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What happened to Chip was a disaster. Obviously. You couldn't exactly get around that. He might have been shitty at sex, but he was a good guy. And getting his throat ripped out by a monster was not how he deserved to go.
But as Needy sat there in her car, blood still under her fingernails, triple-checking the box cutter and hammer, a thought went through her mind. Several thoughts. Fifty thoughts. All of them about Jennifer. Their childhood, their friendship. That.. kiss, and the things Jen had told her. And then there was that split second, while they were arguing and fighting in the pool. "You were never really a good friend!" She expected it would land about as well as "You suck!" But somewhere in the recesses of those dead eyes, she had seen it. A moment of pain.
Needy had felt bad for all those boys who had been killed. Anyone would, except for maybe a demon. But had she really taken a second to actually feel bad for Jennifer? To properly process just what a terrible thing had been done to her?? Kidnapped, tortured, killed, all because she wanted to fuck some pretty boy. Jen may not have been a good person, but she was still her friend. And if any part of her was still in there, then no way in hell could she actually kill her.
This was in no way related to any stupid crushes she may have had for nearly a decade. Obviously. That would be stupid.
Speaking of stupid, she put the cutter and the hammer down on her passenger seat, then climbed out of the car. Just walking up to the front door felt like a death march. This was bound to be the moment she died. A useless 'lesbigay' on her way to do something idiotic. At least Needy wouldn't die the way she lived, hiding and ignoring the truth.
She knocked on the front door, which was answered by a woman who clearly wasn't expecting any visitors. Thankfully, she was about the only person who could get away with showing up so late at night. "Needy...?"
"H-Hi, Mrs. Check, I... Um, I just needed to talk to Jen for a second? Is she here?"
"Uhh..." You could see the gears turning over in her head. After all, they'd just been at the dance earlier that evening. Had something happened at the dance? Was there some silly teenage drama going on here? Was it worth letting the girl into her home at this time of night? But apparently Needy's history with the family was enough to get her access to the house. "Yeah, c'mon in, kiddo." Yay, how exciting, now she could go into demon's bedroom and confront her about... stuff.
Her hand hadn't even formed a complete fist to knock on the door before she heard Jennifer's voice from the other side. "You already announced yourself in the foyer, may as well get your ass in here..."
Well. No point in delaying the inevitable. She turned the handle and pushed the door open, then after a moment's consideration, shut it behind her as she entered. The last thing she needed was for Jennifer's mother to hear basically any of what was about to happen.
"So. You killed my boyfriend."
"In my defense, he stabbed me with a fucking pool skimmer. And not even in the fun euphemistic way. Hurt like a real bitch."
"In his defense, you made a snack out of his neck." Needy threw her hands up and sighed softly. "That's not why I'm here anyway."
That, at least, got more than a simple glance from Jen. She put away the yearbook that she'd been flipping through, tossing aside the marker. "No? So what are you here for? Is needy little Needy gonna get revenge for my terrible acts?" She stood up, strutting her way across the room like she was on a freaking runway.
"Mm, thought about it. Grabbed a box cutter and a hammer from home."
She half-expected her to get mad at that, but Jen just continued smirking. "Murder weapons courtesy of Home Depot? God, you're butch..."
It would have been easier to ignore that if Needy hadn't found it incredibly easy to start making out with her just a few nights ago. She always knew that she had it pretty bad. But it was also something that was pretty easily swept under the rug, until now. Maybe the fact that Jennifer had drawn attention to it was part of the reason she was so scattered lately. The murder didn't help, but on a personal level, this felt like a pretty big deal too. "Maybe... Maybe I am..."
Jennifer gave her a pouty little moue at that, striding closer still, bringing a hand to rest against Needy's cheek. Dammit, even when she was supposedly exhausted and 'ugly' she still looked better than most girls on their best days. It was so fucking unfair. But that had always been the case, it wasn't like the demon had somehow given her supernatural beauty. Which somehow felt... more insulting. "Buck up, Lesnicki. Some girls are into that sort of thing."
"See?? That, right there. That's why I couldn't do this!" She reached out as well, pressing her hand against Jen's upper chest. "Because if you were just some... some monster, you wouldn't say shit like that. I know that the real Jennifer is still in there, deep down."
"...in my tits?" Her face was unimpressed, but Needy could swear that her eyes were just the tiniest bit more watery than they had been a second ago.
"In your heart, jackass. You're still you, even if those douchebags did manage to get you all... demon-ified. And I'd be a pretty shit friend if I just got rid of you instead of actually helping you. So... So let me help you."
Jen scoffed lightly, though now it was clear to see that there was just the smallest, most miniscule little tear at the corner of her eye. "You're a fucking idiot..." Without warning, she pulled Needy in and hugged her tightly. "And you're my fucking idiot..." Just like that, their lips were pressed together in a kiss that somehow managed to be even more passionate than the last. Tongues swept around one another. Hands grasped, fumbling for clothes. Skin was bared, and the two of them were swiftly falling back against Jennifer's bed. "My needy little idiot..."
She didn't bother to stop things this time. There was no point. Needy wasn't some demon hunter, and she wasn't a hero. She was an idiot in love.
"You've gotta be fuckin' kidding me!"
"I absolutely am not. Do you want to make it to graduation and actually get out of this town, or not?"
Jennifer immediately began to pout and stomp like a belligerent little kid. "You have no idea how hard this is for me! One guy a month? I'll go crazy!"
This argument felt absolutely insane, but that was just kind of her life now. Besides, this was more important than a little bit of awkwardness. Shortly after their first true hookup, Jennifer had gone out to get another 'snack'. Considering how close it was to Chip's death, the entirety of Devil's Kettle was in a bad way. It was something of a double-whammy for Needy. Because not only was there yet another mangled body in the public consciousness, but that meant the girl she was effectively dating probably seduced the poor schlub before chowing down. And that left her with... a lot of mixed emotions.
So she was attempting to set some rules, but Needy was being met with resistance. "Look, I know it's pointless to play the ethics card here, so let me be practical. The more you kill, the more likely you're going to get caught eventually. It's going to be super annoying if that happens. There will be cops, and press, and all kinds of bullshit. So we'll play it cool. Maybe... I don't know! Eat a drifter instead or something."
Jennifer rolled her eyes, though she got the impression that some part of her at least kind of understood where the problem lay. Not that she was gonna be swayed that easily. "I'm going to let that slide because you've never eaten a person - except me," she quickly added with a grin. "They've gotta be young, and horny, and scared, and like a million other things. Going after some homeless dude would be like... ugh, McDonald's... No, that's being generous. It's like week-old Long John Silver's."
Gripping the bridge of her nose, Needy tried her hardest to understand. "Okay, well... Can we at least be... tactical about this?? We're only a couple months out from graduation. We'll pick like... a handful of dudes that everyone just fucking loathes. Butter them up, get their engines revving, freak them out, and then you can eat. And for Christ's sake can we stop leaving crime scenes that are like five feet away from where people can find them easily? Like the trail will go cold so much easier if they're missing persons and not laid out like a zebra, post-lioness."
The response this time was a little bit less combative, but no less sassy. You had to take what you could get sometimes when your girlfriend was demon-infested. But at least some of this seemed to be sinking in. "...As long as I get final say in who we pick. Because we both know you have garbage taste in men."
"Low blow..." Needy muttered, delivering a rough kiss to her lips.
It was strange, once Needy had properly adjusted to the fact that Jennifer needed to murder to maintain her health, she kind of... stopped doing it.
Shortly after their conversation about moderating her bloodlust, they had decided together to deal with Rich Montgomery. He was a true asshole, and pretty much nobody would miss him, unlike all the other guys Jennifer had dealt with. He was pompous and cocky, and thought that the world worshiped at his feet. So it was a little easier to support his death because... Well, fuck that guy.
The first thing Needy noticed was how much Jennifer's heart really wasn't into it. After all, she'd at least been there to see her flirtation when it came to Colin (and herself). But for Rich, she didn't seem to even be bothering much. Sure, she was hot enough and he was dumb enough that it didn't take much to get the jackass' attention. Half-lidded eyes, pouty lips, a few touches. At some point, it apparently occurred to Jennifer just how easy this was getting because one day she simply said to him "wanna fuck?"
When the deed was done, his body was dumped unceremoniously into the Devil's Kettle from which the town got its name.
That was when things got weird (relatively speaking). Jennifer certainly seemed to have some of her energy back. The two were currently making good use of that fact in Needy's bedroom. As she nestled against her girlfriend's chest, soaking in the post-coital bliss, Needy noticed a curious glow to the other girl's eyes. "Um, are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, I did just make you cum like three times in a row, so I'm feeling pretty good about things right now."
"Oh, you just had like..." She made a vague motion with her index and middle finger. "Your eyes. I was worried you were already getting hungry again."
Jen shook her head, smiling more naturally than she had in a few weeks. "Nah, babe, I'm actually doing pretty fucking amazing. I dunno, kinda wasn't even that hungry when I was eating Rich. Whatever, maybe I'm adjusting to this shit finally."
Needy felt less convinced. Being possessed by a succubus spirit or whatever didn't seem like the kind of thing you just got used to. And since she didn't exactly have a lot of moves, she went right back to the well and started going back to research in the library. It turned out that her first five times through the various books, her attention had been too focused on defeating a demon that she never thought to find a different way of solving the issue.
While it is true that the most common and direct way for a succubus or incubus to get energy is by consuming human flesh, there are rumors of others who have circumvented this tradition. Demons who bite humans without consuming their flesh can instead turn them into familiars, imbuing them with a fraction of their powers. They can function as a kind of living energy source, should the demon in question prefer their company or simply the freedom this provides. Far more creative and empathetic incubi and succubi have discovered that they can instead draw smaller, but better-sustained amounts of energy from intimacy with members of the same sex, rather than those of the opposite sex. Needless to say, most are far too ravenous to consider either of these options.
A sudden touch on her shoulders made Needy jump, and it was all she could do to bite back the squeak that threatened to leap from her throat. "Are you seriously reading right now when we could be making out under the bleachers, Lesnicki?"
Nice as that may have sounded, she was still a little bit too stunned by what she'd read to provide an immediate response to that proposition. "D-Did you know about this??" she asked in a poor stage-whisper.
Jennifer looked unimpressed to say the least. "You're asking me if I know something from a book? I thought you understood me better than that. What's got you so worked up, and why isn't it me?"
"You haven't been hungry because you've been using me as a freaking battery! You transferred some of your powers to me when you bit me, and every time we... ya know... I-It means you don't have to eat instead!" She gestured again at the paragraph, as though somehow that would convince Jennifer to actually start reading.
"So basically you're saying I bumbled my way into doing the right thing? Score."
Needy huffed and began to pout. "That doesn't make me feel much better..."
Perhaps finally sensing that this mattered to her girlfriend, Jen lightly leaned against her shoulder, nuzzling into her neck and kissing her cheek. "This all happened because a bunch of jackasses bungled a fucking sacrifice. Nothing about this entire process has been thought through in the slightest. Can you please just remove that stick from your ass and be glad that something is going well for a change? Or would you prefer I go back to munching on dudes like a freak? Trust me, I'll be glad to not have to deal with all that blood and shit anymore."
Every single aspect of this situation since that night at the bar felt like Needy was basically taking what she could get. But she had to admit, the stuff she could get was pretty damn good at times. She closed the book and looked toward Jen again, smiling softly. "You realize what this means, don't you?"
"No, but I get the feeling you're gonna tell me anyway."
"I saved you with the power of love~" Needy sang cheerfully.
Jen just rolled her eyes with a sigh, kissing her hard on the lips this time. "You're an idiot..."