"So now that you've graduated, do you have any big summer plans?" Tabby asked my sister as the four of us all started helping ourselves to the food. "You're not going to start working full-time right away are you?"

I grinned as I grabbed an egg roll, "She was! Her original plan would have had her working full time starting first thing Monday morning."

Avery rolled her eyes as she scooped a heaping spoonful of pork fried rice onto her plate. After she set the container back down she replied, "I'm taking a two week holiday first. I'm off until July fourth, and that's when I start full-time."

Today was Friday, the last day of college, and we'd just got a big feast of Chinese food delivered to celebrate the start of summer.

All our exams were finished, our assignments had all been completed, and we attended our final classes of the year this afternoon. Both Tabby and I passed the first year of our courses, I even passed my geometry class thanks to some last-minute sessions with Holly. And all my sister's hard work paid off, she graduated with honours from her business management program.

"That's good," Tabs responded as she helped herself to big scoop of the General Tsao chicken. "You definitely deserve a break."

Meanwhile Jinx already had like half a dozen chicken balls on her plate, which she was smothering in sweet and sour sauce. The small half-demon grinned, "We've got enough money you can all take the whole summer off, can't you?"

My sister grimaced, "We could, but I think two weeks is enough holiday for me. And even though we got some money thanks to Tabby's clever loopholes it's not enough to set us all up for life."

The four of us continued loading up our plates while I complained, "That's only because you burned my backpack."

"I left it for three days Cheryl," Avery stated as she gave me a hard look. "We stole nearly one and a half million dollars! That's more than enough to keep us comfortable for a good long time, but even if we did swipe enough to set us up for life I'd still be going to work. And I'd still insist you continue your education. And once you've graduated you'll be looking for work as well."

I started to complain but she cut me off.

"You're either going to school or you're going to work sis," she said in a firm tone. "Having that extra money is nice, and once we've managed to launder it we'll get it into savings accounts and investments. That way it'll be a very nice nest egg for all four of us. Maybe even a retirement fund for the future? But we are not going to let it make us lazy, and we're not going to squander it away."

"Fine," I sighed.

Tabby smiled, "Cheer up Cheryl, look at the bright side? At least she didn't make us get rid of it."

"Yeah that's a good point," I had to admit.

It still kind of sucked that neither my girlfriend or my sister would let me use some of it to get us a new car or something. But at least we didn't have to worry about not being able to afford food or clothes and stuff like that. And Avery wasn't going to make me to get a summer job this year, which was also nice.

On the other hand I couldn't help thinking it was too bad we didn't have access to all those curses anymore. Even if a lot of them were dangerous, some of them were fun.

"As much as I'm happy you're free Jinx I think it's kind of sad we don't have the curse magic anymore," I commented as I munched on some General Tsao chicken. "Like I know cursing could be bad and there were some gotchas and stuff, but it was also pretty cool how much stuff we could do with it? Especially with Tabby thinking up those different loopholes and stuff."

That got my girlfriend blushing, but she agreed "Cheryl's right. It would be cool if we still had access to some magic."

Avery shook her head as she stated, "I'm glad we don't have magic anymore. I think it's too much temptation."

"Except I still have magic!" Jinx announced with a big grin. "It's not the same as the curse stuff, but I have my own demonic magic!"

That put a wide smile back on my face. "You do? Like what? What can you do?"

She shrugged, "Just typical demon stuff? I can make myself invisible, or just hide my tail and horns. I have some transformation magic too, so I could disguise myself as a different human? Or instead of making my tail and horns invisible I can make them go away completely, but that's no fun. And I have something like scrying magic, to help me feed? It sort of lets me find people with lots of bad luck."

"I can do a few other tricks too," she added. "Like my transformation magic also works on inamimate things, like clothes and stuff like that. It's handy if I change myself, since I can update my wardrobe to fit. Kinda like how you used curses to update all your clothes?"

"That's so cool!" I exclaimed. "Can you use the transformation magic on other people? Ooh! Can you make me invisible?"

Avery shook her head, "No! Do not make Cheryl invisible!"

"The world isn't ready," Tabby added with a smirk.

The little half-demon ignored both my sister and my girlfriend, she grinned back at me "I could! But it doesn't last long. If I made you invisible it'd wear off after thirty or forty minutes."

"Same with the transformation magic," she added. "That would wear off even quicker, fifteen or twenty minutes tops."

"Aww," I pouted. "It's still cool though, but that's not enough time to really have fun."

My sister stated, "Good."

Tabby had a curious look on her face as she thought about all the stuff our half-demon friend just said. After a couple seconds she asked, "Jinx if your own magic is so limited, how did the curse book work? Where did the magic come from to power the curses?"

"It was still powered by my magic," the small cambion replied with a pout. "But it was all twisted around and corrupted."

After eating another chicken ball she tried to explain, "Normally my magic is powered by the bad luck I feed on? Except remember that whole thing about curses having victims? Even if some of the outcomes were good, there were always unexpected things?"

I nodded, "Yeah. Everything worked out ok for us in the end anyways, but me and Tabby both had stuff happen that we had to get used to."

"That's where the power came from to drive the curses," Jinx stated. "I don't understand all the details of how it worked, but I think instead of feeding on bad luck the curse magic was powered by the misfortune of the people who got cursed. So like that evil rich guy we stole all that money from? The magic that teleported the cash from wherever he had it into your backpack was powered by his misfortune at losing the money in the first place."

Tabby frowned, "That doesn't exactly make sense. I mean, I get what your saying about the money? But what about changing Cheryl into a girl? That wasn't a huge misfortune for her, even if it was a surprise. Same with me becoming a catgirl? It was a surprise, but it only took me like ten minutes to get over it."

"Yeah!" Jinx grinned happily. "That was all Cheryl's fault!"

"What?! How's that my fault?!" I demanded as I pouted at her.

The little half-demon continued to smile as she replied, "You had so much bad luck I think it overloaded everything? Since that's what I used to feed on in the first place, that's my natural food source. But your bad luck is kind of wonky -"

"It totally is!" Tabby interjected. "Cheryl's got the kind of luck where she could fall down a flight of stairs and still somehow land on her feet with just a bruise or something. But whatever she was carrying would be totalled."

I kept pouting but I couldn't really argue with that point.

Meanwhile Avery just shook her head, "So Cheryl's bad luck turned out to be good luck as far as the outcome for all four of us. Somehow I'm not surprised."

"You're all bullies," I grumbled quietly as I had a gulp of my cola.

Just then there was a knock at the front door. Me and Avery looked at each other, but it was clear neither of us was expecting anyone.

"I'll get it," I said as I got up from my chair. "Gives me an excuse to get away from the bullying."

That got smiles out of both my sister and my girlfriend. And Jinx tried to say something, but she had another chicken ball in her mouth so I really couldn't make out whatever she was telling me.

When I got downstairs I swung open the front door and found myself looking at a pair of attractive young women in business-casual clothes. I sort of got the impression that they were going to try and sell me something, but I greeted them anyways.

"Hello?" I said as I looked them both over.

The one on the left was tall and fit, and I'd guess her age to be about thirty. She had long wavy auburn hair, dark hazel eyes, and a healthy tan. She was very attractive, her hair was done really nicely and she wore some stylish but subtle make-up. She was dressed in black slacks, a maroon blouse, and some low-heeled shoes. She had a large black leather purse hanging from her left shoulder.

The one on the right was younger, she looked like she was around the same age as Avery. She was shorter, standing only a few centimetres taller than myself. She was kind of slender, and her skin was very pale. It was probably a trick of the light but she almost seemed to have a faint green tinge to her, that made me think she was coming down with something. Except apart from the colour of her skin she didn't seem sick or anything.

In fact despite the super-pale skin she still looked really pretty, although the only make-up I could see was some pale pink lipstick. Her jet-black curly hair was trimmed short, and she had pale green eyes. She was wearing a knee-length black skirt over black tights, and a white long-sleeve blouse. And she had black ankle boots on her feet.

"Hello there," the taller one greeted me with a polite smile. She handed me a business card as she continued, "I'm Myrna, and this is my colleague Mel. We're from Ismene Books in Toronto? We're here about a used book that was accidentally sold to a customer at this address last month?"

I frowned as I couldn't help thinking I was about to get into some new kind of trouble. I just hoped I'd be able to take care of it myself. I knew I'd never hear the end of it if my sister or girlfriend got dragged into it.

"What about it?" I asked.

"Are you the one who ordered it?" Myrna asked, like she wanted to clarify she was talking to the right person.

I nodded, "Yeah that was me. So what about the book?"

The shorter one replied with a grimace, "There was a mix-up in our inventory system, and the book in question wasn't meant to go up for sale on our website. We have a thorough screening process when we acquire used merchandise, and the book in question went up for sale before we had a chance to properly examine it. We would have contacted you sooner but we didn't discover the error until an inventory audit this morning turned up the discrepancy."

"I know this is an unusual situation," Myrna added, "And it's definitely not your fault. However, it's important for us to get the book back? According to our records you paid forty dollars plus tax and shipping? For your trouble we can offer you five hundred in cash for the book right now, if you'll return it to us."

I frowned as I looked back and forth between the two women while my mind started racing.

Being offered five hundred dollars for a book that cost me fifty after the tax and delivery and stuff was pretty wild, and if it was just some weird book full of Latin text that I couldn't read I probably would have handed it over without a second thought. Knowing it was an actual magic book of real curses I definitely wouldn't have handed it over, and there was no way I'd let these people get their hands on Jinx.

I wasn't sure how to get rid of them though, like if they were offering five hundred then maybe they thought the book was worth five thousand. Or maybe they knew it was magic and it was really priceless. Which also made me wonder what they were prepared to do if I refused to turn it over.

Still, I figured whatever happened if I made sure it was loud enough that'd give everyone upstairs a chance to run or hide or whatever. Or maybe Jinx could use that demonic magic she was just telling us about. So I decided to take my chances and tell these two they couldn't have it back.

"Sorry," I said as I shook my head. "I can't give it back to you, I don't have the book anymore."

The two women gave each other a worried look. The short one, Mel, asked "Have you sold it or given it to someone else?"

"We'll pay for the buyer's information," Myrna added. "It's very important that we recover it."

I frowned, "Why? You're making it sound like a priceless antique or something. Like if I was in a position to sell it back to you, I'd probably be asking for way more than five hundred dollars."

Mel sighed, then she leaned closer and quietly told me "It's dangerous, ok? That book wasn't meant to fall into human hands. If -"

"Melinoë!" the taller woman interrupted. She hissed at her companion, "You're not supposed to tell humans that you need to keep stuff out of human hands!"

Mel frowned at Myrna and retorted, "And you're not supposed to say my full name in front of humans! So now we're even."

Without missing a beat the shorter one turned back towards me and gave me a customer-service smile, "Sorry about that."

The smile quickly faded as she continued, "Look we just need to make sure that book stays away from the general public. It's dangerous, it could hurt you and everyone you love."

I looked back and forth between the two of them then shrugged, "I know it was a magic book full of magic curses, but it's gone now. It can't hurt anyone anymore."

Mel looked like she was about to ask what happened to the book, when Jinx came down the stairs behind me as if on cue. The small half-demon was munching on an egg roll while her barbed tail swished back and forth behind her, in full view of the two people standing just outside the door.

Before anyone could react she said, "Hey Cheryl? Avery said to tell you your dinner's getting cold and you should come back upstairs and finish eating."

Myrna was staring wide-eyed at Jinx's tail, while Mel tilted her head to one side and asked "Are you a cambion?"

"Yeah!" Jinx nodded happily. "What are you? You seem kinda dead or something."

The shorter woman flustered, "I'm not dead! I'm a lampad ok? An underworld nymph."

"Neat!" the small half-demon exclaimed as her tail swished around enthusiastically.

Meanwhile Myrna was looking back and forth between Jinx and Mel, then finally looked at me. She asked, "So you know about the supernatural then?"

"Sure," I shrugged, as I pretended it was no big deal. "Me and my sister are in the know. We're friends with a cambion, I'm dating a catgirl, we have coffee with an angel, and go to college with a goddess. You know, the usual sort of thing."

"Oh," she frowned. "All right then. Um, in that case I'm sorry for disturbing your dinner."

I smiled, "No worries. We'd better get back to it though. Nice to meet you both, have a good weekend."

"Yeah," Mel nodded slowly. "Enjoy your dinner, have a good weekend."

Jinx waved as the two women turned and started walking towards the visitor's parking area. I could hear the pair of them bickering with each other like a married couple as they left, griping about all the time they wasted driving out here during rush hour on a Friday evening.

"That was weird," I commented quietly as I closed the door. "An underworld nymph knocking at our door?"

Jinx shrugged, "I guess? That sort of thing happens when you mess with the supernatural. You get used to it."

"Huh," I said as we both headed back upstairs again. "Maybe don't tell my sister that?"

My cambion friend grinned, "Of course not. Why spoil the surprise, right?"

"Exactly," I replied with a smirk.

Back in the kitchen Jinx and I sat down at the table with Tabby and Avery, and I managed to snag the last two chicken balls before the crafty little cambion could swipe them.

"Who was at the door?" Avery asked with a frown.

I shrugged, "Just a couple sales people? Something about books or whatever. I managed to get rid of them."

"Good," Tabby made a face. "Those types are always so pushy."

Jinx and I exchanged a glance and we both suppressed a smile. Then we all focused on our dinner again, while the four of us talked about our plans for the summer break. It was a nice fun relaxing meal, and I couldn't help feeling happy about how everything turned out.

My best friend was a cute catgirl, I got to be a cute girl too, and now the two of us were girlfriends. My sister and I looked out for each other, and she got on well with my girlfriend. And all three of us were good friends with a small mischievous magical half-demon.

Life was good, and I was positive it was only going to get better.

~ The End ~

PurpleCatGirl

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