Annabelle had to slap herself a few times to stay awake during the drive from Chicago to Naperville for church. Though she hadn’t gotten home too late, she barely slept as her mind twirled around the prospect of having a forbidden boyfriend. Forbidden by whom, though? Her parents, surely. The church. Maybe God too? She didn’t want to believe that a kind-hearted, caring man like Jack would go to Hell. It just didn’t seem right.

Her goal that day was to try to rebuild the bridge with her parents. Not only would she prove herself to be the better person by offering peace and forgiveness when they had shown neither, but she hoped to regain their favor and respect. This would not only help her sway her father away from cruel sermons, but would maybe, with luck, get them to accept a non-evangelical as their daughter’s eventual boyfriend.

It had been a month since she’d taken Joey in. Every Sunday had been a difficult one where she avoided conversation with everyone. The only positive that had occurred between her and her parents was the parental rights had just officially been passed on to her without hassle. With no legal battles on the horizon, and a renewed happiness in her heart, she was ready to take on what might likely be negativity from her family.

Once at church, she went straight to her mother, who was sitting and eating a bagel.

“Hi, Mom.”

Sandra looked up at her. “You decided to finally speak to me at church again?”

Annabelle sat across the small table from her. “I think it’s time we put all that behind us now. There’s just no reason to push each other apart anymore. I’ve done a lot of reflecting lately, and since I’m happy in other aspects of my life, I want to rebuild this part too. You and Daddy. Now that everything is settled, we can move on.”

After chewing for a while, clearly considering Annabelle’s words, Sandra said, “Are you truly happy, Annie?”

“Very.”

“I’m not even talking about the demon spawn.”

“Me neither. Though he does make me happy.”

“Aren’t you lonely?”

“I have Joey. I’m not alone.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

Of course Annabelle knew exactly what her mother was referring to. “I am not lonely. I am perfectly content with my life as it is.”

“Don’t you want to be a mother?”

It was a struggle to not roll her eyes. “Someday, yes. I’m just waiting for the right man to come along.”

“I keep telling you, the right man is right here in this building. Simon has been waiting very patiently for a long time.”

Annabelle couldn’t suppress the sigh. “Simon is nice, but I’m just not interested in him that way. Besides, is it really necessary that the man for me be in this church?”

Though she had thought she’d asked the question innocently, Sandra’s wide eyes and gaping mouth proved otherwise. “You don’t dare find yourself a husband outside the church.”

“Even if he’s a believer?”

“Then bring him here.” She narrowed her eyes. “Do you already have someone?”

“No, I’m just saying hypothetically.” She hated lying, but it just wasn’t the right time for the truth. She would just need to find a way to convince Jack to postpone or reschedule his meetings to come with her.

Robert came over to the women and nodded at Annabelle. “It’s nice to see you come around to speak to your parents again.”

“I was just telling Mom that I think it’s time to put our disagreements behind us and come together again. The three of us.”

“I agree.” Though his words sounded sincere, he was looking at her with concern. “You look tired. Is that demon boy giving you trouble?”

“No. We’ve actually been having a lot of fun together. We stay out late sometimes, and last night was no exception. But let’s not talk about Joey. We’re here to share in each other and in the Lord. Right?”

“That’s right.” Robert held his arms out and Annabelle stood to hug him. “I may not approve of your choice to support the demon, but your faith sure hasn’t wavered and I respect that.”

Annabelle sighed and smiled. Those words from her father were unexpected so quickly, but she embraced them as much as she did the man right then. “Thank you, Daddy.”

As she went out to take her seat, she was stopped by a hand tapping her shoulder. She turned and swallowed a groan. Simon stood there, smiling hopefully.

“Hello, Annabelle,” he said. “How are you?”

“Fine, thank you.” She tried to step toward her seat again.

“You look very nice today. Well, you look nice every day, actually.”

“Thank you.”

“I wanted to see if you were free one evening this week. I’d love to buy you dinner, maybe get to know each other a little better.”

She stared at the man, only a year older than her, very clean cut with perfectly styled blond hair, a smooth face, and flashing blue eyes. His gray suit was neatly pressed, his red tie no doubt made of the finest silk. It made her chuckle to think she was far more attracted to a man that looked the complete opposite of this one. Perhaps Simon was a good man, though in school he had been quite the jock and proud of it, something Annabelle found annoying. Maybe he was different now. But she had no interest in finding out.

She was tempted to tell him that she was seeing someone else, even though it wasn’t true just yet, but knew the news would spread to her parents before she could even sit down. Instead she said, “Unfortunately I have to work late evenings this week. Maybe another time.”

It wasn’t entirely false. When she had tried to decide what night to go out with Jack, she was disappointed to see her schedule had changed on a few days to make her late. She convinced herself her declining of Simon’s offer was fair because it wasn’t totally a lie.

Simon nodded, clearly disappointed. “Okay. Perhaps the following week?”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“I’ll have to let you know.”

With the service about to start, Annabelle was finally able to escape to her seat in the front. Her mother had obviously seen the exchange and was smiling as she patted Annabelle’s arm.

I just need to get Jack to come here. I have one week to make it happen.

* * *

Silence filled the throne room as Jack awaited Lucifer’s reaction to the news he had just provided. The Dark Lord was reclined on his throne, one leg over an armrest, a hand rubbing his chin. He had listened patiently as Jack told of how they had discovered the identity of Drusiel’s human host, how they had scheduled a metal festival to get closer to information, how they had successfully infiltrated the police station, and how they had analyzed the information they had obtained. Jack had done his best to assure Lucifer that they were still confident they could find the others.

At long last, Lucifer spoke. “Impressive work.”

Jack blinked, otherwise frozen in shock. “Th-thank you, my lord.”

“You’ve proven to me that the four of you were indeed the right choice. You have worked well together as a team based on your infiltration of human law enforcement. Very impressive. And the cambion is proving quite useful indeed. Very good.”

Jack relaxed, but when Lucifer sat up and his expression changed to grim, he tensed again.

“It is all well and good that you have discovered the identity of Drusiel’s host. But this human has been missing for seventeen years. Surely the hunt for him by other humans has been pushed aside. And with the vast majority of his and his leader’s murder victims ending up in Heaven, it is impossible to track their path. So, what the fuck do you plan to do with this information?”

Dorian hadn’t prepped Jack for that question, one he knew was inevitable, but his fellow demon had insisted that the explanations he’d already given would suffice, likely because he didn’t want to admit he didn’t know what to do. As Lucifer’s glare intensified, Jack had to think fast. “Well, it’s important to know their identities so the others also know what they look like rather than just me. I know that might not help us find them now, so I think your idea of putting out bait for Buriel is good. More music. Touring. Try to make him come to us like we did with Joey—I mean the cambion.”

Lucifer stood and slowly approached Jack, who began to shake. Lava for blood was coming, he knew it, and he planned to do something terrible to Dorian in return.

“That tour should have already been set up. Why has it not?”

“We were busy planning for our mission. I’ll make sure 1301 sets it up right away. Today.”

“See that you do or I will have him come see me for a ‘discussion.’ We may have been sitting on this problem for nearly two decades, but now it is time to get going quickly. Be gone. I expect progress next week. Understood?”

“Yes, my lord.”

He had never felt so relieved while leaving the demon leader’s presence. But he was also already dreading the next meeting more than he’d dreaded this one.

* * *

Sunday had been Joey’s first day of peace in a while. Though he had promised Annabelle he’d do some Bible study while she was out, there was only one thing he wanted to do.

Scouring the internet was more tedious on his tablet, but Joey didn’t want there to be any trace on Annabelle’s computer so he suffered through it. First he searched “Texas teacher dead” and got results, again mostly from recent years. He then put “Texas science teacher dead,” and it narrowed it down only slightly. Next he tried adding more specifics like high school and biology and chemistry and physics but they either repeated his previous results or were still too recent to be Dorian.

He leaned back on the pillow propped against the wall as he sat on his bed. How badly did he want to find out this information? Dorian didn’t want to know, so why should he try? Maybe finding out would be a bad thing, make him think less of Dorian. But he already didn’t hold the demon in much high regard other than his extreme intelligence. He treated Jack poorly, often insulting him, so it was hard to have any respect. Finding out the truth might explain why he was the way he was. Why he was different from the others.

With a deep breath, Joey began what he knew was going to be a long search. Over and over he searched his previous terms but added a year at the end, 2000, 1999, back one by one and reading through pages and pages of results. He was on 1994 when Annabelle arrived home from church, and when she asked him about his Bible study, he admitted he had gotten distracted and took a break to read and discuss with her. But the moment he was free he resumed his search. 1993. 1992.

Then he found it. First page. It had to be him.

“Texas Catholic school teacher dead after being fired for teaching evolution.”

The first thing he looked at was the picture. He desperately tried to find similarities between the man and Dorian. They both had hazel eyes. They both looked around the same age. But this man’s hair was a much lighter brown and neatly cut, not spikey. He had no facial hair. His face was slightly rounder, his nose slightly larger, but there was one thing about him that Joey felt was unmistakably Dorian.

The pretentious expression in his eyes, the tiny smirk, and chin held high was identical to the demon he looked at every day.

Joey read every word of the article, mouth agape. Paul Mason had allegedly hijacked his own biology class to teach the forbidden subject to his students at the prestigious Catholic school. He was accused of being a closet atheist, and minutes after he had been fired, he set off an explosion in his classroom that killed himself and three students.

That’s why he went to Hell. Murder. He murdered people.

The knowledge that someone who seemed to pride himself on not committing murder as a demon had actually done exactly that in life was both infuriating and fascinating. Perhaps telling Dorian this would humble him. Perhaps being proven wrong about his former atheism would be a nice touch. But more than likely, he wouldn’t even believe any of it.

If there was one person who would listen, who would have interest, it was Jack. That’s who he would go to first.

* * *

Lessons with Dorian were near impossible to pay attention to that Monday. All Joey could think of was the human version of the demon in front of him. The more he stared at Dorian the more he saw Paul Mason, whose picture he had studied continuously the previous night. As Dorian rambled on about US history, Joey couldn’t stop thinking about how the demon had taken innocent lives along with his own as a human and had no recollection of it whatsoever. He had no memory of the terrible thing he had done to land him in the situation he was now in. Though maybe there was one in there, an extension of what Joey had already found. But he wasn’t ready to ask Dorian to teach him science again.

As soon as he was alone with Jack in the basement for guitar lessons, Joey said, “I need to talk to you about something.”

Jack picked up his guitar and made his way toward his stool. “If it’s about Annie, there’s nothing to talk about. We’re adults and can do as we please.”

“That’s not what I mean. I already know neither of you will listen to me about that. There’s something else. Something serious.”

Jack sat and raised his eyebrows. “What is it?”

Joey sat too and took a deep breath. “I found out the truth about Dorian’s past. His human life. Based on the memory I found.”

When Jack didn’t respond, Joey dove into his thoughts before he could be blocked out. No way it’s not possible how can it what is it.

“I can tell you if you want. It’s bad.”

Jack hesitated. “I…are you sure?”

“Very sure. Do you want me to tell you?”

“As much as I’m curious, I don’t think I should be the one to hear it first.”

“Dorian won’t believe me, even if he lets me tell him.”

Jack nodded. “True.” His voice was soft and he looked off into space.

Reading Jack’s desire to know, Joey blurted out, “He killed people.”

Looking back, Jack’s eyes were wide. “Seriously? Wait, don’t tell me any more. It’s not my business. It’s not fair that I know this and not him. These memories…it’s like a precious thing stolen from us. Not that the memory of murder is exactly something to miss, but…” Jack sighed. “I’ve always wondered why I ended up in Hell. I never felt like a bad person even though I’ve had to kill people for decades. Miles has always teased me about it, still does. Why would a ‘nice guy’ like me end up here? But now I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t find out. If Dorian was a murderer in life, maybe I was too. And I don’t want to know about that.”

“Do you think Dorian wants to know?”

Jack shrugged. “He’s perfectly content with his life now. Knowing this will either give him a bigger head or, less likely, calm his attitude. You can offer it, but only tell him if he wants to know. He was right when he said it’s sometimes better not to know.”

“It’s just hard to imagine having the answers to your past in front of you and not wanting them.”

“I guess that’s what makes us different from other demons. Many would do anything to get their memories back, get the most personal things you can have back. They’d accept with no problem whatever terrible thing they’d done. I don’t want to accept whatever I’ve done, and I think Dorian might feel the same. Interesting that a dick like him can feel that way. A bit of a soft spot in him after all.”

A soft spot. Maybe that was precisely why Dorian should know what he did. Maybe demons could change.