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Chapter 12: Incubus

Tuco found a bit of dry blanket and toweled himself off as much as he could. More dirty bedclothes to be added to the pile outside, he thought. And still, even after all of that, his twin shafts stayed erect, but least they weren't achingly so, at least they were no longer leaking continually. He rubbed his enormous balls dry and wondered with mild worry how long it would take that full-strength libido to return.

Etreon had not bothered to dress yet and still sat cross-legged at Tuco's feet staring up at him with moony eyes. Pike had gone to retrieve his clothes and now reentered with the robes dragging on the ground, the sleeves too long. "Look at this! Look at this!" he kept saying. "I must be around five feet tall now. What happened? It felt like... something came out of me. Part of me feels like I need to stay close to you now." He stared up at Tuco. "Good Lord, you are a giant."

Tuco rubbed at the back of his neck, embarrassed. "So this has to be something related to this incubus thing, right? Maybe the two of you could ask the rituals instructors if they've heard of it? And I'll investigate on my end and see if I can figure out anything." He thought about mentioning Hob, but for some reason, he felt it might be best not to be so open about the fact that he now had an imp who called him master and a lord of the Abyss. Not to mention, he had no idea where Hob was right now. "And I think it's safer if you two don't come near me for a bit. We still don't know what happened. Why the two of you are... smaller than before."

Pike's ears perked toward him. "I can't explain it, but you still sound safe to me," he said. "I know whatever happens, you won't hurt me."

"That's relieving to hear," Tuco admitted. "But we all lost control a little bit there, didn't we?"

Pike folded his arms. "I didn't do anything I didn't want to."

"Me either," Etreon said, getting to his feet and sidling a little closer.

"So which one of you wished for me to have two dicks?"

Pike's ears tilted backward. "I didn't. It was just awkward sharing you with Etreon that way and I wished I didn't have to."

Etreon began pulling on his clothing, seeming not to care that it was soaked in spots and smelled of Tuco. "I wished the same thing," he confessed.

"Then maybe that was it." Tuco reached down and took a member in each hand. Each was too big to wrap his fingers around, jutting out ten inches at least. At his touch, the semi-hard shafts began to stiffen again and he dropped them hastily. "But--nnnf--I already feel I could go again, and I don't want to risk anything else. Not either of you... wishing something that could change me, or shrinking either of you again."

Etreon put a hand on his hip. "I wouldn't mind it."

Tuco shook his head. "You're already not much more than half as tall as me."

The cloud-skinned apprentice gazed up at him and then turned to look at the two fat members that hung nearly at mouth height for him. "I know," he cooed.

"I--I can't risk that." Tuco sighed. "I don't suppose either of you could wish me back to normal" --he waved his hand-- "down here?"

Pike raised his eyebrows. "Do we have to wish it honestly? I mean, I believe I prefer you with only one of those, but then I start thinking of the things we could try with two..."

"Just try? Please?"

Etreon and Pike both took a moment to stare at his loins, and he wondered for an uncomfortable moment whether they might not end up making things worse somehow. After a short time, Pike looked away with a shrug. "It's no good. I genuinely like you more when you're big like this. And the way you leak... it's just convenient. And those balls, the way you came, the way you filled my stomach and just painted Etreon is all just too hot. I can try to tell myself I want all that to go away, but... I don't. That sex was far beyond anything I've ever experienced. And even still, I tried wishing you back to only one magnificent rod, but it was like I couldn't wrap my head around the thought. I can only focus on one at a time. I can't explain it."

Etreon stared at the floor. "I was afraid to wish anything in case I wished you bigger."

Tuco grinned despite himself. "You are obsessed, aren't you?"

The apprentice fidgeted. "You have no idea."

"All right, well, let me clean up. Maybe if I can find a way to hide these I can come to the classes tomorrow."

"You should come," Pike said. "It's been ages, and you'll be so far behind. I'll help you catch up, though."

Tuco said goodbye to both of them and ushered them out of his room, used several of his bedclothes to clean the spilled fluids everywhere as much as he could, and then for the second time that day dragged his pallets and blankets out of the room and heaped them on top of the old pile, retrieving clean ones from the rapidly dwindling stack. The whole time, his erections never quite flagged all the way, and a continual readiness flickered in his loins. Once his room was clean, he settled back down on his pallet and looked around. All was quiet, except for the one candle he'd accidentally put out sputtering as it struggled to relight itself.

"Where is Hob?" he muttered to himself. He lifted his head and called out. "Hob?"

There was no answer for some time, and he called again. After a few minutes, one of the stones on the floor wobbled with a scraping sound, and then slowly it levered itself up and fell to one side with a clok. The muscular little black imp clambered up out of the hole in the floor. "There you are, master! Hob was searching every stone in the Abbey, but you made his job much easier by calling for him. Any imp can hear his master's voice if only he is called." Hob dipped his head way down, shuffling his taloned feet. "Hob is very, very sorry for not finding you much sooner. He would not want you to feel impatient or displeased. Do you wish to punish Hob for his tardiness?"

"What? No!" Tuco said in surprise. "Only, I was hoping you could answer some questions."

"Hob will try. Lord Witchywine thinks of very tricky questions that are challenging for humble imps."

"All right, then. What does 'incubus' mean?"

The imp blinked up at him, and then its red eyes widened. "Master! You have been improved! You are an incubus now! An incubus is a very, very powerful creature, whether demon or devil!"

Tuco twitched his tail uneasily. "And what is... one of those? What am I now?"

"A sex devil, Lord Witchywine! A master of lust! Oh, every mortal will long to be with you. And you will feed on them like a god of the Abyss!"

That sounded bad. "Feed on them? What do you mean?"

"There are many, many types of incubus, master. Some, the vampires, drink blood. Others consume life itself, and their prey dies in their arms. Most devils trade pleasure for souls."

Tuco stopped cold. "Souls?" Any residual arousal fled him for the moment.

Hob looked anxious. "Devils win souls from mortals. Hob is certain he explained this."

"Yes, but I'm not a--" Tuco left off that line of protest and chewed on his lower lip, his fangs leaving the taste of blood behind. "Hob, when I... when I was with my friends and we were, uh..."

"Fucking, master?"

"Yes, all right, fucking--something came out of them and into me. It was like a twisting light, and then both of them... got smaller."

The imp fanned his little wings. "Different incubi affect their prey differently, master. Some cause their partners to fade away. Some leave them the same but with less and less awareness, until their prey are docile and obedient, like sheep. Hob has heard of a rare few that diminish their prey in size. You must be one of those, master. You will have the pleasure of seeing your prey shrink away to nothing!"

Tuco frowned, and felt his forehead bunch around his horn bases. "How do I stop it from happening, though?"

"Stop it, master? Hob does not understand. An incubus must feed. It is in his nature. And why would you not wish for more souls to give you power in the Abyss?"

"Because I don't want to hurt my friends!" Tuco snapped. "Do you understand friends, Hob? Do you know what that means?"

He felt immediately guilty as the imp flung himself to the ground and burst into wailing. "Forgive Hob, master! He is a foolish, ignorant imp who understands so little."

"Look. Uh, I'm sorry, I just... get up, please? I just don't want to hurt people I care about. I can't take my friend's souls."

Hob obediently got to his feet, but hid his face, peering at him between clawed fingers. "But then your friends will be with you in the Abyss, forever! And you can care for them and give them pleasure and build grand worlds for them to explore!"

Tuco doubted he could actually do any of that, but that wasn't the point. "But then they won't be able to go to Paradise! Their souls will be damned!"

Hob peered at him between cracked fingers. "You... want them to go to Paradise, master?"

"It's what every person wants--that's why it's called Paradise!"

The imp got to his shoulders, shaking his head. "Well. Hob would not care to go to there, but what does he understand of the wishes of the wise and powerful? Very little. And besides, it is too late for all of them. No one who comes to Abyssus Abbey goes to Paradise."

Tuco stared at him, the words ringing through his head like a church bell. "What? What do you mean? We're... here doing the work of the Almighty. We're here to stop the Apocalypse."

Hob blinked up at him, his little brow knitting with confusion. "Are you feeling all right, master? Has the lust swept away your thoughts? Only, Hob does not understand what you mean. How can anyone be doing the work of the Almighty if they're trying to stop the Apocalypse?"

"The... the Apocalypse. The end of the world. That comes from the Abyss. The Beast will rise and destroy the world, and the wicked and the just shall be forever sent to their afterlives."

Hob fidgeted. "Of course, master, but it is the One Above who wishes the Apocalypse to happen. He is the All-Powerful Creator. Do you believe the Apocalypse could happen if He did not wish it?"

Tuco stared at him. "So you're saying that all the Brothers here, all their great and difficult work to try to prevent the Apocalypse... is in defiance of the Creator?"

The imp shrugged. "Hob is just a simple imp and does not understand the big secrets of good and evil and life and death. And he does not know the mind of the One Above any more than he knows the mind of his Emperor, the Morning Star. But he does know that every single person who has come to Abyssus Abbey and has ended his life has fallen into the Abyss. Every one, master. Your friends will go there, too. And who do you want to care for them? Some nasty, wretched devil like Belphegor or Belzebub, who will only torment them or destroy their souls for power? Or Lord Witchywine, their wise and powerful friend, who will treat their souls with care?"

It was a question Tuco couldn't answer. It felt like a question he shouldn't have to answer. A strange, heavy weight of responsibility settled over him. "Are those my only choices?"

Hob twitched his wings. "Who can say, master? Hob only knows what he prefers, and that is the honor of serving a great and powerful incubus. No more suffering under the stupid chair of Belphegor." He spat. "He made it out of obsidian because it was heavier! Heavier!"

The little imp stamped back and forth in a huffy fit of indignance for a moment. Then he stopped and stared up at Tuco. "Much better. Any souls in the Abyss would be lucky to have an incubus like you." He then looked down at the two half-hard shafts rising from between Tuco's legs. "You have been changed already? It is a marvelous change." And Hob hopped up into Tuco's lap, embracing one shaft too thick for him to get his arms around and licking at it fondly. Tuco shifted a little uncomfortably, but even this stimulation was working up his arousal again.

"Poor master," Hob crooned. "He has been transformed into an incubus, but a starving one. You will feed soon."

"But I don't wish to!"

"But an incubus must. You cannot stop yourself. Your nature is to feed on souls now. You may resist it, but you will only starve yourself until your need takes over. An incubus who is starving must take a whole soul or a whole life at once. Or his need is only delayed, not satisfied."

Tuco shook his head. "I'm not going to do that."

Hob almost ignored him, stroking down the length of his left shaft, making it rise independent of the right. "If you say so, Lord Witchywine. Perhaps you have a nature that is stronger than all other incubi."

"Perhaps I do," Tuco said, but now he was worried. "So what will happen if I just don't feed?"

"You are powerful and strong, as you said, and nothing will happen," Hob said. He clung to Tuco's shaft as it rose, lifting him off his feet. His little claws pricked into Tuco's flesh, but didn't really hurt, even when he began swinging his feet back and forth. "But other incubi, less strong ones, will eventually feed, whether they wish to or not."

"You mean they ravage people?" Tuco asked. The thought brought a surge of revulsion that, mercifully, quelled his rising arousal for the moment, lowering Hob back to his lap.

The little imp padded a few feet away. "That would not work. A soul must be given, not taken. Through ritual, or pleasure, or temptation, it must be traded for something, always. Incubi trade for ecstasy. But the longer you go without feeding, the less you will be able to stop yourself from offering that ecstasy. And then it will be worse, much worse. You will see. It would be better to select a soul now and take all of it. Surely there is someone in this place whose soul you would not mind sending to your demesnes."

Tuco frowned. "I'm not taking a whole human soul. I'm already worried about the bits I did take."

"Yes, master."

"You believe me, then?"

"Hob will believe whatever his master tells him to believe."

Well, that was all he was going to get, then. But privately, Tuco worried. What if Hob was right? It had been difficult to tear himself away from the act when the souls of Pike and Etreon were flowing into him. What if it became even more difficult? The thought made his stomach clench. He rubbed at his forehead with both hands and his arms bulged almost too thick for him to reach it. His fingers bumped into the horns that grew there now. Everything was changing so fast, and just when he felt he might be able to adapt, the next change was even bigger than before.

"I'm going out to get supper," he told Hob, as he pulled his robes back on. "Will you be all right on your own?"

"Hob requires nothing!" The imp paced in a little circle. "Should he go back to the Abyss and await his Lord's call?"

"If he likes." Tuco grimaced down at the massive members jutting outward, and decided to wrap his robe's sash around his midsection, trapping both rods against his belly, the tips stretching halfway to his chest. With his sleeveless tunic pulled over them, their bulk was largely concealed by the overhang of his chest. It would do well enough to keep him modest, he thought, though he could do little about the bulge of his sac showing through the front of his tunic. When he pulled the robes on, they at least framed it a little, making it stand out less. "Oh, Hob, when you're in the Abyss?"

The imp blinked up at him with eager red eyes.

"Could you try to find out who might have changed me? I suppose it must be another devil, and I'll probably have to defeat that one too."

Hob stood up straight, throwing out his chest with pride. "An important job for Hob! He will find out, master!" And with that he levered up a stone in the floor, dropped into the hole, and pulled the stone in behind him.

Tuco headed out through the dormitory, trying not to look conspicuous. His clothing arrangement hid his semi-hard erections, but the sway of his inhumanly wide shoulders and the slide of his thick abdominals against them quickly teased them into full hardness again, which was a constant distraction. He could feel them creeping up his stomach toward his pectorals as he walked. He was acutely aware of the stares in the dormitory as he passed through it.

Pike was not at his old bunk, and Tuco was astonished to realize just how small it looked now. He could not possibly have fit on it, and it looked so frail that even the weight of one arm would collapse it. The upper mattress was just about even with the bottom of his chest. In fascination, he slid one arm under the top bunk and lifted the whole thing. It came up easily, but with a wrenching and splintering of wood, and only when the beds were lifted up above his head did he realize the wood had been bolted to the floor. Swearing, he set it down and with both hands worked at jamming the torn-out bolts back into the wooden posts. The bed wobbled a bit after, but seemed mostly secure.

"Tuco?" a voice called. "That can't be you, can it?"

He looked around, and then down. "Hhalbor!" he greeted his friend. "I was just thinking about you earlier."

The apprentice tilted his head back to stare up at him, scratching around the base of his antlers with one clawed hand. The spines running down his back and porcupine tail gave a little ripple. "So you're a giant now. And you have a--a tail."

Tuco's tail curled and twined around his right leg, as it tended to do when he was feeling uneasy. "The last fortnight or so has been... eventful."

"I'll say. I was just heading out to the main cloister for a bit of sport. I'd ask you to join me, but I think you'd win."

"That depends. I'm not very good at racing anymore. I'm slower and clumsier than I used to be."

Hhalbor shook his antlered head in an oddly deerlike motion. "Though what you'd have to run from now, I can't imagine." He inhaled and took a step closer, reaching up to put one hand on Tuco's chest. "I do like the new look. Much improved from before, when you looked like a short wardrobe made of muscle. Now you're... more of a tall armoire. You know, still bulky, but with some elegance."

Tuco raised his eyebrows. Hhalbor had been a friend for a while, but had never spoken of him with anything like interest. His tail uncoiled from his leg and brushed against Hhalbor's thigh. He let the muscles in his chest tense under Hhalbor's fingers and watched his friend's eyes dilate. "Are you all right? You seem a little distracted."

The antlered boy frowned. "No, I'm fine, it's just... there's something about you now. It just draws me. Must be a strange mood." He grinned his wide, playful grin, seeming to shake it off. "Pity we could never have enjoyed each other, you know? It'd have been fun to wrestle. But no one seems to want to get behind me." He shrugged his shoulders and made the spines ripple all down his back and flat tail. The spines hissed and rattled like rain as they brushed against each other and the floor.

"It is a shame," Tuco agreed, and tried to ignore the throb of need against his belly. He was sure his tips had begun to leak again; there was a slipperiness against his skin and the smell of maleness in the air. Abruptly, he realized his forked tongue was hanging out again, and pulled it back in. He wished he could take Hhalbor now, give the apprentice the pleasure he'd been missing, but nothing could penetrate that thicket of quills. Tuco had brushed against them accidentally more than once, and each time, their barbed tips had been agonizing to touch. "Do you know what temptation the demons were answering when they did that to you?"

"Safety," Hhalbor admitted with another ripple of his quills. "Walstein and his minions kept beating up on me. And I just wanted it to stop. I guess a demon heard me. It stopped, all right." He grimaced. "But if you're safe, you're also hard to get close to. And I miss being hugged. I miss my mum's hand on my shoulder. I'll never feel that again." He colored across his cheeks. "Dunno why I told you all that."

"It's all right. Talking's another way to get close," Tuco said brightly. "What about those?"

"The antlers? Beauty, I guess. I always thought stags in the forest looked rather magnificent."

"Didn't you think you were fine-looking before? After all, you wrestled and played gameball. You must have received a lot of attention."

Hhalbor gave a rueful laugh. "Oh, I did, from all the ladies, back before I saw Elf. And from a number of the men here, too. But that was before I grew my spines. I thought if no one could touch me anymore, at least I could be alluring. Majestic but untouchable, like that stag in the forest."

"Well. I think you look nice," Tuco said.

Another laugh, more genuine this time. "Can you even see me from all the way up there?" Hhalbor patted Tuco's stomach, hitting one of his erections as he did. A quizzical expression twisted his face for a minute, but he didn't comment on it. "I mean look at you. A swaggering, powerful titan. The demons must really like you to do all of this to you."

They harass me constantly. I'm fighting for survival, for my soul. He wanted to say that, but how could he explain? He hadn't even told Pike what was going on. So instead he just shrugged his heavy shoulders and smiled down at Hhalbor. "It's hard to complain." He was getting better at evading the truth without actually lying, he realized.

Hhalbor nestled a little closer, a hunger kindling in his eyes. "No, but there's something about you now. I can't explain it. I just want to--" He broke off, looking embarrassed. "Probably just been a while is all. There are a few around here I can be with. Kroga and a couple of the others have solid skin and can touch me. Etreon every now and then, depending on how he wakes up that day. Although lately he only talks about you." He snorted and tossed his head, his antlers shaking in an eerily cervine movement. "I mean Alkeides. He's obsessed. Although I'm starting to see why. I just--"

And then Hhalbor stepped up, pressing his body against Tuco, breathing in deeply. He slid his arms around Tuco's waist, his hands up Tuco's wide back, and at the same time, his chest pressed right against the twin spires jutting up under Tuco's tunic. He shuddered in unmistakable lust.

Tuco's arousal was raging again; he wanted nothing more than to push his athletic friend to the floor and rut him right there between the bunks. Two dark wet spots spread into the fabric where his tips met his tunic, and his tail made a predatory lash from side to side.

And brushed against Hhalbor's back. The pain of his spines was like needles of fire lancing into flesh that had never felt pain before. Tuco bellowed in sudden agony and bounded backward, his leap sending him crashing into the bunks behind him with the splintering and cracking of wood.

"Almighty forgive me," Hhalbor cried. "Are you all right?" He stepped toward Tuco, and, an animal panic overtaking him, Tuco roared at Hhalbor and bounded several more steps away. The noise that had come from him was bass and bestial. He hadn't known he could make a sound like that, and it startled Hhalbor even more. His friend's eyes went wide with fear and he scrambled around the other side of his bunk, keeping it between them. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

The pain flowed like fire all the way up Tuco's tail to its base, and his mind had no space in it for pain there; it was as though he were a toddler again, falling and skinning his knee, the freshness of unexperienced agony consuming all his experience. Sitting on the floor and groaning, he curled his tail across his lap. Three wicked spines about six inches long were buried in its pink flesh. Hhalbor's spines were famously painful. It was not merely the penetration of a needle; the ends of his spines were hooked with dozens of tiny, hairlike barbs that embedded themselves in flesh and delivered an excruciating toxin that burned like fire.

"It's all right," Tuco said between clenched fangs. "You didn't mean to." He gripped one of the quills, squeezed his eyes shut, and tore it from his tail. He roared, and then the pain dizzied him. Before trepidation could take him, he tossed the quill aside, gripped the other two in his fist, and wrenched them free. For a moment, his world went white. With what remained of his focus, he pushed the three quills under a bed where they could not be trodden upon, and then rolled onto his knees and elbows, licking at the wounds on his tail with tender brushes of his tongue and trying to deal with the pain.

He looked up once and saw Hhalbor retreating from the room, his antlered head hanging. Tuco thought he had never seen anyone so lonely.

---

At dinner, it seemed that everyone wanted to sit near Tuco. He'd set himself at one of the larger tables and still had had to arrange his aching erections to jut forward under the table so that they wouldn't poke up obviously beneath his tunic. By now the unending arousal was becoming concerning. It wasn't painful, but it seemed to be constantly, steadily increasing, driving him to distraction. The longest erection he'd ever had before had lasted no more than an hour or so, during an extended session of self-pleasure, but he'd been hard now for the better part of a day. Twice he had run off to the washrooms to release and try to relieve the pressure, but though his climaxes had been both forceful and voluminous, they had not in any way diminished his sense of need.

And always in the back of his mind was Hob's warning: he would need to feed. He didn't know how he could tolerate the urges if they continued to ramp up within him. And now he had Braxus, the shaggy-furred man with the head and centaur-like body of a wolf on his left, and Kroga, the gold-skinned giant on his right, and both kept leaning closer, putting hands on his shoulder or arm as they talked. Around the table, a group of other apprentices had gathered.

"So Walstein walks off from group without explanation?" Kroga asked. He spoke in a thick accent Tuco couldn't recognize, and his voice was extremely deep, with a bell-like resonance that matched his shiny golden body. Of all the apprentices at the Abbey, he was the largest, more than twice Tuco's new height, and built like a golem. His warm, smooth hand, resting on Tuco's arm, felt as though he could snap it like a matchstick.

"He didn't say anything then," Tuco answered honestly. "But he'd been complaining the whole trip. I don't think he was very happy here. I don't think he wanted to come back." He sighed and scanned the room for Hhalbor, but didn't see the apprentice anywhere. Pike and Etreon were nowhere to be seen either; they must have eaten earlier.

"Convenient for you," a nasal voice sneered above Tuco. He looked up to see Erlin hovering toward him above the table, his gossamer wings buzzing. He had an unpleasant habit of letting his limbs dangle limply when he flew, like dead things hanging from his body, and Tuco drew back instinctively. "Your worst enemy suddenly gone, and you come back tailed and taller. Some might be sayin' you've made an arrangement with the demons."

Tuco sighed. "I know how it looks. I can't control what people say about me. And I couldn't do anything about what Walssstein did."

Erlin's dome-like eyes flickered, and his bulbous wasp abdomen swung back and forth, the wicked barb at the end of it glistening with venom. "Well, I'll wager you had something to do with it either way."

Tuco sighed. "I just hope he's happier now. I think he must be."

"I think you're a liar. I think you're in league with dark forces and sabotaged him. You're glad he's gone."

"I don't miss his tormenting me," Tuco said.

Erlin turned toward the room, his arms spreading. "He admits it! And look at him. Horns, tail, forked tongue--he's the spitting image of a demon straight from the Abyss. How can we trust him? We're fools to let him stay among us!"

Kroga snorted and slapped one heavy fist down on the table, making all the plates and silverware bounce. "It is not up to us, wasp boy. This is decision for esteemed holy men, not for inexperienced apprentices."

Erlin turned on Kroga, the huge apprentice's golden body reflected in his glittering eyes. "Well, I've tidings for you, then, my metallic mate. I've been here longer than most of you and know several of the brothers personally. Our friend Tuco's new shape has not gone unnoticed among them, I'll warrant you that. Brother Gabriel himself has warned everyone to watch out for Tuco. Mark me, you get too close and comfortable and you'll regret it. Just like Walstein does. If he even lives." And with a humming of his wings, he turned and sped out of the dining hall.

Tuco stared after him unhappily. It seemed every time one problem was solved, two more arose. "Walstein did want to go," he said, half to himself. "He seemed... at peace with it. I'm sure of it. He didn't want to come back."

Braxus smoothed one soft-furred paw down Tuco's arm. "Well, we're most of us glad you came back, Tuco." His touch was soothing, and reminded him that, Walstein and Brother Gabriel aside, not everyone here hated him. Tuco let go of tension that he hadn't realized he was holding, and leaned into Braxus's touch a little. Now that the threat was gone, his ever-present arousal pushed its way back into his mind again. And two more "problems" arose.

"I'm glad I'm back, too. It was miserable out there. Cold and rainy. And the regular folk--they don't trust us Changed at all. They're very suspicious of us. The one I met at the mine, anyway. He stood behind a grate and wouldn't open it."

"Hardly surprising," Kroga said. "You and Walstein each look dangerous."

"Dangerous, maybe, but this one came back pretty," Braxus said. "All that bulk looks so much nicer a little stretched out. And look at this arm. I'm five times your size and you could break me in half." He inhaled deeply and then sighed, his tongue lolling in a wolfish grin. "However did you change when you were away from the Abbey?"

"And is it true you saved Rigby?" someone else asked.

Tuco pressed into Braxus's touch a little more; he knew he shouldn't with his condition, but arousal was sending need into every limb, and the fur of Braxus's paw was soft. The wolftaur smelled woodsy and wild. Tuco thought he must fuck like an animal. "I did lift a tree off of him."

A murmur went around the room at that, and Tuco couldn't help grinning a little. It wasn't until he noticed the surprised reactions of the apprentices around him that he realized his forked tongue had slid down between his fangs again, nearly to his chin. Well, it wasn't a secret now, he supposed. The air was heady with the scent of lust, radiating from every male there, and the taste of it made his twin erections ache harder. With a sudden surge and an agonizing slide of fabric against their sensitive flesh, first the right and then the left pushed free of his tunic, knocking hard against the underside of the table with an audible sound. He leaned forward, dropping his elbows to the table in a feeble attempt to mask it, but that only made them bounce again, digging hard into the wood.

"But uh," he managed, fighting to clear his thoughts through the cloud of arousal, "I have no idea how I changed, or why. It doesn't make sense." That was at least partly true. He knew that Belphegor's curse had added muscle, and Hob had grown his body enough to make it fit, but he had no idea how his tail had grown. Speaking of which, that traitorous appendage kept sliding around to try to stroke at his cocks. He shifted a leg and trapped it against the bench.

"But mostly I'm ah... just looking forward to... getting back to a normal routine again." He was having trouble formulating the words through the rapid rise in lust. "You know... breakfast... classes, mass... ritual..." Looking around the room, though, it seemed few people noticed his distraction, because they were all dealing with similar problems. A number of apprentices were hunched forward, elbows on the table, looking down at their plates, their skin flushed. Those standing kept adjusting their clothes and looking embarrassed. Kroga made a low, uneasy rumble and shifted in his seat, resting one burly forearm across his lap.

Tuco fumbled for his goblet and took a long swig of wine. Was this an aspect of the incubus curse affecting everyone? The wine cleared his tongue of the taste of lust, but then the fog of it cut through again and made his erections strain again, and as they did, he saw every single apprentice in the room react. Jaws clenched, people hunched over or groaned, and many of those standing moved quickly to find seats. Tuco drew in his breath through his teeth as he felt hot liquid running down the undersides of his erections.

"I--I think I have to go," he stammered, but how could he possibly get up now? And from the looks of everyone else there, they were all thinking the same thing. And they were all looking sidelong at each other, some with embarrassment, some with naked hunger.

"A demon!" someone blurted out from the far side of the room. "It must be! The temptation of lust!"

"Impossible, I uncoiled my springs twice today already," another said.

"Could a demon affect all of us like this?"

"Are you sure you have to go?" Braxus's voice growled in his ear, followed by the snuffling of an enormous wolf snout that could have easily snapped off Tuco's head. The wolftaur had had to lean very far down to snuffle there, and fur and whiskers ticked at the side of Tuco's face. The wolf's paw moved across Tuco's chest to slip inside his robes and grip at the thick shelf of meat. "Rrrrrrrrrr. You know, you've been selfish, keeping all of this to yourself and the rabbit." His paw slid lower, feeling down Tuco's stomach. "I can't help wondering if the rest of you grew just as much."

Tuco pushed at the wolf's paw, and, enormous and mighty as Braxus was, Tuco was stronger, and was able to pry it away. "We--we can't just do that. Not in this room, in front of everyone!"

Braxus's tail thumped against the wall behind him. "They don't seem like they mind."

He was right. The sudden wave of arousal was beginning to affect everyone intensely. Apprentices had turned toward each other, hands exploring under clothing, some of them lost in hungry kisses. There were gasps as exploring fingers found needy erections. Some were merely shaking in their seats, trying to get a personal grasp on the problem. Next to him, Kroga had turned away. He was hunched over and covering his lap with both forearms, but all the same his hips kept flexing up toward them with an odd clanking sound.

Tuco clenched his pointed teeth as their arousal fed back on him again and his cocks flexed hard; as they did, the entire room groaned in unison. He felt them all. He felt their need, their hunger. Or perhaps they felt his. You will feed. Hob's prediction tolled in his mind like a call to mass. At any moment, this entire room was going to be doing more than groping and kissing; he had to get away. The pre running down his cocks was soaking into his clothes. His sac was wet with it.

Braxus's paw returned, resting on his thigh and sliding downward. "If you don't want to...if you don't like me..." there was the edge of a canine whine in his voice, a desperate excitement.

"No, no, I do, it's just..." Tuco wanted him more than anything. He wanted to move Braxus's paw down to one cock, let his fingers curl around it, let him discover his new thickness, his size, and then as he began to stroke, surprise him with the second one. He wanted to see Braxus's own erection, which must surely be massive. He wanted to curl both arms around it and hug it to his thick chest, have the wolf fuck between the slabs of muscle and feel the tip slam into his chin several times before he tasted it.

But then he would feed. He would consume part of Braxus's soul, just as he had Pike and Etreon. He couldn't do that to him. "It's just I can't right now."

But he wanted to. He wanted to push Braxus up against a wall, grab that tail, and rail him hard with both cocks at once. He wanted to make that wolf howl. His tongue lolled at the thought and the taste of lust in the room overwhelmed him again. And he tasted Braxus's desire and knew that Braxus wanted it even more badly than he did. He knew that Braxus's constant whines came because the taur was humping at the floor, sliding his pre-slickened dick across the stones in a desperate expression of raw need. He'd never slid out his tongue and tasted pure, unmitigated desire for him before. And Braxus wasn't the only one. Others in the room were openly gazing at him, their desire radiating off of them like flames.

And unbidden, without a touch or a coax from him, he felt climax climbing up his shafts. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to focus his mind on something else, trying to turn his thoughts toward anything that might cut off the climax, but it was too late. Slowly, inexorably, the tense need pushed its way up his shafts. His pre pattered down onto the floor beneath him; his sac felt heavy and overstuffed where it drew up between his spread thighs. He hovered for an instant on the edge of climax and saw everyone else in the refectory hovering there with him, fingers white where they clenched the table, apprentices bent over, eyes closed, brows raised in expressions of near-ecstasy.

Then, unable to stop himself, Tuco came. His cocks surged with pleasure as his seed painted the underside of the table. But he didn't hear the sound because the entire room moaned, growled, chittered, sang, cried out in unison. Robed bodies bucked against the tables or thrust against the air where they stood. There was a series of clanking noises as Kroga fumbled at his midsection, and Braxus let out a high-pitched whine as his lower body thrust against the floor.

Tuco's shafts clenched again and again, and he was sure at least one of his eruptions caught the apprentice on the other side of the table, for even in the throes of his own ecstasy, the mouse-eared boy opened wide brown eyes to stare at him in shock. The room filled with the rich scent of come.

And then from every apprentice in the room something emerged: a thin, thready twisting of light. No one seemed to see it but Tuco, but it spread above the tables in a massive web, a tapestry of starlight, and every thread was headed for him. He opened his fanged jaws and they poured into him. He felt them, everyone there, a part of them. It was not the large river of light that had come from Pike and Etreon--just a little bit, a strand from each, and if every apprentice in the room shrank in that moment, the change was too miniscule to see. He felt the light fill him, bury itself in his chest and flood through his limbs, giving them strength and power, and before he took too much, he tore the connection away.

And then he sat leaning against the table, panting along with the rest of the room, all of them dizzy with wonder and shock and pleasure. His arousal was diminished for the first time since his time with Etreon and Pike. But it was not gone. And he knew that he was not satisfied. Not even close.