Loyalty…

Patch and Rixon were sitting at the bar, beers in hand and shoulders slumped. Both worn and tired, the last few months had been torture. Patch had finally been able to get Rixon to stop performing Witchcraft and other nonsense and dragged him out of the house, with much protest none the less.

"Another one, good lad?" Rixon said to the barman, tapping the side of his bottle.

"That'll be your fifth one, Rixon." Patch looked at his friend, sitting next to him but not quite there. He was unshaven, hair a mess, had a slightly stale odour about him and his eyes were just hollow and...empty.

"This is my fault, if only I'd..." Rixon trailed off, he and Patch fell into silence once more that evening.

Back at the farmhouse Nora was rummaging through the chest in the den that was her 'mom's stuff' so Patch never went near it, allowing Blythe her privacy when she moved away and left the farmhouse to him and Nora. Little did Patch know, Nora had been keeping something a little more than private in the chest. She laid her hand on a cool, glass bottle hidden beneath photo albums, papers, old report cards and fabrics. She slowly lifted the bottle out of the chest, the room lot up a luminous blue colour and she could feel herself begin to salivate and her heart began to beat faster at the memory of drinking the intoxicating liquid.

Devilcraft.

She made her way up the stairs and into the spare room where Kat had been lying unconscious for months. Nora carefully sat in the edge of the bed, trying not to disturb Kat too much.

"Now, I know I shouldn't be doing this...but its unbearable seeing Parch the way he's been without you. Or Rixon for that matter, because of you I actually believe he has a semi functioning heart."

Nora leant forward over Kat, unscrewed the lid of the bottle and put it to Kat's lips. She tilted it so the iridescent blue liquid slowly left the bottle. Nora rubbed Kat's throat gently, like you would a dog refusing to take tablets, in the hope it would make her swallow the liquid. Other than a slight dribble, it had been successful.

Time to wait it out.

It didn't take long for Kat's complexion to go from the dull grey colour it had been to the pale English rose complexion she had always been. Nora also began to feel heat radiating from Kat where she lay on the bed. Her fingertips were no longer like little ice needles, they were warming up. It was working, the Devilcraft had begun to work, Nora knew it would but she had no idea it would take affect this quick.

Checking the time she realised Patch and Rixon would be back any second, she made her way down stairs, as quickly as she could in her condition. To put the remainder of the Devilcraft back in the chest, hopefully where it would stay and Patch would remain unaware if it's presence.

She heard the distinctive sound of Patch's keep pull into the drive way, using every ounce if energy and strength she had she propelled herself up the stairs and back into Kat's room and suddenly froze.

"What the hell happened to me?" I exclaimed, "I'm so thin and...gross looking! What the hell!"

I was standing in front of the full length mirror trying to recall something, anything after having been stabbed by some idiot in Nora's backyard.

Nora?

I spun round, about to go and find her when I saw she'd already come up to the room.

"That worked...quickly." She said with a look of utter shock.

"What worked quickly?" I asked, slightly confused, and I was even more confused by how big she'd gotten.

"No time to explain in detail, but basically you've been..." clearly searching for the correct word to use "in a 'coma' for the last month and a half and Patch and Rixon have been going mad."

She was rushing through this and it was hurting my head to keep up, but I tried.

"Rixon even tried blowing my house up using witchcraft to bring you back, didn't go so well. So I then used Devilcraft that has supposedly been banned on earth."

"Yeah I knew about Devilcraft, so how did you...?" I was more confused than a hobo on house arrest at this point.

"Yeah I had some leftover, and Patch didn't know and he can never know about it. So you cannot tell him and Rixon I brought you back using Devilcraft, you just can't!" I saw tears welling up in her eyes.

There was no way I was going to tell Patch how she got me back, she just did and I'm thankful for that. I made my way over to her and actually hugged her.

"Thank you, Nora."

"You can't tell him, you-" I cut her off on the brink of a sob.

"It'll be our little secret." I assured her.

"Nora!" We heard Patch call up from downstairs.

"Up here, guys!" I called back.

We heard whispers from both him and Rixon and suddenly heard them tumbling up the stairs. They burst into the bedroom, both stopping the second they saw me.

"Surprise!" I said smiling, doing a small curtsy.

"Kat!" Rixon yelled, running over to me, picking me up in his arms and spinning me round. "How are you back? I don't believe it! I've missed you so dam much Kat, I love you and I'm so sorry!"

I pushed him off me, took a small step back and just stared at him. "What have you been doing the last month or so? You look a mess!"

He looked shocked and slightly hurt, then a smile crept along his face and he began to laugh, "Gee thanks, love." He purred into my ear, I didn't realise I'd been out of it as long as I had but I knew all too well I'd missed Rixon's Irish charm.

"Kat, how are you…back?" Patch asked, slightly alarmed.

Nora and I shared a brief look, of trust and something else, something only family have.

"Does it matter how; can't we just be happy that I am?"