I woke up feeling unexpectedly warm and comfortable. Not wanting to leave the pleasant coziness of my bed, I just laid there for a few minutes with my eyes closed and snuggled closer to Goldie. She was cold as usual, but the warmth of our bed seemed to raise her body temperature enough to make it slightly less jarring when our bodies touched.

The bed was so warm and cozy, with a liquid feel to it, like the most comfortable waterbed ever. It was so nice that I didn’t want to leave, and yet, I really had to go pee and that was causing me to stir from my warm comfort of the bed. Wait… bed? As my mind cleared and I shook off the fog of sleep, memories of the long and strange night we had came back to me, and they did not include me falling asleep in such a comfortable bed.

My eyes shot wide open, my heart beating wildly until sat bolt upright and discovered that the apparently thin mattress that I was lying on was translucent and a very familiar shade of pink. Berry’s voice spoke hesitantly from somewhere near my head. “I… you didn’t look very comfortable sleeping on the hard floor and I… absorbed a lot of extra mass last night.”

Shit, I had made her self-conscious last night when I freaked out. I replied quietly, not wanting to wake Goldie since she seemed to be still asleep. “Look, Berry, I shouldn’t have freaked out at you like I did last night. I… have a lot of baggage, and I’m still trying to get used to all of this Arcane stuff, but that’s no excuse for getting upset with you and then walking off without properly apologizing. You were trying to help, and it probably was the best way to get rid of the body. Thanks for doing that for us, and I’m sorry for upsetting you and not taking your feelings into account. You’re not just some spell that Greta cast anymore, you’re a person too and you didn’t deserve a lot of what I said. I should have been a lot more tactful.”

Tendrils of slime emerged from the ‘mattress’ to wrap me in what was probably supposed to be a hug as Berry’s voice asked, “Does that mean that we’re…”

“Friends,” I finished for her. “For now, anyway. You never know what the future might bring. I’m not going to try to change who you are, and I know that you have a thing for me, but let’s keep it as friends for now. Thanks for making my sleep more comfortable, and for including Goldie too, that was sweet of you. I appreciate it, and the fact that you didn’t grope me or anything.”

“I’ll take friends with possible benefits!” the slime-girl’s voice eagerly replied. “The bloodsucker is pretty possessive of you, so I figure if I’m going to make any headway with you, I’ll have to include her too. She’s not you, but she’s pretty hot and why would I have to grope you when your fine ass is right where I want it.” She giggled as she said the last and the surface that I was sitting on kneaded my butt.

Well, at least it seemed that she was back to what seemed to pass for normal for her. I might be a blushing mess of a useless lesbian right now, but the attention that I got from both her and Goldie was nice, even if they were both a lot more forward than I was sometimes comfortable with. As long as they both respected my limits and stopped, if I made it clear that I was uncomfortable, I could probably handle it. Goldie was the one that I was willing to give a little more leeway too though since we’d been together for a while now and were developing a relationship.

“I’ve… uhh… got to go bathroom,” I said, quickly excusing myself as I got up. That stimulation from Berry had only made the need more pressing, so I snatched up my purse and headed to the room in question. Once I was finished my business and had cleaned up using some wet wipes from my purse, I returned to the bedroom to find that our Fairy guide was still asleep on the windowsill and Goldie was still out like a light.

I wasn’t surprised to see that the others weren’t up yet since it was barely noon, and we hadn’t gotten to sleep until after dawn. Goldie wouldn’t likely wake until near sunset, and I was still sleepy myself, though I figured that now was as good of a time as any to get something to eat and then run a couple of important errands. “I need to leave Shadowtown to get our things from the place where Goldie and I have been hiding out,” I said quietly as I tried not to wake anyone.

“You shouldn’t go alone, I’ll go with you, and we can spend some quality alone time together,” Berry quietly replied in a concerned tone that quickly changed to teasing.

“Yeah, well, I’ll probably need your strength for the door anyway. Goldie usually opens it, but you can probably manage it. I’m probably going to grab something to eat while we’re out too.”

“That’s okay, we all need to eat, and I’ll keep quiet and hidden while you do it, Red,” the slime-girl agreed as she flowed out from beneath Goldie, gently easing the Vampire to the floor before taking her human shape again, though she didn’t look much bigger than when we had met. I stared at her in confusion for a moment since she was quite a bit smaller than the bed, but then I remembered how she had also changed into a small backpack before too.

I nodded and put on my waist pack/purse, leading the way out of the bedroom. Once we were outside, she once again turned into a pink backpack and as she flowed into place I inquired, “How do you change sizes like that? The shapeshifting is cool, but shouldn’t mass remain constant? Unless… are you using magic?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Berry replied, shifting slightly on my back and shoulders. “I’m working by instinct here, but I think I’m kind of pushing all my extra mass somewhere else when it isn’t needed. Maybe it’s some kind of natural magic ability for creatures like me? Though I’m pretty sure that I’m one of a kind so we might never know.”

After eating some breakfast at Rosie’s Diner, with Berry in backpack form and watching my back, I headed toward the old church where Goldie and I had been hiding out. Thankfully, I was able to avoid the few people who were out and wandering the dilapidated neighborhood in broad daylight. Once Berry had dissolved the piece of bent rebar securing the cellar doors shut, I quickly packed up mine and Goldie’s meager possessions and put them into the saddlebags and cargo net on the Ducati.

From there we headed back into Shadowtown, and then to our new home where we found Cerriwyn awake and waiting for us in the living room. After making a couple of trips to bring in the stuff that was packed on my bike, the Fairy started giving me and Berry some basic information on Shadowtown and the various services that we would be able to find in town. There was the Shadowtown Bank, the Currency Exchange next door to the bank, cafés, restaurants, bars, stores of various types, and even a large delivery service with almost a dozen trucks and drivers who could blend in among the normies.

The latter helped to keep the various businesses in Shadowtown supplied by collecting orders from their suppliers’ warehouses outside of Shadowtown. Malafis used magic to smuggle in some of the harder to get items that were needed in Shadowtown, but nobody in Upper Shadowtown wanted to depend on her any more than was absolutely necessary. The price of dealing with the Winter Court, and Malafis in particular, was often a hefty one and Cerriwyn warned us to avoid it at all costs. If we really needed something that badly, then the BriarRose clan would try to help us get it.

One item of note was that most of the businesses in Shadowtown were open 24/7 because there were as many nocturnal Arcane in town as those who were active during the day and slept at night. This came as a great relief to me since I had been worrying about being able to get to the bank during business hours with Goldie needing to avoid sunlight. Maybe we could get her some protective clothes with our reward in case the Fairy Godmother needed us to handle something during daylight hours.

We were discussing the possibility of getting some things enchanted for Goldie to keep her safe from the sun when the Vampire herself came downstairs to join us. “Where’s the Witch bitch?” she asked after looking around and then plopping down on the floor beside me to give me a kiss.

Returning the kiss, I shrugged. “Greta was still asleep the last time I checked. Cerriwyn has been telling us more about Shadowtown and I’ve been putting together a to-do list on my phone for tonight while we were waiting for the two of you.”

“It will take several days of rest before she will be fully recovered from her overuse of mana,” the Fairy warned us. “She will likely sleep for most of that time, but we should wake her and ensure that she gets something proper to eat. Food is as important as rest for her right now.”

Nobody wanted to be the one to wake the irritable and foul-mouthed busty Bavarian beauty, but I managed to convince Berry to do it. Without a sound, the slime-girl made her way up the stairs and a moment later there was a loud shriek. “Hey! Watch where you’re sticking that fucking slime or yours, Bitch!”

My mind went to all the bad places when I heard that. I knew very well how gropey Berry could get and my face was beet red when the pair descended the stairs a few minutes later. The pink slime-girl was looking very pleased with herself as she descended the steps ahead of the Witch, who looked dead tired and even bitchier than she had when we met her the night before.

I was about to ask just what she had done to wake Greta when I noticed the Witch rubbing at her right ear and the side of her head. “You got that gross shit all up in my ear and now my hair is slimy. You could have just shaken me or called out like a normal fucking person,” the busty blonde muttered.

“Sorry about that,” I told her, my cheeks still bright red at the thoughts that had been going through my head. “We should all go to the bank so we can cash in our rewards, and Cerriwyn said that you should probably eat something too. I could go for a burger or a nice, rare steak anyway.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. Let’s go eat and get whatever shit we need to do over with so I can go back to sleep,” Greta grumbled grievously.

Cerriwyn seemed eager to go as she took to the air and fluttered toward the door. “Follow me then, ladies, Shadowtown awaits,” she called out cheerfully.