beauty pulled back, made a sour face, and spit into the dirt. “Pah! Bad. Not ready.”

Logan knelt by the woman. “Beauty, what the hell did you do?”

“Small feed. Sleep now.” She scowled and spat again. “Taste bad. Her not yap, yap now. We go.”

“You fed on her?” He looked at the woman lying helpless and unconscious in the dirt and cursed under his breath. Logan glanced at the Succubus and shook his head. “Dammit all, Beauty. I can’t just leave her out here like this.”

Here we go again, he thought, remembering Beauty is a similar situation.

“You take female?” she asked. “You claim?”

Logan sighed and pinched at the bridge of his nose against the headache beginning to pulse in his skull. “Yes, I will take her with us. This is the first opportunity I have had to speak to another human. I’m hoping she can provide some much-needed answers.” He scowled at the Succubus. “And no, I am not going to claim her, whatever that means, or have sex with her!”

Beauty only shrugged and went back to the task of gathering loot.

Once again, Logan found himself in the strange position of carrying a naked, female stranger over one shoulder on a very long walk. Dead Red had led them on a long chase far from the cave. The best path back was not always the most direct. More than once, they were forced to hide when a winged demon flew by.

The woman was not heavy, but an adult body was no easy burden to carry over a long distance. Logan’s back and legs grew tired. Frequent rest stops were required. More and more effort was devoted to his voluntary burden, leaving Beauty to keep a sharp eye out for threats.

“Stop it,” he growled.

Beauty looked back at him.

He shook his head. “Not you. Her. She is… never mind what she’s doing. Woman, behave!” Without thinking, he reached up to swat her bare bottom. The woman moaned and squirmed in response, nearly falling off his shoulder.

The demon smiled.

“It’s not funny,” Logan grumped. “Got to set her down. Too… squirmy.”

He set her on the ground as gently as possible, or tried to. The woman clung to him like a cat, languid and persistent. She did not appear to be entirely conscious or aware of what she was doing.

“What is with this crazy woman?” Logan growled as he defended himself from her hand groping his crotch, and her other hand reaching around to squeeze his ass, and back to the first hand cupping his crotch again.

The succubus arched an eyebrow at him.

“Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.” He tried to make a joke of it. “I get it. My choice, my problem- Good grief, lady!” He finally broke away from her greedy touch. The woman rolled onto her back in a dazed stupor.

“I’m not going to get much conversation out of her until this passes. It will pass, yes?”

Beauty shrugged.

“Great. Is there a cure?”

“Sex?” Beauty replied in an uncertain voice.

“Of course it is,” Logan sighed. “Why did I bother to ask?”

They were almost to the cave. Getting the woman back onto his shoulder in a fireman’s carry was even more frustrating than last time. Logan walked the last mile attempting to ignore her lips kissing his back and her hands pinching and groping at his ass.

The succubus did not comment. She didn’t have to. The amused expression on her face said it all.