I don't spook easily, and I'm hardly a coward.  I've had to face my share of too-interested would-be and able sorcerers, demon-hunters and miscellaneous problems over the last few years.  But having my brother and my sister, both of whom I had taken great pains to get away from when I was very young, spooked me.  As full avatars, they were both quite a lot more dangerous than I was individually, much less as an interested pair.  We won't go into the fact that most fanatics devoted to either of the two more "human" Great Demons loved to frequently remind me that Half-demons created by Mammon were notoriously lesser in power than our more "legitimately chosen" half-demon counterparts amongst Freya, Horus and Karma's merry band of maniacs.

Lucky me, I have family among two of three.

"We weren't actually expecting to find you, but we spotted the most delightful girl trotting back to the hightown district, newly transformed and absolutely delighted with her new look a couple hours ago, and we tracked her scent back here."  Malinda never quite understood that while having a vagina for a mouth could look absolutely tantalizing on the right face, and hers was the right face no doubt, watching one contort in the motions of human speech was unsexy enough to make one's skin crawl.

Yes, I'm a purist, and an artist, even if others don't share my aesthetic.

Dathien, of course picked right up after, and I knew, just knew what had drawn the pair of them my way.  "This sweet slip of a girl with another person merged into her lower body, making a humantaur with one absolutely dispairing and queasy woman trapped as nothing more than an extension of her new mistress' form."  He looked at me moderately disapprovingly.  "You could have gotten a better reaction with a more vicious transformation."

"I think the girl's giddy happiness was more than satisfactory."  Malinda coiled the giant torso-width dick that was her lower body beneath her, the tip slowly oozing globs of oozing, glowing precum, heedless of the effect it could have on anyone it came into contact with.  Must be nice to not have to consider the consequences of one's actions.

"Don't tell me that after twenty fucking years, you two are still having this argument?"  I was hoping the two had grown up a bit, given up the purpose they had been given and reconciled the fact that the nature of Freya and Karma were so totally at odds that reconciliation of the two viewpoints was literally impossible.

"Language, sister, I'd hate to have to teach you a lesson."  Dathien's grin was ear-wide.  Literally.  he was overplaying the fact that he could do the whole face-full-of-fangs act.

"Little brother you may be an avatar, but you're in my home."  My speech was slow, deliberate and careful.  If you're going to bluff, don't twitch.  People talk a good game about defeating demons in combat.  Most who succeed never accomplish the feat twice.  Me, I prefer talking, because stabbing people and going hogwild with my limited magics was, bluntly, a lot of effort.

"If you try to zap me, or anyone under my protection in my home, I'll take it personally."  I finished my statement vaguely.  Threaten a Demon with one of the weapons that can hurt them, and they'll start looking to spot it.  threaten wards and binding and they'll look for the accoutrements.  Threaten them with anything, and you'd best be threatening them with something so far outside what you actually can do, or they'll have a counter ready in seconds.

But if you don't bluster, you make them wary.

Malinda, of course, was being inscrutable.  She wasn't the type to make threats, she was the type to try and have fun, and she liked playmates.  Avatars of Freya are notorious for being good-two-shoes, but rather like my perception of good, wholesome fun is self-admittedly deranged enough that I find fusing people with sex organs entertaining in the extreme, Avatars of Freya tend to view their innocuous or gross transmutations of human flesh to be "gifts."

"Twenty years and it seems the only thing that's changed is you can't just beat Dathien up when he causes you trouble."  Malinda spoke smugly.  "How does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot?"

"Is it?" I asked archly.  "You came looking here for something, and you recognized me even though I bear no resemblance to the rest of the family anymore, Gods only know how.  What, in particular, do you want?"

My sister nodded slightly.  "It goes back to the old argument.  I, of course, feel that the most satisfying transformations that flavor the mana are the ones where the recipient feels joy and ecstasy in their changes.  Dathien of course, thinks shame, terror, hopelessness and all of those base emotions flavor it better."

"And we can actually have an enlightened discourse with you broth... Sister." Dathien did not even slip, he was trying to antagonize me, and bluntly he was doing a good job.  "Since it appears you've been gifted with at least half..." he considered, studying me, "...well, quasi-demon status at least and you feed on mana you might actually comprehend the bare basics of what we speak of."

It took years, and years of practice to perfect my air of dignified disinterest when someone was genuinely pissing me off.  Even as a child, Dathien had a knack for saying things I'd have blown off had anyone else in creation said to me, and making me want to strangle him for it.  I couldn't tell if it was just his attitude, delivery, tone, perhaps.

I wanted to leap across the room and start tearing into him with the four razored short swords I had spend the better part of a bored month infusing with the raw essence of demon-cum.  Blades don't actually do permanent physical damage, but the theory goes: the more grievous the wound you would have caused with a strike the more violently severe the ensuing transformations would be as though the victim had been directly exposed to raw Demon Cum.  They were fun, illegal in a way that was truly special to contemplate, and as I knew from experience?  The more your existence is dependent upon mana, the worse it hurts to get hit with them.

Of course, while trying to mutilate my brother would provide some level of visceral satisfaction, it was unlikely to be something that I could do.  Demons can transform you faster than even a half-demon can move to attack, and as a creature constructed of solidified mana, I could turn him into a buttflower, and the transformation would simply slide off of him like water from a duck's ass.  I was not so lucky, being comprised of mana-infused human meat.  I had a few advantages, and it was much harder to permanently warp my form unwillingly.

It wasn't worth provoking.  The last time I had pissed off a demon I would up looking something like a cross between a human and an octopus with dozens of cock-tipped tentacles I could only nominally control, spending the next month violating myself while reverting back to something less squicky piecemeal.

Fortunately I did remain calm.  "Dathien, if you two aren't going to be at least civil, I'm going to ask you both to leave, please."

"Make me."

The urge to scream was just this side of uncontrollable, and he was getting off on provoking me.

"So tell me, Malinda, why exactly are you two still having this argument?"  I turned and sat down near the other demon, doing that thing that all little brothers loathed, and ignored Dathien.

"It provides a fun diversion, and offers me a lot of opportunities to grant the gifts of Freya as we travel.  Dathien almost never touches anyone once I transform them, and he complains.  For my part, I want little to do with his horrid creations.  He loves it when they lose their fragile minds."

"So... you let him tag along because if you pre-emptively transform people against their will, you're saving them from him, and sharing your gifts all at once?"

"In essence, yes."

This is my family.  Short-sighted, mono-focused, loyal to each other even when they should by all rights be throwing grenades at each other...  And singularly possessed of a simple logic that made me want to pull my hair out.

Dathien was a bloody sadist.  Malinda wouldn't take responsibility for her own bullshit.  Don't give me that look, I'll at least admit that I turn men into pussies, women into cocks, shift peoples' genders around like people change underwear and make sexual beasts of men and women because I damn well enjoy the sensations and acts of doing so.  Doing these things is like an aphrodisiac and a drug all at once.  And because people pay me lots of coin to make their deranged fantasies a reality. 

Am I better?  Nope, just more honest.

"Planning on staying in town long?" I was basically chanting "pleasesayno pleasesayno pleasesayno pleasesayno pleasesayno pleasesayno pleasesayno pleasesayno" in my head like a mantra.  This was one family reunion I could have happily gone forever without ever having happen.

"We were planning on putting the alchemist responsible under observation for a good long time.  It's rare that a transformee catches both of our attention at once, and we arrived to witness you doing it to an apprentice as well."

"Never mind the sensations coming from your own body," Dathien put in.  How many mewling flesh sacks do you have merged to you or that leather outfit you're wearing?  Has to be a world record if you weren't a quasi-demon."

"Thirty-Six, and thirty-three in the clothing." I said without missing a beat.  "Why, would you like to join them?  I have a perfect spot for you."  I smiled sweetly.

"Sixty-Nine?  Appropriate."  Malinda chuckled.  "Tell you what, Sister, we'll be sticking around, because it's very hard to ignore that your creations are so very... conflicted.  I feel them and it's heady, and of course Sadist-boy over there finds them the same.  We're curious as to why.  Have you found the answer to the questions?"

Even if I had, I sure as shit wasn't going to share it with them.  Never mind I could feel my profit margin taking a sharp nosedive.  Having a demon get involved with my business that was my livelihood, which I had built up carefully after making myself a pauper to Mammon to become a half-demon was the opposite of what I thought was good.

"I doubt it.  In any case, I have a business to run, and you two are going to scare off my clientele."

Malinda rose.  "I'll be around, sister, watching you share your gifts."

"I'll catch up.  I want to introduce myself to the brunette upstai..."  The Mana-blade that rather abruptly embedded itself in the wall scant centimeters from his face actually stopped him.  When I say Half-Demons are fast, I meant it.  I cleared the room and got into my cache before most hunters could have reacted.  As Dathien turned I was gripping the other three tightly.

"Dathien, I don't care if you merge half of city hall into a sex-colossus of dicks and asses.  If you touch anyone with whom I have a contract signed vouching for their safety, I will find a way to end you."

He was going to do something.  I don't even know why the hell I reacted, it was like an instinct.  It was probably the most stupid thing I had ever done, and I had done it by reflex.

Malinda interrupted him.  "Dathien, remember how Mammon Half-Demons are about their contracts.  leave the girl be."

The twisted, naked fury of my brother's face melted away, replaced by thoughtful consideration.  That, more than anything else, terrified me.  "Hmmm, I see what you mean.  "I'll be about."

Dathien simply walked out the door.  Malinda, in a show of familial affection, slithered over to me on her cock-tail, trailing globs of precum, and the occasional pleasurable fist sized burst of the goop on the floor and hugged me.  The two balls in the tight sac on her chest could have been mistaken for two large breasts trapped in a skin-tight T-shirt easily, hanging like the orbs she formerly had.  She gave me a wet kiss on the cheek and slithered out, trailing her gooey mess.

I should have been a ballsack hanging from the ceiling after threatening Dathien.  I had never heard of a demon backing off of a half-demon, ever.  But apparently the two of them knew something about me that I didn't know about me.  They said something about Mammon's half-demons and contracts, and when I had snarled it was about people contracted and under my protection.  I thought I'd have cheerfully abandoned anyone to a demon's mercy to make sure of my safety.

Now I found myself wishing for an operator's manual for this half-state I had existed in for over half a decade.

As she left, I got down and very carefully began the process of collecting the D-cum safely, and scouring my shop for the stuff.  Even a tiny bit of it could change someone's life, and I had a very good reputation for reliably safe alchemical goods and a clean house.  I told myself I was cleaning because I was the best proprietor in the city.

I was actually trying not to think about how deeply screwed I was.