Hunger Pangs - Part 6 of 9 By Daniela A. Wolfe Archie was an orphan who never suspected that there was anything out of the ordinary about himself. After bedding a beautiful stranger, he soon finds a strange hunger has awaken within him and learns he is anything but ordinary.

The following rant is brought to you by the demented mind of D.A.W.

Well this is my foray into the DarkRealms Universe, hopefully I can do it justice. Shout outs to Enemyoffun for creating this wonderful universe and for allowing me to write in it, Loki for allowing me to use several Cordays in his story and for his help and suggestions, and djkauf for the superb editing.

I conceived the basic idea for this story long-ago as a stand alone, but one day after reading one of EOF's DRU stories I was struck with the idea that it with a little bit of adjusting it would fit well into the Dark Realms Universe. I apologize in advance for the protagonist, he's a bit of an ass and he has a rather foul tongue.

As with all my stories this is a work of fiction and as such any resemblance to real life individuals events or locations is purely unintentional. Only Bigcloset Topshelf has permission to post this story.

WARNING: This story is much darker than what you will typically see from me. It has explicit content including, sex, scenes of rape, suicidal themes, and language. If any of these things offend you please read no further.

I frowned down at the bottle of scotch in my hands in frustrated disbelief, I had already drunk half of the damn thing and I wasn't even remotely drunk. Hell, I wasn't even buzzed. I suppressed the urge to hurl the bottle across the room, and took another swig in an ever dwindling hope that it would help me get drunk. Apparently, my new body was incapable of getting inebriated which just sucked major ass.

Sighing, I put the bottle back down and pulled the switchblade from my pocket. I contemplated trying to take my life right then and there, but an ever growing part of me resisted those sorts of thoughts. With another sigh I took a drink from my scotch and slammed the bottle back onto the table. I set the knife down and started at it as if it held the answers to all my questions, but they didn't come. I gripped the sides of my head and tried to think of something, anything that would help me to understand why this had happened.

A hand touched my shoulder and I closed my eyes and willed whoever it was to go away. I wanted to be alone, but the hand's owner didn't seem to get the message. Seconds ticked by but the hand kept its grip on my shoulder. I let out a loud sigh and looked up to find Daniel staring down at me. I knew he'd come searching for me eventually, but I hadn't expected him quite so soon. At the very least I expected to be stone drunk by the time he showed up.

"Archie, why did you run off like that? You scared me," he said taking the seat across from me.

"Yeah, well I scared myself and to top it off I can't even get fucking drunk," I said taking hold of the bottle of scotch by its neck with my thumb and index finger and wagged it in front of his face.

"I know it can't be easy, but it's not safe for you to be out alone," he said with a shake of his head.

I started to laugh, I couldn't help myself. "Safe?! You think I was worried about whether or not I was safe?"

"Archie..." Daniel started but he didn't get a chance to finish.

"Shit, you know I tried to kill myself," I said suddenly tears rolling down my face as I clenched the neck of the scotch bottle in an iron grip.

"It should have been easy. A couple of slashes across my wrists with this and it all have been over," I said releasing my hold on the bottle, picked up the switchblade and clenched my fist around it.

I shook with barely contained rage and anguish as I continued, "I chickened out. I deserve to die after what I've done, but I'm too god damned selfish to do it."

Daniel grabbed hold of my hand, forced the knife out of my grip and held it in front of his face, "That won't solve anything. There's nothing brave about taking your own life."

"Tell me, Daniel, who would fucking care if I died? I have no ties to anyone or anything."

"You're wrong Archie, I would care," he said quietly.

"Why? Why the fucking hell do you give a damn!? Why are you even friends with me? I treat everyone like shit, you included, and after what I did to you tonight I'm surprised that you want anything to do with me," I said sobbing in near hysterics.

"When I first met you I admit, I thought you were a bit of a pain in the ass, but when I got to know you I realized that behind that bitter angry resentful person was a lonely guy who pushed people away because he was afraid of anyone getting too close," he said putting a hand on my shoulder.

"What about tonight? You can't just pretend that didn't happen!" I yelled shame and self-loathing washing over me.

"Look, Archie," he said gripping hold of my other shoulder. "I don't blame you for what happened. I know you're having trouble controlling your hunger, but to tell you the truth I wouldn't mind having sex with you again, it felt good."

"Daniel, don't you understand how dangerous that is?! You are like a damn bottle of fucking water to me and I can't guarantee I'll be able to keep myself from draining you dry," I said with a shudder. Something had kept me from feeding on him completely, but I wasn't about to tell him that. I might have been a fluke, and I didn't want him getting any ideas.

"Look," he said casting furtive glances across the room. "We can continue this conversation back at my parent's house, where it's a little less public."

"Okay, yeah. That's probably a good idea," I said biting my lip.

"I'm not the only one you would care if you died. Selina has been worried sick. It was all I could do to keep her from coming with me. If I didn't know better I'd swear she was your mother or something," he said moving to stand.

"Holy fucking shit," I said staring at him wide-eyed.

No it couldn't be, could it? True there were certain physical similarities, I mean we both had red hair and blue eyes and nearly identical hour-glass figures, but that didn't necessarily mean anything for all I knew that was a trait common to all succubi. My mind flashed back to the truck ride to the Corday home. She told me she had met a succubus who might have been my mother, but why tell me that story if it weren't true? Perhaps she had done it to test the water and see how I might reply. It might explain why she had seemed so upset when she saw how I reacted.

I'd been so intent on the idea of taking my life that I had let all the signs slip past me. The more I thought about it the more sense it made. She had known I was abandoned at an orphanage without me telling her. How the hell could she have known that if she weren't my mother? Shit, it seemed like a stretch, but I had to be sure and the only way I was going to find out was to ask her. Shit, suddenly I was very eager to get back to the Corday place.

The ride back to the house was pretty quiet and uneventful. Daniel tried to get me to talk several times, but I really didn't have much of anything to say. I answered with grunts and vague answers not really paying attention to what he had to say.

My thoughts were centered on the possibility of Selina being my mother. I mean, I really had no reason to believe it was true and the very idea seemed almost laughable but I had to know. We arrived back at Daniel's parent's house within just a couple of minutes. I knew something was wrong as soon as we pulled into the driveway. For one thing the front door was sitting wide open; for another, there were two bodies sprawled on the front lawn.

"Shit, what the hell happened?" Daniel said with a frantic edge to his voice. It sounded pretty fucking weird hearing him curse like that, Daniel very rarely swore.

He scrambled out of the truck and I jumped out following closely on his tail. He went right for one of the bodies on the snow-covered ground which turned out to be Darrell and checked for a pulse. "He's dead," he said between gritted teeth.

"Fuck, if Darrell's dead..." I said leaving the sentence unfinished. If Darrell was dead that didn't bode well for Selina. He must have died defending her. I looked down at the other body, which I assumed to be one of Daniel's cousins, and checked for a pulse.

"Daniel, he's alive," I said with a relieved sigh.

Daniel didn't give a reply he sprang off his feet and practically leapt into his parent's home. I followed just a few seconds later. The place was a shambles; it looked like a damn stampede had passed through the living room.

"Daniel, thank God," Linda said appearing from out of the shadows and flung her arms around her son.

She was joined by two more figures, one of which I recognized as Stu, the other I assumed was another cousin since he had the same muscular build as all the other Corday men. The other man had long auburn hair that fell past his shoulders, looked to be somewhere in his early thirties and looked for all the world like some god out of ancient antiquity.

"Mom, are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," she said with a sob.

"What's happened here?" Daniel said gripping hold of his mother's shoulders.

"It was those Tenebris guys you warned us about they came at us before we knew what had happened. There were so damn many of them we didn't stand a chance," the man with the long auburn hair said with a scowl.

"Where is Selina?" I asked with a lump in my throat.

"The hot redhead? She surrendered herself. She said it was the only way that they'd let us live," Stu said with both arms folded across his chest.

"Fuck! And they just went with it?" I asked clutching at my forehead with both hands, gritted my teeth and resisted the urge to start screaming.

Linda shook her head, "I'm really sorry, Archie. After she surrendered they searched the house. They were looking for you and Daniel. Then they just left."

"What?! That makes no sense. Why would they just leave?" Daniel said with a grimace.

"No, it makes perfect sense. They knew exactly what they were doing. Instead of looking for us in unfamiliar territory, they lure us right to them. They had to know that we would follow them if they took Selina. Shit, if we go after her we'll probably wind up dead," I replied.

"So we just let them get away with this?" Daniel asked incredulously.

"Hell no! That's not what I meant!" I replied in frustration. "I plan on going after Selina even if I have to go alone. I just think we need to be aware what we might be headed into."

"How? I don't see any way," Daniel said looking suddenly very tired.

"Maybe there is a way," Linda put in. "One of the attackers was left behind."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"Upstairs in the ba--," she said and I leapt up the stairs without staying to let her finish.

I raced across the hall, and slammed the door open at the end with an audible bang and found a man sprawled on a bed inside. Blood coated his face and chest, but I didn't see any wounds. I didn't immediately recognize him because of his ragged state, but I realized that he was the man from Kona's who had reappeared at the club later that night. He had warned me to stay home, both times. Shit, if only I had listened. His eyes snapped open and his face contorted into an angry scowl.

He looked ready to spring on me, but thankfully his hands had been tied to the bed post. I stepped over to the bed and brushed a finger across his cheek. I needed to learn what he knew, there was no way I could intimidate him, but he was a man and let's face it I was smoking hot. I didn't really know what I was doing, but I had the advantage of being a succubus. I had this power over men, I hadn't really given it much thought until that moment, but I knew it was there.

"Tell me where they took her," I said running my hand down his face and licking my lips hungrily. I felt the urge to feed rise, but like at the bar I was able to bat it away with almost no effort.

For a moment his anger faded away and his eyes washed over me hungrily, but then he shook his head and the anger swept across his face again. "I'm not telling you a damn thing."

"Okay, let's start with something simple, Tell me your name," I said leaning down and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Lieutenant Robert Barns," he breathed looking up at me with a look of longing.

"Archie what are you doing?" a voice asked from the doorway and I didn't have to look to know that it was Daniel.

"Leave us, I'll learn what we need to know," I said coolly.

"Archie--"

"I know what I'm doing," I said turning around to lock gazes with him. Really I didn't have a damn clue, but I wasn't about to let on especially in front of Barns.

Daniel looked almost angry, and maybe even a little bit jealous, but he bit back whatever retort he had and nodded. Shit, I didn't even want to think about what that meant. "Close the door," I said my gaze returning to Barns. "Me and my friend have some things to discuss."

The door shut behind me and I directed all my attention on Barns. At first he seemed resistant to me, but with enough time I was able persuade him to tell me everything I wanted to know. I think a part of me died while I interrogated Barns. It wasn't something I did intentionally, but the succubus in me seemed to know exactly what to do in order to get what I wanted and I would have done almost anything to find Selina. For the first time I found myself enjoying what I was doing and it scared the shit out of me.

"What did you find out?" Daniel asked as I stepped into the living room.

"Well, I think I know where they took her," I said biting my lip.

"Where?" He asked with an accusing glare.

"A few miles into the forest on the north side of town. Just a little ways past some old warehouse. From the way he described their camp it sounds pretty well guarded." I replied staring at him wide-eyed.

What the fucking hell was his problem? Then it hit me like a damn ton of bricks, he thought I had sex with Robert. He was jealous, which invariably meant he had feelings for me. Shit, I hadn't even been a chick twenty-four hours and he had fallen for me. I didn't exactly know what the hell to say. A part of me wanted to tell him to fuck off, but there was another part that wanted to tell him there was nothing to worry about. Shit, maybe Daniel wasn't the only one with feelings.

"Daniel--"

"We need to act quickly," he said cutting me short.

"Shit, what should we do man?" Stu asked.

"Well you and Arnie are going to get in touch with everyone in the family who can fight and bring them up to where these guys are camped out. Archie and I will meet you there," Daniel replied. I could only guess that the long-haired one was named Arnie.

"Don't move," a cold voice said in my ear just as an arm wrapped around my throat.

It was Barns, somehow he had escaped. I could feel something warm and wet dripping down my chest and I realized it was blood from his wrists. I could only surmise that he worked himself free from the ropes that had tied him down.

"Let her go," Daniel growled taking a few steps toward us. It wasn't entirely lost on me that he had used a female pronoun, but shit I was being held hostage it wasn't exactly a priority.

"Come any closer and I'll snap her neck," he spat.

Something inside of me seemed to come awake and I howled in fury. I reached deep inside myself where my hunger lingered and reached out desperately for a way to break free from my captor's grip. I found something, a power of sorts, and latched onto it. A fiery torrent of pain swept across my skin, and I thought I might burst into flames at any moment. The pain faded away and I knew something was different; Linda and Daniel were both looking at me with shocked expressions.

I could literally sense the lust that was being directed at me. It was so tangible I could almost see it radiating from everyone in the room and I thought I might be able to reach out and touch it. The strongest was emanating from Barns and it had a sort of angry feel to it, but there was a good amount of lust pouring out from Daniel, Stu and Arnie and I even detected a faint trace of it around Linda. I wanted it, I wanted to draw it all deep inside of me until there was no more.

"Holy hell," Barns yelled and I felt his grip loosen from around my neck.

It was enough; my hand reached out for his wrist and slipped out from his grip. I swirled on him and smiled, his hands were trembling and he was looking at me with an expression that somehow managed to convey lust, hatred and fear at the same time. I reached out to touch him, but my hand only met open air as he backed away in hurried panic. I jumped at him and I clutched both of his cheeks in my hands.

"You are mine," I whispered.

I'm not exactly sure how to describe what happened next. The swirls of angry sexual energy pouring out from Barns seemed to change; the anger faded away and took on a feeling of mindless submissiveness. A set of dull gray eyes looked back at me, and I shivered as I realized what I had done. In the same way that Selina had enslaved Darrell to her will, I had enthralled Robert. I backed away from him in a hurry and clenched my hands against my side trying my best to quell the horror at what I had done.

That wasn't all though, I sensed there was something more I could do to him. It was hard to explain, but I felt a faint desire to start pouring some of my sexual energy into him. The urge was easy enough resist and I quelled it with relative ease. I had pretty fair idea of what would have happened had I given in to the urge and I knew then what Selina had meant when she said succubi could be made.

"What just happened?" Daniel breathed behind me.

"I-I just reacted. He won't hurt anyone now. Not unless I tell him to," I said looking down at my hands and realizing for the first time that they had a sort of purple cast to them.

"Archie, what did you do?" Linda said.

"He's mine body heart and soul. He'll do whatever I tell him," I said reaching up to touch the pair of curled ram horns that were now protruding from my skull. They were just like the pair Selina had grown outside my apartment. Shit, if I had a set of horns it stood to reason I had a damn set of wings too. And, sure enough, when I reached for them I found a pair of wings sticking out from my back.

"Good god," Linda gasped.

"Archie--"

"Don't call me that!" I snapped cutting Daniel short.

I didn't feel like an Archie or Archibold anymore. That name belonged to someone else, someone who had died earlier that day. I just hadn't realized it until then. Archie would never have done the things that I had done. "Call me Rachel," I muttered bitterly turning back to face him.

"Rachel," he spoke my new name as if testing it out. "Are you alright?" The lust poured out from him and it took all my willpower to keep my hands to myself.

I laughed bitterly and shook my head, "I'll live."

"Look if you're not feeling up to it you can stay here and I'll--"

"No! I'm going. I can't leave Selina to those people," I muttered cutting him short with an angry glare. I had every reason to hate Selina, it had after all been her that had awoken me and I brought the Tenebris Petentibus down on us in the first place. If she was my mother and she had abandoned me that was yet another reason to hate her, but I couldn't bring myself to feel any malice toward her. I needed to know the truth, and I wouldn't get it if she died.

"Then we better get going," Daniel muttered.

I didn't immediately answer instead I cast a furtive glance at Barns. Like Darrell, he wore a stupid grin on his face and there was a noticeable bulge in his pants. On Darrell the grin looked almost comical, on Barns it made him look like a damn lecher and the effect was creepy as hell. He didn't do anything but stand there and stare at me like a damn fool which just made the whole thing seem even creepier.

I met his stupid ass gaze and shuddered. What I saw in those eyes was complete and utter submission. He would do anything I told him too, even if it meant he would die in the process. There was some sort of link between us and I could feel him in the back of my head. A small part of him resisted what had been done, but that portion of his consciousness was slowly fading away.

"Yeah, let's just get out of here," I said with a grimace and glared back at Barns one final time.

"Hurry up," I muttered irritably as Barns climbed out of the truck.

Barns had long since given over to me completely and I had returned back to my human form. It was eerie as hell having him around, but for the time being I needed him. If we were going to attack Gray-hair and his lackeys, I would need Barns to protect me. Daniel had offered, but after the attack on his parent's home he had become increasingly eager to strike back and somehow I doubted he'd make for a very good protector. I hated that I needed someone to guard me, but I was pragmatist. To be honest even before I turned into a damn succubus I hadn't exactly been very capable of defending myself.

Barns leapt to the ground and just stood there with that damn lecherous smile on his face. I slammed the door shut behind him and glared at him angrily.

"Well don't just stand there," I growled and motioned for him to follow.

It was still dark out in the early morning and I could barely see a few feet in front of me. Daniel didn't speak and neither did I. We walked quietly through the darkness until about ten minutes into our walk.

"We getting close?" Daniel said suddenly.

"Yeah, I think so. He did say it was a little ways off road," I said quietly.

Daniel nodded, "I know an old game trail that might take us close."

The old game path was nearly overgrown; thankfully it was just barely wide enough for us to walk through single file. Daniel and Barns had some trouble getting through at a few places where a tree or branch was blocking the path, but being much smaller I was able to slip through with much less difficulty.

We had only been following the trail a good ten minutes when I heard a sharp crack and when I swirled around to see what it was I found the muzzle of a gun pointed at my face. "Ah, fucking hell," I muttered just before there was a sharp pain in the back of my head and everything went black.

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