My friends and I were all gathered together, each of dressed up and showing off our costumes to each other. We were going to go to the party together in just a few minutes, but first we wanted to get together and get some pictures while we were still thinking about it.

Sylvie was currently dressed up as Kim Possible, having used a spell to turn her hair red for the night. Somehow, she’d talked Todd out of the Captain Kirk costume that he’d planned on wearing and had him dressed up as Kim Possible’s sidekick Ron instead. I had a feeling that some sort of childhood blackmail material had been used, perhaps the threat of revealing a really embarrassing story. If there was an embarrassing childhood story behind this, I would have to wring it out of her anyway.

Kimberly was dressed up as a vampire, having even found some glitter lotion for her skin, much to the disgust of everyone else. Eve had settled on using a spell to turn her skin blue and then dressing up as a human sized Smurfette. Of course, this Smurfette was a little hotter looking than she’d ever been in the cartoons.

I had succumbed to the urgings of my friends and was currently in succubus form. I was wearing a red skirt and top, had a pair of cheap looking plastic horns on my forehead, and I had a cheap looking plastic pitchfork that I was holding. Of course, I could have gone with realistic looking devil horns and pitchfork, but I was intentionally trying to tone things down so as not to scare anyone.

“I wonder,” Eve mused, looking at Kimberly with a curious look. “Is there such a thing as a Were vampire?”

“Not that I’ve ever heard of,” I told her. Then I gestured at myself and admitted, “I’d never heard of a Were succubus either until this happened…”

“That would be smurfing hilarious,” Eve exclaimed, getting into her role for the evening.

“How about a Were zombie?” Todd asked with a grin. “I mean, if a Were zombie bites someone, do they turn into a real zombie or a Were zombie? Or maybe, they just turn into a zombie until sunlight and then it breaks the curse…”

“Zombies are just animated corpses,” Sylvie argued. “Not a real species. I mean, wouldn’t that be like someone becoming a Were flu victim or something?”

After this, the conversation dropped away from Were zombies and went to straight zombie apocalypse. I shook my head as we all discussed this while making our way to the party. It might have been a silly conversation, but I suppose it was no different than the discussion Todd and I recently had over whether Babylon 5 or Deep Space 9 was the best TV series about a space station.

When we arrived at the gym where the party was being held, I saw that most of the other students had already arrived. They were gathered around in a variety of different costumes, many of which seemed to have used real magic in some way or another. One girl who was dressed like an angel had a glowing halo floating over her head. I waved at her, causing her to stop and stare at me for a moment before she burst out laughing and waved back.

“Look at that costume,” Eve blurted out, pointing to a guy in some kind of Godzilla outfit. It was a cheap rubber suit, just like in the old movies, except that this Godzilla was also breathing fire. “That’s totally smurfy.”

“Are you going to keep saying smurf every other word?” Sylvie asked her with an annoyed look.

“Smurfing A,” Eve responded with a smirk. “If you’ve got a smurfing problem with that, then you can kiss my smurf.”

“Now I’m starting to wish I’d come as Gargamel,” Todd commented, earning a chuckle from the rest of us.

We started walking around, admiring other people’s costumes and getting our own looked at as well. I got more than a few looks, though once they saw my plastic horns and pitch fork, they all seemed to relax and chuckle. My friends had all been right. In this kind of environment, I could be out in my Were form and no one really seemed bothered by it.

“That’s an awesome devil costume,” one boy told me with a grin. “It looks so real.”

“It does, doesn’t it,” I responded spreading my wings a bit.

His eyes widened for just a moment and then he grinned. “Awesome.”

“See,” Sylvie told me with a smug look. “I told you this was the perfect time to go out as a succubus.”

By this point, Kimberly and Eve had both wandered off. I’d last seen Kimberly walking away with some guy in a Mario costume while Eve was flirting with a girl in a Glenda the Good Witch costume. I would have liked it if Sylvie had gone as well so that I could have Todd to myself, but since she and Todd had matching costumes, she was making sure to stay close to him.

“Nice costume,” one girl said, without a hint of sarcasm.

“Thank you,” I told her. “You too.”

Then I saw Gayle, wearing a fancy ball gown and an old school masquerade mask. She looked like she was having a blast, dancing with a hot looking redhead in a sexy nurse outfit. I smiled and waved but Gayle was too distracted to notice me. Good for her.

While we were walking around mingling, I saw Monica talking with a boy in a generic superhero costume. She saw me and nodded before continuing her conversation. Kaellie seemed to have found a boy to talk to as well, which wasn’t surprising. She might have been a bit of a bitch, but she was still pretty cute. And then I saw Teressa, standing off to the side in a sexy cat costume, watching us with a dark look. I wasn’t sure who she was glaring at more, me or Todd.

“Uh oh,” I muttered, reaching for one of the beads on my bracelet and whispering, “Engage.” I felt a faint tingle as the spell activated but noticed no other indications. I just hoped that this spell I got from Gayle worked.

“Is it just me,” Todd asked with a scowl. “Or is that guy over there dressed up as a My Little Pony…”

“Didn’t you hear?” I asked Todd with as innocent a look as I could manage while being a succubus. “Rainbows and sparkles are latest in men’s fashion.”

Todd shuddered visibly. “No. Thank. You.”

I just laughed, then gave Todd a kiss. I was very careful to keep my tongue to myself and not to feed on anything but the external energy he directed towards me. As a succubus, I had several types of hungers to keep under control, but I was getting used to doing so.

Suddenly, there was a faint glow around my body which lasted for only a second. Todd jumped back and gasped, “What was that?”

“A failsafe,” I responded grimly, glancing to Teressa who had a look of expectation on her face that quickly turned to one of confusion and frustration.

Since I knew that Teressa had planned on pulling something at this party, I’d made sure to take some precautions. Specifically, I learned how to cast a spell that would create a brief shield around me, one that would only last for ten minutes before fading away. The shield served one purpose, protecting me from a single spell that targeted me. The spell had served its purpose and had burned out, leaving me vulnerable if Teressa tried another spell.

“Engage,” I whispered, activating the next token on my bracelet. It was another copy of the same spell.

“What’s going on?” Todd asked me with a serious look.

“Teressa,” Sylvie answered with a look of annoyance. “I’m guessing she just tried something.”

“Yep,” I agreed pleasantly. “I don’t know what though since my spell blocked it.”

“What are you going to do?” Sylvie asked with an angry look.

I shrugged. “I’m going to ignore her for now. Why let her ruin the party?” And with that, I gave Todd another kiss, this time giving him just a little tongue.

Three minutes later, my shield activated again. I immediately activated my third and final shield token, hoping that Teressa didn’t keep trying this because I’d only been able to cast the spell three times last night. It was nearly five more minutes before my shield activated again.

“I’m out of defenses,” I said, getting extremely annoyed by this time. “I think it’s time to deal with her.”

“About time,” Sylvie muttered.

My first impulse was to go over to Teressa and threaten her, perhaps even scare the shit out of her again. However, I remembered what had happened with that the last time, and doing so here in front of half the school would be worse than counter-productive. Instead, I would have to deal with her without looking like I was, without anyone seeing me attack her. Since Teressa had just been throwing spells at me from a distance, it only seemed fair that I return the favor.

I reached into the pouch on my belt and pulled out one of the polished stones inside, though I tried to be subtle about this and to act casual. I put my arm around Todd and gave him a good hug, then I winked at him and said, “Engage.”

I focused the spell on Teressa while trying to appear that I wasn’t paying attention to her. Then I grinned as the spell hit her. It was all I could do not to give a maniacal mad-scientist laugh, though I couldn’t resist smirking at least a little.

“What did you do?” Todd asked me.

“Just wait and see,” I responded with a grin. “This is a spell that I’ve been wanting to try out.”

I was a little afraid that Teressa was going to hit me with another spell before my own became noticeable. However, within just a minute Teressa began tugging at her costume uncomfortably. Another minute later, her costume was starting to look too small on her. Her developing muffin top was starting to hang out, turning a sexy cat costume into something of a joke.

“She’s getting fat,” Sylvie blurted out.

“A weight gain spell,” I agreed pleasantly. “It’s based off my grandma’s talent…but sort of slowed down. My grandma makes people blow up almost immediately but my aunt was teaching me how to modify spells...” I grinned evilly as I added, “This one takes longer to get the effect but it should last longer too.”

Teressa stared down at herself with a look of horror, then she glared at me before turning and hurrying away before anyone noticed that she had just gained thirty pounds and was still continuing to plump up. As it was, her costume looked like it was starting to tear so she wasn’t about to hang around and get revenge.

“She’ll probably gain another hundred pounds,” I said with a chuckle. “And she’ll probably be hiding in her room for the rest of the night.”

“Now that’s just playing dirty,” Sylvie said, looking quite impressed.

“Remind me not to get you mad at me,” Todd said carefully.

“Oh, I will,” I responded with a smirk, giving him another kiss and deciding not to mention what happens when I drain too much sexual energy from a guy. He was pretty brave to date someone like me, but I didn’t want to push the limits of that. “Now come on, the costume contest is coming up soon and I think I’m a shoo-in for best costume…”