Despite enjoying spending the evening having fun with some of my friends, my sister, and my girlfriend, something was nagging at me the entire night. The weight of an unkept oath that seemed to get heavier and heavier with each massing minute. I tried to mentally assure myself that it wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t keep my promise to the Dicken sisters to perform tonight, but it wasn’t helping, and I found my eyes often drifting toward the stage.

At one point, halfway through our game of Monopoly, I excused myself for a few minutes to go speak with the Dicken sisters, who were sitting and playing poker with Rhissa, Nixie, and Sukoha. “Hey, Adora, is there any way you can release me from my promise? It’s kind of starting to feel… heavy.”

“What promise?” Sukoha asked, as everyone at the table looked toward me.

“Uh… shit,” Adora mumbled, looking suddenly very sheepish. “I… uhhh… might have tricked Crystal into promising that she would stop making excuses and perform tonight. Heh, is there any way for her to get out of it, Rhissa?”

Rhissa frowned at the Succubus and then sighed as she rubbed her temples. “What the hell were you thinking? There is a reason that Fey don’t make promises lightly, Adora. Each moment that she doesn’t go through with it, she’s going to feel worse and more compelled to do it until she eventually has no choice in the matter, especially with a time sensitive vow like that.”

The Succubus winced, looking even more sheepish than a moment ago, and genuinely apologetic as she said, “I’m sorry, Crystal. I thought it would help you stop second guessing yourself and there was no way I could have known that we’d have to close tonight.”

“I need to know what you made her promise, the exact wording, if possible,” Rhissa insisted, still not looking very happy with our friend and fellow entertainer.

With the promise feeling so heavy, I could feel the weight of the words like they were etched into my soul. “She had me say, ‘I’ll perform tomorrow night,’” I told her.

Rhissa let out a long and relieved sigh. “Okay, that’s not too terrible. We can work with that. At least you didn’t specify that she needed to do it in front of customers or something, and tonight could mean any time until the club usually closes. Okay, Crystal, we’re going to have you make an addendum to the oath.”

“Okay,” I replied. That didn’t sound too bad, and Rhissa probably knew what she was doing with this kind of stuff. “What do I need to say?”

“You’ll need to address her directly since she’s the one you made the oath to, the formality will give the addendum more weight,” Rhissa instructed with a pensive expression. “It will make the promise more specific, but in this case that will work to your favor. Just be as formal as possible and tell her that you will complete your promise for tonight after any minors have gone upstairs for the night.”

I nodded seriously, took a deep breath, and then turned to the Succubus in question. “Adora Dicken, due to changing circumstances, I shall comply with the oath you have bound me to and perform once any and all minors in the club have gone upstairs to sleep.”

I could immediately feel the weight of the oath lessen somewhat. It was still there, but not as mentally stifling and distracting as it was before. I quickly gave Rhissa a hug and a thank you and returned to finish the game I had been playing with the others.

It was just after eleven o’clock when Mom and Pandora started to organize rooms for all our guests and arranged for some of us who lived above the club to show them to those rooms so they could get comfortable and settle in for the night. I would, of course, need to stay downstairs to keep my promise after the others went to bed, so I bid the others good night and said that I would see them in the morning. I had a promise to keep.

As things were being organized, Selina approached the table where we were packing away the Monopoly game, looking a little self-conscious. She looked sleepy too, but she usually went to bed around nine or so and it was almost two and a half hours past that. “Momma…” she began uncertainly before asking, “Do you think that Nova, Phoebe, and I could have a sleepover in my room?”

Honestly, I didn’t see any harm in it since the girls were staying the night anyway and it would save on rooms being taken up by guests. I was also very happy that she and Nova were becoming so close, and that she seemed to be making friends with Alison’s sister as well. Still, I felt it wise to remind her, “You would have to wear a nightgown and panties.”

She was as uncomfortable wearing clothes as I was, and usually didn’t do so in the privacy of her room. Usually, the only time she wore clothes while sleeping was when she had a nightmare and came into my room to cuddle for reassurance. She still had nightmares from time to time, but thankfully, they seemed to be getting less severe and occurring less often.

“I know, Momma. I can manage okay wearing them for one night,” she assured me.

“Okay then, tell your Nana Tiffani and Pandora, get some extra pillows and blankets for them, and head off to bed then, and don’t stay up too late,” I instructed as I gave her a hug and a good night kiss on the forehead.

“Thanks, Momma,” she replied as she hugged me back. Then she ran off to tell Nova and Phoebe the good news. Thankfully, they both had overnight bags. We had been able to give everyone enough notice that Melody was coming to get them for most of our guests to pack bags for their stay. The only exceptions were Mallory and her mother, Calliope, neither of whom had been at home when Melody brought them to the club.

Calliope seemed fine with taking one of the second room floors usually reserved for entertaining club patrons, and our other guests would be staying in the dorm rooms on the third floor. Everything was organized and our schoolmates were starting to head upstairs to get ready for bed, with Carmen, Jess, and Lou offering to show them to the spare dorm rooms. It seemed like everyone was ready to head to bed, even most of us working in the club were taking advantage of the club being closed for a little extra sleep. All except Mom and Pandora, who were now talking quietly with Calliope.

Melody was going to stay and watch me perform, along with Rhissa, Sukoha, and the Dicken sisters, so I could say I actually performed for an audience. Rhissa hadn’t been sure if doing so without at least somebody watching me would count toward the vague oath. Derek had also agreed to stay downstairs a little longer to play music from the DJ booth, I had already told him my idea and asked him to pick songs that would work with it. The Dicken sisters had told me that he was good at that.

Personally, I was looking forward to a nice romp in bed with Melody once I had fulfilled my commitment to perform. So, while almost everyone else headed upstairs, I hurried to the backstage dressing area to get changed into one of my stage costumes. Not the snow princess or the naughty schoolgirl ones though since I wanted to save those for my first night performing in front of a crowd.

Instead, I went with this sexy cowgirl costume. It boasted very skimpy denim shorts and a flannel shirt that tied in the front to leave my midriff bare and showed off a lot of cleavage, worn over a flannel-looking, and very skimpy, panty and bra set. It also came with a black cowboy hat, red and black cowboy boots, and a tear-off replica gun belt.

The deal was that I was supposed to perform, not that I perform one of the routines we had been working on, so vagueness was probably working in my favor there. I figured that this might be a good time to try improvising a routine. There were no customers and no pressure after all.

Derek was even nice enough to give me a proper introduction, once I had signaled to him that I was ready. His deep, sexy voce booming out over the club sound system. “Ladies of Pandora’s Box, I’m thrilled to present, our very own hot little pistol, Crystal Cummings!”

I strutted sexily out onto the main stage to the first notes of Shoot to Thrill by ACDC. Good song and very appropriate, Derek was good at that. As I strutted and moved to the music, I saw the confused looks on my mentors’ faces turn into grins as they watched with Rhissa, Sukoha, and Melody. I could also see Mom and Pan looking like they were continuing their private talk with Mallory’s mother, Calliope, at one of the tables near the stage, though their attention was now on me.

Calling what we do while on-stage dancing is kind of a stretch. Oh sure, there are some dance moves involved, and we need to be graceful and have good timing and rhythm to move to the music, which is why we have some choreographed routines. Mostly though, it’s moving sexily to the music and flirting with the crowd as we time the right moments in a song to remove a piece of clothing or, once we’re completely nude, pose in such a way to tantalize the audience with our bodies… usually the naughty bits.

I couldn’t speak for other strip clubs, and had no intention to work for any others, but that was how the Dicken sisters had been teaching me to perform at Pandora’s Box. So I strutted to the music and occasionally threw in some sexy poses, performed some of the more alluring dance moves that my mentors had taught me, and flirted a lot too, giving a finger gun at just the right moment, taking off my hat for a brief instant to toss my hair around, or blowing a kiss to one of the girls watching me (usually Melody). I also used my agility and flexibility to tease before or while taking off a piece of clothing.

With the latter I dragged it out, teasing as I first hinted at taking off my shirt, untying the front, and then pausing as if hesitating, before leaving it untied but still on, showing my bra underneath and just a little more flesh. Then, just to be more of a tease, the first items of clothing I took off were my boots, one at a time, with one leg raised in front of me, so close to my body that it touched my chest, to slightly obscure my upper body while showing just how tight my shorts were. The shorts only followed after several more minutes of strutting, flirting, and teasing in time to the music.

The shirt followed next, after more teasing pseudo hesitation about taking it off, and by then the first song was nearing its end and I was left only with my hat, bra, panties, and the gun belt. The next song was You Give Love a Bad Name by Bon Jovi, another old song that was very well suited to this bit. It also gave me every excuse to be even more of a salacious tease to the audience, so I tossed my hat toward Rhissa, raised my hand from the gun belt, and shot a finger gun at her. She pretended to swoon as she caught it, and I had trouble keeping a straight face and looking properly sexy as I went on with my act.

I had just bent over to one part of the song, with my legs spread a little and showing off my ass to those watching and blowing a kiss at them between my legs, when I stood upright again. As I did so, my hands moved sensually up my legs and then my sides to reach up and back to unclasp my bra as I pursed my lips and turned to look over and give them a sensual, almost needy look over my shoulder. When I turned around, I wasn’t wearing the bra anymore, but my long hair was artfully obscuring my bare breasts.

A moment later I flipped my hair over my shoulders, exposing my breasts and diamond-hard nipples as I strutted in time to the music toward the front of the stage and, with a slight thrust of my hips, tore off the gun belt, earning some whistles and shouts from Rhissa, Sukoha, Melody, and the three Succubae sisters. The song was starting to wind down when I finally bent forward, giving a very nice view of my breasts, and slowly peeled off my panties before stepping out of them, one agonizing foot at a time. They dangled from the finger on my outstretched arm and, as I allowed myself to drop to my knees, I allowed them to drop as well.

The panties fell onto the stage with a wet plop as I spread my legs to show the dripping slit between them and arched my back, breasts proudly thrust outward and nipples pointing to the ceiling as the song wound down. That wasn’t too bad for improvising the whole thing I thought as the song ended and I heard the applause. Usually, main stage acts were around twenty minutes long so I would have continued flirting, moving to the music and showing off my goods for another song or two, but the weight of the oath had disappeared, so I was willing to let it end there as I stood up and gave Derek a thumbs up in the booth to let him know I was done.

As I got back to my feet, I noticed that Melody was giving me a look of pure lust as Rhissa dramatically fanned herself, and Sukoha and the twins all grinned at me. Mom and Pandora were smiling as they continued to talk to Calliope and gestured toward the stage. I was grinning as I sashayed over to the table where my girlfriend and the others were waiting. “That was fucking hot,” Melody said, her voice raspy with desire.

“The strutting was a good idea with that costume, you looked like a cocky, sexy gunslinger up there,” Rhissa added with a grin. She was currently wearing my hat that I had thrown at her.

Stella nodded as she agreed, “It was a little rough, but not bad for being improvised. With a little work, and a bit more proper choreography, we could turn that into another regular routine for you.”

“You might even be able to work that hat throw and finger gun thing into wrangling some extra money from patrons,” Adora added pensively. “Krysti has an act that does something similar, but with this whole geisha girl thing. She tosses a fan though, usually to someone that catches her eye. Retrieving it after the act gives her an excuse to talk to them, and that often ends up in them wanting to negotiate some extra services.”

Stella grinned at that, “Yeah, that’s right, she does. I’ve already got some ideas on how we could turn that into a whole new stage act for you, Crystal. If you want, I’ll start jotting down notes and working on a proper choreography for it before I go to bed, while it’s fresh in my mind. Those were good song picks too, and we could probably find a couple more that would work fairly well for a full set.”

“Uh… sure. Honestly, I was just improvising, trying to have fun with it, and not embarrass myself too badly, but if you think you can make it work for an actual act, I’m all for it,” I replied, earning a hug from all three of my mentors.

“That was certainly better than my first improvised act,” Sukoha said with a giggle. “I only had one choreographed act then and I thought it would be easy to make something sexy that would work on the spur of the moment. When I got on stage and saw the crowd, I started overthinking things.”

I winced in sympathy, glad that I didn’t have an audience of club patrons for my first improvised act. We all talked for a few more minutes about how we could develop what I did on stage into an actual stage act, though I did turn to the booth where Mom and Pandora were speaking with Calliope in surprise when I felt the familiar presence of Divine magic, it felt like some sort of healing spell. Mom was touching Calliope’s shoulder for some reason.

After several minutes, and another sense of Divine magic being used while I was back to discussing a possible new act with the others, Mom, Pandora, and Calliope came over to join us. “Nicely done, Crystal. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t have realized that you were making things up as you got a feel for the music.”

“Yep, it wasn’t bad,” Adora said, beaming with pride. “We were just talking about turning into another proper act for her.”

Mom nodded and smiled. “Good idea, it would be a waste not to develop that into something more refined. We were just interviewing Calliope here, and while she has plenty of experience pleasing men, and the occasional woman, in the bedroom, she’s a little uncertain about her ability to do what you girls do on stage.”

Calliope laughed nervously as she concurred. “Yeah, I’m not sure that I could do what I saw Crystal doing just now, at least, not right out of the gate. I would have no idea where to even start with that pole either.”

“Anita, Adora, and Stella,” Pandora addressed the three Dicken sisters as she turned to look at them. “Since you’ve done such a good job showing Crystal the ropes, would you mind teaching Calliope as well? It wouldn’t take much time from your work nights since you could train her during the day, while the club is closed.”

Anita’s face morphed into a maniacal grin, and her sisters weren’t far behind in matching it as she said, “Another student? Sure, it’s been fun teaching Crystal. We’ll want to see what we have to work with though. Crystal, clean your stuff off the stage so we can get her started on some basics and see what she can do!”

I quickly gathered my things from the stage and then went to retrieve my hat from Rhissa as the three Succubae led Calliope to the stage. I was about to take the clothes backstage when Mom approached and offered, “Here, let me show you a Divine spell to clean your clothes, it’ll save you doing laundry.”

“Is that going to be okay?” I asked as I glanced warily toward the stage. “How’d the interview go?”

“I think that she and her daughter will fit in well here, and the triplets can teach her what she needs to know on stage. It’s honestly better that she has no stage experience, it’s less learned mistakes to correct. She’s already taken a binding oath and will keep our secrets, just as we have promised to keep hers from anyone not a part of the family. She’ll convince Mallory to take an oath as well,” Mom stated with a glance toward where Calliope was watching Stella show her some basic dance moves.

“Her secrets?” I asked, though I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. A lot of Paranormals have secrets after all.

Mom nodded, and stated, “You need to promise that you won’t discuss this with anyone outside of the family.”

“Of course,” I replied immediately. If she and Mallory were going to be part of the family now too, and it seemed they were, then I wouldn’t do anything to endanger them. “I promise, not a word about anything you tell me to anyone outside of the family.”

As I felt the slight weight of the oath settle upon me, Mom said, “Calliope is an escaped slave. She was grabbed by Snatchers not long after she Manifested and sold to the Chimera Syndicate. They had her wearing some sort of collar with a control spell and a tracking spell on it. She couldn’t use her abilities for anything they didn’t tell her to, and they made her do some truly horrendous things while she was under their control.”

“Shit, how did she get away?” I asked, glancing in sympathy toward the stage where Calliope was still watching Stella, but had changed into her true demonic-looking form. She was pretty sexy like that, and Mallory was right about her ability to control her flames. They were barely embers, and I couldn’t see her even giving off sparks.

The expression on Mom’s face was a cross between distaste and fury as she answered my question. “They were breeding her, like an animal, and not long after she discovered she was pregnant with Mallory, she managed to use a poorly worded order 'to incinerate someone who had crossed the Chimera Syndicate' to make her flames hot enough to destroy the collar. Then she turned her former masters to ash, changed her name, and went on the run, eventually ending up here when Mallory was born. She still had a brand on her shoulder, a mark of ownership, but I just removed that.”

Well, that explained the healing magic I had felt earlier. “Well, fuck. Will she and Mallory be staying here now? I’m kinda worried about their safety now.”

“Yes, she’s accepted our offer. She’ll quit her old job tomorrow and we’ll help her and Mallory move their things here this week. It might be a good idea for Mallory to start working here once she’s eighteen as well, to make sure she’s safe. I understand that Raul is starting to train her as a cook, and we could always use more help in the kitchen. I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow and see if he minds us poaching her later since she’ll be living here anyway. I could always send one or two of our part-timers who want more hours and might be interested his way in exchange,” she said thoughtfully.

It seemed that Mom and Pandora had things well in hand, and that Mallory and Calliope would be joining the family, so I let the subject drop and got Mom to show me that cleaning spell. It was actually pretty easy to learn now that I was getting more experience using and visualizing my magic, and I would probably end up using it a lot. Soon I was putting my now clean cowgirl costume on my rack backstage, along with the robe I had been wearing most of the night and changing back into the clothes I had worn earlier today to head back upstairs.

Once we had said goodnight to the others, Melody and I headed back upstairs and to my room. I was extremely horny after that performance on stage and Melody was very eager to accommodate me after watching said performance. It was a good two hours before we were both worn out and cuddling together, enjoying the afterglow, as we drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.