My heart pounded in my chest, and my breath quickened. I studied their faces, one by one. There was a beauty I was glancing upon, not of the physical kind, for in that aspect, they appeared rather ordinary. This was a different, more profound beauty—one I hadn't recognized before.

Is this what true friendship looks like?

Closing my eyes, I took another deep breath, feeling my heart's rapid beats reverberating like never before. Are these genuine friends ready to accept me for who I am? Or am I once again deluding myself, investing in a friendship that will crumble with the next revelation?

Deciding to take the plunge, I opened my eyes, fully aware that I might lose everything in the next ten minutes. "Look, guys. We talked about this..."—but seeing Hew's phone on the table triggered my paranoia—"Give me your phones!" I said.

Tom raised an eyebrow, and I am sure that he had a joke on his lips, but he graciously abstained. They exchanged surprised glances but handed over their phones one by one. Trembling, I made them all disappear.

It was strange to see my fingers shake; it was an unfamiliar sight. "Don't be afraid, Lores," I reassured myself, attempting to prepare for the inevitable loss. "Once I reveal what I truly am, they'll run away. No one can remain friends with a demon."

But, before delving into the revelation of what I was, I had to reassure them that their precious mobile phones were safe.

Tom chuckled. "Heh, she discombobulated my phone!"

“What did you do? I still need my phone later on!” Hew asked, sounding somewhat distressed; it was evident that he cared for his phone. Meanwhile, Mike exchanged glances to his left and right.

“Don't worry, you'll get them back when we are done!” I replied, a bit taken aback.

“Okay?” Mike nodded, and Tom asked me, "That was a nice trick, can you teach me that?"

I sighed. Their confusion stemmed from my paranoia, but I knew enough of AI, apps, and mobile phones to know that they could listen in on our conversations and raise alarms at suspicious trigger words or sentences.

I shook my head. "No, Tom, but I can offer you a consolation prize. Anyone want some coffee, juice, or crackers?"

I attempted to put them at ease while simultaneously postponing my confession for another moment. I took more cups, biscuits, and a bottle of juice out of my inventory.

Was it okay to tell them the truth?

I cast an isolating field around us. I knew it wouldn't be of the same quality as White Flower could achieve, but it was better than nothing. Taking a deep breath, I continued.

“Look, guys, I'm not what you think. The problem is not that I am a prostitute; it's a bit worse than that. I am a demon." I breathed a sigh of relief; now I've said it. "Do you still want to be friends with me?" I asked.

However, it didn't come out as I wanted. They looked at each other, confused, then started talking at the same time.

“Now, don't exaggerate,” Tom said. “Being a prostitute does not mean...”

“You mean you are virtually a demon? Why would you mean that?” Mike asked.

"But... " Hew started to say something, stopped to hear the others, took a deep breath, and then started to question me. “Why do you think you have to be a prostitute? Is somebody pressuring you? Is money the reason?”

I shook my head, attempting to answer all their questions. “This is not a parable; money is not the reason, and I am literally a demon!”

Mike sighed. “Being a witch does not mean...”

I snorted and shook my head again. “What's so difficult to understand? When I use Identify on myself, I get the answer 'demon.' Is this clear enough?”

Mike's eyes widened in shock. “What do you mean by Identify?” he asked.

“I mean the spell from the game.”

“The spell from the game? It happens when you are in the game?”

“No. It happens in reality, here and now. We already talked about this, but there are some nuances I did not mention... I can cast spells from the game here in real life. I cannot cast all spells, but a subset that my character could cast. I somehow incorporated my character from Mephisto.”

Mike interrupted me. "Was your character a demon?"

I let out a sigh. I did not expect it to be so difficult to explain what I was, but I had now to go into more details, details that I did not feel comfortable sharing. Nevertheless, I did it.

Details? Did I just call my violation a detail? I stared into space while I continued.

"No, I don't know if you can have a demon as a race in the game. My character was human, but she had some demonic blood in her veins. Initially, I did not know about it." I shrugged. "Okay, this was irrelevant until it wasn't. It so happened that I had been violated."

"Violated?" Mike muttered.

I turned towards Hew. "You remember the night when you picked me up just after Matt had that accident?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Yes! Oh!" he replied, shocked. "You had been violated then?"

I sighed and nodded. "Yes. That was the night when I woke up my demonic part." I raised my eyes and looked defiantly at him.

"What do you mean by that?" Hew wondered.

"What happened to the violator?" Tom asked, fury obvious in his eyes.

Should I burden them with a complete confession? There was no need for that! I turned and looked at him.

"Do you really want to know?" I sighed, then turned back to Hew. "I'm a succubus, Hew. You called me then and told me that Matt had an accident. When I went with you to the hospital, I gave him the excess life I had taken; it did help, but all I had was not enough to heal him. The only way I could help him further was to steal more life from other people and push it into him. That's what I wanted to do."

"Steal life?" Mike wondered. "How does this work? Do they lose years of life?"

"No, it does not work like this. Maybe 'stealing life' is the wrong term to use. I guess vitality sounds better. People recover after a succubus takes a bit of their vitality."

I stopped for a moment, thinking if I should tell them about the healing ring? But the story was long enough like this; besides, what would that change? Nothing.

"Succubus?" Mike wondered. "You're a succubus?"

"So demons are real?" Tom exclaimed, shocked.

"Mephisto kind of demons!" Hew tried to clarify.

I shrugged. What do I know about demons? Nothing besides the fact that I identify as one... and besides the summons...

"I don't know if Mephisto's demons are real demons or not. I always thought that a succubus is a human invention based on the 'femme fatale' trope, but there is more to the story. OK, long story short: that was when I had awoken the demon in me, but by some unfortunate things I did, I multiplied the black magic in me to such an extent that it dominates everything else. I simply don't know how much of me is still me and how much of it I am the demon. And the worse is that I've been summoned as a demon. Can you wrap your minds around this?"

I laughed at the absurdity of it. "So, my dear friends," I concluded, "besides being a prostitute, I am a demon and probably dangerous. If you are wise, you'll go back into that car and forget you ever met me. I won't condemn you for that; you do not owe me anything."

There was a short moment of silence, with only the sound of Tom's teeth chewing crackers being heard. Mike sighed.

"So, you did that to save Matt? This prostitute nonsense comes from there!?" he asked.

"You've been summoned as a demon? What is this for a crazy thing? Did some cultists summon you?" Hew wondered.

I snorted and let out a long breath. The fact that I did that for Matt or that I was summoned did not change the fact that I was a demon. That was the problem they needed to face, but they weren't thinking about that! I pressed my face into my palms.

"Some crazy folks summoned me for various tasks. I didn't know what was happening. At first, I refused outright, but when I rejected the summons, there was a backlash that weakened me. Then another summon came and another one, and I felt worse and worse until I accepted.

That time when I missed meeting you all in the hospital when I didn't come to see Matt, it was because some crazy sorcerer summoned me to clean up and organize the books in his library!"

Instead of understanding the difficult situation I was in, they burst into laughter.

"Wow, I like that!" - Tom said enthusiastically - "You need to teach me how this summonning process works! Summon a sweet demon lady to clean up my room!? The best-ever spell to learn! I'm all in! Look, even better, if you are compelled to complete summons, as you say, you could come to me, do the work with some magic, and then we can have a drink and a chat after that. What do you say? It would be a win-win situation!" He then turned toward Mike and shrugged. "What? There's nothing insidious in what I said?"

The conversation was taking a turn toward a too-lighthearted tone. I sighed. I needed to convey the gravity of the situation and make them understand why I had to leave the group.

"You don't seem to get it. When I mentioned multiplying the black magic in me, it wasn't that simple. It transformed me. I'm not the same girl anymore. It merged my character with that of the game character."

I pointed with my forefinger to my temple.

"A game character is merged here inside! Got it? Besides," - I shrugged - "I don't even know if I can sing like before. Sometimes, I ask myself if it's still me or if a demon has taken my place. I really don't know. Lately, I told you I caught a cold, and that's why my voice was different. But the truth is, the nature of my magic has changed, and that's why my voice is different. You see, I used to manipulate my voice and infuse it with magic, which made it sound great. But with different magic, it sounds different."

Seeing their continued bewilderment, I pressed on. I dispelled the illusions that concealed my budding horns.

"Touch here! Do you feel it, do you see? My horns are growing. Lately, I cut them off for the party. Look at my hands. Can you see it? My claws are growing back! They're still relatively small, but they could get really big and annoying. The last time they grew, I scratched you unintentionally. Hew, do you remember when we were in the park with Lola?"

His eyes went round in surprise. He nodded.

“Oh yes, I do! I still have the scratch, but I haven't seen your claws? How can you type on a keyboard with those claws?”

I rolled my eyes. They were focusing all the time on the wrong points.

“You haven't seen them because I had hidden them under an illusion like my horns. Now, I just removed the illusion so that you can see clearly what I am!” - I explained.

“Oh! Wow! You can do such illusions? Amazing!" - Mike exclaimed.

“Ahm... Do you need ...ah, to feed on... eh... guys? From time to time? You know... to survive?” - Tom suddenly asked.

Was this a real question, or was he still making fun of the situation?

“No, Tom!” - I answered – “I have no need!”

“But how do you feed?” - he wondered – “Do demons feed like us on food?”

I pointed at the crackers and nodded.

"I eat food, Tom!"

“Are these some special crackers?” - Mike asked, looking afraid at the cracker in his hand.

I let out a disarmed sigh: “Special salty crackers from the grocery store!”

“I guess Tom wanted to volunteer!” - Mike snorted – “You know, like the vampires sucking blood from thralls!”

I rested my head on the palm of my left hand. These guys can't be serious for more than fifteen seconds. They have a true demon in front of their eyes, and they make jokes about vampires.

“So, you see, I am a pure demon!” – I looked at each of them, one after the other – “Do you still want me in your band?”

Mike shrugged.

“Is this how demons behave? Maybe they are a misunderstood species! You know, we love being with you together. When we work together on songs, we make real progress, and you have great ideas and input. Should I mention that we love how you sing? On top of that, you risked your career and everything to save Matt, one of us! You are being thrown out of home for that, and we should ditch you? Are you serious?”

I sighed. Demons are a species?

I placed my face in my hands. What was wrong with these guys? I raised my head and pleaded with them.

“But I'm a demon?”

Tom placed his hand on my shoulder and shook his head with a sad mien and a deep sigh.

“Alas, Lores, nobody is perfect. Look at me! I'm almost perfect, but not perfect.”

I rolled my eyes while they started to laugh. I ended up chuckling myself.