#demon animals

“They want to pay you minimum wage for that?” Blake demanded of Achel, who winced. “This isn’t entry level and you aren’t an intern. Get my phone. I need to make a call!”

Blake didn’t want to like the Cats, but there was something g to be said for thee pairs of hands mobbing his dust-filled wings.

Hello darlings! Another $5 patron prompt! This one is for the lovely Kay! Thank you so much darling. I can’t say how much your support means to me!

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Blake, as it turned out, adored Christmas.

Oh, Tracy remembered the Santa Baby incident of the previous year, back when it was just her, Angelika, and Blake celebrating in their tiny apartment together.

But this year, this year they had sixteen Cats, two Lovebirds, Gabriel, Angelika, and a partridge in the metaphorical pear tree.

So naturally, Blake, loving Christmas as he did, went all out and recruited the Cats to help him.

“Presents.” Tracy squeaked at the sight of the corner of the living room, which was nearly buried under the frankly staggering mountain of pretty, wrapped boxes. “How even?”

“One from each of the Cats, for every member of the household,” Blake counted off on his fingers, radiating smugness. “Two from me, because I’m not being outdone by Cats. One form Mara and Davi, who went in together. One from Angelika, and one from Gabriel because he’s a meddling meddler. He says his present is for all of us, but wouldn’t tell me what it is. Something about it being a gift to my Pledge Lord.”

Well, that was only a little ominous, but given that it was Gabriel, the present probably wasn’t going to be anything bad.

That also explained the huge mountain of presents. They had a lot of people in their weird little family now, and one present each, for everyone, added up to a lot of goodies.

But Tracy wasn’t the materialistic sort, and only shook her head eve as Zeigis wound around her ankles, a single bright white spot marking his black fur at the base of his tail. She bent and scooped him into his arms and he purred happily. “I feel like this is excessive.”

“Everyone has a reason to be happy this year,” Blake told her, uncharacteristically serious as he wandered towards their kitchen, and the four coffee-makers that were never less than half-full. “We never had a reason to celebrate. Well, I did, but I had you and Angelika last year. The Cats have never gotten this before.”

That was… honestly really sad. Tracy cuddled Zeigis closer and felt him rumble against her rubs as she scratched his ears. “So, what you’re saying is that we need to go all out.”

“I am absolutely saying that, yes.”

They had fourteen-foot ceilings, and enough hands to get a thirteen-foot tree into the apartment. Tracy considered the door, and the Cat in her arms, who was looking up at her hopefully.

“Go get all the others,” she decided on the spot. “All the Cats, and the Lovebirds. Blake, is Angelika in the house?”

“Probably?” he said, taken aback by her sodden command of the situation. “Why?”

“We’re going tree shopping, and then we’re getting lights, tree ornaments, and like, twelve pounds of flour so we can make all the cookies.”

“You’re crazy.”

“What? Twelve pounds should be enough for all of us. Crap. Double that. I want to do bread too.”

Zeigis meeped in her arms and scrambled for the door. She still didn’t know if the Cats cold talk to each other telepathically, but it wasn’t long before Cats started pouring into the room. While she waited, Tracy grabbed a pen an started making a list.

“Divide into two teams,” she told them when all of the Cats were present. “Costco team gets groceries. Get what’s on the list, and anything else that looks good. The other team will be getting lights and ornaments. I want white lights, but I don’t care about the ornaments. Get lots. When you’re done with that, we’re all going for the tree together.”

There was immediately a scramble as the Cats began to separated themselves into teams of eight. Tracy considered, and looks them over. “Actually, three teams. I want a couple of you to stay here so we can get everything squared away.”

“But you won’t decorate without us?” Murky asked anxiously, in human shape, but so distinctly Cat that Tracy couldn’t resist cuddling him a little. “We… we know about celebrations, but we’ve never gotten to have one.”

“We won’t do anything except start cooking,” Tracy promised and kissed his forehead before turning to Mara, who wandered in holding Davi’s hand, and Blake. “Who wants to lead what team?”

“I’ll take the decorations,” Blake said, with a gleam in his eye that promised trouble. Then again, he had actually done this once before, and knew what would be appropriate. “Mara, you’re going to Costco with the Cats to get provisions.”

“Of course,” Mara said, although she was slightly taken aback too, and Tracy handed her the list. “What is this?”

“Shopping list,” Tracy said, and patted her shoulder. “Get everything on it, and anything that looks good. Don’t worry about money. We budgeted for the holidays.”

With that she looked around the room and smiled at her Cats, and the odd little family they represented. “Everyone know what they’re doing? Good. The faster groceries and decorations are done, the faster we get to load up and find a tree!”

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Higher Being Housemates:

As it turns out, rent is really high  in Heaven. It’s not great in Hell either. An angel and a demon come to  an agreement that works for them both.

Their human housemate still  hasn’t decided whether or not to help them, or kick them all out of her  house. After all, Grad school is hard enough without the Great War  making it worse.

Bright Red Panties

Black and White Feathers

Demonic Comfort

Demonic Intervention

Unwanted Attention

Magpie Wings

Don’t Fall

Sparklers and Demon Smiles

Holy Words

Holy Tea

Santa Baby

Pledge Promise

Unholy Fuss (Free on Patreon)

Tuxedo Cat (Subscribers Only!)

Shadow Puff (Subscriber Only!)

If This Then That

A Third Side (Subscriber Only)

Sharp Edges

Red Letters

Stand Together (Subscriber Only!)

Fuzzy Interlude

The Fun Side  (Subscriber Only!)

Feathers and Tea

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MORE STORIES!

“Kareoke,” Tracy said, watching Blake swagger onto stage, sans his shirt and smiling like pure trouble. “How did we let him talk us into this?”

They named the little blue ball of fluff and teeth ‘Willowisp’ when they found out that, along with all her other odd traits that were decidedly non-wolfish, she glowed slightly in the dark.

Well, Vaen named her.

Alector still thought they should kill the pup and be done with it.

Vaen thought she was adorable, although he did take to feeding her off the tip of a stick. Wispy was prone to eating a good bit of whatever the food was proffered on. Ven’s knife no longer hd a sharp point on it because she bit it off.

At least the metal didn’t seem to bother her. What cam eout on the other end was… pretty unrecognizable, really.

(I still think we should kill it,) Alector grumbled form the back of Vaen’s mind. (It’s going to eat you.)

“She might,” Vaen agreed, and tucked Wispy under his shirt again. She whined, and cuddled up under his chin where she could peep out of his collar, and be warm at the same time. After four days with her, he was reasonably confident she wouldn’t bite him unless he gave her a good reason. “But I don’t think so.”

(You plan to take it into town?)

“I want to get paid so we can get out of here.”

(They will want to kill it, too.)

“I don’t care. She’s mine now.”

Wispy might be small, but she was clever. Young as she was, she was starting to learn basic commands. Maybe it was stupid to treat her like a regular dog, but she was pretty well acting like a regular dog.

Well, except for her tiny, snappy jaws. And the glowing. And the fact that she sort of went soft around the edges, and might be able to turn fully into mist if she really tried. Certainly the older members of her pack were able to, so he assumed she could as well. He didn’t know if the others glowed. He killed them all in daylight.

Town was always an interesting experience when they had been out in the wild for a while. Alector, of course, doused his flame-manifestation, and Vaen did his best not to walk like trouble. Even so, the town guard watched him closely, hands on weapons.

Outsiders were not always good news, in these parts.

Wispy whined and tucked her little head back under his collar. Vaen tugged his scarf up to cover her a little better and felt her nuzzle the hollow of his throat.

(See? It knows when something wants it dead.)

“Shut up, Alector,” Vaen muttered, well aware that he looked insane, talking to himself in a town like this one. The buildings around them spoke of different ages. From the more recent human construction, to the Elvish buildings of past eras, to the buildings those were built on, that were so old no one knew where they were from. Vaen headed farther in, hunting for one particular building. The jarl hired him, mostly as a disposable blade, to deal with the corrupted wolves.

Fortunately for him, many of them were already dead when he got there, and he disposed of the rest without a qualm. In places where the hunting was bad, the more corrupted creatures often turned to humans as prey. This pack had been driving the outlying farmers to fits, until finally the jarl put out a call for mercenaries.

Vaen was perfectly happy to get the work. They needed to et the same as anything else, and coin made doing that significantly easier.

The jarl was an imposing man, shoulders draped in rich furs, and with a massive sword easily to hand. His beard was thick and braided, and a deep scar cut up his cheek and across his face. Vaen had heard stories about how the former jarl, this ones’ father, died dealing with corrupted monsters, and how this jarl went out to avenge him, and somehow came back alive.

Anyway, he was no one Vaen wanted to tangle with.

He bowed when the Jarl waved him in, and kept his hands well in sight. The guards around the room were as nervous as the ones in town, and Vaen didn’t want to bother any of them.

“Problem is solved, wolves are dead,” he said without preamble, and presented a bag of collected tails as proof. The jarl waved the bag away. As Vaen expected, the offering of proof was enough to prove his word was good. “I’ll be in town a few more days if you have more work for me.”

“I might,” the jarl said, and nodded to one of his lackeys, who came over to present Vaen with a bag of gold, along with a folded bit of paper. “Stay at the inn for a few days. That writ will grant you four days on my coin. Eat well. Sleep well. Do not cause trouble, and there may be more work for you in that time.”

(Generous, isn’t he? Well, I suppose a few days in down will be pleasant. And you do need a bath.)

Damn it all, he couldn’t reply to his elementari in front of so many people and Alector knew it.

“Thank you,” he told the jarl and tucked both bag and writ into his pocket. There was no question which inn to stay at. The town only had one. “I’ll do just that.”

With that, they were done, and Vaen headed back out of the manor, decidedly uninterested in overstaying his welcome. It didn’t do to offend the local government, and he didn’t have a lord of his own to call on if he stepped on someone’s toes.

But today was a good day. Wispy was in his shirt, chuffing happily and mostly asleep. Alector was happy tha they actually got paid for once, and Vaen was going to go have a good meal and a good bath on someone else’s dime.

So of course, that’s when an explosion shook the air, punctuated by a lot of shouting.

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The Oathbreakers:

All of them have secrets. All of them are failures. Unfortunately, they’re the world’s last, best, hope.

Successful Failure 

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More Stories!

Kay stared at Carina, who stared back at him, undaunted.

“This is cruelty,” he said finally, and pouted attractively, hoping to talk her out of her decision. Too bad for him. It never worked on her. “I refuse.”

😈💥🤬💥😇🔪🔪🔪👉🙀🙈

Tracy looked down at her phone, and then at Angelika, who was still glaring into her tea.

“So, uh,” she said, attempting to decipher exactly what Blake meant with his string of emojis. “Did Blake do something? Is that why you’re in a mood?”