I Knocked on the Villain's Door

[Go knock on the villain's door next door.

He's about to burst, and he's waiting on you.] The night my succubus side woke up, I walked in on the boy I'd grown up next door to, the one who had turned me down over and over.

He was kissing the bestlooking girl in school like he couldn't stand to let her go. I was standing there in despair when a stream of livestream comments floated across my vision.

Every one of them told me to give him up and go get the man next door instead — the one who could actually deliver, the one running a fever that very night.

They kept at me until my heart was pounding, and in the end I rang the doorbell across the hall.

The door opened, and the man looked at me, his throat working, and asked in a low voice, "Let me satisfy you. Okay?" Chapter 1 I'd called Gunnar over a dozen times.

He never picked up. So I had no choice but to go to his apartment. By the time I got to his door, I could barely keep it hidden anymore.

Curled ram's horns had pushed up out of my hair, and my tail had worked its way out from under my skirt. The door wasn't shut all the way.

Through the gap I saw Gunnar going at it with the bestlooking girl in school, kissing her deep enough that a wet thread stretched between them.

The sight only made my body run hotter. It wasn't like I could walk in and join them. That would be insane. For a moment there, I was desperate.

Then a whole stream of livestream comments appeared in front of me. [Our girl, go knock on the villain's door next door.

He's already fit to burst, and he's waiting on you to come over.] [One knock and you instantly get eight inches — you know that saying, right?

The one about getting your insides rearranged.] [If a succubus is going to eat, she eats the best. That's the only way she grows up pretty.] That part was actually true.

Before the awakening, a succubus is strictly the wholesomecute type.

The second you wake up, your body develops at breakneck speed and finishes the whole evolution in almost no time. And the better the food, the prettier the succubus gets.

My mom is a toptier beauty, for real. But the man next door was Vaughan Beaumont, and nobody messed with him. Why would he ever agree to be my food?

I was out of options, so I turned around and tried the doorbell. One ring, and the door opened. Vaughan was wearing a black robe, the belt hanging loose at his waist.

A wide stretch of his chest was bare, and I could just make out the cleancut blocks of his abs. A few beads of water rolled off his jaw and slid down out of sight. Topshelf food.

No idea whether he'd actually deliver the way the comments claimed.

Vaughan stared at me, something dark moving through his eyes. "You need something?" I swallowed before I could stop myself. "Sorry. Can I eat you?" I'd been polite about it.

He couldn't just hit me for that. Vaughan leaned down toward me, and that mouthwatering smell got thicker. Before this, I'd only ever smelled it on Gunnar.

But lately he'd been giving off a rank, fishy stink, like dead fish and rotting shrimp. If I actually had to eat him, I wouldn't know where to start.

Vaughan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he ran his tongue along the corner of his mouth.

Weirdly hot. "Aren't you that kid next door's girlfriend?" "Why aren't you going to him?" That was when the comments spoke up. [Mr. Fake Aloof is at it again.

If our girl actually went to that boy next door, he'd cough up blood out of pure rage.] [Our girl, don't listen to him, just kiss him.

He gave up holding back ages ago — there's a fire going in his lower belly.] Those comments worked like a catalyst. My head was already swimming.

I frowned and shook it. "I'm not his girlfriend. Not now, and definitely not ever." The next second, Vaughan pulled me into the apartment. The door slammed shut.

Chapter 2 Vaughan pinned me against the back of the door, and the heat of every word landed on me. "What do you want me to do?" Almost on instinct, I leaned in and kissed him on the mouth.

Sweet. Delicious. It was just that this was my first time swapping spit, so I was nervous, and the whole thing came out bumpy.

Our noses kept knocking together, which really cramped my performance. Vaughan froze in shock for a second, then kissed me deeper, his breath pushing in between my lips.

The burning in me got soothed a little, but it still wasn't enough. I don't know how long it went on before Vaughan knocked my hood off and my horns came into view.

He seemed to want to pull back and get a proper look. I panicked and hooked my arms around his neck, dragging him back down hard. "I'm — I'm not full yet.

I'm so hungry." Vaughan raised an eyebrow, those long, dark eyes locking onto me. "Coralie Delaney.

You sure?" "Once you start something with me, it isn't so easy to stop." Why did he have so many questions? Right then that mouth had exactly one job, and it was kissing.

It all felt so unfair. "I want to experience it." That line worked like an accelerant.

Vaughan's fingers brushed the damp at the corner of my eye, then his arm went around my waist and lifted me like I weighed nothing. "Different room." The bed was soft.

I sank right into it. His knee pushed in between my legs and ground against me with a real sense of customer service.

It pulled a murmur out of me before I could stop it, and I turned to mush.

I got shy and tried to bite down on my lip, but he stopped me. "Don't bite." "It sounds good." All the way up to the highest point.

I clung to his shoulders for dear life and gradually found his rhythm. The tingling shot up my spine.

Partway through I actually heard a woman giggling through the wall next door, but it went quiet soon enough.

The comments went straight for the shade, no mercy. [Our girl's boy next door, I don't even want to get into it.

Short, gutless, the trash of the trash, basically one of those threesecond guys.] [The villain's the one with real ability. He can take care of our girl inside and out.

Give me something filthy to look at, and don't hold back.] [Where's whoever's on stopwatch duty? Somebody clock this, quick.

See if we can break the record next time.] So there really was a whole system to this. I remembered getting there at eleven. Next thing I knew it was three.

The next day I woke up to the doorbell, ringing and ringing and ringing. I covered my ears and burrowed into the man beside me, my face against his cool chest.

Vaughan pulled in a deep breath, tugged the comforter over me, and only then walked out of the bedroom. A familiar voice came from out there.

Gunnar. "Beaumont, did you see that girl yesterday, the one who's always over at my place?" Only now does he think to ask about me?

Vaughan leaned against the doorframe and gave him one lazy look. "You bring a lot of girls back. Which one?" Gunnar came up short for a second. "The short one.

Average build, plain as a glass of tap water, real quiet type." I lifted the comforter and looked down at my own body. One night, and it had already grown so much.

A few more times and I'd have curves worth looking at. Vaughan had run out of patience.

His face gave away nothing. "Never seen her." The next second my phone let out a blaring alarm.

I'd been scared I might wake up at any moment, so I'd set up location sharing on Gunnar's phone.

To make it easy for him to find me, I'd set the alert to go off whenever the two of us got within a hundred and fifty feet of each other, and I'd deliberately turned the volume all the way up.

Things got awkward for a while there. Chapter 3 Gunnar shoved his hand against the door as it was closing.

The door caught his hand and he didn't care, just held it there by brute force. "Who were you doing until three last night?

Is Coralie in there?" His voice shook a little, like he was afraid of something.

Vaughan's mouth curved into a mocking smile. "Want to come in and look?" The alarm was still blaring, and it made the air between them tight and raw.

I don't know what Gunnar was thinking. His voice went hoarse. "That app's probably glitching." "She's terrified of you.

There's no way she'd be here." "I'm going to go find her now." He said it and then all but fled. Gunnar was the boy I'd grown up next door to.

When we were little he lived right beside my family. Every day, to school and home again, I trailed along behind him.

Somebody once gave him a hard time about it. "Why do you drag that little tagalong around every single day?

She's not even cute." Gunnar decked him on the spot, grabbed him by the collar and threw him a good distance. "None of your damn business." I cried until I couldn't catch my breath.

I couldn't understand how I'd turned out so plain when my mom was a stunning woman and my dad was goodlooking too.

For a while after that I hid from Gunnar, afraid I'd embarrass him. Until word that he was dating the new transfer student went around the whole school.

I worked up my courage and went to find him. "Gunnar, will you wait for me? Please?" "I'm going to get really pretty." My mom had told me.

Once I reached the age when I could eat, my body would wake up. And when that happened, I'd be more attractive than the transfer student.

Gunnar reached out and pinched my cheek, turning it this way and that, his brow furrowed deep. "Idiot." "With what you've got to work with, how pretty could you possibly get?

You're not planning on plastic surgery, are you?" In my panic I told him I was a succubus.

Once Gunnar got past the shock, he actually said he'd be my food. "The day you wake up, you can come to me." "Also, I'm explaining this once.

I'm not dating the transfer student." He was willing to explain. Didn't that prove he liked me a little? I was happy about that for a long time. The growth period drags on and on.

I developed slower than any other succubus, and by college there still wasn't a single sign of an awakening.

Gunnar had no patience left, and he started up something with the bestlooking girl in school, the two of them coming and going together constantly.

In his words: "I can't spend my whole life waiting on you over something that may not even be real." "Men have needs." So Gunnar had never once taken what I said seriously.

He didn't believe succubi existed at all. Even so, when I woke up, he was still the first person I thought of. It was only now that I realized how absurdly wrong I'd been.

He wasn't the only man out there who could kiss and deliver. Someone pinched my face and the memory broke off.

Vaughan was staring at me, dark and grim, and his voice came out low. "Still thinking about him?" "He hasn't gotten far.

Want me to walk you over?" His eyes were long and dark, and the sheer presence of him was something he'd clearly been born with. I shrank back before I could stop myself.

Vaughan's eyes darkened further, and he said it one word at a time. "You're that scared of me?" [The villain's jealous. Our girl, go sweeten him up, he's incredibly easy to handle.

You could just breathe and he'd say you were working him.] [This paper tiger, scowling all day long. No wonder our girl was scared of him at first.

He brought that on himself.] [Keep being this mean and you'll end up with no wife.] What a mess. How did we get onto that?

I worked up the nerve to put my arms around Vaughan's neck and brushed the tip of my nose against his.

Chapter 4 "When I get hungry from now on, can I come to you?" He didn't answer, so I kept going. "I'll eat and go.

I won't cling, and I won't run my mouth about it outside." A while back I'd accidentally seen a girl confess to Vaughan.

He'd stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking lazily at the girl across from him. "I'm not interested in you.

Don't bother me." Vaughan had always been cold, like no one was worth much feeling from him. I'd never once seen a girl around him.

The comments all kept saying he treated me differently, but I still didn't dare push my luck. Eat my fill and retreat. Better for me, better for him.

That was what finally made Vaughan laugh out of sheer anger, his thumb rubbing across my lip. "Oh. So I'm your fuck buddy?" Right idea. Ugly way to put it.

I blinked at him and didn't dare answer, terrified he'd get mad and tell the Aldergate Office to come take me away. The next second I got picked up and carried toward the bathroom.

It scared me, so I clung to his waist and clamped down tight. "What are you doing?" Vaughan gave me one flat look. "Washing you.

Then eating you." When I came out of Vaughan's apartment, I found a pile of texts from Gunnar on my phone. [Where are you? Why aren't you picking up?

Your roommate said you went out. Where the hell are you?] [Isn't your awakening supposed to be here? Why haven't you come to me?] [Coralie, are you doing this on purpose?

If you're not answering now, don't ever bother answering again.] It was strange.

Before, hearing him talk like that would have made me frantic, and I'd have gone straight over to smooth it out. Now all it did was irritate me. I deleted the whole thread.

Gunnar wasn't in my major and we didn't take the same classes, so he rarely came looking for me. Usually I was the one who went over whenever I had the time.

As long as I didn't make the first move, going ten days or two weeks without seeing each other was normal. That night, after my shower, something felt wrong.

My temperature kept climbing. Once a succubus has broken her fast, the need comes back more and more often. And if it doesn't get satisfied, the true form can surface at any moment.

I texted Vaughan right away. [Where are you?] I waited a while, and when nothing came back, I had to call. "I'm hungry. Where are you?" The voice that answered wasn't Vaughan's.

It was a stranger