Page 5 of Bitten By Desire

Binx stayed quiet for several minutes, propping his loafers up next to my bare feet. He wasn’t wearing socks, and his rich, dark skin shone with a golden hue beneath the tiki torches surrounding the building.

“Did you ever hear the story of the Succubus and the Changeling?” he asked, breaking the serenity of the night.

I tilted my head slightly to look at him, but he was staring up at the sky.

“No.”

“It’s a good one. Once there was a Succubus named Sora. Sora found a human lover and the two fell head over claws for each other.”

I found myself distracted by something for the first time since arriving in Peru and settled into Binx’s deep, musical voice.

“But as you know, Succubi and Incubi don’t age as humans do, so after around fifty years of memories and love, Sora’s human died.”

Frowning, I hugged my knees harder.

“Overcome with grief, Sora sought magical help. She contacted the Fae.” Binx faced me now, his dark eyes dancing with the light of the flames. “She was so distraught, you see, that she hardly cared about the consequences even though she knew as well as anyone how dangerous it is to bargain with them.”

I nodded, wanting to hear more.

“She found an unseelie—a gremlin—and he agreed to make a copy of her human mate, for even Fae magic could not resurrect the dead. In return, she would feed off whomever he chose as long as the copy of her lover existed. She knew it was wrong, but when people are desperate, they’ll rationalize anything. She told herself that feeding off those the gremlin chose would only give them pleasure when of course, his intention was not so honorable.”

An involuntary shiver worked its way down my back despite the warm air.

“How did he create a copy of her loved one?” I whispered, curious.

“He crafted a changeling.”

I furrowed my brow. “Aren’t those almost like mannequins made of dirt used to swap babies?” I asked, trying to recall the lore.

Binx laughed, his beautiful white smile tugging at my sad heart. “No. Humans do get things wrong with so much when it comes to supes. Changelings are created beings, yes, but they function as well as the magic put into their creation. So, if the purpose is to make a likeness to distract someone, then sure, they’ll be less than real, and so will the energy the Fae has to commit. But since the gremlin wanted Sora’s favor, he put in quite a bit of his own power to create a near perfect double.”

“It worked?” I asked, surprised.

“For a time. The changeling didn’t know it wasn’t who it impersonated. It had his memories and personality as well as his appearance. They are given a power and a directive. But the problem with changelings is that once they’ve served their intended purpose, they begin to…degrade.”

Binx leaned in as if sharing a secret. I was mesmerized.

“The special power the gremlin imbued him with was the ability to never age, and of course, the purpose was to perfectly mimic the man who died.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Sadly, humans can be fickle. The changeling man grew tired of Sora after a century or so, and she didn’t like that. She argued with the gremlin, who said the changeling was simply doing what the man would have done. Sora argued that the bargain was to give him to her, and he was no longer fulfilling that request. They went before the Seelie queen with their dispute.”

I shivered again, making a face. “I’ve met her highness. I’m guessing it didn’t go well for Sora.”

“No. The queen ruled that the directive had in fact been already fulfilled since the man would not have lived that long. And so, the changeling lost his purpose. He grew confused and tried to find ways to die and thus finish his job, so to speak.”

“That’s horrible,” I said.

“Indeed. Sora went mad watching him and stopping his attempts at suicide. One day, while holding him as he wept, she realized that she’d created a being—a life—but had forced her own purposes on him, just as she’d now spent more than a century forcing herself on those the gremlin named.”

“Wait. The changeling was actually alive?” The thought horrified me.

Binx shrugged. “He was an autonomous being with wants, needs, and feelings. Certainly, in his mind, he was since he didn’t know he wasn’t.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, feeling my eyes go wide as I contemplated such a complicated situation.

“In the end, Sora ended both their lives.”

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