“May he rest in peace.” An empty grave, three stones stacked on top of it. The last bit of recognition my poor dad would ever get from me. Okay, that was maybe not all and maybe I have cried a bit, but otherwise … okay, it was two hours I stood there, grieving like a little girl while the rest excused themselves one after another.

“So, shall we go now?” Mary asked quite impatient.

“It´s too early.” I said after looking at the sun.

“Nobody is here to impress anymore.” True, everyone was gone excluding the coachman and a few guards.

“Still too early.” I stated. We waited for the bell that indicated the time inside the city to ring sixteen times to finally head back. My face was still teary red as I stepped into the carriage, exactly as I intended it to be.

The ride back was quite rocky. We were in the middle of the nearby forest, a fitting place for this ceremony, at least in my opinion. We could have held it in the cemetery as well, but we were a bit too stingy to buy a plot of land for nothing.

“Cards?” I asked, showing Mary a full set of cards I prepared earlier.

“Is there anything else except playing games on your mind lately?” She asked, but didn´t deny my proposal outright.

“I´m bored. It´s not my fault that these trips are always so long.” I said and looked out of the window.

“You cannot sit still for half a day?” No, not really. I could read a book, but I didn’t like doing so during the day inside a moving carriage. It made me nauseous the last time I tried.

“No.” I explained.

“Fine. What do we play?” She asked, but already squinted her eyes.

“Hmm … you draw a card and I try to guess?” I said, amused because I absolutely crushed her last time.

“I´m not playing that game again.” She stated.

“Blackjack?” I asked.

“You jest.” I may have beaten her in a few too many games lately. Maybe it was time for her to win once, although it hurt me dearly.

“Do you have any idea?” I exclaimed, slightly helpless because I didn’t know any game she wanted to play.

“Yes. How about we try to fix your ADHD?” She said and raised an eyebrow.

“Wow! You know about such stuff?” I said, surprised about her knowledge.

“You aren’t the only one who reads books.” She stated.

“And I always thought nobles like to keep them because they look good…” I was fascinated to finally meet a fellow book reader.

Silence returned to the carriage shortly afterwards as I tried to keep quiet to proof her I didn’t have ADHD. Bored, I began to tap the armrest with my index finger a few minutes afterwards and looked out of the window to see trees going by.

I even saw a few animals in the forest which made me quite excited as I usually only saw them sleeping during the night. I already realized the world of light was full of life, but this forest toppled everything I experienced before. Birds, insects, everyone was doing his own thing in this meticulously crafted machine called forest.

“It´s beautiful, isn´t it?”  Mary asked. I could only nod in return. I´d rather see it burning, but I couldn’t say this forest didn’t have its own charm this way. Lush colours were moving around as this place bustled with life. As the forest was rather small because of all the logging, the charm it gave of was a rather short pleasure. It was soon replaced by the endless fields that surrounded the capital. Wheat farms littered the landscape, replacing the liveliness of the forest with a plain monoculture.

I sighed as I couldn’t gaze at all the life anymore but kept staring out of the window. It only took us a few minutes until I could spot a cloud of smoke further north. It was incredibly thick, meaning there was a lot of wet wood burning in the distance.

“What have they done?” I asked myself. I wanted a goddamn meeting with an elf in public, not for the whole eastern slum to burn down. I didn’t know what went wrong in Tom´s head since I left him alone, but this was certainly a bit too much. It was absolutely useless to burn this place down, if not completely detrimental to my plans. Mary looked out of the window as well, flabbergasted by the sheer extent of the catastrophe.

We weren’t the only ones who spotted the fire though. On the command of the guards, we slowed down until we came to a halt. Biting on my lower lips, I opened the door and stepped outside.

“Why are we stopping?” I asked, looking towards the fires in the distance.

“The fires are too close to the eastern entrance to continue on this route milady.” The guard captain said.

“That’s precisely why we need to hurry in the first place. I see six young, trained men here who can all help. So why are we wasting our time here while others are dying over there?” I pointed towards the smoke in the distance, much to his surprise. Helplessly, he looked inside the carriage and as Mary didn’t say anything, he nodded swiftly. Satisfied, I boarded the carriage again and we rumbled across the streets as fast as we could.

The fires were spreading way faster than expected and already started to engulf the surrounding farmlands north of the road as we arrived at the gate. The slums were still a kilometre away, but the catastrophe was already visible to the naked eye. Thousands and thousands of humans stood in front of the slums, watching how their shabby houses burnt down. The city guard wasn’t doing much better and just stared at the fires from up the wall or from the ground.

“What are you doing?” I shouted at the first guard who rather protected the city gates than do anything. He shrank back from me, even though my furious gaze was covered with the veil.

“I …” He couldn’t utter a second word. Too much pressure laid on his shoulders as soon as he spotted the crest on the carriage. “You will protect my mother.  If any harm befalls her, you will be made responsible.” I said which was definitely not something a ten-year-old would utter. I swiftly turned around and looked at my own guards who were following me.

“You two, make sure that the city guard lets everyone through the gates. The others come with me.” In times of danger, they didn’t question my abilities to lead, but rather did what I ordered them to do. The four guards I had with me soon made a little pathway for me to go through the masses that just kept staring and staring. Thin humans, thugs and whatever else lived here apparently either could not do anything or simply didn’t care that my elf was possibly being burned alive in this mess.

Angrily, I stomped towards the first few houses and climbed one that. Luckily the wind blew my words in their direction, so at least I could shout at all of them.

“HEY! Why are you standing around there? There are still others inside these houses! Do you have no dignity as a human being or why aren’t you trying to save them? Others are dying in these flames, your neighbours, maybe your children or your loved ones. You may not be able to find them, but you may be able to save someone and another one saves what´s precious to you. And if you aren’t brave enough, that’s fine! Go into the city, grab a few tools and mow the threatened wheat down. If we don’t manage to contain the fires within this place, the food shortages will finish the rest.”

My crystal clear voice seemed to have captivated the hearts of quite a few, albeit not many. They didn’t know who was speaking to them, nor why I was doing so. But one thing was for sure. If the wheat fields burned down, the resulting class strives because of food shortages could very well tear this city apart, something I had to avoid for now.

“Don’t let others define your destiny, do it yourself!” I shouted as I jumped down from the hut, only to be caught by one of my guards.

“I will not ask you to follow me into these flames.” I said.

“Milady, we cannot let you go in there.” He said, surprised by my determination.

“If I am not going, who is?” I looked over to the masses of people who were still undecided. Quite a few already started to go into the city as they realized the food shortages would be a problem. But nobody went into the mess they escaped from again.

“Milady …” They looked at each other and nodded one after another. At least I captured the hearts of my own guards. I immediately turned around and walked around the house into the sea of flames. I honestly didn’t care that much what the others would do, except for those that needed to cut the wheat so the fire wouldn’t spread anymore. A food shortage would be a catastrophe, a few burnt peasants a sacrifice I was willing to make. I still hoped nobody of these helpers would die because of their inability to gauge their limits in regards to lack of oxygen.

“Cover your mouths.” I said as the first few guards started to cough. I helped myself as well and threw my hat away after ripping the veil off and wrapping it around my mouth. “Don’t risk your life, if you are feeling unwell go back.” I said. It didn’t take long for us to find the first person in dire need of help. He was coughing constantly and already started to show signs of lack of oxygen.

“You two, carry him out.” I said and pointed to two of my guards. Only then did I realize that we weren’t four people anymore, but rather around fifty who were carrying struggling humans out of this place. I only hoped they knew their limits as each and everyone split up in teams of two to find more people. With the guard captain, I soon found a human who breathed very slowly. I laid my head on his chest, listened to his breathing and touched the burn marks on his face. I stood up, shook my head and looked at my guard pleadingly. This man wasn’t going to survive, no matter what we did now. My guard understood quite fast, unsheathed his sword and ended the life of the man swiftly, not without noting that I wasn’t as idealistic as he thought I was. We could save the next person though and carried him out of the slums.

Both I and the guard captain were coughing violently at this point and carried the man out as fast as we could. Much to my surprise, the crowd already dispersed, either going back into the flames to save as many as possible or in the case of women, children or those that were too weak, carrying either tools or buckets of water out of the city. It was a fascinating sight to see everyone working together because of what I said.

One man even wanted to go back into this place, although he was already coughing violently. I swiftly positioned myself in between him and the slums and shook my head.

“You won´t be of any help as you are right now. I would rather have you stop everyone like you from doing the mistake I am about to make.” I smiled brightly, wrapped the veil around my jaw once more and stepped back into the sea flames that started to engulf even the last shabby huts. Hastily, the guard captain followed me, but at least the man I spoke to didn’t.

We were met with the first wave of helpers who were already coming back, either empty-handed because they didn’t feel too good anymore, or with a person in need. The shouting though, or the search for more survivors didn’t cease as I tried to remember every bit of information that was written on the letter Tom sent me. This time, I was intensely focused on finding my way in this mess and so went down the main street. Because it was wider than the rest, the smoke lessened here a bit and instead of carrying everyone back, we tried to shake them awake again so that the victims could get out of here on their own. Very few of the helpers would get here, so this was the only chance we could gave them.

We successfully circled further north this way and entered the thirty-sixth alley as I heard violent coughing from there. Without hesitation, we both entered the alley and stumbled through the smoke while making sure we wouldn’t lose ourselves in this mess. The smoke was incredibly thick here, making it very hard to look and so, we navigated by sound rather than anything else.

“Hello?” I shouted and continued to cough violently afterwards. From all the fake coughing, even my lounge started to rebel which ironically led to real coughing.

“Help!” Shouted a female somewhere in front of me. Just as I was sure to have found my elf, we stumbled across a woman who half-buried underneath a building, right next to half of a baguette. I flinched a bit, unseen by anyone and soon started to pick up the slowly burning mess on her and place them somewhere else. Interestingly enough, the scent of flowers entered my nostrils despite all the mayhem around us.

“Hang in there.” I said and threw a rock away, wondering what a florist was doing here. My guard obviously did the bulk of the work as I was quite weak. Like this, we freed the woman quite quickly, but as she had a broken leg, she couldn’t go back on her own.

“Can you bring her back? I think I heard someone coughing over there.” My guard knew by now that there was absolutely no way he would be able to convince me otherwise. He picked up the woman like a princess, turned around and soon vanished into the smoke. Well, at least I didn’t have to cough anymore.

I didn´t give up on finding my elf that had to live somewhere around here. I soon found a little girl, squashed underneath a pile of burning wood. She was already dead and it pained me to see that I couldn’t do anything for her. I stumbled onwards through the smoke, shouting from time to time until I arrived at a tent that miraculously fitted the description perfectly. The problem was that it was already burning nicely.

“Fuck this shit.” I opened the pane and robbed into the tent, searching for anything in this hot tent. I found a dagger, a broken flask and then, a leg. She was sweating horribly, which was acceptable in this hellhole. I pulled on her leg, somehow managed to drag her to the front of the tent while the rest was giving in to its ultimate demise. Worryingly, I looked at the burns on her shoulder and arms, but she didn’t look like she was going to die from it. I also confirmed her pointy ears but hid them behind her hair afterwards again.

Relived, I pulled this girl further out of the tent into the mud that they called a street. She was thin which worked to her advantage here. I grabbed her bruised arms and somehow managed to pull her onto my back within a few precious minutes. I seriously didn’t want her to die of smoke poisoning, so I hurried up and staggered back onto the main street, just as something behind me exploded. I thought I saw a piece of bread flying in the distance in the corner of my vision, but then this place exploded as well. Luckily, I wasn’t hit by it at all and as I was wondering what the hell I just saw, I continued on my way out of this mess.

It was fifteen minutes since we started the rescue mission and I was fairly certain that nobody was going inside the slums anymore. The flames devoured everything at this point and nobody would be able to stay conscious for too long inside this smoke. Thus, I hurried up as much as possible, for me, and for the elf´s sake.

I stumbled out of the slum in a hurry, my dress already on flames at the bottom of it. I didn’t know where it caught fire, but it certainly did and started to burn away my skin. Screaming, I handed the elf to the captain of my guard who awaited me with worry. Quite a few others stood around us as well as they made a chain, giving buckets of water to the next person over and over again. One of these soon landed on my dress which resulted in a very unfriendly yelp from my side. Luckily, the person who did so targeted my feet and not my whole body. Thus, I was spared from freaking out in front of everyone.

“She is an elf…” My guard said while blinking rapidly. The citizens who were around us looked at us while still continuing their work. Just from their gazes alone, I understood they knew who I was by now and what I was doing here in the first place.

Visibly shocked, I stepped back from the girl who was covered in bruises all over her arms, legs and even throat. Bitterly, I balled my hands into fists, only to release them slightly afterwards. I looked away from her as the tears appeared in my eyes once more but stopped myself from crying rather quickly again.

“She needs medical attention. Stay by her side … I am sure there are some … some …” I started, but trailed off into nothingness shortly afterwards as I didn´t want to say the sad truth myself.

“Some who would blame this on her?” I nodded swiftly and thanked my guard as he brought the girl away from this place. I was met with rather shocked expressions from the citizens. Some were also quite angry that I saved an elf instead of a human, but they were also the ones who didn’t understand my reasoning for being here at all.

For a few seconds, I closed my eyes, seemingly calming myself down. I couldn’t stand around like this forever though. I opened my eyes again and tried to radiate as much optimism as I could.

“Let´s extinguish some fires.” I said and took part in the line of humans, carrying one bucket of water at a time. Bucket after bucket, one litre of water after another, we saved the outskirts of the slums from utter destruction while others saved the fields. Even the citizens from inside the wall helped a lot. For once, the class system of this country seemed to be no more. A duchess, her child, the guards, the citizens and those that lived inside the slums all worked hand in hand all because of me, a noble girl, barely ten years old, working for the peasants in their times of need, just after saving someone from the race who killed my father.

If this wasn´t the headline in the newspaper the day afterwards, I seriously didn’t know what else to do to become popular with everyone. Well, at least I didn’t have to worry about the news of my appointment as Mary´s successor spreading too fast. Even when, nobody would be able to oppose this decision openly right now.

Naturally, I didn’t help too long as I was still young and already coughed for quite some time but rather spent the rest of the day managing the guards or the creation of the firebreak. In the end, we did it. The destruction was still widespread, much to my enjoyment obviously, but I made sure that there wouldn’t be a food shortage which would be catastrophic at this point.

Until sunset, we helped as much as possible until I seemingly collapsed from exhaustion. My guards brought me back into the carriage to Mary who was equally tired. For a few moments, we watched how the citizens extinguished the last flames.

I closed the door as soon as my wounds started to heal and the carriage started moving again. I ripped bits of my dress of, bandaged the already healing places and tried to figure out how I would be able to meet my elf again. But that would have to wait for at least a day.

We arrived at the mansion not too long afterwards, tired and spent. Holding my sunglasses in my hand, I stepped into my room after eating in silence with a deeply concerned Mary. She was constantly talking about helping them even further, although we lacked the authority and funds to do so. The king would need to decide what to do with his subjects, not us who had no say in that matter. Unwilling to wait for the maids, I cut my dress open with a sharp dagger. After undoing my bandages and wearing my nightly outfit, I was ready to bash a head again.

Before that though, I visited Mary in her room.

“Mum, as horrible as it sounds, we cannot do anything.” I said as she was looking at a map on her desk.

“You say that so easily. Lucinda, I saw a burning human running out of the slum. So many died there and the rest has nothing anymore. I cannot sit still.”

“We are completely broke though?” I stated the obvious. Throwing money at this problem wasn’t a solution here as we didn´t have much going by our own finance books.

“I know. I hate to ask, but could you do something?” She was obviously hinting at something illegal I was supposed to do, like robbing the biggest bank in the capital.

“I see what I can do.” I opened her window and jumped out of it. My financial obligations were exploding, from paying Mary´s loan back to giving money to the poor, buying new brothels and financing a few orphanages. There was basically no money left at this point, even though we had a vault full of money at arms reach.

I ran as fast as possible during the streets without being seen as overly suspicious. I also hid my face under a large black hat, in case anyone could see through my mask of make-up.

“Where is Tom?” I asked the lady at the counter the first second I entered the brothel. She pointed to her back with a slightly concerned expression but didn’t stop me from storming past her. I was angry, incredibly so and didn’t try to hide it at all.

I already made myself audible by stomping on the wooden stairs angrily but the angry grunt I made as I stood near the stairs and watched how they played poker certainly made them turn towards me.

“Tom you fucking imbecile!” I rushed towards him, grabbed the back of the chair and yanked it backwards. It immediately tippled over and with it, Tom as well. Furious, I stomped on his belly without any concern for his well-being. He screamed in pain and held his belly as I reached downwards and grabbed his collar. “I told you I wanted to meet her, not that you should burn the whole place down!” I screamed as I pulled him upwards.

“What are you talking about?” He said in anguish. A bit surprised by the honesty behind his words, I let him fall back down on the ground.

“Would you care to explain why the whole fucking eastern slums burned down just as I was on my way back from the funeral? What a strange coincidence, so what the fuck did you do?”

“We did nothing! I swear, our plan was to give her a baguette, steal it again as her hunger awakes and then lead her towards you.”

“That´s all? You weren’t playing with fire?” I asked, still doubtful, although Tom spoke the truth. In the corner of my eyes, I noticed how their arsonist tensed up suspiciously. “Do you have anything to say, Felix?”

“No?” That didn’t sound very convincing. Angrily, I squinted my eyes and directed my rage at him, only to twirl around and stare at the woman sneaking down the stairs. There were several burn marks on her and with the amount of soot on her, she looked like she came out of an oven. More interesting though, I knew this brunette. I saved her out of the fires previously. My eyelids twitched as I turned around grabbed Tom by the collar once more and pulled him up.

“Who the fuck is she?” I whispered into his ears dangerously.

“She is a sex worker I know. She was supposed to deliver the food but didn’t come back since.” Tom uttered. I let him fall down once more, even though he was prepared this time and didn’t crash onto the ground like a rock. Squinting my eyes, I walked towards the woman he called a whore and smelled her scent from up close. She still smelled like flowers and I couldn’t smell sweat or other disgusting fluids on her. Tom reeked of these things since coming here, but she, a whore didn’t. There was definitely something strange going on with her, but this wasn’t my priority right now. And I wasn’t her priority as well apparently. She stared at Felix the whole time, barely noticing me.

I turned my head, looked at him as he apparently started to realize something.

“Oh … I´m sorry?” He said. The whore seemed to get it, but I was completely in the dark. “Look look! I´m sorry!” He said once more.

“What are you talking about?” Tom asked, already standing up again.

“Remember how we talked about making the baguette as tasty as possible? Well, I thought of filling it with pate … I may have used one of my experimental ones.”

“Experimental you say? Half the baguette blew up right next to me! The whole fucking slums burned down because of you!”

“It was a mistake, I´m sorry!” He said once more in the face of two furious women.

“If that is the case, then everything is alright, isn´t it?” I smiled dangerously and slowly walked over to Felix who sat in his chair without moving an inch. With my foot, I pushed the chair away from the table as soon as I was by his side. “That´s what I wouldn´t say if you were working for me. This mistake is one too many in my opinion. What do you think, Tom?”

“Why are you asking me?” He asked perplexed.

“It´s your dog, it´s your responsibility. Castrate him, torture him, do whatever you deem necessary so that this catastrophe doesn’t happen again.” I said.

“He is a friend of mine, I –“ He uttered. I already heard enough of his nonsense and interrupted him immediately.

“Do. It. Your head is on the line for the next mistake anyone of your dogs makes. I don’t care who it will be, I don’t care how little this mistake will be, you will be punished.”

“That´s …” He uttered once more.

“Unfair? Is that what you wanted to say? You don’t want to be blamed for the mistakes of your subordinates? Should I handle the punishment of Felix in this case?” I asked.

“No.” He said firmly, knowing full well that my kind punishment usually ended in death.

“Great.” I sat down on a nearby chair and put my feet on the table. “And now, let´s discuss this shitshow of a group.”

“You said you liked it last time?” He said, frowning slightly as I switched topics way too sudden.

“Yeah, that was as I hoped the cockroach to be the unreliable one of this bunch.” I said and smirked.

“It is too late to switch them out now. We already began today.” He stated, looking at me full of panic.

“I know that much, but I still wonder why you added a whore to the group. Is she strictly necessary?” I asked, angry that he changed my plans by this degree and added even more uncertainty into the mix.

“No, she isn´t.” Tom admitted.

“Then why?” I growled.

“It just happened, alright? It just happened.” Repeating it two times didn’t make it better. Aghast, I stared at him as I couldn’t believe it. The whore walked over to us, sat down on a free chair and looked at both of us in wonder. I didn’t know what her problem was, but first I had to fix another one.

“Was it good?” I asked, utterly disgusted by my own subordinate for doing such a foolish thing.

“What?” He asked.

“The nights you spent with her. I cannot smell her scent on you, but you two are definitely close to each other.”

“That’s not why she is here. She is capable enough on her own.”

“Is that so?” I squinted my eyes, knowing that it was already too late for me to change anything. If the next mission failed, it would fail big time. But still, Tom was an investment I already pumped too much money into. He wasn’t allowed to fail.

“So tell me, whore, what secrets do you know about Tom?” I asked, testing out her skills about retrieving things Tom would never tell about others. If it was one thing she would be capable of, then it would certainly be that.

“I … could the others leave the room first?” She said which made me smile involuntarily. Happily about such a turn of events, I rested my chin on my interlocked fingers. The others, from the assassin to the arsonist left the room swiftly. Only Tom, the whore and I remained in this closed-off room where silence reigned supreme, at least until she started to speak.

“He loves you.”

“Tell me something less obvious.” I observed how she twitched involuntarily because of my nonchalant answer.

“He wants to dominate you.” She said, this time even more hopeful of uttering something interesting.

“Boooring.” I said and yawned loudly. In fact though, I was a bit impressed by her ability to gather intel.

“He phantasies about raping you.” Tom´s mouth opened up while I naturally kept my cool. It was something I already knew after all. “He imagines you whenever we have sex.” The more she told me though, the more disgusted I became. “He wants to choke you, he wants to see you squirm beneath him.”

“Pauline?” Tom apparently didn’t know the extend of her abilities to this quite fascinating degree.

“Don’t listen to him. Tell me more about his dirty little secrets.” I commanded, leaving no room for her to escape.

“He wants to break your resistance, wants to see you drooling in pleasure as he rams his dick into you repeatedly.”

“Wow, wow, Tom. That´s seriously a bit too graphical, isn´t it?” I commented and held the palm of my hand in front of my eyes, only to peek through the gaps between my fingers, seemingly in childish embarrassment.

“But you,” She began which made me focus on her once more. “don’t feel any lust at all. You aren´t lusting after Tom, nor after anyone else.” She was right with that one. The more she told me, the more did I have the feeling she wanted to challenge me. Naturally, I gladly accepted.

“And you don’t smell like a whore.” I said and presented her with an undeniable fact.

“You are entirely disconnected from the feelings that drive humans to their peak and beyond.” She said and presented me with something even Tom didn’t know. She had a great grasp of lust and pleasure, that was for sure at this point.

“Says the one who thrives in these feelings more than everyone else.” I commented, smiling lightly and put my hands back onto the table.

“You hide your true self in the shadows.” And she even knew nonsexual things, probably from Tom this time.

“You aren’t that much better, are you?” I said.

“A vampire hidden in plain sight.” I nodded, now entirely certain what she was. It was a rather interesting development, to be honest.

“Spicey ... Tom, I approve of her. She can stick around if she wants to. Although … was I clear enough that he is mine? If you ever hurt him or try to manipulate him, you will die.”

“What are you talking about?” Interjected Tom, clearly not knowing what she was.

“Shut up.” I said dryly and waited for her answer.

“I understand.” She said, looking towards the ground in defeat.

“Great.” With this, everything was solved. The team would stay as it was, Felix would probably get away without any punishment, but Tom would make sure he wouldn’t mess up again.

I stood up, circled around the table until Pauline grabbed my arm, stood up and leaned over to whisper into my ear.

“Would you be so kind to keep this a secret?”

“As long as you don’t mess up, you two can fuck however often you like. I know how it is to be thirsty and I also know that humans look at the likes of us differently when they see beyond the illusions we put up.” I whispered back, shielding the sound away from Tom with my hand. I left without saying goodbye to either of them, as I was thinking deeply about the way she charmed him. Maybe I should try this more often as well, or so I thought.

“What do you want to do with this elf anyway?” Jack, the earth magician, asked as soon as I arrived back on the ground floor. He was putting his nose into things he shouldn’t, but he also gave me a perfect opportunity.

“Some steamy hot girl on girl action.” I said and sadly realized that he was completely immune to my seductive smile. Maybe the fact that he was a father was the issue here … scrapping my intentions of trying to imitate Pauline in the future, I turned around and walked out of the brothel, sweetly waving at the magician as he was at a loss of words.

On my way back, I thought about Pauline. She was definitely an uncertainty as I could benefit from her skills, or she could make Tom crazy. I had no intention of telling Tom the truth though. If he would find out on his own, that was hopefully fine as well. He dealt with a vampire before, a succubus shouldn’t be that much harder.