And here is the final chapters of The Unfortunate Experiences of Mike Cross. The story has come to its end, and hopefully one that everybody likes.

Of course the mall was full of a shitton of people which made me a thousand percent more nervous so nervous in fact that I couldn’t really think in complete sentences I could only think in one giant jumbled mess that only aided me in drawing my attention to the massive amount of people who could at any point in time accidentally come upon a conversation being had by three succubi including the succubus queen as well as the magical girl who was just fighting to help her sister and the hot guy just trying to get his girlfriend back and

Eve, Evie, Eeeeeeeeeeve… Calm down, Mike said. You’re making it hard for the audience to follow.

What audience?

Bite me, I’m practicing for when this turns into a reality show.

Why are you calm right now?

Because you’re freaking out enough for both of us.

Thank you so much for telling me that.

You’re welcome.

“You doing okay?” Terry asked, ever the caring boyfriend.

I shook my head. “Not really.”

Allie patted me on the back. “Well, don’t worry about any of this. We’re going to settle this and get Mikey back out. Your mom would be really stubborn if she didn’t understand the stakes here.”

I giggled nervously. “Yeah. Stubborn.”

Of course, Allie didn’t actually know my mom. She’d probably heard a lot about her, most of it probably not true, but that’s what I’d expect with a metaphorical war between magic beings. Most of what we’re told about magical girls is a lie, based on what I’ve seen of Allie. Then again, maybe I should have known that before. When they’re described as “child-eaters” and “just this side of an apocalypse on stiletto heels”, the odds are good those descriptions are fake as shit.

The idea that this was gonna suck wouldn’t stop running through my head, and of course, the nagging desire to make an innuendo about it.

So make the innuendo. If it helps you calm down, do it.

I shook my head. No. I can’t be calm right now. Talking to my mom about what I did frightens the hell out of me.

Yeah, that’s obvious.

I will never understand how you’ve adjusted to everything I’ve put you through.

Don’t worry about it. Just, calm yourself down, and this whole thing with your mom will go just fine.

You are far too laid back for this.

I’ve learned from the best.

Allie pointed to a bench in the center court, the most public area in the goddamn mall. Sure enough, there was Abbie and my mother, sitting on the bench and looking every guy they saw up and down, likely categorizing them for fucking later. Abbie was still using the same host body as before, Mother’s host looked like she could have seduced any man she wanted before she was possessed. It took me a second to recognize her as Mike’s Economics teacher, and now I was creeped out.

Mother’s gaze locked on me and then the scowl formed on her face. I’d expected it, but that didn’t change how much it worried me. I was dreading this conversation in every way, and yet I couldn’t get away from it. It would take a great deal of mental concentration in order to get through this, a lot of focus and strength of mind…

WHY AREN’T YOU MAKING JOKES?! I shouted at Mikey.

Look, I’m not gonna do that, you need to chill and jokes in this situation won’t help. You’ll do fine, just stay calm.

Calm. Yeah, right. With my mom there, I could never be calm. I tried to slow my breathing, but I could feel my heart beating so hard that it might burst. This would not be easy.

Mom stood up. Even through her host, her clipped voice was unmistakable. She sounded like one of those British nannies on Downton Abbey, which always surprised me that it didn’t rub off on me. “Explain yourself, Evelyn,” she said, already bearing an annoyed tone that suggested she wanted nothing more than to throw me out a window.

Evelyn? Mike asked.

What? That’s what Eve is short for.

I thought you were named after Eve from Adam and Eve?

I am, but… My mom likes to use my full name when she’s angry…

Allie spoke before I could: “Ma’am, my name is Allie Cross, I’m the sister of Eve’s host body - “

“And a member of the Order of Magical Girls, I’m aware, just as I’m aware that Evelyn possessed your younger brother.” When she saw the confused and/or bewildered look on my face, Mom added, “Little happens within our species that I don’t know, young lady, and I happen to keep a close eye on the families of women I possess.”

Your mom possessed my mom?!

As if she’d heard Mike, Allie asked, “You possessed my mom?!”

Mom smiled. “You chose young Mister Cross because you believed it would curb your urges, correct?”

I wanted to scream at her. Instead, I almost-calmly asked, “You knew this whole time?”

She nodded. “Yes, and that should tell you something.”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t!”

She stepped closer to me. “I’ve known and I’ve done nothing to stop you.” She motioned toward Abbie. “I didn’t tell your sister, either. You made your choice and I’ve decided to let you deal with it.”

What the fuck? Your sister locked me away because your mom is taking a tough love approach?!

This is confusing me as much as you.

Allie asked, “So… You don’t have a problem with Eve trying to leave the succubus lifestyle?”

Mom turned to her. “I’m not queen because I force my species to do anything, and I wouldn’t be much of a mother if I stopped my daughter from pursuing her dream, even if I don’t agree with it.” She stepped over to Terry, who I’d honestly forgotten was there. “And you must be Mikaela’s love interest.” She looked him over. “Not enough meat on you for a real man, but I’m not one to judge human relationships.”

Terry laughed. “I feel so much better about you now,” he deadpanned in so much sarcasm I think somebody could have seen it visually, “now let Mike out of there.”

“Mom,” Abbie started, in obvious protest. “you can’t be entertaining this.”

Mom turned to her. “Quiet, Abigail.” She turned back to me. “I need to know now what you’ll do if you’re ever free from your urges.”

I didn’t answer her right away. I didn’t have an answer. I knew what I wanted, and that was to enjoy a life that wasn’t just promiscuous sex and hot guys all the time, maybe even start a real family someday. Was that a good enough answer, though?

Does it matter? Mike asked.

I couldn’t answer that either. I hated this, even though everything seemed to be headed in my direction. Why did all this have to be so confusing?!

I bit the proverbial bullet. “I want more than just sex to my life,” I said, “I want to be something more than just a sex demon, I want… I want, Mom, and I don’t need the sex anymore, but Mike does need her family and her friends and her boyfriend and…”

And you, Mike said.

Whuh?

C’mon, you had to know I’d say it.

Mom took a long look at me, then sat back down on the bench. “More isn’t what you want, young lady.”

I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. I just spilled on everything, I’d poured my heart out and let her know that I wanted out with everything I had, and sh -

***

“More isn’t what you want, young lady, it’s what you need.”

I… Felt different. I wasn’t trapped in my own head anymore, I was… Out. Completely. Eve wasn’t in control anymore. I felt the need to put something on to cover my stomach, but that would be dealt with later, when I was home.

Did she put you back in charge while I was being emotional?! Eve asked, and I never felt happier to hear that voice in my head again.

I immediately looked at Allie and hugged her, then did the same with Terry, with a little bit of body rubbing. God, trapped inside myself for a day and I felt like it had been months. How Eve put up with not being in control, I’d love to know.

Eve’s mom reached into the purse beside her and retrieved a makeup mirror. “Now that the two of you are back to… Normal, I suppose, I’ll be going.” She stood up and gathered her things. “Understand that this is the last time we’ll see one another.”

“Huh?”

“Sweetheart, I’m a succubus, I have many things to see and people to do before the end of the day. Abigail will apologize for what she did and you’ll be marked as a no possession in the ledger. Your life - both you and Evelyn - will be left alone, save if Abigail decides to visit.”

Allie stepped up. “Ma’am, please, if I can have a moment?”

Eve’s mother turned to face Allie. “And what does the Order ask of me?”

I saw Allie looked somewhat nervous. “A truce.”

Eve’s mom looked genuinely surprised. “Impossible. This holier-than-thou organization of self-appointed peacekeepers wants to listen for once?” She barked out a laugh. “I’m quite certain that’s the most insulting thing I’ve heard today.”

“Hey,” I said, a noticeable annoyance in my voice, “Allie’s not trying to insult you!”

“Don’t misunderstand me, young lady, it’s not the offer, it’s who’s presenting it.” She put her hand on Allie’s shoulder. “Go to the headmistress of your sect and ask her about Albania in 1853. I’ll speak to her when she contacts me, not when she sends her little messenger girl.”

Allie sighed. “She doesn’t know I came here.”

“Then tell her. She knows how to contact me.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a tube of lipstick. “Now, I have work to do before I return home and there’s a pool boy at the local Holiday Inn who was practically begging me this morning.” She looked at Eve’s sister. “Abigail, come along.”

Abbie didn’t move, though. “Wait a minute, Evie wants to give up and this is all you do? You put her host back in charge and don’t even care that your own daughter doesn’t want to be a succubus anymore?”

Eve’s mom turned to face Abbie. “Evelyn made her decision. Do I believe it to be the right one? Of course not, but I respect her right to make that decision on her own, a very adult decision, unlike your own to silence her host.”

“But - “

“No ‘buts’, Abigail,” she said, her voice taking on a very… Guttural sound, that almost made me piss myself. Jesus, if this was how she talked to her daughters in public, I hated to think of how she talked to them in private.

It’s much the same, really, Eve said. Maybe a little more guttural.

I am so very sorry for you.

Don’t worry about it.

Eve’s mom addressed me, “Mikaela, understand that your name will be placed in the registry and no other succubi will attempt to possess you. I’d apologize for what Evelyn has done to you, but I can see that you’re not too unhappy about that.” She was looking me up and down, likely at what I was dressed in. I’d tell her that the outfit was Eve’s idea, but then again, they were my clothes. Clothes I’d bought in protest because Mindy wouldn’t let me get away from buying them no matter how hard I tried, but my clothes nonetheless. “From what I remember from possessing your mother, I’m certain you’ve been the daughter she always wanted from you.”

“Hey!” Allie said, red as a beet and almost ready to pop her wand out and go magical girl right then and there, but I could tell she was restraining herself.

“Second daughter,” Eve’s mom corrected herself. “Your mother had been one of my favorite hosts, and not just because the sex was fantastic.”

Is it okay if I tell your mom that what she just said disturbs me? I asked Eve.

I wouldn’t blame you.

Because we were likely thinking the exact same thought, Allie and I both said, “Gross,” at exactly the same time.

Eve’s mom simply smiled. “Simply my nature, darlings.” She looked at Allie. “Remember what I said about your headmistress, Allison. I’m always willing to talk so long as I’m not too engaged.” She barely glanced over her shoulder at Abbie. “Come along, Abigail,” she repeated from before.

After they were gone for a minute or two, Terry asked, “Wait, was that Mrs. Auerbach she’d possessed?!”

***

When we got back home, I pushed Terry onto the bed then jumped on top of him. Though I had Eve’s voice trying to talk to me in the back of my head, I needed to make out with the boyfriend before I did anything else. Honestly, the fact that Eve wasn’t trying to get me to fuck Terry was both welcome and a surprise, though I don’t honestly know if I’d say no right now, since being trapped in my body while Eve had been forced to take over kinda made me a little horny.

And now I knew why most girls possessed by succubi became sex-addicted messes after they were left. And this was after a day of being out of control.

Terry didn’t seem to mind when my mouth attacked his, however, and reciprocated by grabbing my ass and hugging me closer. I woulda stopped him, but the horniness was a little too strong and let him fondle all he wanted. Eve was not wrong about it feeling better when it was consensual. This actually felt really, really good and I woulda let him take my shorts off if not for the fact that I still had a little bit of my common sense left over.

Besides, we’d save that for his birthday. Or my birthday. Whichever birthday came closer, which I’m pretty sure was his.

After about five minutes of something resembling heaven, he broke off the kiss and asked, “Should I be worried about you?”

“Honestly, yes,” was all I said before I kissed him again. After that, it was five more minutes before I broke off the second kiss and said, “We should honestly stop now before I let the urges take over and start taking my clothes off.”

Allie, standing at the door the whole time, apparently, said, “That would be what I’d ask you to do.”

“Don’t just stand in my doorway while I’m making out with my boyfriend!” I screeched, which caused Terry to laugh.

“Didn’t we do this to her one time last year?” he asked.

Allie nodded. “As a matter of fact, you did. And I liked him a lot, too. But that’s water under the bridge. Now, we have more things to worry about.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like what Eve’s mom said about my headmistress.”

I got nothin’, Eve said. Not even a boyfriend to snog!

Be quiet, you felt that.

That’s not the point!

“I got the gist that Eve’s mom tried to get peace with the magical girls but they didn’t take it,” Terry said, slipping out from under me. The fiend. I just fell onto the bed. “And from the way she said it, Eve’s mom wasn’t too happy about that.”

“Yeah, I got that, too,” Allie stated.

“Why would the magical girls have said no to a peace process?” I asked. “Do they like fighting a metaphorical war against sex demons?”

Allie wagged her finger at me. “No, uh-un, don’t even try to suggest that. I didn’t devote myself to an order that tries to get people killed.”

I sat up. “I’m not saying you did, but it sounds really weird that the succubi tried to make peace and the magical girls brushed it off and kept the fighting going.”

She walked in and sat down on my desk chair. “You’re not wrong.”

“So what are you going to do?” Terry asked.

Allie shook her head. “I dunno.”

I answered, “Talk to them.”

She looked at me funny. “Whuh?”

“Talk to them. You and me, we go talk to your headmistress and whoever else we have to talk to, but specifically your headmistress because that’s who Eve’s mom singled out, and we get to the bottom of this. If all doesn’t go so well, Eve’s ex-boyfriend is a Norse god, maybe we do something there.”

He’s not gonna like being dragged back out here a second time in as many days.

Wait, did you call Loki while I was stuck in there?

Yes. Yes, I did. Because we just had pretty much the exact same thought for “Let’s have a magic backup plan”.

Allie sighed. “Um, whatever. Fine, say we go talk to my headmistress and we find out the Order really is trying to prolong the war for whatever reason, what do we do about it? Other than that Norse god thing, or whatever.”

“You could always ask Kendra,” Terry injected.

“Kendra Brewster?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s a sorceress.”

“She’s a what?!” Allie and I both shouted at the same time. We were getting good at that.

“That’s what she said,” he answered, with a shrug added in for good effect, “and is it really so weird?” He pointed at Allie. “You’re a magical girl,” and then he pointed at me, “and you’re possessed by the succubus princess.” He took a step back. “Now tell me how a sorceress is a weird inclusion into all this?”

He was not wrong.

“So you two go talk to the headmistress, you have either the Norse god or the sorceress held back in reserve, and you get answered what you need answered. This can’t be too difficult a process.”

Oh, good, he was on my side in all this. “He’s right,” I said, “we’ll get to the truth behind this. And if your Order is really a bunch of backstabbing cunts who want a war to keep going, you just leave it, it’s that simple.”

Allie sighed. “No, it’s really not. I made a pledge not just by word but by blood, and if I break that pledge, I don’t know what’ll happen, but the headmistresses have made damn certain that we all know it won’t be good.”

“A sorceress and a Norse god,” I said, “we have way more magic on our side than they do.”

She shook her head. “You don’t know the Order like I do. You’ve seen what I can do with my wand, the headmistresses can do a lot more than that.”

“But can they do more than a sorceress or a Norse god?”

“I don’t know, I can’t remember the magical hierarchy right now.”

“Then we just bluff our way out of this like we’re playing poker. Either way, we’re one step closer to peace between the magical girls and the succubi.”

You’re absurdly peppy about this, Eve said.

Yes, yes I am. I should be worried, shouldn’t I?

Extremely.

Oh well, peppy it is!

“C’mon, Allie, let’s get this over with.”

She nodded, then stood up. “Fine. Maybe if they see a girl and a succubus sharing a body without incident, they’ll see that the war doesn’t need to go on.”

I giggled nervously. “Yeah, we’ll just… Uh… Not tell them that I used to be a boy, I didn’t ask for this, and have only really gotten used to it because I’ve needed to.”

Oh, and the urges! Can’t let ‘em know you still suffer from the urges!

Hey, they could kill you on the spot, y’know.

Take it easy, I’m just fucking with you. Oh, and about that, could you maybe have just one sexual adventure with Terry before we go? If I’m gonna die today, I really wanna have at least one last good fuck and I could tell from the kiss earlier that he’s packing a fully loaded elephant gun.

Y’know, the only thing worse than you describing it that way is that I noticed that when I was kissing him.

~o~O~o~

“Now, remember,” Allie said, “they don’t like accepting people in who aren’t already members of the Order. You’ll have some clout because of me, but the others will be looking at you like some kind of abomination.”

I finished tying my hair into a ponytail and glared at her. “You’re kidding, right? Abomination?”

“I wish I was, but Kathy Dufresne’s sister came by last week to bring Kathy her lunch, and Mistress Bethany had me erase the last six months of her life to make her forget Kathy was ever a magical girl.”

Okay, that was concerning. “They wouldn't do that to me, would that?”

She took a deep breath, then exhaled. “There is a slight possibility of a yes.”

“So I could wake up tomorrow having forgotten everything about my life for some time?”

“We should try to avoid Mistress Bethany at all costs, yes.”

Wow, this seemed like a much better idea five minutes ago. Either way, we were already too far along to turn back now. Why the hell magical girls had the power to erase memories was a question I’d have to ask at a different time or place. For now, I just needed to keep myself cool, calm and above all else, collected. I could shit my pants in fear after this was over. Assuming, of course, that I could remember everything and wouldn’t be waking up tomorrow wondering why I was a D-cup.

Jesus, the idea of that was horrifying. I would need to do my damnedest to keep that out of mind before I did something stupid to cause it.

I felt somewhat surprised when Allie pulled up to a large mansion that looked like it could have the starring role in a horror movie. It was the only landmark in sight, way out in the country. Dark, foreboding colors dominated the siding, at least where there actually was siding. A lot of it was naked brick, left to weather the elements. The place actually kinda freaked me out. If it weren’t in the upper 90s, I’d be shivering.

I looked over at Allie. She looked about as pleased to be here as I felt, which was of course true, since she didn’t want me hurt. I wondered how often she’d come here without the fear, just to talk to friends or be told about what was going on in the magical girl world. I wonder how long I would have gone without knowing about it if not for Eve changing me. Maybe I would have never known about this place.

The both of us got out of the car and walked up to the mansion. I saw Allie visibly gulp as she reached for the doorknob, but the door opened before she could do anything. Standing there was a trio of girls, all wearing the magical girl schoolgirl outfit. The one on the left was a blonde, the middle a redhead and the one on the right had very short hair that looked like it could be brown, depending on the light.

Short Hair asked, “What are you doing out of uniform?”

Blonde asked, “Why are you here when you weren’t summoned?”

Redhead asked, “Who’s the bimbo?” I hated Redhead almost instantly.

I could tell Allie wasn’t pleased with her, either. “This is my sister, Mikaela. We’re here to see Headmistress Adelaide.”

Blonde folded her arms under her breasts. “You know the rule.”

“This is important. I wouldn’t have brought my sister hear if it wasn’t.”

Short Hair said, “You have a brother.”

“That’s what makes it important.”

Redhead seemed to figure it out first. “She’s possessed.”

Short Hair pushed the other two aside and pulled out her giant magic stick and pointed it at me. I’m pretty sure my life would have flashed before my eyes if not for the fact that Allie did her little transformation sequence and knocked me out of the way. I landed on my ass, and swore I heard something break. Then I realized it was my phone.

If I weren’t scared out of my mind, I’d want popcorn, Eve said, can we go get popcorn after we’re done here?

You’re assuming we’ll get out of here alive.

Allie had her wand out, one hand on her hip. I couldn’t see her face, but I imagined it was as pissed off as somebody who looked like they stepped out of Sailor Moon could look. Her wand was glowing bright orange, bathing the Terrible Trio in light. I stood up and brushed myself off.

Short Hair stepped forward and looked like she was ready to fight, though I knew what she wanted to do was rip Eve outta me and probably erase my memories or whatever else they could do. I was actually starting to feel like the magical girls were more evil than succubi.

Horny, not evil, Eve corrected. You should know that by now.

Oh, you know what I meant by that.

Still, don’t forget that even though I’ve got my mom’s blessing to stop, I’m still a sex demon.

Short Hair growled, “Outta the way, Allie. You know what we havta do.”

“What you havta do is let us in to see Headmistress Adelaide.”

Redhead shook her red head. “We can’t, we won’t. I don’t care if she is possessing your sister, she’s an abomination and she needs to be destroyed!” There was suddenly a crowd of other girls behind the Trio.

I shouted, “Hey, bitch, I’m not an abomination!” My voice sounded much angrier than I think I meant for it to sound.

“You kidnapped that poor girl’s body!” Blonde exclaimed.

Holy shit, these guys don’t even realize they’re not talking to me!

I’m suddenly far more worried than I was earlier, I said.

“No, this is my actual sister,” Allie said, her voice not even raising high enough to sound angry. “Now, let us through to see Headmistress Adelaide.”

Short Hair shook her head. “That’s not going to happen. This girl’s been possessed and she needs to be helped!”

Just as I was certain Allie was actually going to do something that might have ended up in these girls being assaulted with magic, an older woman wearing what looked like a nun’s habit walked into the gaggle of people in front of us. She held an air of authority around her, as several of the girls had moved out of her way without even knowing she was there. She stepped up to the doorway and gently moved Blonde and Redhead away with a simple tap of her fingers against their shoulders.

Allie just stood there. I didn’t know anything else to do but stand there. The old woman looked down at both of us (it took me a second to realize she was taller than me by at least a foot), and I saw a look in her eye that suggested she wanted to rip me limb from limb and burn the pieces in a chemical fire. Even the prospect of Short Hair doing whatever the fuck she was gonna do to me didn’t scare me as much as this woman did. I could only assume this was Headmistress Adelaide.

And then I was instantly proven wrong. “Mistress Bethany,” Allie said. Oh, crap… That was the one that liked to have people’s memories ripped apart.

Bethany barely moved her face, but her eyes flicked from me to Allie. “Miss Cross. I believe you’ve brought the enemy to our doorstep.”

Allie nodded. “Trust me, ma’am, I have an important reason for doing so, and I need to see Headmistress Adelaide.”

Bethany took a step closer to me, and I would have stepped back a little if not for the fact that I was frightened. She used what looked like a drum stick and tapped the side of my face. Whatever it was, it wasn’t magic. She gave me a strange look, then turned around and walked back inside.

Allie and I glanced at one another for a second, then Bethany said, “Inside, ladies. The Headmistress will see you.”

***

I followed Allie and Mistress Bethany through the mansion. The place was huge on the outside and fucking ginormous on the inside. Six hallways, two flights of stairs and one elevator later and we were in another hallway that looked like it came out of a medieval castle. There were no electric lights, simply torches every few feet. There were only two doors, the one we’d come from and the one at the end of the hallway. Statues sat between the torches. The whole place was more than a little creepy, even more so than the outside of the mansion.

Short Hair and Redhead followed us, but Blonde stayed out of it, for whatever reason. Honestly, I would have preferred it if neither followed us, but I didn’t actually have a say in this. The two of them were constantly glaring at me. I think I was actually to the point where I would rather have a dozen guys groping me instead, much to Eve’s semi-delight. Either way, I just wanted those two to leave me the fuck alone.

Mistress Bethany slowly led us down the long hallway until we got to the door at the end. It looked bigger than the front door, almost dungeon-like. This whole place confused the hell out of me. I glanced over at Allie, who looked as impressed or frightened (whichever one, really) as I was. Maybe she’d never been here, either.

I think this is farther than any succubus has gotten alive, Eve said.

I think this is farther than any human has gotten without getting their brains destroyed. So, more or less the same thing.

It won’t happen to us, I’m sure.

I know. Allie won’t let it happen. Plus, I… Um…

You what?

I have a sorta ace up my sleeve.

You’re wearing a tank top.

It’s an expression.

Okay, so what would this “ace” be?

Hopefully neither you nor anybody but me finds out.

Now that I think about it, I live in your head, how did I not know about this?

You were asleep. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself.

Allie looked at me like I’d suddenly grown another head. “Sorry.” We were still waiting for the door to open. Mistress Bethany gently knocked, then stepped back a foot or two. Short Hair and Redhead didn’t look all that comfortable being there. Maybe they’d never been summoned to the Headmistress’s chambers, either.

A minute later, the door finally opened. A blinding white light spilled out of the room, but receded quickly, leaving only one of the most surprising things I’d seen since this whole mess started: A garden. A full-fledged, straight out of a botanist’s wet dreams garden. I heard birds chirping, squirrels chittering, I’m pretty sure I even heard a little stream somewhere. This was like an entirely different world or something.

Mistress Bethany led the four of us into the garden, past a tree with a dozen wind chimes hanging from it and through a small pathway between two fields of different colored flowers. I had never seen a garden like this in my life, especially one in a greenhouse.

That was when I realized we weren’t in a greenhouse. I looked up and saw the sun and the clear sky, and when I looked back at the door, I saw no walls, just a doorway standing alone like some kind of dream door. We weren’t in the mansion.

What the hell was going on here?!

Mistress Bethany continued to lead us through the garden, more than I realized could even be seen anywhere in the area. This place was disturbing me far more than the mansion itself. There didn’t seem to be any end to it, and we seemed to be walking around forever. The only thing we weren’t doing was walking in circles. Hell, I wasn’t sure that would last.

Thankfully, it didn’t. We finally came upon the woman that I was certain really was Headmistress Adelaide. She was old. Very old. Mistress Bethany looked to be in her sixties, and this woman made Mistress Bethany look young. How her bones held together was a mystery. Hell, how her internal organs weren’t external was a mystery. Pencil thin was only just a little bit of an exaggeration. Whatever color her hair had been when she was younger, it was now so white it would blend in with a wall painted eggshell.

Headmistress Adelaide was knelt down, tending to some petunias. She pulled a few of them from the ground and placed them in flower pots. She worked slow, but with a great deal of care. “Good evening, Yelena,” Adelaide said. It contrasted the bright, sunny look of the skies around us, but it was like seven thirty when we came here, so I guess that line applied.

Mistress Bethany stepped closer to her. “Headmistress, there are some young women here to see you.”

Headmistress Adelaide set her trowel on the ground and used Mistress Bethany to stand. She looked more frail standing up than she did knelt down. How the hell was this woman still alive?

“Oh, Allison, Serena, Brittany, and a new girl.” I couldn’t tell which one was Serena or Brittany, so I was just going to keep calling them Short Hair and Redhead. Presumably, she was referring to us in order of where we were standing, except that I was standing beside Allie. “Is this young lady here to join our sect?”

Mistress Bethany shook her head. “No, Headmistress.” She looked over at me, then leaned close to Adelaide. “She is possessed.”

Adelaide’s eyes widened. “Possessed?” She looked at Allie. “Allison, why have you brought one such as her into our home?”

Allie didn’t move, and I could see that she was nervous. Maybe she’d never met Headmistress Adelaide. “Headmistress, this is my sister, Mikaela. Yes, she’s host to a succubus, but this succubus, Eve, is no danger. She possessed Mike to stop being a succubus.”

Adelaide’s eyes locked on me. “Michael, your younger brother?”

“Yes, Headmistress.” Allie took my hand. “Eve didn’t know what she’d do would change Mike into Mikaela, and she’s done her damnedest to help Mike adjust. She’s done nothing harmful, and has worked to reverse any situations that have proved harmful.”

Adelaide stepped closer to me and reached out to touch my face. How her fingers didn’t snap just from movement amazed me. “Evelyn,” she said, “I know your bloodline.”

Whuh? What?!

Well, your mom said she knew her.

Yeah, but this… What she just said isn’t something that just anyone would say. Can I take over for a sec?

I took a deep breath. “Eve wants to talk a moment,” I said, “will you promise not to hurt her while she’s in control?”

Adelaide nodded. “She will be safe for the time being.”

Okay, you can go now.

***

Huh, it wasn’t a “close your eyes, open your eyes” kinda change. Either way, I was out for the moment. The Headmistress seemed to realize this, too, as her hand slipped away from my face and back into her robe.

“Evelyn,” she said.

I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I haven’t seen your mother in many years.”

I gulped. “That’s why we’re here, ma’am. My mother wants to--”

She cut me off. “She’s fine with your change of lifestyle?”

Bethany looked confused. “Headmistress?”

“Was she told?”

I looked between the two of them. Bethany was going back and forth between confusion and anger (why, I couldn’t tell) while Adelaide looked… Well, like an old lady who looked like she could keel over at any second.

I finally answered, “Um, yes, ma’am. Like I was about to say, that’s why we’re here, my mother wants--”

I was cut off again. “I assume she wants me to tell you about Albania, in 1854.”

Allie answered, “1853, actually.”

Adelaide nodded. “Yes, of course. It was so long ago. Lilith and I were much younger then.”

Bethany had grown to furious thanks to those few words. That her headmistress personally knew a succubus probably would anger somebody who had devoted her life to killing us.

“Headmistress,” Bethany almost whined, “what are you implying?”

The two parts of the Trio that came with us (Mike’s name for them fit so well) looked at one another with the exact same look of confusion on their faces. Hell, their hairstyles and their cup sizes were the only differences between them. I was starting to wonder if they were twins and Short Hair had just cut her hair to make sure she was recognized.

Either way, Adelaide didn’t seem to want to answer Bethany. “Yelena, please, I have a story to tell. Everything will be understood, then.” She turned around and walked toward a small chair in a clear patch. She snapped her fingers and several blankets appeared in front of it, likely for us to sit on, like children listening to a grandparent or something.

She sat down on the chair and everybody followed her. Allie and I both sat down on the blankets before Short Hair, Redhead or Bethany did. Short Hair and Redhead did just shortly after, but Bethany didn’t sit at all.

“Your mother wants you to know something that no member of the Order of Magical Girls has ever been told. A closely guarded secret that I have fought over a hundred and sixty years to defend. July nineteen, 1853 was the day the Order began, in Albania. It was the day I decided to throw away my heritage and become something more.” She looked at me. “No doubt you’ve put it together. Yes, dear child, I am your mother’s sister, and I too was a succubus.” I looked over at Bethany, who looked like she was about to burst. Short Hair and Redhead both looked like they’d just been told they’d lost a limb. Allie was surprised. Honestly, so was I. I hadn’t ‘put it together’ at all, though I’d had suspicions that Mom and Adelaide knew one another. Never did I imagine Adelaide was my aunt.

She continued, “Lilith and Florence. Though my name is now omitted, I was once referred to as Satan’s oldest child in the Bible. Lilith never wanted the responsibility I forced upon her, but neither did I. And, on that day in June, it came to the point that I didn’t want the life of a succubus, either.” She reached for a small teacup I hadn’t seen before. “Yes, child, you’re not truly the first succubus to want to leave that life. I had one distinct advantage, however, and that was being more powerful in magic than you.” She set the teacup back down on the table beside her that I also hadn’t seen before then. I was starting to think she was making these things appear just for dramatic purposes. “It took a great deal of time to find a host that would accept me willingly, but once I did, I began to collect around me a group of women who had suffered at the whims of other succubi. That was all the Order was intended to be. Over time, it grew, it became what it has become, and I understood exactly what needed to happen.”

Bethany pulled out that drum stick from earlier. “Headmistress, you can’t possibly be telling the truth!”

Adelaide took a drink again. “I am, Yelena. For over one hundred years, I met women whose lives were destroyed by my kind, and that led me to our current course.” She leaned forward. “Yes, child, I do believe the succubi need to be destroyed. We’ve caused nothing but pain and horror in this world. I’ve devoted my life to repairing the damage we’ve done, and your mother won’t change that.” She straightened up again. “I said you would be safe for the time being, Evelyn, and I promise that. But I won’t stop until the rest of our kind is a bloody paste on the walls of Hell.”

Me, Allie, Short Hair and Redhead all said in unison, “Holy shit.” Even Bethany looked shocked at Adelaide’s words. I guess killing succubi was alright for her, but turning us into ‘a bloody paste on the wall’ was a little too far. I couldn’t disagree. My aunt was a bitch.

Reach into my pocket, make sure my phone still works and text Now to Kendra, okay?

What?

Just do it. It’s that ace up my sleeve I mentioned.

When did you get her phone number?

Terry gave it to me, just hurry up, before your aunt kills us!

I pulled the phone out and then promptly dropped it. Something was holding my hand back from being able to pick it up again, too. I looked up at Adelaide and saw her hand casually doing motions that I hadn’t seen anybody do since I was in the succubus realm. It was something Mom had done to me when I was a kid, keeping me from moving by manipulating the magicks around us so that it felt as if I were being tied down or chained.

But we weren’t in the succubus realm, so how was she doing it?!

“I’ll take that, child,” Adelaide said as she picked up Mike’s phone. “Kendra Brewster. Not a name I’ve heard, but certainly your host must have some sort of faith in her.” She tossed the phone in my lap. “You needn’t worry, you’ll be out of here in a short time, and Allison, Serena, Brittany and Yelena will have forgotten this event ever happened.”

Allie tried to stand up, but I could tell she was held in place, too. “Wait a second! Eve’s mom -- Your sister! -- wants peace between you!”

Adelaide shook her head. “Impossible. For too long have succubi ruined the lives of women everywhere on this planet. We’re only one step shy of vampires, and that’s saying something.” She stood up and walked over to Bethany. “Lilith and I haven’t spoken in decades, though I intend to pay her a visit soon. Don’t worry, Allison, you’ll soon have forgotten everything about this meeting.”

I struggled against the magic. “I’ll just tell her what happened. She’s Mike’s sister, they share everything!”

I heard the sound of heels clicking against a marble floor. The garden around us began to disappear, though not entirely. I tried to look behind me, but Adelaide was keeping me in place far too well. It was probably another magical girl, or maybe even another succubus who agreed with Adelaide. Great, maybe even me and Mike would forget this entire thing.

I gained a ray of hope when Adelaide grew a look of pure shock. Then came the voice.

“It’s been a good, long time, Florence,” Mom said, and I could almost hear the smile on her face.

~o~O~o~

Mom stepped into view in her standard, succubus realm form: a dark red dress and matching heels, her hair a similar shade and falling in waves down her back. Short Hair, Redhead and Bethany all looked some mixture of relieved and surprised, though they couldn’t possibly know that the woman who’d just entered the garden/room/thing was the succubus queen they would want to kill. Allie and I were the only ones relieved because there was a reason to be relieved.

But now I was even more confused. Mom couldn’t hold her real form outside the succubus realm. But this couldn’t be the succubus realm, because I would have been able to feel it if it was. Nothing about this was making much sense except for the fact that Mom was actually about to come to my rescue. Holy shit, maybe we were actually more of a family than I thought.

“Abigail, undo your aunt’s hold on Allison and your sister,” Mom said. I hadn’t even heard Abbie there. After a second, I could finally move, and saw Abbie kneeling there beside Allie and me, in her standard form of a white crop top, black skirt and mixed color gogo boots. More than once I’d told her she looked ridiculous like that, but my standard form wasn’t much better. “You should have known better than to think I wouldn’t notice you here, Florence.”

Adelaide scowled, and then fell to the ground. Or, well, her host fell to the ground. The old woman who had served as a vessel for my uber evil aunt crumbled into dust as soon as her body made contact with the grass under her feet, and in her place stood a succubus who looked a lot like my mom, but older. Her form was dressed in a white dress and heels, and her hair was a lighter shade of red. I felt sorry for the woman she’d taken as a host. Over a hundred years of sharing a body with a bitch who wanted nothing more than to kill her own species… I wondered if she’d even known what Adelaide had wanted to do. And if she had, had she made her own thoughts known?

Don’t think about it, Mike said, just be happy she’s at peace now.

Yeah…

“Mom, what are you doing here?” I asked as I stood up.

Mom turned to me and smirked. “I’m always here, dear Evelyn. You’ve been here yourself. Allison, Mikaela,” she kind of glanced at Redhead, Short Hair and Bethany, “you… Three…” I couldn’t blame her for stumbling a little, “welcome to the succubus realm.”

The succubus realm? Mike asked.

Where succubi exist when we’re not possessing people.

So… You could appear physically here?

Yeah, but if she tries something, I should stay in here, otherwise we both die.

Holy shit…

Yeah.

Short Hair actually managed to speak. Maybe Abbie had freed her, too. “This is the what now?”

“Magic comes from somewhere, young lady. For a sorceress, it comes from within. For a magical girl, it comes from without. For a succubus, we come from the magic itself, and the magic makes up this world around us.” She motioned around the… Area. “A succubus can take physical form here like any other being, but only so long as we remain here.” She walked over to Adelaide. “Of course this place itself isn’t part of the succubus realm, at least not officially. This place was a hiding spot my sister and I used when we were children, and has been locked to me for some time.”

Mom turned back to me. “Albania, 1853. You should know the truth of what happened that day. That was the day a man by the name of Edi, or something like that, had to choose between me or my sister. You see, we had both been working him over, attempting to get him into our pants as long as possible. In the end, you should expect the answer.”

Allie asked, “He picked you over her?”

Mom looked at her with an almost annoyed eye. “No, Allison, he didn’t.” She turned to Adelaide. “Edi picked Florence.”

Adelaide was furious. I think she wanted to rip Mom apart one layer of flesh at a time.

But Mom kept going. “Edi loved Florence. Loved her, much like Terry loves Mikaela, and... “ she looked over at Redhead, “you have a boyfriend, don’t you?” Mom shook her head. “Never mind, I don’t know enough about you to make that judgement. The point is that Edi loved Florence…” Mom looked back to Adelaide, “...But Florence didn’t love Edi.

“I was a very strange succubus in those days. Sex was my purpose in life, but something felt missing. And as such, I tried to lay it on with Edi, tried to pull him closer to me. I didn’t just want to fuck Edi, I wanted Edi. I wanted him around me, wanted him to love me. I was jealous of Florence.” Mom sat down in the chair that Adelaide had been sitting in and crossed her legs. “Now, you’d probably assume I did something in my jealousy to cause Florence to turn down this path toward our kind’s destruction...”

Adelaide finished, “And you’d be right. Lilith did do something.” Adelaide folded her arms under her breasts. “Please, Lilith, explain to them what happened.”

Mom took the teacup that had been sitting on the table. “I told you the truth.”

For a long moment, nobody said anything. It was as if those six words had somehow silenced the entire thing. I had to admit, I was more confused than anything. Told her the truth? How was that a bad thing? Had they split and created a war between magical races on something so petty as my aunt learning my mom wanted a boyfriend?

And of course, I learned I was right. “Edi loved you,” Mom said, “and I loved him. I told him, I told you…

“And you killed him,” Mom finished with a sip of tea.

That another “Holy shit” escaped our collective lips needed not be said. This one was a bit more subdued, though.

“Have I forgotten anything, Florence?”

Adelaide took the teacup from Mom. “No, you’ve forgotten nothing.” She took a sip. “And I’ve forgotten nothing of what you said. ‘He deserves better than you,’ you told me, ‘he wants better than you.’ I’d never felt so insulted in my life!” Adelaide threw tea at Mom, staining her dress until it dried itself. “And then you did the unthinkable, you told him what we were succubi. At that moment, everything I was had become a disgusting parody of itself.

“We were bound to a strict clause not to reveal ourselves, as our power was then negated. A man was resistant to our pheromones at that point, and couldn’t be seduced.”

So, wait, I could just tell people you were possessing me?! Mike asked.

Hey, I didn’t know!

“That may seem petty to the likes of humans, but a man being immune to our power is everything to a succubus.” Adelaide glared at Mom. “And Lilith did this purely because she was in love!”

Redhead shouted, “Did him knowing mean he had to die?!”

Adelaide nodded. “Of course. As was our code.”

Mom stood. “A code no longer enforced. Many men have been informed of the existence of succubi since I took over as queen, and our species has done nothing but thrive.” Mom turned to Bethany. “I remember you, Yelena Bethany. I took you as a host more than fifty years ago. You were a passionate lover to your husband until he left you for his secretary. I remember how you felt, how he hurt you.”

Bethany looked embarrassed. Honestly, the fact that this woman had a husband at one point amazed me, but I guess there really was somebody for everyone.

Hey, don’t.

What? You have Terry. He’s a hunk and you’re hot. Even if you break up, you’ll be able to bag any guy you want.

Not the point, Evelyn, I say, doing the mental equivalent of pretending to be your mother.

Then count this as the mental equivalent of sticking out my tongue.

Mom continued, “Did I ever destroy your life? Your husband was gone long before I came, and you enjoyed the company I gave you every night.”

Bethany finally seemed capable of speaking. “You violated me! I was helpless while you… You used me to do things… Yes, Ernesto was gone, and I felt nothing but pleasure, but you can’t claim any sort of moral high ground to what you did!”

Mom nodded. In a quiet voice, she said, “I know you see it that way, and you’re not wrong.” She raised her voice, “For decades, I’ve tried to make peace with this order, tried to find a way to be a significantly less… Invasive species. I’ve reached out to my sister in hopes that we could come to an agreement. I did not want this war, nor do I intend to fight it. We have done things to humans that none would accept, and nothing I do can erase that, but I want us to move forward, to come to peace.”

Bethany actually seemed to believe that. Hell, I believed it. If Mom had done any of this, I’d never seen it. All I’d ever seen was a hard woman who wanted me to be a success in the ways of wanton sex and possession, who hadn’t even given me a hug for years. This side of my mom was weird, almost unrecognizable.

But, maybe all her failed attempts at stopping the war had caused her to be that way.

“Never,” Adelaide said, a hint of disgust in her voice. “We’re a disease and we need to be dealt with.” She turned to Bethany. “Ready the rest of the girls. It’s time we take this to the next level.”

“No,” Bethany said, pure and simple.

***

Adelaide looked like she was about to burst. Mom looked amused. Me, Allie, Abbie, Redhead and Short Hair all looked confused, shocked, surprised or every combination of every synonym for those words in any language known. Just one simple word from one woman, spoken in a tone of voice that carried more authority than I think I’d ever heard.

And then shit went down.

Adelaide’s hands glowed with a faint red hue, matching her eyes. Bethany was suddenly thrown across the garden half of the realm, landing face first in a pot of azaleas that looked recently picked. Allie, Redhead and Short Hair all pulled out their big wands and began doing magic that looked something like firing lasers, but that didn’t last long. Adelaide made a single motion and the three of them lost their wands and returned to plain clothes, as if they’d been stripped of their power.

Then I realized they had. Magical girl magic came from this realm, a part of the succubus realm that only Mom and Adelaide knew. That’s why it was so effective against us, because it was us.

The three of them were each knocked to the floor and held in place by red energy that took the form of shackles, but it wasn’t just holding them down. Their faces twisted into contorted looks of pure pain as their own life energy was sapped from them. As they were drained, Adelaide and Mom both started to look younger, almost as if they were age regressing.

Abbie didn’t seem capable of moving either, either because of shock or some kind of strange magicks, I couldn’t tell. Even Mom didn’t look like she could move, for some reason. Maybe it was the influx of life energy, because she almost seemed in pain.

Holy shit, I was the only one who could move.

Phone! Kendra! Mike shouted.

I saw the phone where Adelaide had tossed it and dove for it. I tried to text those three letters as quickly as possible, but something was holding my fingers, keeping me from typing. I looked up and saw Adelaide kneeling over me, having aged down to seventeen or eighteen. I couldn’t see Mom, but I assumed she was somewhere around my age now.

“Oh child,” she said, her voice more like a mocking high schooler than someone who should be acting like an adult. “You thought I was busy basking in the transformation, didn’t you?”

I managed to ask, “What the fuck are you doing?”

She smiled. “In just a few moments, thanks to the life force of the humans here, your mother, sister and I will have been ripped of our power and rendered human. From there, without this realm, the succubus race will be destroyed. I’m sorry it’ll be at the cost of the humans, but a few sacrifices to destroy the worst blight on this world is nothing.” she patted my cheek. “I played you, dearie. Your mother has been begging for peace for almost a century, and I used that. I didn’t know how it would happen, but when she had you say Albania, the door was opened and my plan succeeded.”

Leave my body! Mike shouted.

I can’t! I’m the only thing keeping either of us from being ripped apart!

I know that already, that’s why I said leave! It frees both of us for a second, one of us hits her!

Do you realize the long shot that is?

I don’t care, just fucking do it!

I took a deep breathe (as much as I could) and forced myself out.

***

As soon as I was in control, I swung my fist and landed an actual, physical punch on Adelaide. I saw a tooth fly, along with some blood. I couldn’t see Eve yet, but I didn’t think about that, instead I grabbed for my phone and almost hit SEND before a spike heel went straight through the screen, almost hitting my hand.

Adelaide grabbed me by the neck and hoisted me into air. “Child… No. Mikaela... You’ve just made me very unhappy. Before I’m fully human, please enjoy your life force ce being ripped from your body.”

From somewhere, I heard a voice that sounded similar to mine. “Hey, Aunt Flo!” Adelaide dropped me and turned around, and standing behind her was Eve, looking similar to me in every way except facial structure and wearing a bright red dress. She was holding a shovel. For just a moment, I thought she’d do something, but she just stood there, holding the shovel.

Instead, another shovel hit Adelaide in the back of the head. Eve’s mom stood there, the youth slowly draining from her. “Sweetheart, you were supposed to hit her with the shovel.”

Eve dropped her shovel. “Look, I just grabbed it and didn’t know what to do, at least I bought you the time to do something!”

***

Mistress Bethany stood outside the doorway to Adelaide’s garden/succubus realm/thing. Serena (Redhead) and Brittany (Short Hair) stood beside her. Allie was beside me, along with Eve, Abbie and Lilith. Adelaide was locked up in some sort of magic prison that Lilith tried to explain to me, but it was confusing as fuck.

“I know it’ll be difficult,” Lilith said.

Bethany nodded. “Some may never accept a peace between us, others may expect a betrayal of some kind.”

“I give you my promise as queen of my species that any succubi who commits an act of aggression against a magical girl will be exiled. Also, I’ll begin the process of changing our rules on possession. From now on, a succubus may only possess those whose lives would be improved by our assistance. For too long have we used, now is the time to aide.”

Bethany looked at her wand. “How will our magic be affected?”

Lilith smiled. “Not at all. So long as my bloodline exists, this place exists, and so will your power.” She put her arm around Eve. “And when the time has come for me to pass on the crown, Evelyn will be protect your power, assuming you still have need of it then.”

Bethany sighed, it looked as though relief had just washed over her. “Hopefully we’ve maintained a complete and total peace by then.”

Lilith nodded. “Hopefully. I don’t want my grandchildren to live in a world that failed them.”

Bethany put her hands on Serena and Brittany’s shoulders. “Unfortunately, my granddaughters live in a world like that now. But hopefully their children will be safe.”

“Thank you, Yelena.”

“I mean little offense, Lilith, but I hope this is the last time we meet. At the very least, let future meetings be a good deal less hectic.”

Lilith closed her eyes and nodded. “I agree.”

Bethany, Serena and Brittany all three turned and took the hallway to the elevator and disappeared into it. When they were gone, I breathed a sigh of relief and almost collapsed onto the floor.

“Thank God this shit is finally over!” I screamed.

Eve landed next to me. “I need a vacation, now.”

Lilith cleared her throat. “Excuse me, young lady, explain why it is you’ve left your host.”

Eve sat up. “If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have had enough time to beat Aunt Flo with the shovel.”

“Fine then, I guess I can accept that. Just know if it had been any other reason, I wouldn’t be happy at all.”

I sat up. “So, how does this place work exactly?”

Abbie answered, “It’s the energy that makes succubi, pure magic. We’re kinda born from it, in a way.”

Lilith continued, “This area in particular was made from my sister and myself pooling our inherent magicks into one another, creating a sort of back room, if you will. Our minds furnish and populate it.” Within seconds, the space around us became something that looked like New York City. “I could even bring people I’ve met into this realm by pure thought.”

Allie ran her hand along what looked like a brick wall. “It feels so real.”

“It is, in a way. No less real than anything else the mind perceives.”

I groaned. “Ugh… No Matrix crap, please.”

Eve looked confused. “No what now?”

Abbie patted her on the shoulder. “A movie. A guy I fucked last Tuesday made me watch it during sex.”

Allie rolled her eyes. “That is gross.”

I stood up and brushed magic dirt off of me. “Okay, now that everything here is dealt with, can we go home? I have schoolwork to make up since Eve had to take control today.”

Eve started toward the elevator, then shouted back, “Hey, don’t blame me because you weren’t paying attention in class!”

“I couldn’t fucking see, hear or do anything!”

“Not my fault!”

“Um, Evie?” Abbie said with a hint of concern in her voice. I didn’t see why at first, but then it became somewhat evident.

“And for the record,” Eve continued, without any hint that she noticed anything, “I think I did pretty damn good considering I’d never been to public school on my own! The last time I possessed someone who went to school, it was a private school and I skipped all the classes.”

“Uh, hey, Eve?” Allie said now, the same concern in her voice that Abbie had.

“I didn’t screw up and let any cute guy I saw take you in the bathroom or anything like that.”

“Eve!” I almost screamed.

Of course, she still didn’t notice. “I didn’t even give Terry a handjob, even though I desperately wanted to!”

“Evelyn!” Lilith actually shouted.

“What?!” Eve stopped, and that was when I think she finally noticed what the rest of us were trying to tell her.

Eve had left the succubus realm, and was about three-quarters of the way down that long, absurdly spacious hallway to the elevator.

In a light voice that I could barely hear, Eve asked, “Did I do that?”

~o~O~o~

“How the fuck am I doing this?!” Eve screeched.

“How the fuck is she doing that?!” I screeched in pretty much the exact same tone of voice.

It took Allie a second to compose herself, but she finally asked, “Um… Is… Can she do that just because this realm is connected to the human world and the mansion is manipulated by magical girl energy?”

Lilith shook her head. “No, these realms, though connected, can’t interact like that. Abigail or I couldn’t walk out into the human world without hosts, succubi are nothing but energy in a way. We have no true physical form, only what form the magicks give us when we’re not possessing anyone.” To demonstrate, she put her arm through the doorway between worlds. For a moment, it was as if her arm had been cleanly severed at elbow level, it looked disturbing and painful, even though I didn’t think she actually felt pain because of it (I really didn’t know). “Evelyn being in the human world… This has never happened before.”

“Mom, how is this happening to me?!” Eve screamed.

Abbie asked, “Is it possible… Was she bonded to Mikaela for so long that when Aunt Florence started draining us, Evie really did become human?”

Lilith rubbed at her chin. “I don’t see any other possibilities. She has been bonded to one host longer than any other succubus aside from Florence.”

“Wait, can succubi becoming human actually happen?” Allie asked.

“It’s never happened before, but this isn’t a situation that’s happened in my lifetime.”

“What am I gonna do now?!” Eve was hysterical. I walked over to her and put my arms around her for comfort. It felt kinda strange to actually hug her, but I wouldn’t stop for anything. The last few weeks, she’s basically been a second sister to me, and she needed this hug.

“Whatever it is, I’ll be there to help,” I told her.

“Me, too,” Allie said, encompassing the both of us in another hug. “Well, except for when I’m at school, ‘cause, y’know, school.”

From the other end of the hall, I heard Lilith call, “Evelyn, please come here.” Eve reluctantly slipped out from under the hugs and walked over to the doorway. She and her mom stood there for a long while looking at one another, neither one moving or speaking.

Finally, Eve said, “Mom… What do I do now?”

Lilith smiled, a warm yet sad smile. “You have what you wanted, now.”

“I… Guess? I don’t know if I wanted to be human, I just didn’t want all the sex.”

“No, Evelyn… Eve… You needed this. I could see that when you met me at the mall. You’ve become more than the sex demon you were born as, and I can’t say I’m not proud of you. You deserve the life you’ve earned.”

Eve sort of bounced nervously. “But… What did I do to deserve this?”

I walked up to her. “You’ve greatly improved my life, and you helped bring peace to the succubi and the magical girls! Don’tcha think that would be what ya did?”

She seemed to consider it, then said, “But if it weren’t for me, you’d still be --”

I cut her off. “I’d still be Mike Cross, an average guy with a few friends I barely hang out with and may have at some point lost my sister to a war I never knew about. Now, that war is over, I’m closer to my friends than I used to be and I have a boyfriend who loves the shit outta me. Explain why I’d ever want to go back to being who I was when I can be who I am now. Sure, there were bumps in the road, like that guy trying to rape me at the movies and your sister locking me inside my own head, but I’m… I’m better this way.”

I meant every word of that, too. Sure, at first this all seemed like a crazy roller coaster that I didn’t agree to get on, but as time’s gone on, I felt more and more comfortable this way. Eve had gone from being an annoyance to being… Like another sister to me.

Eve looked down at her feet (I did too, realizing for the first time she was wearing raised sandals) and sort of nervously rubbed one foot against the other. She then looked back up at me and asked, “You really… You feel that way?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“You really think of me as a sister?”

“Well, we’ve sorta lived together the last few weeks and…” I trailed off. I hadn’t said that I think of her as a sister. “Can you still hear my thoughts?!”

I think so.

“How do you still hear my thoughts?!”

Lilith chuckled a little. “You two have clearly gotten so close your bond can’t be broken. That’s a unique thing, even I haven’t bonded with a host so strongly, and I’ve bonded with more than a few hosts I remain friends with.”

Allie was suddenly behind me. “Girls, I’m not trying to rush everybody here, but Mikey has school tomorrow and we’re gonna need to figure out Eve’s fake history before that.”

Eve looked confused. “My what?”

“Look, you’re gonna need somewhere to live, and that’s probably our house, which means Mom won’t just let you lounge around doing nothing. You’ll need to go to school, too.”

“I havta go to school?”

I put my arm around her shoulder. “Be lucky, you can just mentally copy me, I had to actually learn this stuff. Just make sure you don’t copy me exactly, screw some stuff up.”

Eve looked nervous still, then turned to her mom. “So, I should do this? I should go be Eve the high school girl?”

Lilith smiled. “If you don’t, I’ll have to ground you, and you know how much harder it’ll be to lock you in your room.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, Mom could never do that with Allie and I, so she eventually gave up. It made trying to sneak out much less interesting.”

Lilith cleared her throat. “Alright, ladies, it’s time for you to leave. If there’s one thing I’ll not have, it’s my daughter shirking her new responsibility as a human.” before she closed the doorway, she added, “Do the best you can, sweetheart.”

Eve whispered, “I will, Mom,” but the door was already closed.

She heard you, I said in my mind.

I know.

***

I nearly fell on my bed and considered just going to sleep right then and there, but instead, I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked for texts from anybody. Just one from Terry that I would ignore until after a short nap, whereupon I would call him instead. I got lucky that the only part of my phone that suffered any damage when I fell earlier was the outer case, not the phone itself. Still meant I needed a new case, though.

It seemed strange that I was laying in bed without Eve’s thoughts in my head turning to masturbation or outright calling Terry to ask him for sex, even though we could still talk psychically. She promised to keep herself outta my head so long as we were at home, though I figured if Terry and I were ever doing something here, she’d probably make damn sure to watch or listen or whatever the hell it would be she’d be doing mentally.

I pulled the covers over me and hugged my pillow to my head. Dear god, I needed sleep. I couldn’t believe how tired I was. Probably an effect of everything that had happened, from being trapped inside my own head, to meeting Lilith and Adelaide to whatever having my life force sapped out of me meant. Maybe I’d sleep through tomorrow and forget most of today.

That was a distinct possibility until Eve jumped into bed with me.

“Quick, I need help setting my bed up!” she squealed.

I groaned. “Why now?”

“C’mon, hurry! Your mom said you had to!”

God, she was in hyper mode or some shit. I sat up and saw her sitting there, an innocent, almost sad-cat-eyes look on her face. I could even imagine a cat’s tail swaying from side to side behind her. If only it were true and I didn’t havta take her to school…

But, back to reality. “Okay, fine. Is Allie still here to help?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

I sighed. “Goddamnit. Well, whatever. It’s a bed and it’s in pieces. We can bring it up ourselves.”

She had a smirk on her face. “Why don’tcha call Terry?”

I open-palm whacked her on the nose. “No. I used to be a guy, I can put a bed together.”

“But you have a boyfriend who can do it!”

“And he would gladly do it, but I’m too tired to say no if he would ask for anything else.”

Her smirk had become a full-blown smile. “Why would you?”

I glared. “Sixteen is too young to be a mom.”

“But you don’t havta worry about me anymore! I can even find my own boyfriend now!”

“Well, duh, you’re not sharing with me!”

As if he’d been summoned by magic book or some shit, Terry knocked on the door and walked in. “I believe you said my name. And who said I was against sharing?”

I rolled my eyes. “No threesomes with me involved!”

Eve whispered, “But they’re really fun!”

I simply glared.

Terry just chuckled. “In all seriousness, I hear the former succubus princess needs a bed built, and your mom called me to help.”

The eye-rolling was back. I shouted, “Mom! Stop calling my boyfriend to do stuff I can do!”

From downstairs, Mom shouted back, “You’re dating for a reason, just accept it!”

I sighed again. “You’re helping put the bed together, not doing it on your own.”

He half raised his hands like he was surrendering. “I fully agree, ma’am, don’t misjudge my intentions.”

I got out of bed, walked over to him and smacked him on the head. “Don’t you ma’am me, douchebag. It’s honey, sweetie, or Mikey.”

He smiled. “No problem, babe.”

***

An hour and a half later, the bed was finished and covered in pink frills and fluffy pillows that pretty much contrasted the still-boyish-except-the-pillows look to my bed. People couldn’t exactly mistake us for brother and sister, or anything, but my bed didn’t really clue anybody in about me at all.

Terry of course did like ninety percent of the work, because he wouldn’t let me, because he thought I was doing it wrong. I’d put my own bed together, I knew how to put a fucking bed together. Also, he was being too adorably masculine to let me do something physical. Cute, but way too demeaning at the same time. Thankfully, he promised never to do it again and was just teasing me.

Eve crashed on her bed and rolled around in the covers. “You have no idea how good it feels to have a bed that’s all mine!” she said, almost sounding on the verge of climax. “I’ve fucked and slept in a ton of beds, but mostly hotels and never one that was mine.”

Terry calmly took a step closer to my bed. “Well, don’t… Um… Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Does he know how innuendo-y he phrased that? Eve asked, which made me laugh. Dammit, she’d had too much influence on me.

“What?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you later, baby, don’t worry.”

“That just worries me even more.”

I pulled him onto the bed beside me, but I didn’t crawl on top of him or anything. Instead, I wrapped my arms around him and.leaned close for a kiss. “Just shut your yap and kiss me,” I said, in as close to a seductive voice as I could manage (which wasn’t hard at all). He didn’t say anything, simply obliged. He pressed his lips into mine and slid his tongue in my mouth shortly after.

The urge to do more than simply kiss was strong, no doubt because my body was still predominantly built for sex, even if the succubus urges were gone. No, this was pure me, pure teenage hormones mixed with a little bit of what was left of the succubus urges. The difference this time is that I could control this urge. Still, I was very tempted to rip both our clothes off and at least cuddle with him naked.

And then I remembered Eve was still in the room.

I pulled away from Terry. “Hey, Eve, can you, um…”

She flipped me the bird. “Bed here, comfort here. You wanna fuck, you do it with me in here or in Allie’s room.”

Stupid mental link.

Terry laughed. “Actually, sweetie, I’ve got a better idea.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

***

His idea was ice cream. I wanted naked Terry up against naked me, and he wanted ice cream. If he wasn’t so goddamn adorable, this would have pissed me off. But instead, I just accepted it. It was a blisteringly hot day, even at eleven at night.

However, the best part was it was just me and him. Sure, Eve was there in my head, still, and Allie was somewhere talking to some boy she was considering going out with named… Henry, or Harry, or something. But the two of us were just sitting there, looking out at the sky, on a park bench, eating ice cream.

I thought back to when I was still a guy, which was barely two weeks ago and felt like a fucking lifetime. Neither of us had considered back then that we’d be dating now. Or that I’d be a girl. Or that being the host to the succubus princess would bring about peace between two magical groups that had been feuding for over a hundred years. Life seemed so much more… Boring back then. I know it hadn’t seemed that way at the time, but things had changed far too much in such a short span of time.

Holy shit, that was the first time I’d really put any thought into everything that had happened (though I’d probably said that a dozen times). I had just accepted it all, no muss, no fuss. And now, here I was, curled up next to my best friend, my boyfriend, eating ice cream in the park with him. It was so absurdly romantic I’d expect it in one of those stupid rom-coms that Allie liked to watch.

(Honestly, my life the past few weeks could be a rom-com.)

Terry said, “This is nice.”

I looked at him and smirked. “Nice? It’s fucking sweltering out here and we’re eating very quickly melting ice cream cones.”

“Yeah, but it’s just us. When was the last time it was just us?”

I took a big bite of ice cream. “Um… I was a boy then.”

“Exactly. This is the first time we’ve been able to just be boyfriend and girlfriend without Eve in your head or Allie somewhere nearby.”

I snuggled closer to him. “Well, Eve’s still technically here.”

“Huh?”

“We still have a mental connection. She still knows what I’m thinking. I don’t know if she knows what I’m seeing or doing or anything, though. And she promised to stay out of our night together.”

“And you’re sure she’s holding on to that promise?”

“Not one single bit.”

He laughed. “Well, either way, she’s not here.”

“Right.” He was right in a manner of speaking, and she hadn’t broken her promise just yet, so, the evening was going just plain great.

I finished my ice cream and just nestled up against him, basking in the pure simplicity of the moment.

***

“Hurry up, Eve!” I shouted at the bathroom door. I had to pee and she was still in the fucking shower. And she wasn’t helping by bringing up mental images of waterfalls and peaceful rivers. She was taking far to much an advantage of this damn connection.

“I’ll be out in a minute!” she called back.

“You said that an hour ago! We’re gonna run out of hot water!” good thing I took a shower last night. Without Terry, though I couldn’t deny the urge to have him come in. Eve was probably enjoying the fantasizing I did and how hard it was to cover up the moaning.

Mom walked over to me and knocked on the door. “Eve, sweetie, hurry up.”

“Okay!” she yelled, and suddenly the water was being turned off.

I glared at Mom, who just shrugged and smiled. “It’s a mom gift. You’ll have it when you’re a mom.”

I was about to say something about that, but then the bathroom door opened and Eve sauntered out, towel wrapped around her with a smirk on her face. Just you try to say something, I told her.

Bite me, I had to listen to her. She’s got Mom powers!

I was then just about to duck into the bathroom, but Mom got in there before me. Dammit…

Thirty minutes later after I’d managed to finally pee, I poked through my closet. I still wasn’t comfortable with most of my clothes, but that was quickly subsiding. The tank tops all showed too much cleavage, but I was used to that now. I was used to guys staring at my boobs now. Honestly, even though I had a boyfriend I had no intentions of cheating on, getting stared at was sometimes kinda fun. No doubt Eve’s influence on me.

I grabbed a pink one that had cheetah spots all over it. The spaghetti straps barely covered my bra straps, but that was pretty much every tank top I had. Hopefully the heat would start to die down soon, and I could wear more tee-shirts. Heat waves were great when you were completely comfortable with your body, but when you were self-conscious and nervous about it, they were nothing but attention drawing annoyances.

Eve squeezed past me and grabbed one of those short denim skirts that Mindy forced me to buy a few days ago. “You need to wear this,” she said.

“Uh, no.”

“Yes. Wear it and a pair of long socks, you’ll look adorable.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why don’t you wear it?”

She held it against me, I assume checking to see how I’d look in it. “Because, Terry got you ice cream last night. He treated you, now it’s your turn to treat him by wearing something sexy and revealing. And then wear the long socks - or stockings or tights, both good options - to keep the modesty you don’t want to lose by wearing such a short skirt.”

I blinked a moment, then said, “I shouldn’t even consider entertaining that idea. Terry loves me for who I am, not how I dress!”

She flashed a smirk. “Trust me, I may not have had a legitimate boyfriend as long as you have, but boys always want their girl to show off for them. Terry will appreciate the view, just like every other guy, and maybe the two of you will do a little more than cuddling tonight when he takes you to the movies.”

I grabbed the skirt from her hands. “You promised.”

She nodded. “Yeah, but you never said anything about your mom being able to tell me.”

“When did Mom tell you?”

“Just before you got to the table this morning for breakfast.”

Goddamnit. Of course Mom would betray me like that. I sighed. “Fine, I guess I’ll wear the skirt. Not like it’s the first one I’ve ever worn. But I’m doing this under protest and I demand that you not try to influence anything else I do today.”

Eve nodded. “Yep. I’ll be busy trying to snag my own boyfriend. On that subject, is what’shisname available?”

I raised an eyebrow. “What’shisname? Who are you talking about?”

“That… Dammit… That guy from the lake party. The one who knew Loki.”

“Gerry? I dunno. Maybe. I have a boyfriend, I don’t keep up on who’s single or not.”

She grabbed a similar skirt and a tee shirt that didn’t cover her stomach. “Well, whatever. Even if he is taken, there’s gotta be a guy for me somewhere in school. Hopefully, I can find the same kind of relationship you’ve got with Terry. I want a guy who cares about me and wants me around.”

“You want legitimate love, not fuck-love?”

“Yeah.”

After getting the skirt on, I sat down on my bed and pulled on a pair of long socks. I had to admit, knee socks and a denim skirt did make my legs look great. Maybe wearing this skirt at school wouldn’t be the horrifying mess I was afraid it would be. “You know you can’t just get into a meaningful relationship overnight, right?”

She pulled the shirt down over her head. Her bra was just as obvious as mine, even though her bra straps weren’t out there for everyone to see. “Duh, but it starts somewhere, and that’s with presenting myself as Evelyn Cross, Mikaela’s long-lost twin sister who just moved to town to get close to her family.”

I sighed. “How Allie thought that will work is beyond me, but I guess it’s probably been a true story at some point. With any luck, nobody’ll question it.”

“We’ll be fine!”

“Right, I’ll believe that when I see it.”

***

The principal looked over Eve’s file and occasionally glanced up from it at Eve or at me. He didn’t seem overly impressed with what he was reading. Finally, he set the file down and asked, “Are you possessed or a sorceress or a magical girl or something else?”

Eve and I both asked, “What?”

He sighed. “Miss Cross,” he was looking at me when he said that, “your sister - your real sister, Allison - was a magical girl who battled a succubus right here in my school. Yes, I know about magical creatures, and I’m really, really not comfortable with how many of you keep popping up here.” He looked over at Eve. “So tell me, Evelyn, what are you?”

Eve asked, “Would you believe me if I said I was a succubus who turned into a human and I’m not magical at all anymore?”

He sat there for a moment and looked like he was about to yawn. “Whatever,” he finally said, “just don’t go around telling people you’re her long-lost twin sister, most people here are smart enough not to believe that.”

Did this just work? Eve asked.

Don’t ask me, I’m still confused.

“Um, yes, sir,” Eve said.

The both of us stood up. Eve made it to the door before I did, because I glanced back at the principal and wondered just what the hell he’d seen Allie do to a succubus last year. After that, I followed Eve back out into the hallway.

***

“Okay, I’m ready for my first day of high school!” Eve exclaimed, a little bit more loudly than I wanted her to. Thankfully, nobody was around to hear it.

“It’s really your second day,” I said as I took a sip of soda from my Mountain Dew bottle, “but your first day was as me.”

“Exactly, that’s why this is my first day, and I’m excited!”

“You really shouldn’t be,” Mindy said, suddenly arriving from out of nowhere. “But, now that there’s two big-titted redheads from the Cross household in school, the place can be a little more lively.”

I smacked her on the back of the head. “Don’t draw attention to us.”

“Why not? It’s cool!” She turned to Eve. “Are you into guys or girls? Please tell me girls!”

Eve shook her head. “Sorry. Dicks over chicks for me.”

“Fuck. It’s really hard to find girls to get with in this town. Especially since Gabby and Kendra are the only other dykes I know of here and they’re dating.”

Terry rounded the corner and saw us. “Well, there’s a buncha girls over here,” he said with a smirk on his face, “and one ‘em’s my girlfriend.” He asked Eve, “Can I borrow Mikey, I have some appreciation to her give her.”

I wrapped my arms around him. “Um, you ask me if you can borrow me. Eve is not her step-sister’s keeper.”

Eve laughed. “Yeah, you two go spend whatever time you need. And she’s only dressed like that because I pointed the outfit out!” After that, she and Mindy both turned and made their way to the cafeteria.

Terry put his hands on my waist and smiled. “You do look hot.”

“Shut it,” I said, “I don’t want Eve to have the satisfaction.” I kissed him on the cheek. “Other than this personal display of affection, was there something you wanted?”

He kissed me on the cheek. “There was, actually. Do you like Chinese food?”

“What?”

“Well, I kinda wanna take you to dinner before the movie, and this new Chinese place opened up across the street from the theater.”

“I’ve never had Chinese food.”

“Good, neither have I, let’s give it a try.”

I sighed. “Fine, what are you taking me to see, anyway?”

“I haven’t decided if it’s The Nut Job 2 or Mother. Or, if all else fails, Logan Lucky is still in theaters.”

“Haven’t you seen that like four times already?”

“Yeah, but not with you.”

I don’t know if he was trying to be sweet, but it worked. I hugged myself closer to him. “Well, how about we see that?”

“Not The Nut Job 2?”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“Some animated movie.”

“Logan Lucky, babe.”

He chuckled. “Fine with me.”

Thanks to the movie talk, my mind drifted back to my thoughts from last night. I pulled away a bit. “Do you think our life these past few weeks could be a rom-com?”

“Why are you asking this?”

“Something I thought about last night.”

He rubbed at his chin. “Well, I guess it could. Silly shit thanks to Eve, us falling for each other, I think our life kinda is a rom-com.”

“Yeah, and Eve, Allie and I had the requisite amount of drama with the whole succubus/magical girl war that we ended.”

He smiled. “Since we fell in love, I guess we could probably skip the mandatory mid-movie break-up part.”

“Obviously.”

“And all good rom-coms end with a kiss and look toward a happy future, right?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“You’re the girl?”

I sighed. “I don’t see why not.”

He hugged me closer and pressed his lips to mine. And I was ready for the happy future part.