"Shouldn't you be paying attention to the teacher?" Lily asked as I settled onto the big leather sofa next to her.

I smirked, "I am, sort of? It's all in the textbook anyways so I can just review that later."

After a moment I added, "I don't know why I never thought of this before, you know? Why sit in a hard uncomfortable chair when I can come in here and relax with my demon mom on her big cosy sofa? And we can still see and hear the lecture going on outside."

Lily rolled her eyes, "You know I'm not comfortable with you calling me that. And you might be able to see and hear the lecture Mara, but you're obviously not paying attention to it. If anyone tries to speak to you or the teacher calls upon you, everyone's going to notice you're absent."

"That almost never happens," I replied with a shrug. "Not in this class anyways."

She watched me for a few more seconds then asked "What's the real reason you're in here talking to me rather than paying attention in class?"

My expression fell as I frowned. Then I sighed and admitted, "I guess I'm still uptight about those guys we saw on Tuesday. I know nothing's happened since then, and I know they can't really hurt me. But knowing they want to, that they're planning or plotting or whatever, I guess its distracting me. And I'm worried about Amber again. Like what if they go after her when she's alone somewhere?"

Lily gently wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Amber is under my protection, same as Melissa and Susan and yourself. And now that she's part-succubus, she does have access to some magic of her own. There are ways she could protect herself if she had to. Even so, if she were threatened or attacked you and I would be there with her to help."

I glanced up at her and asked, "Last time she was in danger you didn't have enough energy to help her. Are you doing better now?"

"Yes Mara I am," she gave me a reassuring smile. "Now that Amber's transformation is complete I don't have that drain on my power, and as you know I've started feeding more often. That's helped a great deal."

"Good," I told her as I leaned against her side. "Do you know if Amber's enchantment thing is starting to work? I know it's only been a week and a bit but she said she's making sales and stuff, so the enchantment is getting out there."

Lily replied, "I think it's too soon to tell, but if all goes according to plan then in another week or two we should have a good indication."

She seemed to hesitate briefly before she added, "In general terms, after someone signs a contract with me the first time they gather energy that remains with them, to help fuel their succubus magic. Think of it like a battery? They have a very small battery to power their abilities and as soon as that's full the energy they gather is for me. They keep that little battery topped-up as they continue gathering energy, but at the very beginning it starts off empty."

It took me a few seconds to think that through and understand what Lily was trying to say.

"Ok. So in Amber's case, the energy is coming in a little bit at a time and probably kind of randomly, instead of one huge burst. Especially since the whole process is just getting started. So before she has any energy to deliver to you, she has to fill up her own little succubus battery first."

Lily remained quiet, but I knew she wouldn't confirm or deny anything specific about Amber. Or Melissa or Susan. The best I could get from her was the general information, that I could use to figure out the rest of the details. Her saying it might take another week or two before we knew if Amber's thing was working out was probably the most she'd ever say on the subject.

After thinking about it for another minute or two I decided to let that topic go for now, and my thoughts returned to the actual problem that was bothering me.

"So the thing with those guys, Jim and Rahul and their friends?" I asked quietly. "I guess you're saying we just have to wait for them to try something? Or is there anything we can do ahead of time? Like rather than wait for them to attack or something?"

Lily sighed slightly, "As you know Mara, my magic is limited without consent. There's nothing I can do to force them to leave you and your girlfriends alone. And any attempts we make to threaten or scare them off could well have the opposite effect. We might dissuade them in the short-term, but in the long term it would likely only exacerbate the situation."

"So what do we do?" I asked. "Does that mean all we can do is wait for them to attack us? And what do we do then? Like if we just beat them up or something, eventually they'll come back even more angry right? That's what you're saying?"

She sighed again, "The only permanent thing I can do to them is eat them, and that's not a conversation I want to have with you Mara."

After a few seconds I asked, "Are their souls dark enough for you?"

"We're not discussing this," she said firmly. "I think the best thing right now is for you to try and forget about them. If anything happens we'll deal with it then. For now though, worrying and stressing over what-ifs and maybes is not going to help."

I pouted but finally gave in. "Ok Lily. Sorry if I made you upset."

She shook her head, "I'm not upset, but I do think you should focus your energies in positive directions Mara. Like for instance the class you're supposed to be attending right now?"

I grimaced but I wasn't ready to return to the body just yet. Instead I asked, "So totally different topic, but I'm still thinking about what we talked about last weekend? Like how maybe I was Amaritalizoth in a previous life?"

"I've already told you I don't believe that's possible," she replied quietly. "For a number of reasons."

"But what other explanation is there?" I asked. "You said I reminded you of her right from the very beginning. And that my name and body fit me perfectly because they fit her too?"

"Mara..." she looked like she wasn't actually sure what she wanted to say. After a few moments she sighed again, "I've met a lot of people in my time. As you know, I can see and sense people's souls. And in almost eight thousand years, I've never seen the same soul twice."

I pointed out, "Until me. Right? My soul reminded you of hers."

Lily stated "I don't even know if demons have souls. I can see human souls, I've never seen them in my kind. When we had Verothilas trapped in a circle in Susan's basement, whether in human guise or her natural form, I couldn't see any soul in her. If my kind have souls they're different than humans. And as I just said, I've never seen proof that humans reincarnate, let alone that demons do or that a demon could come back as a human."

I sighed and pouted again, "Not seeing them doesn't mean they're not there. And how else can we explain how I'm so much like her?"

She was quiet for a few moments, then finally looked down at the floor. In a soft voice she said "I don't know Mara. I heard what Melissa said at the start of the week, that perhaps I'm influencing you unintentionally. To my knowledge that isn't happening, but what if she's correct?"

"Except I've always been like this," I stated. "Since long before I got your amulet."

Lily finally shrugged, "I don't know Mara. I don't have an answer, I just find it difficult to accept that you and she are one and the same."

She was still looking at the floor and speaking quietly, and I could tell she was upset and trying to hide it.

I leaned against her and gave her another hug, "I'm sorry Lily, I didn't mean to upset you. I'll let that go for now too. I guess I should get back to class."

"Thank you Mara," she replied quietly. She gave me a gentle squeeze then let go and agreed, "And yes you should."

I stood up and moved to the window and a moment later I was back in the body, in our uncomfortable chair sitting beside Melissa. I'd missed about fifteen minutes of the lecture and spent the rest of the class trying to catch up and stealing peeks at Melissa's notes.

When it was finally over the two of us made our way to the cafeteria for lunch, and Melissa asked "What was up with you earlier? You looked like you were half asleep or something for a while."

I shrugged, "I went inside to talk to Lily for a bit."

"In class?" she gave me a look.

I grimaced, "Yeah, Lily already made the point. I won't do it again. Probably. No promises."

Me and Melissa got some food then found Amber. She and Matt were sitting across from each other and as the two of us approached I asked, "Can we join you or do you two want privacy?"

"You can join us," Amber smiled.

Despite what Lily just told me a few minutes ago I couldn't help looking around the cafeteria for those guys before I took my seat next to Amber. Melissa was across from me sitting next to Matt, and the four of us started eating.

Melissa asked the two of them, "So what's up? You two planning another date or something?"

Both Amber and Matt blushed. The cute brunette already had a mouthful of pizza so she couldn't respond but the blond jock sort of stammered, "No? I mean, not a date. Maybe just hanging out or something? Or maybe go see a movie..."

I grinned and teased, "Totally not a date."

He cringed then took a bite of his burger rather than reply.

My intuition thing didn't work on Amber anymore since she became part-succubus but it still worked just fine on Matt. As I had a bite of my own burger I realized that his feelings for Amber were starting to shift. He was becoming attracted to her, but at the same time he had a lot of internal conflict about it. Like he knew she was ace, he wasn't sure if she was even into guys, and of course he had all the history with her from before she came out. But none of that changed how he was starting to feel.

That left me wondering if Amber knew how her friend felt, but I wasn't sure if I should mention anything or not. By the time I was halfway through my burger I decided I should just keep quiet. Maybe if she asked I'd tell her, but otherwise it was probably none of my business.

The conversation at lunch stayed mostly on fun and safe topics, like how boring lectures were and how cold it was outside and stuff like that. By the time we were all finished eating Amber and Matt had plans to get together on Sunday afternoon to see a movie, so me and Melissa probably wouldn't see her till lunch next Tuesday.

And I'd almost forgotten about that other stuff, but it all came right back when we were getting ready to leave. I happened to look around and realized those guys were sitting together just two tables away from us. Jim was looking our way when I spotted him and his buddies, and I got another intuition thing off him.

It was mostly the same as the other day, he still wanted revenge on me for defending myself when he tried to assault me a couple weeks ago. The new thing I got from him was him and the other guys all hated Matt now too, because he was still friends with Amber and with us.

My mood came crashing down after that and I sighed as my attention returned to my friends.

"Matt?" I asked quietly. "Sorry to be a buzzkill but I guess you don't spend much time with Jim and Rahul anymore?"

My question was indeed a mood killer for him, and Amber too. Matt made a face, "Not if I can help it. We're still on the same team I have some classes with them, but I sure don't hang out with them anymore."

He looked at Amber and added, "If I knew how toxic they were from the start I'd never have been friends with them. I'm sorry I made you hang out with them too back then, and I'm sorry for what they tried to do."

Amber said quietly, "Thanks Matt. It wasn't like they were quiet about that sort of thing before, but I guess if you're not sensitive to it or it doesn't affect you, you don't really notice."

He gave her an apologetic look, then asked me "They aren't still hassling you are they?"

"Not yet," I sighed. "But I've noticed them glaring and sending a lot of hate-vibes our way lately. Sorry for bringing the mood down, I guess I just wanted to find out if you knew what they were up to."

Matt shook his head, "We don't talk anymore. But I'll keep my eyes and ears open, I'll let you all know if I hear anything."

"Thanks Matt," I replied.

With that, the four of us had to head back to class. We bid both Matt and Amber a good weekend and wished them well for their totally-not-a-second-date on Sunday, then me and Melissa headed off to drama.

"When you said you got hate-vibes from those guys," Melissa asked softly, "You mean you got something with your demon intuition thing?"

I sighed, "Yeah. They want revenge. They're plotting or whatever. Lily's keeping an eye on them, and she says she'll keep us all safe if anything does happen? I'm just..."

After another sigh I shook my head and said, "It's bugging me knowing something might happen. Like waiting I guess? I want to do something, be proactive or whatever."

Melissa frowned as we reached our next class. She suggested quietly, "We can talk about this later ok? Right now you and I both need to focus on class. No more sneaking inside and hanging out with Lily. That's like cutting class, even if your body's still sitting here."

I blushed at that comparison. And I was still making an extra effort in drama class, so I really did need to focus on that and forget about the other distractions.

"Ok Melissa. Thanks, and I'll try not to 'cut classes' like that again."

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