By the time I had the dishes all done and put away it sounded like Sam and Melissa had made up and were both getting along ok.

Rather than interrupt them, I sat down at the kitchen table then stepped inside to have a chat with Lily. I asked her to turn Sam back to normal early so he didn't have to wait till evening, and she agreed.

First though she commented, "You know Mara, I didn't pick that form for Sam because I knew he'd love it, or because he'd hate it. I picked it because I knew it would help him experience something he'd never felt before."

I frowned, and asked a little warily "What's that?"

"Vulnerability," Lily replied. "He's always been strong, and around his father he's always had to act tough. Away from home he learned to be tender, but he'd never experienced what it was like to be vulnerable. I didn't give him that temporary form to scare or upset him, but to allow him to connect with that aspect of human nature."

She continued, "And I'm proud of you Mara, for comforting Sam when he finally allowed himself to express those feelings."

I didn't know what to say to that.

Lily just smiled at me, then she took over long enough to restore Sam's body and his outfit to their original shape.

Sam was relieved of course, but by then he was already a lot less freaked-out by the whole experience. I figured between me comforting him and his sister apologizing and everything, he'd already started to feel more comfortable and safe or whatever.

He promised not to say anything about the experiences or anything we told him, then finally he headed out for the hour-long drive back to his and Troy's place.

After Sam left, me and Melissa sat back down on the sofa together. I looked at her and apologized, "Melissa I'm sorry I snapped at you this morning."

She pulled me into a hug, "It's ok Mara. You were right."

We were both quiet for a little while as we sort of cuddled together on the sofa. Eventually Melissa spoke up and broke the silence.

"We haven't really discussed this, and if you don't want to talk about that's fine. But it's been a few days now, maybe it'll help to get it off your chest? Do you want to tell me what happened with Susan on Thursday?"

I let out a deep sigh and responded, "I tried to tell her I needed to slow down. That I couldn't commit to her a hundred percent right now. When she asked why, I tried to explain without going into specifics? And I guess I made a huge mess of it. Like you know me? I'd have trouble convincing people the sky was blue or that water's wet. And like, the whole thing's kind of unbelievable even if you know the truth and all the details? And I was trying to avoid the details, and I guess that just made it sound even more flakey."

"And I wasn't trying to break up with her," I continued with another sigh. "I just wanted to slow things down, so we weren't getting too far into a relationship together because I needed to focus some attention on you. She's the one who kind of freaked out and made it a break-up."

She held me a little closer and sighed as well, "I'm sorry Mara. You're an amazing friend and a wonderful person, you deserve so much better than that. And you didn't have to do that for me."

I slipped an arm around her waist and gave her a gentle squeeze as I replied "Yes, I did. You're my best friend. You're family. You and I are bound together through Lily. I'd do anything for you Melissa. I'll always be there for you, and whether we call ourselves girlfriends or not, you'll always have a special place in my heart. I love you."

Melissa was quiet for a few moments, and she had to wipe some tears from her eyes. She finally shook her head slightly and said "I want to Mara, but I can't. I can't be your girlfriend if I'm constantly cheating on you."

"Don't think of it as cheating," I replied in a quiet but firm voice. I held her a little closer and elaborated, "It's a thing you're doing because you have to. Like paying bills. Or call it a biological thing? Part of your nature. I don't know, call it whatever. But I don't see it as cheating. And it doesn't bother me, ok?"

She was quiet again, and I figured she was still struggling with the whole thing. I didn't want to rush her, and I knew it might take some time for her to come around and understand how I felt about the situation.

So for now I just gave her a kiss then continued cuddling her as we sat together on the sofa.

The two of us stayed like that for another ten or fifteen minutes, before Melissa finally spoke up with an abrupt change of subject.

"So I've been thinking about that Solitare name thing," she announced. "And I did some research, but I really need more information if I'm going to have any chance at figuring it out? Like I'm assuming Lily knows a lot about her, if they're frenemies or something like that? I guess what I'm saying is, I need to know everything Lily knows about this demon, so I'll recognize any kind of clues or whatever that I might find."

After a moment she added, "I was also still sort of bothered by the way she spelled 'solitaire' with just one 'i' but I finally realized it's because of what you and Lily said, re-using letters from their name? Just one 'i' in Verothilas, so they had to go with 'Solitare'."

Lily let me know, "I can talk with her if that's ok Mara? Shall we trade?"

I nodded, "Ok. Melissa? Lily's going to take over and I'll be listening in."

Melissa and I let go of each other, then I pulled back into Lily's apartment while she stepped out into the body. I got settled on the big leather sofa by the window to watch and listen as the two of them discussed our enemy.

Lily went straight into lecture-mode and started talking. "Our nemesis goes by the name Verothilas but that is not her true name. Mara has already explained to you how that works and provided you with Verothilas' glyph. If you can deduce what 'magic square' she uses, that will give us a good chance to guess her true name."

She continued, "Verothilas has been around just over eight thousand years. Somewhere between eight thousand and eighty-five hundred, but I don't know exactly how long. She first turned up in what's now known as the British Isles, and she's made that her home for most of her time on Earth."

"In her true form, she stands about nine feet tall. She's slim and somewhat imposing. Her skin is alabaster-white, she has wings of golden feathers which span about twenty-two feet. She also has a tail some ten feet long, which is also covered in golden feathers. However there is a sting concealed at the tip. Her feet are like those of a giant eagle, including long sharp golden talons. Her hair is usually short, and is golden blonde. Her face is conventionally attractive, but her eyes are pure black, including the sclera and iris. Apart from her eyes and feet and tail, she can look convincingly 'angelic' and tends to play that up to get people to trust her. She tends to clothe herself in long flowing white robes to help sell the deceit."

Lily added, "It's been over a thousand years since I last saw her, but in the past her human guise has been tall, slim, athletic, and attractive. She seemed to favour a look that was about the same height as you, Melissa. She kept her hair blonde and short, her eyes were bright blue. She tended to be friendly and approachable. What one might refer to today as a 'girl next door' type? Oh and she tended to look about twenty-five years old."

Finally she stated, "As you know, Verothilas feeds on emotions, usually 'positive' emotions. That is, she will drain her victims of love, hope, faith, trust, happiness, joy, and so on. She can take not only the emotions, but the capacity for those emotions so her victims are incapable of ever experiencing them again. After she's finished feeding, victims are left hopeless, depressed, angry, distrustful and so on. They remain alive but they don't tend to live very long after she's through with them. They usually die by their own hands, or provoke others into ending them."

Melissa had been listening quietly to the whole lecture, but at the end she shook her head and commented "That's really fucking dark..."

"It is her nature," Lily sighed. "As you and Mara well know, my own nature is just as 'dark'. I simply go about it in a different way."

After a few moments of looking thoughtful, Melissa asked "Can Verothilas have people working for her, like how I work for you?"

Lily nodded, "Yes. She can and does. And her human 'assistants' function slightly differently than she does. Just as you function differently from me, Melissa."

I asked, "So how do her humans work? What do they do?"

"Her humans will tend to focus on one emotion rather than all positive ones. They will slowly drain that from people around them, and feed it back to Verothilas. Be it love, trust, hope, et cetera, they will gradually siphon it off from everyone else around them."

Melissa was looking thoughtful again, and asked "You said she has wings. Does that mean she can fly?"

"Yes," Lily replied. "However, she does not need to fly. She can um, I believe 'teleport' is the correct word?"

"Wow," my best friend looked impressed. "Can you do that too?"

Lily nodded, "Yes, but with certain limitations..."

She sighed and explained, "You both understand that I remain a prisoner, yes? I am trapped within the mortal shell I created for Mara. Presumably Verothilas still walks the Earth freely in her demonic form. I am severely weakened and greatly disadvantaged in my current state. My powers are limited and the more I use them for...other projects, the less I have saved for my primary goal. I can compensate for that by feeding more frequently, but that in turn may draw more attention towards us. I could also compensate by enlisting more humans such as yourself, Melissa. A group of four or five doing the same job would greatly increase the amount of power I had available to me."

Melissa's eyes widened as the implications of that sank in. She gulped, "They'd all have to be uh, sleeping with Mara to transfer the power back to you?"

"Yes Melissa. In the past I've had as many as a half dozen humans working for me at once. At that time they worked as prostitutes, it was the easiest way for them to serve me without drawing attention to themselves. I kept them safe and healthy, and they provided each other with emotional support and love. They were like family to each other, while those they slept with outside their group were merely customers. It was a job, without any guilt or emotional entanglement."

My best friend looked thoughtful but slightly conflicted for a few moments. Finally she just nodded "If that's everything about Verothilas, then I'm going to go and do some more research on the subject. No promises, but I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you Melissa," Lily replied.

We watched my friend get up from the sofa, then she walked around and into her bedroom. Finally Lily settled back on the sofa and closed our eyes. A moment later she was inside with me.

I looked up at her and asked, "You told Melissa that stuff at the end, to try and help her get over her hang-ups?"

My demon friend nodded as she took a seat next to me. "Yes Mara. I don't know if it will help, but maybe. Perhaps realizing what would happen if I had more humans sharing her job will help her understand the separation between the people she 'works with' and the person or people she loves."

I smiled, "Thanks for trying to help her."

Lily smiled back, "I want her to be happy as much as you do, Mara."

That made me feel good. Though I knew in Lily's case there was probably some demonic reason rather than just friendship or whatever. It didn't really matter to me, I was just glad that we both wanted the same thing.

I shifted so I was leaning against Lily as I asked, "Are there many other demons out there? Like I don't know, is there a whole race of your kind?"

She sighed and shook her head, "The most I've been aware of at one time was still fewer than two dozen. By the time of my imprisonment a millennia ago, that number was closer to a half dozen. I don't know how many are left today."

That kind of shocked me and left me with some mixed feelings. Like on the one hand, I knew that the more demons there were, the worse it would be for humans in general. But on the other hand, I was kind of sad for Lily knowing that there weren't many others like her.

I looked up at her and asked softly, "Were you friends with a lot of them?"

"Not really Mara," she replied with a sad smile. "As I've told you in the past, my kind don't really do friendship the way humans do. I knew most of them. Some like Verothilas were amicable relations, others I would come to blows with if we ever met. But even amicable acquaintances can turn deadly in a heartbeat."

I sighed, "That sounds lonely. You've been around for eight thousand years, and you've never had any really close friends?"

She moved one of her large arms around me and gave me a gentle hug, "You are projecting your human emotions onto me, Mara. Nonetheless, I do appreciate your concern and empathy. And for what it's worth, I consider you and Melissa to be my friends. My first friends, in fact."

I remembered what she said about demonic 'friendships' in the past. I looked up at her and asked, "But you'd still stab us both in the back if you had a reason?"

She smiled slightly but nodded "I would. But I might hesitate first, and perhaps even give you a chance to escape. And I would absolutely feel bad for you afterwards."

"Thanks Lily," I grinned up at her. "I love you too."

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