DuNoir Valley, Wyoming was beautiful. It was also in the fucking middle of nowhere. It was a good thing I could teleport, otherwise I’d have to have done like Rutter and take a plane to Denver, then connect with a plane to Jackson, then rent a car and drive forever, up and down mountains, around curves, staring at the gorgeous scenery and wondering if I was going to get where I needed to be in my lifetime.

Luckily I didn’t have to do all that. Bam and there I was. Well, actually I was in some one-horse, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town called Dubois. I figured if I was going to bust in on a bunch of Rambo women, I better do a little recon first.

And the best place to do recon was at a bar. I ducked into the first one I saw which had the promising name of Whisky Moose. Two of the most Wyoming things I could ever think of right in one establishment. Upon entering, I saw a huge moose head mounted over the bar, a wide selection of whisky, a bored, bearded man behind the bar and three portly, fifty-something guys who looked as though their asses may have been glued to the bar stools.

The first thing I discovered was that if you pronounced Dubois like the French word it was, you not only branded yourself as a tourist, but you might get yourself laughed out of the bar. I quickly covered for my misstep by buying all three people in the bar a round.

“Fishing, hunting, or hiking?” the bartender asked as he slapped some generic warm vodka in front of me. The place was named Whisky Moose, not Vodka Moose, clearly.

“None of the above. I want to surprise a friend of mine who is living here with a…a friend of hers. They have a place up in DuNoir Valley. She’s an Asian lady named Leethu. Very beautiful. Very sexy. The woman who owns the place is named Red Bird.” I snorted. “What a stupid fucking name, huh? I’ve got no idea what this Red Bird looks like. Have any of you guys met her?”

There was silence while the three men on the barstools eyed me up and drank their whisky.

“Those lesbians?” the one at the end asked. “You don’t wanna go surprising them. Might get yourself shot.”

“They’re not lesbians,” the bartender told me. “Some of ’em come in every now and then. Cooper said he slept with one of them. The blonde one.”

“How many are living there?” I tried not to grimace as I sipped the horrible vodka.

The guys-on-stools looked at each other. “Six?” the one closest to me guessed.

“No, I think there’s eight,” the middle one said.

“Hard to tell,” the guy at the end told me. “They come and go. I think only three or four live there full-time like.”

“One of them Leethu?” I asked.

The closest guy to me nodded. “There is an Asian woman there, and wow is she gorgeous. I mean smoking. I’d hit that in a hot second, but she’s with that redhead and I wouldn’t wanna mess with her.”

“Redhead is pretty hot too,” middle guy commented. “Wouldn’t mind hitting that. Or a threesome with her and that other one.”

“Redhead’s the lesbian,” the far guy said. “You’re not getting any of that. Think the Asian woman might be okay with mixing it up a little, but none of you is gonna get in that redhead’s pants.”

“I take it the redhead is this Red Bird?”

The bartender shrugged. “Don’t know her real name. That’s what the Asian woman calls her. They’re totally doing it. But you’re still getting shot if you go out there unannounced.”

I was a bit confused. There were a lot of reasons to summon a succubus, and sex was probably at the very top of that list. But I’d always supposed that would be some sad, weirdo little guy who hadn’t had fucked with anything but his right hand for his entire life, not a hot redheaded woman who was rich enough to afford to plonk down cash for a house in the mountains.

Didn’t matter. Leethu might be happy to screw this woman normally, but being summoned…well, that was taking things over the line.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and pulled up Google maps. “So I go a few miles down 26, then turn left on this unnamed road here?”

The bartender leaned over and eyed my phone. “Yeah. That’s the road. Five miles down, make a left on a dirt road. It’s easy to miss, so look sharp. Got washed out a few weeks back, so put it in four-wheel drive.”

I wouldn’t be driving, I’d be teleporting. But even with that mode of travel, I still needed to know where the fuck I was going.

“How far down that road is the house?”

The bartender scratched his whisker-covered chin. ’Bout another three miles, but it’s straight uphill and you’re visible the whole way. Gonna get shot.”

“Won’t be the first time.” I shoved my phone in my pocket and dug out some money. Then without even bothering to exit the bar or hide in the bathroom, I summoned my sword, revealed my wings, and teleported.

It was a good thing I’d summoned my sword before teleporting, because I arrived into a war zone. Wards as well as human-style security alarms screamed a warning. A dozen darts slammed into my torso, pumping some tranquilizer into my circulatory system. Over the deafening shrieks of the alarms, I heard several shouts, then felt bullets ripping my body apart.

I know the guys at the bar had said I’d get shot, but somehow I’d thought that a sorcerer would be using more a magical means of home protection than guns and tranq darts. Fighting to recreate torn flesh and clear the drugs out of my body, I readied my sword and saw three girls run out of the house toward me, guns raised.

Girls? Young women? They all looked like high-school kids to me, even the one with the short blue hair. I didn’t mind filling out a four-nine-five report for killing whoever summoned Leethu, but there was no way I was going to do paperwork for killing a bunch of teenagers. The impact analysis alone would take me months.

“Hey! Whoa!” I held my sword up. “Not looking to hurt any of you. The only one I want to kill is this Red Bird.”

The girls screamed in a pitch that nearly set my ears to bleeding, and unloaded on me. If I’d been a human, I would have been dead. If I had been a demon, I probably would have been dead as well. As it was, I was a corpse, blood splattered across the ground, my stupid sword beside me. I made sure they’d emptied their magazines before recreating my physical form, this time hiding my sensitive wings, and jumping to my feet. Before they could reload, I’d knocked the rifle out of the youngest one’s hands and pulled her in front of me as a shield.

The other two girls gasped and immediately jerked their guns to the side, staring at me wide-eyed.

“Hurt her and Red will kill you,” the blue-haired girl told me. “She has so much as a scratch, and you’re a dead demon.”

“I’ve got no intention of hurting her. All I want to do is rescue Leethu. If this Red promises to never summon her again, then I won’t kill her. Honestly, that’s my best-case scenario. I really hate having to fill those reports out. Hate. I’d rather everyone walk away from this alive than have to fill one of those fuckers out.”

“Leethu?” The blue-haired girl shook her head. “You want to rescue Leethu?”

“Ni-ni?” I pivoted, keeping the young girl still between me and the guns as I looked over to see the succubus walking toward me. “Ni-ni, what are you doing? Let Kitten go.”

There was no fucking way I was letting the adorably young “Kitten” go. She was very aptly named, I noted, even though she was quite skilled with a firearm. “Leethu! Where’s this Red person? I’m here to free you.”

“Free me?” She blinked. “Ni-ni, what in the name of Hel are you talking about?”

“This is a rescue operation. I’m here to kill the sorcerer. Or mage. Or woman who got the spell off the internet and figured it would be nice to get laid on a regular basis by someone hot who knew what the fuck she was doing in bed. Whoever summoned you.”

“The human who summoned me is dead. My Red Bird killed him. I live here with her and my human sisters.”

“They haven’t compelled you to stay here? Or to say that?” This Kitten was beginning to squirm in my arms, and I wasn’t sure whether to threaten her or release her. The other girls hadn’t let go of their guns, so I wasn’t inclined to do the same to Kitten.

“No. Ni-ni, please let Kitten go. And all of you,” she turned to the other girls, “put your weapons away. This is the Iblis.”

I let go of the young girl, who shot me a scowl and elbowed me in the stomach before running back to her friends. Leethu strolled up to me as the girls watched, eyeing me with a warm smile. “You came to rescue me? You found me and had come to rescue me?”

“Of course I did, idiot. I’d figured you could handle this guy on your own, but you had been gone for a long time, and I thought you might need a hand.” I glanced around at the girls and the fortress-like security system. “Clearly you don’t need rescue. Sorry about that. Next time check in occasionally so I don’t make a complete ass out of myself.”

“I thought you weren’t coming.” Her voice was soft, with a sentimental note to it. “You’re busy being the Iblis and all that, and I thought maybe you hadn’t noticed how long I was gone, or couldn’t bother to come for me.”

I felt like a total shit. Damn it, I was the worst head-of-household ever. I was the worst foster-sister ever. Overwhelmed was the best word to describe how I’d been the last few years, but there was no excuse for ignoring the fact that a member of my household had been MIA and I’d made no more than half-hearted attempts to find her until recently.

“I did notice how long you were gone. It took me a while to track you down, but honestly I didn’t prioritize it and I’m sorry. You’re so fucking badass, especially for a sex demon, that I never once thought you couldn’t handle whatever asshole was summoning you. I don’t see you as a demon ever in need of rescue, so it really didn’t cross my mind. I’m so sorry, Leethu.”

She launched herself at me, and for a second I wondered what the fuck she was doing. Then her arms came around my neck and I was squashed against her amazing body in a tight hug.

“Thank you, Ni-ni. Thank you for coming to my rescue, even if you’re too late.”

What was that about? This gratitude when I’d clearly dropped the ball big-time. And a hug?

“Uh, yeah. If it happens again, I’ll be more prompt.” I pulled back and again looked over at the girls who were still staring at us. They were pointing their guns downward, but still eyeing me as if they were ready to lock and load with one false move.

Leethu waved the girls back into the house with a smile, then turned back to me. “Let’s walk some distance from the house so we can discuss things.”

Huh. I fell in behind the succubus, noting that she disarmed several magical wards on our way out as well as stopping to type in a code on a box attached to a giant metal gate. This place was a serious fortress. Who was this Red Bird and why was she so paranoid?

“It’s the girls,” Leethu told me as the gate beeped and swung open. “All this makes them feel safe. Plus, they’ve been a bit trigger happy after that demon tried to assassinate Red a few days back.”

“Assassinate? She’s a terrorist?”

The succubus laughed. “No, silly. She’s an angel—an archangel to be exact. That poor demon was quickly killed, but the girls have taken it upon themselves to be an angel’s protector. It’s sweet. They’re proficient fighters, and I have no doubt that they could take down a lower-level demon should one choose to attack us.”

There was a pride in Leethu’s voice that I took note of. Then I realized what she’d said and my jaw dropped. “Uriel? You’re holed up in this place with a bunch of teenage girls and Uriel?”

“Yes.” The succubus’s lips curled up in a sappy smile. “She’s strong and protective, and smart. Her household, the inner circle, are these human women who have been forged by life’s fire. I’m so honored to be included. And I’m equally honored that she’s expressed an affection for me.”

“Affection?” Holy shit, what the fuck had happened? The archangel goes away for some hair-shirt penance and returns with a sex demon on her arm and a whole host of female teenagers who know how to handle a gun.

“Yes, affection. Of course we have been intimate, both in our physical forms and in the way angels do it, but I wonder sometimes if her feelings for me go deeper than just pleasure and friendship. I know mine do, and I was quite surprised about that.”

I shook my head, still shocked by the concept of Leethu and Uriel. “You joined? Because angels don’t do that sort of thing casually, at least not more than once. If she’s regularly angel-fucking you, her heart is already in it.”

“Oh, I hope so. I wanted to tell you this away from the others, because I don’t think they quite understand our relationship. They are all experienced enough to know that we have a physical bond, but not quite the extent of my feelings for my beloved Red Bird. I wanted you to know, Ni-ni, so you understand why I do not return to Hel or your domicile with any frequency from now on.”

“Yeah, I’d guess you’d want to live here with Uriel.” I still struggled to wrap my head around this. Leethu and Uriel. I never would have imagined it, but now that I knew, the pair seemed oddly right for each other.

“Stay here with us for a few days,” she said with a charming smile. “You can become better acquainted with my Red Bird and my new sisters. It will be fun.”

It did sound like fun. If only I didn’t have a fallen archangel to kill and a baby angel to safeguard.

“I’ve got to grab Dar and take him to Oregon so we can interrogate a warmonger about his part in a plot to kill angels. Maybe in a few months when things settle down?” Or years. Or centuries.

“What?” she laughed. “Since when do you need Dar to help you interrogate a demon?”

“Since there’s a good chance said demon is going to run out the back door while I’m cutting through his household in front.”

Her face softened in nostalgia. “I haven’t seen Dar in a long time. How is he?”

I snorted. “Whipped. That angel of his says ‘jump’ and he’s ten feet off the ground before the word finishes leaving her mouth. And that baby angel of theirs? I get the feeling that number two isn’t far behind.”

“Oh!” Her eyes sparkled. “Maybe my Red Bird and I…”

Maybe. Sheesh, we were all turning domestic here.

She smiled. “Shall I will go with you tonight? It will be like old times, you and Dar and me.”

“You’re welcome to come along,” I told her, knowing both Dar and I would be grateful for the extra help. Sex demons didn’t have a lot of offensive ability in battles, but Leethu was shrewd and could be a vicious fighter. Plus, having a succubus there gave us the element of surprise. No one expected to encounter a sex demon in a battle. The shock factor might buy us a few much-needed precious minutes.

“It won’t be all that exciting,” I warned her. “I’m going in the front, basically trying to fight my way through as many as fifty demons without dying in the process. You and Dar would be keeping watch at the perimeter, grabbing Caramort if he attempts to escape.”

“Caramort?” Leethu suddenly began to laugh. “You’re trying to grab Caramort?”

I stopped walking and turned to face her. “Yeah. Do you know him?”

“Carnally. A few decades ago we were at a party in Dis and we spent some quality time together. He’s been sending me breeding petitions ever since—exclusive ones, wanting me to be his consort and promising me all sorts of absurd things if I were to agree.”

“Did you?” I eyed her in surprise. Leethu was quite the catch, but most demons wouldn’t want to limit their breeding incidents to sex demons, or wrap themselves up in a consort contract with one. Whatever had happened at that party a few decades ago, Leethu had clearly rocked this demon’s world.

“No. I like to keep my options open. He was quite enjoyable, and I did find his attentions flattering. Every few years, whenever our paths cross, I’ll give him a quick ride, just for fun.”

I was getting an idea. “You wouldn’t happen to have a way of contacting him, would you?”

“I know his steward’s ID by heart. It’s been on every single breeding contract.” Leethu pulled a cell phone from her pocket. “I think I even have his number from last year when I ran into him outside Dallas. Assuming he still has the same number, I could just text him.”

“Text him and say you heard he was in the Pacific Northwest. That you’re up in Seattle, heading down the coast into California and wondered if he’d meet up with you for a quickie on the beach somewhere.”

Leethu pursed her lips. “Ni-ni, I do not enjoy sex on the beach. It’s a delicious alcoholic beverage, but the actual act leaves sand in uncomfortable places.”

“Then a hotel room, or the back seat of a car. I don’t care. Pick a place near Eugene, Oregon. Make something up. See if he’ll meet you at nine tonight. Sex him up big-time. Make it so he won’t refuse.”

Leethu narrowed her eyes. “I am always sexy. And Caramort would never refuse an offer from me.” She typed into the phone as we turned back toward the house. “But you mentioned a plot to kill angels? Is this…do you think there will be war? Between the angels and the demons?”

The contents of Samael’s note ran through my head, as well as Doriel and Remiel’s interest in wrestling this world from the angels. But they were Ancients. Take them out of the equation, and I wasn’t sure the demons would bother. Demons would be pacified by an equitable deal this side of the gates. It was these fucking Ancients and their revenge that would do us in.

“I don’t know,” I lied. “There’s a lot going on right now. Who knows?”

“Do you really think it will come to war?” Leethu pressed. “I think…I think I might be falling in love with my angel and I don’t want this to bring difficulties.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever get to where things were millions of years ago. There will be demons, Ancients, and two Angels of Chaos that will be working with like-minded angels to bring us all together. It’s just going to be a matter of making sure the others fall in line—whether they’re rebellious angels, or Ancients who can’t forgive old grudges. Eventually it will all settle out, because unlike the last time, there are many of us dedicated to a peaceful future between us.

“I hope so, Ni-nI.” Her phone buzzed, and she read the text with a smile. “It seems I have a date for nine-o’clock Pacific time with Caramort. He does not want to meet me at the hotel I suggested. Instead he has given me the address to what looks to be an old abandoned granary.”

“An abandoned granary?” Caramort didn’t have a fucking clue when it came to romancing a succubus. Did he actually expect a classy demon like Leethu to fuck him in a dusty old storage facility?

She shrugged. “He’s always been a bit on the kinky side as far as locations go. That party in Hel…it was quite the creative evening. I’m actually intrigued by what he may have planned in an old granary.”

I eyed her. “Sure you’re not thinking of accepting that breeding contract after all?”

Her smile was enigmatic. “There is only one being I am wanting to create with at the moment, and she has feathered wings. But, Caramort can be quite useful—to both of us. I would suggest you try to avoid killing him.”

I grinned. “Not promising anything, Leethu, but I’ll do my best.”