When it comes to succubi, I’m an easy sell. There’s something terrifying and wonderful about someone who comes when you call, who knows your desires better than you do, and is willing to play those desires like a violin. That’s what I think when I think about succubi, anyway, and when D. L. King released a call for succubus stories, I couldn’t resist.
I started off with a few different ideas. I had one about two succubi in love, another about a succubi and a European Crusader, and yet another about a particularly scholarly succubi who lurked in a university library. I wrote a bit on all of these things, but nothing stuck until I came up with the line that starts “After a Fall,” my contribution for Seductress.
During the long days of autumn in Hell, the blood rivers grow sluggish and even Caras, Hell’s great heart, beats more slowly.
That was how Aquila, the narrator of what is one of my favorite stories to date, opens the story. Aquila is a pride demon, one that others call Pride’s favorite son, and when it comes to discussions of which of the seven deadly sins is the most worthy, he has no doubt at all that it is his.
Of course, he makes the mistake of mentioning this to the new Queen of Lust, and she decides to test his resolve. Pride and lust are a fine match for one another, and by the end, Aquila has a new understanding of both.
Aquila was charming, both to me, and I suspect, to the Queen of Lust herself. It was less like writing than taking dictation, and the first time he spoke to the Queen of Lust, I knew exactly how the story was going to end.
As for the Queen herself, there was only so much I could say about her given that Aquila was firmly doing the talking. The story of how she killed her predecessor and came to her rank is one I hope I get a chance to tell some day, as is the one where she became a succubus in the first place.
You should read this story if you like arrogant men taken down a notch, willing, if not terribly intelligent surrender, word play, and some time spent in a Hell full of highly politicized devils.
You can pick up a copy of Seductress at Amazon or Barnes and Noble!
Kannan Feng 