I had a good solid sleep for the first time since I had Manifested over two days ago. We had been so busy running around trying to lay down false trails for bounty hunters to follow, making preparations, and trying to help me to adapt to and learn about my new self that we hadn’t had time for more than a short nap at the Nordic Hotel in Vancouver. I had tried to sleep on the plane but I had been far too anxious while wearing clothes, and having that many people around me had me too horny and keyed up to sleep regardless.

It was the dream that finally woke me. A dream of that kiss with Melody that had quickly gone from kissing to much more. I don’t really remember the exact details, but that’s not surprising since I didn’t really have the real-life experience to base the dream off and frankly, I don’t think my imagination was vivid enough to fill in those missing blanks. So, everything was a bit hazy other than kisses, roaming hands, and a feeling of slowly building pressure like a tea kettle slowly coming to a boil and then going off with a whistle as it attained maximum entropy.

Unlike that imaginary teapot, I didn’t whistle. I screamed out in mind-shattering rapture, my back so arched that only my heels and shoulders were touching the satin sheets beneath me as my hands continued to frantically stimulate my left nipple and between my legs. I was only dimly aware that I was now awake as I urgently pushed for a second and then a third orgasm on the heels of the first, trying to ease the desperate need that had been my constant companion since I had Manifested.

I was clumsy, inexperienced, and mostly working on instinct but once that magical third orgasm washed over me, once again filling my body and mind with the heat and light of a thousand suns, I collapsed onto the bed in a puddle. Okay, two puddles if you count that I felt like one myself. My body was humming and though I had worn myself out with my morning ‘exercise session’ I felt so alive and right, as if I were laying in a field of snow.

Who would have thought that that multiple orgasms could be so amazing? I would have thought that they would be less intense simply because there were more of them but each one seemed much stronger and more all-consuming than my attempts at self-pleasure as a guy. It was like each one had become more and more powerful, infusing me with warmth, joy, and light that filled me to my soul. I didn’t know if that was a girl thing or a Nymph thing but I could definitely get used to it.

As I laid there smiling, giggling to myself, and savoring the afterglow of my first sexual experience as my new self I gazed dreamily at the alarm clock beside the bed. The face of the clock announced that it was 7:23 so I estimated that I had gotten about nine or ten hours of sleep. Being fully rested and filled with the post-orgasmic warm fuzzies, I felt the best that I had since I had Manifested. As much as I wanted to just bask in that feeling though, I had to get up.

We had been told the night before that breakfast is always at nine o’clock sharp on weekends and seven-thirty on weekdays. Everyone living above the club, at least those of us who needed to eat regular food, ate together down in the club. Usually, that gave everyone, even those working the club, a good six hours or more in rest since the club was open from four pm until one in the morning from Mondays to Thursdays, until two on Fridays and Saturdays, and completely closed on Sundays.

The reason that I had to be up early though was that Jessica was likely going to be knocking at my door in roughly seven minutes. Why is that, you ask? Because we didn’t have much time while on the run and leaving false trails for me to learn much of anything about being a girl, except for maybe how to put a bra on. With that in mind, Jessica had wanted to get started on teaching me girl stuff and start getting into our new roles.

Can you believe that she actually wanted to start practicing doing the twin thing? You know, finishing each other’s sentences, saying things at the same time, and knowing what one another was thinking. We had always been close and could tell when one another was upset or lying or something, but she wanted to take things to the next level and get really in synch. What can I say? She commits to her roles and now I had to as well.

Jessica was hoping that if we got into these roles deeply enough that it would become second nature and become our actual lives. Easy for her to say, she just needed to memorize some details on our fictional pasts. Everything had changed for me and while she may have altered her human form to look near identical to mine, she didn’t have to change her given name, gender, or much about who she was inside. She could be the same person and have the same interests, just with a different backstory.

I got up and out of the bed and my cheeks flushed at the sight of the large wet spot on the satin sheets, I hadn’t been kidding about the puddle thing earlier. It could have been worse though, at least the automated lilac scented air freshener in the room would stop it from smelling like a Greek orgy, eventually. I debated getting dressed, but the knock at the door put the brakes on that idea.

With a resigned sigh, I walked over to the door and opened it to reveal my sister standing there with a smile and dressed in her slightly too small lavender silk bathrobe. She figured it would do for the morning, but we both needed new clothes soon. “Mornin’, Sis. I hope you got a good sleep because we have a lot to do today.” Suddenly she sniffed the air and then glanced over my shoulder toward my bed before teasing, “Well, it seems like you’ve been up for a while, and enjoying yourself.”

“I… well… I… ummm,” I stammered, looking at the floor as my cheeks burned.

I was surprised when she reached out to hug me. “Relax, Crystal. I’m not gonna give you shit for something like that. Girls do it too you know, and you should since you’ve walked in on me once. I’m surprised that you held out as long as you have. I do have a sensitive nose and I know how much you’ve been holding back.”

‘I didn’t mean to… I mean, I kinda had some intense dreams and when I woke up I was in the middle of…” I admitted, just enjoying the closeness with my sister.

Jessica took me by the hand and led me to the edge of the bed. “Crystal, I know that it’s been hard for you, it probably still is, but this is who you are now. You need to embrace this and be who you’re meant to be and nobody has the right to fault you for that. If they do I’ll kick their ass, if you don’t freeze their underwear or something first.”

I caught the smirk on her face as she said the last and sighed. “I didn’t mean to, I just got angry and it happened.” I never used to get angry or overly emotional, but it seemed that I was doing it constantly since Manifesting. There was just so much to get used to and between the compulsions, living in a strip club in a strange city with people I didn’t really know, and not being able to control my new magic. Honestly, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I had only one constant in my life still, my sister, and I was afraid that I was going to lose her too.

“It was hilarious, and you have to admit, he kind of deserved it. I know everything is different now, it’s been freaking me out too and I think people will understand that, but it’s also why we need to immerse ourselves in our new lives and roles. Whatever happens, whoever we are, we will always have each other, Sis. I’ll still be your sister, in fact, I think we’re going to be even closer than we ever were,” Jessica assured me, seemingly sensing my uncertainty.

For a few more minutes we just sat there and held one another, enjoying the contact with that one person in the world who meant the most to us. Then Jessica dragged me toward my bathroom so that I could shower while she tried to get me into the mindset of being Crystal. Since my new background was similar to my old one with the whole losing our father thing, only recently Manifesting, and having to leave everything I knew except for my sister, Jessica was trying to get me into the parts of the role that I couldn’t really relate to or had no experience with.

Crystal had grown up a girl so I would need to appear as if I had as well. That was the most important part of my role and the one that Jessica had decided needed the most work. With that in mind, she started giving me girl lessons as I showered. There were only the very basics there, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and towels, and apparently, it was not near enough for a normal teenage girl. At least I wouldn’t need to worry about shaving my legs or underarms since Nymphs don’t grow body hair.

Jessica planned for us to get all of the necessities for both us and Melody when we went to West Edmonton Mall later to get new clothes and stuff. Once we did have everything, she planned on teaching me every little thing that I would ever want or need to know about the daily life and beauty regimen that I would need to stick to. I was a bit uncertain about all the girlie pampering that she had planned until she told me that I would be even more attractive if I took the effort to always look, smell, and feel my best. Nymphs have a narcissistic streak a mile wide about their appearances, and it seemed that I was no exception, so I took the bait hook, line, and sinker.

Since she couldn’t do any hands-on training in that area until we had what was needed and my mannerisms and body language were now naturally very feminine and a bit seductive from my new Nymph nature, Jessica tried to give me some general knowledge about growing up a girl. It wasn’t all about playing with dolls and stuff like that, but stuff like biology, psychology, proper feminine hygiene, being more in touch with my emotions, and about how teenage girls interact with boys and one another. Not every girl is the same though so that gave me a bit of freedom to have been a bit of a tomboy before Manifesting, which would make my role a bit easier.

When I was finally out of the shower (it took forever to wash my hair since it was down to the middle of my thighs) I quickly patted rather than rubbed myself dry, as per my sister’s instructions. Then she got her hairdryer and brush from her room and proceeded to dry and then braid my long white tresses. After that she taught me how to braid hers since she had copied my hair length as well as my face and body. I was a little uncertain and clumsy at first but I had pretty nimble fingers now and got used to it quickly.

I was actually surprised by how relaxing it was, not just having my hair braided, but braiding someone else’s. There was this soothing sort of rhythm to it once you got going. By the time that I had finished though it was almost time for breakfast.

Sadly, that meant that I had to put on clothes. We probably would have had to wear the same clothes as the day before if Mom hadn’t dropped off some clothes before heading downstairs herself. They weren’t really teenage fashion and they were a bit over the top sexy, but they fit well since Mom had the club’s costume designer make them for us last night using the measurements that she had gotten from Aunt Merry.

We quickly put on the silk thong panties and demi bras, followed by the matching stockings, and then shimmied into the short sexy low-cut V-neck mini dresses with spaghetti straps that Mom had the club’s costume designer make the evening before. Jess’s was ruby red satin with black stockings and undergarments and mine was a cerulean and silver brocade with raised snowflake patterns accompanied by white stockings and undergarments. Jess was able to increase her shoe size enough to use some of her old shoes for now and I wore the white sling backs that she had gotten me in Vancouver.

We stepped outside my room and Melody was waiting for us so we could all hit the elevator together. She was wearing a simple jeans and t-shirt combination with black leather ankle boots and stared at me wide-eyed for a moment before she surprised me with a toe-curling kiss that re-stoked the fires of desire within me. As we walked to the common room and then the elevator on the hardwood floors I tried to calm myself down and wondered if I would ever get used to the sound of clicking heels in time with my steps. Once the elevator arrived we pressed the button for the first floor and rode downward.

The club was huge, taking up almost the entire first floor of the building with burgundy-colored walls, black carpet made from natural fibers, and neon lights everywhere. The elevator was set in the wall opposite the main entrance and near the large half-oval-shaped stage that took up almost the entire length of the back wall with a stripper pole on each end. About eight feet away from the elevator there was a door in the corner that went to what I assumed must be a backstage area.

Comfortable-looking barstools surrounded the stage and almost all of the rest of the club was filled with table booths designed so the occupants could see the main stage or the bars to either side of the room. In addition to the drinks that were probably served there, and the barstools, each of the two bars also had a circular mini-stage to each side of them. Mom, Aunt Merry, and a bunch of other people were all seated at some of the large booths that sat near a pair of double doors to one side of one of the bars that I figured led to the kitchen.

As we approached the table where Mom and Aunt Merry were sitting with a bunch of people that I didn’t recognize I stopped mid-step to sniff the air. I wasn’t the only one, because Jessica had done the same thing beside me. Then as one, we looked at one another and asked, “Do you smell that?” We both blinked in surprise and grinned as we both squealed in unison, “Blueberry cinnamon pancakes!” Wow, maybe we wouldn’t have to practice the twin thing after all. Though I was pretty sure that had been a fluke since it just happened to be our favorite breakfast, something that Dad used to make on the weekends for us.

Still, we were getting a lot of looks from those already seated for breakfast. Some were staring in confusion and wonder, Carmen was outright giggling, Mom and Aunt Merry were trying not to laugh, and Melody just gave us a long wide-eyed look and said, “Damn. That is going to take some getting used to.”

Mom had managed to get herself under control and smiled at us. “I wanted you to feel at home here, and your Dad once said that those were your favorite weekend breakfast.”

I could feel myself close to crying and I heard Jess sniffle beside me. We both rushed forward to wrap Mom up in a hug and blubbered out, “Thanks, Mom.”

Again it had come out in stereo and I heard Aunt Merry chuckle and say, “That’s downright uncanny.”

Breakfast was nice and there was a lot to choose from, though I was a bit distracted, not to mention horny, with so many people there, especially the gorgeous dancers. Jess and I both had a glass of milk and a stack of blueberry cinnamon pancakes with maple syrup but where Jess had fresh fruit with hers, I had some scrambled eggs and a single sausage with mine. Melody tried a little bit of everything and seemed pretty happy with it.

Once we had finished eating, Mom quickly introduced us and Melody to everyone since we were all together. The only other one of the kids that we hadn’t officially met was Aislinn’s daughter Sorcha, a very precocious four-year-old whose eyes went wide when she saw me and Jessica up close. Partly it was from the fact that we were identical except for Jess’s bunny features, and partly because of my sister’s aforementioned bunny features, especially the ears. I sensed that we were going to have a new little admirer.

Other than her, those who we had met the night before, and Mom and Aunt Merry, we were meeting everyone for the first time. Everyone who lived in the building was there. They were all full-time employees or dancers for Pandora’s Box so it was easier for them all to live there as well.

The club had a bunch of part-time employees too, such as all the waitresses, bartenders, kitchen helpers, and a few part-time dancers but they all had lives outside the club and didn’t stay there unless something like bad weather prevented them from going home after a shift. Everyone who was there at that moment though lived and worked together and they were all kind of like a huge, and slightly strange, family from what we had learned from Carmen the night before.

First, Mom introduced us to her fiancée and business partner, Pandora. Since it seemed like they were getting married eventually I harbored the brief hope that I could have a reason to change my name to something less stripper-like someday. That is until I found out that her last name was Cox. I just have no luck.

Pandora was a pretty Succubus with peaches and cream skin, attention-grabbing pink eyes, and lavender hair and like other Succubae she also had a pair of bat-like wings on her back that matched her eye color. I had thought that Succubae and Incubi are Demons and drain people of their life force but apparently, that’s one of many common misconceptions about them. They feed on sexual energy, desire, and lust to keep themselves young and healthy, not on life energy, and for physical energy they still need to eat regular food. They aren’t aligned to Death, or any element actually. They’re not Demons either, they’re a type of psychic shapeshifter with heightened pheromone levels.

Next, we were introduced to Brock and Cindy Dawson, the husband and wife Merfolk that ran the kitchen. Like all Merfolk they couldn’t use their physical voices so they spoke with everyone telepathically, which worried me a bit until Mom told us that they could only hear thoughts that were directed toward them and we could talk normally since they could hear just fine. Sitting with them was the really tall and muscular woman with olive skin and raven hair that I had noticed guarding the door before going to park the Charger the day before. Her name was Annika Stamos and she was an actual Amazon, not that that should have surprised me.

The last two of the non-dancer full-time staff were another husband and wife pair named Derek and Lana Pearson. Derek was a Faun and he had a handsome face, dark brown hair, goat-like legs and stubby horns, and a kind of deep soothing voice. He ran the club’s DJ booth; playing music, setting up the playlists for each dancer’s shows, introducing them before they got on stage, and making any announcements.

Lana was born a normie but she was a very pretty and very pregnant woman of African descent who had been trained as a Witch. While she wasn’t aligned to any element like Mages were, and it was harder for her to use magic than someone who was, her ritualistic magic allowed her to cast small spells from any of the ten elements. She also acted as the club’s costume designer and seamstress and she was the one who had made the clothes that Jess and I were wearing at the moment until we could go shopping.

Then there were Mom and Pandora’s fellow dancers, though they all preferred to think of themselves as entertainers since they all did more than just dancing. First, there were three other Succubae that were introduced as sisters named Stella, Anita, and Adora Dicken, each with dark green eyes and wings and hair in various shades of blue. Their mother was a normie but their father was an Incubus and apparently had a sadistic streak if their names were anything to go by. They seemed nice enough, weren’t that much older than me and Jess, and during breakfast, they had been telling me just how great their job was for ‘girls like us’ in an attempt to get me to join the fold when I officially turned eighteen.

Then there was Lou’s Werewolf-mother Genevieve, a nice but snarky three-tailed Japanese Kitsune named Krysti Fox, a Lamia with Mediterranean features named Nadia Seymour, an Undine with dark blue hair and eyes named Nixie Wells, and a pretty blonde Huldra named Rhissa Dahl. All of them could fit in pretty well with the Norms if they needed to. Genevieve only had trouble keeping her human form on full moons, Rhissa looked human except for her cow-like tail which she kept hidden under long skirts in public, and Krysti, Nadia, and Nixie were all adept enough as shapeshifters to hide their non-human features.

There were two among the entertainers who had to be careful outside the club though, each for their own reasons. The first of these was Carmilla, who I had noticed had only drank a dark red liquid during breakfast. She was a Vampire with blood-red hair and eyes and I don’t know if she was that Carmilla, but she had been there since the club had first opened, nobody knew her by any other name, she was much older than she looked and from what I heard later she was only interested in women, at least attraction-wise.

Carmilla hardly left the club at all since she couldn’t go out in daylight unless she wanted a really bad sunburn, and she was the only one exempt from weekly purification spells since they would likely kill her and being undead she didn’t have to worry about things like STDs. She admitted that she only offered the extra services to male clients so she could feed, but she only took enough from each to sate her thirst and leave them a bit light-headed. Most of the blood that she drank came from a contact that Dr. Diaz had at a local blood bank. She wasn’t vicious and bloodthirsty like I had expected a Vampire to be, instead, she seemed distant at times and a bit sad.

The last to be introduced was the newest resident before we had arrived and the other who had issues leaving the club much. Sukoha was a Kuromihar, they’re Paranormal creatures that dwelled in remote areas of the Amazon Rainforest but have largely been displaced. They look like beautiful human women, if human women had pale green skin and crimson hair. She would have to get someone to cast a glamour on her to leave the club and because her kind was used to the weather in Brazil, Sukoha got cold easily this far north and could only really be comfortable outside when bundled up or during the warmer months.

With that odd coloring, a gorgeous body, huge cocoa brown eyes, and full kissable lips Sukoha was exotic and very pretty, and Lou had made sure to sit as far from the Kuromihar as possible during breakfast. Once breakfast and introductions were done, the housekeeping staff got to work, and everyone else went about whatever they did during the day I turned to Carmen and asked, “What’s up with Lou and Sukoha? He looks terrified of her.”

Carmen laughed and said, “Let’s just say that his idiocy when meeting you yesterday wasn’t an isolated incident.” Then she turned toward little Sorcha who was following us like a lost puppy since her mother was off doing her job and asked, “Sorcha, could you go to the kitchen and ask Cindy for some Salamander food? Then we can check on Ashe and Jenny. We’ll need to be careful though, remember.”

The little redhead nodded her head so eagerly that I thought it might fly off. “Yuh-huh, Carmen! I go get da food!” Then she ran off excitedly for the kitchen.

The moment she was gone Carmen grinned and told Melody, Jessica, and me in a hushed tone, “Sukoha arrived about three months ago. Back then Lou was best buddies with Arand, he was the temporary bouncer who Melody is replacing, and he left a few weeks ago after getting a permanent job as a bodyguard. Anyway, they had seen her passing and were talking about how pretty and exotic she was and they made note of her lips and big eyes. Arand went on to say something about how awesome she would be giving BJs and how he’d love to see those big eyes looking up at him while doing it. Lou agreed and neither of them had noticed that she had turned back toward them and overheard.”

“So, what happened?” Melody pressed, shaking her head at their stupidity.

“Sukoha told them that she hadn’t started working yet and that she didn’t have any experience with that kind of thing, but she would be happy to help them both out and get some learning experience. And then she smiled,” Carmen said with another grin. “She still asks Lou once in a while when he’s going to let her get some practice in, and she always smiles when she asks.”

We all started laughing and I didn’t think that I was alone in trying to picture the look on Lou’s face. I had seen Sukoha smiling and laughing during breakfast. Her people were apparently carnivores and her mouth was filled with needle-like teeth roughly three-quarters of an inch long. We were still laughing when Sorcha returned a few minutes later with a tiny clay bowl that fit easily in her four-year-old hands filled with finely cut meat scraps.

Carmen would have started the tour with the kitchen but Brock and Cindy were busy with prep work for lunch and the week ahead so she didn’t want to bother them. It was just your standard restaurant kitchen anyway and it would always be there later if we really wanted to look. Instead, she took us through the club and to the door that led to the backstage area.

Backstage was mostly a changing area with several vanities set up for the dancers to get in costumes and do their makeup before going out to dance. There was also a room for costume storage, which had clothing racks filled with various costumes, each with one of the dancer’s names. Finally, there was Lana’s domain, a sewing room where the costume designer made costumes and alterations. She wasn’t there at the moment though since it was Sunday and she and Derek were going somewhere to enjoy their day off together.

Sorcha was going to be sticking with us for the tour, but she couldn’t really keep up well with her little legs so Melody had hefted her up onto her shoulders for a piggy-back ride, much to the girl’s delight, while Jess took the tiny bowl of meat. Sorcha didn’t weigh that much and Melody did have that demonic strength of hers.

It seemed that while her mother was working during the days Sorcha usually spent time with Carmen, Lou, or one of the dancers watching over her. Everyone tried to help with her where they could and keep her occupied so she’d kind of become the communal child for everyone who lived at the club and they all adored her, even the brooding Carmilla. It made me feel a bit relieved and happy that we came to live with Mom.

For the next stop on the tour, we took the elevator down to the garage. We’d already seen it of course, but Carmen wanted to show us the boiler room so she asked Melody to open the heavy metal door since it wouldn’t take her as much effort as the rest of us. The room was lit by some weird kind of lamp hanging from the ceiling and connected to the fuse box for the building and although I saw plenty of pipes and wiring and stuff I didn’t really see anything that looked like a boiler. The closest thing I saw was something that looked like a steampunk version of an old-fashioned wood stove with a bunch of pipes and connected to a massive water heater.

“We’re not on the city power grid, it would be a problem if the electric company started looking into why so much power is going to the park,” Carmen explained as she pointed to what I had thought was a strange lamp. “That’s Generator, but we call it Jenny for short. It provides all of the electricity that we’ll ever need.”

“Wait, is that a…” What I had thought was a lamp was actually a sort of cylindrical Plexiglas cage with a ball of light inside that had electricity arcing along its surface and the surface of the enclosure. It was a Wisp, a Lightning elemental. They’re basically just living bundles of pure electric energy. They don’t eat or drink like we do but get their sustenance from the gasses in the air. They could be unpredictable though.

“Where did they get a Wisp? I’ve heard that you don’t often see them away from the Electric Plane,” Melody said in wonder.

“Friends in low places, have you met Grundle?” Carmen asked. At our nods, she explained, “Well, he does a lot of favors for your mom and Pandora and he can travel to other Planes so he caught Jenny for us. He also brought Ashe to us.”

“Ashe?” my sister asked in confusion.

Carmen nodded as she grabbed a pair of oven mitts from the wall and used them to open the steampunk wood stove. Inside was a white-hot fire, enough to make me instinctively back away from the heat, though as soon as the door opened the flames dissipated to reveal a tiny little hot rod red dragon-like creature with a largish head, short neck, yellow eyes, and black wavy stripes along the back of its head, torso, and serpentine tail. It was maybe fourteen inches in length from its snout to the tip of its tail with a wingspan of maybe twelve inches.

“Ashe is a Salamander, one of the Fire elementals,” Carmen offered. “She was injured when Grundle found her so we nursed her back to health and trained her. She knows that if we open the door or take her out for some exercise or to feed her that she needs to put out her flames so she doesn’t hurt anyone. She provides all of our heat and hot water.”

The Salamander fluttered out and nuzzled Carmen and Sorcha, making the latter giggle happily. Once the tiny clay bowl full of meat was placed on the floor she began to gobble it up and looked curiously up at me, Melody, and my sister. Those yellow eyes lingered on me, seeming to peer into my soul as she cocked her head and made a sound somewhere between purring and mewling. Then she jumped at me and I barely had time to take a step back in shock before she started nuzzling me like she had Sorcha and Carmen. “Eeep!” I squeaked.

Ashe was warm but not unpleasantly hot and I tentatively reached out to stroke her little head with a single finger like Carmen and Sorcha had done when she had nuzzled them. Carmen gave me a strange look, announcing, “That’s odd, Ashe usually takes a while to warm up to new people. Sorcha and I usually come down to feed and exercise her together because we’re the only ones that she lets get physical with her like that, though I sometimes need to remind Sorcha to be careful.”

Now that she had gotten her petting the Salamander returned to her bowl, finished her meal, and seemed ready to return to her spot inside the steampunk stove. Before Carmen could close the door though she flew back out carrying something black and leathery-looking that was about the size and shape of a robin egg in her front talons. Ashe landed on the floor in front of me, rolled the object toward my foot with her snout, and looked up to stare at me expectantly. “What’s she doing?” Melody asked as we watched carefully.

“That’s one of her eggs, she clutched three of them about two months ago and surprised us. She disappeared for nearly a day back in September and we think she might have returned to the Fire Plane for her mating cycle. She’s offering the last of them to Crystal or asking her to care for it, I can’t be sure which. She did the same with me and Sorcha last week and she doesn’t take no for an answer,” Carmen explained with a shrug. “She won’t stop staring at you and get back to work until you take it, Crystal.”

“Mama dun like my egg,” Sorcha said with a sad expression.

“Carmen reached out to ruffle the little girl’s bright red hair and smiled down at her,” It’s not that, Sweetie. It’s just that caring for something like that is a big responsibility, especially once they hatch, and she’s worried that you could get hurt. Grundle said that we should have a month or so to train them before they can stoke a flame so we just need to be careful and make sure that we teach them to behave. We can do it though, you were only two when we trained Ashe, but she was an adult and we did a good job with her didn’t we?”

Sorcha nodded and smiled, and since Ashe was still staring at me I knelt and carefully picked up the egg. Once it was in my hand the Salamander made a sound somewhere between a chirp and a croon and nuzzled me, Sorcha, and Carmen once more before returning to her stove and bursting into flames. The egg was harder and smoother than I had expected and really warm, almost too warm, and I was a little surprised that it hadn’t burned my hand since it had been in that white hot oven. wondered just what I was getting myself into as Carmen used the oven mitts to once again close the door of the stove. I was still staring at the egg when my sister asked, “So, where to next?”

Since the second floor was off-limits to us ‘kids’ Carmen led us up to the residential floor with Melody once again piggy-backing a giggling Sorcha. We had already seen pretty much the whole floor but there was one important area that we hadn’t yet, the infirmary where Carmen’s mother would probably want to give us new girls a checkup. Thankfully, before we did that Carmen wanted to help me put Ashe’s ‘gift’ in a place where it would stay warm and safe until it hatched.

Many of those who lived above the club had gone off to enjoy their day off while my Mom and Pandora were snuggled on the couch watching a movie on television with Sukoha. They all looked up as the elevator dinged open and Mom smiled and asked “So, you showed them everything, Carmen?”

“I sure did, Tiffani, though I still need to show them to the clinic, and Mom is probably going to want to get them in for a physical and stuff,” Carmen replied. Then she added with a laugh, “Ashe struck again though. For some reason, she took an instant liking to Crystal and we’ll need to get her set up for her new little buddy.”

All three of the women looked surprised. “Ashe never takes to anyone that fast,” Pandora said in sudden interest.

“No kidding, I’ve been here like three months and she barely tolerates me,” Sukoha agreed with a nod.

“Well, once you’re done getting Crystal set up you can take the girls to see your mother. They have a lot of errands to run today so I’d like Isabella to be finished with them as soon as possible,” my mother advised, filling me with a feeling of dread as I thought about seeing Dr. Diaz in a professional capacity.

I was expecting Carmen to put the egg in a pot of sand on top of the heater in my room or something but instead, she took us to her room and gave me a black velvet bag about two inches square with a long drawstring. It was filled with sand and had just enough space left for the tiny egg. I could feel divine magic on it as Carmen had me put the egg inside, tighten the drawstring as tight as it would go, and then put it around my neck to let the bag settle practically in my cleavage.

Carmen and Sorcha both had similar tiny bags under their shirts and she explained that Krysti had used Kitsune magic on them so that the inside of the bag would stay really warm for the eggs while the outsides of the bags were enchanted to protect the contents from any heavy impacts or other damage and to let the wearer know if the egg inside started to move. I thought that it was pretty cool but Carmen warned me that, according to Grundle, when the eggs hatched the Salamanders inside would have to be extracted and fed ASAP and since the eggs were hard and black it would probably be fairly soon, a few days at most.

It only took a few minutes in her room to get me set up and to then explain the details so soon we were on our way to the dreaded clinic, which turned out to be the dorm room across from Dr. Diaz’s room. Carmen knocked on the door to her mother’s room and after a moment her mother opened the door to smile at us. “Well, girls, if you’re here then the tour must be over. Tiffani tells me that you have a lot to do today so why don’t we get your physicals out of the way? So, who’s first?”