a woke to the taste of copper in her mouth and the hum of neon lights buzzing outside.
Her head throbbed, a dull ache that pulsed in time with the flickering glow of a holographic billboard outside the window. She blinked, her vision swimming as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.
This wasn't her world.
The room was small, cramped, and cluttered with unfamiliar objects. A desk piled high with datapads and empty energy drink cans. A closet spilling over with clothes that smelled of sweat and cheap perfume. A cracked mirage like light on the wall which sometimes reflected back a face that wasn't hers.
Kia sat up, her movements sluggish, and stared at the reflection.
The girl in the mirror was young, maybe early twenties, with dark circles under her eyes and a mop of tangled black hair. Her skin was pale, almost sickly, and her lips were chapped. She looked… human.
Kia frowned as she forcefully swallowed the blood pooled in her mouth.
"What the hell?" she muttered, even her voice sounding unfamiliar in her ears.
Soon memories flooded her mind, sharp and disjointed. A name—*Lena*. A life—lonely, mundane, and suffocating. A world—vast, cold, and ruled by the iron fist of the Intergalactic Empire.
Kia clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. This wasn't her body. This wasn't her world. But her soul… her soul was still hers.
She could feel it, coiled deep within her, a dark, hungry thing that thrived on desire. The hunger was there, gnawing at her insides, demanding to be fed.
Kia smiled self-mockingly. At least some things never changed.
*******************
The apartment was a dump.
Kia wandered through the cramped space, her fingers brushing against the walls as she absorbed Lena's memories. The girl had been a nobody—a low-level data analyst for some corporate drone factory, barely scraping by in a city that devoured the weak.
But Kia wasn't weak.
She paused in front of a datapad on the desk, its screen flickering with a news feed. The headlines scrolled by in a blur of words and images:
'Archmage Valen Announces New Military Initiative.'
'Cyberskeleton Fleet Deployed to Quell Rebellion on Kepler-7.'
'Royal Family 'Unveils New Mecha Prototype.'
Kia's eyes narrowed as she thought. This world was a mess. A sprawling, glittering mess of magic and iron hummed machines, where the powerful ruled and the powerless were ground into dust. Magic she was familiar with, but the cold iron could be molded into these almost life-like machines which could spew both strength and power intrigued her more.
It was…. Perfect.
She leaned closer to the datapad, her fingers tapping the screen as she navigated through Lena's files, muscle memory of using tech helping her bridge unfamiliarity with ease. The girl had been obsessed with the Empire, her browser history filled with articles about the Royal Family, the military, and the latest advancements in mecha technology.
"Guess I'll have to thank you, Lena," she murmured. "You've made this so much easier."
---
The hunger was growing.
Kia could feel it, a low, insistent ache that spread through her veins like poison. She needed to feed. Her soul convulsed inside her new body, aching with need to eat, to consume… And it was becoming unbearable with each passing second.
Kia was not unfamiliar with this unnatural hunger, it was with her since her birth in her home world. A hunger unique to the Demon species like her. People call their species Succubus, a demon being who fed on human desires both rich and dark. Therefore her species can't live without humans as they were their primary crops to harvest.
But fortunately or rather unfortunately, Succubus were long termed as one of the evil species on her homeland that verges on extinction as the church of the human world soon categorized them as prime targets to exterminate by human warriors and mages. Normally she could live upto a month or two without feeding, but maybe because of her transmigration….right now she was feeling like her soul was twisting and writhing in pain due to intense hunger.
'That's it she can't wait any longer.'
Kia stepped out of the apartment, the neon lights of the city casting a sickly glow on her skin. The streets were alive with people—humans, their emotions swirling around them like a fog. Fear. Anger. Lust. Despair.
Kia inhaled deeply, savoring the scent.
It was intoxicating but….
Soon Kia retched at the side of the dirty street, her stomach emptying itself with all the human food Lena had eaten before she gifted her human body to her soul to transmigrate in.
"What the hell! It is… So.. So..tasteless. "
Emotions which satiate her soul, increase her power…are more than enough in this shabby corner of the city but despite such overwhelming quantity they…were beyond cheap and lacking in flavor and taste. Clearly, this repressed world has its own shortcomings. Initially she seemed to be beyond elated after learning there is no thing like church in this world from Lena's memories.
Kia tolerated her aching soul as she wandered through the crowd, her steps both hesitant and giddy at sight of this new rich world where demons like her were just rumors in the fiction. Her eyes scanned the faces around her, searching for the perfect target, someone that could give her something…at least better than pervading the negative miasma of this city.
And then she saw him.
A serious looking man in a tailored suit, his aura pulsing with ambition and greed. He was talking on a comm device, his voice sharp and commanding.
Kia smiled.
This one would do.
She approached him, her movements smooth and predatory. When she was close enough... she reached out, her fingers brushing against his arm.
The man froze, his eyes widening as he turned to look at her.
"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice tinged with irritation.
Kia tilted her head, her smile widening. "Oh, dear I promise I don't like to force but today is an exception. I just arrived here and I am in desperate need of….mana in your words.
She leaned in, her lips brushing against his ear. "Tell me, do you ever feel like this city is eating you alive?"
The man blinked, his confusion giving way to something else—something darker. His brain was forcefully shut down by Kia's magic as she made his restrained animal self come out.
Kia felt it, the first flicker of desire, and…. she pounced upon it immediately. Her hand grabbed his prim and proper collar and pulled him into a shadowy alleyway, her mind just clear enough to keep her figure away from the public cameras mounted on the street pillars. As soon as they were in the shadows, she was upon him, pushing him to the wall.
Her power surged, a dark, primal thing that latched onto his emotions and drained them dry. But the passive absorption was too slow and not enough to satiate her hunger. She had no other way - the sexual act, the preferred method of succubi eating, was too windy for her immediate needs right now.
Thus she chose the crudest but fastest method and bit the neck of the man and drew his blood by her teeth. Along with his blood, her soul feeded on his emotions, especially the rich negative desires he had been repressing all this time working without rest for his ambition to climb the corporate ladder.
The man gasped, his body stiffening as his aura dimmed considerably in a few minutes. Kia stepped back releasing him from her clutches, her hunger sated—for now. At Least enough for her to think about the future quietly.
The man stared at her blankly, his face pale and drawn. "What… What did you do to me?"
Kia shrugged. "Just a taste, dear. Don't worry I will wipe your mind and give you pleasant sleep right here. Now sleep, you poor thing. I know you haven't been able to sleep properly for a long long time. "
She turned and walked away, her body gradually filling out, molding the frail and thin body of Lena into her liking using the energy she had just acquired. The man's confusion and fear trailing behind her like a Shadow which soon morphed into confusion as his eyes turned heavy and his body slumped down on the floor. Comm in his ear kept on ringing but the man was completely unaware, asleep diving deep in his dreams.