Life in Shadows (22 page)

Shannon
enjoyed a long, relentless ride until she came harder and longer than ever. Her
orgasm rippled through her whole body, from her center to her legs and
shoulders and wrists.

Only then
did Lorelei allow Shannon any respite. “There is more power in you than I
expected,” said the succubus. “More of hers...and more of your own.”

“What does
that mean?” Shannon asked, her voice high and breathless.

“Only good
things, for you,” Lorelei smiled. “Embrace your appetites. They may seem new or
strange, but the more you indulge, the stronger you will become. You are no
demon, nor are you immortal, but you have power beyond the natural gifts of
mortal man or woman.”

“Lorelei,
your hands. Your fingers changed. Your nails.”

“Yes. I can
look quite different if I so choose. Some is pure illusion. Some is actual
physical change.”

“Can I do
that?”

“To some
extent, you already do. As you said, you have seen change within yourself. Your
abilities will likely not be as potent as mine, but we could experiment.”

Shannon
grinned. The thought excited her. “You mean I can change what I look like?”

“Yes,” said
Lorelei. “Still human. Still a woman.” Her hands roamed Shannon’s body,
shamelessly enjoying her breasts, her hips and her thighs. “You can be anyone
you want to be.”

A shiver
ran through the redhead. “Later?”

“Of
course.”

“I want
more of you, Lorelei. I want to taste you.”

The succubus
smiled broadly. She shifted on the bed. “Then let’s see what you’ve learned,”
she said, and turned over Shannon to swing one lovely leg over the younger
woman’s head. The other took up the opposite side, and Shannon reached up to
touch those perfect hips and bring Lorelei’s sex to her mouth while Lorelei’s
lips descended on Shannon’s own.

Seduction
was never something Shannon thought one could taste until that moment. Honey
and heat and temptation welcomed Shannon’s mouth, and then a jolt of pleasure
ran through her body as Lorelei’s tongue invaded her again. She knew they would
be at this for hours.

Wanting to
give Lorelei the same treatment, Shannon thought about shaping her own tongue
into something similar and probed her partner’s flesh. It was easier than she
thought, and the sudden jerk of Lorelei’s body over hers told her how effective
it was.

Perhaps
Shannon hadn’t wanted this. Perhaps she would have turned it down had she ever
been given a choice. But now that she had this power and these desires, she
found that she loved it all.

* * *

The woman
in Shannon’s mirror looked very much like her, but she was still a stranger.

Lorelei
remained for much of the day. For hours, they made love for its own sake.
Shannon didn’t really know whether to call it that. Romance would not come of
this, but physical familiarity and openness grew into affection of a sort.
Moreover, Lorelei coached Shannon on the new conditions of her life. They
discussed Shannon’s probable abilities, the implications of their use, and the
importance of exploring her newfound desires.

Friends and
family would still recognize her despite these changes. She looked amazing, but
still like herself. None of them would ever see her naked like this, though;
they would not see this much of her perfect skin or the exquisite muscle tone
she now enjoyed from head to toe. She could make a lot of money modeling with
this body. Come to think of it, she would do well in any profession where good
looks and charm were key.

Thoughts of
family or career concerns didn’t feel so welcome at the moment. She wanted more
fun. More company. That her mind went to such places bothered her slightly.
Lorelei had taken very good care of her—and so had Kevin before her, to be
fair—but even with her fires cooled for now, she knew this hunger would stay
with her for life. The hunger didn’t bother her, though, and
that
was
what did concern her. Shannon had never judged others for promiscuous choices.
It simply never appealed to her until now. Her attitude had completely changed
overnight, and she couldn’t see a single drawback—as long as it could be
compartmentalized properly.

Her
self-worth would not be dictated by how many people lusted after her, or how
many men and women she bedded. Shannon was a damn good paramedic. She saved
lives. She helped people.

She was
also now undeniably sexy. She knew she’d never given herself enough credit
before, but now it was very much like a switch had been flipped by magic.

She wanted
to show off. She longed to be desired. Needed it, even, as much as she had
needed to follow the path that put her in an ambulance tending the sick and
injured. This need, though, she could deny to herself... but to what end?

Shannon
wanted to explore it, and enjoy it. She didn’t want it to become all that defined
her.

Lorelei’s
words echoed in her head: “You can be anyone you want to be.”

Shannon’s
hand reached up to her head. She watched herself as her fingers worked their
way to the roots of a lock of hair, and ran along its length from her scalp to
the very ends. As the hair passed between her fingers and thumb, it turned from
straight and red to wavy and brown and grew two more inches.

Shannon
stared at herself in the mirror. Her brown eyes turned blue. “Anyone I want to
be,” she said to her reflection.

* * *

“Sexy cop.
Ridiculous. Sexy secretary. Cliché and sad. Sexy schoolgirl. Gross.” Julie
tacked off the costumes in the line both in front and behind her and her
companions on the sidewalk.

“I know,
right?” snickered Julie’s husband. Doug threw his cigarette into the wet
gutter. They waited along with a good many others to be let inside the club.
“Guess that’s why they call it ‘Whoreloween.’“

“Oh,
whatever,” scoffed Patricia. Like Julie, she was dolled up for the show, but
not in any sort of costume. Normal street clothes were good enough for the two
of them. “People have taken that whole thing too far. At this point, any
costume a woman wears on Halloween gets labeled ‘too sexy’ unless she’s covered
head to toe like a nun. And people would call the nun outfit a fetish piece,
too.”

“That’s
because nuns’ outfits are pervy,” countered Julie.

“Yeah, I
dunno. The schoolgirl outfit always kinda creeped me out, too,” agreed Tim.
Julie’s date leaned over her shoulder to break into the conversation. “I mean
it kinda speaks to all sorts of misplaced childhood frustration, doesn’t it?”

“Such a
line,” Patricia said with a roll of her eyes.

“No,
seriously,” Julie pressed. “You know what kind of fantasies that caters to.
Might as well just put up a sign that says, ‘Molest Me,’ right?”

Unexpectedly,
the woman in the lab coat waiting on line in front of them turned around to
face the quartet. She wore thin red-rimmed glasses over an exceptionally
beautiful face, with her brown hair tied up tightly in the back. A stethoscope
hung around her neck. “Hey, if you’re going to make a clean sweep of all your
slut-shaming, you wanna include me, too?” the ‘doctor’ asked. “I’m starting to
feel left out.”

Julie, her
husband, and their friends all blinked in surprise.. They thought they had been
fairly quiet. None of them expected any sort of confrontation out of this.
“Uh,” stammered Julie, “you don’t look like a slut.”

The
doctor’s red lips turned in a frown. She calmly put her hands in the pockets of
her lab coat and let their weight push it open. It was only then that the three
saw her substantial white bra, her thin, too-short white skirt, and the white
garters descending from underneath to hold up her white lace stockings. The
doctor’s body was nothing short of amazing. All four of her onlookers were
stunned.

“So here’s
the thing: right now, you’re all staring at me and deciding I’m a slut,” the
doctor said. “You have no idea who I am or what I’m like. All you see is that I
look good and I’ve decided to show it off. I’m not here to steal your dates.
I’ve got nothing to do with you at all, but you’re bothered by how I dress.
You’re all adults. You can wear whatever you want. Why can’t you extend that to
others?”

Julie tried
to form words. Patricia didn’t even bother. She just turned red and looked down
at her feet. She wasn’t used to confrontation. Doug and Tim simply kept looking
on in awe.

“And if
somebody did tell you that you should dress like me,” Shannon went on, “is
there some reason you couldn’t tell them to fuck right off and do your own
thing? Or is it just safer to drag down the women who do get a kick out looking
like this?”

“I just...”
Julie tried. “Look, you can’t dress like that and not expect to get that kind
of a reaction.”

Shannon
tilted her head curiously. “Why can’t I? Other than the fact that your low
expectations of men validate their bad behavior, why should I expect to be
harassed? Any guy I’m interested in flirting with is gonna know it. I’ve
absolutely got the right to walk into that club or down that street without
anyone giving me a hard time. So does the woman in the schoolgirl outfit.”

“Uh, excuse
me, Miss? Er, doctor?” called out a guy in a Starfleet uniform shirt standing
behind Shannon’s stunned audience. “The line’s moving.”

“Oh. Thank
you,” she replied with a friendly smile. Her attention returned to Julie and
her friends. “Raise your game, people. Seriously. You’re not helping anyone.”
With that she turned and headed off into the club.

The rush of
the moment caught up with her. Confrontation had never been high on Shannon’s
list of hobbies. Two nights ago, she would likely still have bristled at the
snarky commentary behind her—shy or not, it wasn’t like she bought into that
sort of thinking—but turning and telling complete strangers to stuff it wasn’t
exactly her style. It wasn’t anywhere close. Even now, she felt the echoes of
her old self wondering if she shouldn’t apologize, or at least feel some guilt
for her sudden rant and whatever embarrassment those people probably felt.

Then she
came to the front doors of the venue and realized she still had neither a plan
nor a ticket. The booth had been closed when she arrived; as she expected, the
Halloween show was sold out. Shannon came out anyway, hoping for a last-minute
ticket release before the show began. Failing that, she figured she
could...what? Bat her eyelashes at the doorman?

No.
Unacceptable. She carried a demon’s lust within her, but that didn’t mean she
wanted to seduce her way through all her problems. Interested in finding a
playmate for the evening though she was, Shannon had no intention of solving
every problem through sex appeal.

“Ticket?”
asked the muscular man past the door. He held out his hand. Shannon’s good
looks seemed either lost upon him or irrelevant. She knew she shouldn’t be surprised.
Bouncers and doormen here probably saw a parade of hot women every night.

“I don’t
have one,” Shannon admitted. “I was hoping...are you going to do a last minute
release at all? I couldn’t get a straight answer out of anyone over the phone
earlier, so I waited in line.”

“No,”
answered the doorman. “No more tickets tonight. Sold out.”

Shannon bit
her lip. She tried to think of an acceptable approach, but found herself
rejecting every idea. She sighed. “It’s cool. Guess I’ll find another party
tonight.”

“Ramon!
Hey, Ramon!” called a voice from just beyond the doorman. He glanced over his
shoulder. Shannon looked, too, and spotted a lovely young woman in a green
plaid sexy schoolgirl’s outfit. “You should let her in. She just saved a couple
snotty bitches from severe trauma outside.”

Ramon
looked back to her with a cocked eyebrow. Shannon shrugged. “Well,” she said
coolly, “I
 
am
 
a doctor.”

* * *

It couldn’t
have worked out better if she’d planned it.

Shannon
made it into the venue before the first band finished its set. The men she had
come to see were only now setting up, with canned music playing over the PA in
the interim. Shannon adored Rockerdammerung as much for their music as for
their self-deprecating humor. Brad couldn’t stand them for reasons Shannon
never understood. He refused to go to every show with Shannon and even put on a
sullen pity party if she dared to go without him.

Come to
think of it, Shannon considered, her ex got sullen whenever she did anything
without him. Maybe that was why she didn’t feel bad about losing him.

Freed from
concern for his fine feelings and ready to enjoy the hell out of the show,
Shannon regretted ever having settled for her now-ex. She almost wanted to send
him a text to thank him for dumping her before this show rather than after
Halloween...but she had better things to do at the moment.

Getting
close to the stage turned out to be easier than any task she’d faced all night.
Letting her white lab coat fall open once more, Shannon strutted through a
crowd that quickly parted for her like the Red Sea. She caught stares and
double-takes, knowing all along that the sudden interruptions of conversations
or laughter were because of her, and she loved every second of it. No one
bothered her, or even approached her.