"Shut it, you stupid demon. Quit your whimpering." she snarled, pressing another pin into the soft flesh just next to his shoulder.

He just cried harder, closing his eye and trying to block the pain out. Biting his lip to stop the noises coming out, he spared a small bit of his magic to assess his condition.

The results came back just as she stuck another pin into his opposite shoulder, and they glowed against his closed eyelid.

Blood Loss: 20%

Healing Factor: Full Capacity

Magical Reserves: 57% [decreasing by .5% a second]

Pain: 87% [warning:reaching maximum pain tolerance- 12% until black out]

He gasped quietly as the burn from the ties at his legs grew, the holy water-soaked ropes burning into his skin.

"Mis-Mistress!" he squeaked out, his eye flying open.

She groaned, snapping her fingers to stop the burn. "What, demon."

"My pa-ain toler-rance thresh-sh-hold is reaching it's li-i-mit!"

"Oh, right. The point wasn't to torture you until you blacked out. I forgot. One sec." Her heels clacked loudly on the concrete floor, and the pressure keeping his arms up suddenly lessened, allowing him to relax against the table. "Hold still."

The pins were suddenly gone from his shoulders, the wounds closing like they were never there. The pain remained, though, and the tears continued to flow as the rest of the sharp objects were taken from the rest of his body parts.

The last ones to come out was the knives imbedded into his kidneys, and after a moment he sat up, rubbing his wrists absentmindedly.

She untied his legs, but those wounds closed much slower.

"Why is it slower?!" she demanded.

He winced, blinking the tears from his eyes. "The- the holy wat-ter, Mistress."

She hummed, her usual wide grin slowly returning. "Thanks for all the info and stuff, Will. Same time next week? Noncommittally, of course, if there's something either one of us has to do instead then that'll come first. 'Kay?"

"Of, of cours-se." he replied quietly, slipping off of the table.

She turned towards the door, opening it with a flick of her wrist. "You can magic a new shirt on now, or whatever. We're going shopping in an hour, after I have some breakfast."

"Y-yes, Mistress." He snapped his fingers, and his newly repaired torso was covered by a white button-up and a blue sweater vest.

"Will!" Mason called through the bond. Will snapped his fingers again, and popped into existence just outside the room where Mason was. He knocked on the door twice, and Mason replied, "Come in."

He meekly opened the door, and was shocked to see Mason sitting on the floor, surrounded by books and a chess set, with none other than Sixer himself relaxing on a couch nearby. "Ye-yes, Master?" he asked, stepping through the door and closing it behind him without a sound.

"Great-uncle Stanford says that you two have a bit of... history? Is this true?" Mason asked, glancing up from his book for a second to gauge Will's reaction. Judging on the pure undiluted fear that flashed through Will's face, he guessed it was true.

"Ye-yes, uh, I've me-me-met Six-xer bef-f-for-re..." Will gritted out, forcing down his tears.

Stanford just smiled, waving his hand to make a white piece move on the board. "Your turn, Mason."

Mason glanced down to the board, then waved his hand to move a black pawn. "How exactly do you know him? He's not exactly all that forthcoming on the matter." A heated sliver of malice edged it's way into his cool tone, but it was masked quickly. "Your move."

"He- uh, he summoned me, maybe 30 or so of your years? About that long ago..." Will hummed a calming tune, tugging at a loose thread in his sweater vest.

"Forty two." Stanford corrected.

"Su-sure... I was un-under contract with him for tw-twenty th-three, year-rs, uh, I- uh, I-"

"He fell in love with me. The stupid thing was so infatuated he forgave me for carving out his eye." Stanford snapped, rubbing the space between his eyebrows.

Will winced, trembling. "You-you can't cont-trol me anymor-r-re!" he declared in the loudest voice he could manage, which was barely above Mabel's normal volume.

Stanford sneered, sitting up. "I don't need to have a deal with you to control you."

"Ma-master, can I- def-defend myself if- if Sixer tr-tr-tries to hur-rt me?" Will asked quietly.

"Don't see why not. As long as it doesn't actually hurt him." Mason mused quietly, still sitting in the same spot and poring over an old journal. "I do need you in at least... near prime condition. It wouldn't do any good if you were too emotional in public."

"Mason." Stanford growled.

Mason looked up from his book to glare at his great uncle. "What? He's mine, and whatever claim you had to him is apparently forfeit. You raised me to take what I want. Well, I did, and now you're throwing a hissy fit because I won't let you destroy it."

Stanford huffed in approval, settling back down. "That's my grand-nephew." He waved his hand, and his bishop took one of Mason's pawns.

Mason took the bishop with a rook. "That's checkmate, Great-uncle Stanford."

"That it is. Good game."

"Good game. Will, how long's it been since you talked to Mabel?" Mason inquired, placing a bookmark carefully into his journal and standing up off of the floor.

"Ap-p-proxim-matel-ly... forty-seven, seven minutes, g-give or t-t-take."

"Take me down to the foyer, we need to be early for this."

"S-s-sorry." Will snapped his fingers, and then he and Mason were in the entryway to the manor.

"Stop with the apologizing when you teleport us. I asked you to, so just don't." Mason snapped, tapping his foot.

"O-o-ok."

"And for goodness sakes, you're not allowed to float while we're in the town. The townspeople may be dumb, but they're not that dumb."

Will just nodded, forcing his body to adhere to gravity.

"If you two ladies are done bickering, then let's go." came a voice from the top of the double staircase, and both boys looked over to see Mabel, dressed in a pair of rather tight-fitting jeans, a white blouse, a green silk scarf, and her usual black headband and blue jewel.

She strode down the steps as if she were a princess of Victorian England, and Will edged a bit behind Mason subconsciously.

When she reached the bottom, Mason began to clap sarcastically. "What a lovely performance, you look so put together. Planning to stop to chat with any unsuspecting prey?"

"Gideon's not prey! He's a cute little bunny! I wanna keep him all for myself, is that so bad?" Mabel defended, walking past the pair. "You can have Pacifica, if you like. I know you like the headstrong type."

"For the last time, I'm not! Wendy was into me, and it was the weirdest thing ever, she's like four years older than me. Besides, you know I don't swing for that team."

Will was confused, but wisely decided to just keep his mouth shut and follow after them.

"Will, do you know how to drive?" Mason asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Ah, uh, vaguely? I-I a-a-ssume the la-laws have ch-ch-changed since, since 1940?"

Mason sighed. "We'll hire someone to teach you. In the meantime-"

"I'll drive!" Mabel volunteered, rather loudly.

"No." Mason rebutted.

"Why not?! I have my licence!"

"Because you intimidated the guy giving you your test into giving you a passing score. I''ll drive, because I actually passed, thank you."

Mabel pouted, but relented, handing over the keys. "Fine, but you better not go super slow or run over any bunnies."

"I won't. Why do you still insist on using 1920's slang?" Mason asked, walking over to a small black car and getting in the driver's side.

Mabel bounded over to the car, getting in the shotgun seat. "Because it's fun."

Will followed hesitantly, and got into the back seat.

"K, where did you want to take him?"

"Just to the local mall."

Mason rolled his eyes. "Thought so. You want to see if you can run into Gideon while we're there."

"Of course not! I don't want to spend a lot of money on the blue scalene freak." Mabel protested, cheeks red.

"Since when are you money conscious?"

"You know full well..." The twins continued to bicker as they drove to the mall, and Will smiled a bit to himself. His new master was much closer to his sibling, that's good. It'd be harder for him to become corrupt with Will's power.

He hummed quietly as he watched the siblings fight, absentmindedly wondering if he'd ever see his own again.