The ride out of the canyon was uneventful, and Lily held herself tightly against Dana’s body as the zombie took them down the canyon. Whenever they rode together, Lily would reduce her weight to next to nothing to give Dana far more control over the bike, but that also meant having a good grip.

Not that she minded holding on so tightly. Dana’s body was particularly warm right now, and she was exuding an energy that reminded the succubus of Mike.

“So are you going to tell me about what happened yet?” Dana asked through Lily’s headset. 

The succubus had formed a helmet around her skull that was decorated with vintage flames that stretched back along the sides. With her entire imagination as a palette for whatever she wore, it seemed like a shame to cop out and be boring without a reason.

Besides that, flaming helmets looked cool. She wondered if Dana would get mad if she added actual flames.

“Now that we’re actually out of the woods, I will. They call themselves the Order.” She frowned at the word. She hadn’t thought about the Order in decades, but was hardly surprised they were still kicking around. The bastards had been roaming the world for centuries now and there was no reason to believe that it would ever be different.

“The Order of what?”

“Does it matter? The Order of Zeus, Merlin, Oprah, it’s just a name at this point. The important thing to know is that we do not fuck around with the Order. In fact, if we ever encounter them again, we will do our best to run as far and as fast as we can.”

“We did pretty good for ourselves back there,” Dana replied.

“No, we didn’t.” Lily let out a sigh that became a growl. “They had no idea we were there and were totally unprepared. Even you could see how young and inexperienced they were. Don’t clap yourself on the back for getting one over on a pair of rookie monster hunters who were expecting a fight with a drunk. I can guarantee that both of them are just fine right now, and already looking to track us down.”

“Oh.” They rode another mile in silence before Dana’s voice came back through the earpiece. “Is that all?”

“Hardly. What do you want to know?”

“You saw something in Scotes’ mind. Care to share?”

Lily scowled. When she had opened up Ray’s head to take a look around, she had seen what amounted to an entire lifetime of being a low-grade piece of shit. The man had stumbled into Unearthly Delights after bar hopping and had spotted the flask under the glass of the front counter. His shit behavior had been one of the only reasons he had been trackable by sifting through the clerk’s memories, and he had loudly tried to barter the poor guy down until eventually buying the flask for the fifty dollars it had been marked.

The sequence of events that had interested her had begun with Ray’s initial excitement that the flask was still full. He had savored the whiskey over a couple of days and been puzzled when the flask never seemed to run out. Disbelief had turned into more excitement, and the biker had to wait until he sobered up to ride his bike into town. If Ray hadn’t believed in magic before, he certainly did now, and his mind had stuck to a single memory from his conversation with the clerk.

“C’mon, I can do thirty,” he had whined, though he was carrying almost five hundred in his pockets. He always carried enough cash to get him home, just in case, and most of it was stashed in his left boot.

The clerk had rolled his eyes. Though the guy was young, he clearly wasn’t going to be intimidated by the tough biker act, and he definitely wasn’t buying the obnoxious drunk act either. “Look, all of this stuff got appraised when we got it from the auction, and my boss never marks the good stuff any lower than he is willing to sell it.”

“Wait, are there other flasks that came with this one?” Ray didn’t care about how the flask looked, he just needed something that would fit inconspicuously in his vest pocket, and he had lost his last one somewhere. If there was a cheaper flask, he would buy it instead.

“Nah, the flask was in one of those unseen box auctions. Like, from a storage unit. All kinds of odds and ends, the whole store is full of them.”

“Bah.” Ray pulled out his money. He would just pay fifty for the flask, it looked like it was made of silver, he could always sell it later if he needed to.

“Ray was on his way back to Unearthly Delights to buy more magic. He had become hooked on what the flask could do. Borderline obsessed, really. If a flask could keep him drunk for free, what else was there? Magic does that to most people. It shows them a crack in the universe that they become hungry to explore.”

“So, what happened?” Dana asked.

“He ran across the Order.” Scotes had been surprised that the store was closed early, and decided to hang around until later. A little breaking and entering wasn’t that big of a deal, and he had parked his bike some distance away, camping out behind some bushes by the railroad tracks. It was in the middle of the night that he realized that Unearthly Delights was being raided by a group of people that he initially thought was the feds, but the feds didn’t burn places down when they were done. “They looted the place and burned it down, and Ray was convinced they would track him down and kill him.”

“And would they have?”

“Honestly? Don’t know. It kind of depends on the situation. If Scotes had put up a fight, then maybe. More likely that they would have offered him a sum of cash for the flask and tell him to shut the fuck up about it, or even wipe his memory after, make him think he sold something worthless for a profit.” She furrowed her brow. “I’m not a hundred percent on that last one, actually, but if anyone could do it, it would be them.”

“Wait, so why do they even want the flask in the first place?” Dana asked.

“The Order has one really big rule, and it hearkens back to the day when magic was sealed away by Merlin.”

“Merlin, like from King Arthur?”

“Yep. Merlin got tired of mankind fighting with and over magic, so he did the impossible. He found a way to pull down the veil on mankind. If you ever look at magic over the ages, it’s always shit like speaking with spirits, deities, whatever. He cut the cord on communication, and the world of magic and science have kind of coasted side-by-side since then. Over the years, magical creatures died off and mankind flourished, so what was already rare became rarer still.”

“So they want the flask because it’s magic?”

“Not specifically. They want the flask because it could upset the balance of things. Their task is to make sure that magic doesn’t make a comeback, that the magical world stays in the shadows. It’s not even because they’re trying to keep it for themselves. The world was nearly destroyed on numerous occasions because magic and humans simply don’t mix, or at least not without repercussions. Obviously, there are exceptions, but the motivation is in the name itself. The Order exists to maintain order, to prevent the mistakes of the past from happening again.”

They were now halfway through Laporte, which wasn’t saying much. It was a small town that had been gobbled up by the nearby college town. The bike rumbled beneath them when they stopped at a red light, and Lily closed her eyes and listened to the soothing vibrations.

“So, they’re the good guys?” Dana asked, her voice incredulous.

“Good is a matter of perspective and always will be.” The succubus scowled at the memory of escaping the cabin. “However, in general… yes. They’re the kind of people who are raised on the notion that they need to protect mankind by preventing outside influences from disrupting it. They don’t interfere in human or monster affairs, but will if the two become mixed and it risks exposing the world to the truth. That’s the best way I can describe it.”

“What does that make us, then?”

“Truthfully? We’re just like every other miserable bastard out here, just trying to make ends meet. If we hadn’t just jacked this from under their noses and attacked a couple of their men, they wouldn’t even care. But now? I’m thinking we should cut this trip short and pursue other leads.”

Dana tensed beneath Lily’s hands. “But what if… what if they got the other things on the list? There were five things that Ratu said were sold to the shop that she thought would help me. This flask is one of them, but what if they have the other four?”

“Then they have the other four. Think of those things as gone forever, and spend the next few centuries trying to find another way.”

The silence in Lily’s earpiece was deafening, so she pulled off her helmet and allowed it to become smoke in her hands as they rounded a corner. Just because Dana was pissy about the whole thing didn’t mean that Lily shouldn’t enjoy simple things like the wind in her hair. She had been stuffed inside her gemstone prison for so long that she had learned not to take the little things for granted, and she truthfully hoped Dana would learn the same lesson long before suffering a similar fate.

It was midday, and downtown Fort Collins was already bustling with activity. They took a couple side roads to avoid the worst of it, and were soon on the main road that took them to their hotel by the highway. Dana parked the bike in a spot by the front door and the two of them rode up the elevator together. Once in their room, Dana tossed her helmet onto the bed and then sat down and pulled out her laptop.

“Are you pouting?” Lily asked, breaking the silence. “Because it’s annoying.”

“I don’t pout. I’m just thinking. We have the flask. That’s one out of five. We actually have a lead, and you’re asking me to walk away from it. I’m trying to figure out how to argue my case here.”

Lily sighed and then sat next to Dana. “Okay, let’s talk about it. What other things are on the list?”

“A pendant, a hammer, a knife set and a bag of marbles.” Dana frowned. “I’m not sure what she intends to do with them, but each of these things has a magical property that Ratu needs.”

“Did she tell you what they did?”

“Most of them. The knife set cuts your food for you if you speak the word engraved on the handle. The hammer knocks in nails with a single hit every time, no matter how hard you hit them.” Dana frowned at her computer. “The bag of marbles is weird. When the marbles clack into each other, they change places. Not sure what she wants with that. The pendant though… she wouldn’t tell me what that one does.” She showed Lily her screen. On it was a drawing of a necklace with a large pearl entwined in metal wire. “She told me it was one of a kind and I would know it when I see it.”

“Ooh. Mysterious. Did you ask her why she wouldn’t tell you more?”

“Of course I did.” Dana shut her laptop. “Apparently, it’s the kind of thing you shouldn’t be asking around for, because if people know you’re looking for it, they’ll come looking too. She told me to imagine it as a winning lotto ticket lost in a box of sand. The moment I ask if someone has seen it, others will show up with shovels in the hopes of finding it first.”

“Oh, how fun!” Lily hopped up and down, her breasts bouncing under her shirt. She was hoping it would make Dana smile, but it didn’t work. “Okay, well, let’s talk a little bit about what we’re up against. If the Order has any or all of these things, it would probably be the necklace and the marbles. The hammer’s owner might not even realize it’s magic, and the knife set will probably just sit in a block for decades and nobody will ever be any wiser. Even if they tracked those objects down, they pick and choose their battles on purpose.”

“So, you think we should go after them?”

“No!” The succubus groaned. “It’s the worst thing we could do! You shot one of them point blank with a shotgun, remember? It didn’t even scratch him. If we try to chase these people down and pull the whole ‘hunted becomes the hunter’ bullshit, I’m going to be doing all the heavy lifting, and will probably get my ass smoked all the way back to Hell.”

“Can they do that?”

Lily shrugged. “Kind of. Nobody is better at hunting demons than these guys. Most of what the Vatican does during exorcisms is loosely based on what these guys actually do. Can they kill me? No, not really. I’m tied to Mike now, and that means they would have to go after him. But they can hurt me, and they can certainly hurt you.”

The zombie sighed and tossed her phone onto the bed. “I guess we’re out of our depth then, aren’t we?”

Lily nodded. Dana had no idea what fresh hell she would bring down on the both of them if they actively went after members of the Order, and she really didn’t want them learning about Dana. As a zombie, she posed a tremendous risk and would likely be dispatched with extreme prejudice. Nobody knew if her condition was contagious, and the Order wasn’t going to wait around to find out.

Dana removed the flask from her pocket and examined it closely. “It’s stupid, but this feels really disappointing. One in five is a shitty success rate.”

“I know you hate hearing this, but there’s an eternity to correct it.” She sat next to Dana. “The Order will take this stuff and put it under lock and key, but forever is a long time to keep these things hidden away. It might not be anytime soon, but someone is bound to make a mistake. I don’t like talking about it much, but some time ago, my former master got some good intel on one of the Order’s vaults and broke in to take some powerful things from it.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Some of it was pretty innocuous, but they got their hands on some pretty amazing items. There was even a rumor that they stole the head of Medusa, but I got locked away before I could see it.”

“Wait, Medusa, really?”

She nodded. “It was just a bag that hissed a lot. My ruby got shoved into a safe next to it for a couple decades, so I would usually see it on my way in and out. No idea what they would ever use it for. Something that powerful would be hard to use without getting noticed. But the point is that time is your ally now, and I need you to see the positive. You’re at the beginning of a very long journey, and you need to remain optimistic if you hope to survive.”

“Coming from you, that’s pretty rich.” Dana closed the laptop. “Aren’t you the eternal pessimist?”

“Hey, I’ve got some of the finest therapists and philosophers rattling around in here.” She tapped her head for emphasis. “Again, I’ve had a long time to accumulate my collection. Getting the flask today just means you won’t have to get it thirty years from now.”

The zombie grunted. “I guess. Well, there’s only one thing to do now.”

“What’s that?”

Dana stood up. “Take a shower and hit the road. Put some miles down before it gets dark. Maybe go camping on the way back.”

Lily smiled. “Ooh, you wanna help me pitch a tent?”

Dana rolled her eyes and walked into the bathroom, then closed the door behind her. Once the shower was running, Lily let out a sigh of relief. The last thing she wanted to do was spend her afternoon arguing with Dana about the Order. She would much rather go back to Mike’s house and come up with another plan than put Dana in harm’s way.

When Lily originally agreed to come along, it was partially to help the poor girl out. She had been thrust into a world far bigger than she realized, and Lily knew from experience that it was a hard world to live in.

There was also the prospect of helping someone. Her demonic nature aside, this was the first time in her existence that she had ever had a semblance of a choice, and she relished the idea of doing some good to balance out the bad. How many people had she killed for the Society? She supposed she could count, but why bother? It was an endless parade of faces she could pull up on a whim, but why spend all day thinking about a meal from years ago?

There was also Mike. The man who became her master, and sort of set her free. Other than the rule against killing innocent people, she was free to do as she chose. Upon gaining her freedom, she had been pulled back into his world once again, knowing they would come for him. After the dust had settled, he had given her a gift.

The necklace materialized on her neck and she lifted it up. She kept it stored within her body like a talisman, a reminder that her new master said he was different. He had shown her kindness when all she had given was spite. Maybe he was broken in the head, or maybe there was something there worth pursuing. Either way, she had needed some distance, and this trip had provided it.

“See you soon, Romeo,” she whispered, then absorbed the necklace back into her body.

She grabbed the remote to turn the television on, but paused when she heard a distant buzzing sound. Her first thought was maybe someone was using tools out in the parking lot, but when she checked out the window, the sound wasn’t coming from out there. Struggling to hear it over the shower, she walked into the hall and looked around. The sound was coming from everywhere at once, and it immediately set her on edge.

It felt like magic.

“Shit,” she muttered, and walked into the closest stairwell. The buzzing here was just as loud, and she debated pulling Dana out of the shower. But then what? It was probably better to try and see what was happening first, and if anyone was a master of sneaking, it was a shape changing succubus.

She walked down the stairwell and adjusted her form. She started as a black business woman, then decided to go with something a bit frumpier. Her skin tone lightened just a bit, and her clothes became loose. When she stepped out of the stairwell, she was a slightly overweight soccer mom with short hair that had been clipped in place and a bitchy look fixed on her face that demanded to see Life’s manager.

The buzzing sensation vanished when she walked into the lobby, and she was stunned to see that life in the building had been put on hold. The bellhop was frozen at the check-in counter, and he was holding a room card in his hand. The couple standing at the counter were frozen as well, the man reaching out to take the card while the woman was sticking her sunglasses in her purse.

The couple of people in the bar were staring at the television, but nobody was reacting.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” He stepped around one of the columns in the front of the lobby. It was the man with the scars on his face that had ridden the elevator with them this morning. In one of his hands was a watch on a gold chain.

“Cute trick,” she told him, then shifted back into her regular form. “I’m guessing that only works on humans, so I totally outed myself.”

“Indeed. Though they aren’t frozen, merely lost in thought. It’s very similar to hypnosis.” He stuck the watch in his pocket. “When the effect ends, they may realize they’ve lost a few minutes of their time. Most likely, they will go about their day and never know any better.”

“So now that you’ve found me, what now?” Her tail appeared in slow motion, section by section, followed by her wings unfurling dramatically. She let her horns burst forward from her forehead with a loud crunch, hoping to scare the bastard. “Do we destroy this place trying to kill each other? I wouldn’t mind a good rumble.”

“Nothing like that, I’m afraid.” He leaned on his cane and took another step toward her. “I don’t have it in me for a physical encounter. In fact, I don’t really have it in me for a magical one either. It’s taking most of my energy just to hold these people in a trance.”

Lily scowled at the man. He was clearly trying to lure her into making a mistake, but she couldn’t figure out how. “So, where’s your backup? Shouldn’t your buddy with the sword make an appearance any minute now?”

“Oh, it’s just me these days. I was just wondering if we could have a little chat.” He moved a bit closer, and then leaned forward on his cane. “Honestly, I’m not sure what to do about you, so figured I would start with a couple of questions.”

“Have you checked my Tinder? I like to be choked and the safe word is chucklebunny.”

“Why did you take the flask from Ray Scotes?”

It was a direct question, which meant she had to answer truthfully. She could choose to keep her mouth shut, or even dodge the question, but it was often better to tell a half truth and let the perceived deception play itself out then to say nothing at all.

“I didn’t take a flask from anyone.” Technically, Dana was the one who had taken it.

The man nodded his head. “Okay, I’ll give you that. Why did your master take the flask from Ray Scotes?”

Oh. Now that was going to be much harder. If he was asking that question, it meant he knew that someone else was with her. She could easily say that her master didn’t take the flask, but then he would know that someone else was technically in control of her, and this mess they had fallen into would become even bigger.

“Are you talking about that sexy blonde I’m with? She took the flask because she’s always thirsty.” Omit a detail, let the mind fill in the rest.

“Really? She took it just because she wanted it?” He shook his head in disappointment. “I get the feeling that you’re hiding something from me.”

“Well, it is our first date after all, and I don’t even know your name.” She pouted, then mentally judged the distance between the two of them. If he knew about Dana, then she was in danger as well.

“My name is Cyrus. What’s yours?”

“I’m called Lily.” She turned to one side and put her breasts in her hands, then jiggled them. “I’m a Sagittarius with a heart of gold, and a pair of C-cups to die for. I like long walks on the beach and hate mean people.” When she turned to face him again, she was able to hide the small step she had taken toward him. “Oh. And I love puppies and being spanked.”

Cyrus laughed. “Your kind sure do love to run your mouths, don’t you?”

“Aw, now that’s not nice.” She pouted and hugged herself. “If you’re just gonna hurt my feelings, maybe I should just leave.”

“I’m afraid you won’t be going anywhere.” He slid the tip of his cane forward another inch and a large glowing rune appeared on the floor. It was almost twenty feet across and Lily was stuck in the middle of it. The familiar buzzing sound returned, and she recognized the magic as a sealing rune. Ancient letters swirled around the outside of the circle, and she knew from first-hand experience that trying to escape would be very painful.

“Clever little demon hunter,” she snarled, then looked at his cane. The rune had been prepared in advance, and Cyrus had used the cane somehow to complete it. “Looks like you’ve got me trapped in here. At least, until you run out of juice.”

“I only need a couple more minutes.” He let go of the cane and it stood on its own. He pulled a small vial from his pocket and anointed his hands and face.

“Wow, an exorcism. How original. I warn you, I had a big lunch, so…might want to stay out of the splash zone.” 

“A one-way ticket to Hell, actually. As much as I would love to smite you into dust, I just need to trap you here long enough to find and kill your master. You can get in line and wait a few millennia before someone manages to summon you again. But I want you to know that it isn’t personal.”

“No, of course not, you pock-marked asshole.”

He chuckled, then started speaking in Latin. Not only was his pronunciation perfect, but very fast. Already, she could feel the walls of reality softening around her, ready to give her the boot to another plane of existence. Even if he sent her to Hell, she could easily return in a few hours, but would be forced to come back to Earth at the Radley house where Mike was. It would be a very long time before she could return here where Dana was, and that was if the Order didn’t get to her first.

She walked around the edges of the circle and examined the swirling words. Cyrus kept his eyes on her as she drew close to him, speaking from memory. He was clearly experienced at this, and she could feel her skin starting to burn. A sealing rune was a powerful tool, but it had its flaws. For instance, the more that was known about the demon being sealed, the better. She saw that the words described her physical appearance, which further confirmed her theory that they had been watching somehow. It also described her role as a succubus and how she was created in the depths of Hell.

That was strike one. Her birthplace was far more complicated than the Pit. The words moved faster as time distorted around her, but she was able to make out a few more words that described how she preyed on innocent and guilty alike.

Not anymore. That was strike two. If she tried to go through the rune now, she might make it, but would be severely weakened. The words were moving very fast now, and she took them in, hoping to find what she needed that would ensure her escape. 

She caught the final mistake she needed, then walked up to Cyrus and faced him with a huge grin on her face. What was about to happen would hurt like a bitch, but would be way more entertaining than Hell, and he wouldn’t see it coming.

The rune described how she was bound to a female master. Technically, she was bound to two masters, and that was all she needed.

“Strike three, fucker.” She shoved her hands through the runic ward, which sent a painful surge of electricity through her entire body, and grabbed Cyrus by the face. His exorcism broke off when she hooked her fingers in his mouth and pulled him into the rune with her.

He was surprisingly strong, and tried to push her away, but all it took was a few strikes of her tail and his eyes got all dopey. She stuck her fingers against his temples and pulled his face close to hers.

“Oh, I am going to have so much fun eating you,” she said, then forced her way into his mind. 

Unsurprisingly, his Dreamscape was anything but peaceful. Storm clouds threatened to strike her from the sky as she dove through the clouds, and tornadoes made of fire and light chased after her, threatening to pin her down until he could wake up. 

His memories appeared before her as broken images, memories that slammed shut to avoid her perusal. Even in those quick moments, she saw pictures of his life, and of his hunts. The more recent ones came up first, and she saw a small group of hunters in the woods where they had been. She saw herself and Dana in the elevator from his point of view.

She also saw the moment that he had watched Unearthly Delights burn to the ground. Every moment was only a couple of seconds long, and then the memory would change. Clearly Cyrus had training in the Dreamscape, which meant this would be more difficult than she had expected.

That was fine, though. She had gotten plenty of information already, and would have all the time in the world to examine his thoughts in detail after sucking out his soul. Below her, a large church appeared surrounded by gravestones, and she crashed dramatically through a stained-glass window depicting the tree of life. The floor was made of marble, and she tucked and rolled on impact, coming to a stop about thirty feet from the dais. She was surrounded by pews, and the church was lit by torches. The whole thing was very 16th Century, and a bit cliché if she was being honest.

Before her stood a younger version of Cyrus. It was how he saw himself in his dreams, but he still had those nasty scars.

“How did you break the runes?” he asked. 

She was surprised that he was already waiting for her, but it made sense. The Order weren’t to be messed with for a reason, and this guy really knew his stuff.

“I’ll tell you all about it after I share my evil plans for world domination, you jackass,” she told him, then grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air. She needed to trap him in a dream and trick him into sex, but it would be very difficult with him in his current state. He was fully aware of who and what she was, which meant she needed to change the venue, perhaps break him apart mentally for a while.

She shoved her hand into the floor of the church and pulled. The marble ripped apart to reveal a door, and she pulled it the rest of the way out of the ground with her tail. If she cast him into a nightmare, it was possible to trick him into thinking he had woken up, and then go from there. She had enough info now that she could make him think he dozed off outside of Ray’s cabin, maybe finish hunting for magic in Colorado, and head back to headquarters. It would take some time but it would be doable.

Of course, now that he was asleep, she could sense the trance of the people in the lobby breaking. Even though she could accelerate time in the Dreamscape, it would be difficult to just hold the man up in the lobby while he was out cold.

Cyrus, upon seeing the door, began kicking in her grasp, his face turning red.

“Oh, do you have something to say?” she asked.

“Chu…chucklebunny,” he gasped.

This elicited a genuine laugh. At least he still had his sense of humor. “I take it you know what’s behind this door, don’t you?” Doorways were a dangerous thing in dreams, and this one was covered in glowing eyes and fangs. “What does a demon hunter have nightmares about, anyway? Are you a virgin who’s afraid of a little pussy? Or cock? I don’t judge. Oh, I know! Is it taxes? I bet it’s taxes.”

She grabbed the handle of the door and pulled it open.

Spiders swarmed out of the doorway as if a dam had burst, catching her and Cyrus up in a tide of hair, teeth, and legs. She lost control of him and was forced to fight her way against the steady tide of arachnids that threatened to push her out of the church.

Cyrus, on the other hand, was screaming bloody murder.

She grabbed onto a pew and pulled herself up above the swarm of spiders and spotted the man near the entrance. He shrieked in terror and pain as they crawled all over him, and she leapt across the church, landed on another pew, and reached into the mess and grabbed a fistful of his hair.

“You’re making this so difficult,” she told him.

He turned his face toward her. It was covered in hundreds of bite marks already, and he pulled at the collar of his shirt. The spiders were vanishing into the shadows, and she dragged him toward the doorway, eager to throw him through. If she could get him locked in a nightmare for even a couple of minutes, she could put together a solid plan for keeping him asleep.

Back in the real world, however, she was walking him across the lobby, eager to get him out of sight. Her wings and tail had disappeared and she was moving toward the stairwell. The plan was to hide him just under the stairs where nobody would see either of them until she could properly feed on him.

In the Dreamscape, she pulled him through the door and found herself in the forest. Tall shadows moved amongst the rocks, and she tossed him onto the ground.

“Spiders, huh? That’s a little tame for a guy who likes to hunt demons.”

Cyrus was on the ground. He had already discarded his jacket, and he was frantically trying to pull his shirt over his shoulders.

“C’mon, it isn’t so bad. You’ll at least get to touch a boob before you die.” She gave him a kick, and knocked him on his back. “You’re just making this more difficult on me and…oh.”

Cyrus had pulled his shirt off to reveal a large, glowing rune on his chest. Drawing a rune in the real world was difficult enough, but being able to place one inside of a dream required a level of mastery she hardly expected from any mortal. It was a constantly changing environment that was capable of shifting at the merest hint of a thought. 

The Dreamscape twisted violently around them when he spoke a single word in Enochian, the language of angels and demons.

Energy rippled outward in a fiery ring, and she barely escaped his mind. They had just reached the door of the stairwell when light flared from his eyes and mouth, his spell powerful enough to manifest in the real world.

When the light hit Lily, her body was vaporized into smoke. The hotel vanished, and her thoughts tumbled about as she was banished from the stairwell, her body trying to put itself back together in the middle of an astral tornado that was carrying her away.

When she was finally able to pull herself together, she materialized on the golden floor of an ornate palace with a high ceiling and decorative windows. All around her were golden statues of animals, their gem encrusted eyes watching a pair of golden thrones at the front of the room.

“Oh, please, no…” she whimpered as the front door opened. 

---

“Lily?” Dana turned off the hot water and stepped out of the shower, pausing long enough to dry off. She stuck her head out of the bathroom to see that the succubus wasn’t back yet.

She frowned. She thought she had heard Lily’s voice, but was clearly mistaken.

Back in the bathroom, she dried her hair with the blowdryer. Wet hair in a motorcycle helmet was the absolute worst, and the last thing she needed was another reason to be miserable on the drive home. Even if the flask was the only thing they brought back, every victory counted.

“What a load of shit,” she muttered under her breath, already dreading the long, midnight hours she would spend later justifying her decision to leave. It was hard to be objective, and if it wasn’t for Lily, she would be figuring out how to follow these Order people and see what they knew.

Still, if the succubus was afraid of them, it had to be for a good reason.

Once her hair was dry, she walked into the bedroom and changed into a clean set of clothes. It was quick work to pack up; other than some spare clothes and her laptop, there was nothing more to be had. She zipped her backpack shut and looked around to make sure she got everything.

There was a knock on the door and she frowned. When she put her eye to the peephole, she saw an Asian man in a suit standing outside wearing a nametag. Was it the manager? She wondered if Lily had gotten into trouble in the lobby, maybe tried to swipe the soul off of some poor barfly in the lounge.

When she opened the door, he pointed a wand at her, and there was a hot rush of air moments before she was blasted across the room. She bounced off the bed and landed in a heap on the floor.

“Succubus master is down,” he said, then lowered his wand. Dana remained still, and let him approach. The smell of the forest clung to him, and she realized that he had probably come from Ray Scotes’ cabin.

Well, that was fast.

When the mage stood right above her, she jumped up, her limbs surging with magical energy. She was always much stronger after feeding, and it was child’s play to grab him by the collar and toss him into the ceiling. He struck his head and fell back into her arms, and she shoved him as hard as she could, which caused him to tumble back out the door and into the hallway.

A woman with dark skin and raven colored hair pulled into a bun stepped between them.  She looked Meditteranean, and her eyes were an eerie shade of light blue. With a casual flick of her wrist, the dagger she held unfolded itself into a long blade.

“Oh, shit,” Dana said.

“You got that right,” the woman told her, then walked forward. Dana feinted to the left, then stepped to the right and threw a solid left hook at the woman’s head. She not only took the punch, but stepped back and swung her blade down on Dana’s shoulder like a samurai cutting a piece of bamboo.

Dana’s arm hit the ground first, and the sudden weight change caused her to lose her balance. Once on the ground, she rolled onto her back and was rewarded with a blade straight through the heart.

Though it didn’t hurt, the amount of pressure was uncomfortable, and she opened her mouth in a loud moan. Her attacker knelt and covered Dana’s mouth with a hand.

“It’ll be over soon,” she whispered, so Dana went with it and dramatically fluttered her eyes, then closed them. She remained motionless while her non-existent pulse was taken, and opened one of her eyes just a crack to see the woman move back out into the hallway.

“We’re good here, Brother Amida” she said, then helped the man up. “She’s dead.”

“Good. Close the door, and we’ll come back later to clean up,” he told her, holding the back of his head in his hands. Dana could smell the blood on Amida’s fingers. It smelled like ozone and red pepper flakes. She would never understand how that even worked. “Master Cyrus hasn’t checked in yet, and I want to make sure he’s okay.”

“Got it.” She came in and snatched the key card off of the small counter by the door, then closed the door on the way out. Once in the hall, her two attackers spoke briefly, and then she heard them move away.

She stood and looked down at her severed arm. The cut was unbelievably clean. She tried to move her fingers, wondering if she could control the limb from a distance.

She couldn’t. Disappointed, she picked up her severed limb and held it to the stump. Her skin fused over, causing a thin pink line to appear, but when she tried to move her arm, it still hung uselessly off her body.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she swore, then pressed on the wound with her fingers. While her body was able to heal itself, that didn’t mean her severed muscles and tendons would magically reconnect themselves. She needed help, but she also needed to get away.

One of the first things she and Lily had established was that they needed a place to meet up in case they ever got separated. They had chosen the library on CSU campus because it was a public place with a lot of people, and both of them could easily go unnoticed.

Right now, she needed to get out of her room, but couldn’t go through the front door. If she got spotted, they would do a lot more than just stab her through the heart. She put on her backpack, stared at the door for a few seconds, and then turned around to look at the window.

It was only a few stories, and she was fairly certain she could land in the bushes. She pushed open the window and prayed that nobody would be wandering around the parking lot in the middle of the day. They had picked this room because it faced away from the main road, and the only thing she saw now was a parking lot and a large field of grass.

She put on her helmet and then ripped the safety screen out of the window. She sat on the edge, took a deep breath and scooted forward.

When she fell, she was surprised at how hard she smashed into the ground. Her enhanced strength helped with the landing, but it didn’t make her bones magically more durable. Something snapped in her left leg. She pulled herself out of the bushes and limped through the parking lot toward her bike.

Tick-Tock roared to life, and a pair of metallic hands extended from engine block to grab the handlebars. The bike drove over to pick her up, and she mounted it with more than a little difficulty. With a bad leg and a useless arm, it was much harder than she expected.

They circled around to the front of the building, and she saw a small group of people in the lobby. She wondered what had happened to Lily, but figured it would have to wait. With reluctance, she pulled onto the main road and headed into town.

Campus was busy, and she was forced to leave the bike behind in a nearby neighborhood. Lily had paid for the room with cash and a false identity, but the license plate on the bike could easily be traced to Dana, and she didn’t need to leave any trail for the Order to follow, especially if it led back to Mike and his house. Her leg was already working much better, and by the time she strolled through the doors of Morgan library on CSU campus, her limp was almost gone.

The smell of coffee, stress, and paper filled the air. She looked at a map to figure out where the best place to lay low would be. She settled on the research stacks in the basement, figuring it was too early in the semester to find too many people doing research down there.

Down in the basement, the air was flooded with the odor of dust and mold. Other than a couple of people who were buried deep in books of their own, there was nobody around, and she found somewhere quiet to sit. When she pulled out her laptop, she discovered that it no longer booted up. Her best guess was being tossed out a window didn’t agree with it. She packed her computer up and left her spot long enough to grab a few books that looked interesting.

It was going to be a long wait.

---

The princess walked through the door on the arm of an older woman, followed by her entourage. The slaves she brought with her had been trained since birth to remain passive and indifferent, yet even they gazed in wonder at the mystical palace that had appeared overnight outside of their city.

“Do you like it?” The voice came from a man who had stepped around the throne. He was dressed in fine silk and carried a scepter adorned with enough gems to finance an army. “A beauty such as yourself deserves only the finest palace in the world.”

The princess bowed her head in greeting. “Many of my people speak of your generosity, and my father thinks highly of you. Yet you have me at a disadvantage. My father wishes for me to be wed to you, yet I do not know your name.”

The man removed his fine silk hat and tussled his hair. It had been hard for her to see past the nobility of his garments, but when he smiled, she recognized him as the man who had spied on her in the bath.

“Is that…is that really you?” she asked, stepping away from the others.

“It is.” He walked away from the throne and down the stairs so that he could stand before her. “I would hear you speak my name, that my ears may be blessed to hear it from your tongue.”

Stunned, she placed her hand on his cheek to make certain he was real.

“Aladdin?”

Lily stepped through the throng of onlookers, her tail whipping angrily behind her.

“Fuck you!” She stabbed at his face and was disappointed when her tail passed harmlessly through him. Her fingernails became claws, and she struggled to speak through the fangs that had erupted from her mouth. The fiery aura over her horns crackled with energy as she slashed at his face and roared in frustration, her voice echoing through the palace.

The scene played on while she raged, and several minutes later, Aladdin told the princess the plans for their wedding. He thanked his mother for escorting her from the sultan’s palace, and then watched her go to her room with a smile on his face. By now, Lily had reverted mostly back to her human form, but kept her wings and tail out just in case.

The scene went black and white, then broke apart and turned to static, as if an old television was being tuned. When the static cleared again, the princess and Aladdin stood before a crowd of people on the front steps of his palace. Most of the locals were in attendance, as well as the sultan himself.

“What is this place?” She found that she could move freely through the vision, but couldn’t affect it at all. When Cyrus had cast his banishing spell, she had disassociated. Typically when this happened, she would wake up somewhere else. However, it was as if she was trapped in a dream, which didn’t make any sense, because she no longer had dreams of her own.

She stood next to Aladdin and watched in disgust as he smiled at his princess.

“The people love you,” she told him with a smile. “Your generosity truly knows no bounds.”

“No, it is you they love.” He touched her cheek and gave her a kiss. A cheer broke out from the throng of revelers below. “It is my honor just to be in your presence.”

The princess turned to look at the people below. “This will be your kingdom someday. With your riches, I see prosperity in our future.”

Aladdin grinned and raised one hand and snapped his fingers. A handful of slaves near the bottom of the steps grabbed handfuls of gold coins and tossed them to the people in the crowd, who shrieked in delight.

“You are also very generous,” she told him. “How is it that you have become so wealthy so quickly?”

His face darkened for a moment. It was subtle, and the princess didn’t notice. He opened his mouth to respond.

“He has a fucking genie!” Lily hollered in the princess’ face. “He has a magic lamp which gives him power over a genie and he makes bullshit wishes that will ruin your whole fucking life.” She stabbed at Aladdin again, just on the off chance she could get him this time. “How long do I have to sit through this shit? I’ve already seen this!”

The world became static once again, and now it was night-time. She stood on the balcony of the castle tower, the entire kingdom laid out beneath. Celebratory fires had been lit, their flickering flames reflected by the river that ran through the city. She couldn’t help but smile at the sight. The valley really had been a beautiful place. In modern day, the river was now both polluted and dammed up, and any area outside of the city was impoverished.

Behind her, a door opened, and Aladdin and the princess came inside.

“Oh, fuck me. Really?” It was the wedding night, and she let out a hiss of disapproval as Aladdin led his bride to their bed to formally consummate their marriage. Along the edges of the room, a select group of attendants watched as Aladdin removed the bridal gown and pushed her back on the bed.

Aladdin smiled at her. His dark eyes sparkled as he undid his belt and lowered his pants. The princess gazed in awe at the massive member that hung from between his legs.

“Do you like it?” he asked her.

“I…I don’t know.” The princess blushed now, and turned her head away. “I’ve never seen one before.”

“I should hope not.” He grinned and tugged at his cock. She looked back to see that it was now standing erect. “In a way, a man’s cock is much like a magic wand. If you know how to handle it, even a woman can wield massive amounts of power.”

“How so?”

His eyes gleamed in the light of the oil lamps and he moved toward her. “Let’s just start with the basics. It is something you will learn about over time.” He undid the ties around her skirt and opened it up to reveal that she was naked beneath. She held her breath and waited while he appraised her.

“You have the body of a goddess,” he said, then touched her inner thigh. Startled, she nearly swatted his hand away, but placed her hand on his chest instead.

“That tickles,” she said.

“Indeed.” He leaned forward and put his face near her crotch and inhaled deeply through his nose. “Even this has the aroma of heaven.”

She said nothing, and closed her eyes when he climbed on top of her.

“Are you nervous?” he asked.

“Yes,” she responded.

“Then let’s go slow.” He clapped his hands and a servant brought him a vial of oil. He rubbed it through his fingers and then started stroking around her labia, his motions gentle. She gasped occasionally, and he teased her around the edge of her clitoral hood, moving his thumb in tiny circles.

“He wished for that dick, you know.” Lily had resigned herself to being stuck inside her own head. Just like last night, she was trapped inside a weird Dreamscape of her own making, and she could only hope that it would pass like it had last time. It had to be a curse, or some kind of enchantment, and when she found out who had cast it, she’d rip out their spine and feed it to them. “Found that out one time when he got drunk. Not that you’ll know any different.”

The princess was now lifting her hips, pressing herself into his hands. He didn’t penetrate her with his fingers. Instead, he liberally applied oil to the length of his shaft.

He took his time teasing her pussy with the head of his cock. The princess kept her eyes on his, and gasped quietly when he slowly pressed himself into her. Trepidation, pain, and pleasure all appeared on her face as he thrust himself into her, his hands caressing her face and shoulders.

Their lovemaking was slow at first, but picked up speed as the pain disappeared from the princess’ face, and she tried to move with him. Inexperience was both an ally and a foe as she fought hard for an orgasm that kept disappearing before she could achieve it.

Aladdin, on the other hand, had no trouble. His thrusts became stronger, and the whole bed rocked every time he pushed himself into her. He let out sharp cries that ricocheted off the palace walls, and when he came, he grabbed the princess by the throat and squeezed.

Unable to move, she grabbed him by the wrist and held still, her mouth opening and closing like a fish as she gasped for air. None of the servants looked concerned, and just when she started to kick her legs, he let go of her and collapsed next to her on the bed.

“I’m sorry if I was too rough,” he told her. “You excite me to levels of passion that are beyond my experience.”

She was quiet for several minutes as she rubbed her throat. Scared but unharmed, she rolled on her side to contemplate the face of her husband. He smiled for her, and ran a finger across her cheek.

“This is new to me, my husband, but I would learn more from you,” she said. “Do with my body what you will.”

He laughed, then stood from the bed and snapped a finger. Immediately, a servant appeared with a small basket of flowers. Aladdin took one from the basket and laid back on the bed next to his bride.

“You’ve never looked more beautiful,” he told her, then tucked the flower into her hair. It was a lily similar to the one he had given her on their first meeting, and she smiled up at him, eager to please.

“Can we…do it again?” she asked, then grabbed his cock.

Lily couldn’t bear to watch anymore. She looked away and ran toward the balcony, then spread her wings wide and leapt out into the night. A warm current carried her up, and then vanished. Beating her wings frantically, she tumbled toward the ground and put up her hands just before impact. 

She didn’t hit the ground. Instead, she crashed into metal and glass, caving in the roof of a small sedan in the parking lot of a Super Walmart. It was night time, and she rolled off the roof and landed with a smack on the concrete below. 

Though it was nighttime, the parking lot was surprisingly busy, and she could hear curious people approaching. She hid her tail and wings, then turned into a petite teenager and rolled away from the car she had crashed into and underneath a minivan. She kept going past a few more cars, and then turned into a white and blonde college girl wearing an oversized sweatshirt, yoga pants and Uggs.

After she stood, she walked back toward the car she had hit and pretended to be a curious onlooker. She even pulled a phone out of her pocket and was taking video like a couple of other people.

“What the hell was that?” someone asked. The crowd was examining the car, and she saw that she had shattered the windshield upon landing.

“It looked like a giant bat,” someone else said.

“Ew, what if it’s on the ground and has rabies or something?” Lily added, and the crowd took a few steps back from the vehicle. She moved around the throng and toward the front of the store. Once inside, she gave her phone a mental flick. She could make her phone identical to any phone she could imagine with one exception; she couldn’t actually make calls on it.

Now her phone had a giant crack on the screen and it didn’t take long before she found a group of college boys who were willing to loan her a phone because hers was clearly broken. She dialed Dana’s phone from memory and waited while it rang. 

“Hello?” When Dana answered, Lily let out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, it’s me.” She shifted away from the boys and spoke in her normal voice. “You okay?”

“No, not really.” Dana said something else, but she cut in and out.

“What was that?” Lily asked.

“...ception...shit down here.”

“You at the library?”

“...es, but…” the call broke off.

“Yeah, well, like come and pick me up already. Yeah, mine broke. Uh huh. Yeah. See you soon, babe.” She pretended to hang up then handed the phone back. “Thanks, my boyfriend is coming to get me.”

There was visible disappointment on their part at the mention of her boyfriend, and she left them to finish their shopping. She made a quick trip into the bathroom and stepped into a stall to transform again. When she emerged, she was a heavyset grandma, and she ambled her way to the front door. A police car had parked near the busted vehicle, and the small crowd had grown. That was likely to get the attention of the Order, and she knew they would be checking the cameras.

She crossed the street to another store, then found some shadows to change again. This time, she wore sweatpants and a sports bra, and was just an athletic woman out for a late-night jog. The library would be a quick flight, but the Fort Collins nightlife was well and alive, and she couldn’t find anywhere good to spread her wings.

South of the Walmart was a natural area, and she took a brisk jog onto a hiking trail that led into a wetland area. Once she was safely away from prying eyes, she took to the sky to fly above the shining streetlights of the city. Dark leather covered every inch of her skin to camouflage her against the night as she flew into the heart of town.

---

“Master Cyrus?” The voice was concerned, and the scent of bitter oil reached into Cyrus’ nose and ripped him back to consciousness. Brother Amida and his knight, Tasia, were at his side.

“Hold.” He held up a hand for silence. His head was pounding from the banishment spell he had cast earlier. It had drained him of energy, physically and spiritually. “May I have some water?”

“Here, Master.” Tasia handed him a glass of cool water, and he sipped it. The cool liquid felt wonderful going down his throat. “What happened with the succubus?”

Cyrus scowled, then let out a long sigh. “She escaped me, I’m afraid. Something was wrong with my sealing ward, and she was able to break free and knock me unconscious.”

Tasia and Amida exchanged a look.

“How is that even possible?” Amida asked.

“It shouldn’t be.” Cyrus grinned weakly. “And that’s exactly why I sent the two of you to dispatch her master. How did that go?”

They exchanged another look.

“Unexpectedly on our part, too.” Tasia took a step back. “We’re actually in their room right now.”

“Oh?” He looked around. He had thought they were in his room, but now he saw that the window faced out in a different direction. “So, what happened?”

“We don’t know.” Amida pointed at a stain on the carpet. “Tasia dispatched her, or at least thought she did.”

“Tasia?” He looked at the knight with interest. 

Amida was considered a rising star, and Tasia was easily his equal with regards to the knights. Typically, members of the Order came from orphanages, scouted at a young age for their talents. Tasia was different in that her family was actually a long line of Knights of the Order, their lineage tracing back several generations. The young woman didn’t have a single negative mark against her, and he was curious how she had screwed it up.

“I sliced her arm off at the shoulder,” Tasia explained, then pointed at the stain in the carpet. “Then I stabbed her through the heart. Look.” When she pushed on a spot in the stain, he saw that the carpet had a thin hole in it where the blade had penetrated. “Afterward, I checked her pulse to make sure she was dead. There was nothing.”

“So where is she now?”

“No idea.” Amida shook his head. “We locked the door behind us, and came back to see that her body and her belongings are gone. Do you think the succubus did it?”

“Not likely, but…” he thought back to the Dreamscape. The Enochian ritual was a last-ditch effort to blast the woman from his mind, leaving him in a vulnerable state. Who knows where she would have turned up? “She should have been banished from here for a while.”

“We found you in the lobby. Everyone thought you were having a seizure, so we brought you up here under the guise of treating you.” Amida opened a bottle of water and drank half of it in one go. “Even so, the succubus shouldn’t have had time to steal her master’s body.”

“And she wouldn’t. Once the master is dead, the succubus is free to do as she pleases.” He winced, then pressed a hand to his head. He paused at the sensation of metal against flesh, then lowered his hand.

“What is this?” he asked, looking at the necklace in his hand.

“You had it when we found you,” Amida explained. “You were holding onto it so tight, we thought it might be cursed.”

“No, there’s no curse. However…” 

Was it possible that it belonged to the succubus? If so, why did she have it? The necklace was a simple pendant with foreign script around the edges. It was an ordinary bauble and would offer the demon no protection against anything. The succubus and her master had further deepened the mystery around both their arrival and their disappearance. It was possible that he could just let it go, but he already had the Counsel’s blessing to hunt down the succubus with a hand-picked team.

What should have been an easy kill had somehow become complicated. Yet a grin broke across his face. It had been a while since he had felt a real challenge come his way, and the opportunity to teach the next generation was priceless.

“Let’s get some food,” he declared. “Once I’m feeling better…school will officially be in session.”