Allure (Part 3b)
Title: Allure
Fandom: The Gates
Characters & Pairings: Andie Bates/Dylan Radcliff, ensemble cast
Rating: R
Warnings: underaged sex with an adult, initial dub-con due to uncontrollable succubus powers
Summary: A vampire and a succubus meet on an empty street. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but in The Gates community it’s a more than likely occurrence. When Andie refuses to eat life force, her strength wanes and her powers go awry in a desperate attempt to feed and survive. So you can imagine the problems that arise when she bumps into the gorgeous vampire Dylan alone on an empty street in the middle of the night. What’s a succubus to do?
“That’s Simon Ford,” one of the men whispered, recognizing his former alpha.
Zach, the new alpha, had stood up and transformed into his wolf form. He stood protectively over the people at the party as they all congregated together at the back, near the house. Dylan searched for Emily in the middle of the commotion and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her and Dana next to a damp Andie. He realized that Andie must have gotten into the pool to fetch the girls when the chaos started. He smoothly made his way over to them, careful to pat Emily dry before touching her. If his sunscreen came off then he’d be vulnerable to the sun, a weakness he couldn’t afford in the middle of a werewolf fight.
He and the other guests watched as the two wolves fought viciously, bleeding each other and breaking bones only to heal almost immediately after. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Nick Monohan sheltering his family. Sarah looked unsurprised so she must have already known the truth about the Gates community but Dana and Charlie both looked shell shocked at the sight of a werewolf brawl. Nick was talking to the other werewolves, asking them to stop the struggle, but it was against pack rules to interfere with a fight for position, especially if that position was alpha.
Finally, Nick was forced to ask the vampires. “I know what you’re going to ask and the answer is no,” Dylan said before Nick could even open his mouth. “It would be suicide for a vampire to get in between two werewolves and more importantly, it goes against our truce with them.” Before Nick could respond, Dylan was forced to pull Emily and Andie closer into his body as the two werewolves’ fight got closer to the crowd.
“There has to be a way to make them stop,” Nick said, looking around. “Peg?” he asked as a last resort. If werewolves or vampires couldn’t interfere, that really only left the witch.
“Not without my herbs,” Peg replied with a helpless shrug, her arm around her daughter Mia.
Lexi gave a sharp scream as one of the werewolves, Simon, got a little too close to her and nearly knocked her over. Brett lunged forward and wrapped an arm around her waist and then jerked her forcefully out of the way. “They’re out of control,” the teen boy realized looking on. He’d never seen a fight this vicious before. He knew that there was a lot of bad blood between the two wolves, but this was ridiculous. “Why is Simon so pissed? Zach beat him for alpha fair and square.”
Lukas shifted awkwardly in realization. “No, he didn’t,” he finally confessed causing everyone to look at him in surprise. “Zach didn’t beat dad in a fight, I did.”
“What?” Karen asked in surprise, the entire pack shocked.
“He was beating on mom!” Lukas replied. “I had to do something or he would have really hurt her. He was drunk and… and I was angry.”
“It’s okay, son,” Nick said, clapping a comforting hand on the boy. He was one of only a handful of people who knew the truth about what happened that night. “You did what you had to in order to protect your mom. We don’t fault you for that.”
“But this is my fault,” he replied, staring out at the increasingly violent fight. “I couldn’t be alpha so Zach said he beat dad, but now dad found out and it drove him to this!”
“Now, calm down. We don’t know what drove your father to confront Zachary,” Karen soothed the child, her own hand rubbing up and down her son Brett’s back. The tale of Simon hitting his wife and child had upset her more than she realized. She couldn’t imagine anyone harming their child.
“It doesn’t matter what caused it,” Dylan pointed out, knowing he was probably overstepping his bounds with the werewolves, but they needed to re-focus. “What matters is stopping it now. They can fight anywhere else, just not in front of so many witnesses.”
“Technically, they would both be expelled from the Gates for this,” Lexi pointed out, her hand clenched in Brett’s. “For transforming in front of others.”
“Zachary might get leniency since he was only protecting us, but Simon can never come back,” Karen agreed.
“So the winner of this fight doesn’t even matter?” Brett asked. “Then why can’t we interfere?”
“He brings up a good point,” Nick said, pouncing on the opportunity, but Karen was already shaking her head.
“They’re too strong for us,” she replied. “They’re too deep in the primal animal bloodlust. Even if we did try and help, they’d just turn on us. They’re not seeing clearly right now.”
Dylan started at her words before looking down at the girl tucked into his side. “Do you think you could…?” he asked, drawing everyone attention to him and Andie.
Andie looked at him wide-eyed. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly.
“If they’re tapped into their primal nature, it should make your job easier,” he pointed out logically.
Andie nibbled on her lip before nodding in hesitant agreement. “I can try.”
“Try what?” Nick asked. “What’s going on?”
Andie ignored the Chief in order to focus on her powers. She moved away from the crowd, Dylan hovering protectively right behind her. “If they’re too entrenched in their primal instinct, you might have to get them off me before they rape me,” she cautioned.
“What?” Nick asked in disgusted shock, his emotions echoed by everyone else.
Dylan, however, nodded resolutely. “I will.”
Andie let out a deep breath before focusing on her thrall. Her normal amount of power did nothing, the two wolves still fighting. So, she turned it up a notch. Look at me.
For a second, the two wolves turned their heads to look at the girl before quickly returning to the fight.
Notice me.
One of the wolves, Simon, turned to look at her again, but Zach took the opportunity to pounce on his distracted form.
“It’s not working,” she muttered to Dylan. “They’re hearing me, but they’re too angry. They won’t give up the fight in favor of me.”
“What is she talking about?” Karen asked, looking at the girl curiously. She could sense something different about the teen than normal, but she wasn’t sure what it was.
“Have you turned it up?” Dylan asked, continuing to ignore the bystanders.
“All the way up to ‘vampire’,” Andie replied. “I’ve never had to thrall a werewolf before but I’d assume it would be the same amount.”
“Well, these werewolves are in their wolf form, so maybe they need more. Can you turn it up even more?” Dylan asked, worried. He knew that the more power she put behind her thrall, the more energy she used. He wondered if she had enough.
“I can try and Call for them, but I’ve never done that before,” she admitted.
“Call?” he asked. Andie had never mentioned anything about a Call before.
“I’ll explain later,” she mentioned distractedly as she focused on her powers again. She practically glared at the two fighting wolves, as if trying to bend them to her will with her stare alone. “Look at me,” she commanded. Immediately, the two wolves stopped fighting. They turned to look at her, their head cocked as if staring at her in confusion. “Adore me,” she commanded again. The two wolves stared at her; one of them even let their tongue loll out. “Want me.” Almost as one, the two wolves began to make a run for her and suddenly the crowd realized why she had separated from them and what she had meant about her needing protection from the two wolves.
Quickly, Karen and several of the other wolves transformed and pounced on their distracted pack mates. Andie immediately let her thrall go and the two men transformed back into their human selves, completely confused. “What the hell just happened?” Zach asked, looking at Andie in confusion.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Nick spoke up.
“Uh, surprise?” Andie replied sheepishly, her eyes drooping in tiredness. Dylan quickly pulled out a chair and sat her down, gripping her hand to give her some of his life energy. The others crowded around them, Nick taking a seat next to the girl. Charlie looked at her in complete confusion and amazement. “I’m a succubus.”
“A succubus?” Nick asked in surprise.
“I get it from my mom,” Andie explained with a nod.
Nick looked back and forth from her to Dylan and then from her to Zach and Simon. “What… what does that mean?”
“I need life force in order to survive,” she started out simply. “I get it through touch.” She lifted up her hand that was clasped in Dylan’s. “I also have the power to thrall which is what I just did to those two.” She nodded her head to the two wolves. “Normally, I give off a level amount of pheromones but when I thrall, that amount increases in order to ensnare my prey. But I’m young and still new to my powers; they haven’t fully matured yet, so I was forced to Call for them. I’ve never done that before,” she admitted.
“Yes, you mentioned that,” Dylan said. “What is that?”
Andie turned slightly to face him. “Have you ever heard about the legend of the siren?” she asked.
“Yes, a beautiful woman who lured sailors to their death with the sound of her voice,” Dylan recalled the myth.
“The siren legend was based off of succubae,” she explained. “Our powers are amplified when we speak.”
“So, wait,” Charlie butt in. “What about the luring to death part?”
Andie winced before looking at her ex-boyfriend. “That part is true. We feed off life force, as in take too much and you die.”
“All those times I fainted after we kissed…” he realized, eyes wide in shock.
“What?” Sarah cried out, throwing a protective arm around Charlie as she glared at Andie. Charlie had always been sickly as a child and they had been worrying about his fainting spells. To realize that this girl had been hurting him…
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “I tried to stop seeing you when I realized I was hurting you and then I thought I was okay because I was being medicated and it was just a huge mess,” she rushed out.
“And you and Dylan?” Nick asked. “You’re touching him and he seems to be fine.”
Andie and Dylan shared a quick look. “That’s because I’m a vampire,” Dylan admitted. “Andie can get all the energy she needs from me without harming me and in turn, I can get all the energy I need from her as well.”
“What do you mean?” Nick asked suspiciously. “Are you talking about blood?” he asked lowly even though everyone could hear him.
“Yes,” Dylan admitted, ignoring the looks he was getting from the other vampires. “She gets her energy from me and then I, in turn, get fresh blood from her. My energy allows her strength for over a week and her blood is strengthened by that energy which allows me to last a week on her blood as well.”
“It’s like a real life symbiotic relationship,” Andie added in. “Dylan keeps me strong with no risk of me accidentally killing him and I give him fresh blood without the risk of him killing me. It’s a partnership.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Peg realized.
Mia smirked up at her mom. “That’s what I thought, too.”
“You knew about this?” Peg asked her daughter before looking back at the succubus in question. “Andie, you should have been taking your medication.”
“There’s medication?” Nick asked in surprise.
“I couldn’t, Dr. Peg,” Andie said shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t go through that again. I was throwing up, I couldn’t think or focus, I was mixing up my words and I was failing out of all of my classes. Your medication was making me worse, not better.”
Peg sighed but nodded in understanding. “I’m sorry for that, but there really wasn’t anything that can be done. It’s your nature to take other people’s energy. But your father asked me to try and come up with something, so I did. Speaking of which, does he know about your arrangement with Mr. Radcliff?”
Andie nodded immediately. “Totally. He’s grateful that Dylan’s helping me. Without his energy, dad knows I would have died.”
“So that’s why he was so okay with everything at the police station,” Nick finally realized.
“He’s still a little mad that I didn’t take Peg’s medicine and that I kept this from him, but I figure he’ll forgive me in like fifty years,” Andie laughed.
Nick looked at her oddly. “Can other supernatural species be turned into vampires?”
Andie blinked in confusion before turning to look at Dylan who shrugged, looking at the other vampires. “I haven’t the faintest,” he replied.
“Sorry,” Nick apologized. “It just sounded like Andie was planning on living forever.”
“Oh, I am.” Andie nodded seriously ignoring the surprised and outraged looks she was receiving from the vampires. “Succubae are eternal.”
“Really?” Dylan asked, surprised yet again.
Andie nodded. “We are born the same way humans are and start out aging, but once our succubus powers mature at around 25, our aging halts - provided we’re still feeding. My mother was 65 when she met my father and had me. My grandmother was 305.”
“Impressive,” Dylan said, eyebrows raised. It was rare for a vampire to live that long. They tended to die before then; sun, werewolves, hunters and other vampires taking care of them.
“I hope to find her one day,” Andie admitted. “I’ve never met my grandmother.”
“What’s to stop succubae from over populating?” one of the vampires asked, curious to see how another immortal species worked.
Andie and Dylan both looked at him incredulously. “We kill our lovers,” Andie spoke slowly, trying very hard not to insult the man, but at the same time thinking of him as a complete idiot. “Do you have any idea how difficult it would be to have a relationship, let alone get pregnant from a human? It takes decades of hard work and, to be honest, pure luck.”
“I’m sorry that we had to lie to you, Nick,” Dylan quickly apologized, hoping to intervene and change the subject before the vampire could get offended at Andie’s words. “But we could hardly be expected to tell you Andie’s secret without her permission.”
“I understand,” Nick said looking at the two of them. “Although I hope you know now that I can be relied on to keep your secret and help in any way I can,” he said to Andie.
“Dylan said we could trust you,” Andie nodded. “Thank you.”
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