Best Iguanodon!

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A mysterious man with strange powers strolls through the desert towards a military base. Questions emerge, as he delivers an ominous warning.

Chapter 1

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On a dark and stormy night four men prepare to kill a witch.

Chapter 2

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In the present day, Zed has been captured by the military, who have figured out he's a demon. An unusual ally comes to the rescue, and a powerful pact is made.

Chapter 3

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A day in the life of a girl named Avery

Chapter 4

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Zed arrives in New York City set on killing Mammon; however, on his way, he encounters a mysterious stranger.

Chapter 5

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Zed encounters his worst enemy, a metal detector.

Chapter 6

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Zed prepares to take his stand. At the same time Mammon deals with some ugly business.

Chapter 7

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The one where Zed gets the shit beaten out of him.

Chapter 8

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Mammon reveals a grave truth about heaven and hell and Zed forges a new deal to stay on earth.

Chapter 9

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Avery goes on a date with a "performative" male.

Chapter 10

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Zed and Avery finally meet again while they escape from something more beast than man.

Chapter 11

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Zed and Avery bring Mammon back to his apartment and he recounts his conversation with Lucifer.

Chapter 12

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Avery becomes bait for Mammon and Zed's devilish plans.

Chapter 13

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Zed arrives at Avery's apartment with shocking news, and a mysterious, powerful entity enters the team's radar.

Chapter 14

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The team go to New Jersey. Typical New Jersey things happen.

Chapter 15

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After capturing the Jersey Devil, the team struggle to get him talking.

Chapter 16

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Infinite Towers fall shocks the country, while the United States government scramble to figure out who is responsible.

Chapter 17

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Mammon crashes out.

Chapter 18

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Zed mysteriously finds himself back in hell with Lucifer offering an olive branch.

Chapter 19

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The team are on the hunt for the Mainer Chupacabra but heightened emotions get in the way.

Chapter 20

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A sudden encounter with a dangerous new foe leaves Zed, Avery and Mammon fighting desperately for their lives.

Chapter 21

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Tensions shift as Avery's new abilities cause trouble amongst the group.

Chapter 22

Thick clouds of dust choked the air as Avery coughed her way towards the two demons. The flash of a spotlight illuminated both of them, their faces turned towards the heavens before they were plunged back into shadow with the sound of the helicopter speeding off.  

“What was that? That guy? And my gun; it was glowing!” Avery coughed, adrenaline surging through her veins. 

Mammon’s head snapped towards her. “No more games, Avery.” His tongue curled around the words like an anaconda around its prey, suffocating the air between them. “What are you?” 

“Mammon, she doesn’t know” Zed replied, his voice suddenly much more serious than Avery had ever heard it.  

“That was not hellfire, Zed; you saw the glow. She was radiant.” Zed readied himself to say something, however no reply came to him instead he simply turned back to look at Avery, his helmet betraying no emotion. The silence, however, hung heavy with the truth of Mammon's statement. 

“Do you remember how I said I wouldn't keep you in the dark anymore?” Zed began finally. “Now it’s time for you to do the same. What are you, Avery? Really.” 

Avery’s eyes flickered between the two demons. Her voice caught in her throat before she managed to let out a weak croak. 

“I don't know, that's never happened before.” 

“Do not lie to us, Avery” Mammon demanded; cutting her off. He stepped forward and Avery instinctively backed away. 

“You produced Radiance. The gun emanated holy light, demons are creatures of hellfire, not radiance. No demon could do that, especially a half-breed. You smell of hell but that could be a deception. So, I ask you now, Avery, what are you not telling us?” Mammon's form loomed larger with every word. His horns longer, his shadow darker.  

“Mammon...” Zed mumbled in a half-hearted attempt to stop the archdemon. 

“What are you, Avery!” Mammon demanded gold spread from where his steps touched the stone and rubble. 

“I don’t remember my parents. The woman who left me at the orphanage passed away; I don’t even really know if she was my mom or not. I swear I don’t know anything else.” 

“Are you an Angel? Is this some sort of sick game?” Mammon’s eyes spun in their sockets, the red X’s flashing like warnings as he drew closer. 

“What? No!” Avery exclaimed, she stepped back and her head caught the back of a misaligned stone, sending her to the ground.  

“Mammon, stop it!” Zed yelled. Marching towards the two of them. 

“Another cruel trick of heaven? You were behind it all weren’t you!” Mammon roared; his voice the bubbling of molten metal. He lowered his stance, his snarl becoming animalistic, eyes wild. “The towers, my company, my status. This was all your plan!” 

“Mammon, please, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” cried Avery tears running from her eyes as she brought the pistol up to level, its ephemeral glow radiated around the room, illuminating Mammon as he drew his hand back. 

“Die now Angel, return to the void.” From Mammon's palm swung a long linkage of chain that swept through the air towards his target. 

“Enough Mammon!” Zed commanded lunging between the two. The chain slashed hard into Zed’s form but not nearly as hard or as scorchingly hot as it had the last time they had fought. Zed coursed with power; a flash of blue energy shot down the chain and buzzed painfully against Mammon's palm. With a yell the demon dropped his whip and stumbled backwards clutching his burnt hand. “She said she doesn’t know!” 

“Zed, she is an Angel; you can see it as well as I can” Mammon hissed, backing away from the two.  

“She is scared,” Zed replied, helping Avery up. The soft glow of the pistol faded as she lowered the muzzle. “I trust Avery. She’s never given me any reason to doubt her.” 

“You are a fool, Zed, that's what Angels do, they lie. They deceive. They make false promises in the name of their Lord. She is lying to you Zed; She is lying to us.”  

“And I’m willing to take that chance.” Zed shot back; static crackling in the air around him. “Besides why would she shoot one of her own. Why not let him kill us now?” 

“An angelic trick, a lie designed to get us to trust them. To reveal her power without it looking suspicious.” Mammon's voice broke. He sounded panicked; his eyes darted between the two of them. Mammon was hurt. Far more hurt than both Avery and Zed. A foul snarl carved his face. “Fine! If it is your wish, take this deceiver with you. I will not stoop so low as to allow an Angel to deceive me” 

Mammon’s form seemed smaller as he barged past both Avery and Zed. His horns retreated into his skull and his skin turned back to its deep hue. He paused at the doorway; his face lost in shadow. 

“Tell Lucifer I am coming back willingly. But I will need to arrange my affairs” Mammon mumbled before pausing. He cocked his head looking over his shoulder where his gaze met Zed’s. “And Zed, if she ever gives you any indication she might not be who she says she is. Do me a favour. Kill her.” 

With that Mammon left. The sound of his heels against stone fading into the distance and the final closing of the old metal door behind him signifying his retreat.  

Avery exhaled and looked at Zed. She expected a quip, a remark, a comment to ease her. To make it all feel normal. But Zed said nothing. The visor of his helmet was fixed on where Mammon had once been. 

There was a certain chill behind Azrael's voice as he spoke. One that ran a shiver up Avery’s spine and made Zed’s winds blow cold. His eyes were now firmly locked onto them. Any hope of sneaking away or trying to surprise him was out the window. 

“Be not afraid.” 

His stride was less of a walk and more of a glide, as his feet did not seem to dare even ripple the pooling blood of the demons below him. 

“You may know me by many names. Hermes. Valkyrie. Xolotl. But you may call me Azrael.” 

He paused; a coy smile played across his face. His speech felt performative, almost practiced, as if it were something he had done hundreds of times before. 

“The beast you see before you is a demon. But you need not worry. I am here to guide its soul back to the pits of Tartarus from whence it has come.” 

He raised his hands against his chest, revealing two curved scimitar blades that glinted with sickening sharpness in the moonlight. Azrael sighed, dropping his hands back to his sides, his face taking on a sorrowful look as his voice began to tremble. 

“Unfortunately, I carry a greater command. One from the Lord Almighty. That no soul may know of my presence on Earth. As such, I shall rapture your souls to Heaven. Goodbye.” 

Zed and Avery barely had time to flinch as a blinding white light flashed from the voids of his eyes. For a second, it felt as if the sun itself had graced them, as a wave of heavenly warmth enveloped them. Then, as suddenly as the light had started, it ended. 

Zed rubbed his visor and quickly checked his side. To his surprise, it didn’t seem like anything had happened. Avery stood next to him, squinting as her vision returned to normal, and Mammon blinked hazily to keep focus on his enemy. 

Zed followed Mammon's gaze back to Azrael, who seemed to be just as confused as he was. However, the look of confusion did not last long. The emotion faded from Azrael's face, only to be met with a stern focus. 

“Your souls are not mortal,” Azrael muttered to himself as he slunk from his uptight posture into a fighting stance. 

“Identify yourselves. Are you Angels or Demons?” 

“Would you believe me if I said Angels?” Zed asked. He knew the question was sarcastic, but somewhere inside of him he genuinely hoped the answer would be yes. 

Azrael's eyes narrowed at the question, and a sound like a choir of voices began to radiate from Azrael's wings. 

“I see. Then I must send all three of you back to damnation. Do not resist.” 

In a sudden flash of light, the blade of Azrael's scimitar was then in front of Zed’s face, swinging within millimeters of his helm. Zed let out a shocked yell as he stumbled backwards, searching the air for a sign of how Azrael had moved the several meters between them in less than a second. 

His gaze landed on the streak of light coming from Azrael's wings. A light that traced an incandescent line through the air to where he now stood, his chest pulling tight against a chain Mammon had thrown, stopping him in his charge. 

“So, you insist on defying me,” Azrael asked Mammon, who now stood with his hands outstretched and ready. 

“Run,” Mammon commanded, his voice calm. His eyes were locked onto Azrael, but Avery and Zed knew the instruction was for them. 

“Mammon...” Avery gasped, taking a desperate step towards him. 

“Run!” barked Mammon, turning to look Avery in the eye. 

At the opportunity, Azrael lunged, his wings like rocket thrusters, shooting him through the air with an ethereal trail of white light and the sound of an angelic crescendo. In the last moment, Mammon pulled a taut chain from his hands, but it was too late. The blades sailed cleanly above his attempt to block, following a direct path to Mammon’s neck. 

Bang! 

A bullet collided with Azrael's side. The blade’s path redirected, skimming narrowly over Mammon's head, grazing his golden horns, as Azrael was thrown from his feet. 

Mammon took a deep, shaky breath and turned to look at Zed. Smoke streamed gently from a hole at the tip of Zed’s index finger as he pointed his hand in a mock gun salute towards where Azrael had once been. 

“Not on your fucking life am I running,” Zed blurted. 

A sound like a growl reverberated from the floor as Azrael shot towards Zed. This time there was no chain to save him, but Azrael's target wasn’t Zed’s helmet. The blades cleanly swept through the air and cut through Zed’s wrist. 

His form, suddenly uncontained by the limits of his clothes, burst as air rushed out, launching his pistol across the room. Zed stumbled back as Azrael swung a second time but found his arm caught. He glanced at his right wrist and found his arm bound to the ceiling by a sizzling chain. 

His attention broken, Zed threw himself towards the angel. He leapt onto Azrael and deflated, coiling his clothes around his arm and grabbing his other wrist in a cyclone of wind and fabric. 

“Would you stop swinging those things!” Zed exclaimed as Azrael thrashed against him. 

“You’re gonna cut somebody!” 

Azrael’s binds did not last long, however. The ceiling chains snapped with a loud clatter as the mighty angel swung a strike towards Zed’s helmet, but a second chain arced through the air, slinging his wrist like a whip. Mammon stood holding the other end with both hands in a mighty game of tug of war. 

A war that mere days ago Mammon may have won, but his lost status had weakened him significantly. With a sudden tug Mammon was thrown off his feet, flying across the room and colliding into the floor feet away from Azrael, who lunged towards him. 

A pulse of electricity coursed from Zed’s storm and petrified Azrael mid lunge. Electricity sparked from his muscles and arced in forked strands against the ground. With gritted teeth, Azrael denied his body the spasms of electrified flesh and forced himself to his full height. 

He raised both arms over Mammon, blades glinting in the moonlight. Blue electricidal sparks illuminated the uncommon look of terror that adorned Mammon's face as he realised that a blow from that range would shatter any chain in its way. 

The moment stood still for all three of the entwined celestials. 

Then suddenly, a second shot rang out. 

Avery stood brandishing Zed’s pistol. Her wrists shook, and beads of sweat dripped from her brow. The gun in her hands seemed to be glowing. A faint golden flame burned at the muzzle of the pistol, promising no familiar wisps of smoke, and a golden radiance emanated from its cold steel. 

Azrael stumbled back, and Zed fell, untangling from his arm in surprise. In one of his wings was a hole. A clear, clean bullet hole. Silvery blood began to leak from the wound as Azrael stared at it in shock. 

His gaze returned to Avery, and a sinister angelic hum began to emanate from his wings again. 

Zed and Mammon threw themselves forwards in a desperate attempt to place their bodies between Azrael and Avery’s, but they needn’t have bothered. 

As Azrael launched forwards, only one of his wings left a trail behind. The other flapped dully behind his back. He veered off course, colliding with a desk leaned against the wall with a loud crash. 

The angel let out a pained moan as he pulled himself from the scrap, and Zed and Mammon stood in awe before Avery sucked in a deep breath. 

“Well?” she asked the two demons, who looked at her dumbfounded. “Kick his shit in!” 

Whatever fights the two had been having before that moment seemed to fade away as they marched toward the spluttering angel. A second burst of speed to try and swerve the oncoming demons sent Azrael colliding into a ceiling light. 

Mammon extended a length of chain and began cracking it like a whip, while Zed rubbed his hands together as if he was starting a defibrillator. Azrael pulled himself to his feet and backed up towards the hole in the ceiling. 

“You don’t know what you’re doing, demons,” Azrael half coughed and half laughed. “If I am not your slayer than allow me to be your harbinger. There is a new age coming. The age of angels.” 

He lifted his wing, and a new light joined the gaze of the moon. A spotlight from a helicopter flying overhead. The light found the hole in the wing and shone a sinewed projection onto the three sinners. 

“And this...” Azrael let out a sinister laugh. “This is a declaration of war.” 

With his good wing to the ground, Azrael launched straight upwards through the hole in the ceiling, and Mammon and Zed sprinted to the beam of moonlight to see where he had landed. 

Portland's docks were usually a scenic affair, especially on nights like the one the group had found themselves arriving in. A parade had engulfed the town in a brilliant miasma of colourful lights. Children screamed and played as they rushed through the dense crowds to various carnival machines, and the rich aromas of freshly cooked food wafted from small carts and stalls, building tantalizing combinations in the air. Zed pitched a much too light ball at a stack of weighted cups. It was an obviously rigged game, but as the ball left his fingers, a small puff of air launched it much faster than it should have, toppling the stack where it stood. 

“So why did we have to come get you?” Avery asked Mammon, who had been oddly quiet the entire ride to Maine. No fussing over a map or complaining about Zed’s driving, just a slightly eerie silence that made Avery even more uneasy than he normally did. Now the two stood side by side as the crowd surged around them, watching as Zed won one carnival game after another, slowly amassing a large collection of peculiar soft toys that hung off him. He pointed at his prize on the shelf, a goat plushie with felt horns and an adorable smile. Mammon sighed, turning from the embarrassment of Zed to Avery. 

“Do not worry about it. I am fine.” His voice was soft and controlled. 

Avery cocked an eyebrow. “Did something happen?” 

Almost in response, Mammon's face flashed a brief grimace. 

“No.” Mammon answered curtly before turning to walk away, weaving through the crowd as he went. 

“Where's he going?” Zed asked, a palpable giddiness in his voice, as he wandered back up to Avery’s side. 

“No idea. What's with all the stuffed animals? Are you making a collection or something?” 

Zed glanced down at himself. Hanging from his jacket was a fair array of different stuffed animals. 

“Oh, these. I picked a bunch that look like other demon princes and assholes in hell. If I die and get sent back, I’m gonna bring these with me so I can give it to them.” 

“Oh, that's nice?” she said. Zed’s answer made no sense to her. It didn’t seem like him to be charitable to other demons. As far as she could tell, he didn’t seem to have any real connection with them, nor any will to go back and see them. 

“Nah, they’re gonna hate it. All of them have massive egos. I mean, just look at Mr Red Grinch over there.” He gestured his helmet towards Mammon, who had stopped to inspect a seeing eye dog suspiciously. “Being told they look like a soft toy is sure to piss most of them off.” Zed lifted a plush shark from his shoulder and opened its mouth like it was about to say something. 

“Hello! I’m Leviathan,” Zed mocked in a squeaky, cartoonish voice. “I wuv you and totally don’t smell like a can of sardines!” 

Avery laughed as Zed made the toy’s flippers wave in front of its nose as if it had just smelt something terrible. 

“Yeah, I can see how that might piss someone off,” Avery replied, her questions answered. 

“Zed, Avery,” Mammon called from down the road. “Can we please move faster? I would like to be done by ten.” 

“Mammon, buddy, what’s up? Why are you cranky?” Zed cooed as he and Avery pushed through the crowd towards him. 

“Do not call me buddy.” 

“Okay then, what’s wrong, Sir Mammon, Prince of Greed?” Zed mocked. Avery rolled her eyes. It was like he was trying to piss him off. 

“Can you please take this more seriously? We are not here to enjoy the festivities. We are here to catch a monster.” Mammon took a step forward, his eyes glaring into Zed’s visor as if he was searching for the demon inside. 

“Relax. It's a festival. It’s a place to have fun. Enjoy it while we’re here.” A scoffing sound caught in Mammon's throat as a look of disgust spread across his face. 

“I am sorry, Zed. I am finding it hard to ‘relax’ when there are active demons hunting in the area, I am being hunted down by a potentially dangerous foe, and at any moment he could appear due to a useless prophecy by some pathetic forest goat!” 

Mammon's words brought a silence that seemed to echo not only from the three of them, but the crowd around them. He huffed, his breath clouding Zed’s visor. Zed’s expression was unreadable behind the visage of his helm. Finally, he took a short breath and spoke. 

“Furfur wasn’t a goat.” 

“What?” Mammon puffed, taking a step back. 

“He was a deer. Baphomet’s a goat, aren’t you, Baphomet?” Zed held up the plush goat he had collected from the last game and shook its head vigorously. “Of course I am, and I think Mr Mammon needs to chill out.” 

With a yell of rage, Mammon slapped the toy from Zed’s hands, and the goat thudded harmlessly onto the ground. He spun on his heels and stormed into the crowd. 

“Zed!” Avery yelled, looking at him in disbelief. 

“What?” Zed asked, seeming genuinely confused as he picked the plush up from the floor. “I thought he might find it funny, help him relax a little.” 

“Dude, something was obviously bothering him. Why do the puppet thing?” Avery exclaimed. She gave Zed a shove, but her hands found only air and fabric as she pushed into him. He felt like a bouncy castle. 

Zed was quiet. No snappy comebacks or comments. He seemed to be genuinely considering what had just happened. Then a small voice broke the silence. 

“Excuse me.” 

Avery and Zed both looked down to see a child who couldn’t have been more than six years old gently tugging at the corner of Zed’s jacket. 

“Can I see your motorbike, please!” 

“Motorbike?” Zed mused, genuinely confused by the question, until he realised what he looked like. “Oh! My motorbike. Ah, sorry kid. It's like a 30-minute walk thataway.” 

The kid looked down at the ground and kicked his feet slightly. “Aw man,” he grumbled. “I really wanted to see the motorbike.” 

Zed kneeled so they were face to face and handed him the stuffed goat. 

“That sucks, little dude. Here, take this. It might make you feel better.” 

With a radiant smile, the child looked up at Zed. 

“Yay! Thanks, he looks just like Mr Doggy.” 

“Does no one know what a goat looks like?” Zed laughed, looking up at Avery, who gave him a steely glare. 

“Nuh uh. Mr Doggy is my pet. He comes during the night, and I feed him all the stuff I didn’t wanna eat from dinner!” 

Zed’s gaze swivelled back to the kid. The puzzle pieces had begun to lock themselves into place within Zed’s mind. 

“Hey, what does Mr Doggy look like?” 

“He’s a big doggy with shaggy hair, big ears, and big horns,” the boy began. “He comes under my window at night, and I throw all the food down to him, and then he eats it all and goes back to all his friends!” 

“Oh, and where do all his friends play?” Avery interrupted. She had begun to clue into what Zed was thinking. 

“Over in the big blue house over there!” The boy pointed out towards the docks, and Zed and Avery squinted. Near the water's edge, far in the distance, was an old blue warehouse lit only by the lights from the festival grounds. Zed turned back to the kid, who was smiling from ear to ear. 

“That's great, bud. Side note: where are your parents?” 

The next few moments were a mess, as Zed and Avery escorted the now crying child to the lost children's tent before heading towards the blue building just outside of the fairgrounds. 

They crept closer towards the warehouse. The creaking of the planks below them was an ever-present threat that warned of the attraction of whatever this Mr Doggy creature could be. 

“Based on the kid’s description, I reckon it's a hellhound. Big, scary, has horns,” whispered Zed as the two of them reached the front doors. 

“You know that's the second person you’ve upset tonight,” Avery mused. 

“And do you know what they both have in common? They’re both children! Sure, it's stressful to be in this position. I mean, Lucifer basically put the fate of the world on our shoulders. Everything is getting worse, and we’re supposed to fix it somehow. So yeah, I get why he’d be stressed, but look at me. I'm fine. I'm chill. I'm not getting angry about the little things. I’m not acting like a grumpy child who got put in timeout like he is. I’m fine,” hissed Zed under his breath. 

He looked puffed up under his clothes, and as he took a moment to breathe, his form composed. 

“Yeah, you sure seem fine,” Avery whispered, looking sceptically at him as he straightened his jacket. 

“Let's just get this over with,” Zed muttered. “A quick in and out. Check if these things are hellhounds. See how many there are and then go get Mammon.” 

The door creaked open as the two peeked inside. The entrance led into an office room of sorts. Not part of the main warehouse, but a sort of reception area. The lights from the festival shimmered past them and illuminated the dusty space. There was no sight of any hellhounds, so Zed and Avery crept inside, keeping low. Their steps were silent as they moved like thieves across the floor, when behind them the front door closed with a light thud, causing Avery to jump. 

“Jesus, that gave me a heart atta-” 

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed out as the wall beside them collapsed into a mess of drywall and rotten wood. Dust clouded the air like a smoke screen as the figure of a man flew through the debris and hit the floor with a tremendous thud. Avery let out a yell, which turned to a harsh cough as Zed released a wide blast of air, clearing the area of dust. 

In the wreckage lay Mammon. He was in his demon form, slowly pulling himself from the ground. 

“I found him,” Mammon coughed, pointing in the direction he had flown from. 

Zed and Avery both spun to look through the wreckage. Inky eyes scanned the group as a man strode forwards; stopping in a ray of moonlight that shone through a jagged hole in the roof. Large, opalescent wings that shimmered with a pale light trailed behind him, dragging like weightless ribbons. A harsh difference from his stiff grey uniform stained with the blood of the hellhounds that lay dead around his feet. 

Zed floated above the second level of hell. It was a desolate mud flat as far as the eye could see. The dead moped through the endless trudges of sludge, finding momentary rest on isolated islands of raised, dry ground. Yet inevitably they were shoved off by souls who wished to claim the moment of respite for themselves. Ancient ruins littered the wastes, stone columns and bricks that stuck out from awkward angles, half sunken into the depths. Remnants of failed attempts to colonise the space.  

Three hundred and eighty years ago, there had been maybe tens of thousands of souls wandering the plane. Those who had lived lives of licentious behaviour, those who had hurt, raped, and destroyed the lives of people who could have lived on. Cursed to trudge through the swamps of endless misery. To shed every tear, to feel every wound, to grieve all that had been lost by their own hands. A hell for those who deserved it. Now there were millions of souls. They clambered with skeletal bodies against each other, pushing and shoving. A hell of its own making. 

“Tragic to watch, isn't it?” said a voice above him. Hovering from above was Lucifer. He looked the same as he did in Nevada however now he bore wings. They fluttered wistfully against a wind that Zed could not feel and shimmered with an oil slick iridescence. 

“All those people...” Zed whispered, his gaze returning to the masses of pale flesh. His voice sounded distant and hollow. 

“Do you see the severity of your cause?” Lucifer cooed, his voice hissing slightly on every s. “There is little more space to be had in this realm. The masses are angry, and they should be. Most of these souls don’t even deserve to be here, yet here they are.” 

“Are there victims down there? You know, with the people who should be down here?” Zed felt a swelling of emotion. He wasn’t sure if it was panic, sadness, fear. It felt like a strange mixture of all three. 

“I try to keep those who should be here separate from those who shouldn’t,” Lucifer said with a deep sigh. “I am trying to find a solution, but it continues to evade me. The work I do to ensure that we can keep souls from having to endure any more suffering takes significant time, but unless I continue my search for a way to solve this…” Lucifer paused.  

His expression normally sat somewhere between frustration and boredom, but now he looked truly sad. Zed tried to reach out to him, to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, but he simply ghosted through Lucifer’s body. The fallen angel's face shifted back into a look of stern resolve. 

“I need help, Zed. I need my demons back. Greater or lesser, it doesn’t matter; the more I have, the more I can focus on solving this whole thing.” Lucifer swivelled in the air to face Zed. “I have considered your proposal further, and I am sorry for my harsh actions in our previous meeting.” 

“Oh, you don't have to...” Zed started, but Lucifer raised a finger to hush him. 

“You are doing me a great service. As such, I will impart to you a gift. It should help to ease you on your journey. If you are in need of it, simply call out and it shall come.” 

“Do you enjoy being purposefully vague, or is it your day job?” Zed said. Lucifer’s frown lines eased in their severity as he let out a stifled chuckle. 

“Someone is calling your name, Zed. It seems it is time to wake up.” 

“What?” Zed said, his voice trailing away as light surged at the edges of his vision. Lucifer seemed to grow farther away as if sucked backwards through a bright tunnel, and a voice rang in his ears with such fervent insistence that Zed could not help but snap back to consciousness. 

“Zed wake up, you like, deflated or something!” 

Zed glanced around the room. He was on Avery’s couch. The rays of morning light streaked through the curtain, and he could feel warm patches forming on his helmet where they hit him. He glanced down at his body; it was indeed deflated. 

“Oh yeah, that happens when I fall asleep,” Zed announced, wiggling his helmet slightly. 

“Well, can you make it unhappen? I don't want Sarah thinking that there’s a naked guy in the apartment who threw all his clothes on the couch.” Zed nodded, and his body began to swirl with air again. The clothes pulled themselves back to their intended positions, and Zed began to fiddle with the minutiae of tucking in his gloves and pant legs. Avery let out a sigh of relief and flicked the TV on as she pushed Zed aside, sitting down to eat a bowl of cereal. She lifted the spoon halfway to her mouth before pausing. 

“Do you eat? I assumed you didn’t, cause you’re like, made of air.” 

“Nah, food falls through me.” 

“Five Portland locals have reported sightings of strange creatures lurking at the docks over the past few evenings.” The TV crackled in the background, its musing falling upon deaf ears. 

“Hey, can I ask you a question? Why is it that you and Mammon don’t tell me everything?” Avery mumbled halfway through shoving a spoonful of cornflakes into her mouth. “I mean, I’m putting a lot of trust into you guys, and I wanna help. But I can’t if I don’t know what's happening.” 

Zed tilted his head and thought for a second. 

“The reports describe large, dark, doglike beasts that travel in packs and were seen devouring seagulls...” 

“I mean, I suppose...” Zed interrupted, cutting the TV off. “It's like swimming. It’s like I spent my entire childhood diving in lakes and playing in pools, and then you rock up having never set foot in more than a bathtub. Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows how to swim, because it comes so naturally to me. I’ve had hundreds of years to know about all of this. You’re just finding out about it now. I’m not doing it on purpose, can’t say the same about Mammon though. I think he just likes being mysterious.” Avery sighed, looking down at her cereal. 

“I just need you to tell me more about what’s going on. I didn’t even know what we were actually going to ask Furfur. I just made a wild guess.” 

Zed nodded, letting out a small hum of agreement. 

“I promise to do better in keeping you updated on plans, and if it makes you feel better, your question was excellent.” 

Avery gave Zed a small smile, her mood brightened with the promise. 

“If only the answer was a bit clearer.” Zed continued, his voice drifting into thought. 

Avery nodded fervently, almost spilling her cereal onto the couch. 

“I know right! What was with that? ‘Continue your journey. Finding the one you search for is inevitable.’ Like, the fuck?” 

“Locals have even reported the creatures breaking into shipping containers that contained fresh meat. Scorch marks were found at the scene of the crime.” The TV hummed its faint chatter, cutting through the pair's conversation and begging for attention. 

“I guess we just continue doing what we were doing. Try and find any more demonic shit going on and stop it,” Zed said, leaning his head back on the couch. 

“But how are we supposed to find these guys? I know I’m supposed to be bait, but so far, the only one who’s come after me was Enzo, and we let Furfur go cause he’s not technically a full demon.” Avery exclaimed, speaking into her bowl as she spooned the last couple of cornflakes into her mouth. 

“I guess we could just parade you around town until something happens. What would be easier though is if there were any reports of cryptids or urban legends going around. Normally that signifies some kind of demonic activity.” 

“Locals have taken to calling it the Mainer Chupacabra.” The TV seemed to shout, catching the pair's attention. Their heads spun to stare at the screen and then back to each other, a palpable excitement boiling over as they both let out a victorious yell. 

The house by the sea was a special place for Mammon. It was the first property that he had bought when he had arrived in America, and it was also the only property close enough to New York City that he could commute to Avery’s apartment since his penthouse apartment had been destroyed. It was a slightly ramshackle thing that clashed significantly with Mammon's bright red Lamborghini he had driven there. The smell of lavender drifted lazily in front of him from multiple incense sticks, and a bossa nova record crackled with an ambient piano as he stared at the horizon. The house wasn’t large. It was almost reminiscent of his apartment in the way he had redone it to remove the internal walls. He had lined the floor with tatami mats and the front sliding fusuma doors to give the home a stylish Japanese look. He had kept the deck the same as it had been when he got it, and that is where he sat. He liked the rustic charm of the home's facade, and if the walls could talk the stories they would tell. Mammon relished his time reminiscing in his greatest moments as he brought his latte to his lips. He couldn’t quite decide what it was that made coffee taste better here. Whether it was the subtle smell of sea salt from the endlessly crashing waves or if he simply enjoyed the taste of his own hard work brewing his coffee. Whatever it was, he was serene in the knowledge that life did not get much better than this. His smile wavered as he reached his hand out to the sunset; a cord of chain shot from his hand but snagged a couple meters from him falling to the wooden deck with a metallic clatter. Ever since he had lost his title his ability to produce chains had become steadily weaker. Capturing Fufur had taken a significant amount out of him, and he felt genuinely exhausted as the last rays of sunlight hemmed the wavering horizon. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. Red flashes passed by his eyelids, and he sighed. 

"لم ينته العمل بعد." 

Standing from his chair, still holding his drink, he made his way back inside. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he closed his eyes and focused in on one of the many red flashes that swirled his peripheral. With a nonchalance of a man without a care, he pulled a page of papyrus from thin air in a surge of flame. He glanced at the document as a fiery scribe began to display upon it. With one hand he sipped his latte and with the other he read the infernal paper as if it were the news. Written in the ancient text was a list. The names of the greedy. Mammon blinked at one of the sinners towards the top of the list, and as he opened his eyes the page had changed. The flaming words reforming into a tally of sins, next to it a larger jumble of people. Those who had died due to the person’s greed. Mammon watched the list unfold with a cold indifference as more and more names pushed their way into view, shoving against the others begging for attention. Within the first hundred or so it was all the same. Tallies stretched and bloated with the names of the damned. Each at one point was a person who had dreams, wishes, a family. Now a word on a page. Mammon had stared at the list every day for the past fifty years, and every day he tried to shorten it, and every day it only grew longer. 

Mammon's phone began to buzz in his pocket, and the paper fizzled, crumbled into ashes in his hands. Pulling the phone from his pocket, his nose wrinkled slightly at the unknown number displayed on his screen, however he answered it anyway. 

“مرحبًا.” 

With a surprisingly lithe sway, he shifted the record player’s arm, cutting the bossa nova off awkwardly halfway through a burst of brass. 

“Uh? Hello,” came a voice on the other end speaking in English. The voice sounded older, maybe someone middle aged. Mammon waited for a second, leaning against his wall. 

“I already said hello. I am waiting for you to tell me who you are and why you are calling.” Mammon hissed. He had little patience for people who wasted his time. 

“Right, well Mr Tharwat. I am calling to inform you of a recent decision from the board of directors.” Mammon’s eyebrow shot up. 

“Oh?” 

“Mr Tharwat, the board of directors has decided to remove you from your position as CEO of Infinite.” Mammon’s cup hit the ground, spilling hot coffee across the tatami mats. Mammon’s mouth opened and closed like a dying fish, his eyes scanning the ground as a sudden rush of panic leapt to his stomach. 

“What?” he choked out, his mouth suddenly becoming dry. 

“Uh, yeah, I’m calling to let you know the decision has been finalised. They decided that with the whole Infinite Towers thing and the negative publicity you’ve gotten due to your exposure of many well-known personalities'... moral shortcomings, they have decided that to make a profit on Infinite going forward the best course of action would be to find someone with a bit more... motivation.” 

Mammon did not hear the rest of the call. The phone had dropped from his hands landing with a dull thump, as he swayed to the door. He felt as if he had been punched in the back of his head. He gripped his pocket and pulled out his car keys. Something in him was pulling him, a screaming feeling from inside that felt like he needed to get as far away from his phone as possible. 

“Not again, please not again,” Mammon mumbled to himself as he clawed his way past his front door, stumbling down to his driveway. He threw himself into the driver's seat, and like a man chased, he floored it. The luxury vehicle roared as it pulled down his driveway and sped onto the open road. A long stretch that followed the seafront all the way into town. The waves lashed up the sides of the coastline like hungry mouths, threatening at each perpetual blow to swallow the road whole as Mammon swerved down the road at 50 mph. 

Mammon's mind raced like it had never done before. His chest felt tight, and he wheezed through each breath. He had lost Infinite. His Infinite. The thing he had built from scratch. His claim to the mortal world. It was gone. Taken. Taken by people he had never met. Taken by the greedy. On top of everything he had lost his power. He was supposed to protect Zed and Avery. How could he do that without his strength. It was all so unfair. 70 mph. 

He could feel his body shifting. His horns pulsing from his head like the eyestalks of zombie snails. His eyes spun in their sockets, rolling between normal and gilded. His very form threatened to betray him. He couldn’t let it. He also couldn’t resist it. It was like he was trapped between two extremes. One that wanted to scream in rage and one that wanted nothing more than to crawl into a ball and weep. 90 mph. 

His horns finally erupted from his head. They stabbed into the car’s roof. His hands gripped the wheel, and gold began to bleed from his hands. It coated the wheel around his grasp like Midas. His body felt tight, his muscles would not listen to him anymore. A storm of thoughts raged through his consciousness. The greedy, it's because of them. Because I didn’t do enough. Because I let the greedy have power. This is my fault. It's their fault. It's both of our faults. 100 mph. 

Mammon grit his teeth. It had happened again. He had lost something else. First his title, then the tower, now his company. What was happening? Why was this happening to him? Was it his fault? If not his, then who? A cosmic rage burned inside him. It wanted to be directed at something, someone, but there was no one person to throw it at. Mammon closed his eyes and slammed his head against the wheel as hard as he could. 0 mph. 

As Mammon regained full consciousness, he dragged himself out of his Lambo. His now tattered clothes tore from his body by sharp misshapen strands of erroneous steel. The car's front bumper was a crumpled mess, and the windshields had blown completely apart into a heap of thin glass shards. Both airbags were slowly sagging limply and a strand of dark smoke trickled from the now crumpled metal of the car's mid-engine. Mammon stared at the massive rock face in front of him. The rock face that he had struck so fast that it had almost merged with his car. If he was human, he would be dead. 

“تباً...” he whispered, his gaze locked onto the wreckage. 

“تباً!” he screamed as the surge of emotions caught up with him. 

“تباً, تباً, تباً!” He kicked the now deflated tires of his vehicle. 

Mammon stood over his defeated vehicle, his chest rising and falling, a strange gentle light falling over him and his wreck. His gaze pulled away and up to the source of the eerie glow. Towering behind him was a digital billboard. He stared up at it as an infinity sign curled its way onto the screen. Mammon chuckled slightly. Through all his rage and sadness, the irony was palpable. His old company's motto flashed onto the screen. 

Pete Angley walked briskly down the sterile hallways of the inner chambers of the Pentagon. He had recently gotten off the short flight from New York to Washington and was still slightly nauseous from the ride; flying had never fully agreed with him. Angley was in his late twenties. His short dark hair and roman nose accentuated his handsome visage. He smoothed the front of his navy suit and fiddled anxiously with a slightly too tight tie. The burgundy one that his girlfriend had told him looked good. His steps echoed against the laminate floors, only interrupted by the creak and clatter of a set of heavy metal doors he shoved his way through. Angley had never considered himself anyone special, certainly not someone who should be in the position to deliver the kind of information he was carrying. He held a briefcase handcuffed at his wrist; it swung as if an extension of his arm, and he gripped tightly like it contained his own life. In a way it did. He dared not think about what would happen to him if someone managed to get the suitcase from his hands. Finally, the hallway ended in a set of steel double doors. He came to a sudden stop and took a deep, slightly shaky breath before entering the room. 

The room was a dark oval. A single bright lamp illuminated a large table marked with a map of the United States. Across the ceiling hung a ring of screens, each displaying a different perspective of the ruins of Infinite Towers. Slow motion playbacks showed the moment the towers collapsed. Large fireballs erupted from the sides, shattering glass as the buildings collapsed in on themselves, shattering concrete and showering onlookers in a thick concrete dust. At the desk sat some of the most important men and women in the country. The heads of the military forces, the Secretary of Defence, the Vice President, and the President. Against the wall stood several trusted members of the military. Their gazes all turned to the newcomer. Angley swallowed hard. 

"Mr President," he said, just managing to stifle the quiver in his voice. He moved over to the table and placed his cargo on the desk. Two of the soldiers moved over, unlocking Angley's handcuffs and then using two keys to unlock the briefcase. Angley glanced inside the suitcase before moving to join the men standing rank and file against the wall. 

"Inside of this briefcase is everything we currently know about the terrorist attack on Infinite Towers two days ago," said the Secretary of Defence. He was a man who had more sharp edges than a cactus. His boxy suit, permanent scowl, and rectangular head did not hide his past as a military general. The soldiers handed out the folders from within the briefcase, and each of the table members began to flip through the pages of text, images, and eyewitness statements. 

"Allow me to summarise what you will find in your folders. The fireballs that were seen at the point of destruction were not caused by planted explosives, missiles, or any other explosive device. No evidence of them has been found in the rubble. Instead, we believe that the explosions were caused via the collapse, not the cause of it. Most likely it was caused from electrical components encountering flammable chemicals." 

The man cleared his throat and lifted a remote to the ceiling. The TV screens flickered to multiple images of the rubble. 

"What did cause the collapse was a brute force attack by something strong enough to turn concrete to dust and cut through solid stone. From the images above you will be able to note that many of the cuts look clean, not what you would expect to see from a building that tore itself apart. As well as this, we can see evidence of impact craters throughout the destruction. Something hit the building at multiple points, and it hit hard." 

Angley squinted at the screens. He could see what the Secretary was talking about. Throughout the rubble there were clear points where pillars and supports had been sliced through, leaving clean cross sections through the concrete and rebar. With the press of a button the TV screens changed once again. This time they featured interviews from the press. Many exasperated faces shaking heads and yelling heatedly. 

"Several eyewitnesses claim to have seen a black bird flying around the tower during the time of the collapse, but the dust quickly made visibility near impossible. Hence the little to no camera footage. Little to no being the key word there. Approximately five frames of video footage were taken from an eyewitness's cell phone showing an identifiable shape." The screens flickered and zoomed in on a single frame of the building's destruction. In the centre, hovering about 10 meters from the side of the building, was a dark shape. It looked like a black winged missile, but it was hard to tell as the resolution of the camera made it into nothing but a dark smudge. 

"We have reason to believe a foreign adversary may have developed a new weaponised drone with capabilities we are not sure of at this time. We have been waiting for any other country or terrorist group to claim responsibility for these attacks; however, none have stepped forward." 

"And they won't," said a gruff voice from the doorway. Heads spun, and multiple soldiers fingered the triggers of their weapons as a squat man in military garb entered the room. His face was bulbous and blocky. His muscles bulged against his uniform to an almost comical degree. Behind him a lean man dressed in black stepped through the doorway. He adjusted a light-yellow tie that complemented his swept back platinum hair. His face was a set of obtuse angles, that looked as if they had been chiselled from marble. Angley had never seen someone so beautiful. The man locked azure eyes with him and followed with the wisp of a smile. A shock ran through Angley as if he had leapt into a freezing lake. 

"Who are you, soldier? Identify yourself!" the Secretary demanded as multiple guards readied their rifles towards the two intruders. 

"I am General Hammer, lead of the Occult Research and Containment Agency, also known as ORCA. Behind me is my lead researcher and trusted confidant, Mr Samuel." 

"ORCA?" said the Secretary, raising an eyebrow. "There isn't any government agency with that name." 

"Actually, there is," mumbled the President. A short, plump man who's face reddened as he pulled himself to his feet. "They report directly to me. I appointed General Hammer here due to our similar spiritual beliefs. ORCA's role is to look out for possible strange events, catalogue them, and research them." 

"And that is precisely what we have done, Mr President. If you could, Mr Samuel" The blonde man made his way over to the table and plugged in his laptop. The screens around the room shifted to recordings of the innards of a military base. Multiple angles and hallways filled with guards sprinting as alarms raged, flashing red lights around the rooms. A man appeared in one of the cameras. Tall and gaunt, with strangely long arms. Multiple guards began to fire at him, but the bullets simply ricocheted off. An orange rift split in front of the man and behind the guards, and the bullets disappeared from sight, striking the guards in the legs. The man moved to the next screen. A swirl of flame scorched the guards. The next screen: an invisible force blasted the guards into the roof. The next: a sudden torrential downfall of blood dragged away a line of armed forces. One by one the man effortlessly swept across the screens, concussing and debilitating wave after wave of men. Angley stared wide eyed his jaw open, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

General Hammer cleared his throat, placing both hands on the table. "The forces that have invaded our country are not human; they are not drones or terrorists. Ladies and gentlemen, we are dealing with an invasion from the forces of hell itself. The beings that annihilated both our military base and Infinite Towers were demons." Angley felt the blood drain from his face as the room exploded into a cloud of interjections and comments. Each member of the table vying for their own voice and opinion to be heard over the others. A smug look covered General Hammer's face. 

"Everybody quiet!" yelled the Secretary, his voice booming through the room. The room was plunged into a pregnant silence, all eyes shifting nervously between him and General Hammer. 

"What do you propose then, General?" the Secretary sighed, nursing his brow with his fingers. Hammer grinned. 

"Allow me to introduce Agent Merlin and Agent Gemini." He gestured a stocky hand towards the doorway, and two people stepped inside. One of them was a tall androgynous figure wearing a witch’s hat. An actual witches hat. Its floppy brim cast a wide shadow over their unusual outfit that Angley could only describe as a deep purple ninja's costume. The next was equally as strange. His dark green overalls, orange body armour, helmet, armguards, and kneepads made him look like some kind of heavily armoured skateboarder. The man gave a smug smile, looking around the room through bright orange goggles. Angley found his look of utter disbelief hard to hide. General Hammer stepped in front of the two, a vicious grin spread across his face. 

Zed and Avery stood panting on either side of the bound demon. Avery couldn’t believe her eyes, but she supposed she would have to get used to that. The deer struggled against the chains, its muscles pulling weakly against the warm steel. Zed noted in his head that the chains didn’t look nearly as hot as when Mammon had used them against him. They did not sear the flesh of the demon but instead simply gripped tightly.

“Can’t a guy frolic in peace without getting chained to the ground?” Furfur complained, looking around at his captors. “Who are yous, buncha cryptid hunters or somethin? Made a pact with a devil and now ya think you can go around chaining up wildlife? They oughta make laws for people like you!”

Mammon cleared his throat as he crunched dry leaves beneath his loafers.

“Hello, Furfur,” Mammon said, his voice oozing with the same malicious calm that he had given Zed just the night before. The memory sent a shiver up Zed’s spine, and he had to quickly steel himself to not look alarmed. The demon, however, was not so composed. Its body jolted slightly at the name, and its eyes widened.

“Hey, whoa, how do you know my name?” Furfur shifted under the weight of the chain in an attempt to turn towards Mammon.

“I am Mammon, Prince of Greed. I make it a point to remember the names of notable subjects, especially those with interesting abilities.” As he spoke, Mammon's form changed. Furfur began to push himself away from the now imposing demon in front of him, before a smirk edged across his face.

“Wait, Mammon. Didn’t you get fired from being a Prince of Hell or whatevah? Used to be a big shot, now ya not so hot cause daddy Lucifer took away your title? Heard you're just like us now, a regular ol piece o shit.” Mammon's composure fluttered. Zed could see his fists clench and pale at the knuckles, and his large golden smile falter. Mammon crouched, coiled and prepared to strike. Zed could tell that if Furfur managed to throw one more word Mammon's way, the ex-prince would have the deer by the throat. Zed stepped between the two, his hand outstretched to stop Mammon.

“Furfur, we’ve just come to ask a few questions. We just thought you might be able to offer some valuable insight into someone we’re looking for,” Zed said. He tried to keep his voice calm and steady, not just to calm Furfur but also Mammon, who was still ready to surge forward at the slightest provocation.

“And why would I tell yous three anythin, huh? Ya came into my forest, scare away my herd and chain me to the ground. I ain’t sayin nothin.”

“We knew that if we just tried to walk up to you, you’d fly away. You’re so fast and agile after all. I am sorry we had to do this this way. I know what it is like to be restrained. I am also a being of the storm,” Zed replied as he removed his glove, showing his spectral form. A hopeful optimism toned his voice. Mammon had told Zed that Furfur was known to be able to summon storms, and any self-respecting demon loved a bit of flattery for their skills.

“Well, when ya put it that way,” Furfur began before a wicked grin spread across his face, “Nah, ya think I’m that dumb to fall for a little schmoozin. Besides, what the hell do ya mean ‘being of the storm’ ya sound fuckin ridiculous. Ooh, ya got a fart for a hand, am I sposed to be scared?” Furfur chuckled to himself, quite proud of his ribbing. Zed dropped his hands and glanced back at Mammon, who gave him a nod of approval.

“Avery, help me draw a triangle around this jackass,” Zed said, picking up a nearby stick. Avery shrugged, and Furfur's smile dropped immediately. He began to tug against his chains, causing them to clink and clatter furiously.

“Hey, hey, whoa, not cool,” Furfur wailed. “The other guy sucks, he's such an asshole and I always get this gross aftertaste in my mouth. Also, my wings hurt like real bad.” Furfur’s mouth was running like a tap with excuses as Avery and Zed started drawing a large triangle in the dirt around the demon's body.

“At least take the wing chains off bef–!” The final corner of the triangle connected, and as they did, Furfur’s jaw seemed to snap from its hinges, hanging limply wide open. A guttural moan of pain echoed out from the darkened maw before his eyes enveloped in inky blackness, and his entire body relaxed. Avery felt a sudden surge of fear seeing Furfur. It was like he had died on the spot in front of them. Suddenly, a brilliant light blasted from Furfur's eyes and mouth, and his wings transformed, the skin and bone shrinking, cracking, and breaking, merging back into the wings as large, brilliant golden feathers erupted to take their place. His body broke out in hives of green eyes that leaked an uneasy glow, illuminating the forest. Its wings raised, and without a single flap, Furfur's body began to limply rise from the ground. To Avery, it looked as if an angel had erupted out of the husk of a dead deer.

“Wha what happened to him?” Avery asked, taking a few uneasy steps back as an inhuman chord began to hum from the cadaverous body. It sounded like a choir of multiple voices singing a single note breathlessly. Mammon answered first. As Zed was stunned by the sight, Mammon had, of course, informed him about Furfur's power, but to see it in person was a sight as beautiful as it was terrifying.

“Furfur is not strictly a demon. If put in a triangle, he will take the form of an angel.”

“Children,” the angel boomed, its voice seemingly coming from deep within the radiant depths of Furfur’s body. “Be not afraid, you are in the presence of the voice of the Lord.”

Mammon stepped forward and bowed deeply.

“Angel, we have summoned you to ask for assistance.” The angel’s many eyes squinted, and its wings flapped, lifting it higher above Mammon's horns.

“You are a demon, enemy of radiance. I will provide to you no assistance.” Mammon frowned and was about to say something before Avery cut him off.

“What about me? I’m not technically a demon. I’m only half.” The angel swivelled in the air like a drone to face Avery, its many eyes blinking. There was a moment of silence as the group waited with bated breath.

“There is radiance within you, but there is also hellfire,” the angel finally boomed. Its voice seemed to echo off the trees, and Avery felt a strong compulsion to cover her ears. “I find my own existence to be a similar form of limbo.” Its body cocked to the left, a curious gesture but unsettling, nonetheless. “Very well, I will answer one question of your choice.”

She glanced at Zed and Mammon. Both stared back at Avery in anticipation. Neither of them had been particularly clear on what they needed to know specifically, a trait that was starting to annoy her increasingly the longer she spent alongside the two demons. She threw the thought away for the moment and focused on what she would ask the angel. Her eyebrows knitted together, and she placed her fingers against the ridge of her nose. She couldn’t simply ask what the thing that destroyed Mammon’s towers was. If it wasn’t hunting Mammon but instead a one-off attack, they might never find it again; knowing what it was would have no point. As well as that, if they just waited for it to strike, sure, they’d have the advantage of knowing roughly what they were up against, but they’d still be on the defensive. She couldn’t just ask where it was, either. If it was fast enough to destroy Mammon's towers in a matter of moments and escape, then there was no guarantee that it would still be there once they reached it.

She felt like she was giving herself a migraine, her brain fizzing with ideas and wording, before finally she looked up. It was hard to make eye contact with the being, but she did her best. She cleared her throat and straightened her back as she announced her question.

Kelpie tore down the road, hitting speed bumps and potholes slightly too fast for Avery's comfort. Every careening jump jostled her around in the back. She thanked God silently for seatbelts as they caught a second of air cascading over another. 

Mammon had his window down, and the air was giving her a strange half-blown hairdo while he busied with a map that was obviously too large to be useful in front of him. He cursed loudly in Arabic as stray gusts of air crumpled the map's right side. Zed drove, singing poorly to pop music, his memory skipping lines and his voice slightly off tune. Avery could swear every now and then Zed would flick a gust of wind Mammon's way to catch the map off guard, causing another round of Arabic swears. 

“This map is useless!” Mammon cried, slamming the paper tarp into the glove box in a jumbled mess. “If we had just taken one of my cars, we could have a driver take us where-ever!” Avery noticed that Mammon's accent seemed to get thicker when he was annoyed. 

“We’re trying to be inconspicuous!” Zed replied, yelling over the combined sound of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” and the air rushing through the open window. 

“And ol’ Kelpie’s as inconspicuous as she gets!” he said, tapping the wheel. The car's engine revved as if to answer him. “Also, you don’t have a license, so we drive what I want to drive!” 

“Zed, aren’t you supposed to protect me!” Avery yelled as her head hit the ceiling for the tenth time that trip. “Can you slow down? I’d like to not die of a concussion before we even get there.” 

They had left the urban streets now and were on the I-95, and the road had started to smooth out slightly. Avery looked out the window and could see the city brimming the horizon. 

“So, what's the plan?” Avery asked, shouting into the front seats. Mammon glanced back at her through the rearview mirror and rolled up his window. Zed turned the radio down so Mammon could speak. 

“Infinite Towers were destroyed, yes. I knew it was going to happen; I just didn’t know how. Turns out something destroyed it.” 

“Something that was able to swoop in, deliver several blows to the base of the towers, and get away all without being caught on camera!” Zed said, excitement playing in his voice. Mammon nodded, making eye contact with Avery through the mirror. 

“In essence,” he continued, “we have nothing. No idea who or what could have done this.” Avery's eyebrows knitted together, and she pouted in thought. 

“Okay but like, what do we know?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“We know a guy who might know something,” Zed replied. “We’re gonna go see the Jersey Devil!” 

Avery’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth and closed it a couple of times looking for a response. None came out. Her brain spun like a roulette wheel, switching frantically between questions and statements, finally settling on one. 

“Of course, the Jersey Devil is real. God’s real, Satan's real. What's next? Bigfoot? The Loch Ness Monster? Santa Claus?” Mammon and Zed glanced at each other, an uneasy agreement in their gaze. Avery looked appalled. 

“Oh, for fucks sake, one of those was real, wasn’t it? Which one?” 

Mammon turned in his seat. His voice was firm but soft. A tone she had never heard from him before. 

“Avery, I think your recent revelations may be taking a toll on you. For your own good I will neither confirm nor deny your question.” 

Avery huffed and crossed her arms. As much as she wanted to snap back at Mammon, he was right. This was all still a lot for her to process, and the reveal of the Jersey Devil being a real thing seemed like icing on the cake of crazy. 

“I don’t care; it's all three.” Zed chimed in. 

“Zed!” Mammon yelled, making Zed giggle mischievously. Mammon turned to the back seat and cleared his throat. Avery’s jaw had dropped further than he had ever seen before. 

“Zed is kidding. Saint Nicholas was a real saint but was not the Santa you think of. The other two are fairy tales.” He turned to Zed, his eyes turning to gold. “Right, Zed?” 

“Right, right,” Zed said with a nervous chuckle. 

The rest of the car ride went relatively smoothly. Avery resolved to punching the back of Zed’s headrest every time he took a turn too sharp or a bump too fast. After the fifth blow, Zed started to take the drive a little smoother. Eventually, after about two hours, they arrived at their destination. 

The Pine Barrens; a dense forest covered with a thick mat of needles and a deep earthy scent. They had gone off the beaten path down several dirt roads to get to where they were. Now they were in the heart of the forest as they stepped out of the car. Sun-speckled light broke through the trees up ahead as the three carved a path through the undergrowth, until they could not see Kelpie or the road anymore. 

Eventually they stopped. Avery watched as Zed leant against a tree and Mammon sat cross-legged on a stump, both in complete silence. 

“What are we...” Avery began, but as soon as she spoke, both demons shushed her. 

“What are we doing?” she whispered, glancing around the shadowed trees. 

“Looking for deer,” Zed replied, his voice low and quiet. “If you see any, point them out.” 

Avery shrugged and crouched, looking through the trees. 

Time began to pass, slowly and painfully. Every reposition of Avery's body on the hard forest floor introduced a new rock to press against her legs or an uneven stump to crook her spine. It felt like hours before she had finally had enough. 

“This is ridiculous,” she hissed, turning to Zed, the sound of pine needles and fallen leaves crunching beneath her. 

“How long is it going to take before something happens?” she muttered but got no response. Both Zed and Mammon were looking at something in the distance. She snapped her head to match their gazes. 

In the dingy light it was hard to see, but there was a small herd of deer. They stood near an old willow tree, grazing calmly on detritus from the nearby trees. 

“One of those stags has wings. Can you see it?” Zed whispered, slowly raising to his feet. 

Avery looked back towards the deer and squinted. Zed was right; one of the stags who stood near the back of the group had folded bat-like wings pressed against its auburn body. 

Zed made eye contact with Avery “Okay quick plan, we’re gonna grab it,” His head spun to Mammon. “And you’re gonna chain it down, okay?” both of his partners nodded as they began to creep forward. 

They stayed low, hunched down to the ground, moving through the foliage slowly and carefully like wolves hunting their prey. They edged closer and closer. 15 meters. 10 meters. 5 meters. 

Zed’s foot landed on a patch of particularly dry leaves, and a satisfying crunch echoed through the woods. The deer shot straight up, beady eyes scanning the foliage, noses twitching in anticipation. 

The winged deer made direct eye contact with Avery, and as it did, she noticed that its eyes were not the glassy voids of the other deer but instead something far more intelligent. 

It spun and began to sprint, as did the other deer. 

“Shit!” cursed Zed, launching into a full sprint. Avery leapt behind him, and the two sprinted after the herd. 

The deer's wings unravelled, beating in majestic arcs. The forest floor became its runway as gravity began to affect its grace less and less. It lifted its front hooves off the ground to take off, but Zed threw himself forwards. A blast of wind knocked both its wings down to its sides, and Avery grappled with its legs, pulling them together. 

The deer let out a warped bellow, and with a mighty kick, it threw the young woman off, climbing back to its feet. It stretched its wings, throwing Zed off its back, and made a mighty sweep to take flight, but chains snagged at its feet, sending it tumbling to its knees. 

The deer snapped its head to the right, glowering at Mammon, who stood with his hands outstretched. A red glow emanated from his palm, and more chains looped from the earth, wrapping around the deer's torso. 

It struggled against the chain, pinning its wings against its chest as Zed and Avery climbed to their feet. Avery took a step towards it, but she didn’t get far. 

The deer's mouth opened, and from it came not the weird wail she had heard before. Instead, out came words. 

The air was cool, and birds sang outside in a merry tune as the rays of the morning sun graced across Avery’s face. She let out a mumble as she rose from her sleep; her dreams had been terrible, and she could feel it. Her body ached as if she had been running from a monster version of her new crush, as if she had hidden with a friendly demon and made a pact with a volatile devil from Hell. Thankfully, that was all just a dream. 

She slowly sat up and stretched, smacked her lips, and blinked sleep out of her eyes as she began to drag herself out of bed. Her blanket sat slumped over her shoulders as she snailed her way to the kitchen. The sound of sizzling filled the air as Sarah busied around the room. She was already awake and ready for the day, as she normally was. She was already dressed in her business casual attire, her hair done, and her makeup applied. 

“Eggs?” she asked, catching Avery in her peripheral.  “Mmhmm,” Avery muttered. “With toast, please.” 

Sarah placed two pieces of bread in the toaster, and as she pushed down on the lever, a knock from the door jolted them both awake. They glanced at each other, their eyes locking before turning to the door. Avery looked down at herself; she hadn’t had time to make herself look presentable. She was still in exactly what she had slept in, a loose shirt and underwear. She stared at Sarah, doing her best puppy eyes. 

“Fine. I’ll get it.” Sarah sighed, making her way to the front door. 

Avery waited as she heard the familiar creak of the front door. She could hear mumbling from the entrance but could not see it from the kitchen. She heard the singsong charm of Sarah's voice, and then a man’s voice rang through. 

“Avery!” Sarah called. “Your boyfriend is here!” 

Avery gasped. Enzo? He must have come over early, or maybe they had planned something she forgot. She quickly patted down her hair, straightening it as best as she could with her hands. She rushed to the door, passing by Sarah, who gave her a wink as she went. 

“Hey Enzo!” she chirped, turning the corner. 

Her face dropped. In front of her wasn’t Enzo. 

“Enzo?” Zed tilted his head slightly. “You mean the Incubus? No dude, why would it be Enzo?” 

“Oh... I...” Avery began. It hadn’t been a dream after all. Zed, Enzo, Mammon, all of it. 

“Doesn't matter, have you seen the news?” He pushed past her, wandering into the apartment. 

“Huh...” was all Avery could get out as she followed Zed down the hall. 

“You got a TV here, turn it on; it doesn’t matter what channel,” Zed said, ducking his head into the kitchen. He gave Sarah a friendly wave. Sarah smiled politely through a mouthful of scrambled egg. 

“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” Avery grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the lounge. 

“Why aren’t you wearing pants?” Zed asked, but Avery ignored his question as she dragged Zed over to the TV. 

“What could possibly be important enough that you had to ruin my delusions of normalcy at 9 am,” she huffed. 

She grabbed the remote, and the TV flickered to life, cutting to a helicopter news feed. Avery didn’t quite understand what she was looking at; it looked like a demolition site. The remains of some demolition site. Concrete rubble, rebar, and glass lay strewn over the ground, and a thick layer of dust covered the debris like a blanket still settling. 

Avery scanned the screen for some evidence of what the building had been, then she saw it. Her stomach flipped as lying amongst the rubble was the massive Infinite logo, its LEDs still flickering dimly as snaking power lines surged with electricity. 

“Oh my god, is that Mammon's towers?” 

“Yeah,” Zed answered, his voice grim. 

Avery turned to him quickly. “Is Mammon okay?” she gasped, grabbing Zed's hand and squeezing hard. She did not quite know how to feel. Mammon was curt, intense, and a little rude, but Avery certainly did not dislike the demon. Especially knowing he would be helping keep her safe. 

“Mammon is safe. So is everyone who was in the building.” 

Avery let out a sigh of relief, and she let her whole body relax. 

“What happened?” Avery asked. 

Zed turned to the screen. She could see it reflecting against his visor. A reporter was doing an interview with a slightly distressed-looking woman. 

“Did you know that when a demon gains power, their horns grow? The bigger a demon’s horns, the more powerful the demon.” 

Avery frowned as Zed continued. 

“As a weaker demon, I don’t have horns, but Mammon's horns are huge.” 

“Right, Mammon's horns are big and gold. What does that have to do with anything?” snapped Avery. 

“Those aren’t Mammon's true horns.” 

Avery cocked her head, her frown deepening. 

“What?” 

“Thousands of years ago, Mammon cut his horns off; they had become too large and heavy for him. Funny thing is, even though they were separate from him, they kept growing. They got bigger and bigger until they were gouging the sky. Now the question is, where did those horns end up?” 

Avery glanced at the TV. She felt the realisation connect in her mind. 

“You mean the towers?” Avery mumbled before Zed cut her off. 

“Yeah, those towers are Mammon's horns.” 

Avery stared at the destruction. 

“Thing is,” Zed continued. “The inverse also applies; when a demon loses power, their horns will shorten. But not quite like they grow. When they shorten, something will happen to the horns. The demon may have them break in a clash with another demon, or have a rock fall on their head, or they might just crumble and fall off. No matter what, some unknown universal force will cut them down to size.” 

“So, this is them getting cut down to size?” she interjected, gesturing towards the screen. 

“Yep, after we left, Mammon remembered what his towers were and made me call in a bomb threat so they could be evacuated.” Zed chuckled as if it had been a prank call. 

“So, what? They just crumbled?” Avery fully turned to the television. She squinted at the screen and swore she could see dark chalky bone amongst the rubble, though she may have just been imagining it. 

“Nope, someone destroyed them,” Zed said, with a devilish delight emanating from his voice. 

The words took a few seconds to sink in as she slowly turned to look at Zed, a crooked smile straining her face. 

“Huh?” 

“Someone tried to kill Mammon by collapsing the towers,” Zed said. She could hear him smiling through his voice. “It looks like our dear ex-prince of Hell has an assassin.” 

Avery felt her heart beat faster. So that was why it was only Zed here; Mammon must have been tucked away in some safe place where he couldn’t be found. 

She lowered her voice to a whisper, glancing towards the door to make sure Sarah wasn’t listening. 

“So where is he? Some underground vault? A safehouse in the middle of nowhere?” 

Zed was quiet for a moment and then began to laugh. 

Avery stepped back, her face shifting to a look of shock. 

“Seriously, what is with you today? He’s outside in my car. He didn’t wanna come in, said something about ‘maintaining his status’, whatever that means. We’re gonna hunt down whatever or whoever tore down Infinite Towers, and you’re coming with!” 

Avery took another step back. These two were insane. If something was so strong it could take down two skyscrapers, then what chance did they have? 

“Wait, why am I coming?” she exclaimed. 

Zed grabbed her wrist and began leading her to the door. 

“We can’t protect you from demons if you’re not close to us, duh.” 

Zed grabbed the handle, but before he could open it, Avery snatched her hand back. 

Silence filled the room as Avery’s heartbeat pounded frantically against her chest. Zed's attention turned back to Mammon. Though he could not emote through his helmet, both Mammon and Avery could feel his confusion. Mammon coughed into his hand. 

“I sense that I have not made myself clear. If you are an Incubus, then you are in danger.” Avery looked at Zed, but he only shrugged; he felt just as bewildered as she was. 

“Okay, but why? How am I in danger?” Avery asked finally. Zed nodded and turned to Mammon, shifting his shoulders to face him ready for the explanation. 

“You smell of demon-kin and due to this being your only form you have no way to disguise yourself. Demonic scents tend to attract other demons. The smell of home has a certain allure especially for lesser demons. As well as that many angels still reside on the mortal plane and have a habit of slaying demons on sight. Quite frankly it is a miracle you haven’t had any occult encounters before this, asides from the Incubus of course. It is probably why he found you; he was hunting you.” Mammon said it so matter-of-factly that Avery had to take a couple of seconds to process that he was talking about her potential death and not a matter of business. If her heart was pounding before, now it felt like it was trying to break through her ribcage. 

“You mean... demons will just keep coming for me?” she asked. Her voice caught at the final word, a sick feeling rising from her throat. 

“And angels potentially, yes.” Mammon moved back to his bed and sat down. Avery stared at the wall, her eyes searching it for an answer. She could move away, but there was no guarantee there wouldn’t be something worse out there. She could lock herself away, but even when she did the Incubus still found her. She could arm herself? 

“Maybe I could buy a gun. Something so I can fight back?” Mammon scoffed. 

“As I told Zed here a week ago, guns cannot kill demons or angels. Only hellfire or radiance will do.” 

“Then we will protect her,” Zed interrupted. He placed himself between Mammon and Avery, arms outstretched. He looked back at Avery, and she stared up at him, a glimmer of hope flickering in her heart. “We will make sure that nothing happens to you.” He turned to Mammon. “Besides, we can use her as bait.” Her hopeful smile dropped; as did her jaw. 

“Excellent idea, Zed,” Mammon applauded, his form shifting slightly to reveal his devilish smile. “I need to remain in my human form for business, and you do not smell like a regular demon, therefore Avery would make an excellent beacon for demon activity.” Avery sniffed. Zed indeed did not smell of brimstone. Instead, he smelt like staticky sweaters, petrichor and pennies. She could clearly smell Mammon, however. Every time he shifted he let out a burst of sulphurous odour that wafted towards her. 

“Are you seriously considering using me as bait?” she scoffed. Zed placed his hand gently on her shoulder. 

“We’ll also be protecting you,” he said sincerely. “I promise we won’t put you in any unnecessary danger and we’ll make sure that you don’t get hurt.” Avery's eyes darted off Zed and landed on Mammon; this time it was his turn to shrug. 

“I will not make any guarantees for your safety, but having two demons trying to kill anything that may come after you sounds better than nothing.” 

Avery turned back to Zed. “Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll be your bait.” As she stared up at Zed she smiled. Perhaps it was because he had saved her life, or maybe it was because she loved the smell of petrichor. Either way he felt safe. She could trust him. 

“So how long did it take her to get over the implications of us being demons?” Mammon mused, his gaze dancing between the two. Zed turned to him. 

“Huh?” 

“What was your creed before? Or were you an atheist?” Mammon asked, standing back up and moving towards Avery. 

“Uh yeah, I am an atheist.” Avery answered, a slight uncertainty in her voice. 

“You are? You must not have processed it then. I will catch your brain up to speed. We are demons, you are half demon, and I do not mean demons as in scary monsters, I mean literal biblical demons. Demons who ascended from Hell. The Christian Hell. Where all souls will go after they die. Stories you have heard of angels and demons, Heaven and Hell, God and Lucifer. All of that exists. Maybe not quite as you understand it, but it is real.” 

Avery froze. Things had been happening one after another, she had not had the time to truly think about any of this. The beings standing before her were biblical monsters, created by God (who was real, by the way) to be the incarnations and punishers of sin. And she was about to be used as bait to lure in other monsters at the threat of being murdered and going to Hell. She had literally made a deal with the devil. Her heart resumed its thumping as her mind raced through the implications of all she knew. Sweat trickled down her forehead as the edges of her vision turned a dark vignette that slowly closed over her eyes. She felt her legs buckle as consciousness left her. 

“Shit, what did you do to her?” Zed yelled, lunging forward to catch her as she toppled to the ground. 

“Nothing. She finally took a moment to process everything,” Mammon replied, his monotone returning. “Humans do that when they realise it is all true. Even the ones who believe. Could you please put her in the elevator? I will call a car to bring her home.” Zed carefully put Avery down inside the elevator. 

He moved over to his desk and pressed the intercom button. “Hi Carla, I am back. Could you please prepare a car and someone to pick up a woman coming down the elevator, and I mean literally pick up and carry.” Zed pressed the button that would send Avery to the back entrance and the doors shut in front of him, the elevator descending with a ding. 

“You seem awfully protective of that one,” Mammon said, pulling a bottle of wine from his drawer. 

“I don’t know what it is.” Zed moved over to the desk and sat in the chair Mammon had clearly designated for visitors. “She feels familiar, I swear I have seen her face before, I just can’t quite place it.” 

“Oh,” Mammon replied, his interest divided between Zed and aerating his glass. 

“I want to try and figure out who she is,” Zed announced, his gaze turning to the elevator. “We know she is a half demon, that much is obvious. But who is her father? And why do I recognise her face?” 

“So, this isn’t about protecting her? It is about your own curiosity.” Mammon deduced, finally taking a sip of the wine. Zed felt a sting of anger flare through him, but it settled. 

“I don’t know? Maybe?” Zed said truthfully. He had not quite figured out why he wanted to protect Avery, but it just seemed right. He turned back to Mammon, whose attention seemed entirely focussed on his glass now. “What about you, twenty minutes ago you were screaming about what Lucifer had done to you, but now you're all...” Zed gestured wildly in Mammon's direction and his eyes locked on Zed with a flash of annoyance. 

“If you must know, I thought about it during our conversation. At first my calmness was a ruse, I was still raging inside, but then I realised. Lucifer has given me an opportunity here. If I can defeat enough demons that I am able to save Hell, then my power and influence will be even greater than before.” Mammon's finger traced the rim of his glass idly. “To do that I will need your help, Zed, not that you have a choice of course.” 

“I don't know how much help I’m gonna be,” Zed laughed. “You’re still much stronger than me even like this.” Mammon shot him a glare, his cold golden eyes piercing through Zed. 

“I know what you are, Zed.” 

Zed gulped. Mammon gave off the same aura as he did the first time he had seen him, the cold intimidating businessman who could so easily crush anyone who dared to defy him. 

“Lucifer told me, and if I had known what you are, what you could do, I would not have played nice like in our last fight. I would have killed you the second you set foot in this office.” The moment hung between them heavy in the air. Zed's voice had run dry, all he could do was stare forwards. Mammon recomposed himself. He took a swig of wine and closed his eyes, letting out a sigh. 

“For now, however, you are useful to me. We can train you to harness your abilities better, maybe even become a threat of some kind, but Zed, if that helmet ever comes close to coming off, I will end you without mercy.” Zed felt a shock of electricity course through his body. He nodded quickly. It was all he could muster as a response. 

“Get out of my office. We will reconvene when it is necessary.” Zed stood and hurried to the elevator as Mammon drained the rest of his glass. The doors closed in front of him and through the muffling of the glass he could hear Mammon shout after him. 

Over the past week Mammon had been letting Zed use his apartment as a base of operations while he was in hell; he’d given him the keys, a private access code to get into the building unseen, and a nice close parking space to keep Kelpie. In exchange Zed had promised to clean up the place and make it look a little more presentable. The room looked such a mess with the burn marks, bullet holes, and collapsed furniture from their fight. 

Zed now hoped, as he dragged Mammon by the shoulders from the elevator a week later, that Mammon wasn’t conscious enough to realise Zed had done nothing to fix the place over the past week. Mammon let out a moan as Zed dragged his charred body over to the bed and with a puff of wind boosted him up onto his down feather mattress. Avery stepped out of the elevator and looked around the apartment. 

“Jesus, it looks like a bomb went off in here.” She moved over to the kitchen to run the tap, searching through drawers for a towel of some kind. 

“Yeah, me and Mammon had a bit of a... scuffle” Zed said, looking down at Mammon's body. Mammon always had this sense of power to him, an infernal aura that exuded authority, but now. Now Mammon looked pitiful. It took Zed aback to see not just a demon but a Prince of Hell unconscious; it felt unreal. 

Avery ran a cloth under the water and brought it over to Mammon, placing it gently on his forehead. It was a nice but ultimately useless gesture. Mammon was scorched all over; he looked like a cooked lobster. 

“Poor guy, he's got first degree burns all over him, he's red all over.” She mumbled, worry welling in her voice. 

“Nah, he just looks like that.” 

She glanced back down. His clothes were burnt to blackened threads, but besides from that he had no clear marks or wounds over his body. He looked relatively fine asides from the demonic features that Avery had already begun to normalise in her mind. 

“Oh, so what's wrong with him?” 

“I actually don’t know.” Mumbled Zed. Avery could hear the slightest hint of frustration in his voice. “Mammon, wake up!” He screamed into Mammon’s ear, making Avery jump. Mammon mumbled slightly, but his eyes stayed firmly closed. 

“Dude, warn me!” Avery yelled; her heart racing from the fright. Zed did not seem to care; he took off his gloves and began to rub his hands together like defibrillator panels. 

“Okay, warning, I’m about to electrocute him.” He placed his hands on Mammon's chest and a controlled shock of electricity jolted from him. Mammon's eyes snapped open, his body spasming upwards. His eyes whirled backwards in his skull, globes of gold flashing their familiar imagery. He let out an uncontrollable, retching yell and his eyes jammed on X. He collapsed backwards, panting as Zed moved off him. 

There was a moment of silence broken only by Mammon's heavy breathing as his eyes searched the ceiling before he sprung to his feet in a sudden burst of speed. 

“Ya Khara!” he screamed, lunging forwards, his head in his hands. “Yakhsaf allah bih al’ard.” 

“Whoa, Mammon, chill out,” Zed said quickly, putting his gloves back on. Avery took a good few steps back; she’d seen what a lesser demon could do when it was mad and didn’t want to find out what Mammon was like when he was mad. 

“I will not ‘chill out’; he ruined me, Zed!” Mammon screamed, throwing a pot against the wall, shattering it to pieces. 

“Who? Lucifer? What do you mean he ruined you?” Zed asked, raising his arms, trying to calm the thrashing demon. Mammon froze, his eyes searching the space in front of him. 

“He took it away. He took away my title. I am no longer a Prince of Hell.” Mammon collapsed to his knees as Zed gasped in surprise. A demon prince losing their title was unheard of. Thousands of years ago, five demons had worked with Lucifer to find and imprison Satan on the lowest level of hell. Since then, those five demons, Lucifer, and Satan had been titled the Princes of Hell; the seven most powerful demons in the underworld. Mammon was one of them, though he did not participate in the fight. Instead, he had worked tirelessly to craft nigh unbreakable chains that still sealed Satan away to this day. The title came with a level of influence; other demons respected and feared their names, their presence brought respect and devotion. To have the title stripped away was unthinkable. 

“What... what does that mean?” Zed asked tentatively, placing his hand on Mammon’s shoulder. 

“I have been stripped of my influence; my power is reduced to that of a lowly demon.” Zed felt a pinch of anger at the term ‘lowly demon’ but kept his calm. He knew what Mammon meant. A demon's power was affected by multiple factors, but one of which was their influence. The more respected, feared or admired the demon was, the more powerful they would become. Without the title of prince to bolster his influence, Mammon had become significantly weaker. 

“How did this happen, Mammon?” Zed felt something catch in his throat. If Lucifer was mad enough to do this, what would happen to him? 

“I ventured through Hell and found Lucifer. I told him that you had instructed me to return to him, and I had. He did not believe me. His fury was immense. ‘You had one job!’ he told me. 

‘All I needed you to do was kill Zed, and now you abandon your post, lie to me, and refuse my intentions because you were bored. Because you thought that the King of Lies would not know if one was spoken to my face. You are all children; petulant and bad-tempered infants who fight and squabble and bicker constantly, who defy me at every whim, who I must personally guide home because you cannot be bothered to return to your playpens. If you wish to act like children, then fine; go on your mission, help your interesting little demon, but you are no longer a prince. Children should not be leaders.’” 

Mammon stopped. Zed could tell he was fighting back a wave of emotions, rage, fear, sadness. His jaw trembled and his breath sounded ragged as he continued. 

“He told me if I wanted to return to being a prince, I would need to earn it. I have seen Lucifer mad, but never like this. Something must be going terribly wrong to make Lucifer this mad.” Zed was speechless. Quite honestly, he was out of his element entirely. He did not know how to comfort the former prince; someone who had once far exceeded him in might and status, but now, though still strong, was a shadow of what he had once been. 

“Who is she?” Mammon asked, and Zed became acutely aware of Avery standing beside them. 

“Hello,” Avery answered nervously. During Mammon's rant she had been awkwardly waiting; she felt intensely out of place next to the two hellions, but Zed had needed help getting Mammon here so here she was. 

“Oh, yeah, that's Avery,” Zed interrupted quickly. “She was about to kiss an Incubus, and I saved her, then I asked her to help me bring you back here.” 

Mammon reverted to his human form almost immediately; but not only did his form shift, so did his presence. In an instant he transformed from a panicking mess to something cool and calm. His grimace shifted to a neutral stare and his hands stopped shaking. It was an unnerving, unnatural, and intensely practiced change. 

“Um, nice to meet you Mr Tharwat... um... Mammon... sir.” Avery stuttered. The transformation had thrown her off, any sort of cool composure she had. Mammon's eyes thinned as he looked at her and took a deep sniff of the air. 

“You smell...” He mumbled. Avery felt as if she had been punched in the stomach. She had spent so much time getting her shit together. She had been showering every day, using deodorant normally, wearing clean clothes; she had even put on a little bit of perfume before her date. Sure, running from the Incubus and hiding in the trash certainly didn’t help, but she didn’t feel like she smelt that much worse than before. Surely Zed would back her up; he’d smelt her before, he’d know how much of an improvement she’d made. 

“Yeah, I know right, she smells really strongly of brimstone.” Avery's jaw dropped. Seriously, this again. There was no way. 

“She’s a demon,” Mammon said. Avery’s stomach twisted strangely. Both of their gazes were fixed on her now. She felt intensely uncomfortable. 

“I am not a demon. I was born in Florida.” 

“And your parents?” Mammon inquired. Their total attention had shifted; Zed was now intensely curious about Avery. He had thought he was just going crazy before. She seemed so normal, but now knowing that Mammon could sense it too, he needed to know what she was. Avery however had no idea what she was. She froze at the question, her mind flipflopping between the truth or a lie. She caught Zed's gaze, and her heart softened for a moment. 

“I didn’t know my parents. I was abandoned at birth and adopted. I tried to find my birth mom but... she had died.” Her voice trailed off into silence as she spoke. 

“And your birth father?” Mammon's voice was a steady monotone that put Avery on edge. She grit her teeth and answered. 

“Couldn’t find him. Probably left my mom before I was born. He wasn’t on any documents or anything.” Her awkwardness had turned to annoyance. Was this really what was important right now? 

“Your father must have been a demon then. That makes you a Cambion.” Zed answered, breaking the tension. Avery was about to say something, but Mammon interrupted. 

Avery’s feet pounded concrete as she sprinted along the waterfront park. In front of her was the man who had apparently saved her life; still holding her wrist, dragging her behind him. The beating of leathery wings threatened to close in on them at any moment, and a sound like a person laughing while gurgling water echoed through the empty park. Avery’s lungs were starting to burn and her legs felt like jelly, but adrenaline pushed through and eventually she was running side by side with the man. 

“What the fuck is that?” she gasped, taking a cursory glance behind her. The creature that had once been Enzo was lunging from pole to pole, using his wings to glide between his points. 

“Incubus.” The man said. His voice did not sound nearly as shaky from gasping for air as hers. “He was going to paralyse you with his saliva and eat you if you kissed him.” 

“He what?” screamed Avery. 

“Well, you see...” the man began, but then one moment he was running beside her and the next he was not. His foot had caught an uneven piece of pavement, causing him to collapse to the ground. The incubus leapt onto him, its wings pinning the man to the ground. Avery paused; a spark of rebellion flared within her. 

“Keep running!” he yelled. “I got this!” Avery spun; she took a sharp right and began to sprint down an alleyway. From behind her she could hear claws ripping fabric and the clanging of metal, but she could also hear a strange crackling sound that made her hair stand on end. A bright white light illuminated her path from behind her and disappeared within a blink. The incubus let out something between a roar and a moan as she took another sharp turn. 

In front of her was a dead end; a dumpster sitting against a grey brick wall and a metal door that probably led into some business. Avery could hear the incubus’s roars approaching. She tried the door handle, but it was locked tight. Some movement disturbed a trash can, causing it to clatter noisily down the path she had taken. She kicked the door, but it would not budge; its lock was fastened tight. She glanced around nervously; the thumping of something leaping from wall to wall was getting closer. 

She turned to the dumpster; her last hope. Holding her nose, she pulled it open and leapt inside. Inside the dumpster it was dark and damp. Food scraps littered the inside, and she could hear her weight crunching down on numerous plastic wrappers, cans, and containers. She stayed as still and silent as possible for her. 

Then she heard it; the sound of something outside. It tried the handle of the door next to her, then moved to the trash can. The lid began to open, and Avery prepared a punch. She was going to punch that stupid handsome incubus in the face before he could react; and then push past him and run. It was not a good plan, but it was all she could come up with in the second she had before the lid cracked open. 

She launched her fist, colliding hard against the man's helmet, sending him snapping backwards, stumbling, and then falling flat on his butt. 

“What is it with you and punching me in the head?” he moaned, holding his head steady between his hands. 

“Shit, sorry; I thought you were, you know, the thing.” 

“Yeah well, I’m not. Is there enough room in that thing for both of us?” 

With the permission of a nod, the man clambered into the dumpster, closing the lid over him. They both sat in silence, listening in the dark. In the distance, they could hear the incubus’s guttural screeches; it was looking for them. 

The man broke the silence. 

“The name is Zed, by the way.” 

“What?” whispered Avery, taken by surprise by the sudden comment. 

“My name; it’s Zed. What’s yours?” 

Avery gave him a look of confusion, not that he could see it. Now was when he chose to introduce himself? Not after the incubus had left? 

“Avery.” 

“It’s nice to meet you, Avery.” She heard wrappers shuffle and trash clink as he shifted on the trash, reaching his hand out. She fumbled in the dark until she felt his hand clasp hers, and they gave each other a firm shake before letting go and settling back to stillness. 

“What was that thing?” Avery asked breathlessly, as she was still panting heavily from the chase. 

“Incubus.” Zed replied. 

“I know you already said that, but like, what is an incubus?” she whisper-hissed, a tone of frustration sounding in her voice. 

“A lesser demon.” 

“Huh.” 

Zed lifted the lid of the trash can to peer into the street as he whispered. “In hell there are demons and lesser demons. Regular demons are sapient beings like you and me. Lesser demons eh not so much. They’re like beasts; they can hunt, eat, and fuck but not much else. Some are designed to have humanlike qualities to lure people in, like being able to mimic human speech. The incubus is one of them; it's a mimic, an ambush predator. It looks handsome, says all the right things, but when you try to kiss it...” 

“It paralyses and eats you?” Avery whispered, finishing Zed’s thought. 

“Exactly. Dating apps are like an all you can eat buffet for these things. I catfished it a couple days ago; I’ve been following it since. Figured I needed to step in before you got eaten.” 

“How do you know so much about this; are you a priest or something?” she asked, braving a slightly louder voice. 

“Better; I’m a demon.” 

Zed said as he slinked back down, closing the bin. Surely he was joking. Her eyes had started to adjust to the darkness, and now she could see all of him. He did not look demonic, but neither did Enzo at first. 

“You mean under all that, you look like him?” She glanced up and down his fully covered body. 

“Oh no, not even close.” He lifted his shirt and jacket slightly so Avery could see; instead of skin and flesh, she saw what looked like the side of a cloudy tornado; a whirlpool of air spinning cyclonically, forming the structure of his torso. Zed covered himself back up. “Technically my actual body is my helmet; I just control the air below me to make it look like I have a body. I can generate an electric charge as well.” He clicked his fingers, and a small spark leapt between them. 

“Oh, so is that how you got away; you zapped him?” Avery asked, poking Zed and then pulling away as a jolt of static tickled her finger. 

“Yep. I ran into the alleys and managed to lose him, then I found you.” Avery frowned as Zed talked; a thought had crossed her mind. 

“Hey, how does he see if his eyes are horns?” she wondered. 

Complete silence covered them now in a blanket of safety. The barking of the incubus had stopped completely. Avery rested her back against the cold metal wall of the dumpster; her eyes had stopped watering from the smell now. 

“Echolocation; also he can literally sense desperation. It's how he knows who to target.” 

Avery laughed until she caught Zed’s gaze. 

“Oh, you’re not joking. I’m not that desperate.” 

“I dunno what to tell you dude; you’re his prey.” 

A glance down at her hands, sent a new thought into Avery’s head; one slightly more concerning than the first. 

“Hey, if that thing can sense desperation, do you think it can still sense me?” 

“Oh, I didn’t think of that.” Zed sat in silence, looking at her. The answer was clear immediately, and the silence seemed to scream it at them... Yes. 

The lid ripped open with surprising speed, and a large, clawed hand gripped Zed’s jacket. 

“Uh oh,” was the only thing Zed was able to muster before he was thrown from the dumpster, landing a few metres away. 

Enzo loomed over Avery, thick lines of drool slobbering and dripping from his mouth. He licked a row of jagged teeth. His arm stretched towards her like a child reaching into a bag of candy. She braced herself for the inevitable and closed her eyes. 

A sound like a rocket engine erupted suddenly, and Avery could feel an intense biblical heat upon her face. She opened her eyes and saw a rift of red light had opened directly above Enzo. From it a searing hot pillar of flame had erupted. A dark shape fell from the rift through the pillar, and then like a zip, it closed. 

Enzo’s arm fell harmlessly into the dumpster beside her; the only proof of his existence now, aside from a pile of ash and embers that hissed as the cold night air blew on them. 

“Mammon!” yelled Zed, panic in his voice. She pulled herself up to look over the brim at the charred figure with two bright golden horns lying on the ground. The figure moaned slightly and let out a cough. 

It had been a week since Avery’s strange encounter at the laundromat, yet every time she remembered it, it made her want to curl up in embarrassment. The thought that she smelt so bad that someone, in full clothing, wearing a motorcycle helmet in 90-degree heat from ten meters away, could smell her. AND he had described her as smelling like sulphur (she had searched it up online; it smelt like rotten eggs). It was exactly the wake-up call she had needed. That evening, Avery had one of the most thorough showers of her life. 

Over the fortnight, Avery had applied for several small jobs around the city, she had cleaned up her apartment the best she could, and Sarah had made a Hinge profile for her (just for fun). Tonight, however, she had a date. 

Hinge had felt like a joke for a few days, a whole lot of bad pickup lines, heyyy’s, and frankly inappropriate interactions. But just when she was ready to put the app down and forget about it for a month or so, she got a match. He was charming, funny, good-looking. He had stable work, an apartment to himself, a good social life, and plenty of stories to tell that stopped any conversation from turning boring. 

Avery clutched her phone to her chest. The thought of him made her feel giddy inside, and the thought she was going to meet him today made her stomach sink. She ducked out of the bathroom at a surprising speed. Sarah and her new boyfriend were sitting on the couch watching some movie he had sworn was “a true masterpiece.” 

“Sarah, I got like five minutes till I need to go, how's my hair?” Avery had been to the hairdresser earlier that day. She still hadn’t quite got used to the new look. She wore it at shoulder length, in a layered cut. 

“Fine.” 

“And my outfit?” She spun, revealing a classy, cocktail-length satin dress and a black bodice with a sweetheart neckline. 

“Good.” 

Sarah did not mean to be curt, but Avery had been asking her the same questions repeatedly for the past hour, and it was starting to wear at her patience. 

“Okay, okay, I gotta go! See you losers later!” Avery sung. She quickly grabbed her purse and speed-walked to the door. She took a deep breath and left. 

The date was all Avery could have dreamed of. The man, Enzo, was just the charmer he was online. He was tall and handsome, with broad shoulders and pecs that threatened to burst the buttons on his shirt with any small movement. His hair was short but well-kept, and his stubble, though rugged, was neatly trimmed. His eyes glistened with an emerald gleam that Avery couldn’t seem to pull her gaze from; and his biceps. Oh god. They made her drool like she never had before. 

But what got her most was his kindness. He had surprised her with a dinner boat. A fancy meal on a long ferry with fairy lights strewn above their heads and a soft jazz band playing at the helm. The boat had drifted lazily along the edge of the New York Harbour. In a spectacularly magical moment, another couple on the cruise got engaged right next to them. Enzo had personally congratulated them afterwards and even ordered them a bottle of wine to celebrate. 

They took to conversation, and it was unreal. He was smart, funny, full of wit, but also comforting and patient. He told Avery of his emigration to America from Spain, his hopes that he would one day become the author of a bestselling feminist romance novella, and his fears that, because of his handsome, rugged appearance, women might not see how sensitive he really was. Avery lapped up his every word like ice cream, lost in the dream of his and her wedding day. 

As they stepped off the boat, he held her hand so she would not fall. From there she refused to let go. They drifted away for a midnight walk tracing the edges of the park. They chatted idly about whatever drifted to mind, and then when there was no more to discuss, they stopped; finding a park bench that overlooked the ocean to rest. The air was silent. Not a soul around, just him and her. The cold night air chilled Averys face but she could feel the warmth of Enzo’s chest pressed against her. 

“I had a very good time tonight.” She mewed, nuzzling into him. 

“Me too. The music and food were beautiful.” His accent sang to her ears in a way that made her heart flutter. “Do you know what would make this night even more beautiful?” His gaze found hers, and Avery felt a pull, her soul being dragged up to meet his. 

“What?” she asked, her body already pulling up, their lips inches apart, begging to be together. 

“This…” 

“Do not kiss that man!” 

The voice echoed through the silence, shattering the spell. Avery pulled away quickly in surprise, turning to look where the voice had come from. Standing in the dark in front of them was the man she had seen a week ago; black motorcycle helmet and all. She glanced up at Enzo; his eyes were trained toward the man, eyebrows furrowed. 

“Hold on one moment, mi amor, I shall deal with this.” 

Enzo stood and strolled confidently over to the man. He stood maybe a foot taller than him. They exchanged words in gruff, muffled tones that Avery strained to hear, and then, with a swift blow, Enzo punched the man in the stomach. He collapsed, holding his abdomen in pain. Enzo turned and strode back to the bench, offering his hand and whispering softly: 

“Allow us to leave, my love. It is not safe ergggh!” 

Avery’s eyes widened as a length of chain appeared around Enzo’s neck. Straddling him from behind was the man in the helmet, choking Enzo. 

“Psyche motherfucker!” 

He stumbled back as Avery stood up. The man curled his wrists around, choking harder, and Enzo delivered a vicious blow to his side with his elbow but unlike before, the man did not flinch. 

“Joke’s on you, man-slut, I don't have a stomach!” the motorcycle-helmet man yelled. 

Avery sprinted forward toward them as Enzo stumbled around, gagging and spluttering, his eyes searching wildly through the night sky. He collapsed to his knees, the man now letting go of his back and standing behind him, the chain wrapped around his knuckles. Avery attacked. She launched a powerful right hook into the man’s helmet, sending him spinning. Avery leapt onto his chest, grabbing his wrists as his fingers went limp around the chains. 

Enzo took a deep gasp as the chain fell harmlessly to the ground. 

“What the hell are you doing?” yelled the man now pinned to the ground. 

“What am I doing? What are you doing?” Avery screamed back, adrenaline coursing through her body. 

“Trying to stop that freak from killing you, obviously!” the man yelled back. She could feel his body beneath her weight, but it didn’t feel right. Not like a human body; not solid. It almost felt like she was sitting on a balloon. 

“What? He wasn’t going to kill me?” she replied. She felt deeply confused by all of this; too much was happening at once. 

“No, like seriously, he was going to kill you! Look!” the man yelled, a hint of panic in his voice. 

Avery glanced behind her. Enzo was facing away from her, shirtless. Two giant, batlike wings had stretched out from his shoulder blades, tearing his shirt apart, and an inhuman, lizard-like forked tail slithered from just above his pant line. The ends whipped the air around him as he turned to face her. His face was as chiselled as ever, but two large horns now protruded from his skull, curling around his head like ram’s horns. He spoke, his words no longer carrying their thick accent; instead, they sounded choked and forced, muffled by inhuman vocal cords. 

“You ruined my meal!” 

Avery sat motionless, her mind not able to comprehend what she was witnessing. The air stank like smoke and rotten eggs. Brimstone. Suddenly, she felt a tug from behind her. The man had grabbed her arm and was yanking her to her feet. At some point, he must have gotten out from under her while she was dazed. 

“What do you mean?” Zed asked still spinning lazily from the ceiling. Mammon attempted to stay stoic, but his face betrayed his amusement at the question. 

“Before that, what is your name?” 

“Zed, now tell me what you meant by hell is full?” 

“Do you seriously not know, Zed?” Mammon cocked his head.   

“I seriously do not know. Can you let me down from here, I promise I won't try and kill you anymore.” Mammon clicked his fingers and Zeds helmet fell from the ceiling hitting the ground with an abrupt clang as the chain vanished into a cloud of smoke.  

“Ow” Zed said flatly as he attempted to reform his body.  

“Hell is full, we cannot take many more dead people. It is probably why Lucifer wants all demons back on duty, so they can manage the rabble.” Mammon wandered back to his desk shifting it slightly back into its correct position.  

“How can hell be full? Its big enough for billions of human souls, and the souls are redeemed at around the same rate we receive them. Did a mass death event happen and I missed it?” Mammon picked some papers that had been knocked off his desk up and placed them neatly back in a pile. 

“That is just the problem. There is no such thing as redemption anymore.” 

“What?” Zed had reformed his body and started to fit himself back into his crumpled clothes. The cycle of divinity was simple. 

The human soul is born on earth, while there it is free to commit whatever atrocities and crimes it can dream of, however once its mortal coil dies its soul is judged by the angel Azrael. If it is a pure soul that has not committed any misdeeds it is free to soar to the gates of heaven if not it is plunged to hell. In hell the soul will then, bit by bit, experience all the pain they have caused on earth. An eye for an eye of retribution. The guilt of what they have done will begin to weigh on them until eventually they have a revelation. A genuine and sincere asking for forgiveness from the souls they have harmed, not to escape the pain, but because they understand the pain they have caused. Then their soul is redeemed. It is washed of its pain and raptured to the gates of heaven. An infinite realm of bliss where souls may rest with God himself.  

“God closed the gates.” 

Zed froze; he had never heard a more terrifying sentence. Mammon sat at his desk and gestured to the knocked over chair. Zed walked over and propped it up sitting down before Mammon continued. 

“I think it was just after World War Two, America inventing and then using nuclear weapons seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back. God had already promised to not wipe out humanity again like he did with Noah. So, he called his experiment a failure. Wrapped up shop. Closed the gates of heaven from allowing any more souls and went radio silent.” 

Zed placed his hand against his beat up and dented helmet.  

“God ghosted us?” 

Mammon chuckled slightly. 

“You could say that, of course humans still died and their souls, no matter how pure they were, needed somewhere to go. So now they all go to hell and never leave. Hence hell is full.” 

Zed sat in silence. Things were worse than he had ever thought, how was Mammon so calm about this. If hell was properly full what would happen next? Where would souls go? One thing was certain though. Zed did not want to go back. 

“So why are you here then? What's your purpose?” he asked patting the wrinkles out of his jacket, a calming gesture that soothed his mind. Mammon raised an eyebrow.  

“I am here to punish the greedy, simply put. The greedy cause the most deaths on earth by far. Those who desire money over all else kill the most, and most humans do not even recognise it. My work slows the flow of human lives entering hell and gives Lucifer more time to figure out what to do.”  

“So, your job is to bully billionaires.” 

“Essentially.” 

“Then why would Lucifer send me here to kill you; it sounds like you’re doing stuff that would help him right?” Mammon looked at Zed as he would at a lost puppy. Mock sympathy welling in his voice. 

“I think Lucifer may have sent you here so I would kill you.” Zed froze, gears whirring in his head as he connected the dots.  

“Oh. So, are you going to kill me?” Mammon paused. A look of contemplation passed his face before he spoke. 

“No, at least not yet, this deal with Lucifer you have made intrigues me. I say I let you live, and you continue your mission.” Mammon leaned back in his chair his form slowly began to shift back to Ali’s. “In return you will allow me one future favour, it could be anything. What do you say?” Zed frowned, a thought had come to mind. 

“One problem, a deal in my contract with Lucifer is that you must return to hell. Willingly or not.” Mammon scoffed. 

“Is that so, do not worry about that. I will simply return to hell and tell Lucifer you told me to come back to talk with him; and he will send me back.” Mammon opened a small compartment on his desk and pushed a button, a crackling sound emanated from small speakers around the room. 

“Carla call off any meetings I have for the next week; I’ll be going on an impromptu vacation.” 

Zed looked astounded. Traveling to hell and back was a pipe dream for most, an impossibility for a human and a feat of wonder for a Demon. Leaving it once was a thing of luck but to go back and return to the mortal plane. 

“It's that easy?”