Will repeated himself. “You’re in love with Mongrel. Don’t fucking ask me why—that’s a mystery I haven’t even begun to unravel—but you are.”

The demon’s eyes widened, and her horns began to push out of her forehead. With a sigh, she rubbed at the nubs until they receded. “That’s really very funny, William, but if the only reason you brought me out here was to tell jokes, you may not have chosen the most receptive audience.”

“Why lie? We both know I’m right.”

“This is becoming less amusing by the second.” She turned on her heel. “I’ll be going back inside now.”

“You really haven’t been doing a good job at keeping it subtle,” Will said. “But if this is how you want to play it, I suppose you won’t mind whatever I decide to tell Matt about you.”

She only took one step before she stopped. “It’s not healthy to toy with a demon, William. You ought to stop now, before you sour my mood.” She turned her head and glared back at him with one yellow eye.

Will took a drag off his cigarette and gave a smoky chuckle. “You sound a little touchy. Are you feeling embarrassed—is that it? Your demonic pride wounded or whatever?”

Nix became a whirling storm of movement. Her flesh split apart into a thousand tendrils that ripped free of her clothes, a mass spilling out across the grass like a tangle of giant worms. She surged towards him, her tentacled arms arresting all four of his limbs. The cigarette fell from his grasp as she pinned him violently against the nearest tree, nearly knocking the air out of him.

Only a vague inference of facial features remained at the center of the monstrosity, a shifting flap of flesh with eyes that jittered about uncontrollably without a skull to tether them.

“Ah,” Will said, affecting calm even though his heart beat against his ribcage like a prisoner beating on the bars of his cell. “So this is what you look like. I can see why you’d take on a more civilized appearance in front of us pathetic mortals. I’d imagine you want to look just threatening enough to inspire fear, but just familiar enough that we don’t run away screaming.”

“Die.” Nix’s voice was thick and slurred in this form, forced out by an undulating tube of flesh connected to her mouth that formed a crude facsimile of vocal organs. One of her arms wrapped around his neck, pulled tight until it hurt. It was surprisingly dry, reminiscent of a snake.

“Go ahead,” Will croaked. “Although… might raise some questions, hmm? I’m not sure Matt would like it if you killed his best friend.”

“Quiet.”

Will didn’t bother to amp up a Spark. If the demon actually decided to kill him, there wasn’t much he could do to stop her. Resistance would be largely symbolic at that point.

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I’m sure demons fall in love with humans all the time.” He paused. “Well, maybe not. But it must have happened at least once before, right? And hey, I’m not judging. I just want to know—”

The arm squeezed tighter. Another coiled about his head, covering his one eye and plunging the world in darkness as it clamped down on his skull.

“Wrong,” the horror moaned, eyes darting every which way except at him.

The arm around his throat had gotten so tight that he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. His fingers tingled as consciousness began to slip away from him.

Then, with a wet hiss, her arms released him all at once. He fell against the tree, coughing and spluttering, rubbing at abrasions she’d left on his neck.

Nix retreated in a ball of rolling tentacles. Then, with a whisper of countless limbs and the squelching of compacted flesh, she imploded back into humanoid form. Her features shifted as they settled back into place, bones cracking and contorting until they found their proper places. She stood before him as she had been, nude and horned and covered in wicked spines. She held her head low, like an animal about to pounce, and the pupils of her eyes had gone to knife-sharp slits.

“Wouldn’t you…” Will coughed, cleared his throat, and spat. “...Like to hear my reasoning?”

“It’s still talking,” Nix bemoaned, staring up at the emerging green moon.

“All right, I’m just going to tell you. Firstly, you’ve stuck around much longer than you had to, even though we haven’t been contracting with you lately. Isn’t that painful for someone like you? Doesn’t that mean you’re slowly bleeding power? I was under the impression that your kind needed pacts like ours needs food and water.

“I believe you did the same thing with Buck. That suggests you have some innate desire to be around humans, regardless of their usefulness to you. Or maybe only tangentially related to it.”

“Do you really want to die so badly?” Nix asked. She held up a clawed finger. “I cannot fully describe to you how easily I would be able to arrange that.”

“You won’t kill me,” Will replied, smiling. This time, his confidence wasn’t feigned. “If I was wrong, you would have laughed me off. But you’re getting awfully defensive, don’t you think?”

“Maybe I simply don’t like the insinuations you’re dealing in.”

“Maybe. Anyway, my second point. You’ve not only stuck around, but you’ve been making yourself useful, too—at least somewhat. I’ve never heard of a demon doing something like that. Charity is not in your nature, and reciprocity only in the loosest, most predatory sense.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Thirdly, you’ve been slowly turning down this whole…” Will motioned at her body. “...Anyway. Not only have you been wearing clothes, but you’ve been wearing clothes that appeal to human sensibilities. Even further than that, you’ve been making your appearance as human as possible. Curious. Why is that?”

“I felt like it,” Nix growled.

“Right. Yes. Of course. And why did you turn Matt down, exactly, when he took you up on your offer of sex? Surely, getting him hooked would have made a tidy meal for you—well-needed at this point, I’d imagine.”

She just glowered at him.

“I’ll tell you. Because you didn’t want to hurt him.” Supporting himself against the tree, Will stood up. “I believe that’s why you’ve been humanizing yourself, too. Hiding your more… infernal charms. To keep him safe from you.”

“This is asinine. You’re making a fool of yourself.”

“But why romantic attraction, specifically? Why not just… some warped sense of empathy? Well, that’s the easiest part. I’ve seen you staring at him. Of course, you stare at everyone. But it’s only with him that you bother trying to hide it.”

Nix sat down in the grass, legs folded beneath her, and looked firmly into the ground. “Stop making fun of me. I really will kill you.” There was no power left in her voice. She had conceded his victory.

“I’m not making fun of you.” Will took a few cautious steps towards her. “I just want to know where we all stand. Like I said, I’m not judging.”

No response.

He went all the way up to her and sat down beside her—as close as he dared, which was about a meter. Even then he was fighting the urge to get up and run. “You must have been desperate to offer yourself up like that.”

“It was for the elixir,” Nix muttered. “It would make me stronger, but it only works on familiars.”

“How much? What would it even do for you that you don’t already have? I’m not sure I buy the whole thing that obtaining it through a contract will increase its potency. More likely, it’s just the only way you could think of to save face.”

“Quiet.”

“Just admit it. Just say you like him. A little honesty—that’s all I’m asking for.”

Nix sat silent for a long time; hunched over like she was protecting her vitals. Not that demons had a lot of vitals to protect, as far as Will knew.

He had never seen a demon pout before. There was something morbidly funny about the innocence of it, juxtaposed with the eldritch meatball she had been a minute earlier.

“Fine,” she said at last. “Maybe I don’t not like him. A little.”

Will gave his thigh a clap. “Finally. Easy, right?”

“Fuck you.”

“Don’t be mean. If you play nice with me, maybe I’ll be your wingman in all this. I’m just going to take a stab and assume that genuine romance is an area you’re not too well-versed in.”

Silence.

Great. Most of the time she won’t shut up, but now she decides to do the silent act.

“Could you just tell me one thing?” Will was unsure how to word it, struggling through several false starts. “What, uh… What is it about Mongrel specifically that you like? I mean, I love the guy, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not exactly the most… traditionally appealing.”

More silence.

Will was about to continue when Nix cut him off.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I like the way he treats his familiars. Like a family and an extension of himself all in one. It reminds me of a time when things were simpler. I didn’t think I missed it until I saw him.” She glanced up at him, then quickly looked away again.

Will nodded along, even though he didn’t quite know what she meant. He decided not to press her on it. If he pushed her too far, maybe she really would rip him to pieces.

“He’s also incredibly sexy.”

“Wow, okay. No accounting for taste, I guess.”

"So dirty and hairy, like an animal. And the smell, ugh. I—"

"Please stop. I'm begging you."

That put a bit of an awkward damper on the conversation.

“Have you ever loved anyone before?” he asked after a while.

“Yes,” she answered. “But it was a very long time ago.” She tipped her head onto her raised knees, hands clutching the back of it. “I want to make it stop. I thought about killing him—maybe that would make it go away.”

“Or maybe you would regret it forever,” Will offered, not too keen on an outcome where his friend met a brutal and untimely demise.

“When he asked to have sex with me, I felt offended. Why would I feel that way?”

“Purely speculating, but I imagine it’s because you wanted him to see you as more than just a demon. And casual sex is certainly not that. So it made you feel cheap. Unseen.”

“That’s so stupid.”

Will shrugged. “Maybe.” He rubbed at his crooked nose. “What would happen if you got closer to him? Realistically, I mean. Would you hurt him?”

“No,” she said, unsure. Then, with more certainty: “No.”

“You did just talk about killing him.”

“I know that. But if I became his familiar, I couldn’t hurt him. Not in that way.”

“So that’s the reason?”

“One of them.”

“Have you been thinking about this a lot?”

“A little.”

“And as his familiar, you’d protect him?”

Nix gave him a look like he was genuinely stupid. “Of course. Isn’t that what familiars do?”

“I guess,” Will said. “But it’s certainly not what demons do.”

“For reference, how many demons do you know?”

“Just you, I guess. But judging by reputation.”

“I wouldn’t hurt him,” she said firmly. “I wouldn’t.”

There was sincerity in her eyes. That look on a demon sent shivers down his spine.

I can’t believe this is a real conversation I’m having.

Will slowly nodded. “Okay. For some fucking reason, I believe you.”

She nodded in return. “Please don’t tell him about this. You’ve already trampled on my pride—let me keep what’s left, at least.”

“It must feel pretty bad, being at the mercy of a human,” Will pointed out.

She bared her teeth at that. “It’s… vexing.”

“Well, don’t worry. It’s not a conversation I was too excited to have with him anyway, so I’ll leave it to you.” He stood up with a groan, stumbling a little when his stump leg shifted inside the prosthetic. “Let’s get back inside, yeah?”

She sprung to her feet with one graceful leap. “Could I ask you one more thing, William?”

“Sure.”

“What’s Matt’s type?”

“Oh. He’s a bit of an omnivore. Honestly, he’s the biggest man-slut I’ve ever met. Wooing him won’t be hard.”

“So I should just be myself?”

“I guess?”

Depends on what she means by ‘herself’.

But that was Mongrel’s problem, not his.

They went back to the house. Will told everyone that they all had a lot to think about, so they would reconvene the following night to make proper decisions about everything.