Calliope and Mallory didn’t have a lot that they needed to move since the place they were living in came furnished. They were only really concerned about their clothes, a few personal items, and a few other small things that we could probably fit in one load with the club’s truck. With that in mind, I offered to drive them home in the truck so they could get their things and Melody and Aunt Merry decided to join us to keep us all safe.

Calliope’s directions took us to a trailer park on the outskirts of the city and then to a very small mobile home that had seen better days. It was no more impressive inside than it was outside. Calliope had done her best to make a home out of the place, but it was small and cramped, and they were stuck with the furniture it came with. There were two bedrooms, but they were both small, barely big enough to fit the bed and dresser that each had, and the closet space left much to be desired as well.

Melody frowned and brought another matter to my attention as we started packing the stuff in Mallory’s room into the suitcases that me and Jess had loaned her to make things easier. “Is it always so cold in here? Or did the electricity outage affect here as well?”

Mallory shook her head, as a frown turned her lips downward. “The furnace hasn’t been working for a couple of weeks now. Like everything else here, it’s ancient. Mom called the guy we’re renting from to complain and to get someone here to fix it, but he hasn’t done anything yet. It’s a good thing that me and Mom can generate our own heat, even in our human forms.”

She wasn’t lying about everything being old. Calling the furniture second-hand was being generous, the trailer itself was ancient, and it looked like it hadn’t been renovated or redecorated since the eighties. The walls and curtains both hosted faded stains of age and water damage and the floor tiles were peeling, with spots where they had been worn through entirely. In short, the place was a hellhole.

My hand clenched into a fist around the hanger that hosted the school uniform that I was pulling from the closet. “You mean to tell me that on top of living in this shithole, which your mom could barely afford the rent on with two jobs, you’ve been without heat for a couple of weeks? In winter? If you were normies, you could have died by now, especially with that snowstorm last night!”

I was furious but poor Mallory just seemed resigned to it. She was used to it, which only served to piss me off further as she replied, “Mom was barely getting minimum wage from the store, and her night income has always been inconsistent. At least here people mostly stayed out of our business, and we had a roof over our heads. I think it might take us a while to get used to the luxury of our new rooms. Thanks, Crystal, y’know… for getting us out of here.”

I stopped pulling clothes out of the closet and placed them on the bed before wrapping my newest friend up in a hug. “I don’t need your thanks, Mallory, just your happiness. It’s like I told your mom; it’s common sense to help out a friend if I can and they need it. You and your mom needed it, so I’m glad I could help. I didn’t even do that much, just talked to Mom and Pandora.”

Mallory returned the hug, squeezing me tight. “Mom was right too though, Crystal. That kind of common sense isn’t very common. So, thanks for being you.”

A moment later we were back to getting everything out of her closet and dresser and into suitcases. It didn’t take long since most of it was just clothes, shoes, and stuff like that, and some makeup that she already kept in a plastic tote. Her school stuff was already in her school bag and most of the keepsakes that she wanted to keep, and decorations like posters on the walls, were easy enough to get in either the suitcases with the clothes and stuff or to put inside her makeup tote.

Her mother had as little as she did, maybe even less, and between her and Merry they had gotten pretty much everything that Calliope wanted to keep packed in the suitcases my mother and Pandora had loaned her from their last vacation. We were back home before dinnertime and the pair had the entire evening to settle in and get to know everyone better. Me and Melody helped Mallory get her things to her room and then Jess and Carmen joined us to help her get things put away properly.

After dinner, we took care of a few other important matters to help the new pair settle in, including a proper tour of the building and introducing her to Ashe and Jenny in the boiler room. Ashe took an instant liking to the pair, which wasn’t all that surprising since they were fire-aligned. Though the Salamander told those of us who could speak with her mentally that there was more than just that to it.

She could see more than their elemental alignment after all, and she confirmed my belief that Calliope and Mallory were both good people who deserved the chance we were giving them. I had a feeling that Ashe was already considering who she might give the eggs from her next clutch to, and Mallory and Selina were probably at the top of the list, with Calliope, my mother, Carmen’s mother, Carmilla, and Krysti close behind. I guess that just three eggs was small for a clutch. Usually, Salamanders can lay anywhere from three to eight eggs, so at least three people would be getting eggs from her after her next mating cycle.

After the tour, me and my fellow ‘kids’ of the club gathered up some snacks and drinks and had a little welcome party for Mallory in her new room. We were all sitting there, chatting away as we got comfortable, and Mallory was staring at the new, illusory Salamander mark on her arm. Mom had cast it on her just after we finished the tour.

Mom needed to refresh the ones on Lou, Selina, and Jess for the week, so she cast one for Mallory at the same time. Carmen, noting the direction of Mallory’s gaze, grinned and punched her lightly on the shoulder. “I guess that makes it official, you’re a Pandora’s Box kid now. Welcome to our crazy family.”

Sorcha said something excitedly and I thought I caught something about a Salamander, but it was hard to tell while she had her mouth full of cookie. Selina pulled the little one up onto the edge of the bed with her as she translated, “I think she said something about getting a real Salamander soon. Momma said it could be a long time though.”

“Grundle said roughly a year between clutches when ours hatched,” Carmen clarified, much to Sorcha’s disappointment.

I couldn’t be sure why she was disappointed though since she already had Squiggles, but she probably wanted to share the fun with Selina and be able to talk with her on the Salamander network. Now that our Salamanders were old enough to leave our bodies for short times and were close to actually communicating with us though, Melody, Carmen, and I were going to have to start laying down ground rules for them and ensure that Sorcha was doing the same thing. The last thing we needed was a curious Salamander with no discipline wandering around the club.

“Welcome, Mallory, we need another guy here though. I was already way outnumbered before and now there’s more of you. Not that I mind looking at pretty girls,” Lou offered with a grin. “I could use a guy to talk about guy stuff with though.”

“What, I don’t count?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No... I mean, yeah… I mean, I can talk about cars and stuff with you but you’re…” his sputtered protest trailed off as he backed away a bit and looked at me warily. “I probably don’t want to finish that sentence, do I?”

I kept giving him a stern look until I couldn’t anymore and started to giggle. “Oh, you’re learning! Nah, you’re off the hook this time, Teen Wolf. We all know that I’m way too pretty to be a guy.”

“And so modest too,” Melody teased as she put an arm around me and then kissed me. “You’re lucky that I find confidence so sexy.”

Lou just sagged in relief. “Thank God, I thought you were gonna freeze my balls off again.”

Jess smacked him upside the head and looked pointedly toward Sorcha as she hissed, “There are little ears present.”

“Not yours, Jess,” Lou replied with a glance at her bunny ears, earning him another slap upside the head.

I gave him a thoughtful look and a smile as said, “Maybe I could use some practice with my Ice magick after all.”

Lou froze, not literally though since I didn’t carry through on my threat. “I… uhh… sorry. Maybe the ears joke was taking things a hare too far.”

That earned him a pair of slaps upside the head, from both me and Jess as we groaned at the obvious pun and said, ““You’re terrible, Lou.”” It said a lot that we were getting so used to his terrible sense of humor, and/or him sticking his foot in his mouth, that our reactions were becoming synchronized. We weren’t even trying to do the twin-speak thing that time.

That time he winced, and grumbled, “You know it’s creepy when you two do that, right?”

Poor Mallory, who had been watching the whole thing, suddenly burst out laughing. Once she managed to calm her giggling, she asked, “Is it always like this here?”

“Nah,” Carmen replied. “Just when we’re all together like this. Now Crystal, Jess, and Melody are too busy to hang out much except on days like today, and Lou is often working on his car or gaming on his computer when he isn’t on Werewolf lockdown these days.”

“Yeah, I can get that. I’ll probably be busy with my job too,” Mallory agreed, though she was smiling as she said it. “Since I don’t have to worry about helping Mom make ends meet, I can make myself some spending money. Maybe I’ll save up to take some classes or something. I really like working in the kitchen, so I’m thinking about maybe going to culinary school or something.”

It was nice seeing Mallory thinking about the future and being able to prioritize her own wants and needs. She was starting to relax more too, which I hoped would help her to settle in easier. We all hung out and kept talking with one another until it was time for Sorcha and Selina to head to bed. Once they were both tucked in we all split off to do our own things. Jess, Carmen, and Mallory decided to see if there was anything good on TV, Lou wanted to get some gaming in before bed, and I was very eager to end what had been a very good day by having my girlfriend ravish me.

Monday turned out to be a wonderful day at school and not just because I got to finish the day with Auto Shop, working on the Supra. It was a little strange to have a day at school without Delilah and her friends trying to get me in trouble, saying nasty things, and generally harassing me and my friends. Delilah was keeping to the terms of the contract, but she also seemed to be on her guard, almost paranoid about what my friends might do to make her miserable while I was temporarily unable to do so myself.

Not that the others had done anything of the kind yet. Even Trixie, Rose, and my sister were holding themselves from doing anything to her yet. The plan was to keep her on edge, wondering what they might be planning, just to make her start jumping at shadows. I think that their secretive whispers at lunch, and the occasional glances in Delilah’s general direction were already starting to get to her.

Hopefully, by lunchtime on Wednesday, she would either be a nervous wreck waiting for something to happen or convinced that my friends couldn’t be bothered to harass her. Then, from after lunch on Wednesday until the deal ended at lunch on Friday, the girls would start hitting Delilah with every prank they could conceive of getting away with. I couldn’t wait to see the chaos unleashed. I might not be able to get involved, but I could still enjoy the show.

Speaking of shows, when we got home, I had to get ready for work since Melody, Jess, and I were all working. None of us would be working until closing since we had school in the morning, but we were scheduled to work until eleven o’clock. I was still a little nervous about performing in front of paying customers for the first time, but it actually turned out to be a non-event.

The first hour of my shift was mostly spent on one of the mini stages to the sides of the bars, broken up with a couple of pole dancing sessions off to the side of the main stage. I was getting pretty decent tips, even though we weren’t really busy yet. While I was expecting nobody to pay attention to my pole routine while Rhissa or Pandora were front and center on the same stage, taking off clothes and flaunting their bodies, there were a few people seated on the stools to my side of the stage, watching me in rapt fascination.

It could be just the fact that I was new that garnered that interest, or that there were some regulars who liked to watch the pole dancers in general, but it was nice to know that my efforts weren’t for nothing. And it was so fun too. I was feeling pretty good as I finished my second such set, collected the bills scattered around the stage in front of my pole, and headed backstage.

Each of the entertainers has a lockbox backstage with our name and a combination on it, where we place all our tips and fees for extra services to be counted at the end of the night. Pandora and Mom were the only ones besides the dancers in question who had the combinations and they counted everyone’s earnings themselves before extracting the club’s thirty percent, leaving the rest in our lockboxes for us to pick up tomorrow morning. I carefully placed my gathered tips in my lockbox, toweled off the sweat from my exertion, and then put on my robe since it was my dinner break.

I had a few men watching me in interest as I made my way through the club to the booths where we usually ate near the kitchen, but it was still too early for people to be interested in extra services or the like. We probably wouldn’t be getting the dinner rush for another half hour or so, which would probably be in full swing by the time I had my first big performance on the main stage in an hour. Jess and Rhissa were both on their dinner break as well, so they joined me to eat.

Jess and I were getting a lot of looks from the men who started coming in when the dinner rush did hit, but thankfully Jess’s bartending uniform let the regulars know that she was off-limits. The fact that Rhissa and I were in the booth with her, and both wearing robes at the moment, told people that we were on our meal breaks as well, so we weren’t bothered as we ate and were able to enjoy our time together. It was around quarter after six, fifteen minutes before I was due on stage, when Rhissa asked, “So, how are the nerves tonight, Crystal? Are you ready for some real stage time?”

I considered the question for a moment before replying honestly. “Actually, it’s not that bad. I think doing that improv performance on Saturday night helped my confidence a bit and working up to things on the smaller stages and the pole have been helping me to relax a bit. I can just dance with no clothes and no pressure. I’m still a bit nervous about messing up on the big stage, but if I do then I’ll just keep going on with the show.”

“Don’t worry, you have the routines down and it’s mostly muscle memory, letting your body do what you’ve trained it to, and occasionally flirting with someone in the crowd,” the Huldra assured me.

“Yup, you’ll do fine, Sis, better than I ever could,” my sister agreed as she wrapped me in a side hug. “You’re actually pretty good at this, I’ve been hearing some of the regulars talking about you. Well, that and trying to get some inside information from me about what you might be interested in.”

My eyes widened and my eyebrows rose at that as I asked, “Really? What have you been telling them?”

“That I have no interest in my twin sister’s sex life,” she replied with a laugh. “You may get some offers for extra services later though. A couple asked what your favorite drink is. Don’t worry, I told them that you absolutely love a drink called Arctic Ice.”

I snickered but nodded. “That does sound like my kind of drink, but what is it? I didn’t see that on the drink menu.”

“It’s not on the menu, and everyone knows that we’re fine with mixing drinks not on the menu if we know how it’s made, or the customer does,” Jess said with a grin as she lowered her voice so nobody beyond the three of us could hear. “In your case, it’s code for a non-alcoholic drink for you, like the Savannah Sunset that the Dicken sisters order. Most of the dancers have one they specifically drink like Carmilla has the Vampire’s Kiss, which is actually just a Bloody Mary… with real blood that we keep chilled in a thermos for her.”

“Mine is the Horny Huldra,” Rhissa said with a smirk.

“I got to create yours and name it, Sis,” Jess continued, her voice still low. “It’s basically just lemonade with blue food coloring and some mint extract added to some shaved ice, with just enough vodka and salt on the rim to make it smell alcoholic and look like ice crystals. Add a blue straw and a wedge of lime for appearances and you’re good to go.”

“Aww, thanks, Sis, that sounds awesome,” I told her as I hugged her. Then, looking at the time, I said, “Well, I should go get into my stage clothes, I’ve got a show to do.”

Thankfully, I managed to pull off my first performance on the big stage without a hitch. The club was really busy by the time I stepped out on stage as Derek announced me and the opening notes of Ice Queen by Within Temptation started up. There were a lot of eyes on the stage, but l managed to keep calm and have fun with it, my body mostly working on autopilot through the choreography. Even the best times to take off an item of my ice princess costume in time with the music to amp up the audience were basically a part of the choreography.

All that I really needed to focus on consciously was when to flirt with some of the customers near the stage by giving the come-hither eyes, running a finger across my lips before blowing a kiss, running my hands sensually down my body, or moving enough to tease at what was underneath my half cape and the sheer material of my dress. At first, the audience seemed frozen in their seats, unable to do anything but watch my movements, as if hypnotized, but as my act went on with the removal of my cape, they started really getting into it. By the time the last notes of Cold as Ice by Ava Max trailed off, I had the crowd eating out of my hands and the front of the stage was littered with cold hard cash.

After flirting a bit with some of the people watching, I gathered my clothes and cash from around the stage so that the part-timer who cleaned the stage between acts could do his job. I put the money in my cash box, toweled off, and then cleaned both the towel and my clothes with Divine magic before putting them back on my costumes rack. Then I left the backstage area to enjoy a break after twenty minutes of physical exercise before my next set on one of the mini stages.

Three of Jess’s new drinks for me were dropped off by one of the waitresses moments after I sat down with Sukoha and Nixie who were both taking a breather between sets as well. “Well, somebody is popular,” Nixie teased.

Laughing, I offered the other two drinks to my fellow dancers, who looked as thirsty as I was. The drink was nice, cool, and refreshing with all that shaved ice, and the slightly cooling hint of mint made it pleasantly different than any lemonade I had tried before. My sister knew me so well. Sukoha seemed to share my tastes as she said, “Oh, this is good. What was this one called?”

“It’s an Arctic Ice,” I told her with a smile.

She smiled back, displaying her long needle-like teeth. “Cool, I’ll have to order this one once in a while. It’s very refreshing.”

I stopped giggling at her pun and was taking another taste of the wonderful drink when a man approached our table. He was probably in his late twenties, tall and well-built, with a chiseled jaw, dark brown hair, and blue eyes. At least, that was what the glamour that I could sense was telling me.

It was a good glamour too, very convincing, which was weird since most of our clientele saw no reason to hide their true selves in a business catering specifically to Paranormals. In fact, we had a ‘no glamours or illusions’ policy at the door so we could properly ID anyone entering the club. Annika could detect them and that, in addition to her size and strength, made her the perfect doorperson for the club.

Still, I guess that couldn’t stop people from casting a glamour again as soon as they were past the door. It just wasn’t very common, at least to my knowledge. He seemed friendly though as he said, “Hi. You’re Crystal, the new girl, right?” the man asked after greeting both of the other girls by name.

Despite my confusion over the glamour, I gave him a friendly smile and nodded. Sukoha and Nixie both seemed familiar with him, so that probably meant that he wasn’t a danger to us. “Yes, that’s me,” I replied.

“Crystal, this is… Carl,” Sukoha offered with a grin, “a regular patron here at the club.”

“Carl is probably responsible for at least one of these drinks and is most likely wondering if you’d be up for some extra services, Crystal. This one always has to try out the club’s new flavors,” Nixie added, but her tone was teasing and familiar, so I figured that this person was probably somebody she knew well.

Carl flushed but nodded. “Yes, actually, I was wondering if she might be interested. Maybe if the two of you have time, you’d be interested in joining us for a group session, if Crystal is willing.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t,” Nixie offered apologetically. “I’m due on the main stage soon.”

Sukoha, who had been on the main stage just before me, seemed to be seriously considering it though. “Well, if Crystal is interested, I would love to join in. Neither of us has to be back on the main stage for a couple of hours yet. I’m on again at nine, and I think Crystal is after me at nine-thirty.”

As the Kuromihar turned to give me a questioning look, I nodded. “Yeah, I’m not on until nine-thirty. As long as we’re done by nine so I can put Selina to bed, I’d be willing to give it a try. I do love sex.” I managed to keep my voice calm and casual, even though my heart was suddenly racing at the thought of having sex with someone for money for the first time.

Okay, this was good, it was probably even better this way. The others seemed familiar enough with this guy that he was probably safe, and having someone I could trust with me the first time serving a guy like this would probably make things more comfortable for me. Besides, Sukoha was definitely on the yes list where it concerned group stuff and I’d get to have fun with her too, right?

I was barely cognizant of Carl smiling as he and Sukoha talked over the details, I quickly finished my drink, and Nixie leaned closer to whisper in my ear. “It’ll be fine, Crystal. In fact, this is probably the best scenario for your first time doing this. Carla is really a woman; she’s in the closet and uses a glamour so other customers don’t recognize her, and we can keep her secret. She’s a good lover, very gentle and sweet, and so is Sukoha, they’ll take good care of you. I’ll let Pan and Tiffani know that you’re both offering extra services until nine.”

My mind was damn near short-circuited as her words unraveled in my mind. Oh, my Goddess. I just agreed to have a threesome with Sukoha and another woman I don’t know, and now I was suddenly dripping wet. As Nixie paused to take a sip of her drink I whispered back, “Umm… yeah, and someone might need to wipe down this chair.”

The Undine nearly spat out her drink as she laughed.