“Dawn is consistent,” Miguel said.

  “Yes and no. We are gaining daylight hours every day in the form of a few minutes in the morning and a few minutes in the evening. Dawn on the 13th of May is a few minutes later than dawn on May 18. Before you object, saying it’s just a few minutes and it could be the people that are vague, that doesn’t entirely make sense to me, because dawn begins a while before the sun physically rises above the horizon. Looking at the first statement, they called 911 at 6:20 a.m. That’s after the sun rose above the horizon and not dawn. The sky would have begun to lighten around 5 a.m. or so. Ditto the second one, again they got help after 6 am. I don’t know the exact time the sun rose above the horizon on any of those days, but after 6 a.m. seems late to me, and the sky was already getting significantly lighter by then. Meaning, it really isn’t happening at dawn, it’s happening after the sun rises. This is important because demons cannot track time. Looking at a clock is pointless to them, especially a 12-hour clock, which is the most common in the US.”

  “Ah, yeah, I get it,” Jerome said. “Let me explain. If a potion lasts eight hours from the time it’s consumed, then it lasts eight hours. The most obvious point of consumption for the first couple was their dinner delivery. If they eat at the time most Americans eat, it would have been 6 or so at night. That means it should have worn off around 4 a.m., not after the sun rose. The source of a possession potion is questionable for couples two and three, which means the time they took it could have varied wildly from couple one, but the possession ended about the same time. You can design a spell to end at a specific time, but not a potion.”

  “Yes. Also, you could negotiate for a time limit if it were part of a soul bargain.” I frowned.

  “Why would these people bargain with their souls to allow their stuff to be stolen?” Miguel asked.

  “Not the homeowners, the people causing the possession,” I clarified. “Using their soul as part of the trade, a person, or group of persons, could make a deal with a demon to gain access to a potion that causes possession, but also stipulate the possession must end at a specific time the day after the potion is administered and possession begins. In that instance, the possessing demon would not be required to understand the passage of time in our plane, the magic would end the possession automatically, as if setting an alarm every day.”

  “Oh,” Miguel said. “Is that a likely bargain?”

  “No,” I frowned. “It really isn’t, but it is plausible. I’m stuck on the time issue, which is an anomaly.” I admitted. “May I ask that we move venues to my house, so I can summon a demon and ask some questions?”

  “We have a secure area; I’ll take you there and you can summon one.” Miguel said.

  “No!” Penelope nearly shouted. “If she summons a demon inside this building, all sorts of alarms are going to go off. Even in the secure areas, we like to never have gotten those cambion inside last year, and my God, the stuff we’ve had to do to get the imps in here for delivering messages to Magda’s department. No. No. No. We will go somewhere else, not here.” Penelope was stern.

  “Why wouldn’t it be safe? She has a relationship with Demonation, as does Magda. It should be fine,” Miguel said. I tried not to gape at him like a fish out of water.

  “Yes, I have a working relationship with most of Demonation, but demons are never safe,” I said dryly. “Demons need power, and to get it they have to instill fear. Demons are sentient in the same way people are, imps are sentient in the way that gorillas or dolphins are. That’s why imps are safer to use as messengers than demons, and it’s why I set up the imp network for Magda. But do not make the mistake that because I am working with demons, demons are safe. If I summon a demon in this building, it’s going to set off all sorts of alarms. Alarms cause fear, which means in a roundabout way, the fear will be of the demon and even if I summon a very minor one, it will grow more powerful just being here around all of that fear. At my house, I can control the environment, including a spell that reduces the production of fear hormones, and I can contain the demon. I don’t have the ability to do that here, so there is no way I can summon it here.”

  “Plus, Soleil probably has pizza to bribe it with,” Penelope said.

  “Uh, not at the moment. I tried to make coffee using magic last night and the demon I accidentally summoned ate the leftover Cassanova’s Pizza that I had after it made all of us coffee,” I admitted.

  “You accidentally summoned a demon while trying to make coffee?” Miguel raised an eyebrow.

  “Remember what I said about her being exceptionally lazy? She’s been trying to learn to use her magic for everyday tasks, but she’s ignored it so long that once in a while when she tries to use it, she ends up summoning a demon or exorcising something. Summoning and exorcizing magic come naturally to her, the other stuff she has to work at, that is why I said she had a tutor even though she’s in her forties and even though she’s earned a designation as an archangel,” Magda said.

  “You were serious?” Miguel said. “I thought you were being disparaging, but in a nice way.”

  “No, she was serious,” Penelope and I said in unison.

  “It can’t be an insult if it’s true and, in my case, it is.” I shrugged. “I really don’t know how to use magic very well. I’ve always stuck to using the magic that was easy for me and that magic is Stygian in nature.” I repeated the shrug. “However, having adopted such a truly powerful wizard as my son meant it became necessary for me to learn more about magic, even if it wasn’t easy for me. I’ve been learning, but let’s face it, exorcism magic was all I used for the first 40 years or so of my life. Then a few years ago, I discovered it was equally easy to summon demons. Last year, I learned they liked human food and would do nearly anything for it. Since then, I’ve been summoning demons for information or tasks and feeding them as payment.”

  “I see,” Miguel said.

  “However, just because you aren’t afraid of the demon I summon today, don’t make the mistake thinking you aren’t afraid of them all the time or that they aren’t dangerous. As I said, I have protections in my house that prevent fear. Also, while I believe relations between demons and the living should be improved, I do not support causes like Beings for Equal Demon Rights. I think those guys are crackpots because Stygian beings, whether they be demons or dragons or imps, are all dangerous in different ways and demons do not belong on our plane of existence. Furthermore, demonic possession is awful; to earn my exorcist certification, I had to be possessed. If I am never possessed by a demon again, it will be too soon.”

  “Yet you summon demons and feed them,” Miguel said.

  “Correct, the key there is I do it.”

  “What most people don’t know is that demons fear Soleil, because even on their own turf, the Stygian, Soleil can control them. They have no free will against her in their own plane,” Magda said. “She has less control over them on our plane, but she’s not afraid of them, even without the protection spells, so to some degree, they still have to obey her.”

  “That seems like a strange power,” Miguel said.

  “We have a theory; we know that Lucifer and Leviathan are capable of reaching out to their relatives on this plane. Leviathan does it through dreams. We don’t know how Lucifer does it, but some of his genetic code is in Soleil’s DNA, more than would normally occur in an uncle/niece relation. For many millennia there have been rumblings by some hell princes that Lucifer should be replaced. By giving Soleil power over demons, similar to what Lucifer had when he first built the Stygian, she is able to assist him in quelling that rebellion. The disloyal hell princes know that it won’t just be Lucifer they face if they attempt to overthrow him. It will be Lucifer, the hell princes loyal to him, as well as Soleil, Jerome, and anyone else she decides to take with her to the Stygian. Raphael has proven to them he will bring death to the battle, true death, by killing Azazael,” Penelope said.

  “That is very complicated,” Miguel said.

  “Yes, but the reason for the rebellion is simple. Lucifer has strict rules about demons on this plane. Beelzebub broke one of those rules recently and was punished. The hell princes not loyal to Lucifer want more freedom to do what they please during negotiations for souls as well as during possession. They also want the right to move about in our world,” I said. “Any of those would be disastrous. Possession is bad, but it could be worse.”

  “Oh,” Miguel frowned. “Okay, so what demon do you want to summon?”

  “It may not be one demon, which is part of the problem. Glees knew about the attempted mass summoning, but that doesn’t mean he knows about other summonings. He’s low on the power list, so he probably won’t know about any bargains that have been recently struck. For that, I will probably need a duke or duchess, but I try to summon the least powerful demon I can,” I told him.

  “Magda, would you do the honors of getting us to Soleil’s house quickly?” Miguel asked. A portal opened and all of us, including Penelope, stepped through and into my yard. It was going to be a gorgeous day, if a little warm.

  Camilla, Bill, and their two surly teenagers were in my yard with Angel. Miguel sucked in a breath. I didn’t know if it was his wife’s aunt or the sight of Angel. Angel is roughly the size of small black bear. He was all black when he came to live with us. Since then, though, my niece Aurora had given him pink, purple, and blue polka dots to make him look less mean. And apparently, Angel loves the colorful dots. She had also given him a white belly and a ring of purple around one of his green colored eyes, because as a five-year-old, she said all dogs should have a ring of one color around one eye. And that is my niece’s super angel power, she can talk to animals and cause significant and permanent alterations to their physical form.

  Camilla stopped and came over to comment that I wasn’t in magical chains, which she was taking as a good sign. She then took Miguel off to the side to talk to him in private. I pulled out my house keys and realized the door was standing open, no doubt left that way by one of the kids getting Angel. Bill had a large ball, like a full-size basketball, that he and the kids were taking turns throwing for Angel. Dog toys had to be customized for her, because while she was bear size, she was all dog at heart. Bill threw the ball as Angel spotted Penelope. The hellhound loved the witch, because she carried extra-large milk bones in her pockets all the time. Apparently, Penelope was a dog lover at heart, even though she didn’t own one herself. She was constantly handing out treats to strays. Angel lost interest in the ball and bounded toward Penelope. I saw the witch plant her feet more firmly under her and wondered for a moment if she’d just locked her knees.

  Thankfully, Angel didn’t jump on her, and managed to slow himself, just skidding into her with his body. She stumbled backwards two steps and was already pulling a treat out of an interior pocket of her lightweight jacket. Angel immediately sat, tail wagging so hard his entire body shook. Penelope held up a hand and Angel sat up. Penelope tossed the treat into the air about two feet above the dog’s head and Angel snapped it out of the air with a clicking noise as his teeth gnashed together around the extra-large Milk Bone. I wanted to ask why she didn’t have a dog but decided it would be rude. I didn’t know Penelope as well as I knew Janet and was uncomfortable asking personal questions like that. It was obvious to me that she loved dogs; any time she was at my house she spent time playing and cuddling with Angel.

  Angel was a hellhound and not a regular dog though, so maybe Penelope didn’t love dogs, but hellhounds. Hellhounds came with all sorts of challenges though; for example, they could not reproduce sexually; as their creator, Leviathan, had not given them sex parts. This may seem inconsequential, but it did create issues. I usually referred to Angel as male because he was a hellhound, but my niece had named him Angel, so most people assumed Angel was female, and I found myself switching gender pronouns for him based on my mood as a result. Thankfully as a hellhound, Angel didn’t care if I referred to it as he, she, or it. Since they don’t reproduce sexually though, getting new hellhounds is an issue that requires going to the source, i.e., Leviathan, or as Leviathan has told me, if I ever manage to hack a limb off Angel, Angel will grow a replacement limb and I can get a new hellhound from it. He’s also the size of a bear and not a dog. However, his behavior is very doglike unless his pack is threatened, and then he’s meaner than any bear species, even polar bears.

  Camilla huffed and walked away from Miguel. She stood next to me for a moment, glaring at her niece’s husband.

  “Eres un gilipollas!” Camilla spat at him and then she turned and stamped away from all of us.

  “I suck at Spanish,” I said, watching her.

  “I think it was aimed at me,” Miguel said.

  “Oh good, I don’t like it when she’s mad at me and that didn’t sound friendly,” I said. Magda was grinning. Penelope was also smiling. I was guessing both of them spoke Spanish. We all traipsed inside my house.

  Chapter Seven

  Normally when I summoned demons to the house intentionally, I used Jerome’s game room, which was self-contained within the middle of the house. It had one entrance and one exit and no windows. However, this many people, plus a demon, would make it incredibly crowded. I decided to use my kitchen instead. I put coffee on, because life is better with caffeine, and then I told everyone to take a seat while I raided my fridge for leftovers. I am a good cook, but I’m not just lazy about magic, so I had several containers of takeout in the fridge. I pulled them out and set all of them out on the island. Among the leftovers were some pasta from Giovanni’s, part of a leftover Philly from PepperJax’s, chicken enchiladas with a side of rice, and a partial container of cheese dip. While pulling out the leftovers, I also pulled out the meatloaf I made a few nights ago. I used the excuse I worked late hours to avoid making dinner most nights, but I did force myself to cook two or three nights a week to give Jerome a break from takeout and fast food. Albeit, with Jerome both magical and in puberty, keeping leftovers in our house was almost impossible. He could pack away the food. All of these leftovers except the meatloaf were from my partially eaten meals, not Jerome’s.

  The coffee pot finished brewing and I poured cups for everyone who wanted one. I then put the sugar bowl, liquid creamer, and powder creamer on the table, and looked to see if I had any donuts or bagels or something to offer my guests. I did not, but I looked through the cabinets anyway. I finally found a partial bag of Oreos and a partial bag of Chips Ahoy chewy chocolate chip cookies and added those to the table. Demons weren’t fond of cookies for some reason, but my guests could munch on them.

  “Soleil, stop stalling,” Magda said from her spot at the table. “I know you dread intentionally summoning demons, but this is the most protected house in the metro area where demons are concerned.” I sighed—I was stalling. I didn’t like to intentionally summon demons, they always wanted something in return, hence the food offering. However, I wasn’t sure I had anything left that demons liked. Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they were incredibly fond of pizza, and I was out, I didn’t even have one of those super cheap Totino’s frozen pizzas I could offer. Jerome dug out his cell phone and looked at the time.

  “It’s almost 11, I can call Cassanova’s and get a pizza for delivery or pickup, if Magda would portal travel there and back,” Jerome told me. “Since it’s us, they would probably take the order now, even though they aren’t technically open yet.”

  “What’s with the pizza?” Miguel asked.

  “Demons work on a barter system. If we want information, the demon we summon is going to want something in return. If we have to summon multiple demons, we’ll need multiple items to barter, or we need something they really like and they really like pizza. The better the items we have to barter with, the better the information we’ll get,” Jerome told him.

  “Do you barter with the imps that bring you messages?” Miguel asked Magda.

  “Yes, I keep pizza hot pockets at the office for them.”

  “I don’t even have any hot pockets,” I admitted. “But for a fully-loaded Cassanova pizza that they can share, we’d struggle to get the demon we summon to stop giving us information.”

  “Oh,” Miguel said.

  “I’ll get the food from Cassanova’s if you call it in,” Magda told Jerome.

  “Order several pizzas, some cheesy breadsticks, and at least one shareable pasta order,” I told Jerome.

  “Don’t worry about feeding us,” Miguel said.

  “She isn’t,” Magda smiled. “When we needed information about the cambion situation she sent ten large pizzas across the divide and the hell princes were lining up to talk to us. That was totally a demonic order.” Magda smiled as she said the last two words. Jerome called and sure enough, even though it was a quarter to 11, Cassanova’s took our order for six large pizzas, three of them complete meats, one cheese, and two supremes. He also ordered a large pepperoni, a rotini pizza bake pasta with extra pepperoni, two orders of cheese sticks, and two orders of cheesy garlic bread. Then he added a couple of two-liter sodas to it. Demons also like soda. “I might need someone to go with me to carry all of that,” Magda said. Jerome stood up and walked through the kitchen to the garage and grabbed some reusable insulated bags made by a company that specialized in bags. He set three of them on the table; two of them were specifically for carrying casseroles but would hold three large pizza boxes stacked on top of each other.

  “I’ll go with you,” Jerome said. He looked at the bags and decided to grab one more, probably for the two-liter bottles of soda.

  “I can also go,” Penelope offered.

  “Great, they said twenty-five minutes or so,” Jerome told her. “I put it on our account,” he informed me. I nodded. I had a tab at Cassanova’s; we’d opened it last year while dealing with the cambion issue and then kept it open to start the imp messaging system for the AESPCA until they took over the food payments for the imps a few months ago.

 

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