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Eloise dragged her hand over her face, and tried to blink the sleep away as best she could. The softly ticking clock on the wall above her, confirmed what she already knew, that it was far too late to be here.
Far too late to still be carefully unpacking, and cataloguing all the strange new arrivals, but she was determined to finish.
A box had arrived at her office earlier that morning with no return address, nothing that could identify it at all. The only thing was a small note card insinuating the contents were likely of some historical relevance. The university had been abuzz with the news once the contents had been revealed to be pieces of jewellery from all over the world, scattered through the past. At this point, she estimated the value of the total contents at well over ten million. She couldn’t fathom who would have sent something like this in, they must not have known true value.
Or simply not cared.
Most people likely would have sold them all at auction to collect the massive fortune, but perhaps the owner hadn’t known. Now at least, these pieces could be catalogued, studied for their historical significance, and then displayed for the world to enjoy. Which, each one of these truly deserved, the craftsmanship was superb. They were each of the highest quality for their time, it was quite something to see them all together. Her office had been the one to receive in the box, so she’d asserted that she could sort through them all, and make sure they made it to the right departments.
It was probably her only chance to be a part of something so obscure, plus now she was one of few hands that had held each of the pieces through time. Likely only the third or fourth aside from the creator themselves, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Thankfully no one had questioned Eloise, when she claimed the task.
Unfortunately, it had turned out to be a lot more daunting than first anticipated. It took ages to try and hazard a guess at timing, and then more time to track down which department, or university to have it sent out to. So, here she was at 2:30 in the morning, finally boxing up the last piece after she’d taken a number of photos, and dated it to the best of her knowledge. At least it meant she could finally pack up and head home, though really- She could have, and should have, gone home sooner… Just she was off for the next three days and if she didn’t finish, then someone else would.
For some reason, that just didn’t sit right with her, once she’d started, she hadn’t wanted to stop unless it meant she was the one to finish.
With all the boxes finally neatly stacked, and ready to be collected by private couriers the next day, she grabbed her things and made for the exit. Only, she paused on the way out, there was the box still. Still open and left out on the counter, she’d figured someone would have tossed it once they’d pulled everything out of it, but there it was.
Eloise groaned, a few extra steps on her way out wouldn’t kill her, she snagged the empty box, and headed out. She diverted to go by the recycle bins, but as she broke it down, a small chain clattered to the ground.
That was impossible, they couldn’t have missed anything when unpacking, they’d been nothing if not thorough.
When she stooped down to scoop the chain up, the moment she touched it, it vanished.
Bloody hell- She’d been here for far too long today.
It took only a few more seconds to dump the box, and book it back to the otherwise deserted car park, so she could finally go home. The drive was quick, there was no traffic to be seen this time on her commute home, though leaving at 3am probably helped. The moment she’d entered her flat, she essentially fell face first onto her couch, and was knocked out. Her snores filled the flat, before her bag had even hit the ground where she’d tossed them out behind her.
~
By the time the sun was just starting to break through her curtains, Eloise was up again, and wrapped in a blanket on her couch.
Honestly, she could have slept for several more hours, but Sausage Roll wouldn’t allow her a moment's rest that impacted his feeding schedule. She could hear him behind her meowing softly to himself as he ate, always pleased whenever he was able to convince someone he should be stuffing his face. Which he did believe was always, he used to be free fed, but the last visit to the vet had brought along grim news that he needed to lose weight.
Eloise took a deep drink of her tea and closed her eyes for half a second, savouring the flavour. She silently thanked the caffeine that would get her marginally more awake, and then froze. Sir was still meowing, and she could hear the crunch of his kibble, but without a doubt there was the distinct sound of fabric rustling from the chair across from her.
Then- There! That was a very distinct clearing of a throat.
Had she bloody missed someone breaking into her flat?!
“Hah, no,” A smooth and elegant voice came from nowhere and Eloise jumped. Suddenly- She had no need for the caffeine boost as scalding hot tea sloshed over her hands, “What of yours would I possibly want to steal?”
Eloise kept her eyes clenched tightly shut, hoping she might wake up from whatever this dream-
“Not, a dream.”
Her eyes flew open as annoyance flared, what did this thing keep interrupting… Things she hadn’t been saying.
Sure enough, there in the chair across from her was… Something.
“Hey!”
“Could you please stop reading my mind?!” Eloise practically shouted as she clapped her hands over her ears. It was ridiculous, like that would keep her thoughts safe, but this was an impossible situation!
Across from her, sitting cross-legged on her armchair, was some… Well, she didn’t actually know. Some sort of devil if she had to guess.
It was rather tall, its long lithe limbs taking up space even when folded in. Truthfully, outside what seemed to be a pointed tail flicking behind her, and sharp horns protruding from her head- That seemed to be some variation of a Kudu horn- She’d seen a documentary- She seemed, well, like a normal woman, and not a sort of devil. In fact, she was rather beautiful-
“Why, thank you,” The devil chirped back at her thoughts and Eloise tried to hold in her reaction, but judging by the way the devil beamed at her, she could still feel it nonetheless, “Also, not a devil per-say. They get rather nitpicky about that. Really don't like thinking they fall under the same umbrella as the succubi, but we’re all demons one way or another.”
She gave Eloise a flirtatious wink, which made her heart flutter, and her stomach churn, “Can you please not- Wait. Sorry- Did you say succubi? As in succubus? As in steals the life forces of men?”
The devil- Succubus, grinned which revealed pointed canines, as she flipped her golden blonde hair back over her shoulder with an air of pure pride, “That’s me, darling. In the flesh.”
Her last words were practically whispered, and Eloise shuddered, before she actually reflexively slapped herself in the face, “Wake up- Wake up-”
In a flash the presence was right beside her and a very, very warm hand wrapped around her wrist and held her hand firm, “Don’t,” Her voice was firm and Eloise’s eyes snapped over to her, “I’ll spare you the trouble and the pain. Yes, I’m real. Yes, this is real. You touch the magic chain, the magic chain goes on- Now I’m yours until we fulfil whatever it is I’m here for.”
“What-” All at once Eloise remembered the box, and the chain, but she didn’t put it on.
She’d just touched it. Then it had-
“Yes, all it takes is a touch,” The woman or succubus, it was hard to know what was right, whispered as she released Eloise’s hand. The devil's hand travelled along her calf until it carefully lifted her left trouser leg, there resting against her ankle, was the chain. The same one she’d sworn she imagined out of an exhausted delirium, “Oh darling, I’m all too real.”
The sharp end of her tail prodded Eloise in the cheek, and she furrowed her brow, “This…”
“Oh, it’s real, sweetheart,” The devil dropped beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, “Also, the name is Cressida. You can stop just calling me the devil, or the succubus, or it. It’s quite rude.”
“Sorry, I’m not used to having a- Cressida, appear in my living room unannounced,” Eloise grumbled, dropping her head into her hands so she could rub at her eyes, “Why is this happening? Did I hit my head and die?”
“No more like 10,000 years ago a witch trapped, and enchanted me to a chain, so I could help her curse a prince,” Cressida squeezed at her shoulders as she grinned, and laughed loudly, “I helped her curse him into a horrible beast, and as an added little twist of my own turned all of his little servants into furniture.”
“You did Beauty and the Beast? That’s real?” Eloise dead panned, this was all getting a little too impossible to be real. How was this her life? Witches? Succubi? Demons? What’s next, vampires?
“Ugh, I hope you don’t hang around vampires,” Cressida leaned in, and smelled along the line of her neck, Eloise couldn’t help the way her heart rate skyrocketed, “No, I don’t smell any on you. Anyway, no, that’s a fabrication. He went insane, and broke all the furniture, before going nearly rabid, and then he just disappeared.”
“Vampires are real?” Eloise asked, swallowing past the lump in her throat.
“It’s all real, anything you could name I’m sure. Most people just don’t pay attention. Everyone’s too busy to notice their barista has lizard eyes,” This- Cressida pushed up from the couch, and Eloise rose out of shock, as she watched this stranger begin to rifle through her kitchen, “Or notice the runic inscription on a strange chain that fell on the ground.”
“I didn’t exactly think it would get me possessed,” Eloise grumbled, scuffing her foot against the ground as she hyper focused on the feeling of the chain on her ankle. There was the sound of her fridge thudding, a defensive hiss from the succubus before it popped open, and with a shocked gasp she was digging through the contents.
“Please, you are not possessed. We’re bound. Also, I can’t do possessions,” She stood up, and turned around with her jar of jam opened, and a spoon stuck in. She ate a bite of pure jelly, and pulled a face, she quickly dropped the jar to gesture at her with the spoon, “Seductions, life-draining, brainwashing, enchanting, the occasional curse- I dabble in generational curses, but that’s conditional. It all depends on you, sweetheart, on what you need.”
“Hah- Uhm, what? What would I need?” Eloise asked, palms sweaty for surely an unrelated reason, as a beautiful woman pushed into her space with a jam covered spoon, “I don’t need you to curse anyone for me.”
“Only time will tell us what you need, and we’ll see on the curses, they can come in handy,” Cressida had turned back around, and began digging through her cupboards. Eventually she found a tin of loose tea, and just began eating it by the spoonful, “Anyway, what’s on the docket. What’s your thing? World domination? Revenge on your step-daughter? A stolen fortune? Steal a fortune?”
“Definitely none of that! I’m nobody! I study medieval histories, all I do is work, eat, and sleep. And, I’ve certainly never tried to take over the world!” Eloise threw up her hands and dragged one of them down her face before she stooped down to pull at the chain on her ankle, “Can’t I just take it off?”
“You want to take it off?” Cressida’s voice was disbelieving as she chewed through the dried tea leaves she was still happily eating. She stepped forward, to sit cross-legged on the floor, apparently so she could watch closely as Eloise attempted to pull the bound chain apart, “10,000 years, no one’s ever found out they have a powerful magic wielding succubus tied to their will, and thought ‘Oh geez how do I get out of this one?’ Isn’t there anything you want?”
“Nothing like that! I want- like, I dunno! A table that isn’t broken!” Eloise gave up on the chain and cast her eyes over to the table currently propped up on a stack of heavy leather-bound books, “Or- An automatic feeder for my cat! Not revenge on my step-daughter.”
“Ah! You have a step-daughter then? Should we curse her?” Cressida set the tea down and popped up, she walked over to the table, she took a few moments to survey it. A strangled shout came out of her throat as Cressida kicked the books free, and her hand waved. Black smoke poured from her fingertips, Eloise gaped when after a moment, the smoke cleared, and her table sat stably on its brand-new leg, “Please, a table is nothing. But, what is this au-to-matic feee-ed-er?”
“No, I don’t have a step-daughter! I’m not even married, I don’t even have a partner,” Eloise shot back as she examined her repaired table, the leg looked like it had reformed to do with the material available, but at least it held steady, “It’s a little robot that drops food for my cat at specific times- If I had that, maybe I wouldn’t be awake having a delusional conversation with a possible hallucination right now.”
“How long till you believe I’m real?” Cressida asked moving to examine Sir, which was short for Sausage ‘Irritant’ Roll, as he sniffed his way towards them. With his food dish empty he seemed to notice Eloise’s distress, and the presence of a stranger in their walls. Only he waltzed right up to the succubus, and flopped on his side to reveal his fuzzy tummy in all its glory. Cressida stooped down to stroke at his belly, “Well aren’t you a fine young gentleman?”
“Oh, fine, sure- Betray me,” Eloise threw her hands up and walked over to her far wall. As far as she could get from Cressida at least, and still have a wall to proper her up, her legs weren’t feeling the sturdiest considering.
“Oh, don’t blame him,” Cressida crooned as she moved to scratch under his chin, “Cats and succubi go back to the dawn of time. It’s instinct- He knows I won’t hurt him.”
“Cats go back to the dawn of time?” Eloise asked in blind disbelief.
“Of course! They are the ones who eventually domesticated humans after all,” Cressida stood and moved closer to Eloise, who had unwisely put her back to the wall, and was now trapped.
“No one domesticated hum- Oh my god.”
“Makes sense when you think about it. Doesn’t it?” Cressida spoke, and Eloise could hear as she crouched down to where Eloise was now, on the floor, with her head tucked between her knees, “Are you okay?”
“No.”
A warm hand began rubbing gentle circles on her back, “That’s alright, sometimes it can be a bit of a shock.”
“A bit?” Eloise asked, her voice strained, “How is it that you just go around doing this?”
“I don’t know, someone buys the chain, finds the chain- The witches old spell latches onto them- Then here I am!” The hand on her back patted it softly, before it resumed rubbing its gentle circles, “She got me when I was pretty young so it’s just kind of been what I do.”
“Wait so you’re not all like this? All the succubi?” Eloise finally lifted her head up from her knees, there was really no way pretending like this was a hallucination. Not when Sir was rubbing his way along Cressida’s knee purring loudly.
“Hah! No, definitely not. Something like this isn’t even technically supposed to be possible,” Cressida’s beaming face and elongated fangs were on her the moment they made eye contact before she shrugged, “Really it’s supposed to be- Summon, deal or bargain, move on. She summoned me, and then she enchanted the chain to bind to her and not release until her intention had been completely. Then she bound me to the chain as well, and that was that.”
Eloise’s heart broke, it didn’t make a ton of sense, she didn’t even think this was possibly ten minutes ago but- To be trapped. To be stuck in one place, tied to one person then the next without any autonomy. It was unjust, it was inhumane. There had to be a way to undo it! If she could-
“What’s wrong with you?”
Eloise snapped out of her thoughts then Cressida’s soft words broke the silence, “I- What?”
“You’re thinking about trying to break my curse.”
“Stop reading my thoughts!” Eloise shouted indignantly, “And of course I am, what do you think I’d just keep you bound to me forever?”
“No one’s managed forever, someone in the 1160s got quite a few years by finding a loophole in what he needed, but eventually someone killed him, and I was free-” Cressida shrugged as if announcing that she’d been alive in the 1200s. Suddenly Eloise’s mind lit up with the possibilities, the wealth of knowledge in the woman in front of her, and Cressida choked slightly, “You need to know everything I know?”
Eloise’s eyes widened, and she shook her head, “No! I didn’t say that!”
“I told you time would tell us, and time has told us. That part isn’t up to me, that’s the witch's spell,” Cressida motioned down to Eloise’s leg, “She hadn’t intended for it to work for others, but turns out it’ll latch onto the first strong intention it feels of whoever has it on.”
“So, now you’re just stuck to me, until you tell me everything you know?” Eloise’s eyes went wide. That would be nearly impossible, not to mention it would take so much time, she’d just promised not to keep her bound and now- It was all her fault, “I’m so sorry, I-I didn’t know.”
“You are extremely peculiar,” Cressida wondered aloud, almost as if it didn’t even matter that Eloise was right there.
“I have heard that before, yes. But- I really am sorry,” Eloise reached for her leg, and pulled the chain free, gazing at it, “I’ll figure this out.”
“You think you can break a spell from a witch who existed ten millennia ago?” Cressida didn’t even look disbelieving, she almost looked impressed or perhaps more so bewildered, “Do something that supposedly no witch has done before?”
Eloise could break it, she would. She had a lot of historical resources and studying was quite literally her job. Perhaps there’s a way she could wrap this into her work to have even more time to investigate, “What nothing to say now?”
“Hm?” Cressida’s eyes had been trained on the chain, lost in thought, but she glanced back over at Eloise who gestured at her head, “Oh, I can’t read your thoughts anymore. You finally commanded me to stop.”
“I… Did,” Eloise had asked the first few times, last time she’d just yelled, she’d just been rather frustrated, “So, is that how it works? You have to just do what I say?”
“Eh, kinda. I do have my own free will also, but I can't necessarily disobey you, and I am rather compelled to comply,” Cressida gave her a devilish grin and Eloise was glad she couldn’t be in her thoughts any more. How was a devil so beautiful? Even when she was quite literally dressed in what seemed to be blackened burlap rags, “Also I’m bound to the chain you wear, so I can’t leave this plane and if you get too far I just kind of,” She made a popping noise, “Then there I am next to you again.”
“So you’ll… Go everywhere with me?” Suddenly Eloise saw her days and her classes filled with a long horned, sharp toothed and tailed succubus, just following her around.
“For the most part, but only you can see me. Unless I want others too, which I usually do not,” Cressida nudged their feet together, and her voice took on a softer tone, “I-I’m not all that bad to be around, you know.”
“No, that wasn’t- It was more, so I was worried about explaining it,” Eloise just kind of gestured out at Cressida’s body, “I think people would probably try to have me committed anyway.”
“Oh, please,” Cressida waved her hand, and black smoke enveloped her for a moment. By the time it cleared Cressida still sat before her, but now the horns, tail, teeth, even the nails, and golden highlights that shimmered on her skin had vanished.
Before her sat a- Well, a normal looking human.
“Oh,” Eloise felt a little ridiculous, it likely did make sense that Cressida didn’t only go around looking like that, “Right.”
“Did you prefer the other look?” Cressida winked, and Eloise flushed, as she practically purred, “It’s alright, some do.”
She just huffed and wrapped her arms around her knees, “Just, whatever makes you most comfortable.”
“What is your name, particular girl?” Cressida asked as she watched her closely, with something Eloise might say looked like fascination, but she couldn’t imagine why.
“Eloise, Eloise Bridgerton,” Almost on autopilot she held her hand out, and the warm hand of the demon slipped into her own, “Nice to meet you, I suppose.”
“It’s very interesting to meet you,” Cressida murmured her grip tight, “To be sure.”
“Well- If you have to tell me everything you know anyway, maybe I can find something that could help,” Eloise finally had something to grab onto in all this madness, something to work on. She hauled herself up, and grabbed her work bag to pull her laptop free, “I can take some notes.”
“What on earth is that contraption,” Cressida had shifted to squat beside her, eerily gargoyle-esque, and she began pressing at random parts of the laptop as Eloise got it booted on. She hissed at it and slid back as the screen flashed on, “What sorcery is this?”
“It’s a laptop,” Eloise slapped her hand away and Cressida bared her teeth at her as if she would bite, honestly? Eloise wouldn’t put it past her, “When was the last time you had a-a bracelet… wearer?”
“A master? Uhh, 1660 something I think. Why? What is it now? 1800’s?” Cressida asked, peering around the room, poking at some of Eloise’s belongings before she glanced back over.
“Uhh- I don’t. It’s 2025,” Eloise just ripped the plaster off, there was no way to really just drag that out. No way to just softly deliver the news that it had been a few hundred years since you’d last been around.
“Hm, he wasn’t joking then,” Cressida grumbled bitterly, before she did peek up a little, “The last guy said he’d make sure no one found me again. Hah, couldn’t last forever, bitter old arsehole!”
“Where do you go? If you’re not- Here? With a person,” Eloise couldn’t stop herself from asking, she desperately wanted to know. Plus, it was a step in the direction of knowing everything she knew, which was apparently now a condition of her presence.
“Just kind of emptiness I suppose. Could be a second, could be a few hundred years I guess,” Cressida pressed close to Eloise as she clicked around on the laptop, “So, what is it you do with this rectangular magic orb?”
“Quite a lot, you have a ton of stuff to catch up on.”
“It would be easier if I could just get it all directly from your head.”
“I’d really prefer it if we didn't do it like that.”
“I could let you in mine?”
“Not so sure that I’d like that either.”
“Suit yourself.”
~
It actually turned out to be quite a bit easier than Eloise had anticipated, to have a demon that lived in her flat, and came to work with her as she adjusted to life in the 21st century. After a few days they’d figured out mostly how to exist together, and it was mostly smooth sailing from there.
Cressida had taken a stab at a modern shower the day after arrival, and even chanced changing her rags for a black long sleeve jumper and matching sweatpants. She’d said she preferred the darker clothing over anything else. Felt more homey.
Eloise for her part had quickly realized her demon only really liked to eat dried leaves, and raw meat, so she stepped out of her normal vegetarian lane, and bought meat. Along with a surplus of loose tea. She’d discovered that Cressida liked green tea the best, but would settle for anything. She’d also discovered that Cressida had an absolutely wickedly dark sense of humour as well, and had her fun watching the drama between the students. Cressida had even been caught meddling with it before Eloise could stop her more than once.
Other than that- In quite a strange way, having a succubus cursed to a chain on her ankle, managed to light up her life.
She honestly hadn’t quite realized that things had grown rather… Dull. Cressida brought a new vibrancy to things that Eloise hadn’t known she’d been desperate for. Her drives or walks to work were now filled with Cressida’s stories, some sounded so outlandish that Eloise almost had a hard time believing them. If it weren’t for the conviction and casualty with which Cressida spoke, Eloise probably would have written her off entirely.
By the time Cressida pointed out a person who seemed to be stirring their coffee with a spoon controlled by thin air, and no one else seemed any wiser, she’d really begun to believe.
When Cressida pointed out one of her students who was never around on sunny days, wore sunglasses inside, and seemed to shy away from the people around him. Eloise had spent an entire class period paying close attention that day, she’d invited him down after class for a nonsensical question. Only, when he replied she didn’t hear a work and instead focused on his teeth. Sure enough, there they were, fangs, quite clearly where she could have sworn there had never been anything but normal human teeth before.
She’d believed every word to come from Cressida’s mouth after that.
Even when they seemed mildly ridiculous.
Cressida was sitting on the desk across from her, swinging her legs freely back and forth while Eloise graded, “Hmph, this one’s based his entire paper on the black plague being brought over by bloody tortoises. How does that even make sense?”
“That’s ridiculous! Everyone knows it was a curse. A good one too, not exactly one of mine, but it sure was a true beauty,” Cressida sounded almost wistful as she gazed into the empty space above Eloise’s head.
“What? It was a curse?” Eloise dropped her pen, she could feel another minor headache coming on as it usually did when Cressida introduced another fundamental shift to her understanding of history, “Who did it?”
“A poor man, insignificant really. He bargained for a better world for people like him, sold out about 50 million souls for it,” Cressida clicked her tongue slightly and shook her head, “But, in the end, the poor folk rose up, wages raised. Things did improve, minorly.”
“H-How was someone able to do something like that? How could someone bargain for that?” Eloise felt a little nauseous at the thought of one man’s deal, ending so many lives.
“It’s not common, he found a particularly powerful devil, and sacrificed a lot to summon him,” Cressida popped up and walked over to perch on Eloise’s desk, she had a habit of getting close when Eloise was uneasy, “That devil then took advantage of something I may have set in motion with the Mongols… I did serve Ghengis for most of his life.”
“You-”
“Yeah, let's not get into that one now. It’s not an easy tale,” Cressida reached out and squeezed her shoulder, “Now come on, you said fifteen minutes, forty-five minutes ago. I’m bored with being all human like.”
“No one can see you, if you want to be horny, be horny,” Eloise’s cheeks heated and her grip tightened around her pen as Cressida snickered, “That is decidedly not what I meant.”
“It just seems to distract you when we’re out and about,” Cressida said, shrugging before pushing herself up, and she proceeded to collect all of Eloise’s things o stuff them in her bag, “Time to go, time to go, I’m tired of fluorescent lights. Plus, all the humans are gone, and you’re all focused.”
“Let me finish this, and we’ll go,” Eloise laughed, she pushed Cressida back, who instead decided to drape herself dramatically over Eloise’s back, and sigh every few moments. It took a couple of minutes for Eloise to finish marking the paper so she could finish the hasty packing job that Cressida had begun.
“Finally!” Cressida shouted out triumphantly, but she did not move from the way she’d draped out over Eloise’s back, “Home for more of this so called W-W-E.”
Eloise groaned, “No, please, I’d really rather watch anything else.”
“Good! We will watch Legally Blonde again,” Cressida beamed, and lifted herself off of Eloise at last as she pranced for the door.
Eloise had walked right into that one, but Cressida had won fair and square. So, they would watch it for the twelfth time in the last six days, despite the fact that Eloise had declared yesterday that she would never watch it again.
She just also really didn’t want to listen to grown men scream into a microphone. Cressida, however, absolutely loved it. She would be cheering and screaming at the telly throughout the entire phoney wrestling program. It was… Mildly endearing, just also wildly distracting when attempting to complete work.
“Fine, but not with the volume at full again. I actually do have neighbours, and it doesn’t matter that you like the rattle. They do not-” Cressida opened her mouth to interrupt Eloise, but she ploughed through her, “No. You cannot curse them.”
“Fine.” Cressida huffed, as she followed along now in step with Eloise, “You never let me do anything fun. I haven’t drained a life, bewitched an unsuspecting human, or even enchanted a building to torment someone.”
“I’m sure something will come along eventually that you can curse,” Eloise assured, laughing as they headed back to her office to grab the books for her side project. Or well, their side project really, “Perhaps something small.”
“Yes, like they can never remember their right from their left,” Cressida announced as she rubbed her hands together and looked around the halls at the passing students and faculty.
Eloise just shook her head, choosing not to look like she was talking to herself in front of a few of her colleagues.
Cressida happily took her opportunity and went on to ramble about curses she could potentially cast, and who she could cast them on. At least until they cleared the university's bounds, and Eloise finally turned, “Yes, okay! You are a very prolific curse caster! It’s very impressive, and all should cower in fear of your infinite skill.”
“Finally! Someone shows me some respect for my craft. I’ve spent a long time honing it. That, and seducing with intent to remove their life force,” Cressida cheered laughing as she draped an arm over Eloise’s shoulders. She winked at her salaciously as they set off on the walk home and kept pressed close into her personal space as they weaved around the foot traffic.
“How does that work anyway? Don’t your kind, like need that, you know to be- Alive?” Eloise had been reading up on all things supernatural trying to begin her conquest for breaking the chain that bound her.
“Sort of, now that my life is bound to that chain it’s kind of not mandatory, but it feels good, and I look better,” Cressida winked at her, and Eloise rolled her eyes, “Why are you offering?”
“No!” Eloise felt her entire body heat at the implication, against her will she might add, “Plus, wouldn’t killing me sort of make you just go back to the emptiness?”
“Oh, darling,” Cressida purred as she pushed off of Eloise to turn and walk backwards in front of her, easily weaving through people as if she had eyes on the back of her head. But as far as she was aware, Cressida’s only blue-green eyes were trained on her, “It’s not all bad, I promise. It's actually quite good for those who want it.”
“I-” Eloise felt like her brain had emptied out, and suddenly it was just an empty dial-tone echoing through her mind, as the implications of that gripped her like a vice.
Cressida’s face shifted as she stalled out, and she reached out to nudge at her, “I’m just teasing, I didn’t mean to break you. I truly don’t require it with the chain, and to be honest I’ve quite forgotten what it was to have it, so the loss doesn’t grate any more.”
“That- That’s quite sad,” Eloise eventually found herself murmuring as they finally reached her building and climbed the steps to her flat, “I- you know if you wanted- I-I guess I could take you to a bar and just kind of… Look the other way while you do your thing.”
Eloise tried her best to keep her face neutral, and resolutely ignore the way her stomach burned at the thought. It was just that she was uncomfortable with the notion of someone's life being unknowingly toyed with, that was all.
“You would do that for me? Go out of your way, to help me?” Cressida’s voice wavered, and suddenly they were standing in the hall, lingering in front of her door, “Why?”
“You don’t deserve to be trapped like this. It’s not fair- You shouldn’t have to comply with a dead woman’s whims because she was selfish,” Eloise shouldered her bag higher, and shattered the growing tension as she moved to let them back into her flat, “No one deserves to be chained- The least I can do is help where I’m able.”
The moment Cressida stepped within the bounds of the flat, her tail and horns returned, along with the faint golden shimmer that highlighted her skin wherever the light hit her. It felt like watching her become herself, Eloise didn’t mind what Cressida looked like, as long as she was comfortable, but she was truly enchanting in her given skin.
The more Cressida took up space in her life, the more Eloise found herself growing fond of it. The thought that the chain might one day fall away and Cressida would disappear sat heavy in her stomach.
At times, it made her feel selfishly grateful that the witches spell latched onto something that would take so much time, and, well- Eloise couldn’t help that hope perhaps when she actually figured out how to break the spell, because she would, Cressida would want to stay. Or at least by that time she might be fond enough of Eloise to come by for a visit… Because she would miss her. It had been six weeks since Cressida had first appeared, and Eloise thought it might be a burden, or an irritant, but instead it had become something that felt- Well, like it had been missing, a shadow in her life, and now that it was here it fit in quite like a puzzle piece.
“I bought more chicken for you yesterday,” Eloise threw out as she dropped her bag on the ground by her sofa before collapsing down onto it, “I’m just going to close my eyes for a-”
What felt like it might have been an eternity later, Eloise groaned, and opened her eyes, she shifted underneath the weight of a purring Sausage Roll who was currently loafed on her back. It was then that she noticed the warm fingers carefully carding through her curls, and she grinned into the cushions.
Eloise managed to rub at her eye, and faintly grumble out, “Wassa time?”
“Nearly nine, darling,” Nails scraped at her scalp as Cressida’s smooth voice wrapped around her, “Sit up, you haven’t eaten since this morning. I made you one of the strange things you like to eat.”
“Not strange, it’s a veggie mince pie,” Eloise grumbled as she pushed up and got an irritated meow from Sir, as he was forced to roll off of her and hit the ground with a resounding thud, “Lots of people eat them.”
“I can’t say I know that to be true,” Cressida retorted as she pulled a face when Eloise took an enormous bite into it and relaxed into the couch, “You need to eat more than your daily bean soup, and oat bar.”
“It’s coffee, I know you know what coffee is,” Eloise rolled her eyes and took another bite as Cressida stuck out her slightly forked tongue, “Did you eat?”
“Yes, I had hours while you slept,” Cressida complained as she draped herself over the back of the sofa, rather like a cat. She really could see how succubi and cats got along so well, they really were quite similar, “I didn’t even wake you up with WWE.”
“Well, small graces,” Eloise teased as she glanced over to find the telly to find it switched off, had Cressida just been watching her?
“Now that you’re awake, we can watch Legally Blonde!”
Eloise groaned loudly before she stuffed the last bit of the pie in her mouth, and spoke through it, “You couldn’t have done that while I was asleep?”
“No! Then you would have missed out,” Cressida cheered as she waved her hand, and the screen flicked on, Legally Blonde already beginning to roll.
“Thanks for thinking of me,” Eloise griped as she leaned back, she rested her head against the firm plane of Cressida’s stomach, while the now overtly familiar film began to play.
Honestly, if Eloise had to admit it under threat of death, she really didn’t mind it all that much.
Really, she had a lot of respect for a woman who could pull herself up, and set the record straight with intellect and determination. Someone who knew what they wanted, knew they deserved it, and just took it. She rather reminded Eloise of herself, just… Much more pink and frilly, maybe a little more self-assured. At least she could respect it, even if it was a little much for her.
Cressida on the other hand liked how ruthlessly mean Elle was, while still being incredibly correct, and devious with it. After the fourth rewatch she’d declared Elle Woods an honorary succubus, and made Eloise do a complicated handshake with her to solidify it.
About halfway through Eloise pulled her laptop out, and started grading papers again. Just as an ache in her head began, a warm hand began to gently rub along the side of her head, heating and massaging the pain away in one. Slowly the tension eased, and gentle circles continued on her temple until the pain vanished entirely. When she glanced back over, Cressida’s eyes were still on the screen, she’d just automatically moved to ease Eloise’s discomfort.
A growing part of Eloise couldn’t help but worry that it was all due to the chain and its magic, the tie that constantly stretched heavy between them, at least in her own mind.
Which still remained private.
It was hard to focus on grading papers now that she had that doubt swirling in her stomach, her hand just tapped out a rhythm on the side of her laptop until a tail wrapped around her arm to still it, “What bothers you?”
“Nothing,” Eloise grumbled, glancing down at her arm, but she didn’t move to break the content or slip from her grip.
“Liar,” Cressida practically hissed after she’d sniffed at the air in front of her, a faint pout flickered over her face, before it vanished, “Why not tell me what is wrong? I can help.”
“I-I guess it’s that. I just, I feel bad that you’re stuck here with me, forced to help me,” Eloise grumbled, kicking out at the coffee table gently, “I don’t want you to feel like you have to.”
Cressida barked out a laugh, and wiped at her eye as her tail unfurled from Eloise’s arm, “Is that all?”
Her brow furrowed as confusion spread through her, “What’s so funny?”
“You think I feel obligated to help you? Because of the spell? Darling, you haven’t commanded me to do anything since the mind reading demand ages ago,” Cressida poked at her cheek, before pushing up to drop and sit beside her, “I don’t even have to be around my masters this much- Just, well- I thought we were having fun.”
Eloise felt a weight lift, and she smiled, quite against her will, “Oh, well, yes. We have been having fun- I just thought.”
“What? Is it that hard to believe that you are a bizarrely fascinating woman who I find myself loath to be apart from, simply because I enjoy your company?” Cressida bumped their shoulders together and squeezed Eloise’s leg, “Is it that improbable?”
“Well, I don’t know! I’ve never quite been in this situation, and I guess I just don’t really know what the norm is,” Eloise shrugged and found herself stuck watching the hand on her thigh and the succubus it belonged to; it felt like a bit too much to look at Cressida at that exact moment.
“Well, I can tell you that this is not exactly how things have gone with my past masters,” Cressida leaned into her, and Eloise found herself lean forward to match without thought, “Often I’m chained and dragged, or sometimes caged and carted by the richer ones.”
Eloise burned with anger at the thought of someone doing that to Cressida, the thought of her restrained and kept. Hungry and alone. Without thinking, she rested her hand on Cressida’s and squeezed, “I’m glad I found you then, whatever strange twist of fate it was.”
“Me too,” Cressida’s voice was low and rough, her free hand gently cupped Eloise’s jaw to lift her head up, so their eyes could meet. Then she whispered so softly that Eloise had to strain to listen to her, “If you don’t break the chain… I will be happy with you till you cannot possess me any longer.”
“What would that mean?” Eloise asked, past her heart that now felt like it hammered in her throat.
“Either you’ve learned everything I know, or your life force no longer exists for the spell to be tied too,” Cressida shrugged, and after another moment of close surveillance, she pulled back slightly, “And I believe it will take a very long lifetime to learn all I know if you still insist we not merge our minds.”
“Yes, I do really think we should avoid that unless… You’d really like to end it. In which case, I would comply,” Eloise mumbled, trying to ignore the climbing dread at what might happen if Cressida did want to take the chance to get out.
“I just said, I’d be quite happy till the end, darling,” Cressida teased, reaching up to tap at the tip of her nose as she winked at her, “I find myself quite enjoying the luxury you have provided. I don’t even have to kill my own chickens.”
“No, no you don’t,” Eloise laughed as she settled back into the couch, taking the offer to tuck herself against the warmth of her devil as Cressida propped an arm up, “I don’t mind either. Plus, you’re quite helpful for research.”
“Well, I do need to tell you everything I know.”
“That you do.”
Eloise ended up falling asleep curled into Cressida’s side, drooling heavily on the sweatshirt Cressida scarcely took off to wash.
Which Eloise was surprisingly okay with, Cressida promised she kept it clean with magic, plus the last time Eloise wanted to wash it; she’d tried to sit naked on the couch waiting. Eloise had tripped and fallen face-first into the rug when she’d walked back into the room after starting the laundry.
Cressida had merely accused her of being a prude, and refused to cover up on principle from there until the clothes dried.
As the movie ended, and credits rolled, Eloise slept through the screen going dark, and all the lights getting shut off. She even missed it as strong arms slipped underneath her and Cressida held her close as she carried her to her bed, where she carefully tucked her in.
Cressida lingered, watching for just a moment, before black smoke enveloped her.
In a flash, she was a small, horned, white-gold bunny, who curled close to Eloise’s side, only shifting to make room for Sausage Roll as he lumbered in to join their pile.
Deep purring filled the room as he curled around Cressida, and pressed into Eloise’s side.
~
Eloise had been running late, and she’d had no time to make her coffee before work, thankfully there was a shop just outside her building on campus.
However, and unfortunately, she truly should have just chosen to be late for her office hours. The barista had dared to ask her if she wanted non-fat milk in her latte, which she had. But that hadn’t mattered, apparently.
Which brought her to now, where she was struggling to remain passive, and pay for her latte, while a demon yelled at a barista who could not hear a word she was saying. Her smile was growing strained as she paid and waited for the poor man to place his drink in her hand.
“How dare you insult her! You petty beast! You stand behind a barrier, and slave all day, yet you dare insult the good grace that stands before you-”
Eloise had subtly grabbed the band of her sweats, and yanked as she pulled them out of the coffee shop, to head towards her office as she asked. Her voice was already heavy with exasperation, especially for it to be so early in the day, “You are absolutely ridiculous, do you know that?”
“Me? That is the ridiculous one. You patronized that man!” Cressida picked a rock up from the ground and hurled it behind them. Eloise swore and grabbed her around the middle, rushing them quickly off the street as rock hit glass and shouts went up from the outdoor seating.
“Fucking hell, Cressida. Please, you cannot throw rocks at people's businesses,” Cressida opened her mouth as if she was going to defend herself, but Eloise just pushed right past her, “For starters, absolutely not when you’re invisible right next to me, they’re going to think it was me. On top of that, just no rock throwing in general!”
“Oh, please,” Cressida wriggled out of her hold, but remained by her side as they finally made their way into her office, “I could easily get you out of any trouble!”
Eloise shut, and locked the door behind them both, glad to have the privacy of her office where Cressida would be unable to cause mayhem for her, or those around her. Though really, what could Eloise do about it in the end? It all seemed like natural fascination, and like it was only ever done in what mostly seemed like good fun.
“Can you please just not throw rocks?” Eloise asked as she dropped in her desk chair, she had two hours free before her next class, and she needed to focus, “And let me get this finished?”
“Ugh! Fine,” Cressida dropped onto the couch that was pressed up against the far wall of her office. She immediately flipped upside down, and pressed her feet to the wall as her hair dangled down, “Be booooooring.”
Eloise went through the rest of her planning in relative silence, every so often there was a heavy sigh or a puff of smoke while a bat or a harpy made of smoke streaked through her office’s air space. Whenever they got too close she swatted them out of the air, and there would be a disgruntled noise from the other side of the room. Eloise was determined not to let Cressida distract her, she held her focus until a soft rap came from her office door.
She looked up, and grinned at who waited for her on the other side, “Pen!”
“What’s your office locked for?” Her friend asked as she jiggled the handle before Eloise lunged over her desk to flip the lock, and squeeze past her desk so she could tug the door open to let her in.
“Just trying to focus, but of course I always have time for my best friend,” Eloise grinned as she tugged Penelope into a half hug, “Break away from the English life to give us poor historians a check in?”
“I do have to make sure you’re still alive from time to time. It’s hard to know how you’ll all fair as the world declines,” Pen ruffled Eloise’s hair, and she snapped at her, “Easy tiger. Anyway, how have you been?”
Cressida’s grumpy voice cut through her attention focused solely on Penelope, “How come she can interrupt you?”
Eloise just cut her eyes to Cressida, and gave her a look, before smiling at Pen, “I’ve been good! Busy! You know how it can get at the end of the term. Everyone always wants something. Some annoyance or another buzzing around.” She directed that part directly at the demon currently creeping up behind her best friend, sniffing along her hair before she perched, extremely gargoyle-esque, on the chair beside her.
“I’m just getting to know your friends,” Cressida declared, as she grinned wickedly at Eloise, before she turned her attention back to Penelope. Daring to get wildly close to her skin, Cressida likely could have licked her if she’d had the presence of mind to.
“You’ve skipped out on the last three family dinners, if you didn’t know,” Penelope casually pointed out after a brief moment of silence and Eloise groaned, but Penelope pushed on, “Your mums just worried-”
“Oh, you traitor! You’re not here for me!” Eloise gasped as she pointed accusingly at Penelope who held up her hands in surrender, “Et tu, Brute?”
“Oh, do not be so dramatic,” Penelope waved her off, and Eloise’s demon watched the movement intently.
“Should I kill her?”
“What?! No!” Eloise shouted before Pen gave her a wild look, “I just mean- No! I’m not being dramatic. You fell to my mum’s pressures? I thought you said nothing would change when you and Colin got together.”
“Come on, Eloise! Cut me some slack. I have to earn points with your mum,” Pen clasped her hands together, and Eloise shook her head, “I promise I’ll have your back more once we're actually married, and I’m officially a Bridgerton.”
“Promises, promises,” Eloise huffed, but she did grin over at her friend, it was hard to stay mad. Especially when she remembered her best friend was soon to be her sister as well.
“I could make her keep the promise for you?” Cressida asked sharp teeth glinting as black smoke twirled between her outstretched fingertips.
“Welp! Pen! It’s been great seeing you! Unfortunately, there is just loads to do,” Eloise rushed up, and hauled Penelope out of the chair as she protested, “I know, I know it’s just- well. heh- it’s a hell of a time to drop by. Maybe once terms done-”
Penelope squeaked out her response and Eloise slammed the door between them, locking it before she took a deep breath in. Counted to ten and then when she opened her eyes Cressida was directly in front of her close enough Eloise could reach out and carefully tug her forward, “Okay, we have to talk about cursing, and killing strangers. That isn’t really something you should just walk around doing.”
Cressida grinned back at her, “I’m just trying to be helpful.”
~
“Cressida, please, would you come on?!” Eloise hissed under her breath, doing her best to make it look like her lips were not moving.
Cressida had spider-climbed half up the side of an open topped tourist bus, intently looking at someone who had on those absolutely ridiculous digital headset things, “He is some sort of creature I have not seen before.”
“He is not a creature! Cressida! The bus is going to leave, will you please get down,” Eloise ran quickly along the side trying to keep up with how she was essentially crawling along the edge of the bus. It was more impressive than it was creepy, if Eloise was being honest, she’d seen Cressida walk cleanly into too many glass doors to find anything she does frightening at this point.
“Then what on earth has happened to its head? Has it got some sort of growth?” Cressida was a half step from tapping on the gentleman’s head, when Eloise gave in and jumped to grab at Cressida’s midsection. Several people on the bus gave her wild looks and the driver shouted out at her, Cressida hissed at him and finally leapt down from the bus, “What’s their problem?”
“This! We are! Come on,” Eloise grabbed her hand, and dragged her quickly back down the road, the way they had been supposed to go, “I thought you wanted to go to the museum anyway?”
“I did yes, but then that strange creature walked by, he couldn’t see me-”
“Yes, because he is a human,” Eloise hissed lowly, and Cressida fell into step with her, “He had a computer on his head, a facial orb basically.”
“Why on earth would he do that?” Cressida asked her brow furrowed as she threw a look behind her shoulder, “What an odd thing to walk about in.”
“Honestly, I haven’t the faintest,” Eloise replied laughing, as she tugged them onto the right path, and finally had them climbing up the steps of The National Gallery, “Now, please behave, try not to climb any walls, or mess with anything by me- I’ll get blamed with my luck.”
Not that it mattered- Cressida had vanished from her side the moment she’d started to speak, and Eloise was left to legally make her own way into the building.
Once she’d made it inside, it was a much harder task to track down her succubus, who could truly be anywhere at this point. Any one of the exhibits were likely to hold her interest for a moment or two, and since it was a weekend the place was packed. Eloise passed an arguing couple, and truly couldn’t rule out that Cressida had somehow started it on her path into the building.
Eloise was able to follow a distinct path of arguments, shadowed trysts, and jealous whispers, right to her demon. Cressida was sitting on the ground in front of a painting of some King of Spain, “I knew him you know.”
“Did you?”
“He was my last master before you.”
Eloise would have never guessed what she might have expected Cressida to say. The King of Spain?! That’s who Cressida had been with before her? She’d been living with a bloody king?!
Her flat must seem like an absolute rubbish heap, comparatively.
“Let me get this straight, it was the King of bloody Spain- Then me?” Eloise asked, trying to keep her voice low as people passed by her, naturally giving an empty space on the floor a wide berth.
“Yes, right prick he was, honestly,” Cressida hissed, flickering her forked tongue out at him, and hefting herself up, “Never wanted to do anything fun like conquer or siege. Used me to bolster his popularity, and looks of all things, to help his ‘perception with the people’. Phillip the Handsome, he wanted everyone to call him. Wanted to punish me with an eternity of nothingness because I didn’t want him.”
She hissed at his portrait one final time, then she crept forward crouched down as she felt along the underside of the frame. It took her only a second to find what she’d been searching for, and she made to carefully pry a section of the frame from the canvas. Eloise cursed and quickly moved her body to block the movement from any cameras or guards, “What the hell are you doing?!”
“Oh, hush up,” Cressida shot back, her hand now halfway up the back of the painting, “I’m checking for something.”
“Well, hurry up or be less conspicuous, this is a crime,” Eloise groaned, shifting as someone walked past, “I’m leaving you!”
“No, you aren’t,” Cressida replied without even looking before there was a slight cracking sound and Cressida pulled her hand free, “Ah-ha! I knew no one would have thought to check.”
“What is that?” Eloise couldn’t help but be curious now, she’d already pulled them out, what was she going to say, risk discovery and put them back?
“I stole a few rings from the Royal Spanish family jewels,” Cressida winked and dropped them into her pockets, “I need them for a few things, don’t worry your little head about it. Good demon currency.”
“You’re telling me you hid stolen jewellery in a painting, and then found where that painting was, and then asked me to take you to it so you could steal them back?! Again!” Eloise had grabbed Cressida firmly by the arm and walked them into the toilet, she locked the door and cornered Cressida against it, “What the hell!”
“I didn’t think you’d say yes, if I had told you everything!”
“You're bloody right about that!”
“Come on, Eloise, who does it really hurt that I took these back then? Who does it really hurt that I took them again now?” Cressida took the advantage of their closeness to pull Eloise further into her space, “A demon has got to have her fun.”
“You should have told me,” Eloise grumbled, but she didn’t fight against the way Cressida’s arms wrapped carefully around her. Neither of them had lives full of much physical contact, and Eloise could help, but fall into the hellish warmth of her skin. She told herself it was to help Cressida, to give her something that might help sooth what she lost to the chain.
“Okay, fine, if I tell you next time- Will you consider it all the way through, and let me do it if it is technically harmless?”
“I feel like I shouldn’t be making deals with you,” Eloise shot out as she considered her options. As long as it was technically harmless, there really was no downside to letting Cressida do what she needed. She’d been ready to let her prey on unsuspecting strangers at the pub for her succubus needs, could anything else be much different.
“I would never do you dirty, darling,” Cressida beamed at her, and her elongated canines looked particularly menacing as power filled the stall around them.
“What is that?”
“It’s the deal of course, do you accept?”
“Yes.”
With a tight snap it closed around them, Eloise gasped at the pressure as it squeezed around her ribs, Cressida’s hand brushed gently over her back, “Give it a moment darling, it will fade.”
A demon who was for once apparently true to her word, after a second the pressure vanished, and Eloise took a greedy breath in, “That was… Odd.”
“Mm,” Cressida nodded, and pushed them both back, “Now you know. Never make a deal with anyone other than me. I keep it relatively tame.”
Eloise couldn’t fathom what others might do, especially if what she’d just felt was considered tame for a deal with a demon.
“Come on, there is still more I want to see,” Cressida chanted, pulling at Eloise and releasing them from the confines of the stall, “And I don’t think there’s anything else for me to steal anyway.”
“You don’t think!?” Eloise’s voice shot up in pitch, and several people shot her looks as she stood alone practically yelling.
Cressida just shrugged and winked at her, “Something could come up.”
“It better not!” Eloise pleaded as Cressida began to weave her way deeper into the museum, she chased after her and whisper shouted, “Seriously, Cressida! You can’t get me kicked out of here!”
Laughter was all she heard as a tail brushed along the man in front of her.
Suddenly he grabbed at the woman with him, and they fell to the ground to descend into a rather intense bout of public affection.
Damned, demon.
~
“So can you really do anything?” Eloise asked as they both stretched out on a blanket in a field behind the university. The term was finally over and all the kids had gone home for the summer, so the grounds were deserted of students, and the rest of the faculty were few and far between.
Meaning Eloise didn't mind laying her head on nothing, and talking to the air.
“Not exactly anything, there are limits, and there’s always a cost,” Cressida replied as she carefully ran her fingers through Eloise’s hair, “But for the most part, I would say yes.”
“What kind of limits?” Eloise pushed, her fingers trailing along Cressida’s tail that she had trapped in her hands. Occasionally it twitched, but other than that Cressida seemed pleased by the attention, she seemed eager for any kind of physical connection.
Always seeking to connect whenever Eloise was within reach.
“I can’t make anyone fall in love, can’t bring anyone back from the dead,” Cressida counted the two out tapping her fingertips against Eloise’s scalp gently, “And I can’t interfere in another demon's jurisdiction, like an active deal. Well, I can if it bolsters or increases. Not if it diminishes or detracts.”
“How do you know what you can and can’t over step on?” Eloise asked curiously, her eyes falling closed as the fingers in her hair began massaging her scalp.
“Hmm, I guess the best way to explain it to you is kind of like a magical-hive mind of curses and spells that connects when we begin to cast,” Cressida shrugged casually as if it weren’t incredibly fascinating, “I’d be blocked from completing it if it broke existing contracts or deals.”
“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done?” Eloise asked, as her mind turned over the newly acquired information. That had to mean something, if there was a way all spells and curses existed together, and Cressida had access- Then there had to be a way to work that to their advantage to free her.
“Weirdest? Hm, ah. A man wanted to be a beetle,” It hadn’t taken long for Cressida to come up with it, “The shortest master I ever served… He’s still out there somewhere. I made him immortal as payment for the terms, forever cursed to watch the rise and fall of all he’d aimed to escape.”
Eloise whistled, “That’s rather harsh.”
“He was rather harsh, wanted to be a beetle to escape judgement for the litany of crimes he’d committed,” Cressida shrugged, she stretched out to dig through their basket and pull forth a bottle of sun lotion, which she then proceeded to apply to Eloise without pause. She’d been doing that a lot lately, just taking care of her. It had begun to gnaw at her, how much Cressida did for her when she… Just kept her trapped here. Cressida pushed on oblivious to Eloise’s internal struggle, “The things that lurk in the dark… We’re meant to ensure those who attempt to abuse its shadows don't succeed. We collect on the debts.”
“Does that mean that there’s something for the light?” Eloise asked almost hesitantly, it had been something she’d been loath to ask since Cressida had appeared almost two months ago now. It was impossible not to wonder, you meet a devil… Is there an angel? Honestly it’s a miracle she’d made it this far.
“Sort of, not in the traditional sort of sense that most of you lot think,” Cressida murmured tracing the planes of Eloise’s cheeks with the lotion, “There are unicorns and light fae, things like that. Some humans through time caught glimpses, and your myths took it from there.”
Eloise had stopped questioning Cressida a while ago, she’d watch the news and suddenly have new beliefs and ‘modern marvels’ as she called them, that she would adhere Eloise to. It was easier to just go along. A cranky succubus was much more annoying than just letting her do what she’d decided Eloise needed. Usually it was for her betterment- It just was mildly insulting to hear her muttering about fragile humans while she did so.
“Unicorns?” Eloise asked rolling on her back to look up at Cressida, “They’re real?”
“Absolutely,” Cressida said, as she leveraged her with a deadly serious look, "Why do you think they’re the national animal of Scotland?”
“You’re saying that Scottish people know unicorns are real? And no one else does?” Eloise dead panned pushing herself up on her elbows, so she could look Cressida mostly in the eyes.
“Yeah, for the most part. They’re the last sanctuary left for them,” Cressida grinned at Eloise, and she felt like she was being teased, but truthfully it wasn’t the most ridiculous thing Cressida had told her this far.
Last week she’d told Eloise that dolphins had once made a major play for control of the planet, but eventually they’d been cursed back to the seas. Apparently, they followed humanity closely ever since, always keeping a close eye on them whenever they set foot in the oceans.
“I can’t believe I’ve spent most of my life studying history- Studying the world, and… Most of what I know is wrong,” Eloise shook her head, it truly wasn’t even in disappointment that she spoke. More a fierce excitement for all there was for her to learn now, everything she could discover that no historian had come across before. That none had ever even got the chance to discover, it was pure dumb luck that she’d ended up with a wealth of historical knowledge, chained to her ankle.
“Not wrong, just- Different. There are always a few different sides to every story,” Cressida smiled at her, fangs and all. The soft golden highlights on her skin shimmered, under the rays of the afternoon sun.
Eloise had recently been forced to admit that she does quite like to look at Cressida. Especially when she has her rather devilish features out. It’s otherworldly, and it’s a reminder that there’s a whole world out there, just waiting for Eloise to plunge head first into.
“Speaking of different-” Eloise started as she toyed with another question she’d been sitting with for a few days, “How does a person go from average everyday human, to spell casting and conjuring witch?”
“Well, you do have to have the sensitivity for it, but as long as you’ve got that spark-” Cressida clicked her fingers together, and winked, “Then from there it’s just the right sources to train from, and the willingness to maybe lose a bit of yourself along the way.”
“What do you lose?” Eloise asked softly, she imagined that to undo a spell, you probably also had to go through a remarkably similar process as to cast one.
“It depends on what you wish to do really, the darker the deed…” Cressida shrugged and motioned out with her hand, “The more you sacrifice from yourself. Why? Do you intend to dabble?”
“Just another piece of information. May as well ask a question when I have it,” Eloise laid back against her, resting her head back on Cressida’s lap, “Plus, who knows if I even have the spark or whatever.”
“Well… We could find out?”
“Could we?”
“Of course, we can. I told you I can do basically anything!”
~
Eloise had rushed them home the moment Cressida confirmed it was a simple test, that she even already had everything they needed on hand to do.
Cressida had laughed and allowed herself to be pulled along as Eloise practically ran them back. Once safely behind her locked door once more, she pushed Cressida to gather everything they would need to get started.
“Why are you so amped up to discover if you can use magic or not?” Cressida asked as she set a few things out on the table and got to drawing on the wood with an eyeliner pencil she’d likely stolen.
“Are you kidding? It’s every person on the planet's secret wish I’d wager. Or something along the lines at least,” Eloise sat at the head of the table, where Cressida had placed her. Her hands spread and now being carefully incorporated into the lines and symbols, “Plus, I think finding this out will be a good step in breaking the spell on the chain. Right?”
“You’re still on that?” Cressida asked, pausing her drawing to look up at Eloise, “I told you that something like that isn’t likely to happen. It’s not worth wasting your time, darling.”
“I know what you said,” Eloise grumbled, but she didn’t move, she didn’t want to undo any of the work Cressida had already done, “But, respectfully, I’m ignoring you. I’m going to figure this out. It’s what I do, research and problem solve. I’m going to figure this out.”
Cressida smiled softly at her and just shook her head, before she returned to her work, “Fine- Do what you wish. I cannot stop you,” Once the lines were drawn she set a candle in the centre of the sigil she’d created and snapped her fingers to light it, “Are you ready then?”
“To find out if I can do magic? Yeah, I’d say I’m ready,” Eloise said grinning at her, trying to keep still as her excitement built.
“Close your eyes and focus on your breathing, in and out,” Cressida instructed and Eloise allowed her eyes to drift shut, focusing on the sound of her demon's voice, “You might feel a prickling sensation in your fingertips, try not to flinch.”
“Okay,” Eloise affirmed as she felt the heat in the air around them increase, and Cressida began to murmur under her breath in what had to be Latin. Pinpricks started in her fingertips, then there was a sudden roar of heat, and a sharp stab of pain shot up both of her arms. As the pain radiated, it wasn’t something she had any control over, her palms shot off the table.
When the magic vanished, the heat of the room faded, and the pain slowly disappeared.
Cressida’s astonished voice filled the now silent room, “Okay, well- Now we know.”
Eloise cracked her eyes open, first her eyes caught on the mostly melted candle, and then she looked up to see a rather large scorch mark on her ceiling, “What the bloody hell was that!?”
“That, dearest, was your spark. Though, I might reckon some would call it an inferno,” Cressida was watching her with open curiosity now, “No wonder the chain found you.”
“It found me?” Eloise asked distractedly her eyes still on the ceiling as she tried to catch up with what she’d just experienced and the words coming out of Cressida
“More than likely, it has a little bit of me in it, and I do like power,” Cressida purred laughing as she went about clearing everything from the table.
Eloise still had yet to move, “What do you mean it has a bit of you in it?”
“It had to be partially forged in my blood to bind me to it,” Cressida mumbled shrugging and Eloise finally snapped her eyes away to look at her demon in shock, “It wasn’t that big a deal.”
The more Eloise heard about all this bloody witch did to bind the beautiful being before her, to the stupid chain on her ankle- The more Eloise wanted to rip her way back in time, and clobber the woman before she even got the chance. Cressida didn’t need to suffer. There was no reason. She’d done nothing to earn such poor treatment… Sure, she was a demon, but the more she learned, it seemed almost as if it was merely a cog in the natural world.
That no demon was no more bad or good than any human that walked the earth, or called upon them for assistance.
“How can you just be so nonchalant about this?” Eloise asked frowning, and she found herself reaching out for Cressida’s hand, “Don’t you wish to be free? You shouldn’t have to suffer.”
Her demon scoffed, but allowed their hands to be laced together, “A human announcing that a demon did not deserve suffering? You truly are one of a kind.”
“I don’t understand why you do that. You draw such a harsh divide between us,” Eloise scooted closer, it had begun to grate on her, and she couldn’t sit by silent any longer. The way Cressida kept them so separated, as if they were two things that could never be, creatures meant for different paths, “Humans are not so different when you get down to it.”
“Darling, that is very much not what the majority believe,” Cressida spoke softly and as she leaned down, to carefully brush her lips over Eloise’s knuckles, “But, I think it’s rather charming that you do.”
Eloise tried her best to bite back the smile that threatened to overwhelm her face, she bit down hard on her lip when Cressida lifted back up. She forced herself to form a normal measured smile which, judging from Cressida’s look, probably turned out a little more unhinged than planned, “I just think you’re making things a little more extreme than they have to be.”
Cressida rolled her eyes and laughed, “I think you’re just very queerly open-minded for a human- Or future witch I suppose.” Her words rang like a bell tolling, and Eloise remembered what this had all actually been about.
“Oh,” Nerves and excitement warred for dominance in her stomach, but she ignored both in favour of focusing on Cressida’s intent eyes. Always watching as if she knew more than she’d say, but Eloise knew she just had to ask the right questions and Cressida would tell her exactly what she hid, “So- I guess- What do I have to do to become… A witch?”
“Would you like me to teach you?” Cressida asked, drawing the sentence out, her voice dropped low as she trailed her thumb along the back of Eloise’s hand, “Show you all the dirty secrets, and tricks of the trade?”
Eloise’s breath hitched as Cressida spoke, it felt down right salacious sometimes when Cressida so much as spoke, and every time Eloise was certain the devil knew exactly what she was doing. Of course when a succubus spoke to her like that, it was only natural that her throat dried, and that it took her a few tries to croak out her reply, “Would you?”
“What have I already said?” Cressida asked, as she leaned forward to trace her free hand along Eloise’s jaw, before she gave it the faintest of taps, “I can do anything.”
“I know you can,” Eloise murmured after she once again had a momentary lapse in brain power, which always seemed to please Cressida, “Would you?”
Cressida paused for a moment as she caught up with what Eloise meant, and there was a brief flash of something that looked raw and vulnerable, before it vanished, replaced by something else entirely.
“Teach you of the dark, wicked and debasing methods of witchcraft? Show you what it is to join the creatures of the night, as they dance in the darkness?” Cressida asked, now grinning wickedly, as she stood and practically prowled closer to Eloise, closing the distance between them, “I would love nothing more, darling.”
Eloise shivered against her will and swallowed thickly, “Perhaps then, I will have a better chance at breaking this spell.”
“You know,” Cressida cut her eyes over to the burn mark on the ceiling, “I’m starting to believe you might have a chance after all.” Eloise beamed at her while Cressida looked lost in thought, eyes still trained on the evidence of what power apparently simmered within her.
~
“Why are we at the zoo?” Eloise asked, pulling her cap down farther over her eyes as they walked the winding paths. The sun was killer, and also she didn’t want anyone to recognize her walking through the zoo talking to herself.
“I told you; practical magic is an easy way to start your power flowing through you,” Cressida was currently examining a baby in a pram while she spoke, and in a flash she’d snatched something from it, and turned around with a wild grin, “Let’s get moving.”
“Did you just steal candy from an actual baby?!” Eloise whisper shouted, her eyes wide as she rushed after Cressida grabbing at her hand to slow her down.
“What?! No! I made a brief exchange with a changeling,” Cressida tightened her grip on Eloise’s fingers and kept her held close, “Do you think demons, or more importantly me, so disingenuous?”
“A changeling?” Eloise asked, her eyes trailing back towards the baby, who was now held in its unsuspecting mother's arms, “Those are real? Where’s her actual baby?”
“Dead,” Cressida whispered, shrugging as she directed them through the zoo, aiming directly for the reptile house, “The changelings don’t usually know what they die from, but they do take the babies' place. The changeling gets a chance at a loving family, and the mothers never know the difference.”
“That’s-” Eloise honestly didn’t know what to say, was it wrong? Would the mother rather know of the tragedy she should have endured?, “Uhm, nice. I guess?”
Cressida laughed and glanced over at her, “It’s nature, perhaps not the one you are used to, but nature nonetheless.”
Eventually, Cressida tugged her into the darker light of the Reptile House, black smoke poured from Cressida’s free hand and slowly the room emptied out of other guests. With a click of her fingers the doors shut, and locked.
“Just a little maintenance hour,” Cressida said with a wink before she turned and rubbed her hands together, “Now… Who would suit you?”
“What on earth do you mean?” Eloise asked, following behind her demon, as she assessed the life, swimming, slithering, and crawling behind glass on either side of them.
“The first step in any witches beginning trials is speaking to animals, and finding a familiar,” Cressida lectured, turning on her heel to face Eloise, hands planted on her hips. It was rather ridiculous for her to be this enticing in a black sweatsuit, with horns, and skin shimmering, “Reptiles are usually a good place to start. They like magic, they don’t mind talking to witches.”
Eloise peered around at all the different animals and found a turtle swimming into the glass, “What about him?”
“Him? Are you sure?” Cressida’s voice was hesitant, but Eloise nodded, so she just shrugged and stepped forward, “Okay, so, remember the prickles in your fingers?”
“Yea, hard to forget,” Eloise grumbled rubbing her palm over the tips of her fingers, “It feels like they’re still there sometimes.”
“Because they are, that’s a part of your spark. It’s like a second nervous system running through you,” Cressida lifted Eloise’s hand and tapped at her fingertip, “You can use it as the conductor for your power.”
Eloise looked at their hands pressed close together, and Cressida used her finger to draw a rune through the air. There was another tug in the same spot in her gut that caused the inferno, and Cressida gasped as a bright yellow-golden light began to trail from her finger. It lingered in the air for a moment before Cressida held her hand up, and the light settled against the centre of her palm.
There was a gentle shimmer before it faded into her skin.
“Woah,” Eloise mumbled, pulling her hand up and inspecting it. There was no sign of the symbol on her flesh any more, but she could feel it simmer within her still, “What was that?”
“That was your magic- It was- Beautiful,” Cressida looked at her with something akin to wonder in her eyes, “You truly are one of a kind.”
“Is that not normal?” Eloise asked, flipping her hand back over and looking up at Cressida, whose eyes lingered on the air where the golden light shimmered.
“Every witches' ability is different, the colour of their representative of their aura and prowess,” Cressida smiled at her and knocked their shoulders together, “Yours shows an aptitude for creativity and intelligence.”
Eloise preened slightly at that assessment, her mind was after all one of the few things that had helped her find her place in the world, “Well, that much was going to be certain no matter what.”
“Cocky as a devil you are,” Cressida said laughing as she rolled her eyes, “It’s just, most witches have a darker side to their power- You, don’t so much. Yet, at least. You continue to surprise me, Eloise Bridgerton.”
“You surprise me, Cressida-” Eloise puzzled for a second, “Wait, do you even have a second name?”
“Yes, sort of- It's Cowper,” Cressida said as she turned them both back to face the turtle, “Anyway, enough distraction. Get back to the task at hand. Focus on him, and really listen.”
Eloise crouched down directly in front of him, and Cressida grabbed her shoulders, and shifted her to the side slightly to offset her. Eloise took deep breaths in and focused on him, she watched the way he scrambled against the barrier. How he would pop back up to get air, before he dove to the bottom, and began his fruitless attempt to swim through the plexiglass once more.
Eventually, as if the sound at the end of a tunnel running in her mind cleared and a gruff, but somehow also high-pitched voice hit her ears.
‘I’ll get you, when I get over there, I’m biting the smug look right off your slithering face,’ The turtle's profanities were thrown at the enormous snake laid out across from it, which from her perspective seemed entirely unbothered by the turtle’s persistence.
Eloise bit out a shocked laugh and Cressida beamed at her, “You picked a rather good one I will say that. He’s got quite the bone to pick with the big guy over there.”
“This is bloody brilliant!” Eloise exclaimed, eyes cutting around the reptile house, “I can talk to any animal?”
“For the most part, yes. Some won’t want to talk back, some may not want to leave you alone,” Cressida bumped their shoulders together and snapped her fingers to open the reptile house once more, “Come on, there was a pigeon on the corner telling the funniest joke.”
Eloise choked on air as Cressida practically ripped her arm out of her shoulder, dragging her through the park, and showing her how to talk with each animal willing to give them the time of day. Some of them were rather rude, a lot of them didn’t care if they didn’t have food, and a few were willing to have a brief talk with Cressida, and Eloise by default.
They ended up pressed together on a bench as the closing announcements went out through the zoo, “So, I can talk to just about all of them now. How does the familiar thing you mentioned work?”
“Well, they will find you really. When we awakened your spark and revealed your power to yourself- It was also revealed to others in my world. A familiar is likely already trying to make its way to you, drawn by your power,” Cressida lectured, and Eloise listened intently until she flinched. She barely restrained herself from flinging her whole body over Cressida after she looked around at the budding emptiness and cast her hands wide before she shouted out, “Eloise the ALL POWERFUL IS HERE! Come one, come all, familiars! A live one on the market! She’s a hit, she’s fresh!!”
“Cressida! No!”
“Cressida! Yes!”
Eloise just covered her face in her hands and tried to wish this insanity away, while her demon cackled beside her, “Wait! Look!”
She cracked her eyes open and followed Cressida’s pointing finger until a small slightly brown blur came into focus at her foot. It was waddling forward, and it just without any fear, climbed atop her shoe and began scrambling at the leg of her trousers.
“A hedgehog? Out of all the animals? Of course, of course, I end up with a hedgehog,” Eloise leaned down, and the little guy reached up at her with his front paws, she melted at the way he clambered up into her hands.
“He’s a mighty fine familiar to end up with!” Cressida looked rather proud of Eloise, and she warmed under the attention, “They amplify power, and are familiars of protection. This little guy, whether you think it or not, will do a rather good job keeping you safe from here on out.”
“What’s his name?” Eloise asked softly, the rather adorable fellow already curling into his rightful place in her heart.
“He’s waiting for you to give it to him.”
Eloise studied him closely for a moment, “Well he looks rather charming, like he’s probably a fan of the classics.”
“Oh, yes, that I can confirm.”
“Perhaps, Orpheus?”
The hedgehog gave a soft little chirrup and flopped on its back in her hand, and she grinned, “Orpheus it is.”
“Smart name, for a smart familiar,” Cressida agreed as she tapped at one of Eloise’s hands, “Now, focus on your power, he must be bound to you, and you to him.”
Cressida helped her trace a symbol into the air and as her hand moved, so did Orpheus’s. Eventually the symbols shimmered in the air and each drifted forwards. Hers pressed into the soft skin at his tummy, while his drifted into her palm and the same warmth from earlier passed through her.
As if it had always been there, she could now feel Orpheus, as if he was a piece of her.
A third hand, or eye if needed.
“Oh, this might actually be fun,” Eloise announced with a grin as she tucked him into her coat, and they slipped out of the zoo with the rest of the lingering crowds.
~
Cressida, it turns out, had a lot more than just practical magic applications to teach her.
She’d disappeared for an hour or so after their zoo expedition, and when she’d returned, her arms had been laden with oversized tomes. Eloise had felt a thrill at the sight of them and what knowledge they would reveal to her. Her demon handed them over and Eloise dove head first into the world of witchcraft.
It turns out, it was really a lot more straightforward than she had been imagining. Really, all it took was a lot of prep work, a lot of research, and endless patience.
In other words Eloise was made for it.
Cressida, though, seemed to lack the same aptitude for human witchcraft, and often became wildly impatient.
Meanwhile, Eloise spent hours compiling endless amounts of information, to try and distil it down to what would be helpful for her purposes. Which turned out to be practically everything she could get her hands on. Everything from diaries of witches lost to time, to carefully compiled tomes of those who took detailed notes of their practices, came under her careful eye.
Most of her free time quickly got sacrificed to translating another page, or testing out a new incantation. It, unfortunately, made her demon rather ridiculously restless, and apparently, unbearably bored. A fact that she attested to constantly, Eloise could sometimes placate her by asking for more books, to wit she had been rapidly running out of space.
So, Cressida made her a few new bookshelves.
When Eloise asked where she got the materials, since even magic can’t make something from nothing, Cressida promptly told her to mind her own business.
Four days later her upstairs neighbours returned from holiday, and announced that someone had stolen their cabinets. Eloise had confronted Cressida, but she just said that it was too late to put them back now, and that they were both cheating on each other anyway. She had wildly claimed that when the pair would have even a cursory look at finances to get new cabinets, both affairs would crash down around them, so really- She’d been doing them a favour.
Eloise had told her she’d believe it when she saw it.
Three weeks later they were announcing a divorce, and moving out of the building.
Cressida had been nearly infuriatingly smug the entire time.
The only redeeming aspect about the entire situation was that her demon happened to be rather adorable when smug. In the end, at least she had more bookshelves, because truly it was becoming a problem. Cressida was apparently overly eager to please, she was constantly coming back with far more books than anticipated when Eloise sent her away.
Not that she was really complaining.
She’d always wanted a veritable library, and now her walls were lined with books, her tables overflowing with the very aged parchment that had driven her to be a historian. It was practically her dream to spend day in and day out head first in some paper or another, absorbing everything she could. Cressida had been right that it was just another side of the world for her to understand, everything she learned explained so much about what she’d spent her entire adult life studying.
Eloise had filled six journals with notes and her own musings so far, and it was scarcely over a month into her break. At the university she usually filed out one or two a semester at most, all of that was so routine she didn’t need more than that. This was an entire new world that had been opened to her, and she couldn’t stop herself. She read and wrote like a woman rabid, day in, day out; she only slept, and ate when Cressida forced her. Her succubus was definitely fed up with her behaviour, but Eloise was making actual progress.
She wasn’t going to stop now, not when she might actually have a chance at something that could be worth everything Cressida deserved.
As it turned out, it wasn’t unheard of to undo a spell or enchantment. Really, it was rather common, witches needed to undo their work constantly. The only issue posed, there was little to no record of a witch who had ever successfully removed another witch's work.
Though, two days ago, things had finally started to come together.
Entirely thanks to a small book, and Cressida’s shelves. Eloise had been organizing the previously chaotic piles, and stacking them in the best order she could on the shelves. She’d been going through a larger tome to categorize it, when a small hand bound journal had slipped from a cutout within its pages.
When she cracked it open, she’d found that it was the diary of a witch who worked in what she called the ‘laundering’ business. Apparently she had made her living washing spells, and enchantments from people’s items, no matter the caster. The witch boasted in her notes that as long as no active conditions or bindings kept it from being removed, she could remove any spell no matter the power.
In all her other readings such a thing was supposed to be impossible.
Within these pages? It was easy. Just an extremely well-kept secret, apparently one she’d wanted to die with her. Eloise was glad it hadn’t, this very well could be the key to freeing Cressida. She’d been entirely focused for the last two days, on translating all of her potion’s ingredients to their modern counterparts, and making sure she had each step down to the slightest detail.
It had been easy enough to acquire almost all the ingredients, unfortunately the one remaining ingredient was going to be… Difficult to say the least to obtain.
Eloise isn’t even remotely sure where this witch a few thousand years ago was getting aged bones, but she had really only one option. There was grave robbery, but the age of the bone correlated to the potency of the potion, so she needed something older than humanity.
Much older.
She needed to rob a museum.
Again.
She’d been avoiding telling Cressida that particular fast up until now, because she knew the damned demon would have a field day when she found out.
Now, however, it was time. She couldn’t put it off any more if she wanted to do this, and she wanted to do this.
Every day that Cressida remained metaphorically shackled to the simple chain on her ankle, Eloise felt off with her place in the world. It was impossible for someone like this to have been subject to the horrors she’s shared. And Eloise was certain Cressida wasn’t even near the worst of what she endured. Eloise couldn’t fathom why the succubus she’d come to know would ever willingly choose to live this life, but if she freed her- Maybe they could have a chance at something, at the very least she could have a chance at something.
She deserved more than a half-life.
Cressida, the demon who’d ripped into her life like wildfire, only to allow natural beauty to blossom in its place, was too good for shackles. Succubus, demon or devil aside, this being was better than that, she deserved better than that. This was who covered her in a blanket in the quiet hours of the morning once she’d fallen asleep, her head in a book. The one that made her the best coffee she’d ever had from her broken machine, and ensured that she actually ate her entire meal, and took breaks.
This was the demon who at any possible opportunity draped herself over Eloise, or pressed against her in any way shape or form to soak up the physical contact. Cressida would hold her around the middle while Eloise made her toast, or she would cradle her legs while they sat together. Eloise’s nose would be pressed into a book, and Cressida would settle in close to rub Eloise’s legs while she read.
It was all becoming rather sickeningly domestic.
Cressida now reminded her more of a combination of Sausage Roll and Orpheus combined, rather than any depiction of a succubus or demon she’d ever read. She’d actually found all three of them several times now, having a nap in a sunbeam, belly up, and snuggled tightly together. Each time she found them, Cressida’s tail was always curled protectively around the two smaller, but just as adorably fearsome, beasts.
Eloise had to free her, she needed to free her, before the feelings that had built up within her, decided to make themselves unavoidable. When she freed her, these feelings within her would be worth something, Cressida would see what she had to offer and want to stay.
Until then, she would have to keep ignoring how often Cressida made her heart pound uncontrollably fast in her chest.
Which was not made easy by how ridiculously attentive Cressida was to her every move. How do you not fall into the deep end when, the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, holds you after a nightmare. Cressida was always showing up right when she needed her most. Under any other circumstances, it would have made Eloise feel… So much, but like this? When she was chained to her? No choice at all in the matter? Nothing at all to offer in comparison?
Eloise couldn’t let herself feel the depth of everything that lingered between them in every look and touch. Not until Cressida’s hands were on her with nothing but her own free will. Not with the thought of how many people who found themselves bound by the chain, who must have taken advantage of the power they’d stolen. The haunting fact that the last one to hold the chain attempted to hide it, to hide her, all because he made an advance and she rejected it.
She wouldn't be the next in that line… Couldn’t be.
So.
“Wake up, my fearsome beasts,” Eloise whispered as she walked into the bedroom, where Cressida was curled up with Sir, taking their afternoon nap. There was a slight stir so she had all the sign she needed that Cressida would hear her, “We need to steal something from the Natural History Museum.”
It was entirely in sync, as both of their ears twitched, and their heads lifted to look at her.
A wide grin spread out across Cressida’s face, and she hopped up, causing Sir to meow, and dash off the bed. A sharp burst of a laugh pulled free from her as Orpheus was revealed curled up beneath him. Cressida scooped him up and walked forward on her knees, tail swishing excitedly behind her, “Yes! What? Gold? Silver? A cursed object?”
“A chip off a dinosaur bone. Specifically one of the world's oldest dinosaur bones.”
“What?”
“It’s from Tanzania.”
“That’s barely even stealing! A chip? What if we took a whole dinosaur?”
“No.”
Cressida held Orpheus up and pouted at her, “Pllleeaassee?”
“I just need a shaving, then I think I’ll actually be able to start brewing this potion and actually break the chain,” Eloise reached out to snatch Orpheus from Cressida and hold him close. He had managed to grow on her in no time flat, and she adored having him with her. He would look over pages with her, drag over pens and scraps of paper as needed. Sometimes they would debate the merits of certain spell outcomes and notifications together, it was nice to have someone as interested in the practical side of magic as she was.
“Always about the damned chain,” Cressida grumbled, but the way she watched Eloise… Her eyes were soft, and her lips curled in a smile, everything about her was made to lure, trap and kill- Yet, she was so far removed from that here, in nothing, but shorts and one of Eloise’s bras, the sunlight from the open window framing her perfectly, “Can’t we ever rob for the fun of it?”
It was often hard to think her anything but an angel.
As long as her mouth was closed.
“No! I told you no robbing, and I mean it. This is just… Permanently borrowing for the greater good,” Eloise nodded definitively as she scratched Orpheus’s tummy, “I’m breaking the bloody chain if it’s the last thing I do.”
Cressida watched her closely for a moment, and eventually she sighed, “I wish you wouldn’t risk your own safety for this.” Eloise opened her mouth to reply, instead a hellishly warm hand cupped her jaw and she froze, “I’ve lived more lives than I can count. Don’t risk yours for this.”
Like a barrelling train, she got hit with the final piece of the puzzle. There were active conditions keeping the chain from being removed, but… Cressida had given her an idea that she absolutely would not like. A wide grin spread out across her face, and Eloise was intensely glad that her demon couldn’t still read her mind, “Everything will be fine.”
Also, long as she could make this new addition to her already barely cobbled together idea, actually work- There was a strong possibility for success. She’d read a few different works that lent themselves precedent for it, so it wouldn’t be impossible, it would just be rather stupid.
Plus, she still had no idea what the cost would be. Not that it mattered, she would pay anything.
Cressida was worth more anything that could possibly be taken from her.
“I have an extremely hard time believing you at the moment,” Cressida replied suspiciously as she watched Eloise slowly back away from her, her hands already itching to have the books she needed, to be rested in them.
“You worry about me too much!” Eloise called as she made a break for it and started stacking up all the books she needed.
It was soft, and almost too faint to hear as Cressida spoke to herself, “I’m actually starting to think it’s not enough.”
~
They stood on the busy street outside the Natural History Museum, and Eloise was practically drenched in sweat. She’d never intentionally gone anywhere to steal anything, and now here she was, at the base of the steps of a respected organization, with intent to burgle.
Well- She would walk around and ‘look’ while the demon shackled to the chain around her ankle did all the real work. There was no way she would have been able to do this without Cressida, not without puking on her way in at least. The thought of every single camera in this place trained on her, while she intended to chip a chunk of bone off of one of the oldest fossils that had been discovered so far? She’s not sure her stomach could take it.
“If you want to, you really can just stay out here,” Cressida offered again, for probably the fifth time, since they arrived half an hour ago. Eloise was just having some difficulties with actually making her way into the building, “Honestly you could have stayed in the car.”
“I told you, it’s my spell. I want to at least be a part of getting it, plus what if someone sees something?” Eloise clenched her sweaty hands together one last time and finally climbed the first step, “I can do this.”
“Please! It’ll be easy, I steal all kinds of things while you’re in classes or when you’ve got your head buried in a book,” Cressida boasted and Eloise deadpanned her as they climbed the rest of the steps, “I’ve never been caught before.”
“Cressida!” Eloise hissed under her breath as the crowds of people enveloped them, “What have I said?”
“I think just, not to do it with you, specifically,” Came her demon's grinned reply before she disappeared into the crowd. An excited flick of a tail was the last thing Eloise caught a glimpse of before she was left to legally get into the museum like the rest of the visible guests.
Once she finally slipped into the museum’s expansive sunlit halls, it was just a matter of locating her demon, who could be anywhere at this point. Eloise kept her eyes peeled for golden skin and horns, as she made her way towards where the bone she intended to forever scar was hopefully residing. Thankfully, Cressida was there lingering beside an expansive display, her tail twitching, “It’s not out here.”
Eloise felt dread begging to climb, she could use another bone, but with this it would be almost guaranteed to work, it was the oldest bone she could physically get her hands on, “What now?”
“I think it’s more than likely in their storage, we can still get it. It’ll just be a little more involved,” Cressida had a brilliant smile on her face, as if she’d been waiting for this moment, “Stay here darling, I’ll handle this.”
That was quite frankly the last thing she wanted to hear, before seeing Cressida disappear entirely. She tried to focus her attention on casually browsing through the museum's exhibits, but the longer time drew on without a reappearance from her demon the more uneasy she got.
It wasn’t until a gentle tap on her shoulder, that her mind was able to break free from its panic.
There just behind her, was a brutish looking man standing incredibly tall as he leaned down to be beside her. His shoulders were broad, and he looked as if he would have no trouble simply tossing her over his shoulder and walking away. Though as he stood, the more he looked rather shrunk in on himself, as if he wished people would be less aware of the fact that he was quite imposing.
“Pardon me,” His voice was smooth and deep, his shy smile rather boyishly charming- If you liked that sort of thing, “I couldn’t help, but notice your interest in the display.”
He motioned at the fern specimens she’d been carefully ‘observing’, truthfully she’d been entirely lost in thought about what her sharp toothed counterpart could possibly be doing at the same moment. She’d been half trying to read the words on the standee, but it was hard to make her mind comply with Cressida loose in a historical building.
She forced herself to focus back on him.
“Oh,” She gave him a careful smile and caught the museum badge clipped to his sport coat. He was rather classically put together and professorial in his tweet suit. He could perhaps one day be a colleague, she shouldn’t just toss him to the side “Yes, well, I’m quite interested in the implications it has for soil impact in early agricultural stages of human development.”
It wasn’t a lie, it just also wasn’t necessarily true.
“Well, that certainly is a fascinating subject!” His eyes lit up as he moved in closer to begin discussing some of the finer details of the first plant life’s impact on the overall early development of society. He clearly knew what he was talking about, because soon Eloise found herself entirely engaged in their discussion.
“It’s interesting,” Eloise commented with a furrowed brow as they stood off to the side in the corner deep in debate, “I know some botanists who believe algae can’t be considered plants, but I’ve always asserted, and it’s good to find someone who agrees, that all plant life came from them, how can they not be?”
“Yes, exactly!” He grinned and nodded along enthusiastically, “I-I’ve have a really great time talking you-” Suddenly he looked like a fish out of water and grabbed for his badge, “I’m Philip, by the way.”
“Eloise,” She added laughing as the relief swept over his face.
“I’ve had a great time talking to you, Eloise,” He restated and shifted slightly, it was strange to see someone so imposing be so unsure, “My break is coming in a few minutes, and I was wondering. Well, if you might-”
Eloise was running through reasons to use so she could break away, when a familiar warm arm wrapped solidly around her and Philip’s words cut off. Her brow furrowed, when his eyes slid over to look at her demon, when she glanced to the side Cressida looked entirely different.
Gone was the golden shimmer to her skin, her horns and tail had vanished, the only thing that remained familiar was the threatening point of her canines as she bared her teeth in a grimace-like smile. Normally, Cressida moved with a grace that was entrancing, anyone could lose themselves in her, everything about her was designed to draw you in. She boasted it herself, no one could resist the allure of a succubus, especially if they were intentional about it.
Right now?
Cressida radiated a dangerous energy that made Philip shrink back away from Eloise without thinking. Scorching hot skin pressed to her forehead as Cressida brushed a kiss against her skin, pressing their bodies close together, “Hello, darling, there you are.”
Her head rushed at the proximity, and the gentle scrape of Cressida’s teeth as she smiled into her skin, “H-Hello there, where have you been?”
“Conversing with a few archivists,” Cressida lied easily with a wink before her gaze turned over to Philip who was watching them closely, her smile turned predatory as she watched him, “Now who's cornered you here?”
“Oh! Hello, my name is Philip. I work at the museum, I assure you we were merely having a rousing intellectual debate,” He held his hand out to Cressida who simply turned her nose up at it and gave him a stern look, “Right- Well, lovely chatting-” He practically ran, with Cressida looking near ready to give chase, biting at his heels.
Eloise held firmly at her waist and gave her a scathing look, “Did you get what I needed or did you just manage to run off a perfectly nice museum employee?”
As soon as Philip vanished Cressida’s skin returned to gold and her presence dimmed entirely unnoticed as her horns and tail reappeared. She gave Eloise an unhappy pout, “Who was he?”
“I don’t think that’s any of your business after you practically chased him off! What the hell was that?” Eloise grabbed her around the middle and yanked her down the hall, “Did you at least get it?”
“Of course I got it, then I came back, and I found you being wooed by a gentleman caller!” Cressida huffed a tinge of annoyance threading through her words, her tail thrashed behind her with irritation following as she was pulled, “Why would you entertain his advances? Do you desire his company?”
“No! We were discussing plant classifications, and the impact of early plant life on all of documented history. That’s all!” Eloise hauled her cleanly from the exhibit hall and dragged her directly to the car park, “That was absolutely ridiculous! I could have made a great contact for my research! Instead, I’m sure he’ll never approach me- Likely out of fear that my girlfriend will appear out of nowhere again, in an attempt to bite his arm off.”
Cressida’s tail suddenly switched to a carefree swish, “Girlfriend?”
“You know what I mean! You very clearly implied it to him!”
Cressida huffed and climbed in the car as they approached, “I was saving you from his irritating presence.”
“If you hadn’t quite noticed, I was actually quite enjoying myself!”
“I had.”
~
Eloise spent almost the entire rest of her summer break focused entirely on refining every step in the process of this laundering potion.
Every free moment not dedicated to ensuring her own survival, was focused on making sure she knew everything, had redundancies for everything. There was no room for error, she could not mess this up. She had one shot.
She’d shirked countless family dinners, ignored calls from Penelope, and fell out on plans with coworkers to meet up before things at the university picked back up again.
She’d even briefly entertained quitting all together.
But it didn’t matter, because all of that led to this moment right now, with Cressida draped over half of her dining table, Orpheus sprawled out on her stomach, while Eloise at last, attempted to brew the potion. Her hair had frizzed from the enchanted steam and her eyes were wild, it was about hour 32 of 33.5. She had another hour and a half to go as long as her vigorous translations were correct, which they had to be, and they had to be, otherwise this would turn out to be a complete waste of time and carefully gathered resources.
Which, Cressida had declared it to be when she’d almost messed up three hours in.
Eloise had mostly recovered, rejected her misgivings and pushed on, she had something here. She would do this. She’d covered almost every base possible, she had back up ingredients, she had notes for her notes. This was going to work.
It had too.
“You know your mum called again,” Cressida asked from where she lay with Eloise’s phone, interrupting her concentration while she counted, and carefully stirred clockwise, “And a person called ‘Alphabet Mafia’ has messaged you repeatedly. Are you in danger?”
Eloise groaned and glanced up at Cressida only once she was sure she wouldn’t offset her stirring, “No, that’s the group chat with me, Benedict and Francesca. Because of our names, and then well…”
Cressida watched her raptly, but clearly did not exactly follow her lead, “Well, what? Have you all created a criminal organization?”
Orpheus had woken up and shimmied down to waddle off of Cressida’s stomach, and make his way for Sir’s cat bed, which had not been a welcome event around the home. Tensions were high as everyone figured out new sleeping arrangements, and settled with the addition of a new family member. Sir did not take to him invading his private spaces, as well as he had to Cressida, during her unexplained arrival.
“No!” Eloise had to try and stop herself from full bell laughing and throwing off her stirring, “We’re gay Cressida.”
“You’re happy?” Cressida asked her brows furrowing deeper as she stared at Eloise in confusion, “Because you’re happy, you started to do crime together?”
Eloise paused and realized she might find herself a little out of luck attempting to use modern terminology when so much of it had only become what it was for the queer community in the 1950s. How to explain homosexuality to a demon?
“Well- Uh, no. Benedict, my brother, likes well- Other men. Francesca, my sister, she likes men and women,” Eloise led and understanding dawned on Cressida’s face.
“Oh! You speak of attraction, that, I find myself well versed in,” Cressida’s eyes suddenly widened, before they narrowed in on Eloise, “You find yourself within this group?”
“Uhm, yes, well,” Eloise shifted slightly under the weight of the attention just placed on her. She should have considered the consequences of providing her live-in succubus with that knowledge, “I do find myself interested in women, but to me, it’s really more what’s on the inside that counts.”
“I have known those like you,” Cressida hummed softly, “I feel they always make for such attentive lovers, largely because they yearn for the intangible, the very essence that succubi thrive in,” Cressida whispered, her words faintly reaching Eloise over the bubble of the pot, her eyes blazing as they trailed along Eloise’s focused form, “Would you like me to show you?”
Her words felt like the very fire she cooked with, dangerous, beautiful, and above all enchanting. Eloise tried to stay focused on her potion, she would complete this correctly. It had taken her weeks to prepare, “Perhaps not when I have under an hour left to not mess this up.”
“But there would be a time?”
“You know what I meant.”
“Do I?”
“Yes.”
“I think I’ll choose to believe that there would be a time.”
“You’re distracting me.”
“Oh, darling, I assure you I am certainly not,” Cressida spoke with the threat of all that she really could be distracting Eloise with backing her up.
Eloise immediately paled and shook her head, “No, don’t do anything, please! I’m so close.”
Cressida’s eyes flared at her words and Eloise’s cheeks heated, “Well, how could I deny you? Especially when you beg so prettily.”
“Shut up,” Eloise grumbled, her cheeks probably hot enough she could cut the flame, and boil her brew with that alone.
When was she going to learn to think before she spoke?
The following ten minutes proceeded in blissful silence as Eloise let her traitorous body calm, and she finished the stirring step. The second she set her spoon down a firm hand tapped twice on her shoulders and Eloise spun to find an unimpressed Cressida looming behind her.
“What- Oh! I’m so sorry, you can talk,” Eloise sheepishly smiled at Cressida, and the demon just shook her head. It was the third time she’d accidentally done that so far. In her defence it was hard remembering exact phrasing, all because an enchanted chain makes a succubus do her bidding.
They needed to do this soon, she couldn’t take it any longer.
“Thank you, you know I’m starting to think I should be hurt that you don’t notice for so long after you do it,” Cressida nudged past her to peer into the simmering potion, “Huh, that actually doesn’t look horribly wrong.”
“Thanks, I guess,” Eloise grumbled, joining her to look in at the overall clear liquid, it had just the slightest shimmering blue tinge to it, “I suppose now I have to try and find an enchanted item to see if it works.”
“Oh, darkness damn me again, no please don’t. I can do that, enchantments are nothing,” Cressida rushed out as Eloise had begun combing through the stack of novels she’d been given, “Come on, it would be easier, then maybe you could still make it to your family plans this evening.” Eloise paused and seemed to actually be considering Cressida’s proposal so she pushed on, “You’d need to ensure the enchantment has time to settle and is fully functional as well so just bring it with you! Perhaps I can enchant a cloth to change your clothes or something.”
“That is a good point. I should test the enchantment, make sure it’s not faulty before trying to wash it off. It wouldn’t be very definitive if it was just a weak enchantment,” Eloise mumbled as she dropped the book she’d picked up in favour of stroking at her chin in thought. A habit she’d picked up as a child, always mimicking her father, in everything she could.
Cressida huffed out at the insinuation and Eloise just brushed her off, still deep in thought, “Excuse me! I am begging your pardon? My enchantments are not weak!”
“Oh, alright,” Eloise conceded, as if she hadn’t heard a word Cressida had said, and she sort of hadn’t. She’d been far too focused in weighing the pros and cons of her next step, “If you enchant me something, we’ll let it stand the evening and then check.”
“And you’ll go to your family dinner?”
“When did you become so obsessed with me going to family events?” Eloise asked as she rolled her eyes at Cressida. It took her only a few moments to perform the finishing touches and finally pulled the pot off of the burner, “I am sure my family is fine.”
“I just don’t like the thought that I am disrupting so much of your life. All in hopes of a pursuit that very well might be for naught,” Cressida grumbled, pushing her phone back into her hand at last. Eloise had put her in charge of correspondence as she’d called it, while she had to focus all of her attention on the task at hand, brewing the potion.
“You’re not. I’ve missed plenty of meals before you,” Eloise had not, she’d in fact never missed a family meal until Cressida came into her life, but she wasn’t about to announce that, “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”
“You’re lying. I’m a demon, Eloise. Why do you continue to attempt to lie?”
Right.
The longer Cressida was around the harder it was to remember they were so different, that Cressida could see so much more of her than she’d thought.
It was both thrilling and terrifying.
“Fine! Okay? I haven’t ever skipped out on dinner before- I just- I want to help you,” Eloise grumbled out, she had to stop herself from announcing that she needed to help Cressida. Not with the chain, not with what she might decide she knows from a declaration like that.
“And I think that is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me in a dozen millennia, but,” Cressida whispered making sure to capture her eye line once more, “I don’t want the kindest person I’ve met in a dozen millennia to sacrifice her entire life for mine. A balance perhaps, human things, and demon things.”
“I,” Eloise tried to think of a reason to object, but her stomach was a flutter with the thought of eventually finding a perfect balance of human and demon. Cressida in her life because she chose to be, not because she was forced to be, “Fine, I’ll go to dinner, but this time they want us to go to Aubrey Hall for the weekend. It’s a tradition, we all play pall-mall, it gets pretty serious. What will you do?”
Cressida pulled a face, “What do you mean? I’ll go to dinner, I can come for the weekend!”
“Ooohhh, no you won’t! I’ll not have you taunting me and dancing around while no one else can see you!” Eloise pointed a finger out, and Cressida grinned wickedly, caught in exactly what she’d intended to do, “If you come it will be as a human, and visible.”
Eloise knew she made a mistake as Cressida’s entire face lit up like a Christmas tree, “Deal!”
“No, wait!” Eloise cried out as Cressida ran for Eloise’s bedroom, and the snap of a deal settled in place around her ribs. Cressida disappeared from sight presumably to rifle through her clothing and Eloise dropped onto the couch to hide her head in her hands, “I have to be careful with what I say.”
“Yes, you do!” Cressida’s sing-song voice called out as it drifted back at her from the closet.
“Damned, demons.”
~
“So, what’s our story?” Cressida asked as they climbed into Eloise’s car, both now dressed for a family dinner, with bags packed for two for a weekend away. Orpheus was wearing a small scarf Eloise had repurposed from a doll for him, and he was perched on the dash, ready for adventure.
“What do you mean?”
“You know, why you’re bringing a stranger they’ve never met, dressed in your clothes, home for family dinner?” Cressida gave her a puzzled look, then pointed at Orpheus who waved back at her, “Also the hedgehog.”
Ice filled every inch of her body, and Eloise froze with the key half stuck in the ignition, “Oh. I- Had… Not thought, about that.”
“Wow, something you haven’t thought of,” Cressida teased and snapped her fingers, with a small puff of smoke the key turned, and the car roared to life, “I feel as if I should mark this down.”
“Oh-” Eloise bit her tongue before she shut Cressida up again, “Please, don’t be ridiculous. I can say you’re a colleague or something. Plus, they don’t have to see Orpheus! He’s easy to hide.”
“Am I easy to hide, wearing your clothes?”
“You stayed the night?”
“Any borrowed an entire wardrobe?” “Sure?”
“Do you really think that would work?” Cressida asked, and her smile only climbed, Eloise knew exactly what she was angling for with this by now.
“Ugh! Fine! I’ll just tell them we’re dating,” Eloise ground dragging her hands down her face, “Just please can you not say anything inappropriate to my family about me, or us, or you, or anything? Please?”
Cressida winked and gave her a mock salute as she purred, “Yes, master.”
“And don’t talk like that while we’re there,” Eloise bit out as she set off, if they waited any longer they’d be late. They needed to leave now, or they’d miss the start of dinner, mum would never let her down for that.
“Like what? It’s how I talk!”
“This is a bad idea, isn’t it? I shouldn’t be doing this. We have a magic potion in the boot,” Eloise grit out glancing back behind them before she looked back over to Cressida, “You enchanted the shirt I’m wearing to change colour at will, plus you’re an actual demon, and I’m actively learning, and practicing witchcraft.”
“But your mum has been beside herself, she’s been asking you about this all summer long,” Cressida argued back and Eloise felt a part of herself soften at the thought of her mother. She’d avoided every meal in London all year long, just deep in unravelling a new world. It was easy to make up excuses. Then she’d just been pushing off saying anything to confirm or deny if she planned to come out for the weekend, “Plus, magic always performs better in nature, we can test your potion out there. Just you, me, together in the woods.”
Eloise’s grip flexed around the wheel, and it almost felt like she could see the vision Cressida spread before them. Her succubus in her natural form, stepping through the woods of her ancestral home, skin glittering in the sunlight or moonlight, “Fine. I’ll go for my mum.”
“Right, of course, for your mum,” Cressida whispered, and Eloise almost wanted to double-check that her devil hadn’t somehow managed to work her way back into her head, “I’ll be on my absolute best behaviour.”
“You better be.” Eloise growled, cutting her eyes over as she finally set them off into the afternoon light.
Two bad swerves later, Cressida broken their silence, while Orpheus clung on for dear life.
“Are you sure you should be driving?” Cressida had waited about fifteen minutes before pushing it, and Eloise had blinked heavily throughout the entire time, “You haven’t actually slept in a while.”
“I found the Alert spell,” Eloise yawned out, waving Cressida off, “I got it on the second try, the first one electrocuted me. I was buzzing all afternoon.”
“Hells, Eloise!” Cressida nearly shouted, “Why on earth would you not ask me to help cast it with you?”
“I’m practicing!” Eloise shot back, “How else do you think I’m going to learn?”
“Hmph, letting me help you more,” Cressida grumbled, Eloise had begun requesting she get to be the one to attempt any casual magic, Cressida had been about to dole out. Since then, she had got a little bit of a sense that her devil was feeling a little useless, as she’d tried her best to improve what she needed to break Cressida free of the stupid chain.
“I do let you help me,” Eloise glanced away to reach out and squeeze Cressida’s hand, “I could use some now, actually. Would you help wake me up?”
Cressida’s eyes flashed and Eloise groaned again, all the time her devil ran with whatever she said, “Oh, darling, I can certainly wake you up.”
Eloise rolled her eyes, and turned back to the road as black smoke drifted through the cab, it took only a moment longer for the familiar energy of the Alert spell to flood through her, “Thank you, aren’t you just my good demon.”
“Oh, would you knock it off,” Cressida groaned, but Eloise could hear the happy smile spread out across her face, “I’m here to help you, I just feel like you should use it more.”
“No,” Eloise clarified, shaking her head, “You’re stuck here, and you’re forced to listen to me. There’s a very big difference.”
“Eloise, darling, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you never tell me to do anything on purpose. You hardly ever ask me for anything either. I just, of my own free will-” Cressida stated as she reached out to capture one of Eloise’s hands, and she tangled fingers together, “Do things for you because I like to- Is that so hard for you to believe?”
“A little bit, yeah.”
“At least you’re honest.”
“It’s just, that ethically,” Eloise started and pushed past the way Cressida snorted in derision, “It’s kind of a grey area, you know? Like you’re stuck to me.”
Cressida cackled, and doubled over in her seat, “Eloise, I nor any other demon has ever stopped to consider ethics in our practices.”
“Well- I do!”
“How about I make a deal with you?” Cressida asked and the air around them got heavy with the power that came with those words.
“What kind of deal?”
“I will always tell you if I ever do not wish to do something, so you may undo it if needed,” Cressida spoke and the words came out with a smooth finality, a deadly song that became a deal set in time, “In return, you will let me in you your mind three times for an hour each time, at moments of my choosing.”
“Cressida!” Eloise admonished, but her demon only smiled and watched, her magic filling the car. She had to admit… She did want Cressida to admit if she didn’t want to do something, and it was only three hours… How bad could it be?
Cressida waited quietly.
“Deal.”
The magic bound tight around the pair of them, and sealed.
Cressida’s smile turned nearly hellish, and Eloise still found herself enraptured, “It is done.”
“Three times, huh?” Eloise asked as the magic pressure vanished.
“Just a little something for insurance. In case it’s useful,” Cressida announced with a wink at Eloise, and she couldn’t help but think, she perhaps cemented her fate in something she would come to regret rather deeply.
“This isn’t going to go well for me is it?”
“Can’t imagine why you’d think that.”
~
“This is going to go great.” Cressida declared, her arms laden with both of their bags, as Eloise leaned in to ring the bell.
Normally she would have just walked right in, but she hadn’t actually told anyone she was officially coming, or that she was bringing an unknown guest along. The chances of any of this going well were zero, and less than zero.
“This is going to be a disaster,” Eloise groaned under her breath as she saw her second-eldest brother's frame approach through the frosted glass.
He threw the door open and cried out, “Eloise!” In a moment she was swept up in his arms.
She squealed out and hit at his shoulders, “Benedict, you giant oaf! Put me down!” He swung her back to the ground, but as he went to collect her belongings he instead found feet and slowly followed them back up to Cressida.
“Uh- El? Who's the goddess you’ve brought along? Are you lost ma’am?” He held out his hand and gave her a half bow and Eloise could see the way Cressida soaked up the attention, “I hope my sister hasn’t kidnapped you. We always worried she might go too far one day.”
“You’re too kind,” Cressida announced as she gave him her hand, he kissed it and Eloise had to shake her head to ensure she hadn’t been seeing things. A zing of light had travelled up from his lips and Cressida suddenly seemed to move a little smoother, “I’m here perfectly willingly, so I’m afraid there's no need for concern just yet.
Benedict barked out a laugh, he happily took their bags from Cressida, and headed back in.
Eloise meanwhile grabbed at Cressida’s sleeve and tugged her backwards, “Did you just bloody do your succubus energy-steal-thing to my brother?”
“A little! On accident mostly,” Cressida assured, but she looked all too pleased with the addition of the energy, “I haven’t touched another person outside of a past master or you in a very, very long time. It just kind of happened!”
All the heat flooded out of Eloise, and she found herself again wishing for any spell that could send her back in time, so she could rip that stupid witch limb from limb. That would be quite the way for her to finally free Cressida from this hell.
Even if it meant they never would have met, Cressida didn’t deserve this.
No matter how wicked she postured herself to be.
“Just- Try not to steal energy from my family members,” Eloise grumbled, pushing her demon forward now, “I don’t need any of them falling in love with you. Or… Dying.”
“That last one seems like it should have come before the first.”
“I would love to formally invite you to shut up, only if you’d like to of course,” Eloise growled out, tugging Cressida along so they could dodge her family and find their belongings where Benedict would have dropped them in her room.
“I’d like to decline I think,” Cressida laughed, and Eloise pulled her into the room, closing the door behind them.
“Okay, Benedict is going to give us a little bit of time. We need to know what we’re telling people,” Eloise rushed out, panic had started to settle in as her brother's inquisitive eyes had trailed over Cressida.
“That I ravish you nightly, and you decided you couldn’t possibly live without it?” Cressida asked, prowling forward into her space, “That I enchanted you with merely a look, and it’s never been a question since?”
“We are not telling my family about anything that has anything to do with non-existent ravishing,” Eloise demanded, holding her finger out to stop the prowling demon in her tracks.
“So, we could tell them about any ravishing that existed?”
“No! Don’t talk about sex with my mother at all!”
“That’s basically my career!”
“Definitely don’t tell anyone in my family it’s your career!”
Cressida pouted at her and Eloise couldn’t help but be affected by the time her lower lip quivered, “But it is?”
Eloise groaned and dragged her hands down her face, “Okay! Fine… But, be a-a- Sex therapist! Please?”
There was a moment's pause as her demon seemingly pondered it and then, “What’s a therapist?”
“Right, well- You’d basically see people, and talk to them, and help them improve their mental health, and sexual health. Sometimes help couples do better in bed,” Eloise listed out, the more she talked, the worse it seemed to have Cressida describe this to her family later, but it was better than having them suspect that she’d hired a prostitute to be her date.
“Oh, I could help people be better in bed alright.”
“Do you have to say everything as if it’s an innuendo?”
“No, I just prefer to.”
“You’ll actually be the death of me.”
~
“So, Cressida,” Her mother's voice came from the head of the table as it always did. Even though Anthony had inherited the house, they always left father's seat empty and mama remained in hers, “How is it that you two met?”
Eloise panicked as she realized they had very much not talked about that, she’d barely managed to get Cressida to swear not to make any overly sensual gestures or comments to anyone she shares blood with. She wasn’t sure she could live with herself if her brothers found themselves lusting after Cressida.
“I had some work at the university,” Cressida answered smoothly, and she winked over at Eloise as if she’d sensed how stressed Eloise had become at the mention of something unplanned. Unfortunately, two thirds of her siblings seemed to have taken notice of that little titbit, “We bumped into one another in the hall.”
Well, she wasn’t technically lying about any of that.
“Oh, how lovely, we’ve always worried about our Eloise, always so stuck in her own world,” Violet clapped her hands together and gazed at Cressida as if she were a miracle right from heaven itself.
If only she knew the truth of that.
“Please,” Eloise groaned, “I've told you I’m fine- I just don’t care for what the idiots my age call dating.”
“Well, yes,” Violet said strictly, giving her a look, “Of course you are fine now. You’ve found such a wonderful partner! Am I to presume that is why you were so busy all summer? So busy that you couldn’t even come see your poor old mum?”
“Sorry, mum,” Eloise grumbled as she busied herself with stuffing some of the mash in her mouth. Praying it would drive her mother to another sibling and leave her free from open assault.
Under the table a warm leg hooked with hers and Cressida winked at her, “So, Mrs. Bridgerton, the food is lovely. Did you make it yourself?”
“Oh, yes, dear! Are you much of a cook yourself?”
The rest of the meal dissolved into a few different conversations, and Eloise found herself free from the laser focus of her mother, as everyone talked amongst themselves. Cressida’s attention was dolled out expertly across the table, but no matter what, their legs remained anchored together.
It felt nice to have someone by her side as the family chatter filled the room, and descended into its typical madness. As all her siblings partnered up she was left more and more on the outs of things. Even Hyacinth had a partner, as of earlier this year. They were ganging up against her in numbers, and she had not liked the odds as time went on.
But now she had Cressida, and a new knowledge of herself.
Plus, they would trounce them all tomorrow in the games.
About half-way through the dinner, the siblings and spouses had descended into nothing but smack talk, and taunting; which only increased once Violet had excused herself for the evening. At one point Anthony had yelled out that he planned to demolish them all with ease, and Kate beside him looked as if she knew something none of them did- From there, Colin and Penelope lobbed accusations of cheating at them. Then Benedict and Seph, accused Gregory of rigging the course, and the family crashed into madness from there.
Cressida had actually needed to physically remove Eloise from Daphne at one point, after she’d brought up an old cheating accusation, and Eloise had leapt across the table at her- Her place setting's knife clutched in hand.
By the time everyone was safely locked in their rooms, and the dining room had been cleared of the mess they’d caused, Cressida and Eloise stood together staring at her bed. Cressida had a look on her face that made Eloise feel overly aware of the shirt, and pants she had to sleep in.
It was Cressida that eventually broke the silence, “I can sleep on the floor.”
“No-” Eloise mumbled her brow furrowed, “It’s just that I’m realizing I don’t know where you sleep in my flat.”
Cressida laughed loudly and Eloise just glared at her in response, “Hah! You hadn’t thought about that before? Well, I sleep on the couch quite a bit, why? Should I snuggle up with you at home too?”
“I mean it could have at least been an option to talk about,” Eloise grumbled, mentally hitting herself for forgetting about that for over half a bloody year. What must Cressida think of her?
“Well,” Cressida started as she crowded into Eloise’s personal space, “If you’re offering- I accept!” Strong arms wrapped around her, and pressed her into the hellishly hot skin behind her, before they were suddenly lunging through the air towards the bed.
“Cressida!” Eloise shrieked, while they crashed into the bed, it rocked back into the wall behind them. The bang echoed through her room and Eloise hissed lowly at her, “That’s Daphne’s wall! Be careful!”
“What?” Her demon flipped them, and pinned Eloise beneath her arms as she rocked the bed frame into the wall a few more times. She let out a few fake low moans in, that ignited something dangerous in Eloise, “Worried your sister will discover you don’t have a drearily sad, empty intimate life?”
Eloise wiggled from where she was now trapped between the mattress, and the immovable force that was Cressida, “She most certainly does not need to know anything about my intimate life. Knock it off!”
“I beg to differ,” Cressida was a breath away from her as she stopped the bed’s rocking, “I think, I should get to show them all just how good I am to you. I’m supposed to be yours after all,” Cressida pressed her closer, and her blonde hair draped down over them both to block out the rest of the world, “Because, if I were really yours, I would make sure you never wanted for anything ever again.”
Eloise felt a strangled noise come out of her, thankfully she seemed to have blacked it out, so she wouldn’t have the memory of that sound haunting her for the rest of her mortifying life, “I don’t- That’s not- They don’t- I think-”
Cressida’s chuckle was low and deep and Eloise’s hands twisted into her shirt, “I think you should stop thinking for once in your life.”
Eloise was a moment from saying some mart retort back, and then lips were on hers.
A spark of heat shot through her body, and she lit up from the inside out, it was no more than the barest of brushes of their lips, but she felt drawn to Cressida in a way that spoke to the raw magic coursing through her veins. It was a feeling she could dive head first into, one she could get lost in forever.
Reality struck her, and Eloise wrenched herself back, she wriggled her hands into place, and pushed Cressida away, “Wait a second! Did you just succubus-power-thing me?”
“What?” Cressida looked bewildered, her eyes almost dazed, but she’d followed Eloise’s hands without resistance, “No! Maybe? Not on purpose!” Eloise slid away from her and eyed her suspiciously and Cressida looked almost wild, “Command me. Make me tell the truth. I swear it- I didn’t do anything- what you felt. Eloise, I felt it too.”
Cressida looked the most vulnerable that Eloise had seen yet, and she couldn’t tell her no. Just that feeling, the way everything felt like it boiled within them, it felt dangerous, “Okay, fine. Tell the truth.”
“I didn’t use my power intentionally. I felt it though. I think it was your spark in part, I think it was us-” Cressida whispered, daring to press closer to Eloise, “Can’t you believe that just for a moment, beyond the chain on your ankle, that we might be something more?”
“What do you mean?” Eloise found herself drifting closer to meet Cressida halfway, her heart hammered in her chest. It felt more and more likely that Cressida was going to say the quiet part of what had brewed between them out loud for the first time.
“I felt it the moment I saw you,” Cressida replied, reaching closer to brush Eloise’s hair back behind her ear, “It’s okay if you didn’t, it’s okay if you still don’t know, but I still find myself drawn to you.”
“I,” Eloise wanted to say the same, she wanted to admit that she’d soured at the thought of Cressida with others, she hated that anyone had caused her pain, and she wanted nothing more than to hold her close as kiss away the lingering burn of those wounds, “Was it ever like this before? With any of the other people who found the chain?”
“Eloise, how many times must I tell you, nothing with you has been like anything I’ve had before,” Cressida pressed close again, moving to connect their lips once more, but Eloise held a hand up between them.
“I can’t,” Eloise shook her head and Cressida shrank back from her, “Not now, not while the chain remains between us. I have to do this for you”
“That bloody chain would keep you from me? Even if we could have your lifetime together?” Cressida asked in disbelief, her eyes cut bitterly to where it lay against Eloise’s skin, “Why?”
“Because, I,” Eloise snapped her mouth shut, and she shifted slightly against the headboard, “It doesn’t matter. I just want this gone for the both of us.”
“What if I don’t ask this of you?” Cressida asked petulantly, crossing her arms over her chest as they sat together on her bed.
“Do you not?” Eloise asked her brow furrowing as she reached down to tug at the chain, “Do you like living this?”
“No! But, I like you Eloise. I like this,” Cressida looked scared, as she gestured back and forth between them, “I’m worried about what happens if something changes. What happens if you don’t like what I am when I’m not corralled by this chain?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Are you so different?” Eloise asked, her heart aching for the vulnerability pouring out from Cressida.
“I don’t know! I was 75 when I was captured. I haven’t been that version of me in forever,” Cressida wrung her hands together and watched Eloise semi-broken. The illusion flickered and suddenly the horns and tail returned, Eloise held her arms open and Cressida dove into them without a second to spare, “What if I’m a different person, and I don’t even know? What if this chain has become a part of the me you see before you?”
Eloise rubbed her hands along Cressida’s back, her fingers tracking their way along her spine, “Do you think you would still care to be around me?”
“Yes.” Cressida didn’t even pause for a second, her words left in a rush of air that brushed against Eloise’s collar bone.
“Then I will still care to be around you.”
“Eloise you can’t promise that. I’m a demon. What happens when I do something that disagrees with you?” Cressida asked bitterly, but she only curled closer to Eloise, just like Sir would have, were he in her place.
“Cressida, I’ve seen you eat a whole plate of raw chicken in under five minutes,” Eloise whispered laughing as she laced her fingers into Cressida’s hair, she scratched along the base of her horns and the devil practically melted in her lap, “I assure you that was not ideal, but I didn’t find myself wanting to run.”
Actually, Eloise had been rather surprised at the soft warmth she’d felt after the initial shock had faded. It had made her feel so happy to see Cressida sit at the table, napkin tucked into her shirt, chicken neatly laid out on one of her nice plates, with a knife and fork clutched in either hand. She’d demolished every shred of meat on the plate, and Eloise had a strange sort of fascination as she watched it. Cressida was immensely powerful, beyond her magical ability, it was hard not to feel a cool chill of fear. But- Eloise rarely lingered in that, because what overwhelmed everything else by far, was the way that Cressida had slowly filled out, a warmth and roundness returned to her, no longer all harsh angles and skin to bone.
She looked more of the enchanting seductress histories painted her to be than ever.
So, honestly, overall Eloise was overjoyed at the result of her vicious consumption of raw meat.
“Eloise, there’s no way to know what I would become the moment that falls away,” Cressida reached down and trailed her fingers along the air just above the chain, “If I became someone who would hurt you, I could never forgive myself.”
Eloise didn’t know what to say to that, it felt impossible to get around it. With what bound Cressida to her, how could any of it be real?
“Can’t we just have your lifetime? It would be enough.” Cressida murmured as she pushed herself up to look in Eloise’s eyes, “It would be enough to have this to remember, to have you to hold onto through everything that’s to come.”
“No!” Eloise growled, and she surged forward, her hand wrapping in Cressida’s collar to yank her up. Eloise rested her hand firmly above where Cressida’s heart beat out of rhythm in her chest, “I’m not giving in, and I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you are. I just want you Cressida. You’ll still be you, inside, you’ll always be you. You’ll just be free.”
The silence settled heavy between them, and Cressida watched her with sadness in her eyes, as if she knew that Eloise was wrong. As if she thought Eloise was making promises she couldn’t keep, or maybe promises she wouldn’t want to keep. Eloise didn’t say anything she didn’t mean.
She didn’t do anything she didn’t want to do.
She was bloody Eloise Bridgerton!
“Let’s make a deal then.” Eloise demanded and Cressida shook her head, but Eloise pushed on, “No! Damn you, please. Make a deal with me, please, Cressida?”
“You want to try and prove something with this,” Cressida mumbled as she allowed Eloise to move her as she bit, “But I don’t want you trapped with a version of myself I can’t anticipate.”
“I don’t care! I don’t. What would it take for you to actually do this?” Eloise practically begged Cressida.
“Let me go if I am not good for you, and stop if this goes too far.” Cressida whispered, eyes broken as she watched her, “I’m not worth this.”
“You are.” Eloise replied without hesitation, there wasn’t a doubt in her mind.
Cressida sighed, in a way only someone of her age could, “You’ll agree to stop?”
“Fine, if it gets more dangerous than I planned, we stop.”
“And then you’ll forget about the bind?” Cressida asked as she reached for Eloise, and she could never deny her, and allowed their fingers to lace, “Let me live with you and it? If it’s all I have- Darling, it would be more than enough.”
Eloise watched her critically for a moment before she proposed the same idea as before, “Make the deal with me then?”
“What do you propose as terms?”
The room filled with Cressida’s power as Eloise gave her bargain, “You let me break the spell on the chain, as long as I do not come under more danger than planned. In return, no matter what you become- I’ll remain by your side, and you’ll always be welcome to come and go as you please.”
Eloise isn’t sure she’s ever meant something more. After all this time with Cressida, it was easy to promise to remain by her side. Even while her demon was climbing over counters to attempt to curse service workers, Eloise couldn’t help, but feel overjoyed by it all. Her life felt full in a way it hadn’t before, she hadn’t laughed as much since the last time her and all of her siblings still lived under one roof.
Cressida had blown into her life like a nightmare, and settled like a daydream. Eloise couldn’t imagine her life without her, and she was starting to not want to. No matter what it took to keep her around, Eloise wanted her succubus by her side.
Because that’s what it felt like she was, hers. They’d become uniquely bound to one another, and Eloise would not allow another ‘master’ to lay their hands on Cressida. She would blast the chain to dust, and rip the spell from the fabric of reality so she could shred it into nothing with her bare hands if she had too.
Cressida would be free after her if it was the last thing she ever did. No matter what the demon claimed.
Cressida watched her closely, Eloise could tell she didn’t like the phrasing as the moment stretched out between them. There was a moment, and Eloise could have almost sworn Cressida was back inside her head- But the demon just nodded, “Deal.”
It snapped into place around her ribs, and she shifted slightly in the bed, “Now lay down, we have to go to sleep. Pall-mall in the morning and I’m finally on a team with you, we switched to pairs once almost everyone had partnered up, and I’ve been getting the shaft with whatever family member had a spouse down,” Eloise settled back and pulled the covers up, so Cressida could settle in with her, “This year, we’re all in. And you and I? We’re taking them all down.”
Golden power flickered at her fingertips, and Cressida’s grin became something rather devious, “Oh, now I’m feeling intrigued.”
Orpheus clambered on top of them both, as Cressida tucked herself into Eloise without waiting for any sort of acceptance.
Eloise laughed and settled back into the pillows, “Remember though, still on your best behaviour.”
~
“You bloody rat bastard! Let me go, Cressida! I’m going to murder him! I’ll rip his arms off and shove them up his-” Eloise was covered, nearly head to toe in mud, while Anthony stood across from her, caked in it up to his knees. Cressida yanked her back mid-sentence, but she just hurled herself back at him, “Then I’ll rip out his stupid posh hair, and stuff it down-”
Anthony himself was sporting a wicked grin, since Cressida had Eloise held firmly around the middle, and she could not escape. He held his hands up calming and spoke to her like she was some sort of wild animal, “Eloise, calm down! It’s just a game.”
A gasp up from half the family, and Eloise's voice dripped with venom, “Just a game? Says the boy who began the ‘09 massacre.”
“Oh don’t bring that up that’s different from now-”
“How!?” Eloise took advantage of Cressida’s attention being split while she tried to wriggle free to get at Anthony.
“You also cheated this time!”
“Oh, you little-”
Cressida’s nails, her real nails, dug into her abdomen and Eloise yelped. Her demon shifted her carry, and Eloise scrambled for purchase as she was thrown over Cressida’s shoulder. She turned and began marching them into the woods at the edge of the property. She threw a hand up back to the rest of the family, “We’re going to take a walk and cool off!”
Eloise thumped her demon's back and groaned, “I did not agree to this, we were supposed to win.”
“I did not get an accurate read on Anthony’s wife, Kate. It was my mistake to have underestimated her. We will crush them adequately next time,” Cressida flipped Eloise back down on her feet once they were far enough away from the rest of the family. Though, she did keep their hands locked firmly together, “You know I quite like the fire that burns in you during competition.”
Eloise’s cheeks heated, and she hid her smile, “Whatever.”
They trudged on in silence for a little while before Cressida finally broke it, “Would you like me to clear the mud from you?”
“Show me how?”
“Of course, darling.”
Cressida shifted and released her hand, but just before she did Eloise tugged on her sleeve, “Can you go back to normal?”
After a wink, Cressida melted back into the shimmering skin, and sharp tail she often kept, and Eloise beamed. It was exactly what she’d pictured, her demon framed by the deep green of the woods of her family homestead.
It was perfect. Just as she’d pictured
“Ready?”
Eloise nodded, and Cressida pressed behind her lifting her hand, she whispered the path of the symbol in her ear as they drew the symbol in the air together. It shimmered for just a moment, then pushed towards rocketing over them both. With a powerful rattle, that somehow smelled like soap, passed through her, and when she looked down every spec of mud had gone from her person.
“Perfect, and on the first try!” Cressida grinned at Eloise, and she could help but grin back.
“Alright, we’re clean, we’re clearing our heads,” Eloise laced their fingers together and tugged her deeper into the woods, “Let me at least take you to my favourite spot.” Cressida allowed herself to be pulled along, and Eloise luxuriated in her presence as they moved to one of her favourite places on the property.
They trekked deeper into the woods, and just as they pushed over a tree that went down when she’d been ten, Orpheus chirped up at her from the ground. She didn’t even stop to question how he’d ended up there, he just kind of did a lot of things, whatever suited him really. She scooped him up, and dropped him down onto her shoulder, while they pushed their way into her clearing, “Here we are! I accidentally found this place when I was four- Absolutely terrified and lost, but when I found this place, suddenly the woods weren’t so terrifying any more.”
Cressida released her hand, and pushed farther into the clearing, Eloise let her put some distance between them as she just watched her. She let herself imagine what it would be like if the weight of the chain didn’t pull between them. What she might let herself want, if it didn’t always feel like Cressida was trapped here with her. She just wished she could make her understand-
“Cressida?” Eloise asked softly, in a rustle of wind her demon was back in front of her, intent blue-green eyes focused on her.
“Yes?”
“You can read my mind again.”
A confused smile flashed across her face before the command took place. Then, everything Eloise had spent the last almost half a year, wanting and repressing, crashed full force into Cressida. Her demon's smile widened to something almost unnatural, and Eloise just wanted her closer.
Without missing a beat, she was pulled into Cressida’s arms to have her wish fulfilled.
“Can I show you something?” Cressida asked, her voice rough as she pressed them back against a tree lining the small clearing, “I feel your doubts now, I feel your fears- Let me make them feel better, darling.”
Eloise nodded, and tilted her head into the rough bark at her back. Her breath hitched and Cressida felt like living fire in her grip, “Yes.”
Almost like it had with Orpheus, a part of her prickled, and then something opened within her, connecting to something new. It didn’t feel like all of Cressida, as if she’d only been given access to a piece, but the piece she did get was full of her. Images kept flashing through Cressida’s mind, all of Eloise, there was something else, far below it, but it was almost impossible to feel beneath everything else.
It was just all her, as if Cressida took each moment of their time together, in a picture perfect still, and kept it in her mind; perfectly preserved.
Slowly, Eloise realized the memories were flashing backwards, Cressida was moving through her thoughts to what was hidden at the base of it all. Eventually, a sharp metallic tang rang through it all, and Eloise could feel the sharp connection that tethered to something greater within Cressida; something she wasn’t letting Eloise see. Then, just as quickly as the bitter tang of discomfort settled, it was gone, and the countless images of Eloise layered heavily over it all once more.
The feeling of it, almost entirely gone.
There was only a second longer to sit in this strange glimpse of herself, before the small crack in the window to Cressida’s mind slammed shut, and she was ousted.
“Stop reading my mind now.” Eloise mumbled dazed as he head reeled from the sensation of being in someone else’s mind. Not only that, but what it had been to feel the smallest amount of what Cressida had let her see. Everything had felt far too curated to be anything else, but she’d perhaps proven her point.
After that- Her ethics argument had started to lose some of its weight in her mind.
“The bond does not keep me here.” Cressida mumbled, Eloise leaned into her and a dazed smile spread out over her face. Her demon pulled back to pick Orpheus up from her shoulder, and carefully set him on the floor, “I would stay. Even if there was no bond.” She had answered the question that haunted Eloise relentlessly, for months, as if it were nothing.
It felt impossible for this to be real, for any of it to be real. But it was- Cressida was real, and she was stuck, and for once Eloise would make sure she got her demon was the one who gets her needs met.
She had to do this first.
“I’m breaking the bloody chain, Cressida,” Eloise mumbled with more determination than ever as Cressida leaned in to attempt to connect their lips once more, but Eloise pulled away.
“What?” Her demon practically whined into the fresh air around them and Eloise laughed though her whining, “I thought we just settled that? Was that not enough?”
Eloise leaned in, and allowed her lips to brush over Cressida’s pout, “What if I told you I already have the whole thing planned out?”
Cressida lifted her up, and settled her legs around her waist, before pressing their lips together in a deeper kiss, “Don’t care about that.”
Eloise felt most of her coherence slipping.
Everything about Cressida was designed for this, and Eloise had spent so long desperate for her. Desperate for Cressida in a way that felt untouchable with everything else in its way. Only now, Cressida had shown her that should be nothing in the face of what they both wanted. She was having a hard time keeping control of the situation, her head was spinning faster with every press of Cressida’s lips.
Her demon held her like something precious, but the way she moved was sinful, it had devil written all over her. Before Eloise knew it she was stretched out on a bed of soft moss, Cressida between her legs, and her lips hot on her neck. Sharp teeth traced lines along her throat, and sharp nails cut their paths along her hip, “C-Cressida, fuck- This- Please. Uhm- There was-”
“Yes, Darling?” Cressida’s voice was jagged as she spoke directly into the hollow of Eloise’s throat, “Do you need something?”
“I want- I want-”
“That’s exactly it,” Cressida whispered, trailing upwards to trace her lips along Eloise’s ear, her voice dropped low and became deep and honeyed. It felt like a trap and a treat all wrapped up in one, “Tell me what you want, darling.”
“You.”
It ripped free from Eloise, and she hadn’t even meant to say it. It should have been so much more than just that, it should have been everything she wanted for Cressida, everything she wanted to give to Cressida. But her mind spat out what was selfishly claiming the majority of her brain at that moment, and it wasn’t wrong. She couldn’t deny that it wasn’t exactly what she wanted, that Cressida wasn’t exactly what she needed, but it all felt like something not meant for her.
Eloise was the historian.
She read, and she catalogued, she studied patterns, histories, and lost herself in the etchings on pottery.
It was the rest of her family that spread out, and spread fast, they fell in love, they found wonderful people to share their lives with. She knew that things like that were easy for people like them, they met, and they dove head first into it all. Eloise didn’t work like that, a long time ago she’d resolved herself to a lifetime of appreciating her family’s love, instead of finding her own.
Though, that had all been before a demon with a devilish smile appeared in her flat, and had not allowed her a moment of peace since. Not that Eloise would have wanted for it, because she truly did only want Cressida now. She wanted the dents in her walls from an accidental horn scrape, she wanted things knocked from their shelves due to an excited tail lash. She wanted to have to tug Cressida back from lunging at strangers, the same way she held her back from lunging at her family.
Cressida was insistent above her, but she’d kept their lips from connecting again, “What if we make an agreement? No deals? What if I help you do whatever you need to do to break the chain? Tonight. You’ll be with me then? Nothing would keep you from us?”
“No questions asked?”
“I just want to give you what you need, Eloise.”
“You can’t just say things like that!”
“What do you bloody need?”
~
The few remaining elements needed for Eloise’s plan had taken Cressida surprisingly little time to pull together considering the distance restrictions she had. Then once they washed her shirt in the potion, and confirmed she’d done it right. They could try to do the outlandish idea Eloise had pieced together over months of reading every book Cressida had been able to bring her.
It was midnight, and both of them were dressed in black jumpers she’d found from her childhood stores. They were back in the clearing from earlier, and they stood across from one another. A giant cauldron sat between them, atop a small pile of kindling, while the rest of her supplies sat beside her.
They’d tested the shirt, and when it washed back to its natural grey, Eloise felt a cold calm settle over her. She’d planned, she’d prepared.
This would work.
“Are you ever going to actually tell me what this actually entails?” Cressida asked as Eloise flipped through some notes she’d scribbled down over the weeks.
“No, certainly not,” She grinned back up at Cressida for half a second before looking back down, “It’s a good thing we came though because we would not have wanted to do this in my flat.”
“Just tell me, I can help.”
“Fine, but first get in the pot.”
“In it?!”
“Oh, don’t act so scandalized, I’ll get in it too.”
Cressida cut her a glare and grumbled several inappropriate remarks as she sunk down in the oversized pot, “You damn well better.”
“Okay! So, we know a few things,” Eloise propped her hands up on her hips and surveyed everything, “I have to be alive, and you have to be alive, for the chain to be actively bound. You can’t banish, break or clean an enchantment, spell or curse while it’s actively bound.”
“I don’t like at all how you’ve started this.”
“Then you won’t like what I’m going to say next,” Eloise clapped her hands and bent to pull out four of the vials Cressida had gotten for her, “I’m going to temporarily kill us both!”
“No!” Cressida shouted out, and she started to climb out of the pot, but Eloise had already put the trapping rune in place, “We made a deal!”
“The deal was, more dangerous than I’d planned for. I’ve planned for this,” Eloise winked at Cressida and sorted through the rest of what they needed.
Cressida struggled against the rune and hissed, “Oh, you are devilish!”
“I’ve only learned from the best,” Eloise shot her a smile as she began carefully pouring vials in the cauldron, “It’s less theoretical than you think. I found something that roughly translated, were the steps a devil did to break his enslavement to a crown. This is similar enough with the potion.”
“What?” Cressida’s eyes went wide, and she scrambled for the edge, “Eloise, no. No! I’m not letting you kill yourself because a bloody devil told you to! Devil's lie! They love to lie! I love to lie!”
“Cressida- I have a good feeling about this. I think you just need to trust. Look, Orpheus is here!” Eloise pointed down to her familiar that now was climbing up her pant leg, “That’s got to be a good sign.”
“Or, he thinks you’re going to die, and he’s here to do his best to stop that,” Cressida grumbled, trying one last time in vain to haul herself out of the cauldron, “This is incredibly stupid.”
“Cressida, hush,” Eloise tutted as she continued getting everything she needed too, set up from the outside of the cauldron. Once everything was within arms reach, she slid into the basin with her demon, the magic cleaning potion sloshing up to her knees, “Okay. Ready to die?”
“I’ll kill you if we make it out of this alive.”
“What if I’m right?”
Cressida’s voice cracked as she replied, “What if you’re wrong?”
Eloise gave her an easy smile and shrugged, “Never been before.”
“You can NOT base this on that!”
“Can too! Here, drink this now, or you’ll mess everything up, and I’m drinking mine,” Eloise pressed a vial into Cressida’s hand and knocked back the bitter liquid within her own vial, she waited for Cressida to knock back her vial before she spoke, “Ugh, you think they’d make poison taste good? You know? Like you’re going to die, but at least it could maybe be citrus flavoured.”
“We just drank poison and that’s your gripe? We’re performing a stunt somehow thematically worse than Romeo and Juliet, and you wish the magical poison had some taste to it?” Cressida’s body was tense with the anger she made no attempt to hide. She kept her eyes locked on Eloise, as if she were attempting to soak in her appearance for the last time, “I’m choosing to believe in you now. Because we need absolutely everything behind this- But if I’d known what you were cooking up at that damned kitchen table I never would have made a deal with you. This is reckless- It- It’s- Eloise!”
She’d been fine, really, hadn’t felt a thing- Until she couldn’t breathe.
It had clawed up her throat until she’d choked on nothing, with her last move she grabbed two more bottles from the rim, and shoved one at Cressida as she tipped hers back. It was interesting really, dying, and not really knowing if you’d make it back. Blindly confidently she’d assured herself that she would live, that there was nothing wrong with any part of her plan.
Even though part of it is based entirely on speculation… Well, really all of it.
Eloise felt, distantly, as Cressida’s hand tangled with hers, and her body got hauled into her demon's arms, before everything went black.
~
Eloise felt almost as if she were floating through a blackened void, before a hook flared hot in her belly, and locked her in place. Not a moment later and she was blinking her eyes awake in a small furry body, who had already somehow made it to the top of the cauldron.
She allowed herself a brief moment of celebration, Cressida couldn’t have known how right she was when she’d said Orpheus would be a good familiar. She’d found a recount of multiple witches who found themselves suspended in a state of unawares, magic or otherwise, only to awaken within their familiar of protection.
The final piece of her plan was falling into place, the only thing that mattered, is that it actually works now.
Eloise jumped down into the cauldron and landed on her own chest, there was a brief moment of pause, she had to. The way Cressida had curled around her was too much to ignore, they had some time, she just needed to finish the laundering spell. She climbed the rest of the way down her body, and found the chain on her ankle. From there it was only a mild struggle with her tiny paws to find the clasp, with a deep breath, and a desperate prayer to anything that could hear her- She tried the clasp.
The lock fell open, and she had to force herself to stay focused, she had to get this done right. With the chain resting against her skin, but mostly submerged, she began to trace the pattern through the air.
It was one she could now draw in her sleep, she’d practiced it countless times, to ensure this moment was perfect. It took her longer with paws, and the fact that she was about the size of a bread roll, but the spell shimmered before her and with a final breath she tapped it forward. She watched as the magic touched the potion, and it glowed blue, the chain lit within that and the letters of its binding began to dissolve-
It was working. It was actually working! She’d done it-
Everything went black.
~
Existence was nothing but white-hot burning pain.
Perhaps that’s all she’d ever known, it felt strange that something would have come before the darkness, and the pain. There was nothing, then everything was black, and everything was agony.
There was a ringing somewhere distantly, but all she could feel was the pain of it.
Then came the heat. Her skin burned, and her chest felt as if she was breathing in fire.
Before the heat could die down, the world came swimming in, and a fiery hot hand collided with her back. Potion came coughing out of her throat, her ears cleared to the sound of the forest, and Cressida’s panicked chattering behind her as she held her upright over the grass.
“You have to be okay. Be okay. I’ll bloody kill you if you’re not okay,” Another press to her back and more water came up, “I’ll go to the depths of hell, and drag you kicking, and screaming back from it just to send you-”
“Jeez- Is this how you treat the people you care for?” Eloise rasped as she coughed at the raw ache in her throat, “Did- Uphf-” Cressida lifted her up, and crushed her to her chest, Eloise was gasping against the hold. Her hand patting at the strong arm keeping her bound, “Cress, Cressida,” Her voice came out more like a strangled whisper, but eventually her tapping captured her demon's attention.
“Oh! Sorry, just- Hellfire, you could have seriously hurt yourself,” Cressida dropped her back to the ground, but a second later, hands were travelling over every inch of her. Including reaching for her jumper, Eloise tried to stop her, but Cressida was quicker, “You’re lucky this didn’t, oh, no-”
Cressida’s voice died in her throat as she looked beneath Eloise’s jumper, “What? What is it?”
“Eloise, I-”
“Come on, it can’t be that bad.”
“I’m so sorry, you should have never tried this, I told you-”
“Cressida! Enough! I’m sure it’s fine,” Eloise sat up and ripped the fabric from her demon's hand to lift it up, and look down at whatever had Cressida so worked up, “Oh,” Just there coming up from her left hip, cleaving through the previously smooth expanse of her skin, was a dark iron gash, threading up to cover her right breast, and stop just shy of her shoulder, “It’s… The chain.”
“There’s always an exchange,” Cressida whispered, her hand moving forward to press against the air chilled metal, Eloise felt it, just as if it were her skin, “I told you it wasn’t worth it. I told you I wasn’t worth it. You idiotic human-”
“Don’t.” Eloise bit out, and she shoved out at Cressida, “Enough. Not worth it? Of course, you’re worth it! What do you think I’d trade some skin in for your freedom? Truly?”
“Well, I-”
“Well, nothing! I don’t bloody well care, as long as it worked! Did it? Did it work?” Eloise honestly couldn’t comprehend how Cressida could care more for some metal that clearly was causing her no harm, “How do we know?”
“I-I don't exactly feel it any more, but I’ve never died before. That could have affected something for all I know,” Cressida’s words were bitter, and she shot Eloise a look, “I suppose you can try to tell me to do something.”
“Quit being so annoying and pessimistic,” Eloise shot back, and Cressida stuck her tongue out at her, “I don’t know- Go fuck yourself.”
“That’s too nonspecific to register normally.”
“Sure it is,” Eloise huffed under her breath, before she threw her hands up, “I don’t know. Go away. Leave me alone.”
Cressida’s eyes spoke of the hurt that passed through her for a moment, until nothing happened, and then a spark of excitement lit. One Eloise hadn’t ever seen before and Cressida prowled forwards, tail flicking out behind her, “No. No, I don’t think I will.”
Eloise couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face to match her demons, as her hands slid forward to grab at the fabric of Cressida’s damp jumper, “Well, I suppose I have no say in the matter then do I?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Cressida backed her into the soft moss she’d been pressed into yesterday, and a lifetime ago, but then she’d pushed her away. Now she pulled her closer, “I would stop if you wanted me too.”
“No, I can’t say I do. If this is really you,” Eloise added as she tugged Cressida down farther, “I believe someone has made a lot of hard to follow up promises about ravishi- Oh!”
Hands pressed into her skin, and a knee helped hook her leg up around Cressida’s hip as her demon sighed into her skin, “You killed us for this, you could have had it before. You could have had everything, anything.”
Her lips traced a blazing path up her neck, as the hands at her waist, sent heat through the cold metal that now took up so much of her abdomen, “It wouldn’t have been the same. It wouldn’t have,” Eloise pushed Cressida up from her and connected their gazes, “It wouldn’t have been the same.” Cressida rolled her eyes, but Eloise shook her head, “Don’t do that- Look, you already have a lightness back. It means something that it’s you choosing to be here.”
“Would you rather I leave?” Cressida asked a cocky smile on her face, “I can go-”
“Ugh! You are a nightmare,” Eloise pushed at her, and used her leg to help roll Cressida beneath her, so she was sitting on top, “Can’t you ever just take something seriously?”
“Excuse you,” Cressida propped herself up and let a hand tug at the band of Eloise’s trousers, where the new metal skin disappeared beneath them, “I’m extremely serious about what’s under your trousers.”
“I can’t stand you,” Eloise groaned, but she leaned down and connected their lips at last, “Can’t you at least pretend to be glad I freed you?”
Cressida paused, and a serious look flickered over her face, she sat up and hefted Eloise along with her; as if she weighed nothing. Despite now being partly made of metal. Her demon watched her closely for a moment before she spoke, “Pretend? You would ask me to pretend?”
“I was just teasing you I don’t actually,” Eloise started, but Cressida cut her off by clamping her hand over her mouth.
“No, you don’t get to ask me to pretend, then not let me speak. Not after I showed you what I felt,” Cressida carefully removed her hand, this time Eloise did comply, and she sat watching Cressida carefully, “Pretend? There is no reason for me to pretend.”
“For the first time in so many millennia, I am free,” Cressida breathed, her hands around Eloise tightened, and she pressed a hand against the cool metal of her hip, “I can feel my real power now, it’s building back in me. I can feel the hunger too, I can feel everything I’ve been missing like a phantom limb- Finally, crawling its way home to me.”
Cressida carefully stood, and she carried Eloise to the far side of the clearing, she laid her down on the soft bed of grass and settled on top of her, “Pretend to be glad? Darling, I would spend the rest of my pitiful existence by your side, and it would still not repay you.”
“I don’t need to be repaid…” Eloise protested slightly as Cressida began to place the gentlest brushes of her lips against her hairline.
Cressida travelled down, ignoring Eloise’s mumbles, she brushed a kiss over each eyelid before she spoke, “You have freed me. From so much more than an enchanted chain. I would worship you for every one of my near immortal lifetimes. Do you know that? You must know that,” She tugged at her jumper almost incoherently, until she could shift Eloise to shove it up her rapidly overheating skin, “You are the sun to the darkness that has shrouded me for so long, I feel alive with your presence, with your touch.”
Eloise groaned as hands travelled over her skin both new and old, their surroundings vanished from her mind, as the familiar haze of Cressida’s smoke-like power shrouded them. Their lips brushed and Eloise lost herself in Cressida’s touch, she pulled the demon down on top of her. Cressida slid a leg between her thighs, when she pressed Eloise back into the damp ground beneath them- Eloise couldn’t help but gasp out and rock her hips down hard.
Cressida began to emit a gentle light as she pressed back into Eloise with intention, her hands gripped at Eloise’s hips, and she rocked them against her. The light between them built and all at once Eloise felt as if she were going to lose control right there on the forest floor.
It felt raw and undiluted in a way it hadn’t before, it felt like there truly was a devil unleashed in the quiet of the forest clearing, “There’s- People…”
“You made a deal,” Cressida murmured softly into the skin at her collarbone, “You promised nothing would keep us apart if I let you take an infinitely stupid risk.”
“We’re in the middle of the woods!”
“So?”
“Orpheus is here.”
Cressida popped her head up at that to see her hedgehog familiar watching intently, “Ugh! Fine. We shall return to the manor-”
“Where my family is.”
“Does a deal with a demon mean nothing to you?!”
Eloise barked out a laugh at the indignation clear on her demon's face, “You can have me all to yourself- Once we are under a roof that my brother doesn’t own, without my mother.”
Cressida pushed herself up from the ground a stream of what had to be Latin, pouring out from under her breath before she held her hand out to Eloise; Eloise made a note to learn Latin. Or at least she tried too. Her mind had been a little preoccupied with Cressida’s insistent touches, to notice what freedom from the suffocation of the chain was doing to her demon.
What freedom did to her demon.
Eloise’s brain had practically emptied of everything, but the sole focus that stood before her now.
Cressida had been gorgeous before, prettier than any human Eloise had ever seen, but not in the realm of unnaturally pretty. The Cressida that stood before her now looked as if she’d been pulled directly from religious texts. Eloise was convinced that every human to have claimed they saw an angel, just saw Cressida. Or any succubi really. It almost hurt to look, but she couldn’t look away.
Her skin didn’t shimmer in the moonlight now, it looked as if it did truly glow, she cast a golden halo out around every inch of her. Eloise was having a hard time controlling her body, processing thoughts, you name it. Cressida looked as if in a span of moments she’s entirely filled out, her limbs no longer as lean as they were long, her cheeks bright and rosey. Her demon's eyes shined with an inferno of fire, just beyond their clear blue surface.
Years could have passed since Cressida had extended her hand out to Eloise.
She would have been none the wiser.
Her horns looked healthy, beautiful and dangerous, her tail flicked behind her with a point that could kill, and her confused smile revealed her canines that had somehow got even sharper.
“I-” Eloise couldn’t speak. She could always speak.
Every thought in her mind had been emptied out for the goddess before her- Demoness? Either way she felt amazing.
Cressida’s brow furrowed, and concern washed over her face, her lips moved, but Eloise couldn’t really hear what was coming out of her mouth. Which was a shame, she probably had a beautiful voice. What could someone so beautiful be so concerned about?”
Eloise felt like she was drunk, her mind just trying to push its way through molasses. Really, all she wanted was to make the look on her demon's face go away. And to get closer.
She reached a hand out blindly to attempt to soothe, and she couldn’t help, but pout as no demoness took her offering of comfort. Her mind reeled as she tried to get something out of her mouth, and then all at once the sounds of the forest slammed into her full force and a scorching hot hand was in hers, and everything cleared.
Her demon's voice filtered through her mind and Eloise shook her head clear, “-Eloise! I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it would be this bad. There’s usually a kind of post contact magical haze when you’re not touching me! I have no practice keeping it in like this- I should have-”
“Was that what you meant when you said you could make it good for both of us?”
Cressida puzzled and pulled her up right, looking over her to make sure she was physically okay, “Well, yes, if I have an intentional magical partner they get kind of looped into it rather than the-”
“We’re leaving in the morning.”
~
Violet stood blocking her way out, Eloise had attempted to make a break for it just after the sun had risen, and anyone else woke. Unfortunately for her, her mother had the ears of a bat. Cressida was already in the car, and she had been scratching out a quick note in the front hall, when Violet rounded the corner already looking fully made up for her day.
“Ah, Eloise dear, I thought I heard you,” Her mothers' expression was kind, but Eloise could see the disappointment that lurked below the surface, “Don’t tell me you were planning on sneaking out without even a word to your dear old mum?”
“I was leaving a note?” Eloise held up the paper as if it might absolve her of the crime she was prepared to knowingly commit.
“Hm. Can we talk?” Violet asked, nodding back towards the entryway reception room, evidence of a time long past.
Eloise shot a glance towards the door, just on the other side her impatient demon was waiting, but on the other hand- She had ignored her mum almost the entire summer break, “Fine.”
“Now don’t act like it’s too much of a prison sentence to spend a few minutes with me. I made you, you know,” Violet had already turned to walk away, just expecting Eloise to follow, as she would any of her children.
“I know. Hard to forget,” Eloise grumbled as she walked in, and dropped to slouch in the chair across from her mum, “I send you a card about it every year.”
“Eloise, my love,” Her mother's hand was cold, and careful as it took hers, “I don’t presume to know exactly what’s going on in my children’s lives- But, I hope you know I’ll always love you, and anyone you love.”
“Uh- Okay? I know that”
“Then why did you feel the need to hide us from your partner for so long?” Violet asked, an air of hurt in her words and Eloise suddenly shattered.
“Oh, mum. No! I told you that it literally just happened. Like weeks,” Eloise quickly filled in, throwing on her best, I’m telling the truth, smile.
Violet just gave her a disbelieving look, “Eloise. Do you think I’m blind as well as brainless?”
“What? No!”
“That girl looks at you as if she believes you personally ensure the sun rises each morning for her,” Violet looked over Eloise’s face carefully, “And don’t think I don’t recognize the same infatuation in you. I remember when you were young, the gentleman who carried the mail was suddenly swapped out for a young woman.”
Eloise cheeks heated as she remembered exactly what Violet was talking about. She’d been watching out the window, waiting for the mail to arrive so she could run it up to her father in his study- Until someone new rounded the walk-way.
Eloise had thought about her shorts, mail bag, and god, her keys at least once a day, every day for months on end. It had been a long time since she’d remembered her brief, but intense infatuation with the prospect of being a woman in charge of the mail and its delivery- The prestige, the mail, the shorts, the keys-
The coworkers.
It wasn’t until an embarrassing amount of time later, that she realized, it had absolutely not been about a preference for a career in mail delivery. She’d felt quite foolish when she realized it had been more about a preference for the women, who did deliver the mail.
“Oh-kay, yep, thanks mum. I got it,” Eloise moved to get up, and cut the reminiscing on her embarrassingly delayed self discovery off- But Violet grabbed her hand.
“No, I don’t think you do, dear. I am just saying, that your family always wants what's best for you, and,” Violet moved over and pushed Eloise to the side so they were squeezed into the chair together, “It is okay to let yourself make decisions that make you happy, because that might be what's best for you.”
“What-”
“Let your mother finish dear,” Violet patted her hand gently and pushed on, “You’re my daughter, and I’ve loved you and cared for you all your life the best that I could, but- I fear I may have done you a disservice.”
“Mum, no-” A sharp gaze cut Eloise off mid-objection, and she snapped her mouth shut.
“You’re so headstrong and smart, you’re so logical in all that you do- I think, I forgot to teach you to let your heart take the lead from time to time,” Her mother tapped gently at Eloise’s chest, and suddenly Eloise felt the need to blink back tears, “Oh, my sweet girl. You deserve happiness, you deserve someone to look at you like that. It’s something you’re allowed to have.”
Her mum cupped her cheek as a few stray tears fell, and she brushed her thumb out to catch them, “I can see you trying to find a reason why you’re allowed to have love, or trying to find what you have to do to ‘let’ you have that love. There is no reason Eloise, my perfect child, you are deserving.”
Eloise had to choke back a sob, but it didn’t matter, the tears fell anyway, and she couldn’t help herself. Her mother's arms opened, and she fell into them, her shoulders shook while her mother traced circles against her back, “You are something special all on your own, Eloise.”
It felt like an hour that they sat there, Eloise tucked into her mum’s arms.
“Thanks, mum,” Eloise grumbled into her mother's formerly clean pressed blouse, “Sorry, I got snot everywhere.”
“That’s just a part of being a mum, it doesn’t stop when you get older. Just gets less frequent,” Violet pressed a kiss to the top of her head and Eloise melted into her. As it turned out, she’d really bloody missed her, “Eloise, you are kind, you are brilliant, you are beautiful, and you are one of the most wonderful people to be around. That girl, waiting out there in that car- She is lucky to have you. You hear me?”
“Mum-”
“Eloise. I’m not arguing with you on this. For once, acknowledge that your mother may know more than you about this,” Violet helped pull her up by the shoulders and brushed her cheeks clean, “I think you could stand to stop getting in your own way is all. Let that brilliant mind of yours shut off, and ask your heart- What do I want?”
“Okay, mum,” Eloise whispered hoarsely, she’s not sure what she expected when her mother pulled her to the side, but it should have been this.
The Bridgerton Matriarch could see to the core of each of her children with nothing, but a second glance. Eloise had been avoiding dinners because she’d wanted to research of course, but also maybe in part because she hadn’t wanted to risk her mother unravelling everything that had been so tightly wound within her.
“Don’t let a good thing get away, just because you’re afraid it’s not something you’re allowed to have. Do it afraid,” Her mum pressed a kiss to her forehead and gave each of her cheeks a firm pat before she tugged them both up, “Now, go on, get your girl.”
“I’m really sorry,” Eloise whispered, but Violet just shook her head gently.
“Just don’t let it happen again,” She looped their arms together as she walked her back to the doorway, to pull her into one last tight hug. She gave her one final squeeze, before she pulled back and dusted off Eloise’s shoulders, “I’ll tell your siblings. Now- Go, and let yourself love, Eloise. You deserve to be happy, with a woman who is very clearly infatuated with everything about you. It quite reminds me of the way I often caught your father looking at me, oh. What a long time ago that was.”
Eloise flung herself back at her mother, everything somehow felt lighter. Like maybe, she could trust that just once, she could get to have this for longer than a moment, for longer than what her gift might have bought her. That maybe this was something that could actually be meant for her, “Thank you, mum.”
“You’re welcome, dear,” Violet squeezed at her tightly before carefully pulling back again, when Eloise found her eyes, so eerily similar to her own- She found them filled with unshed tears, “Enjoy this time dearest, you never know how long you’ll have it for. Soak up every second.”
“I will,” Eloise murmured, and she pressed a kiss to her mum's cheek before she slipped out the door. Her impatient demon was practically pressed up against the glass, and Orpheus had climbed his way onto the steering wheel.
Unfortunately, he was now dangling by his front paws.
Eloise slid in right as he fell down into her lap, she carefully picked him up and dropped him in the back seat. Once he was safely tucked in she leaned over, and tightened her fist in the fabric of Cressida’s top. The annoyance that had been there, got quickly replaced with confusion, and then acceptance as Eloise yanked her the rest of the way forward; to crash their lips together.
“My heart wants you.” Eloise whispered softly once she pulled back, only mildly out of breath.
“Okay?”
“Just- Never mind. I’ll drive now.” Eloise’s cheeks hurt from her smile, and Cressida’s confused laugh filled the car as she pulled out.
She could just see her mum watching, hand pressed to her heart, from the front window as they pulled out of sight.
~
Two Years Later
“Cressida,” Eloise groaned out, her voice as low as she could manage while her girlfriend kept her hips pinned against the solid oak of her new desk.
“Shhh,” The damned devil hissed as she lifted, her chin drenched with the evidence of how much she wanted this- Despite how much she had absolutely definitely, protested having Cressida steal her away during her promotion party. Well- Promotion-slash-end of year party.
So, there she was, newly promoted Head of the History Department, mingling and making connections with her peers. Then her girlfriend arrived, and now here she was one leg over Cressida’s shoulder; while all of her new subordinates and colleagues, multiple TA’s, and several students were milling about just down the hall eating cake and talking history.
Several of her favourite things. Things she often didn’t like to miss.
Except, Cressida had arrived to “surprise” her.
Her succubus had practically prowled in, dressed in an all black suit, with just a hint of her natural golden highlight shimmering on her cheeks. Her golden blonde hair had been pulled up into a high pony, while golden chains, and rings glittered from everywhere she could reasonably put them.
She’d told Eloise that it felt good to use the chains on her own terms.
Needless to say, everyone with eyes had immediately locked on to Cressida, and Eloise may have felt a small, minuscule really, bud of jealousy. After half an hour of her lover's attention being entirely occupied by everyone in the room who suddenly felt compelled to introduce themselves to her. In which, she may have authorized her demon to read her mind, provided her with an image of this exact moment before requesting she stop- And then Eloise had promptly disappeared into her new office.
“Quiet, darling,” Cressida murmured as she nipped at the skin of her hip, her sharp teeth scraping slightly against the metal of her skin, in a way that made Eloise groan out, “Don’t think that’s quiet.”
“You hurry up,” Eloise retorted as she attempted to yank her back to where she wanted her to begin with, “This gets more suspicious by the second. One would think that you’re not a succu-”
Cressida moved back between her thighs, and heat mixed with magic swelled between them, her tongue worked at Eloise while her hand slid up along her thigh and pushed her farther back against the desk. She had to move one hand to support herself on the edge of the desk as they both slipped into the bliss Cressida’s power offered them.
“Wait-” Eloise protested weakly as she clutched Cressida closer to her with one hand, her hips moving in tandem with the fingers that had now begun moving at a punishing pace within her, “I have to go back out there…”
“They’ll just think you’re drunk,” Cressida whispered placatingly as she bit hard at the metal along her thigh, “I already saw, in your heart you want it, darling- No need to be shy now.”
Eloise groaned, she’d only recently told Cressida about that conversation with her mum, and she’d already deeply regretted it. Well, as much as she could regret anything with Cressida, “I love you.”
Cressida didn’t speak, but Eloise could feel it in her actions. One arm tightened around her thigh, her fingers slowed slightly, crooking with every thrust. The magic choked around her, and overwhelmed all of her senses. Then like a door had opened, she could feel how much Cressida was enjoying the way she writhed beneath her.
It was a different thing entirely to feel your partner as if you were one.
All it took was Cressida letting her in.
She’d learned how to control it after the first time. Eloise hadn’t felt quite so untethered, or like she’d gotten lost in another plane of consciousness since.
Now it felt as if their bodies linked, that everything that they were had twined together. Two souls, and two bodies, but only one consciousness. It was impossible to discern which gasp came from whom, what movement brought whose pleasure, and it didn’t matter. There was only one thing in the universe left that mattered, when they were lost in the minds of one another.
The two of them, souls twined together, at the end of all things.
Eloise could feel the depth of Cressida’s enjoyment, just the same as her succubus could feel hers. Nothing could be hidden in between them, everything they were was seen, felt, and loved. Cressida thrived and survived off of Eloise’s pleasure, and Eloise benefited off of the overwhelming combined sensation of it all. She was shaking, or Cressida was, one of them had practically begun screaming, but a hand had been clasped over the offending mouth.
She just hoped it had been fast enough to disguise, or maybe she didn’t? That could be Cressida as well.
With the final build up of fingers and tongue expertly at work, a violently bright gold light burst, only to be quickly eclipsed in black, in their shared minds eye. This time Eloise could identify her own muffled shout out into the hand clasped at her mouth, “-ssida!” She could just start to feel the immensity of Cressida’s satisfaction, at the fact that she’d practically ruined the wood of her desk, and at how much she’d been able to create in Eloise to consume; before she snapped the connection between them closed.
Cressida’s hands left her, and the world swam out of existence, she could feel her demon distantly moving around her office. Everything felt fuzzy, and warm. She felt drained in the best way possible, because it meant Cressida felt refreshed and sated, but she couldn’t deny; it was nice to have a way to just turn her brain off. There was so much going on all the time, it was her studies, her students, her witchcraft- It was nice to shut everything off, and get lost in what her heart wanted.
Eloise did work hard to enjoy the little moments more, and appreciate everything she had while she had it. To let her mind take the back seat while she let her heart get her what she wanted- But it was nice to have a little help from time to time, to let go, and let herself love Cressida freely. To let Cressida love her in return, and know it was something she was allowed to have.
No matter what she’d once felt like she had to do to earn it.
Though, she would still do it all again.
In a heartbeat.
Even if it meant she’d have the same chain like metal scarred across her body, all over again. Really, it wasn’t too bad. It just stretched from the skin on her foot, where the chain had rested when the enchantment broke, up her left leg, over her hip and on, to stretch up both her back and chest. It curved over to cover her right breast as it climbed up her chest, but it lashed angrily up her back, almost like claws as they tore at her skin.
Cressida kissed the line of them daily before they parted, no matter what Eloise said. It had made her late to an alarmingly increasing number of events, but she’d had a hard time actually caring. Especially, when Cressida looked so much more at ease when she let her demon proceed without question.
Eventually minutes or months later, warm hands laced with hers, and the rest of her consciousness that had been slowly returning, swam fully into place. She was dressed again, and the light outside the window had dimmed, her offices were eerily quiet. Cressida tugged her up, and into her arms. She spoke to answer Eloise’s question before she could even ask it, “I told them you got busy with a call from a reporter.”
“You-”
“Oh, don’t ‘You shouldn’t have done that, Cressida’ me,” Her demon mimicked in a surprisingly good copy of her voice, before she spun her close and pressed her lips to her temple, “You’re the one who let me in, you showed me all your dirty little secrets, and desires. I know everything.”
“Oh, please,” Eloise grumbled, but she sunk farther into Cressida’s arms, “They aren’t all dirty.”
“But you don’t deny that some of them are?” Cressida asked laughing, as she reached out to grab Eloise back from the desk’s surface, and tugged them out into the deserted office hall.
“Well- No. I can’t exactly,” Eloise walked along, leaning into Cressida as they walked, “Especially, considering I’ve been thinking about that since they showed me that would be my office for next year.”
“Ah, so your plan to defile me in your office was premeditated?” Cressida teased, and Eloise suddenly wished she’d managed to maintain a little more of her cool, in the face of her earlier jealousy.
She was going to hear about this for a while.
“You already knew it was,” Eloise grumbled, she’d mistakenly gotten Cressida a phone a year ago, and she’d texted her earlier. She was almost entirely certain it was the only reason Cressida had even bothered to show up, much less to show up when she looked down right sinful.
“You know I can’t work the small rectangular orb,” Cressida teased, but judging by the devilish smirk on her face. She had in fact read, and understood every word of the message.
“Whatever,” Eloise grumbled, but as Cressida settled her in the passenger seat of her car, and settled in to drive them home; her annoyance vanished.
~
Eloise had been enjoying the silence and her empty mind, plus her succubus mandated crisps, as Cressida took them home. However, she did manage to find the strength to lazily look over at Cressida, when her voice tugged at her awareness.
“I have a gift for you, my important and all powerful girlfriend,” Cressida announced as they rounded the corner for the small house Cressida had somehow ‘come into possession of’. Eloise had promised not to ask questions because well- There was no other way she was getting a house, and her flat rent was getting outrageous.
“I told you not to get me anything,” Eloise whispered softly, her hand reaching out to trace her fingertips along Cressida’s cheek.
“And I’ve told you, I’m always going to get you something. You gave me the greatest gift in the world. I will never stop repaying you for that kindness,” Cressida winked at her as she hopped up, and rushed out to go around and open the car door, “Plus, this one’s been in the works for a while.”
“You have to stop,” Eloise grumbled as she dispelled the wards around the home and Cressida pulled them in, “I’ve told you at least a hundred times already. There’s nothing for you to repay. It wasn’t a gift.”
“But I still will, anyway. Plus, I think you’ll like this one,” She tugged Eloise in, and snapped her fingers. A silk cloth from their bedroom now blocked her from sight, and firm hands pushed her down into their dining room chair, “Don’t you want it?”
Cressida always used how much she enjoyed being spoiled, whenever she felt so delightfully drained after her love had fed, to her advantage.
“If this is like our anniversary gift, I’m sure I will, but again- I don’t need a blindfold for ‘Vegan Shepherd's Pie’,” Eloise reached out for the table to blindly pull herself in, “I think it’s so touching you’ve improved so much at cooking for me, but I can just close them while you bring the plates out.”
“No, well- I did make you vegan shepherd's pie- Which again I don’t think it should be called that, but it’s not that,” Cressida laughed and Eloise could hear her voice move through the room before there was a gentle thud on the table in front of her, “You can take the blindfold off now.”
Eloise tugged the silk free of her eyes, to find a thin hide bound journal, with yellowed, and warped pages. She reached forward and carefully propped it open, “What?” Her eyes scanned the pages all carefully penned by a hand far older than hers in a language she couldn’t read, before they cut up to Cressida, “What?”
“Look, it was a long road, it involved a lot of things, a few devils, and a couple changelings- Some crown jewels, a few bargains- But eventually, I got that.” Cressida gestured at the book, “I had to trade up to it, but I knew a guy, who knew a devil who had this, and I thought you might want it. But I can take it back-”
“You thought I might want it?” Eloise asked, hands practically shaking as she turned another complete page to find the same neat, ancient script, “You thought?”
“Okay, fine. I knew you’d want Sappho’s second volume of work,” Cressida said, her devilish grin well deserved as Eloise began to carefully flip though each page, “Do you want me to read them to you?”
“You can read them?!” Eloise shouted head whipping around to her, as she stood and shoved the journal at Cressida, “Yes! I want you to read them!!”
Cressida cackled, and raced backwards headed for their bed, taunting her as Eloise ran after her in close pursuit. Laughter rang through their home, as she tackled her demon into the bed, and settled against her, “Oh, so demanding.”
“Just shut up and read.”
“Yes, ma’am.”