Isobel’s face looked freshly washed so it was minus the normal thick black eyeliner and blood red lips. She had a number of tattoos, nearly all of them were somewhat spooky as far as Liberty was concerned. She had a thing for bats and had gotten a tattoo of one on her inner wrist a couple of weeks back.
“What are you two up to in here?” asked Isobel as she entered, coming right for the bed, crawling over Liberty, and making herself at home in the middle. She flipped her long hair back, whipping it into Liberty’s face. “Shit. Sorry.”
Liberty snorted. “Careful. You’ll put my eye out.”
Isobel grinned and then snuggled down on the bed, making herself comfortable. She glanced at the room and the floor. “Did I miss all the excitement?”
“You did. You got in kind of late tonight,” said Liberty.
Isobel nodded. “One of the computer labs had a virus sweep through and a server went out. I had to stay and help deal with it all.”
“Again?” asked Daisy. “That’s like the third time this week.”
“I know,” said Isobel.
Liberty eyed her friend. “You’re not the issue, are you? You didn’t create the virus or take out the server or anything, did you?”
“Not this time,” replied Isobel with a waggle of her dark brows. “I’m pretty sure it’s the government again. Fuckers are always trying to do sweeping data mines. Like we don’t know they want to be privy to our every movement and every word. Can’t have the sheep think for themselves. Might make them organize and demand better or something. Heaven forbid we rise up and demand better from them. Bastards.”
“Can’t you use your computer tech skills to fix our internet?” asked Daisy, not touching on the conspiracy theory or Isobel’s need to start a revolution.
“I wish,” responded Isobel. “Good news though. That telecommunications van is down the street again.”
“It’s a weird time of the night for them to be working on internet connections, isn’t it?” asked Daisy. “The sun won’t be up for a couple of hours yet. I thought burning the midnight oil was more of an electricity or gas utility thing.”
“No clue,” said Isobel. “Want me to go have words with them about how they’re in our neighborhood all the time anymore, yet we still have a crap internet connection and have for nearly three weeks?”
“Please don’t,” said Daisy.
“You’re worried I won’t be nice,” replied Isobel. “I’m nicer than Liberty when she gets worked up.”
“Fact,” said Liberty with a laugh because it was anything but true.
Isobel glanced at them both. “What if that van isn’t from the internet provider at all but is really full of government agents sent to spy on us? What if they’ve figured out that we’ve figured out that we’re something more than human?”
“That’s a whole lot of figuring out you’re asking us to do there,” said Liberty, hoping to cut the knees of the argument before it took root.
Isobel chuckled as well. “Did you two notice someone is moving in across the street?”
“Meaning you’re pissed you can’t park in their driveway anymore?” asked Daisy with a you-know-I’m-right smile.
Liberty struggled to keep from laughing.
Isobel’s car was her baby. She’d gotten it for her sixteenth birthday after spending several summers working at a junkyard. The owner had taken a shine to her and gifted her a non-running, 1950 convertible Mercury. Since her living situation had been questionable back then, he’d allowed her to keep it at the junkyard while she restored it.
Liberty had thought she was nuts and that the car would never be roadworthy. Isobel’s iron will had seen the vehicle go from a shell to pristine. Of course, she’d done some upgrades and had a few modifications that made it more her style. None of which had been costly since she’d restored it on a shoestring budget. It was pretty much black, red, and silver—totally Isobel.
“Maybe they won’t last long living there,” said Isobel. “Then I can park Elvira in the drive and off the street. I hate leaving her vulnerable. Wish we had a driveway.”
“We could speed that along,” offered Liberty. “You want to tell the new people the place is inhabited by a demon, or should I?”
Daisy laughed. “It’s not.”
“Yes, it is,” said Liberty and Isobel at the same time.
Daisy groaned.
“Hey, why do you think I hung a cross on Elvira’s rearview mirror?” asked Isobel.
Liberty eyed her. “Because you’re weird… and because the place across the street is totally inhabited by a demon.”
Daisy shook her head. “No. It’s not.”
“Explain the glowing orange eyes we’ve seen looking out from the upstairs window at us,” challenged Isobel.
Daisy snorted. “I’m not going to explain what has never been there. I’ve never seen any glowing eyes.”
“I have,” said Liberty. “It was super freaky. And we heard a bunch of weird sounds coming from there around that time. Snarling or something.”
“Yep,” said Isobel. “Demon. I’m sure of it.”
“Thankfully, there is no such thing as demons,” said Daisy.
“Bet people would say there are no such things as people who can start fires with their minds or throw things around with nothing more than a thought—yet here Liberty and I are,” countered Isobel. “And I think you know you’re something more than most people would think possible.”
“I’ll give you that, but it’s different,” said Daisy.
“How so?” asked Isobel.
Liberty tipped her head, wanting to hear Daisy’s rationale for there being no such thing as demons.
Daisy thought on it a moment. “Because our eyes don’t glow orange?”
“Yet,” said Isobel. “That’ll probably start next week.”
Liberty laughed. “I hope not. I have enough things to worry about as it is. There is a greater-than-average chance if I take a nap and have a bad dream, I’ll make our entire house float away into space or something.”
Daisy grunted. “Highly unlikely. Change of subject. Any word on who’s moving in and who wants to bet they don’t even last a month, since none of the other tenants
