Chương 159: Interlude 35 – Subtle & Secretive

=::= Melanie's PoV =::=

"You know what's weird?" my girlfriend asked as the two of us emerged from the grocery store and set off for home.

It was early Tuesday evening and we'd just finished work. The full moon was practically on top of us but there wasn't any urgency this time, we were both pretty relaxed even after a full day dealing with human customers and human coworkers.

I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and shrugged, "Considering the last week... month... year, I can think of a lot of things that are weird. So you might have to narrow it down for me."

Cerys grinned and slipped an arm around my waist as she responded, "The full moon peaks tomorrow afternoon, right? Around two thirty? That's less than twenty-four hours away, and I don't feel anything. I'm not uptight, I don't feel like getting into any fights, I don't feel like my skin's trying to crawl off my body."

"Yeah," I nodded. "Same."

I glanced down at my right wrist, where that thick black leather band was still in place. Then I looked to my girlfriend, who still had her cute tan leather collar around her neck.

"I'm almost tempted to take this off, just to feel the difference?" I commented as I raised up my right hand to indicate the leather cuff. "It's kind of spooky how powerful those enchantments are."

Cerys agreed, "I'm definitely not complaining though? And I'm really happy I can do the wolfgirl form now. But yeah, it's weird not feeling the moon anymore. It's nice in a way, not being compelled to change. And I'm really happy we don't have to worry about that aconite stuff, like now that we know about that I'm kind of paranoid about it?"

"I guess what I'm saying is I kind of miss feeling the moon?" she added.

I nodded again, but didn't have anything else to add to that line of thought.

The two of us walked quietly for a couple minutes before Cerys spoke up again, "So what do you want to do tonight? If we don't have to shift, we could just stay home and chill."

"Hmm," I frowned. Then I shook my head, "We're going to shift tonight, but maybe we'll make it a short night? We don't have to stay out till dawn, but I want to get out and run. And you still need more practice. Sasha's enchantments are nice, but we shouldn't let ourselves become dependant on them. Maybe we should take them off for a bit, so we can feel the moon again."

My girlfriend nodded, "Ok Melanie. I think I'd prefer to wait till we get home before taking the enchantments off, if that's ok? Just incase it comes on too strong."

I smiled, "Sounds good. We should get something to eat first anyways, so we don't get hungry while we're out later."

We walked another minute or two in silence before she spoke up again, "I wonder if Kaylee and Willow will be staying over again tonight?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," I smiled. "Honestly I was surprised Willow didn't come over yesterday. I didn't see Kaylee last night either, but I know she was there. I heard her and Cass last night, up in Cass's bedroom."

"Yeah same," Cerys nodded. "I didn't see her last night or this morning. I wonder when she's going to move in? Or maybe she's waiting until Cass does the thing with the house."

Then she added with a frown, "I hope she doesn't do that tonight. Or at least, I hope she doesn't do it while we're out. I really want to see it happen."

I shrugged, "So let her know. Tell her you want to watch, and ask her not to do it while we're out."

"Yeah ok," she agreed.

We were quiet again for the last few minutes, before we finally reached the house. Even before we got to the door I could hear the living-room TV was on. Not that it was turned up too loud, but my sense of hearing was above average even with boring human-shaped ears.

The front door was unlocked, it seemed like none of our friends ever bothered locking the place anymore. Then again with a demonic goddess living there it's not like we had much to worry about. And knowing what she was capable of, I'd probably feel sorry for anyone who tried to break in and rob us.

I stepped inside with Cerys right behind me, and as usual we both shifted to our wolfgirl forms as soon as we were in the door. At the same time I picked up the scents of our friends, and without even looking I knew Cass Sasha and Willow were in the living-room. There was another scent I didn't recognize though. It reminded me a little of Kaylee, but it definitely wasn't her. This strange scent was demonic, with a bit of human mixed in.

"Hello Melanie, Cerys," Sasha greeted us from where she was sitting on one of the sofas.

Willow was sitting beside the fallen goddess, she smiled at me and Cerys as she joked "Hi you two, long time no see."

I just nodded as my eyes swept the room for the source of the strange scent, then I nearly tripped over my own feet when I saw her.

The new demonic scent was coming from the other sofa, where Cass and Kaylee were cuddling together. Except it wasn't the same Kaylee I'd known for the past eighteen months. This Kaylee was something else entirely.

"What the heck?!" Cerys gasped as she saw the same thing I was staring at. "Kaylee? What happened to you?"

The redhead smiled, blushed, and cringed all at the same time. For that matter so did Cass. Then Kaylee got to her feet so me and my girlfriend could get a better look at her, and I found myself even more shocked. I couldn't even say what was more surprising.

She'd become tiny, she was probably no taller than Kenzie or Kirstie now. She had fox ears ontop of her head, they were tall triangular and fuzzy. And she had not one but three big bushy fox tails all swishing back and forth behind her.

The other thing that stood out was her clothes. Normally she was a little more covered-up, last summer she wore a lot of leggings, loose long-sleeve tunic tops, that kind of thing. Now she was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and a tight tank-top.

"Hi Melanie, Cerys," the tiny three-tailed foxgirl replied. "So um, this is the new me? I'm part demon now. The ears and tails were just sort of bonus? Same with the height thing."

I shook my head as I asked, "But how? And why? Are you ok with this?"

Kaylee grinned, "Of course I'm ok with it, I wanted it! I asked Cassandra to make me a demon, so she did."

Hearing she actually wanted these changes was even more surprising than the changes themselves. I ended up exchanging a glance with Cerys as we both processed this news.

"What are you going to do about university?" my girlfriend asked. "And for that matter, what are you going to do about your parents?"

Kaylee got back onto the sofa to cuddle with her girlfriend again as she replied, "I told my folks today. Me and Cass went over there and I showed them the new me. And we moved all my stuff here too, it's in the spare room for now. But as soon as Cass does the thing with the house then I'll move my things into her bedroom."

"Huh," was about the best reply I could come up with on the spot.

The tiny fox demon continued, "As for university, I'm still going in September, but I won't be moving into residence after all. Cass is going to teach me how to teleport! Then I can just jump to my classes when I need to, and jump straight back here again when I'm done."

You are reading story Club Luna at novel35.com

"What about the tails and ears and stuff?" Cerys asked. "They might question that, don't you think? And for that matter they're probably going to have questions if you're teleporting to and from class all the time."

Kaylee smiled, "Well I'm not going to teleport where people could see me! I'll find somewhere private, maybe a washroom or something. As for the tails and ears I'm sure there'll be questions, but they'll get over it."

I wasn't sure it would be quite so easy, and the whole situation definitely felt weird to me. It wasn't really any of my business though, so I kept my thoughts and opinions to myself.

Then Sasha asked, "Melanie, Cerys, are you two going out for the full moon tonight? We were talking about ordering dinner later, but we can order early if you're in a hurry."

That led to a short discussion about food, and a few minutes later we'd all agreed on what to get. Cass put in the order at the wings place, then my girlfriend and I cuddled together on one of the big recliners while we all waited for the food.

"Hey Cassandra? Since Kaylee's already moved in, were you planning on doing the thing with the house soon?" Cerys asked. "I'm asking because that's definitely something I want to see."

Willow grinned, "Same. I have to see that, it sounds totally wild!"

Our resident goddess replied calmly, "I was planning on doing that tonight, but unfortunately none of you will be able to see it happen."

"What?" my girlfriend protested. "Why not?"

Cassandra explained in a matter-of-fact tone, "Because if I do it in such a way that the changes are noticeable then everyone else could see it happen. That means neighbours and so on. So I'm going to do it subtly, which means you won't notice it even if you're looking."

"How's that work?" Willow asked with a frown.

This time it was Sasha who responded, "Divine magic can be either showy or undetectable. Gods use showy magic when they feel like making a scene or draw attention to things. And they use undetectable magic when they want to be subtle and secretive."

"It's hard to describe exactly how it works," the fallen goddess continued. "You could be staring right at something and not realize it's changed, then you look away and look back and that's when you notice the difference? I'd almost describe it as an optical illusion, but it's not just sight. All the senses can be deceived that way. You could even use that sort of magic to transform a person's entire body, and they wouldn't notice right away."

Cass blushed as she mumbled, "The enchanted plushies are like that. Especially the first time someone uses them, it can take them a while to notice they've changed."

Nobody had a response to that, so after a couple seconds my girlfriend brought the conversation back to the topic of the house again.

"So you're going to do it tonight, but we can't see it?" Cerys asked. "What's going to happen? We just wake up in the morning and realize the house is different?"

"Yes, that's more or less correct. Or if it happens while you're awake and watching, you won't see the house changing but at some point after the fact you'll realize the house is larger," Cassandra replied.

Cerys frowned, "That's still pretty cool I guess. Unless you do it while me and Melanie are out."

"We weren't going to spend the full night out this time," I added. "Maybe just a few hours? Say from ten till two?"

The brunette goddess nodded, "Very well. I'll wait until you're back, and do it at around three in the morning."

"Gonna be a late night tonight," Willow smiled. "Even if we can't really see it happen I'm still going to stay up and watch. Who knows, maybe my sorceress skills will let me see something after all?"

My girlfriend looked over at the cute sorceress and asked, "How much longer were you planning to wait before you officially move in here as well? If the bedrooms are all getting enlarged tonight will we be helping you haul your stuff over here tomorrow?"

Willow grimaced, "I really don't know? I don't even know if I want to, but it's definitely a cool idea."

"Either way I haven't even talked to my parents about any of this stuff," she added. "And they've complained a couple times about how much time I'm spending here. That's why I didn't come visit yesterday, my mom wanted me to stay home and have dinner with the family last night."

"I'm sure you're always going to be welcome here Willow," Sasha responded, "Either as a guest or a resident."

The ravenette smiled, "Thanks Sash. I do kind of want to just stay here with the rest of you, but I have to figure out how to talk to my folks about it first."

Kaylee shrugged, "I guess. I just told mine I was moving and that was that. I didn't even tell them in advance, Cass teleported all my stuff over here before I talked to them."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," Willow teased. "That definitely seems like the sort of thing a tiny demonic kitsune would do."

The tiny demonic kitsune in question stuck out her tongue at the sorceress. Then she teased back, "You realize you're the last human in Club Luna now, right? Maybe we can tempt you into joining Team Supernatural along with the rest of us? Cass can offer you a demonic transformation, or maybe Melanie or Cerys could be convinced to give you the wolfgirl treatment? Or there's always the demi-human option, Cass has more of those enchanted plushies you know?"

"Ooh!" Cerys grinned as she looked from the sorceress to me. "We could add Willow to our little pack! Two werewolf witches and a werewolf sorceress, sounds pretty cool doesn't it?"

I shook my head as I stated firmly, "Not gonna happen. I'm not turning anyone else, and that's final."

"Please don't joke about that ok?" I added in the same firm voice as I looked over to Kaylee. "And don't go around offering it to people. I'd rather you didn't mention it at all, to be honest."

The new demon's ears drooped down as she apologized, "Sorry Melanie, I got carried away. I didn't mean to upset you."

"You won't tempt me with any of those offers anyways," Willow commented. "I've only had this awesome new body for just over two months, the euphoria from that hasn't worn off yet. So I'm definitely not looking to replace it with something else."

We all let the subject drop after that, the joke had definitely run its course. Then I asked, "No Nina tonight?"

"She's spending time with our parents," Cass replied. "Which I'm kind of happy about? It means my folks won't be too lonely, and it's giving Nina some one-on-one time with mom and mum that she never really got before. So I think it's good for all three of them."

The conversation tapered off again after that, and the six of us just kind of hung out and watched TV until the food arrived. Cass ordered a few dozen wings, along with boxes of wedges and onion rings. It was a good tasty unhealthy feast, and we all enjoyed it.

Then after dinner me and Cerys went down to the basement for some private time while we waited for it to get good and dark out. And when the time came, the two of us stripped then headed up the stairs into the kitchen and straight out the side door. We didn't even bother with the backyard, as soon as we were outside we both shifted to our wolf forms.

We nuzzled each other then exchanged some happy yips, and finally set off together for Island Lake.