Familiar

[grimoireofkenji]

"Gods, can you please knock it off?”

An annoyed voice rang out in a small echo-ey bedroom, completely cloaked in darkness. The Wizard fledgling, Shin, grabbed wildly for his glasses on the bedside table and clicked on the lamp. He fixed his spectacles quickly and looked around the room, wand held up next to him as he sat up in bed. A mop of shoulder-length, messy brown hair threatened to cover his eyes completely at the next sudden movement of his head.

“Oh, come oooooon, Shin. Can’t you just give me one more night?” A sultry voice spoke pleadingly from seemingly everywhere. Now that the apprentice was no longer cloaked by blankets, he could tell the room had dropped in temperature. He saw his own breath swirl and be lost to the stagnant cold as he exhaled. A devilish giggle echoed throughout the room.

“Grant me eyes.” Shin whispered to his wand. A small glyph formed in front of his spectacles and in an instant, any arcane abnormalities in the room were revealed.

His curtains were disheveled. Several wards he had created himself had been dismantled and his alarm fairy was duct-taped to the ceiling, wriggling around in frustration. The answer was clear as day.

“Nightingale. I told you, we can’t anymore.” Shin spoke, tersely.

“That vow of celibacy thing is no joke, huh?” The voice, assumedly Nightingale, replied. “You can’t even get down and dirty with your favorite succubus…"

A blush touched Shin’s caramel cheeks and he looked away from where he presumed the taunting came from. 

“I’ll banish you again if you try to ride me in my sleep, you know.”

“I don’t think you could bear to see me in that much discomfort, darling.”

“And I don’t think I could bear for you to drain me of all my mana.” Shin replied. 

As if responding physically to his rebuttal, the succubus named Nightingale floated effortlessly onto Shin’s bed, directly in front of him. Her long, curly black hair struck with a shiny platinum that glinted by the lamplight. An immodest bust filled Shin’s vision as the demon who had been his consort embraced him. 

“You promised you’d make me your familiar as soon as you graduated, Shin. I’m back to see you uphold your end of the bargain.” The demon spoke of the deal as if it were struck yesterday. In truth, it was only ever made because the wizard was on the verge of failing out of classes due to inability to perform.

“I haven’t graduated yet. It’s your fault, actually.” The bespectacled apprentice responded coldly, fixing his glasses as Nightingale pulled away from the hug she had forced upon him. He looked to his bedside table, then through the broken windowblinds. The full moon shone through the smog and clouds of Bayside City. the silhouette of gallivanting imps and soaring crow tengu danced upon the far walls of his bedroom. He sighed and freed the fair Nightingale had disabled from his ceiling before looking back at the demon, her piercing yellow eyes and goat-like pupils still locked on the object of her fascination for the past decade.

“What’s wrong, my beloved? How could I have ever done anything to harm you?” Nightingale’s words seemed coated with venom. The idea that her love could be anything but a positive for a filthy human seemed completely foreign to her.

“Well, first off, I know you’ve been invading my dreams. It doesn’t count as sex, but you’ve been sapping my energy as I slept, and my casting’s been sloppy as a result.”

“Ah? Couldn’t have been me. I only visit on full moons.” Nightingale looked away and shrugged her shoulders playfully.

“Tell me what other succubi knows my pet name.” Shin’s eyebrows curled in annoyance.

“I… Hard to say. I don’t think I told anyone. Perhaps you’ve been sleeping with another demon?”

“No godsdamned chance.”

“Then maybe it was the Kitsune you visited today. You never know what their kind are up to, my dormouse~”

“No less trustworthy than a succubus addicted to my mana.” Shin cut her off, beginning to weave sigils in the air with his wand.

“W-wait! I’m sorry! I mean it.”

“I don’t think you are, Nightingale. You weren’t sorry when you drained me so thoroughly that those corporate wizards thought I was some kind of fluke!”

“You’ve got to admit the night before was fantastic, though…” She sighed with pleasure. “When you had me turn into a Kobold and you held me up an-”

“Enough!” 

“Suit yourself.” Nightingale replied, laying on her ample bosom and kicking her cloven hooves back and forth in the air like a teenage girl on the phone with her crush. Her tail swung in rhythm, nearly mesmerizing the wizard as it bobbed to and fro.

“I really don’t get why you torment me like this.” Shin began, some of his anger dissipating in favor of confusion. “I know a succubus can’t love a human, even a wizard. I can’t date anyone because you attempt to curse them if you find their cellphone number. Do you want me to be alone forever?” He had contracted his wand and had placed it in his lap, waiting for an answer.

“Do you really want to be a wizard with no familiar?” Nightingale responded, seeming to avoid his question with one of her own.

“That’s not the point. Nobody wants a wizard with no mana. At least with a warlock, you lend them mana in exchange. There’s no such contract with someone who wasn’t born magical. I’ve had to work so hard to catch up with the rest of my class. My professors probably think I’m some kind of sex fiend!”

“Aren’t you?”

“Not the point! You always do this. You’ve got me going on a tangent already. Just answer my first question.” Shin tied his hair up into a neat ponytail with a hair tie around his wrist.

“Is it so hard to believe a succubus could love a being of flesh?”

“Yes. It’d be easier to believe you hexed my ex-girlfriend for no reason than out of a jealous love.”

Nightingale was taken aback at this. Her pallid, gray skin took on a reddish hue. Not out of embarrassment, but anger. Genuine anger at this twenty-something wizard who dared to make a joke out of her feelings. Feelings that she hadn’t exactly confessed to Shin, but feelings nonetheless. She found herself twiddling her fingers together like a child caught in a lie. Shin sighed loudly, closing his eyes and finding himself calming down a little.

“Aren’t there better ways to express your feelings for me?” He said, getting out of bed and starting to re-weave spells into his windows and adjusting his blinds.

“Devils are creatures of habit. Demons are creatures of instinct.”

“And your instinct is to try and sleep with me on sight?”

“I… What if I told you I didn’t know how else to show it?”

“Breaking into my apartment isn’t it. You know I live two doors down from a cop, right? Pretty good shot, too, so I’ve been told.” Shin had begun to respond with all the bluster of a teenager who had summoned his first imp and was trying to gain dominion over it. Truth be told, he was waiting for his beloved Nightingale to fully actualize into his apartment, just to give her a piece of his mind like this.

And yet, every cell in his body was screaming at him to stop. To be nice and comforting instead. He was sure he was enthralled by her. But hadn’t he casted wards on his own mind so he wouldn’t be? His professors had called him “One of the most paranoid sorcerers they’d ever seen”. Which, until last week, Shin had thought was a negative. Apparently, paranoia was a pretty admirable trait in a wizard.

Shin looked at his watch, which was sitting on the table. Magical gears turned and ground against each other in perpetuity. The beautiful polished brass cast a soft glow beneath the lamp. 

5:14 AM. On his day off. 

“Look, can I make you some breakfast?” He offered, pulling on sweatpants and beginning to head for the kitchen.

“You needn’t put on pants if you’re trying to feed me.” Nightingale chuckled, floating through the air behind him.

“Not funny.” The apprentice said, not even turning around to face the demon, whose smile had widened unnaturally at the joke. The pair continued into Shin’s neatly organized kitchen. A wise man had told him that the most important thing for a wizard was organization. “You haven’t the natural harmony of a witch, so there’s no reason to live like a slovenly hippy. Wizardry is about order.” He had told a much younger Shin. In all respects, he strove to uphold the tenet, even if it wasn’t a fact.

“I see you’re still a stickler for labeling.” Nightingale taunted, floating over to his kitchen cabinets and opening them, revealing magically labeled jars of spices and other reagents lining the shelves.

“I see you’re still a meddler for… meddling.” 

“Nice one, dormouse.”

“Quiet down.” Shin replied. “Is french toast alright?”

“Only if you cover it in your “special syrup”, darling.”

“Look, this isn’t some foreplay conversation, I’m trying to cook for my girlfr-”

“Your what?” Nightingale almost gasped.

Shin didn’t respond. He had begun beating the eggs for the french toast, sprinkling in a little cinnamon. The pale succubus had floated down to the mixing bowl with the vanilla extract. She unsealed the small bottle and began pouring as he twirled the egg beater about gently. He waved his wand with his free hand and levitated the milk out of the fridge, showing an immense amount of precision as he multi-tasked. The full moon had begun to sink behind the other side of the apartment building, and black sky was now a pale gray-blue. “I can think of worse ways to welcome the morning.” Shin thought to himself. At this point, the pair’s preparations were moving with the rhythm of a well-choreographed dance. Nightingale absentmindedly dipped bread in the egg batter, evenly coating both sides, and slowly pulling her sharp, clawed fingers out of the mixture, leaving them dripping egg slowly. She licked her full, plump lips as she floated over to the frying pan Shin had readied on the stove, and let go of each piece gently, causing the stove to hiss as they met the hot surface of the cast-iron pan. She ran her serpentine tongue down her dripping fingers as if she were using it to feel for prey, her body began to warm up. She couldn’t even describe the feeling of pleasure coursing through her body.

Until she tasted the egg. Her face scrunched up in disgust.

“I’ll admit, that was almost enticing.” Shin chuckled over the sizzling of the french toast in the pan. “I’d rather not have my sous chef climaxing while I cook, though.”

"Quiet down, dormouse." Nightingale replied, a hint of shame in her tone. 

"Though I don't blame you." Shin had begun loading the french toast onto a plate. The smell caused the demon to salivate a little.  

"It felt good."

"Hmm?" 

"Cooking with you."

"Ah! Yeah. I guess it did. You make a rather helpful assistant." Shin knew of a succubi's ability to invade the thoughts of their victim, and made no attempt to guard from her invasion. As a matter of fact, it seemed that he had been feeding her information as they were cooking. She'd grabbed the ingredients and prepared everything as if she had made breakfast a million times before. "You didn't even try to suck me off!"

"I could do even better if you sign a pact with me."

"Eh?"

Nightingale, refusing to acknowledge Shin's confused exclamation, grabbed the syrup from the table, pouring it all over the stack of French toast instead of answering. 

"You know, the council would probably flay me if I tried to pass you off as my familiar. Not many wizards feed their familiar with semen." Shin said, in between bites.

“What kind of life is there for a corpo-wizard, anyhow?” Nightingale poked at her food with a fork. "You can't have any fun."

"Well, unless you can convert my seed to money, it’s my only choice."

"Would you like to find out?"

"Eat your food. Stop poking at it."

"As you wish, Dormouse~"

"And for the love of god, Nightingale. Put on some clothes."