There’s a Snake at My Door

## Content Information

Xander slowly made his way up the path to the front door of the Hellfire Sorority.  He hadn’t slept in the last sixty hours, and looked absolutely awful.  His under eye bags were very dark, his eyes were horribly bloodshot, his hair was an absolute mess, and he was barely able to keep his feet moving.  He tried going back to his room, but the paranoia and panic he felt wouldn’t allow him to relax.  He could almost feel eyes trained on his back, someone watching him just out of view.  So, he’d come to the one place on campus he could feel completely safe.  *I wish I could’ve picked a better time to show up… Gods I hope I’m not bothering her, last thing I’d need is to be bothering Selene right now.*  As he reached the door, he held his hand an inch from knocking.  *Maybe I should just go back, after all I’ve got plans to work on any-*

With that thought incomplete the door of the sorority swung open.

At the door like magic was Queen Selene herself, Pyrrha had been checking the camera’s and told her that her fan boy was on his way. Selene could see what a mess Xander was, he must have been having an awful day, a couple of days judging by everything wrong with his look. She doubted Xander only looked nice for Queen Selene concerts plus he was coming to meet her at her own home, which would clearly mean he would have dressed up as well. This means that the issue was likely beyond a personal visit but felt like a need. With all of that gathered in her head she put a hand on Xander and said “You look like you had the worst day ever, maybe a few in a row.”

The succubus motioned him forward to the living room, she snapped her fingers at the people hanging out there who scattered to each other's rooms knowing that meant Selene was going to want the area to herself. She turned off the TV and patted the spot next to her “Tell me what happened, who should I be mad at for hurting my number one fan?”

“Sorry for intruding so suddenly… I really didn’t know where else to go.  Gods I must look like such a mess.”  He sat down and nearly slumped over, barely managing to hold himself upright to meet Selene’s eyes.  “I guess it’s a lot less about who ‘hurt’ me, and more about who I think I hurt.  Tamzen and I went to the lake a few days ago, and got intercepted by Arsling and a werewolf we hadn’t met before, Lily.  Long story short, from what I can tell I did something to trigger Lily’s beast form, and that led to a really bad chain reaction.  Some hunters tried to hurt her, she wound up hurting one of them… badly, Arsling did or said… something to the other one that ran away, and Tamzen’s locked herself in her DJ booth and hasn’t come out in over two days.  I’ve been messaging her every half hour, I even sat just outside her booth for a long time, but she’s barely responded to me.  And what little she has has all just been about how worthless she is, or how her absence means nothing.”

He curled up into a ball on the couch next to Selene, tucking his knees to his chest.  “To top it all off, ever since I left the studio this morning I’ve been feeling… watched.  Like someone’s following me.  That’s why I came here… it’s the only place on campus I knew would be safe.  Sorry again for barging in like this...”

Selene knew Tamzen was Zenni, well that was that confirmed, good to know her previous lashing out at the radio wasn’t unwarranted. It also meant it was easier to forgive all of that after all it was a minor slight and her and Lavish were dating now. The woman moved Xander’s head to her lap trying to make sure he physically didn’t feel any distance right now.

The sorority leader assured Xander first and foremost “You are safe here, I am glad you came. The only people watching you here will be people sneaking a peak feeling jealous that you're getting one on one time with me.”

Selene looked at her fan trying to piece together what could be said to help assure him. The best approach, the best words, the most honest words? The woman didn’t know her fan that well, well she knew him from old comments on her youtube but the memories were a bit foggy on random comments from years ago. The pop star said “They were hunters right, monster hunters, it was them or you. When a person makes their identity about killing you and people like you then you can’t be blamed for hurting someone or being involved in it.”

Then petting his head she added about Tamzen “Look, your girlfriend deciding to ghost you when you're both struggling isn’t cool. She probably feels pretty guilty about everything that happened, still you don’t deserve to be treated like that.”

The last thing she said before letting Xander speak was "you can stay here as long as you like. I can give you a room temporarily until it feels safe again or your girlfriend stops ghosting you or whatever feels good."

Xander laid out on the couch, letting his body relax against it.  He felt comfortable and safe for the first time in a few days, his head resting in her lap.  He listened intently to Selene, trying to keep himself from crying or falling apart.  Once she’d finished he gave a small nod.  “Thank you, that’s a very kind offer.  I’d really hate to be any sort of burden though…”

He trailed off for a second, readjusting himself.  “Honestly, I just can’t help but feel guilty about that man, the hunter.  He wasn’t just badly hurt… he died… he died right in front of us.  We tried to save him but… there was so much blood… so so much blood.”  Tears began welling up in the corners of his eyes.  “I’ve never… I’ve never seen a man die before.  Never watched the life… drain from someone’s eyes like that.  I was powerless to stop it, and yet I was the catalyst that made it happen.  I’m responsible, whether it was deserved or not… it’s my fault he’s not here anymore.  I just… on top of everything else that’s the thing I can’t reconcile.”

A tear streamed down his cheek.  “I know he threatened us, I know he planned on hurting us, but… I always thought I’d be able to do it when push came to shove and I needed to defend myself.  Now… gods now…”

“First off, your not a burden, I assure you of this, we aren’t going to die if there is one less random bedroom to fuck people we don’t trust in our rooms.”

Selene gripped onto Xander tightly, killing someone was serious but it wasn’t like, special. People die, especially when you're a monster, a good like 10th of monsters were people who died or near died at least. Hell her newest members included a girl who was pretty shameless about wanting to eat humans and it was hard to blame her, it was nature, most monsters were predators, animals that feast on others to survive. They were still people though and that’s what made hunters so disgusting for her, less than people. She did everything she could to keep humans safe and monsters safe but when Humans crossed the line to devoting themselves to killing monsters then death is a kindness. That said she knew what it felt like, to see someone die before her eyes. How scary it was that first time it was her fault, or at least felt like it.

Selene took a breath before she said “You don’t need to become a murderer to fight back against these people, everyone has their own path. There is no undoing what you did, there is no fixing what happened, but there is realizing the stakes. You didn’t mean for him to die, you had no intention and it was in self defense.  Beyond this that person would have killed every monster on campus if they had a chance,  in any degree you were involved you were saving lives.”

Selene grabbed Xander’s head softly, raising it up to look in the distance where Hellfire members were talking and laughing in the kitchen and others outside cooking for each other. Every one seemed so happy and normal even if some perhaps let out some of their more monstrous features. “All these people, they have a right to life, and those people won’t feel like you do right now, and that means you're better than them. You still have a heart unlike them but don’t let it kill you Xander, you're a good person, you didn’t kill them you are just blaming yourself cuz it’s scary to see someone die.’

Tears streamed down his face as he gazed at everyone having a good time.  He nodded, his head still in Selene’s hands.  “That… that all makes a lot of sense.  At the end of the day, regardless of whether or not we were their actual targets, they were still hunting monsters in general.  And that,” his tone shifting from sad and exhausted to determined and fiery, “Is absolutely unforgivable.”

His entire life Xander had always thought of himself as separate from the human world, stuck as a hybrid abomination far more snake than person.  But hearing Selene, and seeing those around him struggling with the same issues peacefully existing, made something click into place in the back of his head.  He may be a serpentine, but he had feelings, wants, and fears.  He was just as much a person as any regular old human.  Though the worlds of serpents and humans were still splitting apart in his mind, he could at least recognize that regardless of which one he wanted to live in he deserved to be treated like a person regardless.  It didn’t matter if ‘humans just couldn’t understand’ or if ‘they saw him as a danger to themselves’.  He needed to stop passively excusing the behavior, and he needed to stop feeling bad about defending himself.

Most of all though.... He needed to start being far kinder to himself.  He wasn’t an abomination, he wasn’t some freak that could excuse others for hating him.  He was Xander, and he deserved to be treated with dignity.

“They all look like they’re having a great time right now.  It’s good to see them being themselves, free from the fear of repercussions for who they are.  You’ve built a wonderful place here Selene, I must say.”  He gave a warm smile as he tilted his eyes up to look at her face.

Seeing the fire in Xander’s eyes was beautiful, that kind of passion, that moment of everything clicking, whatever that was for him, it was something she felt lucky to see in person. Selene let go of Xander’s head and smiled at him before giving him a hug “I’m glad you think so.”

Letting go she looked at everyone again and said “This is the future I am working towards, I used to hate myself for being a succubus. I felt worse than alone. I felt like there were people who understood me but all of them were terrible. Now I have all of this cuz I fought for it.”

Selene leaned back on the Sofa “Anything else about the other day bothering you, anything you want to talk about in more detail, it sounds like it was a whole lot. I am here for you as long as you need me, worse case I’ll drag you around while go work on music and oh no, what a curse, hearing someone you're a fan of produce her songs.”

“Actually… there is one thing…”  Xander sat up, his eyes wandering the room.  “Honestly you may be the best person to talk to about this.”  He adjusted himself, sitting cross legged on the couch looking at her.  “It has a bit to do with the other day, but also to do with something that happened last week.  I uh… when I was out in Indianapolis something very strange happened.  There was some sort of… well demon might be the best word.  Their name was Alex, and they were hurting people… feeding off their energy.  They kidnapped my friend, drained energy from them, hurt them, hurt others too.”

He grabbed his pants tight, his knuckles becoming white.  “Everyone else was helpless aside from me, frozen in place by whatever she was.  I was scared and didn’t know what to do.  So I uh…”  His face became very red and he paused for a brief second.  “I… I seduced them… It wasn’t planned, it wasn’t something I’ve ever done before, yet it happened so naturally.  I just bit my lip, lowered my voice, gave them a look, and just like that…”  He rubbed the back of his head furiously.  “They just listened, this entity that had beaten down a magic user, that had frozen a werewolf in place, suddenly couldn’t resist me.  I used that moment to break their hold on the others, and it wound up being about the only reason we all walked out of there relatively unscathed.”  He looked dead ahead at a spot on the wall.  “The reason I bring it up is because… it was probably the most exhilarating moment of my entire life.  I’ve never felt so… so powerful before.  And since then I’ve been absolutely terrified of how that moment made me feel.  I know being a succubus, you’d be the person most likely to understand… gods I’m sorry that sounds so offensive.”

Selene pounced on Xander, pinning him down on the other side of the Sofa, her eyes locking onto his. There were so many thoughts flowing through her head, did her mothers send that demon? What could she do about it if they did?  Was Xander a threat to her power? Could she help him with his power? Ohhh what if their powers clashed that be pretty hot.  She ended up with the words simply escaping her mouth as her eyes shifted to her demon eyes “If I wanted you I am sure I could have you right now right here, that can be an addictive power for sure, I know it was hard for me, when I started using my powers, I couldn’t control them properly but when I did learn to use them, well I mean, I used to be a loser who everyone bullied, now I could do so much, it was hard not to let that totally twist me especially cuz I needed to do it now, it was food.”

She let go of Xander and grinned “You're a hot guy, you don’t need powers to seduce someone but the power helps, it’s the least violent ability you can use to make someone give up. It can make enemies allies or at least get them vulnerable enough to knock out. ”

Selene leaned on the sofa and asked “I can be here for you, teach you how to use your powers if they are even sort of similar, help you stay on track and not go overboard, although everyone draws the lines somewhere. I obviously have a wide range of seduction abilities, I am sure one would have some overlap. I also understand how it is, to be new to this stuff.”

Xander’s, still red in the face from getting pinned, nodded sharply.  “I would certainly appreciate any guidance you could offer to me.  I never really thought of myself as hot or charming or any of that.  Then I came here and… well I guess I’ve been figuring it out quickly.  Like the other day all I did was walk out of a lake shirtless, and suddenly every person there was furiously blushing.  I didn’t even mean to do it… it just happened!”

He rubbed his arm a bit.  “I want to use this, it feels like the only thing I’ve truly been able to harness to defend myself from the stuff around here.  But I’m so afraid of going overboard with it.  So afraid of letting it get to my head and hurting someone with it.”  He looked to her with pleading eyes.  “So yes, if there’s anything you could teach me, I’d want to learn.”

“So to you the most important lesson to learn is how not to go overboard. Learning to use it more effectively can be a second priority or nice side effect.”

Selene laid back and said “We’ll I’m pretty gay and have a lot of training with mind stuff, perhaps I’d be a good test subject for your sudecution powers, it be hard to go overboard on me. Or I could look for consenting volunteers, a lot of people here love to be played with.”

Xander looked a bit intimidated.  “Oh uh, I’d be practicing on like a real uh… well yeah I suppose that is the only way to learn anything isn’t it.  I wouldn’t mind practicing on you Selene, since I actually know you.”

He sat back, relaxed himself, and when he opened his eyes again they had taken on a far more snake like appearance.  He crossed one leg over the other, letting his hands rest on his knee.  Giving her a charming playful grin, biting down on his forked tongue ever so slightly, and letting his fangs show a bit in his smile.

His entire demeanor had shifted drastically, gone was the timid shyness, replaced by pure confidence and charm.  In a lower register than his normal voice, he whispered.  “Now what is it I can do for the Queen herself?”

Selene looked at the sudden shift, this all felt so familiar, that tone shift, the subtle changes, the confidence. It was interesting to see their own commonality. Selene ran her finger against his chest “You're doing good, I like the fangs, it’s not about what you can do for me but what do you want to do with me? You’ve been a fan for so long, I am sure there is *desires* you have had. Show me the strength of your abilities.”

Xander smiled wide, a low rumbling laugh echoing in the room.  “Alright, if you *insist*.”  Xander got in close to his face mere inches from hers.  “Well for starters my Queen,” he ran his finger tips up her arm, “I’d love to start working my way up from here,” he walked his fingers along her shoulder, “to here and finally make my way,” his hand lightly caressed her neck, “here, and settle in there for a bit with my tongue and teeth.”

“Then after you’re properly warmed up with some… let’s say *playfulness*.”  He let a hot breath loose from his lips down onto her chest.  “Well from there we could get down… to… some… real… business.”  With each passing word his mouth got closer and closer to hers until they were centimeters apart.

Selene smiled, Xander had talent, that was for sure, she felt like she didn’t want to move, he was compelling, especially in his eyes, the tone of voice was convincing, seductive, and he had solid use of his body movements. He was brimming with potential that was for sure. Still he was new to this, and he wasn’t going all out whether he was aware of that or not.  She managed to move an arm to grab his face and giggle “Very good, very sexy, I’m almost convinced, your pretty fangs are a tempting treat, calling me your queen was a nice touch, knowing your target and knowing how to flatter them helps sink in the hooks, makes you that much more appealing.”

She let go of his face and rubbed her neck unconsciously, if she was going to resist Xander she was gonna need to call Rhys over soon and have him get to work on his biting duty.  Selene teased “Honestly, I think this would work on most people who aren’t use to this kind of ability ”

The succubus let her horns come out and her tail but the rest of her stays human intentionally, after all Xander wanted his idol as she appeared for so long, the temptation was required for this next part. Selene tempts Xander “If you kept going, you could have me in bed, I’d take you into that empty room I promised you and well the passions could be exchanged, I can feel your desire, what are you going to do Mr. Mesmerizer?”

Xander, for the first time, hesitated.  His face, which had been ice cold, began to redden.  His confidence seemed to shake at her challenge.  Then, just when it seemed like he’d break, he slammed his fist into his own knee.  Returning to meet Selene’s gaze, the ice cold confidence returning.  Without realizing it, he fully turned up his mesmerization abilities as his eyes locked on hers.  “Well now that’s an interesting offer, perhaps we should follow that line of thought further.”  As he got in closer to her he realized she hadn’t moved an inch.  “Uh Selene… you ok?”

It seemed he had taken it too far, this was interesting, it was similar to what she thought being petrified by Iva might feel like. It was a binding of the mind, well of the body's connection to the mind. I was able to think still, feel still, perhaps a bit more suggestiable but he had pushed it a bit too far where I would be unlikely to be able to act if I was convinced anyway. It was like BDSM without any toys, like she was tied up inside of her own brain, gripped by the serpent. If she focused on her bodies unreality perhaps she could break free or focused up sex magic to counter it it was possible she could escape. Instead she managed to just make her mouth let out a “Tone it down.”

It was ridiculous how hard even that was, Xander’s power was not to be underestimated, luckily for her, he was already a fan of hers and already coming to her for help, she wouldn’t have to worry about Xander as a threat unless he ended up having a melt down like Rhys and trying to control her. Which wasn’t impossible but she couldn’t live her life assuming everyone was going to try to control her, it just wouldn’t be a happy way to live. So she believed in Xander’s good heart even if he was a rich guy with great power. Selene could help hone that, perhaps beyond what his own family could do but for now he needed to get a real handle on this.

Xander broke his eye contact with Selene almost immediately, turning absolutely beet red.  She could feel control over her body returning as he flailed his hands.  “Oh gosh I overdid it, ah I’m so so so sorry Selene!”

Selene laughed a little not at all mad at Xander for fucking up here she instead put a hand on his shoulder “No you did fine, this is why you were using me as a test subject. I can take a little bit of being bound in my own mind.”

She rubbed the shoulder just slightly “Good job, you are in a pretty emotional distressed state and literally trying to seduce someone whose work you’ve loved for years and you managed to only slightly fuck up. I’ve seen worse happen early on power testing, calm down, take a breath, I’m good.”

Xander nodded, trying to center himself.  He took a long breath and relaxed back onto the sofa.  “Ok, yeah, I’m good.  Mesmerizing people is uh… it’s new to me as of only a little while ago.  I didn’t honestly know if it has the capability of hurting people or not… so I’m glad it doesn’t.”

He folded his hands on his lap, still a bright shade of red, as he flashed a fanged grin.  “I’m glad it went mostly well though.  I’ve uh… never really laid it on *that* thick before.  That was… kind of awesome in a terrifying way.”

“You’ll get used to it, seduction can become second nature without you losing yourself, if you want that to be” Selene said with confidence wanting to encourage Xander and let him know he did well, she wasn’t trying to make a bad day worse.

Selene’s teeth got sharp to match the fangs and she clapped her hands together “I managed to shift your focus though didn’t I, you feeling any better?”

“Lots,” he ran his hands through his hair trying to flatten the mess.  “I mean physically, still feel like I got hit by a truck.  Emotionally and mentally though, significant improvement!”  He slipped his phone out of his pocket and quickly shot a text, then slipped it back in.  He looked to Selene a bit sadly.  “She’ll get back to me when she’s ready I suppose.  Nothing I can do but keep messaging her to remind her I’m out here, and that I care about her.”  Though he seemed a tad bit put out, he was nowhere near the quivering mess he was earlier.

Selene hated seeing Xander so desperate for this lady who couldn’t even be bothered to see her own boyfriend, for what? Tamzen was clearly in the wrong here at least in Selene’s book. Still no one liked being told who to date, I mean she was dating Lavish, she was unable to judge anyone really. She put a hand on his “Nothing you can do about a princess who decides she wants to be locked in a tower. I mean, there are things you can do like break down the door or use seduction powers or try to make her jealous but outside of that you just kinda have to wait and let her decide if she wants to spend time with you. When she does then it will be your turn to decide if she was worth waiting for.”

Xander just gave a small smile and shook his head a tiny bit.  “Tamzen’s given more, and done more for me, in one month than anyone has in my entire life. I know it’s not the healthiest mindset to hold, but I’ll wait for her no matter how long it takes.”  His voice was full of confidence and passion simply talking about his partner.  “She’ll come back at some point, and when she does we can pick up where we left off.  I love her, like really genuinely love her.  I guess you could chalk it all up to being 19 and not knowing any better, but I’d hope I’m a bit more aware of myself than that.

Well it was admirable for sure, the devotion to Tamzen, but it wasn’t fair to him and they had only been dating a month. Selene said to Xander, recognizing the determination instead her tone shifted to being almost motherly with Xander. “Alright but when you're back with her, don’t be afraid to tell her how this made you feel and that you don’t want it to happen again, okay?”

“Oh trust me Selene, she and I are going to have a long conversation about how the last few days have made me feel.”  Xander spoke sternly but lovingly.  “That is after I’m done hugging the absolute shit out of her.”

Selene kissed his check and smiled at him “Good, now you haven’t slept in days right? The strongest desire I feel in you is tired, do you want to hit the hay? I can show you to that room and stay with you till you fall to sleep.”

“I’d like that a lot, I really should sleep.  I’ve uh, probably been awake for a bit too long.”  He slides out his phone, scrolling back in some sort of message log.  “Well I’ve sent one hundred and twenty one messages… so it’s been uh… sixty hours if my math is right.”  He looked at Selene almost amused.  “Wow, she’s been on the air for that long pretty much non stop.  That is some dedication to her craft!  And some time to not…” He trailed off, looking down at his phone again.  Then, realizing how much of a downer he’d seem, quickly recovered with a flashy smile.  “But yeah, it’d be nice to have your company before I drifted off.  After all, I’ve still got a few more questions for you!”

Selene grabbed Xander’s hand and teased him ever so slightly “Let’s get going then, you can ask me some questions but if you stay up too long I’ll just sing you a lullaby then after like 30 minutes of fanboying about it you’ll fall to sleep.”

The girl flashed him a big smile and took him over to one of the Hellfire Sororities patented empty rooms and sat at the end of the bed patting it to demand he lay down.

He complied quickly, taking off his shoes and laying out on the mattress.  It was way softer than his own back in the dorm room.  He laid his head down onto the pillow, and shifted into a comfortable position on his side.  “Thanks for this Selene.  Y’know you’re a really good person, doing all this for someone like m-”  He stopped and corrected himself.  “Someone like... last minute and all.”

He looked up at her, smile warm and wide.  “The campus as a whole is lucky folks like you and Iva are around to keep the rest of us safe…”  With that Selene could see the light rise and fall of his chest begin falling into a pattern, as Xander slowly closed his eyes and his head hit the pillow again.

Selene stayed with him for a minute and tucked in the snake boy. Was it weird to adopt someone who went to the same school as you? Low key the option went to her head.

She left the room and said to a random hellfire that slept in the room next door “If you hear him freak out, let me know if I’m around so I can be sure he is okay.”

The hellfire nodded her head and Selene went up the stairs where Lezly, Pyrrha and Berry were waiting. “We are ending the cult as soon as possible, let’s have our own people taking notes on Quist and her friends. I trust our spy but the more information the faster we can go.”

Selene channeled magic into her hand and smirked at them, the four of them had work to do.