"Alright. Where's the local CVS?"

"I'll show you a map on the lapt- Marianne, do we actually want her to know where we live."

Cytherea rolls her eyes and waits.

"She is going to be living here, yes."

Marianne wanders off to the bedroom, returns with her keys, and deposits them in Cytherea's hands.

"Oh. Right. - Hopefully not for long here, you know our landlord won't have it."

"Is anyone going to give me a map to the CVS."

Lily brings up a map and shows her.

"Thank you. I already have a good guess at your shopping list so the order says I go now. Next time prepare me beforehand."

She's off out the door. 

She sits next to Lillian and smiles.

"So. I may lack a knack for contract language, but I have a concept of seduction."

"You can make someone do what you want with one enormous temptation, but that doesn't convert them, just makes them try to get the thing. Right now Cytherea wants very much to stay out of Hell and if she could get that by killing us, it would be a heartbeat."

"To win someone, you show them any number of unimportant trusts and minute comforts. Genuine vulnerabilities and kindnesses without condition. You give them more than they've earned. If you've chosen a suitable person, they'll develop an attachment to you, start thinking of themselves as on fundamentally on your side, rather than a convenient ally. Do you see how this strategy is mitigated by bullying her?"

"This strategy of yours is somewhat mitigated by the fact that she's centuries old and probably better at it than you. Forgive me if I'm skeptical."

"If she's trying to seduce me to Hell's side, she's doing a horrible job, telling me how much she hates it and all. If she's trying to seduce me into being her friend — well, that's what I want too."

"Alright. I trust you. I'll do my best to play along. But if this ends badly, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Ah shoot, we forgot to inspect her for blood. How are you on blood, Isabel?"

"I feel hungry, but I'm not in danger of jumping anyone. We have time still. But I definitely feel... hollower." She rubs her forearm with her other hand. "If we can get you an implement that lets you mint Kisses then that'll extend things for us without me having to bite you, so obviously we should do that even if it runs me down a bit. But we need to figure out witch money. Cytherea says it's around ten dollars to a Witch Kiss - let me search for how much a Blood Apple costs."

She taps in the search.

"... fifty Witch Kisses. We need witch employment yesterday. And good employment, too, if we're going to support a blood apple habit."

Ugh. She was reveling a bit in not going to work.

"How long does one apple buy you?"

"I don't know. We should test it. But they cost five hundred dollars, seriously. I wonder if either of the academies offers food as part of the package."

"Can you like. Google if you're liable to lose your shit over exposed blood? Are you actually rare enough that the internet doesn't know?"

"The article on Empusa on Witchipedia had nothing to say about that, but I'll google in case it's common knowledge."

She taps in the search. 

"... Some indication that starving vampires do attack people. No references to Empusa directly, no hard numbers. Damn it. Oh, and earlier I saw a reference that says Empusa feeding is most effective when it consumes the soul. So we couldn't even rely on you waking up afterwards if I were to do something stupid."

Her headache flares.

"To be fair, starving humans will also attack people."

She leans in to kiss Isabel's forehead, then guide a lock of hair behind her ear.

"How are you doing? Are you okay?"

"Better than yesterday. It's... an adjustment... and we've got all these immediate problems, but I still feel like this is a good thing."

She leans in. "Once we sort out the basics, I want to explore magic with you. And..." She looks away. "I'd like to see the earth from space with you, the first time I see it. Lunabella does tourism, and it's not the same to have nobody else to share it with."

She forgot what Lunabella is, or never learned. One of those two.

"Yeah! That sounds dope."

"—incidentally. Do you know why I spontaneously and with apparent permanency," she rubs her arm, "turned blue and grew scales?"

"Uh, probably a species thing, like me sucking blood. I should probably google that."