"So what's wrong?" I asked as soon as Lily was back in her apartment with me. "Am I dying? Is the energy going to make me sick or something?"
Lily shook her head, "No Mara, nothing of the sort. You're not dying, you're not sick. You're perfectly healthy."
I frowned, "What is it then? What don't you want the others to know?"
"It's not that I don't want them to know," she replied as she sat down with me on the sofa. "But I wanted to discuss it with you first. You can share it with them afterwards if you wish."
Once she was seated I cuddled up against her side and asked, "So what is it, what's going on?"
Her large arm gently wrapped around me and she replied, "Like your girlfriends, you are now more demon than human. The larger horns and tail are a manifestation of that demonic nature."
"Ok?" I asked. "But why no wings?"
Lily suppressed a laugh before her expression became serious.
She sighed, "Mara, you know I've done my best to shelter you from the darker aspects of my nature. You've proven yourself to be remarkably adaptable and resilient to situations and circumstances that many people would find traumatic, but there remain things I do not want you exposed to."
After a pause she stated "Simply put, I do not want you to become a demon. I don't want you to have to feed on humans. I don't want you to lose your innocence."
I could tell she was serious, that this stuff was no joke to her, but I couldn't help myself. I pouted, "I get it Lily, and I appreciate you looking out for me? But I really want wings. I want to fly again, like we did at new years. And like I did when I dreamed I was your demon daughter."
Even my best pout didn't move her. She just shook her head slowly, "I'm sorry Mara. You're already more than half demon, and that is as far as I will allow you to go. If you change any more, chicken nuggets, pizza, and Chinese food will not be enough to sustain you. You would need to start feeding on humans. And that's a line I will not let you cross."
I realized she'd never looked or sounded so serious as she did right then, and that convinced me to stop taking the conversation lightly.
She continued, "No matter how much you change Mara, and no matter how much you remind me of my progeny, you are at heart still a human. And I will not permit you to prey on other humans. Because if you did, you would no longer be the person your girlfriends and I know and love."
"How do you know I'd feed on humans like you do?" I asked. "Maybe I'd be like her, helping people to feel better the way she did?"
Lily shook her head slowly, "I still don't know whether or not you really were her in the past Mara, but you aren't her now. And we already know what kind of energy will sustain you. Since the solstice your body has been absorbing a portion of the energy I take when I feed. That means you're taking after me, when it comes to what you would need to feed on."
It only took a few seconds for all that to sink in. I knew she fed on souls, and I knew she got them through sex with her prey. And I really didn't want to do that.
"Ok Lily," I replied softly. "I understand. Melissa said something similar a while back. I'm glad you're looking out for me. This is stuff I don't think about. I know what you eat, and I know you use our body to get it, but I guess since I'm always asleep and stuff I don't really have to think about it? And yeah, I've been fixated on wings since new years. I still want that, but when you put the hard serious stuff down in front of me..."
My tall blue demon mom pulled me closer as she wrapped me in a bigger hug, "I'm glad you understand Mara. And there are other ways we could let you experience flying again, without you needing to become more demonic than you already are. As you are wont to say, 'no promises', but I'll see what I can do for you."
That brought my smile back and I beamed, "Thanks Lily! You're awesome!"
"Mhmm," she responded as we hugged.
After another minute or so my smile shifted to a smirk. I looked up at my demon mom and asked, "Oh my gosh did we just have The Talk? Was that the mother-daughter demoness talk? Only instead of telling me my body was changing and it was a beautiful natural thing, you told me why my body wasn't going to change, and that was the beautiful natural thing?"
The look on her face was priceless and perfect. She probably would have facepalmed if she wasn't already using both arms to hug me.
"..." she opened her mouth but didn't know what to say.
"It's ok Lily," I told her in my own serious solemn voice. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about. I'm sure it's a conversation every young demoness has with her mom at some point."
Her cheeks went darker but she finally smiled and rolled her eyes as she relaxed slightly.
"Yes my unpredictable little half-demon pest," she replied through a grin. "That was The Talk. And I'm glad we've got it out of the way."
She let go of me and continued, "Now onto more immediate concerns. You will need to get used to your larger horns and tail. They'll still become invisible when you hide them, but you'll have to be more aware of where they are so you can avoid banging your horns on things or getting your tail stepped on or caught in doors."
I grimaced and coiled my tail up tight on my lap, "None of that sounds like fun Lily."
She chuckled, "No, it's not. I imagine it'll only happen four or five times before you figure it out."
I pouted, but she just smiled at me.
"Oh!" I suddenly exclaimed. "Talking about horns, I've been meaning to ask this for months now and I keep forgetting. So you know how my horns are super sensitive? Isn't that a problem? Do your horns do that too?"
Lily's cheeks went dark again but she answered, "I suppose that should be part The Talk? They're not always that sensitive Mara. I'm sure you've noticed you don't react anywhere near as much when you touch them yourself, compared to when your girlfriends do?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "That's weird too."
She shook her head, "They only respond with sensitivity to the touch of people you're attracted to, people you love. Otherwise, they're just horns. Believe me, you won't get excited when you bang them on the ceiling of Melissa's car, or if you use them to head-butt an enemy."
That sort of surprised me but it also made a lot of sense. "Huh. Ok that's pretty cool I guess."
"Was there anything else Mara?" she asked.
I thought for a few seconds, then nodded. "Yeah actually. Going back to the other thing, with the brooch. If we keep doing this, sucking energy out of Verothilas, how will you make sure I don't end up turning into more of a demon?"
Lily replied, "That was part of what I was examining last night. Part of the magic I'm working on. And part of the reason I'm not just rushing to repeat last night every month till it's over. I need to tailor the spell so the energy I extract from Verothilas is more like a tightly-controlled beam rather than a wide uncontrolled burst."
She added, "Think about a laser shining a tiny spot on one specific point, as opposed to a bare lightbulb flooding a whole room with light. Or a rifle bullet striking a bullseye compared to an explosion flattening everything around it."
I frowned as I thought that through, "If you manage to do that, then Amber and Melissa and Susan won't be affected anymore either, right? Like there won't be that big burst of energy if you can turn it into a laser? Then it'll just go straight to you?"
"Correct," Lily nodded. "Except..."
She hesitated, "I will leave this in your hands Mara. If the three of them want to change further, I will allow them to continue absorbing more demonic energy. You're the only one I'm going to deny that option. The three of them can feed without killing, and they've already got experience doing so. I'll leave it up to you how much of this conversation you share with them. By the time I'm ready to repeat the process I should be able to precisely control exactly where the energy goes and how much of it is delivered."
I shook my head, "I won't keep any of this from them Lily. I'll tell them everything, and they can all decide for themselves."
"Very well Mara," she didn't argue or question. "Why don't you return to them now, they're probably curious and getting worried."
I nodded and finally let go of her. Before I returned to the body I gave her a smile and said "Thanks again for looking out for me Lily. I appreciate it. Even if it does mean I won't get my wings."
"You're welcome Mara. Now off you go."
A moment later I was back in the body and my three girlfriends were all staring at me with expectant looks on their faces.
"Well?" Melissa asked. "What happened? Is everything ok?"
I took a deep breath and nodded, "It's fine. She had a bunch of stuff to say and she wanted to talk to me first, but she said I can share it with all of you..."
We spent the next fifteen or twenty minutes with me relaying all the stuff Lily told me, and answering some of their questions as best I could. There were a few things Lily had to chime in on and I passed on those answers as well.
When I was finished, the three of them were all quiet and thoughtful. They all knew if they wanted they could become full succubi, though it might take a couple more 'applications' of energy. And from the look of it, all three of them were actually thinking about it. Or at least, none of them immediately dismissed it out of hand.
And all three of them knew Lily wasn't going to let me change any more, and they knew why. And I noticed Melissa looked especially grateful for that. Amber and Susan did too, but Melissa was the one who's emotions came through the strongest.
Everyone stayed quiet for the next few minutes, but it was Susan who finally spoke up.
"Speaking of feeding, I'm actually not the least bit hungry. And we've got the cottage for another whole day, we don't have to pack up and head home until tomorrow. So what do we all want to do with our time?"
Nobody else seemed remotely hungry either. There were a few shrugs, as nobody came up with any suggestions.
A wide grin settled on my face and I said, "You three are half succubus and I'm half sex-demon. And we're all sitting around naked. Well, Amber's got a night-shirt on but that's all she's got on. So how about an orgy?"
That put a wide grin on Melissa's face, and a smirk on Susan's.
Amber rolled her eyes, "You three enjoy yourselves. I'm going to do some reading, but I'll be available for cuddles when someone needs a break."
"That works," I smiled, then I got up and joined Melissa and Susan on the sofa while Amber ducked into the bedroom to grab the book she brought with her.
And in what I hoped would become some kind of long-standing tradition between the four of us, two half-succubi and a half-demon proceeded to get it on, while our cuddle-succubus girlfriend sat across from us and read tentacle porn.
There is not a chance that Mara is permanently staying at this ratio of demon to human. She wants to be a demon girl too much and this feels way too much like a flag for things to stay as-is. My personal prediction is that something is gonna happen that causes her to gain a bunch more demonic energy, and Lily will be like "no!!!" before Mara's true nature will override whatever she's "inheriting" from Lily. I'm guessing that the reason it seems like it's working like how Lily explains right now is solely bcuz Lily is sharing a body with her, so my personal timeline for this would put whatever ends up happening right near the end of the whole series, which I would assume would line up with Lily being freed.
Maybe I'm wrong, but... Idk, that just feels right to me.
That sounds about right.
The one thing I'd disagree on would be the timeline. I think the full transformation (and probably Lily being freed) will happen at the finale of the second to last book (which could be potentially this one) and there will be a last book with full demon Mara.
Just think of the obvious title that would be left unused.
I think that you and Echimera are right on the transformation, but something tells me that before that happens, there's going to be another "truth finding" bit where she dives into her past life. There's a lot of unanswered questions like whether or not she was being shown Original Mara because it was her or if it was the desire to know what happened. Dreams can be funny like that, so I think that another fact finding mission with Susan is possible.
Our Mara going full demon would only be possible if: A) They could prove to Lily that, without a doubt, the Mara we know is her Mara reincarnated as a human; or B) Mara secretly finds a way to get her own energy or somehow steal portions from Lily when the ritual is happening. I doubt that the second is going to happen because that would mean hurting Lily, emotionally. I mean, If nothing else, Mara could use Lily's name and order her to let her have more energy, which still ends up hurting Lily. The first is also unlikely to happen because of how difficult a task it would be. It's not like there would be some secret that only the 2 of them would share that could confirm her identity.
The one thing that seems possible is a contract re-negotiation, but Lily would never go for it because of what she said this chapter about losing that innocence and humanity (which, as a demon, she supposedly would lack). That really only leaves a "brute force" method where other demons try to attack Lily, become trapped in other jewelry and Mara gets exposed regardless.
@Echimera I'm a full blooded demon but my moms are okay with it?
There's another possibility: Lily seems to have forgotten that she started out functioning like a succubus herself. Eating souls whole is something she learned to do, so Mara could sustain herself on lots of s*x instead.