Cauchemar Boyfriend: Qidel (special preview)

The lights in the room flickered for a moment but Roxane seemed to pay no mind. “That my mother would sleep with any monster, good or bad?”

You shake your head. “No, no, what was your father?”

“Oh,” Roxane giggles. “A Cauchemar.”

It was the word from your childhood diary. “What is that?”

“A sort of-” Roxane thought for a moment. “Like an Incubus, only a little bit different. They take energy from emotion rather than desire.” She then smirks. “That’s what I do.”

“You take energy from desire,” you murmur. “Is that how you switch from old to young?”

“Best skincare routine on the planet.” She touched her cheek and winks at you. Yesterday she had looked the same age as your mother, now she looks your age. “Your uncles keep me fed and happy.”

“But do you really need all four of them?” You ask.

“They would all be dead now if I only used one,” Roxane chuckles. “Besides, I love each of them. I could have never chosen back in the day. It was smarter to marry all four.”

You sigh to yourself and look back down at your cookie. “But uhm...about the Cauchemar?”

“Your grandmother used to collect them.” Roxane dusts her hands off after finishing her last snack. “The coven worshipped them, derived power from them, and formed pacts. That’s what my mother did.”

“And what happened to her?” You ask.

Roxane waves her hand around. “Still out there with my father, banging any monster than will allow her to. Keeps Dad fed, keeps Mom young, keeps me out of it.”

“So the pact keeps her young?” You want to know more about this Cauchemar and why you knew it as a child, but not now.

“My Dad wants her around for a long time, so it’s sort of a symbiosis.” Roxane sighs and leans on her elbows. “He feeds off the feelings she produces, most of the time her joy of sex routine,” she rolls her eyes. “Other times he can take what she feels in her dreams, or even how much she truly loves him.” She shrugs and a cute a smile curls her lips. “They say a pact with a Cauchemar is best forged young. They can protect you in youth and love you with age.”

The lights in the kitchen flicker again and Roxane grumbles something under her breath. “This has been going on for weeks now.” She stands up and goes to the back closet where the circuit breaker is.

“What does a Cauchemar look like?” You’re not quite done with your twenty questions.

Roxane cusses loudly as she tries to open the door to the circuit breaker box. “My dad often looks like a great big minotaur, but that’s because my Mom loves minotaur.” She pops her head out of the closet. “Cauchemar can take a shape that pleases in order to feed off the experience you feel looking at them. I’m surprised your grandmother never told you about them.”