by Eric Vall
“If our connection is all about sex and fun, I don’t see how you could ask for a better place than Vegas,” I laughed.
“Then we should leave immediately,” Cupi said.
“Yep!” Liby agreed.
“Excellent!” I laughed as I put my arms around the two women. “Sin City, get ready for some demons and Hellfire magic!”
Chapter 9
“You probably won’t be surprised by this whatsoever,” Cupiditas said as she helped pack a few of my belongings into the suitcase I’d had since I was in fifth grade, “but it’s a common place for us succubi to be summoned. Sin City and all.”
“That actually does surprise me,” I questioned the succubi with a raised eyebrow. “Prostitution is totally legal there. A sex partner isn’t exactly hard to come by.”
Liby bit her lip seductively. “Mortal women don’t fulfill the same desires as we can, but you already know all about that, don’t you?”
“You’ll hear no argument from me,” I chuckled in agreement.
Cupi, Liby, and I had a pretty simple relationship. They were happy as long as I was happy, and I was happy as long as they were happy. The only issue was that their former master, a demon pimp who could summon literal Hellfire, wanted them back, and wanted me dead.
And I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Once the succubi and I had grown our connection and had a bit of time to prepare for his arrival, even Earl wouldn't be able to stop us. But work isn’t satisfying if you don’t have a little time to play first, and Vegas was the perfect place to play. Once we were all packed, the blonde and I met back up with the other two in the living room of the apartment.
“We really need to do something about that pentagram, man.” Todd pointed to the large red circle that was still inscribed on our floor.
I just shrugged. “I don’t know about you, but if things go south against Earl, I’d like to say that I spent my last hours on Earth hanging out with my friends and having fun. Not cleaning floors that probably haven’t been cleaned in years.”
“Fair enough, Jake ‘ol buddy. Who knows? If we ever need to reconfigure it into a protective circle or demon trap, we’ll already be halfway there!” The imp giggled.
“A protective what, now?” I questioned.
“You still have much to learn, my young apprentice,” Todd laughed. “Circles are all over the place in the lore of Heaven and Hell. Obviously, there’s the pentagram that is used to summon demons, but you can also create ones that can shield you from any hellspawn when you’re inside. Or, you can use a circle to act as a sort of demon trap. It all just depends on what you draw inside them.”
“Very good, Todd.” Cupi smirked. “Where did you learn all this information?”
“Long nights of going down the YouTube rabbit hole.” He shrugged. “And about four months’ worth of rent spent on rare paranormal books. I’ve got it all. Ley Line Maps, ancient Vatican enchantments, demonology encyclopedias… If you want to know anything about the occult, I’m your guy.”
“Ohhh,” Liby gasped. “Some of those might be useful. Bring them all, and Cupi and I can look through them on the car trip and identify which ones might give Jacob extra power.”
Todd scurried off towards his room and then reappeared with an armful of dusty old books. Since it was now later in the evening, and we were just going downstairs to the car, we didn’t even try to put Todd into his bag. Instead, we used it to carry the occult books, and the imp climbed up on Liby’s shoulders like a toddler getting a piggyback ride.
Without further hesitation, we started off down the rundown hallway of our complex. This place always reminded me of something you’d see in a cop show when they would go to bust a drug dealer or to scope out some shady con artist. The light gray paint was chipped in a million places, and the carpet surely hadn’t been replaced since the nineties. But it was affordable, and Todd and I called it home.
I hadn’t actually owned a car since my college days. As luck would have it, my nice red luxury sedan blew a gasket a few months after I graduated, and I hadn’t had the time or the money to fix it since. It just sat there on cinder blocks in one of our two carports. Nobody had vandalized the car in the few years it had been sitting here, but I had taken off the wheels and sold them to a chop shop to help pay for groceries a few months ago.
To Todd, however, his car was his pride and joy. Contrary to what many people may have thought, the stoner did not drive around in a hippy van from the seventies. His car was a boxy yellow Volvo sedan from the eighties that he claimed to have bought from a little old lady that only drove it once a week. The state of the vehicle itself led me to believe that the dealer had pulled one over on my buddy. The thing was missing two of its hubcaps, and rust spread across the entire bottom of its body. The front bumper was dented in from a minor collision he’d had with a light pole when he was DWB, or “Driving While Baked,” as Todd liked to call it. Who knew when it last went in for an oil change or standard maintenance? Along the rear bumper was a sticker that proudly promoted “Legalize It!” as well as a sticker of a technicolored pot leaf. We were going to stick out like a sore thumb, but it was the only working vehicle that we currently had access to. We just had to hope and pray that it got us to Vegas in one piece.
Todd threw open the door and jumped up onto the red fabric interior of the driver’s seat. “Alright, dudes and dudettes, let’s get rolling!”
“Uh, Todd?” I awkwardly chuckled as the two girls got into the back of the vehicle. “I think I’m gonna drive for a while.”
“Somebody else driving my Lola? I will have none of it!” Todd crossed his arms and shook his head.
“Can you even reach the pedals?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Of course,” Todd scoffed.
The imp clung on to the bottom of the steering wheel and tried his hardest to press the gas pedal. Instead, he just hung there like a spider monkey, swinging his legs at the bottom of the car in vain. After a full minute of fruitless attempts, he sighed and pulled himself back up onto the seat. He leaned back into the driver’s chair and tossed on his seatbelt before he reached up for the steering wheel. Todd’s stubby arms were far too short with the restraints, so he unbuckled himself and grabbed ahold of the wheel. The only problem now was that his rear was suspended above the seat. The imp pouted for a moment as the realization set in.
“Alright, I give up,” he said as he scooted over to the passenger seat. “If anybody else gets to drive my baby, I guess I’d want it to be you.”
“Thanks, buddy,” I said in appreciation as I slid down in front of the console.
I rustled in my pockets and pulled out Todd’s keys that I had snagged earlier. They had been resting in one of his older bowls that we had been using as a “catch-all” for our odds and ends. I shoved the triangular, pot-residue-laden key into the fob and twisted.
Todd’s car turned over once before it sputtered and died. The imp and I looked over at each other, and he gave me a nonchalant shrug. I tried again. This time, the alternator turned over with a shrill whine before the engine sprung to life and a cough of exhaust shot out of the tailpipe.
“I bet you’ve never seen a sex wagon like this, eh, girls?” Todd asked the two succubi in the back.
“You are aware of what we do for a living, right?” Cupi snarked back at the imp playfully. “Car sex is one of the most common suggestions we get. But yes, it is quite impressive.”
“Thirty years old, and she still makes the chicks all wet,” Todd giggled and patted the door of Lola.
“Alright, guys,” I announced to my friends. “We’ve got about five-hundred dollars in our pocket, a car full of awesome companions, and nothing but the open road ahead of us. Next stop, Las Vegas!”
For a moment, I considered slamming down the gas pedal and peeling out of the apartment parking lot, but the lurch of the vehicle as we moved forward reminded me of how bad of an idea that was. Our apartment was thankfully located on the far
side of town, so we didn’t have to go far before we were on the interstate headed toward Sin City. Once we were on the road, the two succubi stared out the window in awe at the beautiful desert around us while Todd lit up in the seat beside me and kicked back to relax.
“We’ve never seen Earth like this before!” Libidine exclaimed. “We’ve been summoned to this area, but our services are normally limited to a single room.”
“My sister is right,” Cupi agreed. “This is very beautiful.”
“You know,” Todd coughed a puff of smoke, “I wouldn’t have thought demons would be interested in the desert. It’s hot and desolate and full of grainy sand and rock. Doesn’t it remind you too much of your home?”
“This is nothing like Hell. Hell doesn’t have these beautiful stars in the sky or those cute looking spiny plants along the side of the road. Or those adorable animals we keep passing. Hell’s wildlife is a little more… intimidating, to say the least,” she smiled as she pointed at a pronghorn in our headlights.
“So… what does Hell look like?” I asked, somewhat afraid of what she would answer.
“Let’s hope you never find out,” Cupi warned.
“According to the videos I’ve seen, the people who have died and come back to life all describe it as something different, like it’s tailor-made to your darkest fears or whatever,” the imp spoke as he rolled another joint.
“That’s just for the people who are sent there for judgment. Demons see it for what it really is…” Cupi’s words trailed off.
“How about some music?” I mused as I tried to change the subject.
It was already turning to dusk, and the last thing I needed for my psyche was to be learning about what the unhappiest place on Earth looked like. As I clicked on Todd’s old radio, we were greeted with nothing but static. No matter how many times I pushed the search button, nothing but the crackling sound greeted us. Todd reached into the glove box with his small red hands and pulled out a cassette tape with a large grin.
“This is the perfect music for our situation.” He smirked as he shoved the tape into the slot on the dash.
“Still rocking the tapes, Todd?” I chuckled.
“Bro, this thing got me through some of the hardest times of my life. Aka Middle School,” he cackled. “It has lots of sentimental value!”
The radio kicked to life with the slow ringing of a bell, and I knew exactly what he was talking about. Todd was pretty old school when it came to his musical tastes, but right now, I didn’t want it any other way. As the guitar riff began, Todd started bobbing his head slowly, his cigarette still dangling from his lips. Then the drums started. I couldn’t help myself anymore, so I joined the imp in his head bobbing session as we continued down the dark desert road. I cranked the radio up when the song hit its crescendo, and we both started to sing along. Though the girls weren’t familiar with the tune, they played along as they bobbed their heads with the beat.
We kept singing along with each new song that popped up on Todd’s mixtape, but I was suddenly thrust back into reality when the small yellow gas light appeared on the dash. Thankfully we had gotten past the more desolate part of the highway, and the nearest gas station was only about five miles from our current location.
We were almost to the Arizona-Nevada border, and I took a minute to glance out my window and take in the desert in front of me. The beautiful natural landscape was one of the reasons I’d moved out to this area, but I’d been so caught up with work and school and life in general for the last few years that I never had any time to just go out and enjoy it. I continued to savor the view as we pulled up to the desolate gas station.
It was probably a good thing that it was so late in the day because there was not a soul around. The four of us approached the gray and yellow building as I wondered how boring it would be to work at a shitty place like this in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we could provide the clerk with a bit of entertainment.
As I entered through the sliding automatic doors, Cupi and Liby shuffled off with Todd discreetly to grab some goodies. I walked up to the man behind the counter and plopped down a twenty and a ten on the table.
“Can I get thirty on pump number one?” I asked with a cheery smile.
“Sure thing, my friend,” the man behind the counter smiled.
The guy wasn’t much older than me, but he dressed like he was fifty. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his sharp features and glasses made him look like he belonged at the front of a lecture hall, not behind a gas station counter. He raised an eyebrow as he glanced at my friends behind me. All three of them were in the snack aisle. Todd was standing at the succubi’s side, casually pointing at every single item he wanted to consume in his baked-out state.
“Is that your… pet?” he tried to rationalize what exactly was standing beside the succubi, who were now giggling as they tried on sunglasses in the next aisle over.
“Oh, that’s just our dog. He’s got a rare skin condition. Isn’t that right, Rex?” I called back to the imp.
Todd turned his bloodshot eyes toward me, and the cashier paused. His mouth fell agape, and he blinked rapidly as he tried to wrap his mind around what I was saying. The light bulb finally turned on, and he fell down on all fours and started to walk around the succubi’s legs, rubbing his side against them as he circled. He looked up at the man and let out a loud meow.
I tried not to bust out laughing since the man behind the counter was now confused beyond belief.
“Uhhh. Maybe I meant cat?” I said, but he just shrugged and took the bills I placed behind the counter. I’d chalk that up as a win.
Cupi and Liby walked up to the counter with all of their snacks and tossed them onto the grimy surface gleefully. The clerk began to scan the items as I took inventory. Two bags of chips. A couple of candy bars. An energy drink to keep me awake for the rest of the drive. A black lighter with a skull design for Todd. A tin of mixed nuts. It was a pretty good haul that was still within our budget.
“That’ll be thirteen fifty-three.” The clerk’s eyes lit up as he saw the succubi up close. “How are you doing today, darlings?”
Libidine returned the man’s warm smile. “We’re on a trip to Las Vegas, so I’d say the day is about to get a lot better.”
“The Sin City, eh?” he chuckled. “I’ve been there a few times. It’s not like there’s a lot else to do out here in the middle of nowhere. You’ll have to be careful, though. You can get into all sorts of trouble out there.”
“That’s the idea,” Cupi smirked, and the man grinned even wider.
“You’ll have to let me know how that goes,” the man with the ponytail sputtered. “Is there anything else I can get for you today?”
I felt Todd tugging on my pant leg, so I reached down to see what else he could have possibly found. The imp motioned for me to stoop down so that he could talk to me.
“Get me a couple of scratchers. The Toddster’s feeling lucky today!” he begged.
“Alright,” I stood back up to face the man. “Can we get a lotto ticket, too?”
“Absolutely!” the clerk agreed. “You know what? Take one for each of you. You’re going to need money when you hit Vegas.”
“You are too kind--” Libidine squinted to read the man’s name tag.
“Jonathan.” The clerk stuck out his hand to shake hers. “The name’s Jonathan, pleasure to meet you all.”
“The pleasure is all ours, Jonathan,” Liby grinned before Cupi and her picked up the goodies.
“Well? Don’t leave us waiting,” the clerk smirked as he handed Libidine four tickets. “Let’s see what you won.”
The dark-haired succubus distributed a ticket to each of us. I picked up a coin from the “take-a-penny” holder and went to town on the little grey squares spread across the cardboard backing. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw three cherries appear, but then my good fortune ran out when the matching square was filled with a cactus. I looked over at my friends to see if they
were doing any better. Todd huffed, tossed his ticket to the ground, and stomped on it. Meanwhile, Libidine and Cupiditas were trying to make sense of what they saw.
I walked over to the two succubi, and my mouth fell agape in shock. Both of the girls had a ticket that was full of dollar signs that matched the symbol in the “win” box. If what I was reading was correct, they had both just won six-hundred dollars each. Without even thinking, I grabbed the tickets out of their hands and presented them to the cashier.
Jonathan glanced at the tickets and then let out an impressed whistle. “I think you might have just cleared us out of money, girls! Let me just go back into the safe and grab your winnings.”
The clerk smiled before he disappeared into the back room.
I turned to the two succubi and threw my arms around them in celebration. “How did you do it? Some sort of demon magic? An illusion spell?”
Cupiditas shrugged. “We are lucky ladies.”
“Was that a joke?” Libidine couldn’t believe her ears. “Did Cupiditas just make a joke?”
“If you must know,” Cupi laughed as a small smile crept up the corner of her mouth, “Succubi are said to bring luck to those who possess them. Why do you think so many demons refuse to let us go?”
“I know I’ll never let you go,” I smirked. “But it’s for more… Personal reasons.”
“Welp, you guys are in luck,” Jonathan exclaimed as he walked around the corner. “We had just enough in the safe to cover your winnings. One-thousand, two-hundred dollars and zero cents.”
The clerk extended the wad of hundreds towards us, and I happily plucked them from his hand. Cupiditas and Libidine scooped up the snacks that they had brought up for purchase, shot the man a wink, and then headed towards the exit with Todd at their side.
“So dude,” the man behind the counter asked as soon as Liby and Cupi walked out the exit door. “Are those your girlfriends? They’re so fucking hot!”
“I can hardly believe it myself, but yes,” I laughed.
