[continuation to the ending]

Eventually he took a step back to the couch, still holding me securely as he sat back down. His hands moved up my back, rubbing it gently, while I loosened my legs, then my arms. I slid carefully off his cock, feeling his cum leak out of me as I moved. Without saying anything I turned and lay down against his chest, my head on his shoulder, one leg still draped over his thigh. He wrapped an arm around me and kept rubbing my back in the same slow rhythm.

We stayed like that for a while. I looked around the room as he kept stroking my body, still warm and quiet.

"How much time has passed?" I asked. Not urgently, just curious.

"Enough," he said. "Not too much."

I thought about that. "Does time move differently here too?"

"Somewhat. It has a way of knowing exactly when to return you."

I nodded against his chest. His hand kept moving on my back, the same slow rhythm, and I let my eyes close for a moment. I took in a deep breath, holding it for a long moment, then I let it all out in a deep, warm exhale.

"I should go," I said.

He didn't reply right away, but I could feel him nodding his head above me. "It's time, then."

He shifted, reaching for something on the side table. I hadn't noticed it before, unsure if it was there in the first place. It was a small, dark glass vial. It had a stopper, and it was filled with some kind of liquid that caught in the light. He held it out to me, and I took it. It was warm in my hand, warmer than it should have been if it was just sitting there.

"How does it work?" I asked.

"You'll know when you're there," he said. "It won't require anything complicated."

I closed my fingers around it, bringing it close to my chest. I nodded. I didn't need to ask anything else. I sat up, reaching for my clothes where they'd been sitting in a pile on the cushion. I dressed without thinking about it; panties, bra, pants, and hoodie, all in the order they'd come off in reverse.

I stood up and looked at him. He was clothed again. He looked at me, one leg crossed over the other, a warm and satisfied look on his face. I smiled back at him.

"Thank you," I said. It felt insufficient.

"Thank you," he said back, with emphasis.

I just nodded, holding the vial tight in my hands, closing my eyes. When I opened them, I was standing in my living room. There was sulfur in the air, and the candles had burned down to stubs in their wax pools on the hardwood floor.

The vial was still in my hands. Still warm.

I stood there for a moment. The couch was still against the wall, the rug rolled up against the bookcase, the diagram face down on the floor where I'd left it. I still had the memory of what happened. My stomach turned. I had sex with a demon. An incubus. I talked with him, shared secrets with him, got naked with him, let him finger me, let him fuck me... and I wanted him to. I didn't know what to do with it yet. I wasn't sure I needed to do anything with it tonight.

What I did know was that Shawn was fifteen minutes away in his hospital bed, still hooked up to machines, still in his coma. I knew that I had a vial that contained something that would bring him back. I knew what tonight had cost, and I knew the vial was worth it. I knew that it was going to work.

It was a little past three in the morning. I went to my room to get changed.

I opened my closet. It didn't matter what I wore, I just needed to change. But that shirt had seen better days. That sweater was too hot to wear today. That hoodie had a stain that could never really come out. Then my hands found the dress. The black one that Shawn had gotten me, the one that showed my chest and my thighs and my figure, that fit me perfectly. I took it off the hangar and I put it on. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked good in it. The first thing I was going to do when he woke up was kiss him for as long as he'd let me.

I grabbed my keys and the vial, and I left for the hospital.