Reborn as a Succubus: Time To Live My Best Life!

Back at the bar, things had escalated from bad to catastrophic.

Koros had finally decided that if his men couldn't take down one nim girl, he'd have to do it himself. He lunged at Melisa with surprising speed, a dagger appearing in his hand seemingly out of nowhere.

Melisa sidestepped, but not quite fast enough. The blade caught her arm, slicing through her sleeve and drawing blood.

[Shit, that stings!]

"First blood to me," Koros snarled, his grin feral as he circled her.

"Congrats," Melisa replied dryly. "Want a medal?"

She traced another spellsign, faster this time.

"Ignis, calore, ardeat!"

A jet of flame erupted from her palm, forcing Koros to dive to the side. The fire caught one of his two remaining goons, who hadn't been quick enough to dodge. The man's screams filled the bar as he rolled on the ground, desperately trying to extinguish the flames.

"Oops," Melisa said, not sounding sorry at all. "Missed."

The last goon looked at his burning comrade, looked at Melisa, and promptly decided that whatever Koros was paying him wasn't nearly enough. He bolted for the door, shoving aside a table in his haste to get away.

"Coward!" Koros shouted after him, but his attention quickly returned to Melisa. "It's just you and me now, Blackflame."

"Seems that way." Melisa's eyes narrowed. "Though I have to wonder... are your people still headed to the Summer residence? Because if they are, they're in for a nasty surprise."

Koros lunged again, this time with a roar that might have been intimidating if Melisa hadn't spent the last year training with Armia and her darian strength. The dagger slashed through the air where Melisa's throat had been a second before.

She ducked under his arm, driving her elbow into his side. He grunted but didn't go down. Instead, he spun, the dagger seeking her flesh again.

[Oh shit.]

Melisa could feel her heartbeat accelerating, adrenaline surging through her veins. This wasn't like fighting his goons. Koros actually had some small idea of what he was doing.

[If I can just get enough distance to cast—]

Her thought was cut short as Koros's boot connected with her stomach, sending her stumbling backward into a table. The wind rushed out of her lungs in a pained gasp.

[That's... gonna leave a mark.]

Koros didn't give her time to recover. He was on her in an instant, dagger raised for what would have been a killing blow if Melisa hadn't stepped to the side at the last second. The blade buried itself in the wooden table where her head had been.

As Koros struggled to free the weapon, Melisa scrambled to her feet. Her fingers moved through the air, tracing the spellsign for one of the nastier combat spells she'd learned.

"Glacies, acus, penetrare!"

Dozens of icy needles materialized in the air in front of her, then shot forward at Koros like miniature arrows. He finally wrenched his dagger free and turned, but too late. The ice needles slammed into him, some embedding in his flesh, others shattering against the wall behind him.

He howled in pain, staggering backward, blood seeping from a dozen small wounds.

"You fucking bitch!" he spat, but there was fear in his eyes now. Real fear.

"I did warn you," Melisa said, advancing on him, already beginning another spellsign. "You should have never attacked the people I care about."

The door to the bar crashed open.

Melisa's concentration broke, the half-formed spell misfiring as her head snapped toward the sound. Her arm was pushed by the magical recoil, but she barely registered it, too shocked by who was standing in the doorway.

Her eyes widened.

"Dad?!"

Melistair stood at the doorframe, heaving. His work clothes were covered in sweat and his face wasn't much drier. He took in the scene. His daughter, bleeding from one arm, surrounded by groaning bodies. And, opposite her, a nim man who he had to have quickly realized was Koros, who happened to look like he'd been through a meat grinder.

[What the actual...?] Melisa thought, momentarily stunned. [Did somebody call him? Is there some kind of "my daughter's kicking ass" psychic nim dad connection I don't know about?]

"Melisa," Melistair's voice was scary-calm. "What's going on here?"

"Just taking out the trash," she replied, turning back to Koros, who was still on the ground, clutching his wounds. "This is the asshole who tried to burn down Javir's manor. With Mom and Hazel inside."

Melistair's face went dark. Not even metaphorically. His purple skin actually darkened a shade, like all the blood in his body suddenly decided to rush to his face at once.

"Is that right?" he asked.

"I've got it under control," Melisa said quickly, refocusing on her spellsign. "I'm going to end this. Right now."

She expected her father to object, to tell her to stop, to be the voice of reason. But nope. Melistair simply nodded.

"Go ahead," he said, his eyes fixed on Koros like he was memorizing every detail of the soon-to-be-corpse. "I would."

Koros dragged himself backward, leaving a smear of blood on the floor, his eyes darting between father and daughter like a cornered rat.

"Wait—" he began, but Melisa was already halfway through her spell.

"Glacies, acus, penetr—"

A purple blur shot between them.

"Stop!" Vira cried, throwing herself in front of her brother, arms spread wide.

Melisa jerked her hand upward at the last second, the spell firing into the ceiling. Shards of ice rained down, harmlessly shattering on the floor around them.

[Are you kidding me right now?]

"What the fuck are you doing?" Melisa demanded, incredulous.

Vira's eyes were wide with fear, but she didn't budge.

"Trying to protect my dumbass brother."

"Your dumbass brother tried to kill my family!" Melisa shot back. "He was planning an attack on my friends!"

Vira swallowed.

"I know," she admitted quietly. "And he's wrong... But he's still my brother."

Behind her, Koros looked shocked, like this was the last thing he expected.

"Vira, get out of the way," he growled.

"Shut the fuck up, Koros," Vira snapped without looking back. "You've done enough." She turned back toward Melisa. "Please, please don't do this."

Melisa stopped.

She felt conflicted. On one hand, she was absolutely ready to end Koros right then and there. On the other hand... Vira. The girl who'd flirted with her, laughed with her, spent multiple nights with her... The girl who was now putting herself between Melisa and her target.

[Damn it. Why couldn't she have been as much of an asshole as her brother?]

She couldn't make her mind up. On one hand, she needed to do this. On the other...

Melistair stepped forward, putting a hand on Melisa's shoulder.

Melisa's eyes widened.

"Forget it," he said. "Let the law handle this," he said, his voice softer now. "He's not going anywhere."

Melisa looked at her father like he'd just grown a second head.

"You can't be serious. After what he did? After what he was planning to do?"

"I'm not saying let him go," Melistair clarified. "I'm saying let him face justice." He whispered: "Aria can handle this guy for you, right?"

[... The queen, right.]

Melisa looked back at Vira, who was still standing there, a human shield for her piece of shit brother. The conflict must have shown on Melisa's face because Vira's expression softened slightly.

"Please," she said quietly. "I know he deserves it. But I'm asking you not to. For me, not for him, let him go."

For a long moment, the only sound was the groaning of Koros's fallen comrades and the distant shouting of people outside.

Then, finally, Melisa lowered her hand.

"Fine," she said, her voice hard as the barstool she'd broken over someone's head earlier. She fixed her gaze on Koros, who was staring at her with a mixture of hatred and fear. "But let me make something crystal clear. I will be telling the queen about the shit you've been getting up to. If, after whatever years you spend in a dungeon, you ever come after my family or friends again, if you ever so much as look at someone I care about the wrong way, my father won't be here to stop me next time."

She took a step closer, ignoring Vira's presence between them, staring directly into Koros's eyes.

"And trust me, what I'll do to you will make today look like a friendly tavern chat. Got it?"

Koros didn't answer, but the fear in his eyes was answer enough.

Melistair squeezed Melisa's shoulder.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go home before your mother decides to come looking for both of us."

Melisa nodded, suddenly feeling the adrenaline crash hitting her.

Her arm stung where Koros had cut her, and various other parts of her body were beginning to register complaints about the fight.

[Great. Tomorrow I'm gonna be one big purple bruise. Sexy.]

As they turned to leave, Vira called after her.

"Mela-... Melisa?"

She paused, looking back over her shoulder.

Vira's expression was conflicted but mostly sad.

"I'm sorry. About all of this. He shouldn't have done any of that stuff."

Melisa nodded once, not trusting herself to say anything that wouldn't come out bitter or angry.

It wasn't Vira's fault, not really. But right now, with the taste of unfinished business sour in her mouth, it was hard to be all "hey, no problem that your brother's a murderous dickhead."

[Shit.] Melisa looked down at herself. [Mom's going to kill me.]

"You know," Melisa mused as they walked, "for a minute there, I thought you were going to let me kill him."

Melistair was quiet for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was heavy.

"I'm not going to pretend I don't understand the impulse. But... It looked to me like it was something you'd regret. If you had been more confident about it, I would have let you shoot. But, the look on your face when you stared back at Vira... It said a lot."

Melisa huffed. Vira's panicked face flashed before her.

It stung, the fact that this relationship was probably dead in the water now. Vira was a great girl, with an awful sibling.

Melanie's time had come to an end, and with it, so too did Melisa's time with that bright, loveable woman.

They walked in silence after that, Melisa turning his words over in her mind.

She'd been so ready to end Koros, to simply remove him from the equation. Would she have regretted it later? Maybe. Maybe not.

For now, though, she was just eager to get her mind off it all.