The Temptress

Ryan Carter got his doctorate from the archaeology graduate program at Harvard and was a field researcher and adjunct professor with Columbia University. Inspired as a child by the Indiana Jones movies, Ryan wanted to study the mysteries of ancient cultures. Even though the academia and field work of archaeology was no where as glamorous or exciting as the movies, he still loved his field.

While researching for his latest paper, Ryan unearthed an old book, at least two thousand years old he suspected, in some dark, forgotten corner of a library in the middle of nowhere in a former Soviet Bloc country. This tome was written in the now-dead Sumerian language but luckily Ryan could read it. The ancient book told of another dimension separate from our own, a place where demons, spirits of pure unrestrained evil dwelt.

The book revealed secrets long forgotten by men, secrets probably best left forgotten. There were descriptions of rituals to summon and contain various types of demons. A few months ago, he decided to try out one of the rituals by drawing a magic circle in the middle of an old, abandoned church. He felt a heaviness in his lung as he spoke the ancient words of the summoning rite. Just as he was about to collapse from exhaustion, Ryan was blinded by a flash of purple light. When he could see again, he saw an imp, a gargoyle-like demon the size of a cat, prancing around the magic circle but unable to leave its confines. He barely had the strength to banish the small fiend back to its plane.

Ryan studied the ancient book further, discovering evil spirits whose name he dared not to repeat out loud. But one type of demon interested him the most. Whereas most of the demons were created by the living plane of the Abyss to reflect humanity's weaknesses and vices -- gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride -- the alluring succubi, were formed from the lustful desires of man. The succubi need sex like mortals need to eat and breath. The greater the seduction and the higher the ecstasy, the more a succubus drains the life of a mortal and, in turn, feeds the Abyss, like a worker bee feeds the collective hive.

Shendilavri is the realm in the Abyss where the succubi and incubi dwell. Although the verdant paradise may seem like an oasis in the horrific plane, the beauty of the realm is only a cover for the depravity of the succubi, the incubi, and their queen, Malcanthet, impart on the tortured souls of mortal sinners. The succubi outnumber their male counterpart a hundred to one due to men's susceptibility to the weakness of the flesh than women.

Summoning a few more minor demons, Ryan became more confident to the point he decided he could summon and control a succubus. He could have easily called forth and enslaved a weaker demon but years of being alone mixed with the temptation of controlling a beautiful demoness was something he could not pass up.

Ryan spent a better part of week in the old, abandoned church to prepare the summoning ritual. He had to make sure the pentagram, a special magic circle with a five-pointed star inside, had no mistakes, lest he risk the demoness breaking free of its mystic bonds. He waited until the full moon was above in the cloudless night before starting the ritual. Chanting over the ancient tome, Ryan barely noticed the candles flicker violently as a dust devil appeared in the center of the pentagram. The spinning air disappeared into a void with a brilliant flash of light. But Ryan continued to read until he spoke the very last syllable.

He looked up from the old text and standing before him in a pentagram was a succubus, an out-worldly being whose beauty was beyond any fashion magazine model or movie actress he had ever seen. The demoness looked like statuesque redhead with a flowing mane down to her waist and massive breasts that would otherwise strain the backs of mortal women. But her glowing green eyes and large black bat-like wings betrayed her fiendish origins.