Chapter 30: 30. Making Choices

"The wings are the biggest give-away," Marianne said between sips of coffee. "Folded on her back or wrapped around herself, it's easy to see how folklore would describe them as a 'cloak of falcon feathers'."

My girlfriend continued, "And Freyja's chariot was said to be drawn by two large cats? It's obvious now where the feline representation came from."

I nodded slightly as I munched on a forkful of pancakes, but I didn't interrupt or comment. Not yet at least.

It was Wednesday morning and we were at the hotel's breakfast buffet. Our demon had yet to make an appearance this morning, and had a feeling it's because she was embarrassed. After revealing her true form to us last night Eva bid us both a good night then quickly disappeared. And the way my girlfriend was going on about her, I worried our demon would stay hidden for the rest of the day.

"I think after seeing her true form it's no surprise she was worshipped as a goddess of love and beauty and sex and fertility. And she'd have been known as a war goddess due to her appearing at battlefields," Marianne continued her speculation. "Over-all it's easy to see how primitive peoples would have taken her as a goddess. Even if the name Freyja came long after Eva was gone, it feels like there are too many correlations to ignore."

I finally responded quietly, "You might be right love, but I think Eva's a little embarrassed about the whole thing? And I'd like to talk with her some more after breakfast about Lily's offer, so maybe we can leave the Nordic mythology stuff for another day?"

My girlfriend grimaced slightly, "Sorry Lexi, you're right. And sorry Eva, if you're listening."

She added, "To be honest I'm a little anxious about the other topic. It's easier to focus on the mythology instead."

"I get that," I replied with a tender smile. "It's a lot to take in. I've got a few more questions though, so when we're done here I'm hoping we can go back to the room to talk about it."

"Of course Lexi," Marianne smiled back.

About a half hour later we were finished breakfast and back in our suite. My girlfriend and I sat cuddling on the sofa as I called for Eva, to see if she'd join us. And she did, a moment later she appeared sitting crosslegged on the bed again.

She was back in her human guise and wearing leggings and a t-shirt which seemed to be one of her favourite outfits. I could see the faint blush still on her cheeks from last night, or maybe from listening to Marianne this morning. She looked like she was trying to put all that behind her though, as she asked "What did you want to talk about Lexi? You had some more questions for me?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Obviously the whole demonic magic energy thing Lily offered has been on our minds, and after sleeping on it I've got some questions. The first one is the biggest? Do you actually want to do that? Do you want to be separated from me? Because if not, then everything else is irrelevant."

Eva grimaced, then gave me a sad smile. "In all our time together I have not been pursuing freedom, or even thought about it. All my energy and focus was on finding my family. But now that we've found them, and Lily made that offer... Yes. I would like to be free, I would like to live again."

She added quickly, "I am not unhappy with our arrangement, please don't think I'm eager to get away from you Lexi. I said you two were my new family and I meant it. But you know what it's like for me, you experience that whenever you loan me your body. It is a very limited existence."

"One more thing," our demon spoke up again before I could respond. "While I do want this, I will not insist or try to force you to go along with it. It has to be your choice, and whatever you decide I will abide by it."

I nodded slowly, "Ok. Thanks Eva. That leads me to my next question? Once you're free, would you stay here in Canada with your family? Or would you come back to London with me and Marianne? Or head back to your original homeland in Scandinavia?"

She smiled, "If you both would have me I would prefer to stay with the two of you? Perhaps I would eventually find my own accommodations rather than take up space in your flat, but we're family and I won't abandon you. Having said that, I would take advantage of my freedom to return here for frequent visits with my other family. And I might travel around more, to see more of the world as it is now. Of course you both would be welcome to accompany me for any of those voyages, if you wished."

"In four years you've never once asked us to take you home," Marianne pointed out. "Why haven't you wanted to go back to your homeland?"

Eva sighed, "After seeing how much everything else has changed, how drastically different the places I once knew had become, I realized I didn't want to know what my old home was like now. Whatever is there now, I know it will be unrecognizable to me. It is as foreign a land to me as this place here."

That left both me and Marianne sad, but I understood what Eva was saying.

After a few quiet seconds she asked, "Was that all your questions Lexi?"

"I have a few more," I replied. "But not for you."

I turned towards my girlfriend and gave her a hug, then pulled back and looked her in the eyes. After a deep breath I told her, "I want to do this Marianne. I want Eva to be free, I want her to live again. And I owe her about a month's worth of hugs, I want to be able to deliver them. But all three of us need to be in agreement. I'm not asking you to do this with me, but I am asking for your approval so I can do it myself."

Marianne looked back at me for a few long quiet seconds before finally responding, "Very well Lexi. I agree, if you and Eva both want this, then you should do it. You have my approval."

Hearing her say that I let out the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. I pulled her into another hug and whispered, "Thanks love."

Eva agreed, "Thank you Marianne. I appreciate your support."

After another few seconds I pulled back again to look my girlfriend in the eyes once more as I asked the obvious follow-up question. "What about you? Would you do this too? You heard what Eva said last night..."

This time she was quiet a lot longer. It felt like a minute or two slowly crept past as my girlfriend stared thoughtfully at nothing. And once again I was almost holding my breath as I waited for her decision.

"Yes," she finally stated, and I let out another quiet sigh of relief. She added, "The three of us are family, after all. If we're doing this, then we should all do it together."

I smiled and pulled her into another hug, and this time it was accompanied by a long passionate kiss.

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It was another couple minutes before Marianne and I finally separated, then I looked to Eva and asked "So what's next? I guess we need to go back and see Lily again, we need to find out how this actually works or how it's done?"

"I agree Lexi," she nodded. "I'm not familiar with the process, but it may require a proper ritual. We might even need to wait till the moon is in the right phase? New or full, I'm not sure."

Eva added, "Rather than speculate we should simply visit Lily again. She will have all the answers."

It turned out none of us thought to exchange contact info with any of Eva's family, so we couldn't text or call or anything. I did send a text to my dad though, I let him know we had to take care of some business in the morning but I'd be there to see him later on. Then the three of us headed out to the car.

It was about half past ten when we pulled up in front of the demons' very normal-looking suburban split-level home. I couldn't help commenting on that before we got out of the car, "It feels so weird to me, knowing there's a family of demons living here? I mean it just looks so incredibly mundane and normal? Just a typical house on a typical street in a Toronto suburb, with kids playing on the neighbour's lawn?"

Eva agreed, "It's definitely not the sort of place I would have guessed my lover would make her home, but she and the others seem comfortable here?"

"Yeah," I nodded as we all finally emerged from the car. "I guess they keep their true forms hidden though, like I'm sure it'd be a big deal having a family of demons living openly in the suburbs."

At that point we were at the door, which opened just after Marianne knocked.

"Come on in!" Mara greeted us all with a smile. Like yesterday she was just wearing a nightshirt, and she kept back away from the door so nobody outside would spot the horns and tail.

As soon as we were all inside she closed the door and said, "Get yourselves comfortable. Can I get you drinks or whatever?"

"Forgive the question, but do you stay hidden because of your horns and tail?" Marianne asked as she and I sat together on the love-seat.

Mara and Eva were opposite us on the sectional, and the ravenette demon shook her head and grinned "Nah, I'm just being lazy. I'm a college student and it's summer break right? The rest of the DLP have jobs so they're all out working during the week, I just chill out here."

"DLP?" Eva asked. "I don't think I know that term?"

That put an even bigger smile on the young demon's face, "Demonic Lesbian Polycule! There's five of us in total, six if you count mater. Me and Mira of course, then our other three girlfriends Melissa, Susan, and Amber."

She added, "They're not actually demons, they're all succubi, but that's still like half-demonic or whatever, right?"

Marianne and I exchanged a surprised look, and Eva sounded surprised too as she asked "She's only been free for five years, how does she have three succubi old enough to be your girlfriends? And she lets them stay here? She was never that close to her succubi in my time."

"Oh right," Mara cringed slightly. "It's different now, they're not the same kind of succubi as before? They all started out as humans but signed contracts with Lily, then we did the demonic energy thing, so now they're succubi? They were girlfriends first, succubi second. And this is actually Susan's house, we all just live here with her."

"Ah," was all Eva could think to say about that.

There were a couple seconds of awkward silence before our demon asked her daughter, "I'm sorry Mara we haven't had as much time with you as we have Lily and Mira, and I hate to do this now but could I speak with Lily again? I promise I'll make time to catch up with you later."

"Sure mehter," Mara smiled. She didn't seem the least bit upset or offended, and a moment later her body shifted and changed as Lily took over.

The big blue demoness exchanged a hug with our cute blonde demon, then we got straight to business.

"The three of us have talked it over," Eva stated. "We've slept on it, and come to a decision. We would like to accept your offer Lily. I would like to be restored, I wish to be free, to live again. Lexi wants that too, and is prepared to accept the consequences. And finally, Marianne wishes to join us."

She continued, "So now the questions are, how do we do this? How soon can we do it? What is involved, how long will it take? And what preparations do we need to make?"

Lily grinned, she was obviously happy and excited to know that her lover would soon be fully restored. She quickly launched into a little lecture about the process, while the rest of us just watched and listened.

"Originally I had to do a whole complicated ritual," she explained, "We had to wait until the new moon and we did it in a remote location, we took all the precautions. But that was years ago. Now I'm a master at this sort of thing! We can do it right here in the living-room, and we can do it right now if you like? Eva it might leave you unconscious for a while, but Lexi and Marianne should both be ok. They might feel a little odd for a while afterwards though."

After pausing for breath she looked at my girlfriend and continued, "I can tell you haven't signed any sort of contract with Eva, you'll have to do that first. Either with Eva or myself. You need to have some demonic essence on you for this to work, otherwise being exposed to the energy would probably just kill you."

"The contract itself can be for anything," she added. "It doesn't need to be some meaningful complicated document, since the point is the demonic influence rather than making some kind of a deal. And the only difference between my essence or Eva's is that will determine what you end up as? With me you'll be a full- or part-succubus."

Lily turned to our demon and asked, "What will Marianne become if she's contracted with you?"

Our demon blushed and admitted, "I don't know. I've never formed a contract with a human before."

"So my options are either become part-succubus, or part mystery?" Marianne asked with a grimace. "I'm going to need a few moments to think this over..."