The streets of Lucerne were bustling with activity. Locals and tourists milled about, oblivious to Ingrid and her partner, the two of them overlooking the ke. Named after the city itself, Lake Lucerne sported a few boats that puttered through the middle.

  Despite the beautiful alpine scenery and the semi-jovial atmosphere of the people, Ingrid was in a properly foul mood.

  “Ah, c’mon, cheer up.” Lily elbowed her gently in the side. “I’m way more fun than dog-girl, anyway.”

  Upon arriving through the rat portal, the group had been briefed on the location of the data center. Despite the historical architecture of the city, it had been thoroughly modernized. The data center that the auction house used was hidden beneath another one that aggregated climate data from around the world. If not for the surge in electrical usage prior to each auction, Eulie would likely still be trying to hunt it down.

  After the briefing, Eulie had promptly announced that Ingrid would be paired with Lily on this mission. Her argument that Tasia and Dana would be worthless on a stealth mission compared to a shapeshifter had held plenty of merit, but it didn’t mean Ingrid had to be happy about it.

  On the plus side, it had meant that Dana and Tasia were babysitting Jenny. That doll gave Ingrid the fucking creeps.

  “Have I ever told you I like it when you brood?” Lily turned around to lean her back against the railing. She wore a white sweater and had her hair pited into a pair of long braids, making her look like the very epitome of a Swiss girl. Every few blocks, Lily had made subtle changes in an attempt to blend in better with the locals. “You have the best pouting face.”

  “You’ve never seen me brood,” Ingrid replied in irritation.

  Lily raised an eyebrow. “Bitch, please. My whole job in Hawaii was to make you brood. Do you remember that night at the beach bar?”

  Ingrid scowled at the memory. At the time, the Order had thought Lily was little more than a side piece intern for Mike and the succubus had capitalized on it. Yet another in a long line of mistakes that she needed to put behind her.

  “I’d prefer not to dwell on it,” muttered Ingrid. “The whole point of all of…this,” she gestured at the city then continued, “was to move forward and actually do some good in the world.”

  “Ah, you’re on a redemption arc.” Lily turned and leaned over the railing as if looking into the water. She wiggled her leggings-cd ass at the people walking past, and a few of them stared. “I love to see some good character development.”

  “Do you ever stop running your mouth?”

  “I need to keep it stretched and lubricated. Got a man at home with a big dick. It’s like trying to swallow the bottom of a baseball bat.” Lily pantomimed the act, her throat actually bulging out as she gargled air.

  Ingrid blushed at the memory of Mike. Even though she hadn’t seen the guy in months and nothing had happened between them, he had featured very heavily in most of her sexual fantasies of te. When she and Walce had been partners, they had hooked up whenever the need struck. Her current team was, sadly, dick deficient.

  The succubus paused her phantom blowjob and sniffed the air. She turned toward Ingrid and grinned.

  “Not a word,” muttered the mage, painfully aware of how aroused she had become. “And I know it’s not a scent thing, so you can knock off the act. You’re not Tasia.”

  “Now that brings up a question of my own. Has Tasia ever smelled it?” Lily leaned in close. “What all can that girl smell, by the way?”

  Ingrid shrugged and looked away. “If she ever does smell anything, she’s polite enough to keep it to herself.”

  “Booooring. I—” Lily was cut off as her phone and Ingrid’s buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket and checked. “Looks like we’re up, swamp pants.”

  “I fucking hate you,” muttered Ingrid as she leaned away from the railing. “I don’t know how Dana put up with this for so long.”

  “Eh, it’s a perk of being dead inside.” Lily stuck her hands in her pockets and strolled away from the railing. “I’m also her portable snack shack.”

  “What the hell does that even mean?”

  “I could expin it, but it wouldn’t be polite.” The two of them moved into the city, keeping an eye out for a man named Ludwig. He had just left his shift at Sky Climbers Data Processing, which was the data center above the one they needed to access. Eulie was fairly certain the guy actually worked for the auction house and had it on good authority that he went to the same bar for dinner after each of his shifts.

  It didn’t take long before both Ingrid and Lily had eyes on the man. He was tall and nky with a scar on his chin and a patchy beard. If Ingrid had to guess, the guy was probably just one of the data nerds who worked at the center. They tailed him from half a block back, one of them on each side of the street. Ludwig was oblivious as he walked over a mile to get to a pce called Hüsli Av ?l. Ingrid heard him greet the bartender as the door shut behind him.

  “So what’s the move?” whispered Lily from behind, causing Ingrid to flinch. She hadn’t even sensed the succubus cross the street behind her. “There’s no way a guy like that will believe two women are interested in him.”

  Ingrid sighed. “Is this the part where you tell me that I’m the ugly one, so I should go flirt with him?”

  “Hell, no. Girl, you’re a catch.” Lily swatted Ingrid’s tight butt pyfully. “You engage him in conversation and he’ll think something is up. If anything, I should be the one to undertake Operation Ugg-ems. What are we thinking, Jennifer Gray before the nose job? She was hot in that ‘she would probably settle for me’ kind of way.”

  “What? No.” Ingrid scowled. “For starters, if our guy is legit, he’ll immediately suspect any woman coming onto him.” She opened her mouth to continue her line of thought, then closed it when she remembered who she was talking to.

  “Wait, did you almost let some actual personality slip out?” Lily ughed and took Ingrid by the hand. She had shifted her facial features and now looked like she could be Ingrid’s sister. “C’mon, let’s hear it. For starters means there’s something else you wanted to say.”

  “No.” Ingrid pulled her hand away. “There wasn’t anything else,” she lied.

  “C’mon.” Lily dropped her voice. “Say it or I’ll moan.”

  Ingrid’s eyebrows threatened to climb off her face. “You wouldn’t.”

  “I’ll even add an ‘oh daddy’ to it.” Lily made her lips into an O. “I’ll do it right in front of everyone.”

  Sighing, Ingrid crossed her arms and looked at her feet. “Second…nobody puts Baby in a corner.”

  “Ha!” Lily snatched Ingrid’s arm and pulled her along. “Isn’t Patrick Swayze a dream? So many beans have been flicked to that man, he could have started his own coffee chain.”

  “I still hate you,” muttered Ingrid.

  “That’s because we’re in the midst of an enemy to lovers arc. You get a few drinks in me and I’ll go down on you like a billionaire’s submersible.”

  Ingrid narrowed her eyes. “That thing imploded.”

  “Just like my st long-term retionship. He was a billionaire, too, if you account for inftion.”

  “I…what?” Ingrid shook her head. “This conversation is pointless. As I was saying, our boy is going to be immediately suspicious of any woman who shows interest in him, ugly or otherwise. So instead of going around it, we should lean into it.”

  “Now you’re talking dirty. What’s the pn?”

  “We could just roll in as a couple of hot tourists looking to get some sucker to pay for our drinks. That would give us an in. Maybe he’ll roll with it, buy us some beers, and let us flirt with him. You just need to get close enough to mind meld with him, right?”

  Lily nodded. “But we need to get him in a dark corner first so that nobody is the wiser when I knock him out. Unless you want to shove your hand up his ass and use him as a puppet.”

  “For a moment there, I thought you were serious,” Ingrid mumbled.

  “I’m a demon and cannot lie.” Lily pulled Ingrid toward the front door of Hüsli Av ?l. “C’mon, let’s see what sort of hometown advantage we’re dealing with.”

  When they stepped into the bar, the immediate smell of hamburgers and beer washed over them. Ingrid inhaled deeply, then let out a quiet sigh. Her stomach grumbled in protest, begging her to just take a peek at the menu, maybe talk Lily into splitting an appetizer with her. Then it rebelled, realizing that Lily would probably take more than her fair share. No, it would be better to just get her own order, maybe see if they’d top it with cheese, holy shit, was that guy eating some brisket? What was the German word for brisket, she could order it off the—

  A sharp elbow in her side snapped her back to the job at hand. Lily took Ingrid by the hand and pulled her toward the bar where Ludwig sat. The man already had a beer and was staring at a small tablet, deep in thought. When they got to the bar, Ingrid saw that the man was holding an ebook reader she didn’t recognize.

  They split up, sitting on either side of him. Ludwig didn’t look up, he was too engrossed in whatever he was reading.

  “Hey there.” Lily leaned forward and fshed a grin at Ludwig. “What are you reading?”

  Ludwig didn’t even look up. The man’s focus was complete. He picked up his beer and drank some of it, his eyes locked on his book.

  The bartender came over and tapped on the counter to get their attention. When he spoke, it was in Swiss German. “What are you having?” he asked, or something simir. Ingrid’s German was good enough to understand him.

  Lily fired off an order so fast that Ingrid couldn’t follow. The man nodded and left, leaving them alone. Ludwig tapped the screen, changing to the next page.

  Scowling, Ingrid leaned back to look at Lily over Ludwig’s hunched shoulders. All that talk about a pn had gone out the window. “Now what?” she mouthed.

  “Puppet time,” Lily replied silently, then reached over and stroked the back of Ludwig’s hand. The man flinched, looked up at Lily, then started to slump forward. Ingrid let out a ugh like she’d been told a joke, then hugged Ludwig from the side to keep him from face pnting. Beneath the fabric of Ludwig’s shirt, Ingrid felt Lily’s tail slide into pce, holding him up.

  Ludwig’s hand dropped to the counter, but to anyone looking, the man had hunched forward and was still engrossed in his book. When the bartender came back and slid a pte of sliders that Ludwig had obviously ordered earlier onto the table, he gave them all a questioning look.

  “He just read the sad part,” said Ingrid in stilted Deutsch. “Of his story.”

  The bartender didn’t look totally convinced as he walked away. Ingrid winced and looked over at the succubus. “Do you have it?” she asked.

  Lily’s face was frozen in a fake smile as she stared at the countertop. “Almost,” she whispered. “Right front pocket of his jacket.”

  Ingrid slid a hand into the man’s coat and pulled out a bnk keycard. “Anything else?”

  “Key, but I’ve got it already.” Lily’s eyes went crossed. “This fucker is so boring, damn. He keeps a spreadsheet on his computer that keeps track of his clothes. It’s like I’m digging through the boring parts of the matrix just to see…aha!” The succubus took her hand off of Ludwig and propped him upright. His fist was now pressed against his forehead to keep him from tumbling over. “We need to go.”

  “Kay,” was all Ingrid could say. She had crammed a slider into her mouth and was fumbling with a second one. The two of them made it outside without any issues, then casually walked away from the bar and toward the center of town.

  “Don’t be greedy,” said Lily as she snatched the other slider out of Ingrid’s hand. She took a bite and let out a loud mmm. “These are really good.”

  Ingrid finished chewing her slider and swallowed it. She regretted not having something to wash it down. “Are we good to get in?”

  “Yeah, but there was a hitch. He’s a data nerd, like we suspected, but the front office equivalent. The guy monitors data streams from a glorified reception desk out front. If there’s any trouble with the equipment, he calls in a special contractor to work on it.”

  “That’s weird, right?”

  “Not as weird as that ssh Warhammer fiction he was reading.” Lily ughed. “There’s no possible way you can gape an asshole like that.”

  “Ugh, why can’t you be normal?”

  “This is normal for me, Ingrid. I don’t hide it like other people do.” Lily licked the grease off her fingers as the duo moved deeper into the city toward the data center. It was almost fifteen minutes to their destination, a small, nondescript building with no windows on the outside. The two paused around the corner from the data center while Lily sent an update to Eulie.

  “Give me the card,” said Lily. Ingrid handed it over and the succubus stepped into an alleyway and emerged looking just like Ludwig.

  “That’s unnerving,” Ingrid said.

  Ludwig/Lily waggled their eyebrows, then held out an arm. “Wanna take a tour of my workpce?” they asked. “You can blow me outside the server room.”

  “Please don’t make this creepier than it needs to be.”

  Lily snorted, then led Ingrid the rest of the way. They walked into the lobby of the building and were spotted by a security guard who obviously recognized Ludwig and waved.

  “It’s my cousin,” Ludwig/Lily said in Swiss German. “Giving her a tour of the stacks.”

  “Have fun,” replied the guard.

  Ingrid was led to an elevator. Once inside, Lily transformed back to normal and stuck the key into the panel, then tapped a button beled B2.

  “Aren’t you worried that we’ll get spotted?” asked Ingrid.

  “There’s no cameras at all in the basement,” Lily said. “Our st obstacle is some older woman who does the night shift. This pce is typically run with a skeleton crew. They just need to make sure the information they have is secure, then delete it after all the payments have gone through.”

  “No cameras? That doesn’t sound very secure.”

  “No shit.” Lily leaned against the wall and crossed her arms as the elevator descended. They were going far deeper than a normal basement. “There are a bunch of red fgs, but I can only go off of Ludwig’s memories. The man has worked here almost a decade and never once gone beyond the entryway. I’m half expecting to discover that there aren’t any servers and that Eulie made a mistake or something.”

  “So a data center with almost no employees?” Ingrid shook her head. “I don’t like it.”

  “Either way, the evidence still points to this pce belonging to the auction house, so hopefully Eulie can find something she can use. Besides, we only need to get inside long enough to snap some pics for the rats to chew a tiny portal for our girl to hook directly into their system.” Lily pocketed the key. “In just a few more seconds, we’re gonna meet the night crew. She’s armed, by the way.”

  “Armed with what?” Ingrid stepped to the side before the door opened. Lily had already transformed back into Ludwig and was waving their hands frantically.

  “Apologies,” they said to someone Ingrid couldn’t see. “I forgot something.”

  “You got on the elevator with someone,” said a female voice.

  “She’s my cou—” Lily shot forward so fast that it looked like she teleported. A gun went off, followed by the sound of a heavy weight hitting the floor. Ingrid pulled out her wand and stepped around the corner to see Lily on top of the desk, huddled over with her wings spread. An older woman was held in her tail like a python stealing a child.

  “We okay?” asked Ingrid.

  “Bitch almost hit the panic button.” Lily dropped the woman on the floor and then crouched over her and put fingers to the woman’s temples. After a couple of moments, she swore and stood up.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Two things. One, she doesn’t seem to know anything more about this pce than Ludwig did.” Lily moved to the desk and started rummaging through it. “And two, she knits hats for orphans.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means she fucking knits hats for orphans. Ludwig cranks it to Warhammer porn. This woman watches Murder She Wrote while cranking out clothing for kids without parents. I’m fucking hungry, and it turns me into a real bitch.” The succubus pulled another gun out of the desk and tucked it away. “C’mon, we’ve only got about twenty minutes before she’s up.”

  “That’s really short.”

  “She just started her shift. The woman had like three cups of coffee. This is Switzernd, they’ve got the good shit here.” Lily leapt off the desk toward a featureless door inset behind it. “Or maybe it’s the speed she just snorted.”

  “I thought you said she knitted hats for orphans.” Ingrid knelt down to inspect the woman. She looked to be in her forties.

  “I did. She also snorts speed, likes how it makes her feel young again. Doesn’t like that it causes her to grind her teeth, which is why she has veneers. Do you want to keep talking about her life choices or do you want to find some proper nerd shit?” Lily moved to the door and pulled the card out of her pocket. “Oh, shit. She has a card like this one, too. Can you find it?”

  “Got it.” Ingrid pulled the bnk card from around the woman’s neck. “Why do we need it?”

  “This door requires two cards to get in.” Lily gestured toward the wall closest to Ingrid. “Secret scanner about waist height.”

  Ingrid frowned and waved the card around the wall while Lily did the same on her side. “I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this.”

  “Maybe this is where they keep all the hats she knits.” Lily smirked and the door opened to illuminate a long hallway. At the other end was another door. “Okay, no hats. Just your general weirdness.”

  “I’m starting to think Eulie sent us on a wild goose chase.” The two of them walked into the hallway together. Lily shoved her way forward, her head on a swivel as she studied the area.

  “You might be right, except for this.” Lily pointed to the corner of the hallway. Bundles of wires had popped out from the ceiling and now ran above them toward the door on the other end. “Whoever designed this pce clearly had a hard-on for brutalism. I feel like we’re walking into a modern dungeon.”

  “It’s a secure facility, what do you want?”

  “Something more modern. Snack bar. Napping pods.” Lily made it to the other door and frowned. “Okay, well…we’re officially out of our jurisdiction here. Neither Ludwig nor his bosom buddy back there have access through this door. I don’t see any keypads or even a lock we can pick.”

  “Here, allow me.” Ingrid pulled Lily back from the door and drew one of her wands.

  “Ooh, is that one of your fancy espionage wands?” Lily cpped her own cheeks and did a dance. “Are you going to cast Knock?”

  Magic shot forth from the wand, creating a directional bst of force that tore through the door and ripped it completely off whatever moorings held it in pce. A wave of heat from the open room enveloped them, and the dust settled to reveal a rge row of servers.

  “Knock, knock, motherfucker.” Ingrid tucked her wand away and looked at Lily. “There. You happy?”

  “I am soooo turned on right now, you have no idea.” Lily blew Ingrid a kiss and pulled out her phone. “Okay, so let’s snap a few pics of this pce and get back upstairs. Then we can let the rats do their…” She tilted her head and sniffed.

  “Is this going to be another stinky vagina gag?” Ingrid shook her head in disgust. “I swear, you have the attention span of a toddler.”

  “No, it’s not that.” Lily sniffed again. “Something smells musky.”

  “Ha ha, you just said you’re turned on, you’re smelling—”

  Lily cpped a hand over Ingrid’s mouth. “No. Really. Smell.”

  Ingrid rolled her eyes and did so, then frowned. There really was an odd odor in the air. “What is that?” she asked, then sniffed again. It reminded her of the animal house at a zoo, or perhaps a small pet store.

  “That’s just it. I don’t recognize it.” Lily sniffed again and made a face. “It smells like ass. Not in the good way, either.”

  Ingrid didn’t bother dignifying that with a response. “It’s really hot in here,” she said. “I’m surprised they aren’t trying to cool the pce. The air is stuffy, too, like there’s no ventition.”

  “Might be what all the stone is for, but…” Lily cocked her head to one side. “You hear that?”

  “No.”

  The succubus walked further into the stacks, her phone held out to capture video. “We’ve gone way past red fgs straight into arm bells. I can’t let Eulie or her rats come here until we figure out what the deal is.”

  “I thought we were on a timer,” said Ingrid.

  “Don’t care.” Lily’s casual, cheerful demeanor was now gone. She was suddenly all business, her attitude verging on anger. It was a rather unnerving shift. “If I suspect for a moment that she might get hurt coming here, I’ll burn this pce to the ground.”

  “Why, though?” Ingrid pulled out her phone to catch video. “What is she to you?”

  “La?” Lily shook her head as if shaking off a memory. “She’s family.”

  “I thought demons couldn’t have families.” Ingrid looked away from her screen. “Your kind tend to be loners. What makes her so special?”

  Lily bit her lip. “It’s complicated. Now shut up and let me think for a minute.”

  Ingrid pocketed her phone and drew an extra wand. "I'm not gonna lie," she said. "It freaks me out when you’re suddenly serious."

  "We're in a secret underground facility that smells like piss and has no real security. I’m starting to think..." Lily sniffed the air again, then moved close to the nearest server stack. "What the fuck? It’s actually the computers that smell like piss." She rubbed her hand along the frame and pulled it away to stare at her palm. "It's some kind of oil. Damn, now I smell like piss." She shook her hand, trying to get it clean.

  "That...why..." Ingrid heard a rustling sound, followed by the click of toenails on concrete. "What the fuck is that?" she asked.

  "I don't know, but I'm gonna—" Lily never got a chance to finish. She turned toward the source of the sound, her eyes briefly going wide as her features turned grey. Stumbling backward, Lily fumbled her phone and crashed to the floor, her arms and legs spasming as her whole body turned to stone.

  "SHIT!" Ingrid suddenly realized what it was that she smelled and closed her eyes. If she was correct, the servers themselves had been rubbed down with weasel pheromones. It wasn't a protective measure from anyone who might break in. Instead, it was to keep the computers safe from the creatures that lurked in the stacks.

  Ingrid heard the rustle of feathers and something the size of a small dog crashed into her. It bit and cwed, tearing holes through her jacket. She dropped her wand and pulled another one out, unable to open her eyes and aim. Putting the wand between the attacker and herself, she fired. There was a bst of energy as the cockatrice was blown away, but she didn't dare open her eyes to see if she had killed it.

  The cockatrice was one of the more dangerous cryptids on the Order's extermination list. With the ability to kill someone and turn them to stone with a single gnce, its only real weakness was that it rarely grew bigger than thirty pounds and could be dispatched with any normal weapon. Weasels were their natural predator, which was why the stacks had been treated to protect the vulnerable capables.

  "A fucking cockatrice," she muttered as she jumped to her feet. Of course the auction house would keep something like this to protect their data center. The pce was nice and hot, which the lizard-like cockatrice would enjoy. As long as they kept it fed regurly, the damned thing would be plenty happy enough down here.

  "Lily?" How long would it take for the succubus to recover? Would she recover? Ingrid took a few steps backward and heard a hissing sound to her left. A faint whiff of poisonous gas burned her nostrils, and she turned away from the mist and moved as quickly as she could. She could hear the scuttling of nails on concrete from two directions now, meaning that she was dealing with at least a couple.

  This was the real reason they had a special tech come out for server issues. That meant there was a way to deal with a cockatrice, but what would it be?

  "Let's see, mirrors. Their own reflection can kill them. Does the tech come in wearing weasel spray? You don't want to kill off—ahh!" Ingrid flinched when a sharp beak bit into her leg. She kicked out, managing to catch the cockatrice with the point of her shoe. "Fuck off!" she shouted.

  Another cw scratched her from the side. She grabbed the little fucker and wrestled it to the ground, then shoved her wand into its mouth and fired. There was a horrifying sound, followed by an explosion that sounded like defting balloons. Feathers fluttered in the air, which Ingrid swatted away. Could she use her cell phone somehow? Would the cockatrice's gaze transfer through it? It shouldn't, but...

  The pce didn't have cameras, which meant something bad was likely to happen. She didn't dare risk it. Carefully rising, she listened for another attacker, leaning against a nearby stack for support. Her fingers slipped in the thin yer of oil that had been applied to the shelving itself. She held it to her face and sniffed, then winced at the stink.

  Without hesitation, Ingrid got her hands covered in the stuff and wiped it all over herself. Not long after, she heard something rush up to her and slide to a stop before letting out a hiss. She backed away from the sound, her nostrils burning as the edge of the poisonous mist caught her.

  “Little fucker,” she muttered, then felt around inside her pockets. Clutching a tiny charm in her hand, she felt the magic manifest around her, clearing the air almost immediately just as a second cockatrice hissed at her from the left. Moving carefully, she tried to backtrack to where Lily had fallen. Unable to locate the succubus, Ingrid clutched the talisman in her hand and let out a scream of frustration as the cockatrices hissed all around her.

  ---

  The air smelled of smoked meat and filet mignon with hints of rosemary and salt. Dana breathed it in, inhaling Tasia's scent until it filled her lungs and dominated her mind.

  "What are you thinking about?" asked Tasia as she stared out over the water.

  The werewolf was holding a hot dog of all things, some brilliant concoction of mb with onion crisps sprinkled along the top. Officially, they were supposed to be wandering Lucerne while pretending to be on a date in case Lily or Ingrid needed backup.

  However, to Dana, this was the real deal. The two of them were allowed to just be, to wander the streets without fleeing from danger, or avoiding demons and vampires. Both had started their retionship from a pce of self-preservation and something had blossomed on the battlefield. On more than one night, Dana had worried that those feelings would fade if ever given a chance during a peaceful moment. Would she still find Tasia just as exciting in still moments like these ones?

  Tasia had a smear of mustard on her lower lip. Dana reached out to wipe it away with her thumb. She shoved the stained digit in her mouth and sucked off the condiment, catching just a taste of Tasia's sweat.

  The answer was a resounding yes. She hadn't recently fed, nor were they trapped in a life or death situation, yet her heart was practically pounding at a rapid three beats per minute. Her insides functioned differently, likely due to the vampyr buffet she was keeping, and that meant she actually noticed little things like this now.

  "You," Dana admitted. "The two of us. What comes next."

  "Really?" Tasia smiled, a crooked thing where one corner rose far sooner than the other. "I don't know why you'd obsess over me when I'm right here."

  Dana chuckled. "I spent forever trying not to think about you," she admitted. "And now that you're actually here, I can think about you all I want without dealing with that empty feeling in my stomach that comes when I remember you aren't there."

  "Fuck," Tasia muttered, then took a small bite of hot dog. "That.um, well...shit."

  "Is that a problem?" asked Dana.

  "Oh, hell no." Tasia blushed. "It made me all embarrassed, happy, and a little bit horny. I honestly don't know how to reply to that. You just kind of dropped it like a bomb and I loved it."

  "I've had a lot of time to think about what I've wanted to say to you," said Dana. "Have you ever run a conversation through your head in advance, wondering what you would say in each possible situation? I did that, but remember everything I could have possibly wanted to say." She turned toward the water and let out a sigh. Part of appearing human was simply acting the part, remembering the tiny things to keep from making others wary. "It was like a choose-your-own-adventure conversation from hell."

  "You thought about the different options?" Tasia frowned. "So...does that mean you knew what you wanted to say if I ran into you somewhere, or maybe even...like, if we were on opposite sides."

  Dana shrugged. "None of those matter now. It happened the way it did." She turned and took Tasia's hand. "If I could, I would forget all those options and free up some space in my head for...well, probably more stuff."

  "You seem better now," said Tasia. "Don't take this the wrong way, but a bit more human."

  "Acting lessons," Dana replied. "I have this project I'm working on at home, and sometimes I needed to actually leave the house and meet people to help me with it. Money can buy a lot of things, but I didn't feel like trying to convince Mike to purchase me a clean room for machining gears. I apparently was giving off some real serial killer vibes for a while, so did some online courses. Here, watch this." Dana stared at Tasia for several long seconds. "Can you see it?"

  Tasia watched her. "See what?"

  "I'm swaying," Dana replied. "Instead of holding perfectly still." To illustrate the point, Dana stopped moving.

  "Oh, wow, you're like a hot, sexy statue." Tasia ate some more of her hotdog. "When you do that, it makes my inner wolf freak out a little."

  "Why?" asked Dana.

  "It's that feeling a predator gets when it meets another one in the middle of the woods. I feel like you may chase me down and eat me."

  "Did that already," Dana replied. "I might just do it again."

  Stop, Jenny muttered in their heads. The doll was tucked into a small backpack that Dana wore. Talk about something else.

  "Damn, that gives me the shivers," said Tasia. "I feel like you're carrying around an unstable bomb."

  "Accurate," Dana replied. "It may not seem like it, but she knows when it's okay to go off."

  "Speaking of, I saw some...stuff that happened in some old bunker involving her. She's one of the Order's new boogeymen."

  "Are boogeymen real?" asked Dana.

  Tasia nodded. "They're kind of wild, honestly. Some are content to scare the shit out of kids and just slurp up that terror like spilled juice. Others will fy you just to hear your screams. Jenny falls into the tter category."

  I like it when they beg, replied Jenny. The darkness comes for them, threatening to swallow them whole, yet they cry out for deliverance, they pray, they bargain with God, but there is no hope to be had, no God to hear their final words, for THERE. IS. ONLY. JENNY!

  "You'll have to forgive her,' Dana said. "She hasn't been the same since she was murdered."

  "You turned out okay," said Tasia.

  "I had a lot of help. Jenny got shafted." Dana and Jenny were a lot alike, only Jenny's soul had been tethered to a toy instead of her own body. Unlike Jenny, the warlock who had cursed Dana was already dead and couldn't undo his own handiwork. "I had people willing to help on day one. It's amazing how much trauma you can endure with a ton of help."

  Tasia let out a deep breath. "Yeah," she muttered. "Feels like there's a lot of that going around."

  Dana ughed, though she didn't feel it. This earned a small grin from Tasia.

  "You don't have to fake it with me," said Tasia. "I like you just the way you are."

  Enough of that, Jenny warned, and the temperature plummeted. Talk about something else.

  "She's not mad because we're...you know."

  "Gay?" Dana ughed. "Jenny loathes all mushy stuff equally. Someone left the Hallmark Channel on at home and she broke the TV over it. It's definitely on her list of things she despises."

  "What else does Jenny hate?" asked Tasia. "For academic reasons."

  "She doesn't like being alone," said Dana. "A lot of days, she's perfectly happy just being part of the family and hanging out with..." she stopped talking.

  "With who?" asked Tasia.

  "I can't say," Dana replied. "It's not a trust issue, but more about it not being my pce to talk about them."

  Tasia nodded and squeezed Dana's hand. "Don't worry, I understand completely." Tasia nodded. "If I remember correctly, it has something to do with Mike's kids."

  "That's right. I didn’t occur to me that you’ve probably heard about this stuff from Ingrid." Dana smiled. "Let's see. Hallmark movies, or any sort of romance. She's actually a huge horror movie fan, vastly prefers practical effects. She did not like that movie series about the possessed doll in the slightest."

  That’s because Annabelle is a worthless cunt, hissed Jenny. Discount evil doll, at best! The Warrens should have tossed her raggedy ass in a dumpster!

  "There's also a distinct hatred for mercenaries, for obvious reasons."

  "Naturally."

  "She also really hates—"

  Witches, Jenny shrilled, causing Tasia to wince.

  "Yes, witches." Dana felt the temperature drop and the bag actually started to shift on her backside. "Hey, what are you doing?"

  WITCHES. The bag shifted again, and Dana felt like she was pushed from behind. I CAN SMELL THEM

  "Not all witches are bad...hey!" Dana hopped as she was shoved forward again. Displeased, she grabbed the bag and swung it forward to give it a light punch. "We're in public," she whispered.

  So are they, Jenny warned. A sharpened pencil shoved through the fabric of the bag and pointed behind Tasia. That way.

  "Where the fuck did she get a pencil?" asked Tasia.

  "She's got a sketchpad and a couple of fidget toys in there," Dana mumbled. "Don't bother asking to see her artwork. She likely won't show you, but if she does, it might give you nightmares."

  "I doubt that," Tasia replied, then turned in the direction the pencil pointed. "That's in the direction of the data center."

  "Hmm." Dana checked her watch. "They've been in there almost forty minutes. It's probably unreted, but something may have gone wrong."

  "A little walk won't hurt us," said Dana, and they stepped away from the river and headed further into Lucerne. The two of them were coaxed into a rapid pace, the pencil wiggling insistently through the bag. Tasia moved ahead of Dana to make the bag look a little less obvious, but they still got several odd looks from locals as they hurried past.

  "Don't worry, we're just Americans," Tasia said. Somehow, this actually caused people to quit caring and look away.

  "Seriously? That worked?"

  Tasia nodded. "Americans are known for their ignorance and erratic behavior in other countries. Another Order approved tactic is to pretend you're a streamer. People generally hate them and will try to avoid being on camera."

  Dana nodded. "I can't even be mad."

  "’Cause it's true?"

  The zombie bared her teeth in a horrible grin. "Because I'm dead inside."

  "There's that dark humor I love." Tasia actually stopped and covered her mouth. Dana stopped too, and they just stared at each other for several seconds.

  LET ME OUT. The bag wiggled in Dana's hands, then threw itself forward so hard that Dana was almost yanked off her feet. Whatever had just transpired would have to wait for ter.

  Dana and Tasia cut through an alleyway. In the bag, the doll was now singing in anticipation.

  Roast them, toast them, cook them in a fire! Bleed them, squeeze them, slice them up with wire!

  "Again, I'd like to remind you that all witches aren't bad," said Tasia.

  "We met a good one once," added Dana, reminded of Aileen. It only now occurred to her that she had never checked with Eulie to see if that situation got resolved. Her focus had been mostly on the telescope in the mysterious observatory. It had started as a minor obsession, but was now a major one. No matter what she did to fix the device, it seemed like there was always some other problem.

  The trio moved around a corner. Tasia turned and caught Dana in a hug. The zombie froze in pce, the bag now wriggling between them.

  "Witch spotted," Tasia whispered. "She smells like blood."

  Dana kissed Tasia, turning her head and keeping one eye cracked open to look past the werewolf's shoulder. They were now close to the data center, and a disgruntled woman with greasy hair was stomping toward the pce.

  The kiss broke and Tasia whispered in Dana's ear again. "She's muttering to herself about the stacks," Tasia said. "I think she's going in."

  Dana pced her forehead against Tasia's. To anyone looking, especially the witch, they were just two normal lesbians having a moment. Naturally, the bag trying to squeeze free of them was a bit of an outlier. "What's the move?" asked Dana.

  "I don't know," Tasia replied. "But I—" The werewolf went rigid for a second, her face going pale. Dana felt the bag lurch one final time, then go still in her arms.

  "I think I'm gonna be sick," said Tasia. "Something passed right through me."

  "Uh oh." Dana gave the bag a shake, then looked past Tasia towards the witch. The woman had frozen mid-step, her head cocked to one side and twitching. After a few moments like this, the witch continued walking.

  "What just happened?" asked Tasia, turning to look.

  "I'm not..." Dana left her sentence hanging as she watched the witch break into a skip toward the building. She hastily unzipped the bag and looked to see that the doll inside had gone limp.

  Where am I? Hello? Help!

  It was a woman's voice that came from the doll, but it wasn't Jenny's. Dana looked up at the witch, who had paused long enough to turn back and look at them with pitch bck eyes. She grinned, her jaw twisting hard enough to one side that it looked like it may have dislocated.

  "No, Jenny, wait!" Dana called, but the spirit and her new meat wagon strolled inside the data center without a care.

  ---

  Ingrid moved slowly through the stacks, sliding her feet forward to avoid tripping. Every few feet, she would hear a hiss from a cockatrice, or maybe the fluttering of their feathers. She made sure to drag her hands along the servers, keeping herself wiped down with oil to keep the beasts from attacking her.

  There were at least four, now. They didn't dare come near her for now, but she needed a solution that didn't rely on her eyesight.

  She had tried to move along the perimeter of the room to find the door they had come through, but had discovered the hard way that the walls were where the cockatrices nested. Weasel pheromones would keep them from attacking her, but the moment her hand touched the straw of their nests, the cockatrices had charged in and sshed her legs with their cws.

  Her new option was attempting to find Lily. If she could shatter the succubus' skull, it was possible that Lily would return to her master and, eventually, return with help.

  Through the steady hum of the servers, Ingrid heard something like gunshots. She cocked her head to listen, but heard nothing else. Had the woman at the front desk woken up? If so, who was she shooting at?

  "Hello?" Ingrid had no idea what was going on, but would take her chances with another human rather than the cockatrices. The only reason she hadn't simply bsted her way out with magic was fear of destroying the servers. The potential threat of an Outsider was far too big for Ingrid to risk losing it all on something as simple as self-preservation.

  She heard another gunshot and winced. If she had to, she'd go down fighting. But there was still some time left.

  The loud wrenching sound of metal filled the server room. The cockatrices ruffled their feathers and moved toward it. Ingrid followed cautiously, hoping to be led to the exit.

  The crack of gunfire was followed by the acrid smell of smoke. Four more shots rang out, some punctuated by loud shrieks of rage from the cockatrices. Ingrid huddled against the ground, suddenly afraid of who may have just come into the server room and started bsting indiscriminately.

  "Look at what the cat dragged in," said an unfamiliar voice. It was spooky, almost like someone was using a poor voice-changer, or perhaps two voices at the same time.

  "Hi there," Ingrid said. "Um...so, you're probably not gonna believe this..."

  "Save your lies, Order scum," said the voice just as Ingrid received a light kick. "I've already heard them all."

  "Please, who are you?" asked Ingrid. She heard the hiss of a cockatrice nearby and winced. "Don't look them in the eyes!"

  "Don't have them," said the woman. "Eyes, that is."

  "You're...blind?"

  The woman ughed. "I am now," she replied. "Realized the danger on my way in here, not long after that bitch tried to shoot me."

  "The receptionist?" Ingrid swallowed the lump in her throat.

  "She won't be receiving anything for a while," whispered the stranger. "Bodies are easy to control, but bad habits form when you haven't had one for a while. Things like forgetting to eat, going to the bathroom, or even blinking. Can't get killed if there aren't any eyes to see them."

  Ingrid heard movement, the swishing of cloth, followed by the indignant squawk of a cockatrice getting booted.

  "30 yards!" the woman shouted. "Ref says it's good!"

  "Are you..." What the woman had said earlier finally processed inside of Ingrid's head. "Wait, can you expin the part about being blind?"

  "They've got nests built into the walls," said the stranger. "Grooves packed with straw and shit and bits of cloth that smell like bacon?"

  "Bacon?"

  "But enough about breakfast." A pair of powerful hands seized Ingrid by the throat. "Let's talk about you!"

  There was a blinding light followed by the sensation of falling. Ingrid cried out and threw her hands forward in the darkness, only to discover that her body was pinned in pce by rocks. Cold water swirled around her ankles and something nibbled at her toes.

  "This isn't real," she muttered, then scooted sideways out of the cave. Her skin scraped along the sharp rocks, but it didn’t hurt too badly. "I haven't been here since I was a kid."

  "Reality is like a safety bnket," said the stranger. Her voice was no longer distorted, but she spoke with a spooky lilt. "After all, we have no control over reality, therefore cannot be bmed for its ills!"

  "You're Jenny," said Ingrid, opening her eyes and seeing that the world around her was painted in water-colors. "And you're inside my head."

  "Your body has so much room, so much potential!" An eerie figure in a white dress with wet, dark hair that draped over her face stood on a boulder about fifteen feet away. "Maybe I should take it from you, do things to make your brief time on Earth worth it."

  "I thought you were supposed to be on our side." Ingrid knelt down and picked up a rock. It felt heavy in her hand. "If you're looking for a fight, you've got it."

  "I could turn you inside out like a wet sock," Jenny replied. The specter vanished, reappearing only a foot away. "What are you gonna do with that rock, Ingrid?"

  "Bash your fucking face in," Ingrid replied. "Based on how you wear your hair, I bet it'll probably be an improvement."

  Jenny threw her head back and ughed. Her mouth was impossibly wide, as if her lips extended nearly to her ears. "We've got a live one," she decred, shaking her hands at the sky. Jenny cocked her head to one side so violently that Ingrid heard the bones inside of it crack. "It'll be a real shame if I have to take you apart today!"

  "Lily and Dana will be upset," said Ingrid.

  "Like I care." Jenny took a step forward.

  "What about Mike?"

  The ghost shrugged and took another step forward. "He'll forgive me."

  "What about...um..." Ingrid held up the rock. "We don't have to do this."

  "Oh, but we do." Jenny grabbed the hem of her shirt and yanked it down to reveal what looked like a yellow paper star drawn along the top of her breast. "You see, I'm the sheriff in this town and I need to see what kind of outw you are."

  "I'm not an outw." Ingrid took a step forward and hurled her stone. It smacked Jenny straight in the face with a loud crack. Her head jerked back to look up into the cloudless sky of Ingrid's mind.

  "Well," Jenny muttered. "That wasn't very nice." Her voice took on a western twang. "I just wanted to have a conversation."

  "Then have one with me in the real world." Ingrid picked up another rock. She had heard the stories of what had happened to people attacked by the ghost and had resigned herself to the fact that she had absolutely no defense against the entity. "You couldn't even bring your own fucking body here to talk to me." She threw the next rock, which bounced off Jenny's head.

  "I don't have a real body," said Jenny. "Mine was TAKEN FROM ME!"

  "Yes, we get it, you're still upset." Ingrid found a stone that she was able to lift with two hands and held it over her head. "Once upon a time, you got murdered by witches. Now you think that entitles you to be a massive cunt to everyone including your friends. Fuck you." Ingrid grunted and threw the rock. Jenny teleported out of the way, the stone breaking apart on the ground behind her.

  The spirit contempted Ingrid for a minute as the mage tried to pick up a nearby stone. It was suddenly too heavy to lift, meaning that Jenny was holding them down. Even though Ingrid's mind space was far stronger than most, she didn't have centuries of experience.

  When Jenny ughed, the sound reminded Ingrid of breaking gss. Cracks appeared across the sky, the whole world briefly becoming a sadistic stain-gss window.

  When it shattered, Ingrid expected to die. She didn't bother crying out. It wouldn't do her any good and she didn't want Jenny to have the satisfaction. The world went dark, leaving Ingrid alone with her thoughts.

  And the smell of weasels. Clenching her hands, Ingrid lifted them to her nose and inhaled deeply. The stink was terrible, but reassured her that she was back in the real world. The steady hum of the servers around her sat at the edge of her consciousness.

  "I'm...alive?" she half expected her voice to come out strange like Jenny's had.

  "For now," Jenny replied. "I took a peek under the hood and discovered something disappointing.”

  “Which was?” asked Ingrid.

  “You aren’t like the others.” Jenny sighed. “You weren’t trying to hurt my Gracie. So you’re officially off the menu. Those stupid birds are gone, you can look around."

  Ingrid opened her eyes to the sight of a lizard-rooster hybrid, its mouth hanging open and eyes bulging out. She screamed and fell backward, trying to block the damned thing from looking at her. It took her several moments to realize that the cockatrice was being held in front of her by a woman she didn't recognize. Ingrid's heart pounded frantically in her chest as she leapt to her feet.

  Jenny cackled with joy and tossed the dead creature to the side. "Worth it," she muttered, then swayed dangerously, as if drunk. She pulled a pistol out of her pocket and wandered around the corner to where Lily had been petrified. The possessed woman tapped the butt of her gun against Lily's forehead.

  "Is she going to be okay?" asked Ingrid. She cautiously swept her gaze across the servers.

  Jenny shrugged and turned to face Ingrid. Her eyes had been gouged out. The mage shivered and looked away.

  "Did you really have to gouge out her eyes?" Ingrid asked quietly.

  Jenny paused and cocked her head as if listening to a distant sound. Eventually, she turned to face Ingrid with a macabre grin.

  "It's okay," Jenny whispered. "It's a rental." Cackling, she pced the barrel of the gun against Lily's temple and fired. Ingrid yelled, covering her ears too te as Lily shattered. Each piece of the succubus lingered briefly on the floor of the server room, sublimating like a piece of dry ice. The area filled with the stink of sulfur as an angry cloud formed above the remnants, coalescing into a feminine body.

  "FUCK!" shouted Lily as she stumbled free of the cloud, spping at her arms and legs as if covered in insects. When she finally settled, the succubus looked up from her pce on the floor, her face twisted in horror. "That is one VERY ugly fucking bird!"

  "Tick tock, tick tock," said Jenny waving her pistol from side to side like a metronome. "Six hours remaining."

  "Until what?" asked Ingrid.

  "Shift change." Jenny put the barrel of the gun in her mouth and giggled. “Boy, will they be surprised.”

  "Don't," Ingrid begged.

  "Why not?" Jenny grinned around the barrel. "The witch who owned this body did some very terrible things with it. Maybe it’s time for her to move on, see what Hell has in store for her."

  "Even so, that doesn't mean... you shouldn't..." Ingrid looked to Lily for support. "Say something!"

  "When it comes to stuff like this, Jenny is judge, jury, and executioner." Lily shook her head. "You should already know that this isn't a business where people just let things go. This pce was protected by...cockatrices?" She looked down at the nearest corpse. “I’ve never seen one in person.”

  "They’re stone cold killers," muttered Jenny. "With a witch living nearby for backup. She was coming down here to eat your skin, little girl, to roast you on a spit and chew you up like gum."

  Ingrid's mouth was suddenly dry. "What about the woman working the front desk?" she asked. "Did you kill her, too?"

  "Of course not." Jenny licked her lips. "She knits hats for orphans."

  Ingrid closed her eyes and covered her ears just a split second before the gun went off. Lily made a gagging sound, then grabbed Ingrid by the elbow and turned her around.

  "If it's any consotion, Jenny is actually a pretty good judge of character."

  "How do you figure?" asked Ingrid coldly. "She murdered good people who were simply following orders."

  "Ugh, be still my bleeding heart." Lily patted Ingrid on the back. "Those were shit orders and you know it."

  "Yeah, but..." The reality of the situation closed in around her. If she and Tasia had been tasked with this, she likely would have died. Tasia, too. Cockatrices were yet another "exterminate on sight" cryptid that she was under the impression had been eradicated some years ago. Apparently the auction house knew otherwise.

  "Shit," muttered Lily. "My phone is busted. Look." The succubus held it up and tapped the screen. "I must have caught one of those fuckers on camera. Take some quick video for me while I do a sweep of the room to make sure Eulie doesn't run into some trouble of her own."

  Ingrid sighed and obeyed. There were too many thoughts swirling through her head right now. She captured video of the server racks as well as the front room where the receptionist was lying on the floor with an obvious head wound. Poor woman likely had a concussion. There was already a lump appearing on the back of her head. When Lily came out, she tossed something to Ingrid.

  "Present for you," she said on her way to the elevator. Ingrid caught it out of habit, then almost dropped it again when she realized it was an egg.

  "What the fuck?" she whispered. "Why did you give me this?"

  "Jenny must have missed it while smashing the others." Lily shrugged. "Might be that the egg isn't viable, or maybe she got caught up in choking the chicken. It can be any number of things."

  "I don't want it." Ingrid held out the egg, but Lily ignored her.

  "Wouldn't it be weird if that was the st cockatrice egg?" asked Lily, staring up at the ceiling. "What if the fate of an entire species was in your hands? You could either choose to care for the thing and find a way to raise it blindly, or maybe sell it to someone who would do it for you. Or maybe you remember it's a dangerous beast and destroy it yourself to keep it from ever harming anyone."

  "That's different," Ingrid muttered as they got in the elevator.

  "I don't see it that way," said Lily. "And neither did that witch who came downstairs to tear us a new asshole. I can't tell if you're upset because Jenny's methods aren't clean, or because it stings to remember that sometimes the monster wins. In this case, it was just sheer dumb luck that you had a scarier monster on your side.”

  Ingrid stared at the egg as the elevator ascended. With every passing moment, it occurred to her that she had no idea when this thing was even supposed to hatch. There was a litany of moral choices suddenly clutched in her hand, and the weight of all of them was overwhelming.

  "If it's any consotion, nobody will ever know," said Lily. "I've lived enough lifetimes to realize that successes and failures of character are rarely remembered after a hundred years or so."

  "What about that Ea-nā?ir guy?" Ingrid muttered.

  Lily ughed. "Honestly, he was a piece of shit and deserved to be remembered for it."

  Ingrid wasn't sure if that made her feel better or not. When she crushed the egg under her heel, she didn't look down to see if she had just imagined all of the wriggling.

  "Good choice," Lily muttered as she knelt down to scoop up the remains. When she stood back up, she wore Ludwig's face again. "Let's get this shit show over with and go back to your fancy ass apartment."

  Ingrid stared straight ahead, her fists clenched tightly beneath her jacket.

  ---

  Aurora was patiently double-checking one of Ingrid's potential loadouts in their safehouse when she heard the rumbling of feet up above in the attic, likely through a portal simir to the one they had left through so many hours ago. She carefully inserted the wands back into their holsters and rolled up the fabric, then tucked the magical implements into a suitcase with the number 03 written on it.

  Most mages had at least five potential loadouts for Order missions. This one in particur was intended for dealing with spirits and had required two of the wands to be recharged in a bowl of holy water beneath the light of the moon and the third wand just needed to be polished with the blood of the repentant. These were both things Aurora was capable of doing on her own and she had decided after learning about Jenny's presence to double-check the kit just in case.

  Magical wands were a lot like loaded weapons. They needed the right ammo to function, and the mages of the Order were really only supplying the gunpowder in the form of raw magical energy. Almost none of them were technically witches or wizards, though it did happen on very rare occasions.

  There was a lot that could be discerned about someone by the way they walked the stairs. Aurora had learned a long time ago that Tasia would stomp if a mission had been particurly difficult or frustrating. The werewolf rarely came down with anything other than a silent glide otherwise.

  Ingrid, on the other hand, never made any noise going up the stairs. However, if she was pissed, it was like she concentrated her full body weight on each step in an attempt to punish the house for her bad day. Aurora actually winced with each bang as she silently counted them, then moved to intercept the mage at the foot of the stairs.

  "How did it go?" she asked with a smile. Sullen, Ingrid made brief eye contact and stormed past. A few moments ter, Lily came sliding down the railing on her ass, then hopped over the side at the st moment.

  "Minimal body count," said the demon. "We ran across a witch and somebody is a little butt hurt about killing her along with some stupid chickens that got me rock hard."

  "A witch?" asked Aurora. "Wait, what was that about chickens?"

  "It's a long story. Here, Jenny can tell you all about it." Lily lobbed the terrifying doll in Aurora's direction. Her eyes went wide as she briefly debated whether Jenny would be more upset about being touched or dropped, then erred on the side of caution and caught her. "I'm sorry," she began.

  "Don't worry about her," said Lily as she moved past to the living room. "She's all tuckered out from possessing someone and killing herself. Will take her at least a day before she gets it up again."

  "What?" Aurora studied the doll for the first time. Her hair looked like it was made from braided thread, and she wore a cute red and white dress that looked like it had come from a souvenir shop in the Nethernds. Aurora didn't know why, but she had a bizarre urge to look up the doll's skirt.

  "I'll just set you...here." Aurora moved Jenny to a bookshelf, then thought better about it. What had she overheard about the spirit? It had been something about being the center of attention, or maybe the center of action. Either way, that meant putting her in the living room. She was about to go through the doorway when she heard the soft treading of shoes on steps and looked up to see Tasia and Dana.

  She knew nothing about Dana, but recognized immediately that Tasia was also moping. "Are you okay?" she asked.

  "We were essentially worthless," said the werewolf. "Would have fucked everything up if not for the ghost." She sighed and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

  "It's fine," said Dana. "Eulie is already working on breaking into those servers. The rats have disabled the elevator mechanism that goes to that floor and relocated the woman working there."

  "I thought she was killed," said Aurora.

  "Nope," Dana replied. "The witch is dead. Lady working the counter knits hats for orphans."

  "What is that supposed to mean?" asked Aurora.

  "It means that some good deeds still actually matter," said Tasia. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get a snack and a nap."

  "I can fix you something if you'd like." Aurora looked at Dana. "Are you hungry?"

  The woman shook her head. "Don't worry about me. I'm a picky eater."

  "I'm sure I can find something—"

  "It's fine, Aurora." Tasia smiled weakly. "Where's the rest of the staff?"

  Aurora gestured toward the closest window. "I've dispatched two separate teams to prep our safehouses in a coordinated effort with Miss Eulie."

  "Miss, huh?" Tasia raised an eyebrow. "That sounds pretty formal."

  "She runs a magic library and puts up with you assholes." Aurora feigned a kick at Tasia's backside, causing the werewolf to dodge it. "I pn to show her plenty of respect."

  For whatever reason, this caused Dana to smirk. She followed Tasia into the kitchen. Aurora carried the doll with her and set Jenny down on a safe ledge nearby where she could see the dining area while Aurora threw together a quick meal that consisted of mushrooms, onions, and a pair of steaks. Ingrid came wandering in and spent ten minutes muttering that she wasn’t hungry, only to take some of it for herself and sneak off quietly.

  There was a funk hanging over the house, and there was nothing Aurora could do to properly clear it. Tasia eventually went to bed, and Dana, oddly enough, didn’t. The blonde ended up downstairs with her phone, watching some Youtube channel about gear ratios.

  To pass the time, Aurora cleaned, but was interrupted more than once by the succubus who seemed to crave little more than general gossip. When Aurora was unable to tell her what had happened in the test season of Bridgerton, the succubus had muttered something about a light snack and then walked out the front door dressed like a businesswoman.

  "What was that about?" asked Aurora.

  Dana, who had been sitting nearby, pulled an earbud out to answer. "She's a little bit pissed," she said. "Between what's going on at home and how she fucked up during this mission, she's pnning to take out her frustrations on her next meal."

  "She's mad? What's happening at home'" asked Aurora. "Wait a moment. By meal, do you mean she's going to suck out someone's soul?"

  "When you get to know Lily, a lot of how she feels requires reading between the lines," said Dana. "Mike got caught up in his usual nonsense and Lily's mad she's not around to help. As for sucking out someone's soul, you shouldn't worry. By morning, this area will have one less criminal wandering around. I don’t mean a pickpocket, either. These days, she finds sexual predators particurly tasty, or violent ones. She's very ethical about who she eats these days."

  Aurora frowned, but wasn't sure what to say. If she remembered correctly, Lily was actually able to see a person's sins. Why bother with an entire justice system when a succubus could look straight to the heart of the matter and figure out if there was any hope for redemption. "She didn't seem mad," was all Aurora said. "How can you tell?"

  "A general ck of gloating." Dana pushed her earbud back in.

  "Do I need to make up a room for you?" asked Aurora. "After this morning’s…reunion, I figured you would just sleep with Lady Tasia and hadn’t prepped a bed for you."

  "I don't sleep," said Dana. "If you ever catch me sleeping, then something is horribly wrong."

  "Is it because of Lily?" asked Aurora.

  "No," said Dana. "I trust her completely. My inability to sleep is a previously existing condition."

  "If it's just insomnia, I have some sleeping pills," Aurora offered.

  Dana set down her phone and fixed Aurora with a stare. "I don't fall asleep. Ever. Haven't for a couple of years. I'm physically incapable of it."

  "But...why?" Aurora was puzzled. Dana didn't look tired. Even if she were to pump her body full of stimunts, she would still need sleep at some point.

  "I'm worried about climate change," Dana replied, and went back to watching a YouTube video on advanced engineering. Frustrated, Aurora left the room, but came back a moment ter because she had forgotten her cleaning supplies.

  Ingrid eventually wandered down from her bedroom in a pair of pajamas and sat at the dining room counter with a Diet Coke, staring miserably at the fridge. She said very little to Aurora, other than muttering about Jenny some more and how everything was bullshit.

  It was clear as day to Aurora that the real problem everyone had was that the shit had hit the fan and it had taken the spooky doll to bail them out. Well, everyone but Dana, that is. It didn't really matter, because nobody asked Aurora and she wasn't about to stick her nose in everyone's business.

  Yet, anyway. The moment this funk hanging over their heads started to impact the group's results, she'd y down the w. This partnership was likely very temporary, so she just needed to help them through the next couple of days. With any luck, that wouldn't require Jenny's help.

  Aurora took the liberty of packing up Ingrid's bedroom while the mage sulked in the kitchen. She was halfway through packing up clothes when she realized that Jenny was sitting on the nightstand, watching her.

  "When did you get here?" she asked, hoping that the doll wouldn't answer. The door had been left open, so maybe the doll had wandered in. It also occurred to her that she might have brought Jenny up with her. Why the hell would she do that?

  Suddenly nervous, Aurora focused on her task and became chatty. "Not that it matters," she said as she folded up some pants. "You just startled me a bit. When I'm done here, I can take you back downstairs so you can sit with your family. Or you can take yourself, whatever makes you happy." She zipped up the bag and looked up to see that Jenny had disappeared. Letting out a sigh of relief, she finished packing up Ingrid's stuff and was about to crawl into bed when she heard talking downstairs. Aurora descended carefully and found both Dana and Ingrid sitting at the counter with Dana's phone set up for a video call. For whatever reason, Eulie was using some type of cartoon character to video chat with them.

  "And that’s when I found a divergence in payment history,” Eulie said, her animated character making a serious face. It was a chibi-style woman with several eyes, like an insect. “These idiots did a lot of their secret messaging through a collection of different secure apps, then kept records of all of these conversations on their own private server. I was able to scrape the messages for timestamps and match up the identities of both buyers and sellers.”

  “All of them?” asked Ingrid incredulously.

  “Oh, hell no.” Eulie’s avatar shook her head. “There are hundreds of them, and some only appear to have ever purchased something once or twice. Now, they have some really big hitters that show up constantly, but those guys were smart and used codenames from day one. I did, however, match some of the accounts used for payments to them, so I might be able to narrow down the purchaser if we have to.”

  “What about the seller?” asked Dana. “Do they still have it?”

  The avatar made a happy face and some hearts appeared over her head. “Yes! I’ve got a whole conversation trail from these guys. It’s your basic ‘we stumbled on a nuclear bomb, what the fuck do we do with it’ kind of fare. The Outsider that slipped through the cracks of reality during the Maui Incursion—”

  “Incursion?” asked Aurora.

  “It’s the technical term, per current Order regutions.” Eulie’s avatar stuck out her tongue. “Any sort of extra-dimensional being slipping through to—”

  “We get it,” muttered Ingrid. “Where are we going?”

  “Ah, great question!” Eulie’s avatar froze for a moment and Aurora heard tapping. “Okay, so this thing wandered the Pacific for a couple of days before running across a stray oil tanker on its way back to an oil ptform in the South China Sea. The thing napped inside of the tanker, then got to the ptform and discovered all the juicy morsels running the pce and helped itself to a few of them.”

  “It ate everyone?” asked Ingrid.

  The avatar made a sad face. “Worse, actually. With the thing on the ptform, things got…weird. Like Event Horizon weird.”

  Everybody looked at each other. Finally, Dana spoke. “None of us know what you mean.”

  “Great movie. It was ahead of its time. Anyway, a lot of these guys got sughtered and the thing just…holed up. Best they can tell, it’s napping. The rig was detached and is surrounded by a trio of boats who are now towing it somewhere. I don't have a destination yet, but that shouldn’t matter as long as we can get there before the buyer does.”

  “That’s great news,” said Ingrid, jumping to her feet. “Excellent work, Miss Weaver.” The mage looked at everybody and started barking orders. “Dana, get Lily to come back. Aurora, check our supplies for anything we can use in an aquatic environment. Oh, and wake up Tasia. She needs to hear the good news.”

  Aurora frowned. “I’m happy to see that you’re so excited, but what’s the pn, exactly? We don’t want to turn it over to the Order, remember? What the heck are we going to do with that thing?”

  “Goal number one is to confirm our target,” said Eulie. “I need you to be my team on the ground. The ptform itself is being guarded by a small militia to keep everybody out and hopefully the Outsider in. Once you’re there and have secured the location, I can send in the rats and they’ll swiss cheese that pce with portals. I won’t send them if they’re just gonna get discovered and killed. If we do this correctly, we can cause that portion of reality to implode, sending our shoggoth straight back to where it came from.” The avatar looked smug and did a little happy dance on screen.

  Ingrid cpped her hands together. “Alright, sounds like we just need some intel on our mercenaries. Then we can assemble our own counter-measures.”

  “Already on it. I can have that for you in the next hour or so,” Eulie said. “Looks like they hired whoever was able to show up. These guys have been towing this thing around for months. They’re so puckered by now, I’m sure they walk funny.”

  “Lily’s on her way back,” said Dana, putting away her phone. “She wants to know if the ship is somewhere she can wear her bikini.”

  The avatar rolled multiple eyes. “Tell her whatever you want,” Eulie replied. “I’ll let you know more once I know more. Webmaster, out.” The video terminated.

  “Well, would you look at that?” Ingrid let out a sigh of relief. “After today’s disaster, I didn't think we’d get any good news for at least a couple of days. Looks like our luck is turning around.”

  For some reason, Jenny chose that moment to break out into maniacal ughter that sent chills down Aurora’s spine. Everyone turned to face the doll, who sat nearby and offered no further expnation when the ughter finally stopped.

  “Yeah, I’m not going to sleep tonight after hearing that,” said Ingrid.

  “I’d say you get used to it,” Dana replied. “But that would be a big fat lie.”

  The doll ughed again. It gave Aurora a very bad feeling.