“You’re absolutely sure?” Madeline asked. Rama nodded. It had been a few days. Well, it had been over a week. A week of nights spend together, sometimes a tangle of limbs, noise, sweat and sex, sometimes with one or more of us in the guest room as we got to know each other better. Sometimes Madeline did spend a night alone with Rama, and I took Mona’s hand and the two of us fell asleep in the guest room. Sometimes Mona needed to rest and recover for a night (she had neither our stamina nor our physical resilience) and the other two absolutely destroyed me for several hours. And sometimes, Madeline and I wanted to be in each other’s arms, and that was wonderful too. 

Not that this was a nights-only event, but eventually we did have to eat. Well, Mona did. Technically the rest of us didn’t, and we were getting more than our share of emotional energy to feed off of, but, well, food was still a nice thing to have and like stated before, the human had to eat. Madeline and I showed the two newcomers around Alderberg, from the apiaries to petting zoo (mostly pigs, it was Alderberg) to the various little craft shops and bakeries. It was nice. Little four-way dates where we got to know each other in a less carnal way. We had to take a lot of showers to make sure we were presentable though. And I did occasionally slosh while walking, and that was pretty hot, too. 

But eventually Rama, at the breakfast table at two in the afternoon, mentioned having to go. It was something that had come up once in passing, but she seemed to have spent some time thinking about it, and she was resolute in her decision.

“I am, Madeline,” she said, softly. The woman I’d first met, this aloof femme fatale, was nowhere to be found. “This isn’t me leaving again. I promise. I just need to be out there. I can’t… I can’t not travel. The world is too big.” She reached across the table and both Madeline and Mona took a hand. Rama and I hadn’t gotten quite as close as the three of them had. Even though she’d been a little bit more… affectionate towards me in the last few days, the two of them still felt like her girlfriends, and I didn’t want to take away that moment from them. Madeline nodded, although I saw her jaw tighten. 

“When will you be back?” Mona asked. She had a lot less time than any of us. If I understood correctly, Rama had been traveling the world for centuries, but Mona would have a normal human life, and would probably prefer to spend a lot of it with the woman who had given her the body she’d always needed, hoped for and deserved. 

“No later than two weeks,” Rama said. “I… I think I’ll look into buying a bit of property here,” she said, with a little smile, flashing slightly pointy teeth. “I would like to have a home to come back to, even if… well… I mean I would…”

Madeline’s face broke into a grin, reading something in Rama’s words that I wasn’t quite able to figure out just yet. “Out with it, Rama,” she said. “Say the sappy thing your mind is trying to avoid saying and wallow in the corny with the rest of us.” Rama shot her a pleading look, and then sighed in resignation. 

“I would… personally… like it a lot if you were there too. Here. To come home to.” Madeline stood up and kissed her on the cheek. 

“Well, I can safely say I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “I love this town.”

“I don’t want to leave either,” Mona said, “although I do have to talk to my parents. I don’t think another email is going to placate them much more, and I’m going to have to explain to them why I look like this now.” It was something she’d been thinking about and struggling with, and we hadn’t really found a definitive answer. It was, however, nice to know she wanted to stay here, and in her emails she’d already dropped some small hints about her recently-discovered gender identity, even if she hadn’t said anything explicit. She wasn’t ready for a phone call like that yet. 

“Well,” Rama said, “I have an idea, in that case.” Mona raised her eyebrows, an unspoken question plastered on her face. She looked a little bit like a cat, trying to understand, when she looked like that. “In two weeks,” Rama continued, “when I come back, I can pick you up and drive you home. I help explain things to your parents, maybe show off a bit of magic -- we leave out the demon parts -- and you explain that you’ve got a place to stay over here.”

“I don’t, though,” Mona said, and now it was my turn. Madeline and I had talked about the girl a bit, and what was going to become of her. We’d considered the different possibilities, and both of us felt only a great deal of fondness for her. I reached over and kissed her on the cheek. 

“Yes,” I said, “you do. You’re free to stay in the guest room for as long as you like.” Mona looked at the two of us and I could see the tears in her eyes already. This girl was much too precious for words, even if she had to angle her head down a little bit to look at me sometimes. “Our house is your house for as long as you want it to be.” Madeline squeezed my hand and nodded in agreement. Mona’s weapon’s grade expression of touched gratitude was almost too much to bear, and if I hadn’t been still sort of sore -- in the best way -- from the night before, I would’ve been crying too. 

“Thank you,” she said quietly and wrapped her arms around my neck, and for a moment I was absolutely lost in the sauce, her soft lips on mine, before she pulled away, a smile and some tears on her face. “You’re… both of you, are too nice,” she said. “Thank you.” Then back to her other girlfriend. “I would love that, Rama. Thank you.” The two of them shared a little kiss and, because I didn’t want her to be left out (and I had nothing to do with my face in that moment), I reached over and kissed Madeline too. Kisses all around. 

Rama leaned forward, crossing her arms on the table. “But yes, I would like to travel again. Alone, sometimes. As much as… being alone has been draining, I do need that space.” We all nodded. Different needs, all that. “But if you’ll have me, I would like for Alderberg to be my home. I’d be coming back after… a few weeks, maybe a month at most, each time. Would that be okay?”

“Of course it would be okay,” Madeline said. “Just… try to stay in touch if you can? I don’t want to get…” her jaw clenched and unclenched again. “I don’t want to…”

“Get invested only for me to disappear again,” Rama said ruefully. Madeline nodded. This was their history, after all. Rama got out her phone. “I understand. Well, first off, I’m going to be giving you my phone number and email address. Now, I tend not to pick up the phone easily--” she went on for a bit on how to contact her most easily, and there was that delightful moment where everyone around the table added each other’s numbers, then email addresses, and finally compared social media accounts. It took a solid minute, but finally Rama was satisfied that she wasn’t going to let Madeline down by being impossible to reach. While they went way back, this relationship was young and incredibly fragile, and it was nice to see Rama put in the effort.

“I think that’s… everything,” Madeline said, “although you’re going to have to explain this whole ‘snapping’ thing to me, Eve.” She shot me a helpless little look. She’d only really moved on from the kind of phone with an entire keyboard two years ago. It was easy to forget she was several hundred years old sometimes. 

“Will do, love,” I grinned. That was going to be fun. 

“How long until you leave?” Mona asked. 

“Not for a few days,” Rama said, “I need to talk things over with my publisher, see where I go next. I can’t keep sending in human interest stories, no matter how many I’ve got saved up.” I’d almost forgotten she was a journalist. 

“Isn’t that going to be difficult?” I asked. “Getting good stories out there in just a few weeks?” Not that I knew a lot about journalism, but I sort of assumed it took a while to do the research and the writing. 

“What?” Rama scoffed. “Pfff, no. What, like, writing is hard? Pfah!” She giggled to herself. “It’s always the same thing anyway. Someone in government messed up, they apologize and nothing comes of it while the other side shakes their fist. It’s always the same thing. As for writing about it, you just have to make things up as you go along.” 

“You say it like it’s something anyone could do,” Mona said. “I’ve always wanted to get into writing for things like, video games, but I don’t think I could just… do it. I’m not sure what  I’d do.” She blinked for a few seconds. I got the feeling that, in the past few days of pure new-relationship bliss she’d sort of forgotten about the real world. All of us had. The library had been ‘closed for repairs’ all week. 

“Well, first off, I know someone in the industry who can get you started. Not a demon -- not anymore,” Rama said, “who would love to talk you through it. She’s a little bit of a hard-ass but I’m sure it’ll get you started. And in the meantime… uh…”

“We can always use more help in the library,” Madeline said. “The city council will probably chuck another grant our way, because the building is ‘historic’ and we are providing a ‘valuable service’.” 

“You are providing a valuable service,” I said deadpan. “Libraries are important.”

“I know,” Madeline said and stuck out her tongue. “I’m just sour we’d need the grants if I didn’t have that nest-egg.”

“Are things that bad?” Mona asked, and Madeline started explaining the financials of the library. Rama caught my eye and nodded toward the kitchen. I nodded and got up. Madeline looked up at us. 

“Everything okay?” she asked. Rama nodded. 

“I just need a moment with Evelyne,” Rama said. “Nothing major. You two talk shop for a bit, okay?” She kissed Mona and then Madeline on the cheek. I was curious what she wanted, and led the way to the kitchen, before leaning against the table.

“What’s up?” I asked. She seemed to have switched back into that more demure stance I’d seen her in before, whenever allowed herself to be more vulnerable. I liked seeing her that way. It was a far cry from our first interaction, and it made me want to get to know her, how she got to be the person she was. 

“I haven’t properly… thanked you yet,” Rama said, stuffing her hands in her back pockets and standing next to me. I cocked my head, curious to see where this was going, and I wanted her to know I was listening. “I know you and Madeline are… open about things, and that you respect each other’s space and all that but… I understand I still have you to thank for the chance to get to know her again.” She took a little step closer. 

“Hey, no need to thank me,” I said putting a hand on her arm, and she blushed. “You’re important to her, and I’d rather find a way for all of us to be happy than to hang on to feelings of envy and jealousy.”

“Yeah, but, you know, it’s still a big step. I’m grateful you’ve been so… forthcoming in letting us take it.” She shrugged. 

“I like to think I’ve taken it with you,” I said with a smirk. “Besides, you’ve made it quite easy. I haven’t exactly been lacking in… attention these past free days.” My jaw still clicked when I opened it too far, a little present from the night before. 

“Well,” Rama said and stepped a little closer still, “I’m grateful. Thank you. And.. for what it’s worth… if you’re interested…” she paused. Gosh, she was kind of close, wasn’t she? “I wouldn’t mind getting to know you more too.” 

“I only have two hands,” I joked, shooting a look at Mona and Madeline. 

“Is that your strongest argument against?” Rama said with a little grin, flashing her pointy-toothed smile at me. I returned the look with a cocky flourish. 

“What if it was?” I said, leaning forward, our faces just inches from each other. Rama took a step forward, her leg suddenly between mine. 

“Then I think we might have things to talk about when I’m out on the road,” she said with a smirk and then, without warning, grabbed my face and kissed me so hard I almost melted then and there. Everything else -- personality, history and bomb-ass dick -- aside, she was an amazing kisser. It would have been worth it just for that. When she pulled away, there was a small and cliché strand of saliva between our mouths. 

“Fuck you,” I whispered. 

“Well, I do have a few more days,” she grinned, and stepped away. 

“You’re serious, right?“ I asked. “I mean, I can take it, but if you hurt me Madeline will tear you in half.” Rama’s face went white for a moment. 

“Fuck.”

Now it was my turn to grin and, seeing an opening, I launched myself at her, kissing her with enough force and passion to slam us both into the wall, grinding into her. I could feel her squirm against me, a moan escaping into my mouth. I bit her lip, maybe just a little harder than usual, before quickly taking a step back. “Now we’re even,” I said, leaving her a panting mess and practically skipping back to Mona and Madeline, who had both been watching the show. 

“Everything’s okay then,” Madeline said with a little chuckle. 

“Yeah!” I said. “Everything’s great. How are things here?”

“Distracted,” Mona mumbled, biting her lip. Rama joined us, still flustered and trying to straighten her clothes. She was… visibly excited. 

“I was about to take her to see the library if you two were going to be talking much longer. Care to join me?” She offered an arm, and I hooked mine through it. Rama took her other one, and Mona took mine. 

Alderberg was a beautiful, remote little town, way up in the American Northeast, just down from the uplands and down from upriver. It was at the foot of something that existed somewhere between ‘unpretentious mountain’ and ‘overambitious hill’, as if it had slid down the ski trail one frosty winter morning and nestled itself between the pine trees.

It was not ready for the four of us, I thought as we stepped out the front door to open the library. It was no match for three succubi and one very curious, excitable human girl. We were going to make this town a whole lot more interesting, whether it wanted to or not.

Elamimax

And that's it for this story! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did :D These two (now four!) were a lot of fun to write, and I don't think we've seen the last of them yet. 

I just want to give a shout-out to the patrons and donors that requested this story. Though anonymous, know that you're in my heart <3 

ALSO I'm working on some other projects right now (like Demon Queen and Among Brighter Stars, both of which will have more chapters uploaded soon), but if you want to see more of Evelyn and Madeline, my commissions are open! 

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