The mayor shuffled his pages, eyes never leaving Annie. “You will, of course, participate in the Chase this evening?” He said it like a threat, but the question was directed at her.
Annie grinned like she’d been waiting for the prompt. “Oh, absolutely. It sounds like a blast. But what I want to know is—is it just a Samiel thing, or do all the demons here do it?”
Mayor Vepar’s lips twitched, barely suppressing a smirk. “It’s policy. The tradition is older than the town itself. If you readthe orientation materials, you’ll find it was originally designed to give both parties a measure of recourse.” He paused, shifted the clipboard to his other hand, and fixed his gaze on Samiel. “Some of the more… aggressive types found the Chase cathartic. For the less physically inclined, it’s symbolic. Either way, the end is the same: negotiation, followed by reconciliation.” He said the last with a sardonic twist, like he doubted any negotiation would last more than a minute against a demon built like a linebacker.
Annie turned to me, eyes sparkling, and asked, “So what are the odds you’ll actually catch me?” She made it sound like a joke, but I could see the question behind her eyes:what will youdoto me if you win?
I smiled, but it felt like borrowed confidence. "You look like you do cardio," I said, eyes flicking down her frame before I could stop myself. "I'm guessing you don't just run from commitment."
She arched a brow, unconvinced. “But?”
I hesitated, and in that half-second of pause, I realized what was really eating at me. The Chase was tradition, yes, but it was also risk. It was the last test, the real one—the kind that couldn’t be rehearsed or papered over with jokes. It was the hinge point where Annie would either decide she liked the monster in me, or she’d see it for what it was and run until she hit the state line.
I wanted her, needed her, with a ferocity that was starting to scare me. I worried that if I let her see it, she’d flinch. Or worse, she’d pity me.
I shrugged, making it an afterthought. “I’ll chase you,” I said, voice low. “I’ll run you to ground. But I won’t touch you unless you let me.” The line was a bluff, a dare, and I watched her eyes go sharp with want.
The mayor’s gaze flicked back and forth between us, reading the room with predatory precision. “Excellent. If there’s nothing further, I’ll check back at dawn.” He tucked the clipboard underhis arm and left, hooves ticking on the tile, the door snicking shut with finality.
We stood in the silence, the shadow of the mayor’s visit lingering. Annie broke first, crossing the kitchen and opening the fridge, as if the world could only be reset by the ritual of snacks. She rooted out a bottle of mineral water, cracked it, and regarded me over the rim of the bottle. “You’re going to win, aren’t you?” she said. “You’ve already decided.”
I watched the motion of her throat as she swallowed, the way her jaw flexed with calculation. The answer was so obvious it almost felt stupid to say it out loud. I could pick her up and pin her to the fridge in less time than it would take her to scream. The only suspense was in how she’d make me work for it.
“Yeah,” I said, honest. “I’m going to win.”
She grinned, but it was all teeth. “Then you’d better make it worth the chase.”
CHAPTER
NINE
Annie
Samiel let out a slow exhale, as if he’d been waiting for a sniper on the roof to take the shot and, having survived, now had to remember how to breathe again. He reached for my hand but stopped halfway, as if uncertain whether I’d bite. I took the lead, threading my fingers through his, the tips of his claws cool and peculiarly gentle against my palm.
“We’ve got hours until sunset,” I said, tilting my head just enough to catch the doubt in his eyes before he could stuff it down again. “And you planned the lake, the picnic, the cave. Which means the afternoon is mine.” I yanked him toward the living room by the hand, ignoring the way he balked in the threshold, as if the idea of being surprised was more dangerous than anything the town’s demon mayor could come up with.
He tried, once, to protest. “You don’t have to?—”
I cut him off with a look. “You cooked, you carried, you rowed me across a possibly haunted body of water. Let me pay you back.”
The house was cool and a little dim, all the shades drawn against the furnace-bright Nevada sun. I let go of Samiel’s hand at the foot of the couch, then pointed at the TV remote.
“Sit,” I ordered. “Watch.”
If he was surprised, he covered it well. He folded himself onto the couch, wings tucked, and waited as I rummaged the shelves beneath the TV for the stack of DVDs I’d noticed last night. It was all classics: horror, romance, cult comedies. I flipped through the spines, then held up two—When Harry Met SallyandEvil Dead 2.
Samiel blinked, then pointed at the latter, a hesitant smile breaking over his face.
“Excellent choice.” I popped it in, then flopped onto the opposite end of the couch, keeping a safe three feet of distance, which for him was basically the range of a handshake.
The opening credits rolled, chainsaws and screaming, and I watched his face as the movie got going. At first, he was rigid, arms crossed over his chest, as if he expected the TV to be a booby trap. But about ten minutes in, as Bruce Campbell’s hand started to attack him, Samiel’s mouth opened in wonder. The laughter that followed was a full-bodied, stunned bark, as if he’d never been permitted the luxury of a joke at a monster’s expense. He tried to contain it, but by the time the disembodied hand was jabbering through the walls, he was doubled over, tail whapping the far armrest, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.
I pretended not to notice, but the sight of a six-foot something demon rendered helpless by slapstick horror was its own kind of phenomenal. I paused at one point, for snacks, and he asked as I headed to the kitchen, “I don’t get it. Why would you make a horror film… funny? Isn’t the point to scare?”
I grinned, returning with popcorn. “That’s the trick. Fear is a joke, half the time. Laugh at it, and it can’t eat you.” I drew my knees up, hugging them as the next scene shrieked acrossthe screen. “Besides, if you’re going to survive Hell, you might as well enjoy the ride.”
He nodded, trying on the idea. “So, it’s like… a challenge to the darkness?”
