Demon Boyfriend: Felix (special preview)

The shop is pretty quiet today, although I don’t expect it to stay that way for long. It’s never too peaceful for too long around these parts. Especially since I’m the closest thing to a doctor in these parts. Thanks to that, I’m never without full hands. I can appreciate the quiet when I have it. These days I revill in it. For the longest time there was no quiet, there was no peace here. So when I wake to a morning like this, I take it in and savor it.

That is, until there is a pounding at the front door. I can hear it opening from my perch at the back of the house. Someone is hurt and dragging themselves into the front of the shop. Oh well, so long tranquil morning. Goodbye crisp breeze. I suppose I will have to visit with you another day.

I go inside, setting my warm mug down before heading into the front. There I see him, a familiar face which I was not surprised to see. I sigh heavily and approach him as she slouches down the counter.

“My god, how often am I going to have to see you?” I grab my kit, knowing he’s just going to slouch there on the floor until I deal with him.

“Can it, Doc,” he snarls. “It’s my back.”

“Your back?” I scoff. “Seriously, what happened Felix?”

Felix was one of those marked as a demon. I’m sure that’s not what they really are, but over the decades it’s all people know them by. He eases down from the counter and sits on the floor, hissing as he reaches for his back.

“The bed is right back here,” I fuss at him. “You can make it that far.”

“I traveled miles to get here, Doc. You better be happy I even walked through the door at all.” He winces and his faces contorts in a way I’d never seen before. Felix was known to me for many reasons, but mostly he came to me because I was one of the only doctors who would treat him or any of the other demons in this area.

“You have to talk to me Felix, not snark at me. Lay down here I guess and tell me what you did this time.” I prepare my kit on the floor, taking out bandages and ointments as well as the emergency sewing kit in case he has another chunk taken from him.

Felix rolled onto his back, the long tendrils that cascades from from his head flopped to one side and I saw the damage there. His broad back was covered in dark, harsh bruises, as well as cuts and splinters.

“What the fuck, Felix?” I snap.

“What sort of healer says that?” He barks back at me.

I scoff and get to work. I apply an atypical pain killer to numb him while I try to remove all the splinters. “What on earth did you do?”

Felix sneers and I see the glint of his teeth. “Oh sure, because it’s always something I did?”

“Usually?” I place the splinters onto an unused bandage as I remove them. I them temper my voice and speak calmly. “Come on now, talk to me.”

Felix grumbles, muttering under his breath as he lays his head back down. “It was a fight, if you must know, and they got the jump on me. Started hitting my back with rough wood.”

“Why were you fighting in the first place?” I got out a nasty splinter, one that wasn’t just big, but deep into his flesh. His skin was dark gray, but the bruises and the skin around the splinters had become a mottled wine like purple, tinging black around the edges.

“They were attacking a house in our village,” he grunts. He meant the area off the mountain where most of the demons lived. “It was a kid, caused trouble, but- ow!” He yelps. “That fucking hurts!”

“Sorry.” I smooth more of the painkiller over his skin. “So you jumped in, playing hero, causing trouble.”

“I wasn’t the troublemaker this time,” he snarls back at me.

I smooth my hand along his back, trying to feel for anything or gauge a reaction from his body. “You’ve been lucky for far too long, Felix. You’re getting close to losing that luck.”

Felix flinches near the bruises, but it’s at his lower back, just above his tail where he can no longer hide his discomfort or agony. His expression contorts, his whole body tenses as he tries to escape my fingertips.