I’m Not Letting Either of You Steal Me!

Arlo rolled over to look at Sho "What the heck do you mean 'Mine' I'm my own thank you very much. Shoy." Arlo added the last part to annoy him.

Sho just smiled "Oh my nickname sounds adorable when you say it, I give you permission to use it."

"Hey not fair!" Yelped Kai.

Arlo glared at them both. "I am not a claimable toy or pet, and I refuse to be treated as such."

Kai snorted "Yep you both definitely grew up around humans."

Arlo would have stomped his foot if he wasn't laying down.

Sho leaned over and licked his cheek and Arlo pulled away "Would you both cut it out for a second I'm trying to have a serious conversation!"

"You're cute when you're serious though, it makes me want to devour you even more." Sho smiled sweetly at him.

"Ugh you're hopeless sometimes!" Arlo muttered, "In case you forgot we have to find a way to fix your problem. What was it you said, go follow your own advice and take care of yourself first, not quite a pipsqueak!"

"Was that supposed to be an insult? Cause it was adorable." Sho's grin widened.

Arlo threw his pillow at Sho and got up, "I'm going to….. going to….. oh whatever I'm going to buy something!" Arlo muttered heading toward the door.

"Aww wait I'll come too."

"No stay you need more sleep."

"I'm not tired."

Kai smirked "I know I'll go with Arlo and Sho gets some sleep, its perfect."

"No its not!" said Arlo and Sho at the same time.

"Oh before I forget" said Kai "Arlo the claim on your chest got rubbed off a bit earlier, you need to fix that, I could always give you a real one."

"Absolutely not!" Arlo grabbed a marker and started redesigning the mark.

"Well I could always fix it as well" said Sho a slight glint in his eyes.

"NO! I am not a thing to be claimed on a constant basis." Arlo growled finishing the mark. "I'll be back in a few, Sho get some sleep, Kai if you must come stay at least 5 feet away, personal space. Blacky can you watch Sho and make sure he gets some rest."

With that Arlo huffed slightly and left the inn. He glanced over his shoulder noticing Kai was coming even after all that. Man demons were impossible. But would it really be so bad to create a forever claim with Sho? Wait why was his mind even going there! The answer was a clear no. He was still going to the human lands, he had repaid Sho and all that.

What if he took Sho with him to the human lands? Stop it brain! Over thinking is not helpful at the moment. Why had Sho left the human world? Arlo also needed to figure out how different the two human worlds were. Once again lack of information is my downfall, thought Arlo grudgingly.

Ignoring Kai who was actually being good and trailing behind by a few feet, Arlo continued on, what to buy, he didn't actually need anything but now Sho wouldn't let him live it down if he didn't. Hmm maybe food? Couldn't go wrong with food.

Arlo felt rich given that Kai and Sho were both basically demon millionaires. How they had access to their funds when they were supposed to be dead and locked up….. he doubted he'd ever find out.

That said there was no reason to buy stuff they didn't need. Arlo had only grabbed 20 silver since he wasn't really sure if he was even going to buy anything or just pull something from his inventory and pretend he bought it.

Let's see what in his inventory was both believable and neither had seen before? Gosh darn it Kai was making his life harder. He had seen like 90% of Arlo's stuff, the down side was Arlo couldn't even remember which were which.

Darn guess he'd have to actually buy something. He scanned over the table. He had left his little instant info buddy with Sho. Darn he had no idea what anything did. Food it is then.

Huh weird felt like someone was watching him…. Arlo paused, eh probably Kai. He looked around for him but he was currently actually looking at a stand instead of Arlo.

Arlo turned away, food, food, ah food. A stand a few meters away had some kind of edible meat. Probably better if he didn't ask what kind. It might be something creepy like spider. He ordered 3 of the meat on a stick and looked around for Kai. He was still roughly nearby. An adult who even pretended he was younger, not exactly a responsible type.

"Here you are" the seller demon handed Arlo the food and he handed him 6 silvers.

Arlo pondered for a second on if he should keep avoiding Kai or just give him a meat stick. He glanced over at where he was currently checking out a clothing seller. As if they had anywhere to put clothing.

"Hey K.." Arlo didn't finish his sentence as a rough hand dragged him backwards and shoved him against a wall.

"Hey what…" Arlo's blood pressure dropped on the spot as he recognized one of his least favorite demons. The collector had returned. Now his demon sight activated.

[Whylie GoldWood level 32 Decent (D)]

He was near Arlo's level, Arlo could totally take him. A sudden dizziness came over him, shoot maybe not.

"What do you want?" He spat.

"So it is you, the little green eyed brat." The collector, or rather Whylie's eyes scanned up and down his body.

Arlo would prefer to avoid a fight if possible he still wasn't feeling great.

"You look a little pale, are you getting enough to eat?" Whylie didn't sound at all concerned just curious.

"Go away." Arlo spat again.

The demon's eyes widened and his smirk grew, "Oh I see, you're in a weakened state. Well this makes things a lot easier." His hands pinned Arlo harder against the wall. "You know you can come to my place, its warm, sheltered, fun…."

"Last time I checked you wanted to take out my eyes, so hard pass."

"Oh I've grown since then, you're eyes will be pretty even after death, if I add you to my collection now, we could have so much more fun."

Arlo wanted to hiss but his legs were feeling a bit numb, why now of all times. Sho had been right that he didn't have enough stamina and the pills only helped the symptoms.

"I'm leaving" replied Arlo trying to pull away.

"No I don't think you are." His eyes glowed with a hint of malice.

"Kai!" Arlo yelped loudly hating that he had to rely on the other demon.

A few seconds later Kai came running over and glared at Whylie.

"Well if it isn't the demon famous for collecting weird things." Kai said.

"A supposed to be dead Whitewolf, always a pleasure." His tone stated it was anything but.

"Apologies, but I'm afraid he is mine." Said Kai motioning to Arlo.

"Apologies, but I'm going to take him anyway. Guards!"

The collector dragged Arlo with him as he backed up slightly and two more demons appeared both level 50. Kai's expression immediately changed and Arlo felt worry creep up his spine.

"Run!" Kai yelled at Arlo as he disappeared in a blur of fighting with the two large demons.

Arlo managed to get a hand free and run about 100 yards before another wave of dizziness made him lose his balance and he had to clutch a stall's door to stay upright.

Before he had the chance to regain his stance the collector was already back and wrapped his hand around Arlo's wrist.

"Naughty little run away, I will have to cure you of that habit." His grip was like metal, just what were his hands made of?

Arlo kicked out with a leg between his legs making him yelp in pain. At least demons still had that as a weakness. If he couldn't out run him he'd just have to make it so he couldn't pursue him.

Sadly his firm grip didn't leave Arlo's wrist and his eyes became a lot meaner, "Oh you are going to pay for that one." He hissed.

He took that moment to reach into his pocket and pull out a cloth which he then wrapped over Arlo's nose and mouth. Arlo held his breath and struggled hard. He succeeded in landing a few more kicks but then the lack of oxygen got to him and he was forced to breathe in the cloth.

As he suspected it was lined with something and he immediately started to have trouble keeping his eyes open. Shoot! His struggles became weaker and weaker until finally he couldn't keep his eyes open.