"Thanks for picking me up at work," Amber said as she climbed into the back seat next to me.
She was in one of her typical work outfits, which was a very different look from her usual style. She was in a pair of tight black jeans and a tight maroon top today. Normally she'd be wearing some low heels for work, but she had black sneakers on tonight.
The other part of her 'work outfit' wasn't clothes, but her height. When she was dressed for work she was about as tall as me, around five-foot-four. Otherwise she was several inches shorter, closer to five-foot even. It was a unique part of her nature as a shape-shifter.
Like Melissa and Susan, Amber was part-succubus. And as of last month all three of them could shape-shift, though Susan was the only one who routinely took advantage of that talent. At least, she was the only one who took advantage deliberately. Amber got taller for work and shorter the rest of the time but that was more a subconscious thing, and apart from her height she didn't really change much.
Melissa tried shapeshifting once as an experiment but otherwise she just stayed her normal tall busty blonde self. Susan's normal shape was a hot curvaceous redhead. And Amber was normally our cute blushy brunette. Except when she was working, then she was our hot confident brunette.
I was the only one of our polycule who wasn't part-succubus and didn't have any fancy magic talents. I was part-demon instead. More specifically part sex-demon, thanks to sharing a body with my demon-mom Lily. I did get some demonic traits, I had a pair of horns sticking up out of my head and a long spade-tipped tail. I could see in the dark and I had supernatural demonic strength. I also had a demonic intuition thing, I got 'feelings' about people when I looked at them.
Melissa and Susan were both dressed similar to Amber tonight, the tall blonde was in blue skinny-jeans and a tight pink tee. Susan wore a pair of stretch jeans and a loose green top. And I was in black leggings and a big charcoal-grey tunic top. All three of us were wearing sneakers too.
"It's no problem Amber," Melissa said with a smile. "You're part of the team, part of the family."
Susan agreed, "You're one of us Amber. We wouldn't leave you out of anything."
It was about half past ten at night, Thursday May twenty-second. The May holiday was last weekend and there was only four more weeks of school left before summer break. It was also the new moon and we had some demonic business to attend to, which was the reason all four of us were out and about on a weeknight. Or at least, Lily was up to demonic business and the DLP was coming along to back her up.
From the sex-toy shop where Amber worked, Melissa drove west past the highway and through a couple residential areas till we got nearer the park. We stopped the car on the side of the road in front of some houses, and the four of us emerged. We stayed quiet as we walked along the sidewalk past the houses, then once we were away from the residential area and surrounded by trees it felt safer to talk.
"Do we need to wait till midnight?" Amber asked. "That's over an hour away, maybe we should have gone to a coffee shop first?"
I shook my head, "Lily said it's not as critical. Any time within twenty-four hours of the new moon is close enough, so she'll be able to do the ritual as soon as we find the right spot."
Sue asked, "You have the stuff with you right?"
"Yeah," I grinned. "I didn't forget anything, don't worry."
After a few minutes along the sidewalk we found the walking trail and headed north from the road into the woods. As soon as we were in among the trees I let my horns and tail become visible. It didn't make any difference to our plans, and visible or not they were still there either way. I just liked having them out. I hadn't forgotten how nice it felt at the cottage, being able to just have them visible all the time and not worry about it.
We weren't in any sort of huge wilderness or forest tonight, but me and Lily figured this park would be enough. She wanted someplace that wasn't too close to people, somewhere with some nature, and where we wouldn't be seen. And most importantly, somewhere that wasn't Susan's backyard or her basement.
I checked a map of the city and found the place we were approaching now. There was a river that wound its way through this part of town, eventually it got all the way down to the lake. Up in our part of the city it was surrounded by trees and parkland, and it seemed ideal.
The place I found was a bend in the river in a large triangle-shaped chunk of woods. There wouldn't be any people around for a couple hundred meters in any direction, and it was all trees so nobody would see us.
The four of us wandered off the trail into the woods when we got to the right area, and within two or three minutes we found the spot. According to the map app on Susan's phone we were about as far from any houses as it was possible to get around here.
"I'm going to step inside and let Lily take over," I told my girlfriends. "I'll see you all in a little while."
The three of them nodded quietly as they watched. I didn't even sit down on the ground or anything, I just pulled inside and left our body standing there without me.
My demon mom was waiting for me, and I gave her a quick hug as soon as I was in her big luxury apartment in our mind. "It's all yours Lily. Good luck!"
She smiled, "Thank you Mara. If this goes as planned I'll probably be asleep for a while afterwards, but neither you or your girlfriends should be affected."
I nodded, she'd already explained it to me like three times. As I sat on the sofa I responded, "I'll try and keep us out of trouble while you're resting."
Lily raised an eyebrow and almost smirked as she asked, "Will you?"
"No promises," I grinned.
My big blue demon mom rolled her eyes, then turned and stepped out into the body. I watched through the big window that was our eyes as Lily took over and began her preparations.
"While I appreciate the three of you coming along," she told my girlfriends as she got started, "I'll remind you all that if this experiment goes as planned there won't be any excess energy. None of you are going to be affected this evening."
Melissa shrugged, "Yeah we know Lily. We're here for you, and for Mara."
"Yeah," Amber agreed. "We're not here for stray demonic energy, we're here for you."
My demon mom smiled "Thank you all."
Lily pulled out the box of salt from my purse, as well as the business end of the iron poker from the fireplace. She kneeled down on the ground and used the poker to draw a circle in the earth, then started marking out demonic runes around the edges of it.
I wasn't sure how much my girlfriends could see, but I could see clearly thanks to our demonic night-vision.
It took about ten minutes till Lily was happy with her work. She cleaned off some dirt stuck on the end of the poker tip before tucking it away in my purse again. Then she used the salt to fill in all the lines she just cut into the dirt, till the circle and all the runes were clearly visible with the fine white crystals in them.
When that was done, the salt box went back into my purse and she pulled out the black velvet box containing Verothilas' brooch.
Lily placed the box inside the circle then opened it, but didn't touch or remove the brooch.
"It might be prudent for the three of you to step back," my demon mom warned my girlfriends. "There shouldn't be any risk, but this is an experiment and I cannot guarantee it will go exactly as planned."
Melissa Susan and Amber all glanced at each other, then Melissa and Susan both stepped back. Amber stayed where she was, and she dug her phone out of her purse and got the video app recording.
"You're sure that's where you want to be?" Lily asked the cute brunette.
"Yes Lily," Amber responded. "Me and Mara talked about it and I want to video the ritual."
After a brief hesitation, Lily decided not to comment on that. She focused on the circle and the brooch, and started doing her magic stuff.
It went pretty much like last month at the cottage. The salt started to glow a dull red, with darker red flickers around the brooch. Then a purple glow appeared in the gem set into the middle of the silver jewelry. Both the salt and the gem glowed brighter, until the ritual reached its peak after a few minutes.
At the cottage last month there was a blinding flash of purple light, and back at the solstice it was bright white light. And both times there was a huge pulse of warmth that hit our body.
This time when it happened it really was like a laser, just like Lily described. A beam of purple light seemed to go from the brooch straight into our chest. And instead of our whole body feeling that warm pulse it was mostly in our heart and our right ankle, where Lily's tattoo was.
When it was over I found myself back in the body. I didn't feel any different, there was no tingling sensation, no giddiness, no energy burst, and no excess horniness. It was just me kneeling on the ground by the circle.
"Everyone ok?" I asked as I looked at my girlfriends.
Melissa and Susan both nodded, Amber replied "I'm fine. I saw the glowing but there was no purple flash. It just glowed a while then Lily stopped talking and it was over. Nothing showed up on my phone camera though, no glow, no magic."
I frowned as I picked up and closed the velvet box, "What about the purple laser beam?"
"The what?" Melissa asked as she stared at me.
I tucked the velvet box into my purse as I got to my feet, then brushed some dirt off my knees. "It was like a bright purple laser beam? It shot from the brooch into our heart."
All three of them shook their heads and Sue commented "I never saw that. Sounds cool though."
"Is that it then?" Amber asked. "It's all over for tonight?"
I nodded, "That's it. It feels like Lily's asleep, she'll probably wake up some time tomorrow and we'll find out how successful it was."
Sue suggested, "Then let's go home. We've all got school tomorrow, we may as well get some rest."
As we all started walking back the way we came Melissa commented "It was kind of anti-climactic, after the cottage and the solstice."
"Yeah," Amber agreed.
"That's the point," Susan reminded them. "Lily needed to test how she could control the energy. Last month she confirmed she could get energy out of Verothilas without killing everyone. This month she wanted to confirm she could control the way the energy flowed."
"And if it worked," Amber added, "Then maybe next month we'll all get a chance to get a little more of that energy ourselves."
I corrected her, "Maybe the three of you will get some more of it. She's already decided I won't get any more."
Soon enough we were back at the car, and from there it was only about a ten minute drive back to the house.
"Are you going home Amber?" I asked my cute brunette girlfriend. "Or staying with us tonight?"
She hesitated for a moment, then decided "I'll stay with you three tonight."
"Yay!" I smiled as we headed in through the side door.
Amber hadn't technically moved in with us yet, but she stayed at our place often enough she actually had some clothes here and she'd claimed a bedroom for herself. She took the one right beside the master bedroom, she said it meant she was close to the rest of us and it also left the room at the far side of the house available for guests.
Me and Susan and Melissa went into the master bedroom while Amber went to her room, and we all got ready for bed. Or in other words, Amber got into a night-shirt while the rest of us just stripped naked. And once I had my clothes off I looked down at my ankle then grinned.
"She did it," I announced. After a moment I added, "I think she cleared six runes tonight! That's as many as she did at the solstice and the cottage combined!"
Lily's tattoo on our right ankle was a representation of her imprisonment. There was a complicated squiggle glyph in the middle that was her true demonic name or signature, and it was originally surrounded by a ring of twenty-one small runes that kept her bound and imprisoned inside me.
There were only nine of those runes left now, and I knew if she could clear six at once tonight then maybe in just two more months my demon mom could be fully free.
When's 'I became a demon but im okay with this' coming out
*chanting like at a sports game* Wings! Wings! Wings! Wings!
Am I allowed to complain that both this and the previous book have the same cover but in different colors
The tail is slightly different, so it's a completely different cover
@NinjaDragonReader Ah I stand corrected, complaint withdrawn