The house was the same as it always was, and Derb felt a knot in his heart seeing it again. It was only two days since he was gone but just the idea that he had somewhere to come back to was heartwarming. He opened the door and took in a lungful of air. “I’m home!” He yelled with exuberance. He could hear the chatter upstairs and the hurried footsteps of the two other members in the household. Hannah was the fastest, with a big grin and a joyful look in her eyes. Derb was happy she was close enough with him to act this way, opening his arms in a hug.

And then she zoomed right by him. “Adalia!” She cried. Jumping into the wolf’s mane. The wolf bent over and nuzzled her neck, a show of affection it never showed him… He slumped his shoulders at the sight, these two really didn’t care about him, huh. “Derb! You’re back!” Tiffany jumped onto his back, catching him off guard. She held on by his neck, which unfortunately was making him lose all ability to breathe. She tightened her grip on him, as if mocking the fact that he was dying. She giggled as he struggled a bit more. He cursed his muscles for not being able to keep up with a 14-year-old.

“Tiff… can’t breathe...” Derb gasped, clawing at her hands for freedom. She stayed on for a few more seconds, purely for amusement, before jumping off. “Ugh… you’re heavier… than you look.” He croaked, rubbing his aching throat. What was all the training he went through with Deitre for if he could still be outdone by a girl? Just because he got stronger didn’t mean he wasn’t human.

Tiff was looking at him with a huge smile on her face, as if expecting something from him. Did she want a souvenir or something? He looked at Tiff in annoyance, she did all that to him and then expected a gift? It quickly went away when he remembered she was the only one that welcomed him home. He wondered if he could ask his teacher for one of the rags as a gift. “Hey, Thanks for welcoming me back-”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Tell me what it’s like outside the barrier! Teacher doesn’t tell me anything and I want to be prepared for when it’s my time!” She interrupted. She closed in on him. “If I fail I’m blaming you for everything. Don’t leave out a single thing.” That was… a bummer. He looked back at the wolf/girl pair and then back at the one in front of him. Eventually letting out a tired and defeated sigh. Neither of them actually cared he was back, huh? Then what was all that worrying in the beginning of the trip for? He looked at Hannah happily on top of his wolf, acting without a care in the world. He snorted. “Adalia, come back.” In a poof she disappeared into his consciousness, leaving a very distraught Hannah wondering what happened.

He rubbed Tiffany’s head, at least she talked to him. “I’ll tell you about everything tomorrow, it was a big day for me so I want to go to sleep.” He said to Tiffany. He laughed when she slapped his hand away. Derb yawned as his eyes started feeling heavier. He knew this day took its toll on him. He was so tired he was brushing off the outrage of Hannah. “What did you do to her, you brute! VINE-” Derb instantly woke up, panickedly putting a hand over her mouth. He knew she wouldn’t hesitate to use her powers inside again. “I just put her away, she’s not gone or anything.” He pointed to his heart, right where he thought his soul was. “I have her inside me so I don’t think she’s hurt.”

He actually saw her panicking, for maybe the first time ever. “You don’t THINK!? What is happening to her right now!?” Derb stepped back, considering the idea. She was right. He couldn’t be sure… There was a way for him to find out, though. “Connor! Get in here!” He ordered. Connor walked in, shocking both Tiffany and Hannah. “Wait, that’s the imp? What happened to him?” Tiffany asked, subtly going behind him as a shield. Hannah was less scared, still anxious and angry over the state of Adalia.

Connor looked over at them the moment he went inside, his stare still full of the same intent as before. The way Connor looked at them hadn’t changed but Derb couldn’t help but take it with different connotations, he did look different after all. He noticed the two being uncomfortable about it and smacked the demon on the head, earning a confused whine from it. “Don’t look at them like that. Keep your eyes on me from now on, ok?”

Connor rubbed his head, shifting eyesight between Derb and the sisters as if it was having a hard time obeying orders. “That’s not an optional order, Connor.” He said, a threatening lilt in his voice. He knew what an incubus was. At least, he knew the stories. He wasn’t going to let Connor attack these two, especially considering what he was. The demon finally just put his head down, looking at no one in general. The poor incubus looked almost as if it was in pain.

Speaking of… “Hey, Connor, Does it hurt when I… poof you out of the real world?” It was just a simple question, and he expected a simple answer. Instead, Connor looked like he got a club directly to his skull. “N-no. Y-yes? no…” He kept anxiously repeating the same two answers as if trying to come up with a response to something that couldn’t be answered. This went on for an unnerving amount until his eyes glazed over and he simply stood still. He remembered this happening before when it was an imp, but now that it acted so pitifully human it was terrible to watch.

All of us looked at him in shock. Eventually, Hannah Broke the silence, turning to him in anger. “Derb, get her out of there!” He responded instantly, willing her back into the real world. He forgot where he was, though, and she appeared in the middle of the living room. “Ah, shit.” Her head almost scraped the ceiling, it’d be a tough fit to get her back outside. “Hey, uh...Hannah. You don’t mind if I just.” “No!” She yelled. She stood between me and the wolf, arms spread as if to protect it from him.

“She can fit! You aren’t just going to do all that to her again! Look at what happened to the imp!” She hugged the wolf, making Derb feel like the bad guy. It wasn’t as if it was confirmed you know… He looked at the door, it was almost half Adalia’s size but he was sure it was wide enough to fit. “First of all, It’s an incubus now, not an imp. Second, Adalia, go outside.” The wold nodded to his orders, trying to squeeze its way out of the small door. He left while the two sisters tried pushing on the wolf’s butt as help. He yawned once again. For some reason, he felt even more exhausted than during the fight with the reaper…

Connor followed right behind him without him asking, which was actually kind of nice. By the time he got to his room the noise downstairs quieted down, which either meant they got Adalia outside or they were stuck. He was too tired to care for either. Connor went under the bed once more, until Derb basically pulled him out of there. No way was he going to have a grown man under his bed. He made a bed on the floor for him out of the bedsheets and told him to sleep there.

Connor whined about it until he went under the bedsheets, hiding from the light. He looked weird wrapped up like that but Derb decided to let him be. He lied on the bare bed, wondering when his life got so chaotic. In one day he fought a demon that was far above him, found out he could hide his demons only to learn they didn’t like it, And once all that was over Connor turned from a pet to an actual intelligent and human-looking being. He closed his eyes, his problems fading as the hush of sleep carried him away. He’d try to understand it all tomorrow, right now he had sleep to catch.

__

Connor watched the rise and fall of his master’s chest. The same chest that fought alongside him during the fight against the mighty cloak of darkness. He watched for a full hour, making sure nothing came to harm him. He and him were connected, one under the same chain. Though to him, his master was everything, while he was merely just a part of master. When the wretched cloak attacked him Connor felt inconceivable rage, how dare he attack someone he considered so important!?

That was the first time he felt an emotion besides hunger, an emotion that sparked a fire inside him. Before the fire spread he was struck down, the pain of his stomach boiling was still fresh in his mind. He remembered hearing the fight, the roar of sword and steel. The crashing of lightning. He was useless at that time. What he needed in that fight was more than pure strength. He figured that out when Derb had asked him to use his darkened affinity spell.

They had fought back the cloak with that final push, they had to, else he and his master would not be alive to tell the tale. Though, in the beginning, he had thought he had died. Who wouldn’t after being sent back into that emotionless void? The world he had lived in for eons, one that he was saved from. The world he knew now was so much more colorful, so stimulating! He wanted to beg his master to never send him back. Though there was a problem with that.

He knew he could think now, but something was blocking him from speaking to his master. Everything that came out of his mouth made perfect sense to Connor, yet it seemed when he tried to speak back he couldn’t speak the same language.

English was hard to speak, and all he knew was a few words. He knew he could learn more but his master didn’t see it that way. It was annoying to try to learn the words on his own. But he’d do it, if only to thank his master for everything he’d done for him. For jumping into the cloaked demon’s fight instead of running. He was sure he’d just be left behind. After all, that’s what this body was made for. Derb had risked it all to stand by his side, even asking him for help when the moment came down to it.

He remembered the pure joy at the idea that it only could he still help, but that his master was still relying on him every bit of the way. His fingers, no longer menacing and sharp like before. He didn’t need the physical strength, that was what master was for. His magic grew by incredible amounts, but almost none of it was offensive. His hand reached for his teacher’s sleeping chest. The same chest that took so much damage trying to fight.

The shirt was gently torn in half, leaving what was under it open for all to see. Connor smiled at the mark that he left on him. The first magical thing he’d done for Derb, almost on a whim. After all, why would someone with that level of magical control need an affinity buff? The orb on Derb’s chest was dormant, weak. Connor knew he could do so much more with it. His master wouldn’t mind a little augmentation, right?

A small spike came out of his finger, dripping a menacing blue. He instantly shoved it into his master’s neck, his other hand strongly covering his master’s mouth. Derb panickedly opened his eyes, watching on in horror as Connor smiled at him, unable to make a sound. They looked at each other for a few more seconds before Derb slowly drifted back into unconsciousness. Connor smiled at the gentle sleeping face of his master. He’d take that as consent. There was no order for him to stop, after all.