"What...?" Logan questioned, looking down at his gown colored with red. Selene's blood, he realized. "Who are you?"
"Come on, 'Logan,' you know who I am." The voice replied, sharp and high-pitched. It came from inside his bath gown.
Undoing it just enough to see its interior pockets, he looked carefully at where he best heard the voice. With his enhanced perception, he could easily make out the source based on where the mana aggregated, but when he called for his newfound power, something clawed at him, forcing the mana not to listen.
He shook his head, picking at the left pocket where something bulged its material. There it sat between his fingers—a small, pixie-like girl between his fingers. It had little tiny wings perked along its back, and haughty clothes barely covering skin. It did its job though, however thin it was.
"What the hell are you...?" he asked once more, raising the creature to his face. His fingers had caught on to her left wing, causing a look of discomfort to etch itself onto the thing's face.
Regardless, it laughed, raising its two arms to its waist to maintain some half-assed show of confidence. "Don't you remember? I'm the succubus that came to eat you up."
Logan's eyes twisted open, mouth agape and limbs frozen. "Then that explains the voice from earlier and why I didn't see your body..."
Wriggling itself free from his hand, it entered a free fall toward the ground. For a moment, Logan was fearful for its survival, but with incredible haste, the succubus spread its wings to halt its momentum, eventually using the residual force to dip back up to the same level as his head.
Like a powerful impact against his chest pulling him back to reality, Logan stopped paying attention to the succubus to instead care for Selene.
The blood was still gushing, pouring out to the back of her head and onto the white bedding. Logan's heart rushed once more, a cold sweat drooping from every corner of his face. "Selene, please, hang on there!"
With some of his new strength—unaided by mana—he tore out a piece of his bath gown, then tied it nicely around her head. Watching as her eyes twitched at the sudden touch, he felt his heartbeat calm just a little bit. "So she's alive."
Then, remembering some of the technical training he had for impromptu first aid, he put as much pressure as he could on the open wound, using one hand to pressurize and the other to keep the skin closed.
The cut was grievous, revealing small yellow globules and even a little bit of bone. This was something that would require an ER, but there were no telephones at home other than the one he owned. 'Selene, please... I don't know if I can live without you.'
"Need some help there?" the succubus asked, one leg atop the other as she drifted freely through the air.
Her nonchalance was an intense point of agitation for Logan, but he didn't bother to acknowledge her, continuing to apply pressure.
"What's your hope? That the blood will clot before she bleeds out? You're smarter than that, 'Logan Reed.'"
Logan turned his head in her direction. "What...? How do you know my full name?"
"I know everything about you, Logan. Sixth year at Buford Academy, designated F-rank ever since your first year. You've quite the track record. 163 losses in official duels, 0 wins. Considered a reject by your father—perhaps even the reason he left to continue his work with the Spirit Executioners. Not to mention, the reason that your sister lost her Gift—"
"Shut the fuck up!" Logan's roar was so resounding that the succubus almost fell from its flight, though it was still unaided with mana. "How the fuck do you know all that about me?"
Staggered, the succubus stared intensely into the scene before her. "I can tell you about that later. But first, you want to save your sister, right?"
For a second, silence. All Logan did was sit there, watching as Selene's face went colder and colder. When even more memories flashed through his mind, his cheeks raised an inch, his bottom lip trembling at the sudden emotion. "Can you really save her?"
She nodded.
Without being able to hold it back any longer, tears streamed down his face like a dam had shattered within him. His eyes shook, his face fell, and his hands went flat. "Please... if you can help... please... save my sister...!"
The succubus smiled, shaking her head. "Good, as long as you know your place. Then I'll need you to shake my hand."
With half-opened eyes, he watched as the tiny little creature's hand hovered in the space between them. "Your hand...?"
"Yes, shake my hand, and we'll enter a mutual contract. I save your sister, and you do one thing for me in return." A bright light emanated from the tip of her hand, illuminating the entire room and flooding Logan's brain with a universe of information.
A scream rung—a little girl's. Then, the scruffy bellow of a king. Then, the scattered inquisition of officers.
In that moment, he saw everything he needed. The terms, the conditions... the costs. In truth, he'd been inundated by all the information, and it whirred through his mind far too fast to really stick, but there was one crucial detail that he caught on to.
"You want me to return your former body to you?"
Another laugh, although, this time, more from the chest. "Yes, correct! Not too bad a deal, is it? After all, I'm in this form because of you."
Normally, Logan would've been far too smart to accept a contract without first going over the details, but as he watched Selene, the way her breathing grew more ragged—her chest falling lower and lower with each exhale, he couldn't help but skip past all the dangers. There was nothing he wouldn't do to save her.
"I accept," he exclaimed proudly. With one finger out to accommodate the succubus' small hand, he allowed the two to meet contact, forcing another light, ten times as bright to flood the room.
The air waved at whatever magic the succubus possessed, space itself seeming bend to her will. It was like the scene had turned to a portrait, and the portrait turned into a myriad of shapes and fractals. Reality broke down to its most fundamental level, one where understanding itself was made meaningless.
But through it all, Logan could make one thing out. A smile—ear to ear—on the succubus' face, a purveyor to her true nature, as he would find out later.