“Which way am I going?” I asked, backing out of the space. The van cornered sharper than I’d expected, as if whatever fixed the engine did a number on the steering, too. The gas gauge was even full, when I’d been sure the needle was pointed on empty most of the way to Morningstar Lane. More presents from the Prince of Darkness.
Christina pointed. “That way.” She let out a little laugh, as if seeing the rolling hills around her for the very first time. “This neighborhood is confusing, isn’t it? All the houses look the same, except for my block…”
“That’s suburbia,” I said, kicking the van into gear. We passed rows of houses, the streetlights lit up all down the block. “Just be glad there’s no one carrying dead squirrels around…”
The two teenagers I’d seen on my way here must have gone back home, but there were plenty of people on the streets. Joggers, a couple pushing a baby carriage, a demon out walking his dog...
Wait, what?
“Do you see that?” I asked, pointing at the dog walker. He had the body of a man, with the head of an elk. Massive antlers stuck out from either side of his head, the kind of thing any hunter would salivate to have on their trophy wall.
The van gave a jerk but remained on the road. “That guy’s a fucking demon!?”
Christina leaned forward. “Wait, what?”
“Let me see!” Mareth sprang from her lair between the seats, arching her back like a bow as she put her elbows on the dash. I couldn’t help but notice how good her ass looked in that position. “Oh, him? I’m surprised you can see that, Luke.”
“It’s just a guy,” Christina said.
“Possessions,” Mareth explained. “You’ve seen The Exorcist, right, Luke?”
The demon lifted a hand and waved as we drove by.
“I thought that was just a movie…” I muttered.
“Demonic possession is very real,” Mareth said with a shrug. “It’s even a major at the Infernal Academy. I’ve had to take a few courses in it, as prerequisites for my advanced placement succubus class.”
“Is that so? Then what the hell is that?” As we turned the corner to the next block, I saw an elderly couple out for a stroll. Only the wife had what looked like a giant black cat perched on her shoulders. As we drew closer, the cat looked at me and blinked, seemingly surprised to be noticed. A huge pince-nez with one cracked spectacle rested on its face, giving the creature an oddly dignified air.
“Oppressions,” Mareth said lustily, licking her lips. “You’ve heard of people having a monkey on their back? It’s not an expression—it’s a demon.” She sighed wistfully. “I’d so love to qualify for one of the Academy’s work-study programs in Oppression. I just know I’d be amazing at giving a sweet young prude some filthy urges…”
Hot damn, I thought. “There’s lots of them,” I realized, comparing the numbers of demons I’d seen with the number of people. “You guys are all busy with this kind of thing? Is everyone being subjected to this kind of treatment?”
“It’s a tug of war,” Mareth said, giving me another one of those shrugs that tensed the muscles of her back so beautifully. “There’s angels out there, too—either trying to influence people to be good or trying to counteract the stuff demons do. You can’t see those, though—at least, not yet.”
I thought about the slender bracelet Lucifer gave me. “Not yet,” I agreed.
Mareth glanced to the side, distracted by the tone of my voice. “Are you freaked out? I’d totally understand if you were freaked out right now. This is a lot for a mortal to take in.”
I laughed. “Honestly, I’m more freaked out by the fact that I’m not freaked out,” I admitted. “I’m not really scared or terrified, the way I figured I’d be. Instead, I’m…”
“Excited,” Christina panted. I looked over at her and knew she felt the same way.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’s sort of badass. There’s a whole supernatural world out there, you know? Lurking underneath of ours, just under the skin. That’s pretty fucking cool.” I shook my head as I drove. “Demons.”
“You’re a demon now,” Christina said. “Technically. Or at least a kind of demon. That’s why you can interact with the demonic world —why you can see things like possessed people and demons going about their business. I’m jealous, really.”
I nodded and put my hands back on the wheel. In the space between one blink and the next, the street in front of me exploded with a brilliant white light.
I nearly drove right off the road. Beings with wings and halos were everywhere, following behind joggers and people out walking their pets. As I watched, a floating cherub the size of a bread box bumped a baby carriage, moving it out of the path of a pothole in the road. Even the people I’d seen before with demons had angels crawling all over them — in some cases, the angels and the demons seemed to be fighting.
The dashboard glowed too, like it was possessed. I half-expected Mareth and Christina to have angelic figures clinging to them, but they seemed completely separate from the strange world overlaying our own. What, then — did my car have a guardian angel?
In an instant, the vision dissolved. I jerked the car back into the center of the road, ignoring Mareth’s expletives as she nearly fell from her perch in the backseat.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Did you girls see that?”
Mareth gave me a puzzled look. “What did you see?”
“Angels with feathery wings, little cupid-like creatures — shit, I think I even saw a flying monkey. All of them had wings and halos, like something out of an old cartoon.”
Mareth tensed
