Octavia pushed the furniture to the edges of the living room and knelt on the wooden floor to chalk the magic circle. Dr Hackett's cottage was small and, like many older buildings, had a front door which opened straight into the front room from outside. She needed to perform the summoning, bind the incubus to her will, and then put everything back as it had been before her tutor came home.

She was ready to begin the spell. Hastily she opened the Red Book of Summoning to the first page, a woodcut of a stylish if rather louche demon. Underneath the picture was his name, but the runes twisted inward over themselves and defied pronunciation in any mortal plane. Underneath the writhing lettering someone had pencilled: "Jim".

Octavia began to chant, flicking through the pages in turn as she intoned the invocation. As she worked her way through the complex sounds, her head grew heavy and she swayed with drowsiness from the repetitive rhythm and mental effort. But as she reached the halfway point of the book, the chalk lines of her magic circle began to glow like embers, lighting the room with a yellow red glow. As she went on, turning the pages with effort, she looked up to see a figure rising from the circle. The incubus of the book, the unsayable, also (it would appear) known as Jim.  His skin was oxblood red, and his handsome sharp features were framed by two large curved horns.

As he rose from the circle he bowed smoothly, one arm across his bare chest. This, however, meant that his other arm was tucked behind his back, a fact which in hindsight Octavia ought have paid more attention to. 

Octavia looked up as the incubus took on solid form in front of her. "Yes!"
"Yess" he echoed.

--->

Mature Content

Mature Content

Mature Content