Suddenly A Succubus Ch. 32 - Reflection

I think I've said this before (though, to be honest, it's hard to keep track of what I say in these pieces sometimes), but I'm really excited that I'm getting more time to dig into Nick with this book. He's always been in the background, and while he's still not as present, pairing him with Tessa has been a great way to learn more about the both of them.

I like seeing how antsy Nick gets when he feels he isn't helping, and it's those little touches that I feel resonate back and help add context to his earlier scenes in the first two books.

Plus, it's fun to have Tessa point out that his job, at least a little bit, was "Relax and get a bunch of free awesome sex." I could absolutely picture the version of this book that's told from Nick's POV, and is all about the hapless everyman suddenly falling into a harem of supernatural hotties who are all super into him. I mean, Vee was into him, Amara sleeps with him constantly, and Tessa has been trying to hook up with him for weeks. Thankfully, I'm not super interested in writing those kinds of books, as I think there are already plenty.

That does raise an interesting question, though, and it's one I've been dying to reveal. I've gotten comments before about Nick, about how it's weird to see a guy pass up sex as often as he does. (This mostly happened when he turned down the threesome with Tessa.) Well, we finally get our answer!

Nick being demisexual is something I've always known, but it's a hard thing to show. I already established that he and Amara are best friends, so the only real hint we got was his brief flirtation with Vee. He told Amara before his big date that he wasn't interested in sleeping with Vee, and this is why! It's a huge reason why I wanted to pair him up with Tessa, as they're the perfect foils for each other, and they give me lots of room to have conversations like this one.

Once we wrap up with those two, it's time to return to Purgatory and check in with Vee and Amara. Not only is it their first time in the same room, but we get a pretty important moment from Vee.

"Vee didn’t need any more proof. There would be no more second guessing, no more hesitation. Amara was a demon, yes, but she was so much more than that. She was a friend, and most surprisingly, a kindred spirit."

For me, the main question of the second book was what happened with Vee. Yes, the cult was there, but that's a more mechanical problem. Vee has always been a pretty tough character, especially as we're not in her POV too often, and I even left her completely out of the picture for the first half of the book. After she returned, her entire journey was deciding how to move forward. This is why, in my opinion, the real climax of book two isn't them stopping Mr. Wellington, it's Vee choosing to save Amara from the portal. That was the first real chance she had to commit to the idea that Amara might be different.

But, acknowledging that she might be different is only one step. Is she fundamentally changing her mind about all demons, or about the Church? Is she merely accepting that Amara might be a unique exception? I purposely left some wiggle room, but that's the groundwork we had in place for Book Three.

Vee, having finally accepted that she's willing to slightly coexist with Amara, is finally given the chance to learn more about their shared history. More doubts creep in, and this is the chapter she finally commits to the idea that Amara is both a demon and a friend. She's not befriending Amara in spite of her demonic heritage, either, she's accepting every part of her.

Of course, this also drives her own guilt over her actions deeper. This was something that I felt it was important to show, as it gives more context to her actions on Halloween. I tried my best to show, over the course of Book One, that she was slowly losing touch with her authentic self, but there were still quite a few people that were adamant about her status as a villain.

I won't lie, I teared up a bit when I was writing this chapter, as well as the last. I've been picturing this conversation ever since I started writing Suddenly A Succubus, and it's incredible to finally see it on the page.

It was also very exciting to share more about her history as an angel. This is something I've gotten quite a few comments about. How do angels work? We'll be learning more about this in future chapters, but it's been a breath of fresh air to finally give a voice to some of Vee's upbringing.

I also get to tease more reaper nonsense! Why are they gathering on the Quad? Why is there a weird circular light there? Eh, it's probably nothing. Maybe they're just doing some spring cleaning, I doubt it's relevant to our story.

Anyways, the girls briefly find Tessa's switchblade, and I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have that back.

Returning home, however, we finally get the tropiest trope I've ever troped. Fun fact, when I first realized I wanted to actually write this series, I made a list of some of my favorite tropes and basically said "How can I cram all of these into one series?"

I'm a big fan of tropes, and I've never understand why people dislike them. Tropes are the building blocks of our favorite stories, and sure, if you do them wrong then they don't work well, but that's not the trope's fault. If you want to complain about bad writing, then do that, but don't blame my precious tropes.

So, with Purgatory sapping the heat from everything, Vee finally asks if they should share the bed. Not only is this a completely adorable and hilarious scene, but it reinforces another point that I mentioned earlier. Vee isn't accepting Amara in spite of her demon-ness, she's accepting all of her. This is incredibly obvious by the way she asks to feel Amara's tail, and maybe it's also a cute, tender moment between two reconnecting friends. It can be both!

The last couple paragraphs hit me pretty hard. I've been holding back on sharing Vee's name for so long, and it was nice to finally share it. But, most importantly, Amara and Vee apologize to each other.

You'll notice that no words of forgiveness have been shared yet, this is still a conversation that's ongoing, but damn did writing those lines stir up some feels.

And that's that! I hope you're all enjoying my completely heterosexual, best friends bonding vacation in Purgatory!

Nyx <3