Lucian parked his Dodge Avenger just three houses away from his rental, it was one of the drawbacks to living in a house without a garage or a driveway, but it was a necessary evil since he didn’t want to deal with a yard and his roommate was always a fun person to hang out with. And working at Integrities Securities meant he had to work long hours and almost always arrived home late just like tonight.

He walked a couple of houses and pulled his keys from his jacket pocket, started up the front steps, and reached for the doorknob as he noticed something was wrong.

The door was just slightly ajar and the inside was still dark, he hadn’t seen Carl’s Jeep so he knew there was no one home. Reacting to the possibility of an intruder he drew his sidearm, a Bersa Thunder, .380, and pushed his door open slowly so he could enter. He knew he should have said something to let whoever was inside know that he was going to shoot if they didn’t leave, but he also didn’t want to give them the chance to be ready for him in case they weren’t expecting him.

He checked the downstairs slowly, hoping he was either too late or that he’d scared them off when he opened the door. It was probably the Jefferson boy who’d been caught a couple of weeks ago doing the same thing just a few houses down on the other side of the street, he was let go with a slap on the wrists because his uncle was the state senator and pulled some strings. Gods above he hoped it wasn’t that boy because he’d never hear the end of it if he shot the boy even as an intruder.

All three rooms downstairs were clear, no one there, and even the valuables like Carl’s game systems were safe and sound. That fact alone made him more on edge, if someone was in the house they weren’t your average everyday thief. There could be a rational explanation for the slightly open door, perhaps Carl had forgotten to lock the door and the wind blew it open. It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened in his house, the foundation wasn’t the best and the whole thing was just ready to fall down. But he hoped for the best and prepared for the worst as he walked back tot he front door to close it when he heard a rustling sound coming from upstairs.

Taking a breath to steady himself he went up the stairs, pistol in front of him as he began checking corners, and leveling his weapon as he looked for the source of the noise while praying it was just the wind.

The sound continued and as he crested the stairs he saw it was coming from his bedroom, the light was on and he knew for a fact that he’d turned it off before he left for work. Walking into the room he saw a man hunched over his bed, in Lucian’s nightstand looking for something. All over the floor were his clothes, prized possessions were strewn about. He saw his anime waifu figurines all over and hoped the intruder realized how much he was going to pay for rifling through the sacred space.

He aimed the Bersa at the man’s back, center mass just like he was taught, and said “You there, put your hands up.”

The man’s head popped up and he began to turn around, his face was feral like a rabid animal. Eyes red as he stared Lucian down, just the look of him was enough to make Lucian start, the man wasn’t massive like a linebacker but he was built. 

“I said put your hands up. This is the last time I ask before I put you in the ground.”

It sounded threatening enough, but the man stood and charged Lucian. Lucian pulled date trigger three times in quick succession and the bullets found their mark, in the man’s torso, specifically his chest and he dropped to the ground. He leaned back against the doorframe and was about to pull his phone out of his pocket so he could call the police when the man’s eyes popped open and he launched himself upwards letting out a growl at Lucian. “What the fuck!” He screamed as the man charged him again.

He fired again, the loud rapport of the gun filling the room as the man took him to the floor with the veins in his face pressed against his skin as he bared large sharp teeth at him. As Lucian looked up at him the man’s teeth elongated even more and changed into fangs right before his eyes. He tried to bite Lucian, his head striking like a snake with Lucian barely moving his head in time and the man’s teeth narrowly missed his neck. The man was trying to bite him to death. If half a dozen bullets wouldn’t stop him then what the hell would?

Lucian tried to push the man back and drove his knee into his balls hard enough to push the man up just a bit as he lunged for Lucians’ throat again and failed.

“You are an abomination, you will die!” The man growled at him and drew his arm back as his nails lengthened into claws and he drove them into Lucian’s shoulder making him cry out from the pain. “Your friend is going to die with you.”

Lucian tried to move, tried to push the man off as the words registered with him and he heard something from downstairs. The front door closing and not just Carl’s voice, but also a woman’s voice. The one time I need him to focus. He thought to himself as he kneed the man in the balls again and drove his forehead into its face. Pain radiated throughout his head, the hold had loosened enough he drove his good arm into the things throat and shoved him back just as the man’s eyes turned deep red and he knew that if the man had it his way all three of them would be dying tonight.

Something inside of him snapped, just shattered into a million pieces and his vision swam with a red haze as the man’s face changed to one of surprise and not Unger or anger or whatever the hell he was showing just seconds before.

All that Lucian could think of was the need to save his friend and the innocent woman downstairs. That was all he needed to think about as he threw the man off of him with a surge of strength he never knew he possessed and shot to his feet staring him down. The talking was becoming more and more clear as Carl was coming up the stairs now and Lucian knew he had to keep him safe.

He rushed the man and swung his arm in a chop, his hope was to crush the man’s windpipe and he would suffocate. If you couldn’t breathe you couldn’t fight. His strike was lightning quick as his hand collided with the man’s through and went into it, crushing his throat while caging his hand inside the man’s neck, he stared in fear and shock at Lucian for a second and then laughed. It was the most unholy thing Lucian had ever heard and the man reached up with his own hands and drove his claws into Lucian’s chest making him howl in rage.

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Ripping his hand out he drove his other hand at the man’s chest for a palm strike and was more than a little shocked when his hand went right through his chest and he felt a pulsing in front of his hand. His eyes widened with surprise as he realized it was the man’s heart.

Closing his fingers around it he yanked, pulling his hand and the heart out of the man’s chest cavity in one wet squelch sound and he looked at the red thing beating away in his hand as the last little bit of blood was pumped out of it. Lucian stared into the eyes of the thing in front of him as it’s skin turned from a human pallor to a gray with darker gray veins covering his flesh in an intricate latticework as his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor, turning to ash as he fell leaving a mess on the floor that Lucian wondered how to clean up.

He felt the heart in his hand turn to dust and as he looked to his side he saw himself in the mirror he kept and couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was no wonder his hand had gone through the man’s chest so easily, his nails had become two-inch long talons tinged a dark purple. His skin had turned to light lavender, and his body had bulked up as his shirt could attest, barely able to contain his mass. Before he could see any more of his body there was a scream and he turned to see Carl and the woman he’d brought home standing at the top of the stairs staring right at him.

She stared in terror, while Carl stared in pity and Lucian felt something inside himself shift, but he couldn’t be sure what it was.

“Rose, go to my room, now. I’ll be in, in just a minute.” When she didn’t move he looked at her and said, “Please, it’ll be okay I promise.”

Rather than walk away though she moved closer to Lucian, he noticed her eyes were dilating and he could feel a pull coming from her. Could hear her body sing to him and he couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. He could smell her arousal even from here, just how much she wanted him, and yet he could see how hideous he looked so it made no sense to him. But she gave him these fuck me eyes that told him she wanted him right there in the hallway. “He’s so…yummy.”

Carl was just about to reach out and grab her arm when Lucian reached out and pulled her close. Pressing her against his rock hard body she felt perfect against his skin, her warmth calling to him as his cock rose to the occasion. She ran her fingers over his skin-tight shirt and gasped as he kissed her, taking her breath away. As he pulled back to kiss her again he saw purple energy that seemed to be floating between them, her body went stock still and Carl rushed to save her as he shoved Lucian away hard and pulled her down to the floor. “Why the hell didn’t you listen to me?” He said kneeling over her still body.

Carl stood and pushed Lucian again back a few more steps, “Get a hold of yourself boy, focus on my voice and take a few deep breaths now.” Lucian was shocked by the tone of his voice and listened following his instructions as he counted for him to breathe in for a three count, and out for a five.

He raised a hand and noticed his skin was back to its normal color and his nails were returning at well. “What the fuck is happening to me?”

“You’re turning back to your human form. Don’t worry this is normal.”

“Normal? How the fuck is any of this normal! Some guy turns to dust in my room and I have purple skin, and then your girl just throws herself at me. What the fuck man?”

“So that’s what I’d scented when I came in.” Carl walked to the room and looked at two piles of ash on the floor. “How many were there?”

“Just one.”

“Then why are there two piles here?”

Lucian scratched the back of his head and said, “Well, one was from his heart, I just yanked it out of his chest and it turned to dust like him.”

Carl shook his head, “Okay, I need to get Rose to my room so she can recover from your lust feeding, you need to get the vacuum and clean this mess up. Then I will explain everything okay?” Lucian nodded as he walked back and picked up Rose from the floor.

“There’s a lot you’ll be learning and it’s just going to have to be a crash course from now on since none of this went according to plan.” He walked her to his room and Lucian stared after him for a second before he went for the lightweight vacuum they had and began cleaning the mess in his room.

It was oddly satisfying to do something normal after something so abnormal had happened.

“Okay, she’s sleeping it off so she should be okay.” He looked around the room and saw everything that had been thrown around carelessly. “Damn he really did a number in here before you got home.” Bending down Carl picked up one of the waifu figurines and placed it on its rightful shelf. “Let’s clean this mess up real quick okay?”

“Not before you explain what the hell is going on and why my hand changed like that.”

Carl took a deep breath and sighed, “Oh, I knew this day would come when the shit hit the fan, but I really hoped I wouldn’t be the one telling you this. Not because I’d be dead or something dark like that, but because I’d be retired in Boca or Jamaica enjoying my life.” He lifted the computer chair back upright and took a seat. “You may want to sit a bit, this is going to be a bumpy ride.”

He waited a moment until Lucian was seated on his bed and said, “You aren’t human, well, you aren’t fully human. That is partly why your hand and body changed the way it did. The other half of you is demonic and the change was your demonic side coming out to save you because something supernatural was causing you harm. Think of it as a defense mechanism right now, when you’re in danger and it’s needed it’ll show. Or when you end up feeding from now on it’ll manifest. Which I’m going to assume, safely, that the danger was the fanged dick that you killed, just ripped his heart out like it was nothing which had to be epic to watch. I never knew you had it in you to kill so easily.”

“I really wasn’t trying to kill him actually.” He looked down at his hands and sighed. “I meant to knock him out with a shot to his throat, that didn’t work and so I tried to palm strike him and it just got a little out of hand. I couldn’t stop him with bullets so I thought, stop him from breathing and it’ll do the same thing.”

“Well, you did the right thing in killing him. Those bastards are a stain on the entire supernatural world, they eat whoever they want and don’t bother trying to make sure the person won’t be missed. They just do it because they can and they think they’re all so great.” He spat on the spot where some ashes remained. “They can all go suck a spike in hell.”

“Okay, so you tell me I’m part demon, that vampires are real, my skin turns colors and I can rip someone’s heart out with ease, and let’s not forget while I look hideous a woman tries to fuck me. What the hell else can you tell me to make this all make sense?”

“How about that you nearly killed Rose because you were draining her energy and in turn nearly devouring her soul. You are part demon, an incubus to be precise. Have you ever heard of those?”

“I’m part sex demon?” He stared at his friend with a mixture of shock and wonderment. “I thought all of those stories about creatures that go bump in the night were fake.”

“Congrats man, we are very real.”

“We?”

“Yeah, I’m not human either. I’m a shifter, a black panther to be precise.”

“That’s…really? A black panther?”

Carl looked at him and sighed, “Look I’m going to go make sure Rose is okay, and then we need to get on the road. If one of them showed up then there’s no reason to think there won’t be more of them on the way.”

“Great…” Lucian hung his head as he thought about fighting a lot more vampires. More of those fanged dicks running at him and trying to bite him like the last one.

“You’ll need some training in using your demonic abilities. I think we’ll take care of that on the way to safety, there’s a place we need to go, but first I need to check on Rose and you should get things together, we won’t be coming back here for a while, if at all.”

He watched Clark walk towards his room, the farther he walked the more uneasy Lucian felt about the whole thing.