"Mara!" Susan shouted from the stairs leading up to the bedrooms.

I was halfway across the kitchen on my way towards the side door but her tone of voice stopped me in my tracks. I turned back and asked, "What's wrong?"

The tall redhead gave me a hard look as she stated, "Tail and horns! You were good about hiding them for the past four years, how can you possibly be getting worse at this now?"

"Aww," I pouted. "Almost nobody freaked out when I showed them off during the play though, right? I figured it's no big deal."

"Anyways I'm just going out to the backyard," I added. "It's not like I was going to parade around the whole neighbourhood with them."

That earned me another look, "One, the audience thought you were in costume. Two, you know our yard is overlooked by neighbours. And three, we have human guests out there who don't know anything about demons and succubi."

"Fine," I rolled my eyes as I hid my demon bits.

On the one hand I knew she was right, and it's not like they were gone completely. But it was a lot more fun to leave them out, and maybe after all this time I was starting to resent having to hide who I really was all the time. Plus most of the human guests already knew about my horns and tail. There were only like three people who hadn't seen them before.

And one of those people definitely had her suspicions, considering Willow had been coming to our parties for years now. She'd obviously noticed how me and Mira hadn't aged or changed. She also noticed Amber was still the same tiny cute cuddle-bean as always. But mostly she'd noticed just how much both Melissa and Susan had changed.

Mels practically became a completely different person after college, when she went from the tall slim busty bimbo to the average-looking girl next door. Sue's changes weren't as drastic, and maybe some of it could be explained by mundane stuff like working out or whatever. Except there really wasn't any way to explain how she grew like four inches.

The tall stern redhead called again as she continued up to the bedroom, "Let them know I'll be back out in a minute please?"

"Ok," I replied as I finally made my way out the door to join the party.

We had music playing, a couple big coolers full of drinks were set up in some shade, the BBQ was already heating up and I was carrying a tray of meat destined for the grill.

"Looks great Mara!" Sam grinned as he and Troy took the food off my hands. Like usual they'd already staked out their place next to the fire.

I smiled as I went back into the kitchen for another load, then started setting up the condiments and paper plates and stuff on one of the folding tables. We went with traditional BBQ food again this year, with burgers and sausages. It wasn't boring though, like me and Mira prepared a couple different types of gourmet burgers, and we had some vegetarian options too just in case. But it was easy to cook and easy to eat.

There was one more load of stuff I needed to bring out, but Mira intercepted me before I could head back into the house.

She slipped an arm around my waist and steered me over to a group of chairs on the left, "That stuff can wait Mara, or someone else will get it. Come be social with our guests!"

"Ok sorry," I smiled. "I only had one more trip."

My other half kept a firm grip on me as we stopped in front of Amber, Matt, and one of the human guests I didn't know yet.

"Hey Mara," Matt greeted me with a smile. He had a can of beer in one hand, and his other arm was wrapped around the shoulders of the new guest. "Good to see you again. This is my new girlfriend Sage, we just met a couple weeks ago. And Sage, obviously this is Mira's twin, Mara."

Sage was a pretty girl, tall and slim. Her hair was dyed a pale green colour, and her eyes were an almost matching light green-grey. She was wearing a pair of cut-off jean shorts, a revealing crop-top, and sandals. So in other words, she fit right in. And as she and I exchanged some friendly greetings I realized why Mira was excited for me to meet her.

Mira shared the same demonic intuition as me, and it was a struggle to keep the surprise off my face as I realized Sage wasn't quite human after all.

Matt's new girlfriend was part-succubus. Which meant she had to know Lily. Which meant me and my demonic twin had a whole bunch of questions for our mater. Which unfortunately would have to wait till later, because my intuition also told me that Matt had no idea what his girlfriend really was.

And Sage didn't seem to know about me and Mira, or Amber either. For that matter I didn't even know if Amber could tell Sage was on team succubi. Though I knew their sex-sense didn't work on each other, or me and Mira. So Sage would know something was up with half the people here, and the rest of the DLP could probably tell something was up with her.

And all that was a lot to get my head around all at once, but fortunately there was another distraction. Amber looked past me towards the gate, so me and Mira turned around to see who was there.

"Kate! Hannah! You made it!" I grinned as I waved for them to join us.

Mira finally let go of me, so I went to greet the newest arrivals and give them the instant tour and do the introductions. I got them some drinks and grabbed a vodka cooler for myself, then we started making our way around the backyard.

By that point Susan had joined the party, so after introducing the two new arrivals to Sam and Troy I took them over to the nearest cluster of chairs where Sue had just joined Melissa, Willow, and Will's new girlfriend Nadira.

We did the introductions, and while Kate and Hannah were both greeting the others my intuition told me Hannah was wondering to herself how many people here were really demons versus how many were human. Actually Kate was wondering the same thing, but she was a little more relaxed about it.

I figured she and Lily probably talked more last week or whatever, so the cute musician was more comfortable being here. Actually I wondered if Lily might even show up at some point to talk to Kate in person. Though if she did it'd have to be away from Willow and Nadira, since they were pretty much the only humans who didn't know we were all demons and succubi and stuff.

We spent a bit of time talking with the others before I led Kate and Hannah over to the other group of chairs so I could continue the introductions. But before I could reintroduce them to Amber and Mira, Matt's new girlfriend spoke up.

She was staring at the cute blonde in surprise as she said, "Kate? Wow, I didn't expect to run into you here. How are you doing?"

"Oh uh, hi Sage," Kate replied. Her awkwardness had suddenly returned, which both Hannah and I noticed at the same time. Meanwhile Kate grimaced and added, "It was a last-minute invitation. I um, know Mara from college."

Once again my intuition thing was buzzing. Even without it I could tell there was some weird tension between Kate and Sage, and it wasn't hard to guess Lily was involved. Like obviously the one thing a half-succubus would have in common with my mater's penpal was the big blue softie herself.

Meanwhile Matt had one of those awkward smiles on his face as he asked his girlfriend, "So how do you two know each other? You said you were new in town, I didn't think you'd know too many people around here."

That shifted Kate's attention to Matt, and her eyes went wide while some of the colour drained from her face. Like she only just noticed him or whatever. And that suddenly reminded me about how Kate and Matt used to be friends and stuff, way back before she became Kate.

And just like that it was this little triangle of tension going on in front of me. Kate was staring awkwardly at Matt, Sage was staring awkwardly at Kate. And Matt was looking confused at Sage. Meanwhile me and Mira and Amber were just sort of waiting to see what would happen next.

At that point I felt Lily's facepalm inside where she was watching from her sofa. She sighed loudly, "I know this isn't exactly your fault Mara, but why do these things always seem to happen when you're around?"

The awkwardness lasted two or three seconds, before Sage broke the tension. She smiled to Matt as she explained, "We actually met online? That's why I was so surprised to see her here."

"Yeah," Kate nodded in agreement. "We met on discord last month, we've chatted a few times online."

My intuition thing was telling me both Sage and Kate were telling the truth, but there was actually a lot more to it than that. And I knew my mater had to be involved somehow too. So I left Kate and Hannah to mingle and stuff, while I went back to the kitchen with the excuse of getting the salads out of the fridge. Then as soon as I was alone in the kitchen I stepped inside to speak with Lily.

Like I figured, she was lounging on her big leather sofa watching the show. The main window just showed the fridge door, but the second window showed Mira's view as she was still talking with Amber and Matt and the others.

"Ok mater what gives?" I asked. I knew Mira was listening on the two of us as well, she was just as curious as I was about this stuff. "Who's Sage, how do you know her, why's she part-succubus, and what's that got to do with Kate?"

My demon mom cringed under all my questions. She gestured vaguely at the windows and protested, "This isn't the time to get into that conversation Mara. You have a backyard full of people waiting for you!"

I folded my arms under my chest as I stood there staring at her, and I did my best to look all stern or whatever like Susan does sometimes. I even arched one of my eyebrows, but I couldn't really pull off the whole domme thing. I did my best though, and refused to back down.

It took a half minute, but eventually Lily's shoulders slumped and she sighed "Oh very well. Sage signed a contract with me last month. I granted her wish and in return she's working part-time for me. Now run along and get back to the party Mara."

"Not yet," I shook my head. I kept my arms folded under my chest and maintained the sternest look I could as I asked, "How'd you meet her? How's Kate involved?"

By that point my mater's cheeks had turned darker blue. She mumbled, "Kate introduced us. For the past four years she's been finding trans girls and making arrangements for them to meet with me, so I can help them out."

"Wait what?!" Mira demanded as she appeared in front of the other window. "You've been doing that for four years? Just how many of them are there now? And how come this is the first any of us have heard about this?!"

Lily cringed again as she found herself facing both me and Mira at the same time. She shook her head, "There's only six of them right now! And there'll only be five next week. Their contracts are only for six months, then they're released and become fully human again."

My twin and I exchanged a glance, then I asked "So Kate's acting like your agent or something? She's out there looking for people so you can sign contracts with them? Did you set her up to do that?"

"It wasn't my idea!" mater insisted. "She took it upon herself, she just started doing it on her own! I've been going along with it but I never asked her to do it..."

Mira asked, "Why keep it a secret though? Why wouldn't you tell us, or the rest of the DLP? And from a safety point of view, I assume you warned Sage about having a steady partner? Is Matt going to be ok dating her?"

Our demon mom shook her head, "That isn't an issue anymore. A few years back Kate suggested I modify the terms slightly, now my contractees can choose to disable their succubus talents at times. So it's safe for them to take or keep their partners, as long as they fulfill the contract."

That surprised both me and my twin, since it would have saved Melissa a lot of stress and stuff back in the beginning if she had that kind of option. Still, things worked out ok for her in the long run.

"And the secrets?" Mira asked. "Why didn't you share any of this with us? Or anyone else?"

By that point she had her arms folded just like me, we were doing the half-assed domme thing in stereo. It didn't make us twice as effective or whatever, but at least our mater knew we were serious.

Lily grimaced, "I was worried how you two would react if you found out?"

"And this?" She gestured at the two of us, "This is exactly what I was worried about."

Our demon mom sat up straight as she tried to put on her big scary demon act as she continued, "You're making a big deal out of this when it's really nothing. Business as usual. Remember, I've been doing this for thousands of years."

"Except it sounds like you're going out of your way to give people an easy ride," Mira pointed out. "Six month contracts, letting them have time off when they want it."

I nodded, "If I didn't know better, you're not doing this to gain energy from them. You're doing it to help them, the contract stuff is just to make it 'official'."

Lily slumped back on her sofa and pouted, "No comment."

Me and Mira looked at each other, then we both smirked and rolled our eyes.

"Ok mater," my twin smirked. "We're not done talking about this, but for now me and Mara need to get back to the party."

"Right. We'll talk with you again later Lily. Maybe tomorrow," I said before I stepped out into one of the bodies, while Mira exited into the other one.

I found myself sitting with Kate and Hannah and Amber and Matt and Sage, while Mira emerged from the kitchen carrying a couple big bowls of coleslaw and potato salad. My twin put the bowls on the table with the condiments and plates and stuff, then a moment later Sam let everyone know that the first round of burgs and sausages were ready.

Logan and Erin turned up just in time for dinner, so we had another round of greetings and introductions and stuff. Then they ended up with Sue and Willow, the four of them were reminiscing about university or whatever while Melissa and Nadira talked.

I ended up joining that conversation for a bit. I was there long enough to find out Nadira was a doctor, she was in residence at the hospital where Willow worked. That's how the two of them met, she said.

That conversation soon disappeared over my head, but fortunately Sam saved me by forcing me to accept a burger. So I had some people-food while I mingled around a bit more and enjoyed the party atmosphere. When it started getting dark Susan got a fire going in the backyard fireplace thing, and eventually we did fireworks and stuff. And even after all this time Melissa still wouldn't let me help with that.

All in all it seemed like another successful party. Everyone had a good time, as far as I could tell even Kate and Hannah enjoyed themselves. And apart from one near-miss, there weren't any catastrophes or accidental demonic reveals.

PurpleCatGirl

Note: Before you read the next / final Extra chapter, go and read Missed Connections! It's technically the 7fh installment in Mara's saga, although it's not technically about her. Trust me, you'll understand. The next Extra won't make much sense if you haven't already read Missed Connections. It also contains some mega spoilers for that story. So take this detour and read Missed Connections first!

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