Finding a room in Hell for each of the three humans turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. With the ability to teleport anywhere instantly, things like hotels were not needed. Eventually the decision was reached to have the humans to sleep on the librarian’s couches. Obviously only Adelina, who stayed with Nirrti, actually slept on the couch. Evelyn and Kate shared the demons’ beds.

Eisheth was giggling as Evelyn woke up. Groggily, the human turned to her friend.

“What’s the matter?”

“Remember the thing about being a cat magnet?”

“Mhm…”

“Look beside you.”

Evelyn glanced over, her eyes widening as she realized the size of the cat snuggled up beside her. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just one cat. The serval sized tabby-coloured cat was curled up at the bottom of the cat pile, with two small, house cat sized, hell cats sleeping on top.

“Uuuuuuuuh…”

“They are locals, coming here quite often. Don’t worry, no cat here will harm you.”

“It’s big enough to chew my face off…”

“Just more cat to pet and cuddle. Go ahead, try petting her.”

“You sure?”

“If she didn’t like you, she wouldn’t have snuggled up to you.”

“Fair enough…” Evelyn very slowly reached out towards the big cat, which opened its eyes to see what its snuggle buddy was up to. After a little more hesitation, Evelyn finally ran her hand along the head and neck of the cat. She was rewarded with a deep purr, encouraging her to keep petting.

“See? All good.”

“Yea… still scary, but very soft. Do the others know about these cats?”

“Yes, they even met a few of them before.”

“It might take a while, but I think I can get used to very large cats wanting to cuddle.”

“I hope you do.”

 

Meanwhile, Kate and Apollyon had no nightly visitors. Rin and Sera had opted to provide warmth and love to Nirrti and Adelina.

The demon was making breakfast as Kate slowly made her way down the stairs.

“Did you sleep well.”

“Amazingly, thank you.”

“Good. I hope you can wait a little more for your pancakes.”

“Pancakes?”

“Breakfast, yes.”

“Oh, nice. How are you anyway?”

“The pain is lessening.”

“That’s good. Still, take it easy, okay?”

“I will. Once we finish our breakfast, I need to leave you in the care of another demon, there are a few things I wish to procure for your transformation celebration. I will rejoin you afterwards, of course.”

“Sure. Speaking of, I would like to wait with that until Nirrti is well enough to be there.”

Apollyon smiled. “I agree, that would be best. It would still mean you, Adelina and Evelyn spend a few more days here. That could be problematic.”

“Hm, yea… Evelyn needs to get back to work or at least tell them what’s going on. Adelina and I are ahead on our studies, but we need to check for new assignments and stuff soon as well.”

“We should let them decide what to do.”

“Yea, we should ask them later.”

Apollyon finally served the pancakes, adding a deep purple jam on the side.

“Before we do anything else, we eat.”

“Yes please.”

 

“So, we kind of need to talk about your work situation.” Kate took another spoon full of ice cream and looked at Evelyn. The three humans and Eisheth were relaxing on the Beach underneath the cliffs just outside of Dis.

“We talked about that over breakfast.”

“And what did you decide?”

“Eisheth will taxi us back and forth so I can keep working and Adelina can attend your lectures and bring you some notes. But we both wanted to spend more time here with you and Nirrti, until you both are ready to return to the library again.”

“I volunteered to teleport them every day. I need to check in with War and Death at the library anyway, and this way I can take a few hours there as well.” Eisheth turned to Kate. “I know Apollyon does not want you to leave until you turn, but what do you want?”

“I will stay for a while. I don’t want her to break herself worrying about me and I honestly need a few days to just be. It’s slowly sinking in that I nearly died and what she and Nirrti went through to protect me. There is also something I need to talk to her about that I haven’t had the guts to ask. Anyway, when Nirrti is able to get out of bed and attend, we will have a little celebration when I get transformed and after that I intend things to return to vaguely normal. As normal as things can be for a demon attending university.” Kate chuckled.

“And a demon who has to deal with her human family.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “Oh no… I totally forgot about them.”

“You should think about what you tell them in case they find out about your… absence from earth. You also need to be absolutely certain if you wish to keep your demonic nature a secret from them or not. Most humans don’t like it when close friends or family keep things like that from them, but they also often cannot be trusted with that knowledge either. It is your choice if you trust them enough, but we will make sure they don’t do anything stupid with that knowledge.”

“I thought about the demon stuff, but not that I have literally disappeared into thin air right now. I won’t immediately tell them and just wait and see if they notice anything. I will have to tell them about being a librarian sooner rather than later though. But that has nothing to do with actually being a demon. Hm… I might just have to improvise a bit.”

“Planning too much is not a good idea when it comes to humans. They tend to be rather unpredictable.”

“In a good way, I hope.”

“At times.

 

The topic of conversation drifted towards past visitors of the library, and fun anecdotes about them. Eventually Apollyon joined them with drinks.

“Something from Uttu’s bar for everyone. Kate, would you agree to having Uttu provide drinks and Fury taking care of food for our celebration?”

“Uh, sure. And thank you.” Kate happily took a sip of her sparkly orange cocktail.

“There are a few demons who wish to attend, but it is your choice who to invite. They already voiced their understanding of wanting a more private celebration. Several of them also wish to speak with you afterwards regardless of their presence during the celebration.”

“I suppose it all depends on how many and who exactly wants to come.”

“Yumi, Lucifer, Sariel, War, Jorogumo and Azazel. Seshat and Rhea would have loved to attend as well, but they are currently very busy.”

“I wanted to do this at your home, if that’s okay. But there may not be enough room for everyone now…”

“We can be outside.”

“Hm… fair. I am also not sure if am comfortable having my body and soul change in front of so many people. If there is a way to turn me in private and then reveal demon-me to everyone afterwards and have a good time then, that would be best.”

“Of course, not a problem.”

Adelina spoke up. “I am almost sad that I don’t get to see you transform.”

Kate returned a smile. “I don’t think you’ll have to miss that. Polly said my body would take a while to change. It needs to figure itself out first.”

“Sounds exciting and I super look forward to seeing the changes happen.”

“And I will gladly let you watch.”

Apollyon took a small sip. “Adelina, Evelyn, demons enjoy giving their human friends gifts. We cannot gift a lot of things to each other, so we tend to shower our rare humans with them. Once Rhea and Seshat have the time, they will create card game accessories matching ours for you, Evelyn. But there has been the desire among everyone who knows of your presence here to give you a little souvenir. What do you want?”

Adelina and Evelyn exchanged mildly confused glances. The vampire spoke first.

“For the first time in over sixty years, I’ve been able to go outside without being fully covered and wearing a hat or at least a parasol. Human made sunscreen does nothing for me and I am incredibly jealous of people who can actually go to a beach like this on earth and maybe go for a swim too. Maybe there is something magical you can enchant to protect me from the sun, even just for a short time.”

“I do not have the expertise to create what you need myself, very few things are impossible though. I will ask Malice if that is something she can provide.”

“That would mean a lot to me, thank you.”

 “Since this is something that would improve your quality of life, I want to add something purely for fun as well. Do you enjoy plush animals?”

“They are super cute.”

“Then I have an idea what to gift you. Now, Evelyn, what do you desire?”

“Beside a cute plushie? You can take me here every so often, just to have some good food and simply exist, you know. Just hang out in a world where everything is fine, people are happy and everyone is nice.”

“We intended to tell you this later, but we will offer you visits here regularly. The recent events have taught us to not be as hesitant anymore. So, your wish will come true. But that still leaves something personal we want to do for you.”

“I remember Kate telling me about a box you gave her a while ago that kept food perfectly fresh, like it was just made. I would love one of those.”

“I gave her a set of jars and a wooden crate with that enchantment. There are many options for the type of container, what would you prefer?”

“Jars sound like a great idea, maybe a slightly bigger box where I can put my small plastic boxes inside so I can keep a few things warm at the same time?”

“Then that is what you will get.”