"This is really cool," Troy commented as he looked around the large open-concept main floor. "I almost never get to see any of my dad's work, you know? Sometimes he takes some pictures but he usually forgets. Or he forgets to get permission from the owners. So normally I just hear him or Pete talking about the stuff they do, but I never actually see it."

Susan smiled, "Well we're all really happy. Your dad did a great job."

Me and Melissa both agreed, and my tall blonde girlfriend added "We'll probably ask him to come back again to turn the carport into a garage in a few months. Before winter anyways."

It was Saturday night and the guys just arrived a few minutes ago. Sam had a case of beer in hand, Troy brought a couple board games, and they both brought overnight bags. The beer went in the fridge, the games were waiting for us on the living-room coffee table, the guys put their bags in the guest room at the far end of the hall, then we gave them the quick tour.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" Sam asked. "I'm guessing it'll involve drinking and playing games, what are we doing for dinner?"

Troy added, "And will we be meeting that giant blue demoness again?"

I couldn't tell if he was serious or not, but Sue spoke up before I could ask.

"We have another girlfriend who'll be joining us in about an hour, as soon as she gets off from work? Once she's here we're going to order in from an Asian Fusion place. We'll get a bunch of sushi, and whatever cooked dishes everyone likes."

Sam smiled, "Sounds good."

Troy suggested, "How about we break out some drinks and dive in with a game, while we're waiting for your girlfriend to arrive?"

We all agreed, and a few minutes later we were sitting around the coffee table in the living-room. Me and my girlfriends were together on the sectional, while Troy and Sam pulled the love-seat closer. The two of them were drinking beer, the three of us were into the vodka coolers, and we got some chips and dip out to snack on while Melissa put on some music in the background.

Susan already had a fire going which was nice too, there was the warmth and the smell, and the occasional crackle and spark from the logs as they burned.

Then before we could get started, we all had a little debate about what to play first. I was hoping we could play that one I liked from new years, but everyone else wanted to try one of the other games first. They settled on one that sounded ok when Troy described it, but over the past half hour I was liking it less and less. It felt like a trivia game, or at least, one of those games where you had to be really smart to have a chance.

After another nearly-impossible round I had a gulp of my cooler then asked, "How exactly is this not a trivia game?"

"It's not trivia," Troy stated. After a sip of his beer he relented, "Ok a couple of the questions are sort of trivia-related, but it's not really about trivia. If anything it's about vocabulary, word knowledge."

I made a face, "That last card asked about chemical elements. Doesn't that make it a science question?"

He shook his head, "All you had to do was name as many as you could think of. You don't have to know anything more about them, it wasn't about their atomic weight or number or anything else. Just the names."

Melissa chimed in with a slight grin, "It's a game about words, Mara. About knowing lots of words."

"And that isn't trivia?" I asked. "Like ok it's mostly word trivia but still..."

Susan suggested, "Look we're already more than halfway through it, let's just keep going till someone wins then we can move on to one of the other games."

I pouted, "You mean let's just keep going till either you or Melissa or Troy wins."

Melissa giggled, "You're not doing that badly Mara. Troy's right, most of these questions have nothing to do with trivia. It's just about knowing words and being able to come up with them in a hurry."

"Fine," I sighed, then had another gulp of my drink and we went on to the next round. They were right, it was technically a word game. But the categories made it feel like trivia, and it was about thinking fast which was another skill I didn't get along with.

Troy drew the next card and it was basically a geography question. He flicked the spinner and the the pointer landed on the letter 'i', so we had to come up with all the place-names we could think of that had an 'i' in them before the timer ran out.

Afterwards we each read out our lists, the idea was if anyone else had the same words then they were crossed out so you only got points for words that were unique.

The others all went first and they had a lot of good names, but there were a lot of duplicates. Nobody had picked any of mine though, and when it was my turn I read them all out.

"Akrotiri, Phaistos, Malia, Nuceria, Pompeii, Stabiae, Oplontis, Neapolis, and Misenum."

By the time I got to the end, everyone was looking at me funny.

"Are those even real places?" Sam asked. "And isn't Pompeii that city that got buried by a volcano?"

I frowned at my list, then my cheeks started to go red as I replied, "Uh, Akrotiri is on Thera, Phaistos and Malia are on Crete. The rest are Roman cities and towns around Mount Vesuvius."

They were all still staring at me so I shrugged, "It's a special interest? Stuff I've been researching?"

Susan asked, "Why didn't you say Santorini? You could have got another point for that one."

"What's that?" I asked.

She frowned at me, "Santorini is the name of the island where Akrotiri is. It hasn't been called Thera since antiquity."

Melissa grinned, "You should have added Vesuvius to the list too. It's a place with an 'i' in the name."

For a moment it looked like Troy was going to challenge me, like maybe he'd disqualify all my answers because they were a few thousand years out of date.

Then Sam decided, "It's a good list. You won that round Mara."

Despite my unexpected success I still wasn't really into the game, and I was back to losing again pretty much immediately.

I did what I could and muddled along, and thankfully it came to an end before too much longer. Susan won, with Troy only one or two turns behind her. Melissa and Sam were both probably a couple more turns back, and as usual for those kind of games I was a long way behind everyone else.

Troy seemed a little grumpy as he and Sam packed up the game and put it away, and my intuition thing told me he was still miffed about that geography question. He'd have won the round if my strange answers were disqualified, and that was probably the difference that let Susan win the game.

I kept quiet about the whole thing and went to get everyone another round of drinks. I already knew Troy was really competitive about his games. When I came back with the drinks he had his phone out and I was positive he was looking up at least some of the place names.

Fortunately before anything could come of that, Amber arrived.

She came straight from work so her hair was done up nicely and she had some pretty make-up on, but she'd put on her hoodie for the bus ride. I knew she'd be wearing something attractive, but for now all we could tell for sure was she was wearing tight jeans and some low-heeled shoes.

"Amber!" I grinned happily as I jumped up and hurried over to her.

I gave her a hug then sort of half-dragged her over to where we were all sitting. As usual she was a little nervous meeting new people, and she kept her big hoodie on for now so she could stay half-hidden. Melissa and Susan greeted her as well, and Melissa took over the rest of the introductions.

"Amber, that's my big brother Sam, and his boyfriend Troy. Sam, Troy, this is Amber. She's my and Sue and Mara's adorable new girlfriend."

Our cute blushy brunette girlfriend blushed at how Melissa described her, but she said a quiet hello to Sam and Troy, then grabbed herself a cooler and sat down next to me on the sectional.

With the arrival of our missing girlfriend we took a little break from the games. Susan took a few minutes to figure out what everyone liked to eat, then she got online and ordered dinner. Then the six of us relaxed and talked some more as we enjoyed our drinks and waited for the food to arrive.

I'd been really good and kept my horns and tail hidden since our guests arrived, but the conversation inevitably drifted towards supernatural stuff and I finally let them appear again. The guys had already seen them anyways so it wasn't that big a deal. Well, mostly. They both stared again for a while, but at least they didn't get too freaked out.

When it came to the supernatural demon stuff Sam was cautious and wary again, like he was at new years. Troy on the other hand was still really interested in the whole supernatural thing.

He asked, "Will we see that blue demoness again? Can we meet her?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Sam said as he shook his head. "And I don't think you want to antagonize her Troy. So maybe just leave her be?"

I could probably guess what the two guys were thinking even without my intuition thing, but I got a pretty clear read off the two of them. Sam was definitely a little scared of Lily. He hadn't forgotten the demonstration he got back in November, and actually seeing her at new years left him even more wary of her. Where I thought she looked cute and cuddly, he saw a nine-foot-tall monster with claws and muscles and stuff.

Meanwhile Troy was mostly just fascinated and almost desperate to see more. Not just see more, he really did want to experience magic himself. Despite all his boyfriend's warnings and reluctance and everything else, Troy really wanted to get a first-hand taste of magic.

Melissa teased her brother a bit more about the whole thing, but fortunately she wasn't as bad as she was at new years.

Amber stayed quiet, she didn't know the story and wasn't as eager to hear it as Susan had been. She did look like she was paying attention though, I figured she was curious.

While Melissa and Sam and Troy were all talking about magic, I slipped inside to join Lily on her sofa.

"It's happening again Lily," I said as I rolled my eyes. "Just like at new years."

She nodded, "Indeed. However I won't be making an appearance this time Mara. Much as you and I enjoyed that experience, it was too draining."

"Are you going to do something else instead?" I asked her. "Or just stay quiet this time? Troy really wants to experience something first-hand, but I don't know if that's a good idea. And I still don't want either him or Sam to get turned into succubusses and join our group."

She smiled, "Don't worry Mara, I'm not going to offer either of them a contract."

I was relieved to hear that, and also a bit surprised too. She said in the past she didn't like to pass up willing volunteers. I figured maybe she already knew neither of the guys would want to join the team.

"So should I just tell Troy to drop the subject? That you're not going to give him a demonstration?"

Lily replied, "If you like Mara. Or I could step out into the body and have some words with him and the others. I could try and 'scare him off' if you wanted?"

That made me hesitate. "I'm not sure about that either? If you scared Troy too much that might upset Sam, and that could upset Melissa?"

"How about I offer him a demonstration then," she asked with a slight smile, "Along with a gentle warning?"

After a few moments to think it over I nodded, "Ok Lily."

I watched as she stood up and stepped to the windows then vanished. A moment later when there was a pause in the conversation between Troy and Sam and Melissa, Lily spoke up.

"Troy," she addressed our guest, "My name is Lily, and as you know I am a demon. If you consent to being the subject of a temporary magic demonstration, I will give you an experience you'll never forget."

She added, "However, before you respond I strongly suggest you consider what your boyfriend has been telling you since new years eve."

Having said that, we glanced around at the others. They'd all gone quiet, but Susan and Melissa both looked curious and perhaps a little excited, and Melissa had a smile on her face. Amber looked curious too, but maybe a bit wary. Sam looked somewhere between worried and scared. And Troy looked eager.

"Troy," Sam addressed his boyfriend in a quiet, urgent tone. "Don't do it. It freaked me out, and I know it'll mess you up too."

Everyone was looking at Troy, while he was looking at Sam.

After what felt like a very long couple seconds, he finally said "Sorry Sam, I can't pass this up. Whatever happens it'll wear off right? You're ok now, whatever she did to you is long gone."

Before Sam or anyone else could respond, Troy turned to look back at us and nodded, "Yes. I consent."

PurpleCatGirl

If you're enjoying our work and you'd like to support us, please consider joining our patreon & get early access to new chapters! Patrons have already read chapter 24 and you could too!
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl