"Hold on a second!" Tabby insisted as she marched down the stairs with her ears folded back and her tail twitching from side to side.

She stopped a couple paces away from the half-sized half-demon standing on the coffee table and stated firmly, "You can't go around cursing everyone! Or their belongings! You promised if Cheryl freed you that you wouldn't be evil, remember? Immediately breaking that promise the minute you're free is not the way you make friends!"

Jinx rolled her eyes as her own tail swished back and forth, then she planted her hands on her hips and turned to face Tabby. That left her back to me, which meant the pointy end of her tail was swishing around right in front of my face like a big angry hornet.

"I promised not to be evil or do anything harmful to you and Cheryl and Avery," the half-demon pointed out. "And I won't!"

Then she added with a smirk, "Anyways that horny curse isn't evil or harmful, right? You used it on Cheryl the other night, and she used it on herself last night. Twice! So trust me, this is going to be a fun afternoon!"

Tabby looked past Jinx so her eyes locked with mine, and I recognized the look she was giving me. It was the same one she always gave me whenever one of my ideas backfired and we were both about to get into big trouble.

At the same time Jinx announced enthusiastically, "A couple horny curses coming right up!"

Both my best friend and I sort of braced ourselves, but nothing actually happened. Jinx didn't say any strange magic words, I didn't feel a sudden heat between my legs, and Tabby seemed equally unaffected.

Then something unusual caught my eye, and I found myself staring at the half-demon's bare back. A few lines of text appeared there, as if she'd been tattooed in impeccably neat black gothic lettering.

I blinked as I stared, and after a second I realized it was the curse she'd been trying to cast on me and Tabby.

"Uh, Jinx?" I said as I got to my feet. "I don't think you can use any of the curses yourself."

She pouted, "This is so unfair! I know all these amazing curses, but I can't say any of them! Now how am I supposed to finish restoring myself, how can I get my memory back? If I'm not a book anymore nobody can read the curses from me, and I can't use them either, so I'm stuck halfway?!"

"Not quite," I told her. "I can see a way for us to still access the curses, so me and Tabby could maybe keep using them..."

My voice trailed off as my best friend gave me a hard look and slowly shook her head.

I grimaced but pushed ahead, "Anyways maybe we could keep using them? Except like Tabby said, immediately trying to curse us as soon as you were free probably hasn't helped your cause any."

Jinx turned to face me again as she pouted, "I'm sorry Cheryl. Like I said, I wouldn't do anything evil or harmful to you. And anyways, you and Tabby are already both into each other right? So I was only trying to help the two of you get past any silly hang-ups and hesitations."

"After all, you two already slept together the other night, remember?" she added. "The only reason you didn't do anything more exciting than sleep was because she got so caught-up in the headpats and ear scritches that she fell asleep on you!"

That left both me and Tabs blushing, but my friend's attention was mostly focused on Jinx's back. With the half-demon looking my way Tabby could see the text that appeared back there.

"I'm so tempted to use this right now," Tabs said to herself. "But I know I should be the responsible one, since nobody else seems up for the challenge. So how about we all go up to your room Cheryl, and try to find Jinx something to wear?"

I looked back and forth between the half-demon and my best friend as I asked, "Do you really think any of my clothes will fit her? She's tiny."

Tabby reminded me, "So are some of your clothes. Anyways we could always try and curse some of your clothes so they fit her instead of you? But for now lets just get her something to wear so she's not standing around in the buff, all right?"

"Yeah ok," I nodded. "C'mon Jinx, I'm sure we can find something for you to wear."

She was still standing on the coffee table with her long black tail swishing around, but before she could respond we all heard the front door open. All three of us turned to look at the stairs down to the front hall, and both me and Tabby cringed.

"Cheryl, I'm home!" Avery called as she came up the stairs.

She made it two steps into the living-room then stopped in her tracks as soon as she spotted Jinx. My sister glared at me and demanded, "Cheryl I told you not to do any more curses! So who is this, and what did you do to her?!"

"It's not what you think!" I insisted as I cringed a little deeper into my big hoodie. "She was the curse book, like she was imprisoned in it or turned into it or something? I just turned her back into a person again."

While she was still processing that I quickly did the introductions, "Avery meet Jinx, and Jinx this is my sister Avery."

"Hi Avery!" Jinx greeted her with a wide happy smile.

My sister's shoulders slumped and she sighed, "Hello Jinx. Why are you naked? And what's with the tail? Are you part cat like Tabby? I don't see any cat ears."

The small half-demon shook her head, "I'm a cambion, not a catgirl. I've also got little horns, see?"

I hadn't noticed the horns before, but she reached up to the top of her head and moved some of her hair aside to show them off. Sure enough she had two small nubby black horns on the top of her head, sort of positioned above her temples. They were only a couple centimetres long, so they were small enough to be hidden in her messy black hair.

Avery sighed again, "What's a cambion?"

"She's a half-demon," I replied.

Then Tabby elaborated, "According to what Cheryl found online a cambion is a human-demon hybrid."

Jinx was still smiling as she nodded, then helpfully told my sister "Don't worry, I already promised not to do anything evil to you or Cheryl or Tabby."

"Well that's good to hear," Avery muttered in a kind of sarcastic voice. Then she addressed our new friend, "So now that you're free are you going home? Do you have some family somewhere? Or what's the plan now that you aren't a book anymore?"

The short demon girl shook her head, "Nope, I'm not going anywhere! I'm staying right here with Cheryl."

My sister gave me a look, then her attention returned to Jinx as she asked "Wouldn't you rather go home, now that you're free?"

"I'm not really free," Jinx replied with a shrug. She still sounded happy and enthusiastic as she explained, "Cheryl owns me, so I have to stick with her? And even though she restored my body I still don't have all my memories and stuff. My head's all full of curses, so I don't know where home is or if I have family or any of that stuff."

She smiled and added, "That's why I need you all to keep using me to curse people and their stuff! After enough curses have been cast I'll be truly free and hopefully I'll get my memory back and everything!"

I'd sort of lost my cringe by that point, but hearing the little demon proclaim me as her owner brought it back again. I almost ended up trying to disappear into my big hoodie at that point.

Meanwhile Avery frowned at her, "What do you mean Cheryl owns you? And what do you mean you have to stick with her?"

"I'm her personal property," Jinx announced happily. "She bought me! And the other night she declared that I belonged to her, so until I'm truly free I'm sort of bound to her? I don't know how close I have to be, but I know it means nobody can steal me. If anyone tried, or if Cheryl lost me somehow, I'd just come back to her."

My sister's focus shifted back to me, "Cheryl you can't own a person!"

"It's not my fault!" I insisted. "She was still a book when I bought her! I didn't even know she was a person when I said I owned her! All this demon person stuff just happened now!"

"Tabby tell her!" I added as I looked to my best friend for help.

The cute catgirl was standing off to the side, quietly sipping her cola as she watched the rest of us. She shrugged, "It's true Avery. Cheryl figured out the book was sentient last night, but she didn't know it was actually a person until this afternoon. Then things escalated pretty quickly after that, but you know what Cheryl's like."

"Hey!" I pouted. "I was trying to help out, I wanted to save Jinx!"

The small demon nodded, "She did. She really wanted to help me, even though Tabby said it might blow up in her face. That's why she went and hid in the kitchen when Cheryl tried it, so she could call for help incase things went wrong."

"Hey!" I frowned at Jinx, "You're supposed to be on my side! Anyways nothing blew up, there was no bang, and Tabby didn't have to call an ambulance. So everything worked out fine, right?"

By that point Avery had her hands over her face. She groaned, "Ok enough. Jinx said something about not being free until you did more cursing, what was that about?"

Me and Tabby and Jinx all took turns sharing that story, about her being stuck until some secret number of curses were cast. And how I tried to cheat by cursing the book to turn back to her original body. Which worked, but didn't actually free her.

"And how are you supposed to use her as a curse book when she isn't a book anymore?" Avery asked.

Jinx puffed up her cheeks as she pouted unhappily, "I have no idea! All I know is I can't do any cursing myself, which feels extremely unfair! I tried, I have all these curses in my mind and I can picture them all in perfect clarity? But when I go to use one it just stops, it doesn't come out."

Me and Tabby exchanged a look, then I told both my sister and my demon what we saw earlier. "I think when Jinx focuses on a curse, the text appears on her back? So someone else can read it and use it, but she can't do it herself."

"Which is honestly a very good thing," Tabby stated. "Otherwise she'd just be non-stop cursing everyone and everything to run up the counter and fully free herself."

Avery facepalmed again as she let out a long deep sigh, "So what you're saying is we're stuck with her, and the only way to not be stuck with her anymore is to use her to curse people for a few hundred more times?"

"Or a few thousand?" Jinx responded helpfully. "I don't know how many curses are needed before I'm fully freed. Maybe a million? It could be anything, really."

My sister groaned quietly before giving me a look. "You had to keep messing with that book, didn't you? You could have just sent it back where it came from and got a refund, but no. You had to go and turn it into a demon."

I frowned, "I was trying to help Jinx. If I sent the book back who knows how long she'd be stuck on some dusty old shelf somewhere? At least this way she's alive and has a body and everything."

Avery grimaced, then sighed, and finally nodded. "You're right sis, I'm sorry. It's been a long day, and I still have to hit the books again tonight after dinner, but that's no excuse. I know you were trying to help."

She turned her attention back to our new friend as she continued, "Jinx, I apologize. I didn't mean to suggest I wanted you to be stuck indefinitely as a book."

"That's ok!" Jinx replied with another happy smile. "You can all make it up to me by doing some more curses! Was work stressful? We could curse your boss! Or how about we curse your teacher? It sounds like they're putting too much pressure on you. Or why not both? Got any enemies? Irritating co-workers? Annoying class-mates? Cheating ex-boyfriends? Let's curse them all!"

My sister shook her head as she insisted, "No! No more cursing!"

The little demon's smile shifted back to another pout and her shoulders slumped, "Aww! You're no fun."

"Uh sis?" I knew she wouldn't be happy but I figured I needed to remind her of something. "I get the feeling that if we don't do any more cursing Jinx is going to stay bound to me forever. Until we hit that magic number of curses, she's my curse book. Er, curse demon? She's my curse friend."

Avery groaned, "So in other words we're stuck with Jinx for the foreseeable future. Which means we have to feed her, and she's going to need clothes and everything else. Where are we going to get the money for all that?"

"And what's she going to do while we're all at college?" she added as she sounded even more uptight. "You can't take her to class with you. I don't think it's safe to have a half-demon following you around, and with that tail people are definitely going to know something's up!"

"Sorry sis," I grimaced. "We'll figure it out though, right?"

She just sighed again, "Maybe? I don't know, I can't deal with this now. Cheryl why don't you order us something for dinner, I'm too stressed to think about cooking. You can use my credit card, just don't go overboard. Tabby are you going to stick around and eat with us?"

My best friend seemed a little subdued as she asked, "If it's ok with you Avery?"

"Yeah it's fine," my sister said as she moved past the catgirl and started up the stairs. "I'll be in my room for now. Call me when the food's here."

"Ok Avery. Thank you!" I replied as she disappeared up the stairs. Then I got my phone out and started figuring out something fun to get us for dinner.

While I was doing that Tabby slumped onto the end of the sofa and frowned, "We're both going to have some explaining to do at college tomorrow. How am I going to explain that I turned into a catgirl over the weekend? And how are you going to explain what happened to you? At least people will still recognize me, you don't look anything like your old self."

"Uh," I hesitated as I looked up from my phone. "I hadn't really thought that far ahead yet?"

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