Hi, all, it's me, your living, breathing, human disaster, Annabelle Hawthorne!

Anyways, thank you to everybody for showing this side-series so much love and enthusiasm. If they ever made a show or movie out of Dead and Horny, who do you think should play the leads? Tim Burton could probably direct it, but maybe not Michael Bay. It's fun to think about things like this sometimes. Oh

The Things We Dream

It was the smell of sausage and coffee that woke Ingrid. Her face was buried in pillows and the blankets had slipped off of her legs. The door of the bedroom opened, followed by footsteps over toward her side of the bed. The soft clink of ceramic against her nightstand made her turn her head to see what was going on. A plate of food with breakfast had been set down next to a ceramic mug with a pair of children's handprints on it.

"Happy Mother's day." Mike adjusted the blankets which were gathered on Ingrid's side of the bed and then rubbed her lower back, causing her to stretch. "How did you sleep?"

Ingrid yawned and stretched. "Like the dead," she muttered. Something felt off this morning, but she couldn't quite place her finger on it. "What time is it?"

"After ten," Mike replied. He folded the blankets away from her and leaned down to work his fingers into the tender muscles of her back, pushing her sleep shirt up to expose her skin. "Aurora has the kids this morning, so I figured I would spoil you a bit."

"Mmm. I like being spoiled." Ingrid closed her eyes again, taking in the scent of breakfast once again as Mike's fingers undid some of the knots just above her hips. "So what's for breakfast?" she asked.

"Some of your favorites," he replied. "Sausage, eggs, sunny side up, and sourdough toast to dip into the yolk."

"Did you eat with the kids?" she asked. What were their names again? Her mind tried to grab onto the information, but it slipped away.

"Just a light snack," he said. "I've got something else in mind." Mike crawled onto the bed and tugged at the fabric of her panties. She lifted her hips, allowing them to come free.

"Yes, please," she whispered as he rubbed her ass and the back of her thighs. He worked his way down her legs, the massage causing her to inexplicably tune out. By the time he was working his way back up, it felt like no time had passed at all. He grabbed her by the hips and lifted her back into an arch. Mike slid his arms beneath her waist and around her thighs, allowing her to rest her hips on his forearms.

"Hmmm! My breakfast is ready," he declared, burying his face in her crotch. Ingrid groaned as he ate her out from behind, his tongue playfully teasing her clit before dipping deep inside of her. Her hands clutched at the sheets as she bit the pillow, pressing herself back against him.

When Mike squeezed, she was unable to escape his mouth. She moaned and writhed on the bed, hesitant at first out of fear of the kids hearing until she remembered the kids weren't home. It was so nice of Aurora to take the kids for the morning. She really was the best friend a mother could have.

Ingrid briefly tried to remember where the two of them had met but gave up when Mike did something with his tongue that had her eyes rolling. It had been weeks since they'd had the opportunity to properly enjoy their time like this. Usually it was something quick after everyone else had gone to bed or before the household woke.

Her hips bucked of their own accord, and a tiny, barely there orgasm radiated through her nerves and up her spine. She groaned in frustration when Mike pulled his tongue out of her pussy.

"More, please," she begged.

"I've got something bigger," he suggested. "But only if you want it."

"I want that dick," she said as he crawled over her body. Ingrid could feel the head of his cock bouncing off of her thighs as he moved into position. "I want it so bad."

"Tell me how bad you want it." He sat up and she felt the head of his cock press against her labia. She arched her back and tried to back into him, but it didn't work.

"I need it," she said. "I want to feel you throbbing inside me, to lose control on your cock and--"

She choked on that last word as he pushed forward, easing himself inside of her. Her lower back spasmed as she felt the pressure of his member stretching her wide. Ingrid whimpered into the pillow and bit it again, the cotton threads fraying between her teeth.

"That's it, keep breathing," Mike said as he continued to press forward. "It's been awhile, hasn't it? I need to get you nice and relaxed before we stretch you out."

She whimpered again, then braced herself against the headboard with one hand to hold her body in place. Mike's cock slid forward some more, and her vagina spasmed, then clamped down to hold it in place.

"Wow. You're so tight today," he muttered.

Ingrid couldn't reply. She was busy gasping for air as he filled her insides. He was a patient lover and kept rubbing her back and hips while he waited to move forward again.

Eventually, the head of Mike's cock pressed against her womb. The pressure of it made her feel light-headed. She reached down with her free hand and gently tugged at the top of her labia, her clitoris still sensitive from the earlier orgasm. Time was all she needed now as warm pulses radiated out from her crotch and down her legs. When they fucked like this, it felt like her whole lower half was one giant nerve ending.

Ingrid's fingers were soon slick with her own fluids, and she rubbed the tip of her exposed clitoris with her thumb. Her whole core tightened up and she let out a scream when she came.

"I love watching you come," Mike told her, his hands holding her hips in place to keep her from sliding off. She heard him spit on his hand, then felt his thumb teasing the edge of her asshole.

"Oh god," she cried out, her vagina firmly clamping down on his cock. She wasn't sure if she came again or if he had somehow extended the current orgasm, but that little touch had been enough for her to lose control. Ingrid went limp on the bed, her lower half spasming. Mike continued to tease her, then leaned forward to make sure that they stayed together.

"That's it," he whispered, then playfully swatted her ass. "Keep going. Get yourself nice and wet for me."

By the time her hips stopped bucking, she was out of breath. Gasping for air, she tried to lift her butt, to feel him pressing against her, anything. She needed him, wanted to feel the heat of his body inside of hers. It had been so long since they'd been alone together that--

Wait. When did they get married?

In that moment of distraction, Mike thrust himself forward. Ingrid cried out in pleasure as her insides gripped him tight. He grunted, moving slow at first. She could feel that building pressure in her stomach, her abs already sore from the orgasm that had just ripped through her.

"Fuck me," she whispered. "Harder."

"I might hurt you," he said.

"You won't." Her husband could never hurt her. They were meant for one another. "Do it."

"What was that?" Mike leaned forward and she felt him gather her hair into a temporary ponytail. She braced her arm against the headboard and trembled.

"I told you to fuck me." She growled when she spoke. "I need to feel your hot cum inside of me!"

He replied with actions instead of words. A sensation of fullness in her hips was followed by a rough thrust forward as he pulled on her hair, which yanked her head back. Ingrid cried out, one hand slapping against the headboard so hard that a picture on the wall fell. The other hand frantically rubbed at her clit as Mike took her from behind.

Her mind melted, her thoughts falling apart as she gave in to her body. Pinned beneath her husband, all she could do was cry out, scream, and occasionally bite the sheets as her groin alternated between intense pleasure and sweet agony. The other moms joked about getting their guts rearranged, but they could never know the truth of it, how your entire world became that hot, barely contained rhythm buried deep inside your belly that made it feel like you would explode.

Ingrid came. She lost her breath, too busy screaming to remember to inhale. She came again. Her neck hurt, but she didn't even care. She would give everything to this man, just as long as he would keep fucking her.

Keep loving her. Forever.

And so she came again.

Mike moaned, then let out a yell as his cock jerked inside of her. Ingrid called his name, begging him to fill her up. After he did, he fell down limp on top, pinning her firmly in place. Ingrid cried, but they were tears of unrestrained joy.

She needed to remember to buy Aurora a fruit basket or something.

It took some time, but Mike's cock softened enough that he finally fell out. This was followed by a deluge of cum that immediately soaked the sheets.

"Can we...can you...?"

"Go again?" Mike chuckled. "Aurora will be back soon, I'm afraid."

"Damn." Ingrid sighed. "I love you."

"I know."

She couldn't help but grin. Her husband was such a nerd with his Star Wars references. "I'm hungry," she told him. "Should we eat before the kids are back?"

"Yeah." He kissed her shoulder and climbed off of her. "I can go make something right now, actually. What do you want?"

"Everything," she replied, seeing him out of the corner of her eye. It felt like she was forgetting something. Hadn't Mike brought her breakfast already? From where she was, she could clearly see that the nightstand was empty. Maybe she had been dreaming.

"You've got it." Mike pulled on a pair of slacks and headed for the door. "See you downstairs."

After he left, Ingrid continued to lay there, one hand fondling her groin as fluid continued to leak out. She was sore down there, the good kind. Wincing, she rolled over and sat up, rubbing at her lower stomach.

"That man does things to me," she whispered with a smile, then noticed the picture that had fallen off the wall. When she picked it up, the image was blurry.

"Hmm." She rubbed at her eyes and tossed the picture onto the bed. Her husband had officially fucked her so hard that her eyes didn't quite focus.

She found her panties and bunched them between her legs to keep from dropping spooge on the floor to the bathroom. After she peed, she tossed her underwear into the hamper.

She heard the front doorbell ring.

Expecting Mike to get it, she was surprised when it rang again. This was followed by a knock.

"Mike?" she called, but there was no answer. Grumbling to herself, she went into the closet and found a silk robe to wear. Ingrid shuffled through the old Victorian manor to the stairs. Whoever was at the door was insistent, alternating between ringing and knocking to some vaguely familiar song.

"Hold on, I'm coming. I said, I'm coming!" she shouted as she undid the deadbolt and opened the door to reveal a grown woman with black and red hair in a girl scout uniform.

"Yeah you were," said Lily with a smirk. She looked past Ingrid into the house. "Nice place."

"Lily!" Ingrid tightened the obi on her robe and took a step back in shock. Suspecting what had just occurred, she held up her left hand and saw that there wasn't any sort of wedding band. She also had an extra pinky. The world came into a strange sort of clarity as her theory was confirmed. "This...is a dream!"

"A wet one, if we're using labels." Lily stepped into the house. "Now that you're finished, we can--"

"Don't devour me!" Ingrid flattened herself against the closest wall. "I know we're not friends, but we're definitely not enemies!"

"Huh." Lily crossed her arms and shook her head. "You think I came to eat you?"

"This whole thing was a sex dream," Ingrid replied. "And you're a succubus. Eulalie had to tell you not to kill me earlier. How do you think this looks?"

"That...is a fair point, actually." Lily sat down, the floor beneath her warping upward to form a chair. "For the record, you were having the sex dream before I came to get you. I just did some Dreamscape magic to ensure the juice was worth the squeeze."

"What?" Ingrid moved to sit across from the succubus. "I don't understand."

"You've had a shit day," Lily replied. "Far be it for me to cockblock a poor girl trying to get some orgasm therapy. Yes, I meddled with your dream to heighten the experience, but not to eat you. If I had, you would already be in my stomach, experiencing full blown nightmare therapy."

"But I...this..." Ingrid groaned and put her face in her hands. "This is your house, and the dream was about Mike."

Lily chuckled. "For what it's worth, I'm a little jealous."

"Of what?"

"This." Lily's tail stretched out behind her and pulled a family photograph off the wall. She studied it with sad eyes. "Yes, you were dreaming about being married to Mike and having a normal life and a family with him, but that's not what I'm jealous of. For at least a few minutes, you got to believe it was all real. Dreams can do that, you know."

"I..." Ingrid frowned. "Is my dream...what...you want?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. I met the man when I tried to kill him. We had an interesting fling. Now I'm just one of many women who hold a piece of his heart, forced to share him with so many people that I can't help but get angry sometimes. It's...complicated." She set the picture face down in her lap. "I can't blame you for wanting some of the same things I do."

"You're not going to make fun of me for it?" Ingrid was suddenly wary.

"No." The succubus sighed. "I was originally just coming in here to wake you up after your post-nut bliss. Now that I'm in your head, it's kind of quiet. I like it."

Ingrid blinked and shook her head. "Really?"

"We almost got blown up this morning. Dana and Dog Breath are off processing Mike's magic stuff in a shared bedroom, Eulalie is busy doing her webmaster shit, and I'm not allowed to go home because Mike stirred up some massive trouble with the Fae." Lily blew out a heavy breath. "The Seelie and Unseelie courts are staking the place out, but we don't entirely know why, or whatever. If I get spotted around the house, they may start following us around, too, which would cause massive headaches."

Ingrid nodded. "We don't want to upset the Fae."

"We certainly don't." Lily sniffed the air. "Is that coffee?"

"It's not real," Ingrid replied.

"Real is subjective." Lily stood and held a hand out to help Ingrid up. "C'mon. What's five minutes in the real world? Let's take a day off."

Still suspicious, Ingrid took Lily's hand and was led into the kitchen. Mike was standing there in nothing but an apron, cooking bacon in a pan.

"Good morning, honey!" He leaned over to kiss Ingrid's cheek. "Ah, you invited the sexy neighbor over. Hungry?"

"Always," Lily replied, then pinched Mike's bare ass.

"This isn't the least bit weird for you?" asked Ingrid.

"Girl, I've seen some serious shit." Lily plucked a piece of bacon directly from the pan. "This is your basic horny dream. When was the last time you got laid?"

"I don't think that's--"

"Shit, before Hawaii?!?" Lily gasped. "With a rockin' body like yours, why aren't you finding any good fuck buddies?"

"I don't want a fuck buddy, I want...a...fuck partner," she mumbled.

"Ah. Something more permanent." Lily gestured at the house. "Though I'm a bit surprised at the touch of domestic tranquility."

Ingrid shrugged. "You're in my head. You tell me why I want a stable home and family."

"Fair enough." The succubus smirked and opened her mouth to say something, then paused. "You know what? Never mind. I was going to be super sarcastic with my response. A husband that loves you. Kids. A safe place to live. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to live a normal fucking life."

The admission surprised Ingrid. "Should I be worried that you aren't going to take an easy dig at me?"

"I saw your asshole earlier today. You need a break."

Ingrid's cheeks became hot and she scowled at the floor. "I had forgotten that happened," she muttered.

"You would have remembered after waking up. I probably would have been the one who reminded you, actually." Lily frowned. "Maybe, just for today, I won't call you my butthole buddy."

"I appreciate that."

"My crack companion."

Ingrid ground her teeth. "Alright, we get it."

"My poop-chute partner."

"I thought you said you weren't going to call me those things," countered Ingrid.

Lily laughed. "Old habits die hard, and I only said maybe." Her eyes widened and she leaned back in her chair as Mike wandered over carrying a bunch of dishes like a waiter. A table appeared between Lily and Ingrid where Mike set everything down.

"Bon appetit," he said with a wink. Lily watched him leave and sighed.

"I don't know if I like seeing him come or watching him go better," she said, her eyes locked on Mike's bare ass.

"I wouldn't actually know," muttered Ingrid as she looked at the bounty that had been set out between them. It was an obscene amount of food, all of them her favorites. "I've only had imitation Mike, and I couldn't really see him."

"You should eat up," said Lily. "Dream calories don't actually count, and I can make it so that you actually taste everything."

"Really?" Ingrid served herself a massive plate of bacon and sausage. "How do you do that?"

"By sticking a finger in your mouth and changing its flavor," Lily replied.

"Seriously?" Ingrid asked, a piece of bacon almost at her lips.

"No." The succubus laughed. "Not really. In scientific terms, I'm bypassing your tongue and stimulating the neurons in your brain or whatever."

"Or whatever." Ingrid took a bite of bacon and groaned. "Damn, that's good." She paused for a moment, then looked across the table. "Earlier, when I was, uh..."

"Fucking your dream boy?" asked Lily with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. You weren't, like...doing stuff to me were you?"

Lily shook her head. "If I was trying to eat you, maybe. I could have rammed my tail into any hole I wanted, actually. It's pretty hot, watching a woman come all over your tail."

"So...there's a neuron or whatever for feeling stretched out?" Ingrid was almost too embarrassed to ask.

"There's a neuron for everything, but that's not actually what you're trying to ask."

Ingrid felt her cheeks get hot once more. "You're reading my mind, aren't you?"

"I'm trying not to." Lily picked up a piece of sausage and played with the tip. "But since I'm here in your head, those surface thoughts are like a billboard. You want to know if Mike's dick actually feels like that in real life."

"Yeah."

"Technically speaking, yeah. He also has magic that assists, but your dream was about 'original recipe' Mike. I may have helped out a bit with that... If I'm being honest, I should probably tell you that he isn't interested in you and likely won't be."

"Because I'm not special enough."

Lily shook her head. "Incorrect. There are almost seven billion people on this planet, and you are rather amazing compared to most of them. It's the fact that you and he need and want different things. His magic may react to you in a sexual way, but he'll feel the incompatibility in an instant. Romeo is many things, but a fuck toy isn't one of them."

Ingrid snorted. "It doesn't seem that way from the outside."

"Tell me about it. Do you wanna know how he and Tink ended up together? Fighting over tools." The succubus chuckled. "Knowing how smart that little booger actually is, I wouldn't be surprised to discover that she had somehow manipulated the situation in her own favor."

"How did he end up with a Cerberus?" asked Ingrid.

"Holy shit, you're not gonna believe this." Lily laughed and told Ingrid a story about an accident involving a magical tarot card. The two exchanged more stories like this, the afternoon growing long as dream Mike continued to bring them more food. When he wasn't busy feeding them, he was in the kitchen doing dishes, his bare ass exposed to both of them. The entire time he worked, he hummed sci-fi theme songs to himself.

The sky was getting dark by the time the conversation finally stalled. Ingrid couldn't remember the last time she had spent so long just talking with another woman. She eventually found herself silent, considering the succubus in an entirely new light.

"You're staring," said Lily. She adjusted her boobs. "Did a titty pop out?"

"You're more than I expected," Ingrid admitted. "This has actually been fun. The most fun I've ever had in bed, actually."

"You mean the best five minutes in bed." Lily laughed, then checked her wrist as if looking at a watch. "Well, more like ten. I lost track of time, too."

"Why bother, though? It's almost like you're trying to cheer me up."

Lily cocked her head to the side. "Well, to be honest, I wasn't going to at first. But when I got in here and started poking around, I realized just how much we have in common and that maybe you could use a little kindness."

"That's uncharacteristic of you," Ingrid replied.

"Don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold." Lily smiled, but the grin faltered. "Also, you remind me of somebody."

"Cyrus?" asked Ingrid.

Lily nodded, her eyes on a distant memory. "Some days, the only thing that got me up in the morning was knowing I'd get to drop by that old bastard's home and mess with him a bit. The two of us had our differences, it's true. But over time, he learned to see past them. Maybe he taught me to do the same."

The two of them sat in silence, both deep in their thoughts.

"Okay, that was a major boner killer. Let's get to work." Lily snapped her fingers and the dream went dark. Ingrid opened her eyes to see that she was crashed out in bed, wearing only a sleep shirt and a pair of panties. When she sat up and rubbed her eyes, it was to see Lily sitting at the edge of the mattress.

"Good morning," Ingrid muttered, then made a face. Her ass was wet. "Did I--"

"I wasn't joking when I said it was a wet dream." The succubus smiled and handed a clean pair of underwear to Ingrid. "You came pretty hard."

Embarrassed, Ingrid took her current panties off and took the new ones from Lily. "I guess our relationship has been taken to a whole new level," she muttered as she slipped the panties on. "You get to watch me bang your man in my dreams while seeing me come all over the bed. Is there a word for that?"

"College roommates," Lily replied with a smirk.

"Not pussy partners?" Ingrid raised an eyebrow at Lily, who barked out a laugh. "Let me find some pants and we can go deal with this demon."

"Sure thing." Lily stood. "Also, since we're pussy partners, you should know that your ass looks great. Stop worrying about how your pants fit."

Ingrid shook her head. "Now you want to help me with my body issues? Nobody is going to believe you're actually a demon."

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't want to be one anymore." Lily's grin disappeared and she cleared her throat. "Besides, Aurora wanted to be the queen bitch, so why bother trying so hard?"

"That's fair." Ingrid found some pants that the rats had brought her and slipped into them. "So we tried to get the demon to talk earlier, but got nowhere."

"So I heard. Torture, right?"

"Yeah."

The succubus snorted. "Torture may seem like the right move, but you have to remember that demons spend a majority of their time in Hell. Depending on the demon, life down there isn't so bad. But for most of them, it's eternal torment. Now if we're talking true demons, they hate the place. It's way worse than when they got evicted."

"Right. Because of the Fall."

Lily's lips thinned. "This Glutton creature is most likely a lesser demon, an off-shoot of something far nastier. Demons don't reproduce like humans do. In the case of this nasty little shit, its daddy was another demon that personified gluttony and consumption. It ate and ate until its body was full to bursting, then ate some more. If given enough to eat all at once, the thing's stomach probably burst and now we have that little shit in a jar."

"That doesn't remotely make any sense," Ingrid replied as the two of them left the room. As they were walking down the hallway, she could hear the distant grunts of Tasia and Dana somewhere else in the Library. "They're loud."

"Yeah they are." Lily chuckled. "Anyway, demons don't have to make sense. What's most likely is that a piece of something else got eaten, but didn't die inside the demon's belly, so took on its properties and laid in wait. Hell is all about survival of the fittest. If you aren't killing others, they're killing you."

"But I thought things can't die in Hell?"

"Oh, they can. But there is no Death to reap them. Eternal torment, remember? That's what awaits Dana if she can't get her problem solved. A pack of demons will rip you apart and you'll feel nothing but pain as your body is digested in several different places."

"Alright." Ingrid rubbed her stomach, which suddenly felt sour. "I think I'm starting to understand why boiling that little fucker in holy water didn't do much good."

The two of them entered the room with the containment unit. From behind the fabric draped over the box, they could hear the faint shrieking of the demon. Lily cracked her neck as her demonic features all manifested at once. Sharp horns burst from her forehead and curled backwards as her wings unfurled. Her tail formed a pair of pincers which she used to grab the fabric and yank it away.

"Hello," she said, clicking the button to turn off the flow of holy water. "Looks like you're having a shit day."

The Glutton's melted features slowly reformed until it had a face again. It growled and pressed itself against the glass, then paused to lick it.

"Let me out," it growled.

"Why?" asked Lily. "I have nothing to gain from letting you out. What's in it for me?"

"Professional courtesy," it replied.

"Just because we're both demons doesn't mean I care." The succubus tucked her tail beneath her and sat on it like a stool. "How much work did it take for you to get out of Hell in the first place? I can't remember the last time a gluttony demon wandered about. I believe it was 1907."

"What happened?" asked Ingrid.

"Big mother fucker busted out of Hell and went on a bender in China. Hid their soupy ass inside of a storm system. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but one day, that demon simply disappeared." Lily glared at the demon. "Hold on a second. That wasn't you, was it?"

The Glutton responded by giving Lily the finger.

"Well, that's an interesting development. If that really was you, then who had the massive balls to take you down?" Lily looked at Ingrid. "Make no mistake. If we let this fucker free, it will eat everything it can."

The Glutton slapped the glass, but not hard enough to crack it. "Untrue. If you let me out, I will not eat everything I can."

Ingrid frowned. "He can't lie, right?"

"Not directly. Which means he has an agenda, something he must do first." Lily grinned. "Oh. I see. This little shit is under a contract, which isn't fulfilled yet."

The Glutton cursed under his breath and turned his back on them.

"A contract? Makes sense. So somebody summoned him?"

Lily shook her head. "No, not quite. I think that this guy escaped Hell, ate his way across China, then got captured by someone who has kept him under lock and key, much like I was. Tell me, am I onto something?"

When the demon didn't reply, Lily turned the holy water back on. The Glutton screamed in pain, which made Lily turn the speaker off. "Okay, so I think we have some pieces of the puzzle now. Summoning a demon this powerful would take an immense amount of magic. Capturing one? Not nearly as much."

"That still doesn't tell us who sent him," Ingrid replied.

"Nope. Which makes me wonder." Lily stroked her own chin, suddenly lost in thought. Between the muffled screams of the demon, Ingrid heard Tasia howl somewhere else in the Library.

"Lucky girl," Ingrid muttered.

"I'll be right back." Lily stood and sashayed out of the room. "You can let our friend marinate for a bit."

Ingrid waited for a few minutes, then looked at the door when she heard the sound of squeaky wheels outside. Lily came back in with a cart piled high with food. Her tail was wrapped around a pair of chairs, which she set down next to the containment tank.

"Pull up a chair," she said, pressing the button three times to cease the flow of holy water. "Join me for a bite?"

"With pleasure." Ingrid sat down and stared at one of the plates. "Wow, is that real wagyu beef?"

"Yep. Culinary pleasures from some of the finest restaurants in the world." Lily smirked and picked up a napkin, which she unfolded and tucked into her cleavage. "I actually had Lala put in an order before waking you up."

Ingrid was confused at first, but realized why once she saw the demon in the tank spin around and press itself against the glass. It was drooling as it stared at the food in front of it.

"You see, the thing about demons based on gluttony is that they have a fixation on quantity over quality," said Lily as she picked up a knife and sliced herself some cheese from a nearby plate. "However, it does not mean they don't appreciate quality, especially when there is no quantity to be had."

"I think I follow. What kind of cheese is that?" Ingrid asked.

"Moose cheese." Lily sliced another piece off and handed it over. "Try it."

Ingrid took a bite and let out a loud mmm of satisfaction. The two of them quietly dined in front of the demon, commenting regularly on the food as the little bastard shrieked obscenities at them. It had actually managed to drool so much that there was a thin layer of the fluid at the bottom of the tank.

Eventually, Lily produced a third plate and cut a section of beef the size of her thumb on it. She turned to face the demon, who just stared at the morsel. Her head cocked to one side as if listening to somebody, and then she nodded. When she blinked, her eyes changed from red to brown.

"We're going to play a game," she said. "I will ask you a question, and you will give me an answer. If I like your answer, I'll set aside some food for you. If I don't like it, you get nothing. When I am satisfied with all your answers, I will give you whatever is on this plate."

The Glutton glared at her. "Right. But I'll still be in here."

"Nope. If your answers thrill me, then I will let you out to consume whatever is on the plate."

"And put me back in here," the demon added.

"Well, I'll try to." Lily grinned. "Right now, you have a guarantee of food plus a chance at escape. When we're done talking, I'll let you out. I'll even count to ten before I do anything."

The Glutton stared hard at Lily for several long seconds. "What about your friend?" he asked, jerking his thumb at Ingrid.

Ingrid frowned at the succubus. "I thought you said it would be extremely bad to set this thing free?"

"I did." Lily raised an eyebrow. "You'll just have to trust me." She looked back at the demon. "I won't let her intercede either."

"Thirty seconds," said the demon.

"Twenty," countered Lily.

"Twenty seconds after I finish eating," the demon replied.

"Thirty seconds to eat. Then twenty seconds after you're done eating, or after you've left the spot where the plate is currently located." Lily produced a piece of chalk and traced a circle around the plate. "This space, and whichever happens first."

"I can't believe you're even suggesting this," said Ingrid.

"We're playing good cop, confused cop." Lily smirked at the mage. "I'll also stab my friend here if she tries to violate the agreement."

The Glutton's eyes blazed. "What do you want to know?"

Lily pointed at the meat she had already sliced. "For that morsel, I want to know who sent you."

The demon grinned. "The person I signed a contract with," he said.

"Ugh. That's fair." Lily sliced another piece of steak and slid it onto the plate. "What is their name?"

"I don't know." The Glutton crossed his arms and grinned. "You're not so good at this."

Lily frowned, then forked the meat and stuck it in her own mouth. "I didn't like your answer," she replied.

"But I'm telling the truth!" The Glutton pounded on the glass, then backed away when the water in the tank sloshed. "I don't know her name, I never did."

"Then how did she summon you?"

"She didn't. Like you guessed, I was captured." The Glutton jabbed a finger at the plate. Lily cut some meat and a piece of cheese for it. "That bitch kept me locked up this entire time. She usually uses me to dispose of bodies and other random shit. I spent the last century being a glorified garbage disposal for her."

"What changed?" asked Ingrid. The demon didn't bother looking her way.

Lily sighed and added another piece of food to the plate. "What changed?" she asked.

The demon smirked. "Somebody killed off a bunch of her pets, then smashed all of their eggs."

"The cockatrice?" The memory of the eggs crunching beneath the soles of her feet made Ingrid's stomach lurch. The demon didn't answer her, but did start laughing. All of this had happened because of her.

"So this woman is with the auction house?" Lily asked.

The demon waited for more food to hit the plate, then shook his head. "I don't know anything about that," he said. "But those pets of hers needed a safe place to stay and breed. I haven't seen her so angry before. She called in some huge favors to divine who did the deed." This time, the Glutton turned toward Ingrid. "If I fail, I'll be just the first of many to come your way."

"Wait, this is about me?" Ingrid pointed at herself. "How did she even find out I did it?"

The Glutton laughed. "No idea! She gave me your name and your face, then mailed me in a box. Told me I was officially free once I killed you and anybody who might be helping you."

"Why you, though?" Lily leaned back and grabbed a piece of ham from the tray and set it down on top of the plate. "Why not come herself?"

The demon shrugged. "I'm not sure. She was in the middle of some big project. But you should rest assured that she will come for you, and she won't stop until she has your head on a platter." The Glutton giggled to himself. "You and everyone you know will be dead soon enough."

Lily paused, her eyes now flickering between red and brown. She stared into the distance as if listening to something. This went on for so long that both Ingrid and the demon exchanged uneasy glances.

"Are we done talking?" asked the demon. "If so, it's time for you to let me out."

Lily's eyes flickered and turned brown again. Ingrid felt a bit uneasy. She couldn't figure out why, but something was off.

"What can you tell me about this person?" she asked. "A location, an address, anything."

The demon shook his head. "If I let you know anything more, she will come for me next."

Lily picked up several plates of food from the cart and set them by the plate on the ground. When the demon shook his head, she gestured at the rest of the cart. "Everyone has a price."

"I can't tell you where she is or how to find her. I only know one thing about her, and even that may be enough to piss her off." The demon stared at the cart, his jowls trembling. After a few moments of silence, he ground his teeth together, which made tiny sparks. "All of it."

"All of it?" Ingrid looked at the food. "That's bigger than you are."

"Their stomachs are bottomless pits," Lily replied. "Will thirty seconds even be enough to finish it?"

The demon nodded. "I could eat both of you AND that food in thirty seconds."

"Lily." Ingrid felt uneasy now. "What's to stop him from attacking us?"

"Huh. Good question. Didn't think of that." Lily jerked her thumb at the cart. "You give me something to work with, I'll throw all that in, and we're done talking."

The demon started hopping up and down in anticipation, its flat tail wagging from side to side in the pool of drool that was now up to its knees. "I could never get her name, because names are dangerous. She keeps it to herself. But over the last century, I've heard what other people call her."

When the demon didn't continue, Ingrid groaned. "Are you really going for dramatic effect here?"

"To be fair, demons love their drama," said Lily, her voice oddly husky. "What do people call her?"

The Glutton started wringing his hands together like a fly. "I need to preface this by saying it's not just a word. The people who know her by this title take her very seriously. This is good information. I don't want you backing out of this deal at the last second."

"A demon can't lie," said Lily. "Not when directly asked. You know this."

"I also know there's a catch," the Glutton replied. "I just haven't figured it out yet."

"It'll be a surprise for all of us." Lily grinned, her features stretching past human boundaries. "What do all these big important people call her?"

"The Collector." The demon grinned and stared at them. "If you knew any better, you'd let me eat you before she finds out I told you. It would make for a happier ending for all of us."

"The Collector?" Ingrid almost laughed. "That...doesn't actually help us."

"In the right circles it will." The demon's tongue was now dangling from his face. "And we're done talking. It's time to honor your agreement."

"Yes. It is." Lily stood and moved toward the containment unit. "I am a man of my word, after all."

Ingrid took a step back, her hand going to her pocket, only to realize she wasn't armed. What on earth was Lily thinking? Once she let that demon out and it escaped this room, it would put everyone else at the Library in danger and would probably start another fire. Her heart was pounding in her chest as Lily disconnected the speaker system and made like she was going to open the lid.

The succubus stopped, her hands hovering just above the glass. She started humming to herself, then dropped her hands to the holy water button. Instead of clicking it three times, she pressed it over and over again.

Ingrid eventually recognized the song Lily was humming. It was Carry On Wayward Son by a band whose name she couldn't remember.

The Glutton's screams of agony filled the room as the holy water burned it. The tiny vessel filled with smoke and enough holy water to annihilate the demon entirely, destroying its only link to earth. The vessel eventually became so hot that the inner glass cracked, causing the rest of the holy water to flood inside.

Satisfied that the demon was properly disposed of, Lily clapped her hands as if dusting them off. When she turned to face Ingrid, her eyes shifted from brown back to red.

"How?" asked Ingrid breathlessly. "You lied to him."

"Did I?" Lily's lips twisted into a malevolent grin. "What would have possessed me to do that?"

"That's what it seemed like." Ingrid thought back over the conversation. She couldn't spot a single loophole in their agreement that would have allowed Lily to destroy the demon.

"You said you trusted me," Lily replied.

"Yeah, I do." Ingrid shook her head. "I'm...just really surprised is all. How did you do it?"

"Since you trust me, I think that you should allow a girl to keep a few secrets of her own," Lily replied. "We should worry now about more pressing details, such as this Collector wanting you dead. Let's go talk to Lala, see what she can dig up."

"Yeah." Ingrid watched Lily leave the room, then hung back for a few more seconds to stare at the ruptured holy water tank. She half expected a tiny piece of the demon to still exist there, or for the little bastard to pop through the floor and eat his promised meal. Instead, all she was left with was more questions.

Giving up, she decided to let it go and followed after Lily.

Dana had no idea what time it was. Ever since the demon's explosion, her mind had rapidly shifted back and forth between being fully conscious of her actions and...well, that special fugue state where she would suddenly realize that some amount of time had passed. That usually meant she had just been fed, which would then lead to painfully experiencing all of her actions like a drunk magically remembering their blackout.

Luckily, today's outburst hadn't included a bodycount, but she did recall what happened after trying to devour a demon. It had felt like the worst kind of heartburn, a searing pain deep inside that went beyond physical experience. Her body had been trapped between a state of revival and rage as she had thrown herself at the demon over and over again.

It also wasn't lost on her that she had eaten a piece of a gluttony demon. Over the last few years, she had found creative ways to deal with her hunger, but this had been the first time ever that she had felt like the center of her being was an unfillable hole. Even now, the memory of that hunger called to her, trying to pull her back and devour her.

Dana was sitting in a lounge chair next to the bed that she and Tasia had just broken. The werewolf was passed out, her body a sweat-covered mess of sexual bliss. Lily and Eulalie had refused to feed Dana vampyr meat to restore her after stitching her back together, which meant her belly had been filled with Mike's semen. The resulting magical backlash meant that Dana had spent the better part of two hours ravishing Tasia until the woman had passed out mid-orgasm.

The thought of Tasia's sweet screams caused a smile to cross Dana's face. She had been sitting here for nearly an hour now, watching Tasia sleep. The Mediterranean beauty still wore a wide smirk.

The first sign that Tasia was ready to wake up was when the rats brought in a food cart. Dana obviously hadn't ordered anything. The fact that the trolley was packed high with hundreds of dollars in cooked meat meant that the Library had likely detected Tasia's hunger and had brought the things she craved most. From where Dana sat, she could actually see the werewolf's nostrils flare as the scent of the meat reached her.

"Mmf." Tasia's eyes opened and she yawned. "Holy shit, that smells good. What is it?"

"Steak. Brisket. Pork belly." Dana tilted her head to see more of the platter. "Bacon. Smoked turkey. Regular turkey. Rotisserie chicken."

"Is that all?" Tasia sat up, the blanket falling off of her to reveal that she was naked.

"Just what I can see."

"It's my lucky day, then." She slid out of bed and padded over to a small table in the corner, pausing just long enough to drag the cart to her. "Uncountable orgasms and all the meat I can eat."

Dana smirked. "You're welcome, by the way."

Tasia gave her a thumbs up and started eating. Her face was soon shining with grease and tangy BBQ sauce as she powered through the first part of her meal. Dana couldn't help but be a little envious. They both had massive appetites, but at least Tasia could get full.

Between bites, the werewolf spoke. "Have we heard anything from the others?"

Dana nodded. "Eulalie texted me earlier. She got a lead from Lily that she's looking into. Sounds like the thing with the demon was because we killed those things in the datacenter."

Tasia contemplated that for a moment, shrugged, then picked up a handful of bacon. She broke it into strips and ate those between bites of other stuff. A big fork had been stuck in the brisket, which she used to spear a massive piece.

"I wish you could taste this, it's really good." Tasia shoved the food in her mouth and made little happy sounds. "I should find out where this one came from," she said. "Maybe keep a list of the places with the best food. When you're cured, we can go visit all of them."

Dana's smile faded, and Tasia immediately noticed.

"Don't be sad," said the werewolf. "It'll happen someday."

Dana wasn't entirely certain what to say to that, so kept her mouth shut. This didn't dissuade Tasia as she hoped.

"Are you worried that we won't find a cure?" she asked. "Or are you worried that we won't find a cure in my lifetime?"

Dana wasn't entirely certain how to bring up that she was more thinking that she hadn't actually thought about finding a cure for some time now. Her current state of existence was an asset, so why not utilize it? Ever since they had been unable to track down some of the enchanted goods from Unearthly Delights, Ratu hadn't come up with any more ideas on how to fix Dana.

That, and what good would a college dropout be to the household anyway? If Dana could be fixed, she would no longer have heightened senses, incredible strength, or a memory like a steel trap. She would just be a boring young woman again, one who would be forced to deal with the trauma and drama of the last few years.

Realizing that Tasia was waiting for an answer, Dana ran through all the possible options in her head and tried to pick the one that would upset Tasia the least. "I'm worried about what will happen when I am human," she admitted. "My brain is no longer used to processing emotions, and I've got quite the backlog."

"Is that why you cried so much after sex?" asked Tasia.

"I thought you were asleep."

The werewolf lifted an eyebrow. "I came so hard that I passed out. It doesn't mean I didn't wake up and hear you sobbing in the bathroom. I would have gotten out of bed to check on you if you hadn't been working so hard to keep me from hearing it."

Dana frowned. After sex, the flood of emotions had come. She had gone to the bathroom to take a shower and had screamed into some towels until her throat was raw. This was an impressive feat based on the fact that her body had continued to regenerate those cells.

"I can't believe you heard that," Dana muttered.

Tasia flicked her own ears. "I get to hear lots of things, even while human. You'd be surprised how much you just ignore."

"Not really." Dana leaned back in her seat and put her hands behind her head to look at the ceiling. "I actually had to learn to tune out a lot of stuff so that I don't actively remember things."

"How so?"

The zombie grimaced. "I sort of have to treat my memories like white noise these days. For example, if I heard a snippet of a song, my brain immediately jumps to every time I've ever heard that song."

"Since dying," Tasia clarified.

"Yeah. Since dying. It's why I tend to listen to podcasts and audiobooks instead of music. Repetition is a comfort for most, but a path of madness for people with a memory like mine."

"Can you..." Tasia paused, clearly trying to choose her words. "I guess I'm trying to ask if your mental health regenerates like your body, but I'm not sure there's a smoother way to ask that."

Dana sighed. This was also a dilemma she often thought about. "Detachment is key," she admitted. "Emotions are complicated. Not only do they get bottle-necked in my brain, they also get recycled. Some of them are easier to handle, the things from when I was alive. But once they're triggered, they all come at once. It's like having your life flash before your eyes, but it's only a highlight reel of highs and lows. Unfortunately, the lows are pretty big these days. Being detached all the time means I can think about stuff like that as if it happened to someone else."

"That sounds like a trauma response if I've ever heard one," muttered Tasia.

The zombie shrugged. "It is. I'm not in denial about how things are. You should think of me as solution-minded. Doing things to prevent myself from breaking like a dam is preferable."

"Is that why you've been eating Timotei?"

Dana didn't respond.

"I've been sort of thinking about it. Your body responds to the different things you eat based on what they were. You're stronger from the vampyr meat, but the cost has been your emotions. The vampyr learn early on to become detached from reality, but theirs is less of a coping mechanism and more of a necessity. When you become the apex predator in an ecosystem, you stop identifying with the prey that you used to be." Tasia bit into a piece of steak and swallowed it. "This is also why billionaires are massive assholes."

"Eulalie is technically a billionaire," Dana replied, hoping to change the subject.

"She was born an apex predator and taught to sympathize and respect her prey. Nice try, though." Tasia set down the steak and stared at her plate. "Do you remember what you said on the rig? Or were you too out of it?"

Dana's mind flitted back to the events of the oil rig. She saw every moment played out again before her eyes, inwardly cringing at her breakdown when she was caught up in the madness.

"I do," she admitted.

"It seemed like there was a lot of fear and guilt. Um...have you ever thought about talking with someone about it?"

"I can and have. Talking about my feelings now is a useless endeavor. I'm essentially a different person in those moments. It would be like trying to get you therapy by having Tink talk to a doctor."

"Then why not try and speak to someone while you're in the middle of it?" asked Tasia. "Have a therapist on standby, or whatever."

"And have them try to talk me down while I'm essentially in a full blown crisis?" Dana shook her head. "Bypassing all of the obvious issues with such an idea, what would that even do for me? Shrieking at a mental health professional while in the midst of a full trauma dump isn't exactly going to achieve any progress in regards to my mental health."

"Yeah, but...I don't know. Even if they said something that could help you, you would remember it later. So every time you explode, you'd also have to remember having somebody right next to you trying to assist with all your issues. Like a phantom grief counselor."

Dana opened her mouth to rebut, but couldn't. She felt the idea was silly, borderline asinine, and absolutely stupid, yet somehow seemed like it would actually work.

This conversation had already gotten deeper than she wanted. She needed to find some way to bring it to an end so they could speak about other, more pleasant things. What would Mike say in a situation like this? His humour was great at getting out of trouble.

"I don't know that my health insurance would cover it," Dana finally said with a fake grin.

"Not gonna work on me," said Tasia. "You're deflecting. You think my idea has merit and would rather just eat your problems instead of facing them."

Okay, so the Mike approach hadn't been the way to go. Dana settled on just glaring at Tasia, which wasn't a mature response either.

"Don't be mad at me for being right." Tasia rolled her eyes and picked up a smoked turkey leg. "I think you should figure out all the obvious issues with my idea and then see if your billionaire friend can pay a psychologist enough money to overlook what it takes to get you in such a state. I'm sure there are plenty of shrinks who would love to have their student loans paid off after just a couple of sessions, don't you?"

"When did you get so smart?" Dana muttered.

"I am what I eat," Tasia replied with a grin. "And I love eating my smart-ass girlfriend."

It wasn't lost on Dana that somehow Tasia had just out-Miked her.

Tasia took the lapse in conversation as an opportunity to stuff her face. Using both hands to eat, she consumed the daily intake of several men, her face and hands dripping with meat juice and sauce by the time she was done. She stood, revealing a slight bulge in her stomach, and licked her fingers on the way to the bathroom for a shower.

While Tasia was busy cleaning herself, Dana's cell phone buzzed. She picked it up to see that Eulalie had texted her. Apparently, the Arachne had some news.

Dana went into the bathroom and saw Tasia rinsing out her hair.

"We're on," she said. "Lala wants us in the command center."

"Let me finish up." Tasia ran her hands through her hair twice to make sure all the suds were gone, then turned off the shower. She shook herself off, then got out.

"You know, you don't have to shake if you have one of these," Dana said, holding out a towel.

"Force of habit," Tasia admitted.

After changing into the clothes the rats had brought for her, Tasia followed Dana to Eulalie's computer room. Lily and Ingrid were already there, the two of them in mid conversation. The Arachne spun in her web hammock and grinned.

"Okay," she said, clapping her hands together. "We've finally got a potential lead. I had to do some serious data mining for this, so praise me."

When nobody responded, Eulalie rolled her eyes and clapped for herself. The others soon followed suit.

"Anyway, let's talk about this Collector person. With a title like that, a simple Google search wasn't going to cut it," she said. "Finding this stuff was even harder than narrowing down crypto transactions."

"Why?" asked Ingrid.

"Because I didn't know where to look," Eulalie replied. "I actually had to dig super deep for this. If not for the fact that I've spent a ton of time prioritizing digitization of any information related to the Order or their--"

"We get it, you're very smart," said Lily. "Skip the minutiae."

"Rude!" Eulalie crossed her arms. "In short, I had to combine records from the Order, the auction, and the Library to narrow down who this mysterious Collector could be. They are very rarely mentioned, and have been around at least for the last two centuries. In fact, the only mention of them from the auction's servers were in two disciplinary reports for people who had accidentally referred to her as the Collector out loud along with some paperwork related to the construction of the data center you broke into. It was just a very brief "the Collector has instructed us" kind of affairs."

When nobody said anything, Eulalie turned and started typing on her computer. "Okay, so we know the Collector is involved with the auction both as an invested party as well as a buyer. Now the Library has some records pertaining to her from the early 1800s. Sounds like she fell into the "we don't mess with her, she doesn't mess with us" category of potential patrons. Order records agree, but also have given her a special threat level because she has a predilection for collecting cryptids for her own use."

"So she's dangerous, but even more so because she has dangerous shit." Lily crossed her arms and frowned. "Some of this is ringing a bell. I think that the Society may have had some dealings with her, but only rarely. Definitely not by that name. If I'm thinking of the same person, my ex Amir despised the woman."

"Why?" asked Eulalie.

"Why does any powerful man hate a woman? She had more power than he did and wouldn't share." Lily shrugged. "A real solo operator, likes to do her own thing."

"And if my sources are correct, a witch." Eulalie typed something and clicked her mouse. Several windows opened on her computer. "So after doing some data analysis, I think I've narrowed down twenty potential locations where she might live. Idea number one is to just mail Jenny to her house and let the ghost take care of it, but I'm thinking that once we find her, we--"

Dana cleared her throat and raised her hand. When the Arachne turned to acknowledge her, she spoke. "This is great and all, but weren't you supposed to be finding out who purchased the Outsider that got taken?"

Eulalie stared at everyone, her pale features somehow now lighter. "Um, uh..." She began fidgeting with her hands.

"Dana is right," Ingrid added. "If we had to drop everything every time somebody wanted one of us dead, we'd never get anything done. We can look into this Collector bitch after we've addressed the primary issue."

Eulalie stopped fidgeting. "Okay, well...I got caught up in the mystery of the Collector. She apparently is known for her predilection to...to..." The Arachne sort of stared off into space, then coughed into one hand. "Gimme a moment."

Everyone waited as the Arachne turned around and typed furiously. Windows opened across all her monitors, revealing data streams that even Dana struggled to follow. When Eulalie turned back around, she seemed far more composed.

"I never told the search algorithms I'd been running to stop," she explained. "So I do have some possible buyers for the Outsider. I've narrowed down our suspects to a pool of three addresses."

"You have addresses?" asked Tasia.

"Yep." Eulalie smirked. "You see, a VPN is only as good as the people who made it. Most of these accounts were made in the infancy of cryptocurrency, and all it takes is for someone back then to forget their VPN a few times or even to buy a discounted one on the internet that keeps a record of their logins. Numerous transactions from these locations align with accounts that were used to pay big dollar amounts for the most recent auction."

"You're scary," said Ingrid, who looked down at Eulalie's feet. "Are your tarsal claws painted now?"

Eulalie held out two of her legs to reveal that the central claw had been painted blue on one and purple on the other. "Do you like them? Aurora did them for me! When we get the chance, we're gonna watch the new Dungeons and Dragons movie together and paint the rest."

Dana cleared her throat. "Can we focus, please? We have a potential Outsider running around. Can we talk about self care and female bonding later?"

"Did somebody say bonding?" Eulalie produced a piece of webbing that had been braided into a rope and tugged it in excitement. Lily laughed, but the others didn't. The Arachne's face fell and she tossed the rope aside. "Okay, fine. That joke was bad and I do feel bad."

"Inside jokes only work when most people are in on it," said Dana. "And they're actually funny. Where are the three locations?"

"And do you have any names?" asked Ingrid.

"Names, no. Shell companies have been around way longer than the internet." Eulalie pulled out her phone and tapped it. The screens behind her transformed. "We have a building in the Cayman Islands--"

"Dibs." Lily pumped her fist as her outfit transformed into a bikini. When she saw the others staring, she smirked. "What? I figured we were splitting up to do some recon? No penetration without permission."

"Ugh. I hate it when you split the party." Eulalie looked at the screen. "We have another location in Kensington. I'll need someone to break into a mansion there."

Dana looked at Ingrid and Tasia, wondering whether either wanted it.

"And the last place?" asked Ingrid.

"Middle of nowhere in Texas." Eulalie winced. "Now that I think about it, time may be of the essence. Splitting up isn't a bad idea."

"Just as long as we observe and report only," Ingrid added.

"Tasia and I can do the break-in," said Dana. "Between the two of us, we can handle whatever."

"Ugh. Texas." Ingrid grimaced. "What special hell waits for me there?"

"Interestingly enough, a building owned by an oil company out in the middle of nowhere." Eulalie frowned. "We might actually have to rent you a car."

"Maybe Ingrid and I should do the islands together and then Texas?" Lily suggested.

Ingrid shook her head. "Please, no. I don't want to slow this operation. I'll just..." The woman took a deep breath and swallowed hard. "I can take Jenny as my backup."

"Are you sure?" asked Tasia. Ingrid nodded and crossed her arms, clearly not interested in continuing the debate.

"Okay, sounds good. I can have portals open in forty."

"The rats are way faster than that," Lily replied.

"They are, but Aurora was meeting with your support team to source some replacement gear. I may have forgotten what we were working on, but I know she didn't." Eulalie's lips curled into an odd smile. It was one Dana hadn't seen since Velvet died. "Who's ready for round two?"

"Three," Tasia replied. "This is technically round three. If we're still talking about the Outsider."

Eulalie's smile disappeared. "Damn it," she muttered. "Okay, then. Round three. Who's ready to kick some ass?"

While the others did a little team cheer, Dana looked up at the monitors, which now displayed some area maps. It only took her a couple of seconds to commit those maps to memories before she looked over at Tasia.

If I'm going to find a cure, I need to do it soon, she thought. Any future she had simply wouldn't be worth it without Tasia by her side. She hated that this was something she knew rather than felt, but there would be plenty of time for feeling things once she was human again.

Forcing a smile at Tasia, she knew she'd actually mean it later.

I hope you enjoyed that, I really had so much fun with that opening scene, but I won't go into specifics. By the way, higher thread count sheets are less likely to tear when bitten.

~Annabelle Hawthorne