“Yes. She doesn’t like me very much,” Terillia said.
Vicky grinned. “So you ARE the one who kissed Eliza!” Terillia flushed blue and almost made Vicky chortle. She had spent some time in a succubae aerie and she was a little more accustomed than most to their peculiarities. They were a very . . . forward . . . race, prone to saying or doing whatever was on their minds. “Don’t worry, she doesn’t hate you. She’s just really serious about Eliza. If it makes you feel any better, I actually STOLE one of her girlfriends when we were younger, and she eventually forgave me. Especially after the bitch turned out to be a total psycho,” Vicky grumbled. She and Veronica had been arguing a lot at the time and Vicky had done what she had done out of spite, and it had turned around to bite her in the ass. “Trust me, you’ll be fine.”
Terillia smiled. “You . . . do you truly believe that?”
Vicky climbed up onto the rock and had a seat. She knew from experience that even though they were the least physically powerful race on Terra, their warring ancestry and cunning made succubae drawn to people of power. Most existing aeries were formed by succubae warlords and warrior maidens during Terra’s dark ages, and these aeries were very much like city-states on Earth. Unlike many other races, succubae were raised by communities rather than families. There were about three succubae females for every male, so monogamous relationships were almost unheard of. Succubae were egg-layers; the males were kept busy during mating cycles trying to keep the almost berserk females satisfied. If their eggs weren’t fertilized, they never really began developing and were absorbed back into the body. If the egg was fertilized, it grew, was laid and then raised by succubae in the aerie whose sole job was to look over the offspring. Most succubae young had no idea who their biological parents were. For that reason, the concept of a “sibling” as humans understood it was completely foreign to them, and the concept of a “twin” generally boggled their minds. For a succubus to want to semi-permanently distance herself from his or her community showed the amount of respect that Terillia must have for Eliza. The fact that Terillia appeared to be gay probably didn’t encourage her to go home either.
“That is good,” Terillia said after a moment. “I wish for your sister to like me. I wish to fit in here.”
“They hired you, so I guess they think you have some talent. Just be yourself, and I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Vicky actually shivered a bit herself as a cool wind crept down from the mountain. “Are you really that afraid of going home?” she asked.
“Why would I be afraid?” Terillia asked, extending a wing and encompassing Vicky’s body with it. The human woman found it surprisingly warm as she scooted closer to the succubus. She knew that if Terillia saw her as part of the succubae’s new “community” that she would begin to act protective of Vicky as well.
“I don’t know if I’m reading too much into you kissing Eliza, but . . .”
Terillia blushed again. “No, that is not the reason I stay. At least, it is not the only reason. While frowned upon, my people are not nearly as strict about same-sex coupling. When you have three females for every male, it is not entirely uncommon for females to . . . how do you say . . . take matters into their own hands to . . . satisfy certain carnal cravings.” Terillia stared up at the stars. “I . . . I want an adventure!” she gasped forcefully at the night sky. “I don’t wish to live my whole life no more than a few . . . miles . . . from where I was raised. As horrible as it sounds, I was excited when the dimensional gap closed, and I was excited when Ms. Eliza declared her war! Because it meant that I was going to be part of something . . . to be part of a legend!”
Vicky smiled. “My sister was always such a stickler when we were young. She came home early, did her homework, never broker curfew . . . you name it. If it was something ‘good girls’ did, then Veronica did it. I . . . I tended to break more rules. I was kind of like you. I wanted to go to new places and see new things. Turns out that my sister wound up surviving the great adventure, and I had to abide by rules on another world that I didn’t even understand.”
“Have you . . . have you gone places and seen things? Tell me,” Terillia requested with a glimmer in her eyes. “Tell of the places you have seen!”
“Okay,” Vicky said, taken aback by this woman’s enthusiasm. She had traveled two globes in her thirty-three years of life. Vicky soon found herself caught up in the fond recollections of her travels. It was nice having someone so eager to listen, and the two talked long into the night.
—————- ————-
The next day . . .
—————- ————-
The entire crew was still asleep when Eliza sat down on the couch and turned on the holo-projector and switched to one of the news streams. She poured herself a cup of coffee as she watched for news of her homeworld. When she had been transformed into a Hybrid, she had gained an appreciation for certain foods and beverages that she had never been able to intake before, and coffee had become one of her favorites, preferably with LOTS of sugar and chocolate creamer. A report came on about insurgency actions by the Swords of Cleansing. There was a recorded “press conference” where Eliza’s father discussed how the security crackdown was going.
Eliza couldn’t even describe how it felt when she watched her father. She wanted to shout at him, but she wanted to help him. She didn’t want to talk to him, but wanted for him to at least ask for her help. She had helped suppress the revolutionaries here on Earth. Why couldn’t he acknowledge that? Why did he have to be so . . .
{{ Stubborn? }} came Veronica’s thought.
{{ I thought you were still asleep, }} Eliza said, kissing her lover’s hand as Veronica approached from behind and hugged Eliza’s head.
{{ You should’ve woken me. It doesn’t do you any good to come out her and mope by yourself. }} Veronica sat down next to Eliza and stole a sip of coffee.
“I hate this,” Eliza said out loud. “We were right in the thick of it for so long . . . Isn’t it weird that we’re just spectators now?”
“I don’t think that’s what’s bothering you. We’ve done our job and then some.”
Eliza sighed and rested her head on Veronica’s shoulder. “What else can I do, pet? I’m about a century old, so why do I STILL want his approval?”
“I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ll never understand our parents any better than they understand us. And since the last time I made a suggestion on how to deal with your father turned out to be disastrous,” she added, kissing Eliza on the lips, “I think I’ll refrain. Just remember that there ARE people who care for you and respect you and you don’t have to travel to another world to find them.”
“I love you, you know that?” Just as Eliza’s lips met, they heard an “Awwwh, how cute,” coming from the entryway.
“Hey Vicky!” Veronica said.
Vicky came in dressed in a sleeping shirt that came down halfway past her thighs, and Eliza got a light punch in the arm for staring just a little too long at those shapely legs.
{{ What? }} Eliza sent telepathically. {{ It’s not like I haven’t seen them before! }} she added, glancing at Veronica’s legs.
{{ Behave yourself, }} came the amused reply.
“Stop talking with your brains,” Vicky mumbled, pouring herself a glass of juice and then joining them on the sofa. “It’s creepy and it’s too damn early for me to handle.”
“Then go back to bed,” Veronica said, getting up to get herself some coffee.
“Can’t. Could I just crash in here tonight? Dennis and Allyson are great, but they both snore like you wouldn’t believe! And they have noisy sex! I couldn’t get to sleep until they were finished!”
Eliza laughed. “You should’ve been around when I first had the compound built. They accidentally left the intercom on once, so Thug, Wyrm and I all got earfuls.”
Vicky looked at the video-stream. “By the way, anyone know what happened to the Living Jewels?” she asked as the anchorman started discussing the bridge created by The Dragon’s Breath.
“Four of them are going to be kept on Terra and the other four on Earth. They’re keeping it hushed as to which one is going where, so I had Wyrm hack the government’s system. What?” she asked when Veronica shot her a dirty look. “Hey, remember that these are the clowns that fired you.” She turned back to Vicky. “Anyway, The Dragon’s Breath, The Ocean’s Heart, The Serpent’s Kiss and The Dead Man’s World are staying here. They don’t want to expose The Dead Man’s World to the magic of Terra. If someone got a hold of it over there who had evil intentions, they could do a hell of a lot more damage than they probably could do here. I’ve heard that the Council of Sorcerers is trying to research them and find out where they came from. Wherever that might be or whatever they are, they show a definite link between the two worlds, and that makes them important.”
“Kind of like you two,” Vicky said almost absently. When Veronica looked quizzical, Vicky continued. “You said it yourself once. The fact that you two were combined when nothing else could be and this . . . link? This link that you share proves a relationship between races of different worlds.”
“The Common Stock Theory,” Eliza said. “Somehow, Terrans and Earthlings come from some common background or stock, but no one is quite sure how. It was just a wild theory until recently, and now Terran scholars have gone nuts with it.”
“And guys like the Purity and the Swords of Cleansing probably aren’t keen on the idea,” Veronica said. “Well, that’s all a bunch of philosophical mumbo-jumbo, and it’s not our problem. We just need to get our mind back on business and let the rest of this stuff sort itself out.”
“Speaking of business,” Vicky said, looking a little guilty, “I was wondering what I could do to help out around here? I’m not much of a security person, but I don’t want to be a burden.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eliza said, squeezing her girlfriend’s hand. “You’re practically family. You weren’t planning on staying that long . . .” She stopped when she saw Vicky blush.
“How long were you planning on staying?” Veronica asked, suddenly suspicious.
“Uhm,” Vicky started, glancing nervously between the other two women. “I’m actually kind of broke. Dead broke.”
“You bitch!” Veronica said. “You spent ALL that grant money?”