"I hope she's going to be ok," Susan said as she sipped her cocktail. "It's a pretty big first step."

After a gulp of my cooler I shrugged, "You and Melissa both got through that ok. And the two of you both gave Grace a bunch of lessons and pep-talks right? She'll be fine."

The beautiful redhead looked thoughtful for a moment, then shrugged "It's still a big first step. I haven't forgotten my first time. And there's a huge difference between discussing theory in the classroom and actually getting practical experience in the field."

That made me smirk, "So does that make our house some kind of succubus school or something? Susan's Succubus Academy?"

She stifled a giggle, "I'd probably go all-in with the alliteration if I was setting up a school. How about Susan's School for Successful Succubi?"

"I love it!" I giggled. "And you'd make a good stern dommy headmistress, you know?"

We both had a little laugh over that, before the waiter showed up to take our orders.

It was Saturday night, the middle of August. Me and Susan were out on a date together, we were sitting side by side in a big private booth in a fancy steak-house. Melissa and Amber were doing the same, they'd gone out to a posh sushi restaurant for dinner. And Grace was off on her own tonight, doing her succubus work for the very first time.

As expected, she signed Lily's contract Wednesday night. Neither she or Lily went into too many details about what was in her contract, but we could all guess the basics. What we did know was after Grace signed on, Lily briefed her on all the other supernatural business we had going on. Like the stuff with Armaros, what happened last year with Verothilas, what Lily was doing every new moon with that silver brooch, all that stuff.

The five of us had a quiet little celebration Wednesday night to welcome Grace into the mix, but it was kind of subdued since the circumstances weren't great. And in the three days since then, our new succubus had been fairly busy.

Melissa and Susan spent time talking to her, telling her all the tips and tricks they'd learned over the past year. Grace also had a bunch of mundane stuff to take care of, to try and rebuild her life without her parents. Stuff like getting a new bank account someplace that wasn't run by a member of her dad's church, getting herself a new phone, all those sorts of things.

She was also looking for an apartment. Grace made sure we all knew how grateful she was that we let her stay with us as long as she needed, but she also made it clear she wasn't looking to actually move in. She said she needed to be independent for a while. She wasn't going to be moving too far away since she was still going to college with us and stuff, and we'd probably see her a lot anyways, but she never intended to join the DLP and live with us.

So we had Grace as a houseguest for now, but only until she got established with a place of her own. Then she'd move out and we'd have our guest room back. I didn't think any of us were upset about that, though the way Sue was worrying about her tonight was kind of touching.

After we placed our orders and the waiter sauntered off, Susan gave me a serious look and said "I'm probably still going to worry about her until she gets home and we find out how it went."

"Ok Sue," I replied with a friendly smile. I wrapped my arm around her waist and gave her a hug then teased quietly, "You're like the overprotective momma succubus, worrying about our new baby succubus who's gone off to feed on her own for the very first time."

She hugged me back but she rolled her eyes, "Hardly. I think Lily's the only one who qualifies as a momma-succubus around here. Or maybe Melissa, since she has the most experience. She's the senior succubus."

"I dunno," I grinned. "You're the oldest right? You'll be twenty-three in December. And you and Melissa are definitely the most responsible."

Susan rolled her eyes again but decided not to argue that any more. Instead she asked, "What do you think's going to happen on Tuesday? It's another new moon, and we'll have Grace there when Lily does her thing."

"I dunno," I repeated myself. "I'm pretty sure neither you or Melissa will want any more energy. Amber probably will, she's been pretty eager for that right from the start. As for Grace... If I had to bet, then yeah. I think she'll take some."

Sue frowned, "Huh. I think you're right, but I'm worried it's premature for her. I mean that's only six days after she signed her contract, she'll have only worked once. That's not a lot of time to figure out if she wants to make it permanent."

"I guess," I said with a shrug. "And you know my intuition thing doesn't work on her anymore, but I get the feeling she'll want the supernatural benefits to last. Kind of like Amber said back in the spring? She wanted to be sure who she was now won't change, even after her contract ends. I think Grace will feel the same."

Before Sue could respond I added, "Anyways this is supposed to be our date night right? Let's not spend the whole evening talking about other girls."

Susan grimaced, "Sorry Mara. Even if she's not going to join the DLP she's still one of us, still part of our family now. That's why I'm worrying."

I gave her a kiss and we let that subject go, for now at least. Then the conversation shifted from other girls to talking about guys instead. Or one guy in particular.

"It feels like we haven't made any progress at all on that Armaros thing," Susan commented. "I've been trying to do some research whenever I get the chance, and I talked with Melissa about it again yesterday morning. We're learning all sorts of things about him and where he's from. There's legends, folk stories, that sort of thing? But we haven't found anything that feels particularly useful."

"That's ok," I replied. "That's what it was like last year too, with Verothilas? Melissa said it was about learning as much as possible, then eventually we knew enough to connect the dots and come up with answers."

She frowned, "I still don't entirely get how that's supposed to work. But I suppose if that's how you did it before, then we're probably on the right track."

I agreed, and reminded her "We're not in a rush, Lily said we can take our time and stuff. Last time we were kind of in a hurry because we were being threatened, Verothilas was sort of hunting us or whatever? So don't sweat it. Just do what you can, when you can, and I'm sure it'll all come together in the end."

The waiter returned with our food so we let that subject drop as well, and both me and Susan ordered more drinks after our meals were delivered.

I got a posh little steak filet and a side of fries, Sue had prime rib and a baked potato smothered in everything, and it all looked and smelled pretty good. It tasted good too, and we both dug in and enjoyed our meals.

As we ate, Susan commented "So we've got the new moon on Tuesday, we're continuing the research on our other project, and a few more weeks till we all head back for our last year of school. Feels like this summer has almost flown past."

I grimaced as I swallowed a bite of steak, "Yeah it has. We're still planning at least one more DLP day trip though right? Going down to the Ex on the twenty-fourth. You're going to come with us for that, aren't you?"

"I'll be there," she stated. "My dad took me there a couple times. It's probably been close to a decade though since the last one."

After a bite of her roast she asked, "Is this going to be like our amusement park trip? Or is this more about photography?"

I shook my head, "I don't know? Bit of both maybe? I've never been to the Ex before so I have no idea what it's like, but I think at least some of us are planning to bring cameras. I don't know if we can do rides with camera gear, but I suppose if we can stuff them in our purses it'll be fine."

"Probably," Sue nodded. "From what I remember they don't have too many crazy rides. It might all be more for kids than serious thrill-seeking adults?"

"So more Lily's speed then?" I joked.

"Right!" Susan laughed. "Anyways the Ex wasn't just about rides. It's an Exhibition, and I remember a big part of it was the food hall? Like trying different exotic cuisines and stuff."

I had some more of my steak then suggested, "If food's a big deal there, we'll need to be sure everyone will have an appetite. Like so we're all able to eat that day."

"Shouldn't be a problem," she shrugged. "We're going on a Sunday right? Me and Melissa have both been working mid-week lately, so Tuesday or Wednesday nights. If Grace does accept some more energy at the new moon, we can suggest she works Thursday so she'll get her appetite back by Sunday. Not much we can do about Amber, but if she's curious she'll try something. And you and Lily..."

Susan frowned slightly, "Actually I don't remember the last time you had to skip a few meals. Huh, that's odd."

"Yeah," I shrugged. "Same. Lily hasn't mentioned it and everything seems ok, so it's probably no big deal."

Sue continued frowning as she stared at me for a few moments, then finally just nodded. "Ok Mara. It's strange but if neither you or Lily are worried about it, then I'm not either. And I guess it's convenient, I mean you were worried about everyone trying to coordinate meals at one point. I'm glad that's not a problem for you anymore."

I smiled as I had another forkful of steak. I was glad that she didn't ask more about that though, because I didn't have answers and it was something I'd been starting to wonder about too. I figured sooner or later I'd have to ask Lily what was happening, because there was definitely something going on.

The whole appetite thing only started for me when I became part demon, and as far as I knew I was still part demon now. According to what Lily said back at the cottage, I was more demon than human. She also said it was a one way street, that it could never be undone.

So based on that, I knew I was still more demon than human. But for whatever reason, I'd stopped getting energy from her when she fed. Or if I was still getting that energy, it wasn't affecting my appetite for normal food anymore.

Either way it was something different and I was curious, but I trusted Lily that if it was something bad or if something was wrong, she'd tell me. So for now I tried not to worry about it, and just focused on Susan and dinner and our date together.

After we finished our main course, me and Susan shared dessert. We had a thick slice of cheesecake, smothered in some kind of cherry sauce or whatever. It was really good, but by the time we were done both me and Susan were stuffed.

When we finally finished up at the restaurant the two of us took a ride-share over to the cinema for the second part of our date.

There weren't any new sci-fi movies showing, but we watched some fun animated family thing. It was late enough that there weren't a lot of kids in the audience, and the movie was one of those ones where it was fun and silly for kids but also included enough grown-up jokes to keep the parents entertained. Or in our case, it was fun for both me and Susan. And despite being stuffed we still got a big tub of popcorn to share, plus she had a giant cup of cola while I got a bottle of juice.

The movie was ok, nothing memorable but it was fun. And we sat at the back away from anyone else so we could talk about the show or make out or whatever and not bother anyone else. And when it was over we got another ride-share to take us back home.

Melissa's car was already in the carport when we arrived, so we knew the other half of the DLP got home from their date before us. Me and Sue were quiet as we entered the house and made our way upstairs. Amber's bedroom door was closed, so we knew the two of them were probably in there together. We hadn't exactly gone out of our way to plan it or arrange it like that, but the meaning was pretty clear. Melissa would be spending the night with our small succubus girlfriend, which meant me and Susan had the master bedroom to ourselves tonight.

We both smiled as we entered our room together then quietly closed the door behind us. Though I had a feeling us being quiet wasn't going to last long once things between me and my sexy dommy redhead girlfriend got started.

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