Page 1 of Thicker than Water

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From her perch up on JJ’s shoulders, Desi is still chatting happily about dragons. “And JJ, the ice wyverns are so pretty! I love their blue scales! Do you thinkIcould be a pretty blue wyvern, too?”

“You alreadyarea pretty wyvern,” JJ assures her, although he’s actually not sure. His only experiences with Desi’s demonic true form so far consisted of her trying very hard to kill him a few days ago, so he wasn’t exactly paying attention to aesthetics. “But I think you can probably change the color of your scales, if you want. Magic is cool like that. Which of the ice wyverns do you like best?”

Desi immediately launches into a detailed analysis of her favorite characters from the dragon-themed cartoon JJ introduced her to, gesticulating excitedly while she rambles. JJ adjusts his grip on her ankles so she doesn’t topple over, carefully picking his way through the tangled underbrush as he listens. Normally, his demon-hunting missions don’t involve discussingWyvern Academywith tiny demon toddlers, but‍?—

But this mission has been anything but normal since the start.

Last week, JJ’s strike team was informed that yet another new demon had been summoned on the far outskirts of Redwater‍—so far, in fact, that JJ was surprised their neighboring Sanctum didn’t cover it. But the dense forest to the west of the lakeisstill within the Redwater Sanctum’s jurisdiction, so Strike Team Kappa was dispatched to address the issue. It was an easy job, or it should have been: hike to the location, take down the summoner, and bring the demon back to the Sanctum for testing.

Itshouldhave been an easy job, but when JJ arrived with Roma and Bryant, it was to find that the summoner didn’t just have ultra-powerful neophyte demon December to do his bidding‍—no, he also had an entiremilitiaguarding the old barn that served as his lackluster evil lair.

A militia that was unfortunately trained in just enough magic to blast both Roma and Bryant into next week, leaving JJ on his own. Working alone wasn’t necessarily an issue‍—as long as he has his weapons and his enhanced abilities, he can usually overcome most threats‍—but not having his strike team by his side definitely made it harder to overpower the summoner and retrieve the fearsome demon.

It also made it harder to resist the fearsome demon’s puppy dog eyes when she unilaterally decided that JJ was her new best friend.

Now, it’s been three days since JJ was separated from Roma and Bryant. Three days since he bashed in the summoner’s head, retrieved December, and immediately nicknamed her “Desi.”

Three days since he became disconcertingly invested in the small demon child. Normally, JJ doesn’t get emotionally involved with either demons or their opinions on fictional dragons, but he was almost instantly attached to Desi’s sunny smile and cheerful chattering. More than once, he’s wondered if she used a demonic spell to trick him into letting his guard down, but the enchantments that the Sanctum baked into his bones when he was a child are supposed to prevent those subtle manipulations.

And, practically speaking, demons don’t usually take the form of four-year-old girls. Four-year-old girls who look strikingly like his little sister: same dark brown skin, same head of black curls, same bright smile.

The same smile JJ shared with Lucy right up until she and their parents were gutted by demons when he was ten. Twelve years later, he’s not necessarily surprised that he still has a soft spot for kids.

In any case, he has the newly summoned demon. He’s bringing her back to the Sanctum for testing, which he’s conspicuously aware is a thinly veiled euphemism for “torture.” And he’s steadily growing more concerned about that eventuality, which isn’t quite normal for him, mainly due to the aforementioned demonic slaughter of his family and all.

Desi tugs on one of his locs. “JJ.”

“Yeah?”

“JJ, there werehorsesin that show, too,” she says in a stage whisper. “Do you like horses?”

“Hm…” JJ considers this. “I don’t know. I’ve actually never seen a horse in real life‍—only on TV.”

Desi gasps. “Me, neither! We should go find some horses, JJ!”

He tips his head back to squint up at her. “What, right now?”

Her smile wavers. “Well, no. Maybe notrightnow.” She fidgets, tugging his hair again. “JJ, where are we going?”

JJ fights down a wince. “Back to my place.”

“Where’s that?”

“Not far. Probably another day of hiking. It’s on the southern edge of Redwater, up on a hill. It’s, um.” He hesitates. “It’s called the Sanctum.”

“And that’s your house?”

“Well, no,” JJ hedges. “But it’s a building. And I have a bedroom there.”

“You have abedroom?”Desi sounds delighted by this turn of events.

He peers up at her, surprised. “Yeah, of course I have a bedroom. I‍?—‍”

All at once, his throat tightens. Right. Desi was only summoned to Earth from Tamaros, the demons’ home realm, about a month ago. And considering the fact that demons don’t technically need to sleep or eat or even breathe, her summoner probably just made her stay awake to do his dirty work at all hours.

She’s never had a bedroom before. Not even a bed. “I’ll show it to you when we get there,” he promises, stalwartly ignoring the fact that he’ssupposedto drop her off with the interrogators in the basement prison. “It’s not very big, but I like it. I think you will, too.”

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