“Bingo, Bingo, you win the prize!” Raziel exclaimed with a bright smile utterly at odds with Albaer’s usually grave, serious face, and then with her pointer finger, she tapped Lisa’s little button nose several times in a row. Raziel then tittered a bit and put one hand on the chest of her host. “My name is Raziel, Raziel Haleu. My sister and my friends sometimes call me Raz.”

‘She’s insane, is she insane, can demons be insane?’ Lisa wondered and tried to make a smile back up at the body of the friend who loomed over her. “N-Nice to meet you, Raz.”

Albaer’s face frowned over her, the calloused finger came down and found the tip of her nose again. “I said, ‘my friends’ and ‘my sister’ sometimes call me Raz. That would not include you. You may call me Raziel.”

Lisa struggled to keep back her shudder. “Ah, right, Raziel then, so… Albaer? Is he still, I don’t know, ‘in there’?” Lisa asked with a shiver of horror that she finally failed utterly to suppress any longer.

“My host? Yes, yes Albaer is simply asleep right now. He’s still very much alive and very much himself. I’ve simply borrowed his body so we can have a little chat. I figured it would be easier this way than if you saw what I really looked like.” Albaer’s body chewed on his lower lip for a moment, “Believe it or not I was going to make this a bit friendlier, but it turns out you figured things out sooner than I expected. I didn’t think you would be so familiar with Albaer’s little quirks. My sister and he both like cream and sugar, but I can’t stand the stuff.” Albaer’s body sighed with annoyance and he ran his hand through his sandy hair, “I suppose I have only myself to blame for that part.” Raziel shrugged Albaer’s shoulders out and then slapped his hands hard against his thighs.

“But maybe this is for the best, you need to understand my position here, my sister’s position, and Albaer’s position.” Raziel said matter of factly before the futile struggle of the girl under her picked up again.

More annoyed than angry at her attempt at escape, Raziel pinned her down at the wrists until Lisa was huffing, puffing and spoke instead, it seemed to be no effort at all for the one inside Albaer to use his body to immobilize her. “Of course I know the little details! I’ve… we’ve… I used to come and play with him when we were little, we shared a kiddie pool, I was with him when he first tried coffee, how can you think I wouldn’t know all about him?!” Lisa’s anger with the presumptuous creature surpassed her fear, and she glared hopelessly and helplessly up at the tranquil, sarcastic face that slowly began to turn to anger.

Raziel’s fury was greater than she let on, so much so that she removed a hand from Lisa’s wrists and put one finger just behind Lisa’s cheek, forgetting that Albaer’s body had no talons, she trace a finger around the red haired girl’s face as if to peel it away.

As if she sensed the threat, Lisa tried to wiggle and move until Raziel put the finger on Lisa’s forehead and pushed the back of the girl’s skull firmly against the carpet until all the struggling and wiggling ceased. “Because anyone who did, who knew the value of the boy, would have taken the beating for him. They wouldn’t have mocked him into the muck after using him for her benefit. So, I figured you never really paid attention to him.”

Lisa fell quiet, she had to wait until the sense of shame retreated after such an accusation, “How do you know about that, any of that? What kind of demon are you even?!” Lisa remained limp, but her expression was like flint to hide the lingering loathing for her own actions.

For the moment, she was unprepared to struggle more, whether Albaer’s own body was much, much stronger than Lisa realized, or whether the demon possessing him had enhanced his strength considerably, she didn’t know. Either way, she couldn’t move unless she was allowed, or found an opportunity.

She was trapped, and that was that.

“I’m a succubus, if you really want to know.” Raziel replied matter of factly.

That hit Lisa as disturbing in several uncomfortable ways. “D-Did he summon you? Was he so lonely, so utterly alone that he wanted a demon lover…?”

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Raziel saw her opportunity and took it. With a haughty face that seemed even more out of place than his mocking laughter, Raziel asked, “What if he did? What if he was so bereft that he searched Heaven and Hell for someone who would keep him company? Do you have the gall to blame him for longing for anyone, anything, even a monster that will hold him in her arms for some other reason than to more easily stab him in the back?”

‘Me? Albaer’s lover, oh that’s… well he isn’t a bad looking one, but still, better to leave it to this one’s imagination.’ Raziel thought and expelled a lovestruck sigh from his lips.

Unable to bear it, Lisa closed her eyes and shook her head when the finger moved away and allowed her to do so. “No. No, I guess not. Is that what happened?”

Raziel continued to run with the path the girl gave to her, she smiled with malice, baring his perfect teeth and answering, “Let’s just say this is all your fault, girl. Albaer will lose his body again, and again, and again. My sister and I take turns controlling it, she heals him when you or your vile ilk do terrible things to him. That’s how he was able to run away when she had his body and you encountered them. And that is why I have him now. I protect him from harm, fighting his enemies, and if I have to… I will put them down. He’s so gentle that he refuses to even protect himself. So now we have an arrangement. His waking time is his, and we get the rest of the time for ourselves while spending time on Earth.”

“So you’re both his lovers?” Lisa sounded accusing, a mix of intrigue, horror, and a very deep blush that stood out on her pale freckled skin all hit her at once.

“That’s really your focus right now?” Raziel asked with a cockeyed stare. “I guess both male and female humans are sex crazed perverts.” Albaer’s body laughed, neither confirming nor denying Lisa’s assumption.

“I’m not a pervert!” Lisa’s blush deepened at her denial.

“Sure you aren’t, human.” Raziel said dryly. “Here’s the bottom line, girl.” Raziel raised three of Albaer’s fingers and arched his back. “First, this is all your fault. I know him with the utmost intimacy, he was my first in ways that only demons and angels can experience, and whatever you think of my kind, I am bound to him. Neither I nor my sister can ever do him any harm, which considering his recent experiences with humans, is a huge plus. Even for a demon, you are one cold bitch.” Raziel said and lowered one finger.

Raziel then lowered her second finger and said, “Second, we will protect him from all harm, including any harm you might do. If it were up to me, I’d be finding out how far you can survive a fall from, then I would drop you from twice as high. But my sister thinks you might have redeeming qualities. Also, Albaer would be sad to see you die. He’s had enough sadness, I don’t want to bring him more. But, and this third one is very important to you personally... If you put him in danger again, and I mean in any way, even by blabbing that poisonous tongue of yours somewhere...” She brought the third finger down and lowered herself so that Albaer’s cheek was pressed to Lisa’s.

“I. Will. End. You.”

Albaer’s body came up, and Albaer’s pointer finger came down to touch Lisa’s nose again as gently as could be. Lisa could feel the abject conviction in the body on top of her. “Do we understand each other, girl? You will remain quiet, never say anything, never reveal anything, go on about your pretty, pathetic life, chasing popularity and status, and maybe it will make you happy. But leave Albaer to those who will not betray him for a seat at a table full of snakes.”

Raziel was done, and Lisa, deathly quiet for several seconds before she cried out a promise.

“I… I won’t say anything! Not because of you, or your threats, but because it will cause problems for Albaer… I don’t want to bring more trouble down on him.” Lisa vowed, then protested, and she felt Albaer’s body come to a more relaxed state.

“There’s just one thing…” Lisa’s eyes moved around as if she wasn’t sure which way to look, and at this, Raziel could only wait.

‘I hadn’t expected questions after that…’ She thought, then nodded. “Go on.” She encouraged the young woman.

Lisa’s lips closed like a vacuum seal, a steady ‘mmmm’ noise behind her lips as she mustered the will to speak, and finally like the breaking of a dam, her request, her plea, burst forth like water that could no longer be held back.

“Can I see what you really look like?!”