From the sidewalk, Cary glanced up at the Argos logo above the door: a fanned out peacock’s tail painted in shades of turquoise and bright blues. Eyes dotted the tip of each feather. The word “Argos” sat below the tail, along with “Nationwide Deliveries”. To the general public, this location was nothing more than a shipping company.

In orientation, Argos explained the name came from a Greek myth of a giant with a hundred eyes—Argos Panoptes. He was slain, but the goddess Hera rewarded his services by placing his hundred eyes on the tail of peacocks. It was a nice story but also a reminder that the company was always watching you.

Tasha placed her palm against the panel near the entry. A click sounded, and she pushed the door open, holding it for Cary. She stepped into the reception area, chairs lining the U-shaped room, magazines perfectly positioned on side tables, and motivational posters adorning the walls.

She lifted the hair off her nape, letting the coolness reach her back. If only the air conditioning in her SUV worked. The car reminded her of Blinkie, and she pictured her car with the tires chewed to pieces. She never should have left him alone.

“Hey, girls.” Tom, the reception guy, waved.

“Hi.” Cary slipped past his desk toward the door behind him and entered. Tasha was on her heels.

An ache started up through her temples, courtesy of the protection runes painted on every wall. Whenever possible, she avoided coming here. The air was stuffy, and the runes hurt, and to be honest, Cary just didn't like being around this many people at once.

The place resembled a call center with cubicles lining the walls and huge tinted windows on either side of the room. The hum of voices and typing filled the air. This was the hub of Argos and fed hunters with locations on demon hits 24/7, whenever one popped up. Though outside business hours, trackers worked from home.

Paranormal trackers investigated every potential lead that might lead to a possessed. The team received clues from hunters on the street as well as calls from ghost investigation teams around the country, when one of those groups found out their “poltergeist” was really a demon. Occasionally, even a priest called with a lead.

“Cary?” a man’s voice called from across the room. “Didn’t realize you were coming in today.”

She turned around and saw Brent as he stepped out of a meeting room. Argos’ CEO was dressed in tailored slacks and a white shirt, with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. No business jacket for him today.

“Got a minute?” He waved her over and went back into the meeting room.

Tasha patted her arm. “Better go see what he wants. He’s been in a funny mood today. Come see me before you leave.”

“For sure.” She offered Tasha a smile, but it felt forced as she wondered why Brent needed to talk to her. Had she forgotten to claim a demon stone, or had someone complained about her work? Maybe it had to do with the demon from Ann Arbor, and damn if she didn’t have a slew of her own questions about that. She’d grill the trackers on that, right after chatting with Brent.

On the bright side, now she could ask him for her time off.

By the time she entered the room with no windows, sweat clung to her lower back.

“Close the door.” Brent sat at a round table, so Cary sat down across from him. His hands rested on the arms of his chair, his eyes looking her over. “I wasn’t expecting you today, but we have some things to discuss.”

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

With some people, their eyes revealed so much about them. But Brent had an empty echo in his deep-set eyes, the color of cold ashes, never letting on whether he was pissed or about to hug you. A scar ran from the corner of Brent’s mouth and pulled tightly across his left cheek, making him look like a villain, instead of a man who built up a company focused on saving lives and protecting innocents from demons.

During her first week at Argos, Cary had gotten stuck in the elevator with him for fifteen minutes. As they sat there, his happy-go-lucky smirk and positive attitude disappeared. Several phone calls later, two staff members were fired, the whole office was in a panic, and half the fire-brigade from Detroit was attempting to get them out. In the middle of that, Brent accepted an urgent phone call about someone owing him money and got into a huge argument. Threats and yelling boomed in the confined space of the elevator. Cary spent most of the time staring at her fingernails. After they got out, Brent had made her sign a non-disclosure statement that she would never tell anyone what she’d heard.

Yep, she understood his underlying threat loud and clear. Cross me and I’ll rip you to shreds. Being in confined quarters with him again brought back the unnerving feeling she was about to be reprimanded.

“I’d been meaning to call you in for a quick chat,” he said, “but I’ve been caught up in executive meetings. I’m now questioning why I appointed all these suits.” He laughed wryly and lay his hands across his lap.

“Have I done something wrong?”

The bridge of his nose creased, and he sighed so softly she would have missed it if she wasn’t staring at him. “My daughter was the victim of a possession many years ago, when she was thirteen.”

“I'm sorry, I didn’t know. Is she all right now?” Damn, she hadn't even known he was married.

Brent stared into space, his attention elsewhere. Cary was shocked he’d called her in to chat about his daughter, so she waited until he was ready. When he finally spoke again, his voice crackled. “I cleansed her, but something changed inside her. She’s terrified of the night, can’t function in large groups, and has been possessed two more times since. I think her young age left her open, unable to protect herself. I blame myself because I should have done more.”

“Multiple possessions aren’t unheard of,” Cary said. “They're rare, and all the cases I've read involved kids.” She paused, trying to figure out what to say, or not say. Once someone was invaded by a demonic force, a slither of that beast remained dormant inside them. Unfortunately, kids allowed themselves to be open compared to cynical and disbelieving adults, making them more susceptible to spiritual attacks. Brent didn't need to be reminded of that, though. “It’s not your fault,” Cary said instead, “and—”

“There is so much more to learn about demons,” Brent interrupted, “and not everything is black and white. Which is why I’ve been exploring the idea of finding another avenue for demons to come into our world. To reduce the possessions.”

Cary tensed. “Another avenue? Sure, a possession affects everyone differently, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.” She thought about the guy who’d begged the demon to take him instead of his wife, and the elderly woman who didn’t want to lose her soul because then she’d never see her deceased husband again. Everyone had a story, but never had she contemplated finding another way for demons to enter the earth realm. “Aren't you worried the idea might bring the gates of Hell to mankind?”

Brent leaned closer, his stomach pressed against the edge of the table. “Do you ever wonder why demons leave Hell?”

“Everyone knows why. Because they want to suck out people’s souls.” If demons had another purpose for leaving the underworld, her father would have told her.

“But what if you found out there’s more to it?” Brent asked. “What if they wanted to explore our world… say as a vacation, without harming anyone, then what if giving them that would make them less inclined to possess people without permission?”

She leaned back into her seat. “Sir, I've never met a demon who didn’t want to kill humans. I don’t think the Hellish kind do holidays.”

Brent studied her as if suddenly she’d grown a third eye. “Cary, you’ve been an outstanding hunter, and you never miss a beat. Most of the time, you get to demons before we issue the hit. And that got me curious. I think there's something special about you.”

Cary resisted the urge to retreat.

“I have a proposition for you. I want you to help me with my side project. Maybe we can help a lot of people by figuring out how the 'other avenue' would work.”

“So, you’re not going to fire me?” she admitted, surprised.

“No! I'm offering you a new mission,” he said.

“I'm not the speculative type. I see a demon and I vanquish it. It's simple. I don't know if I want to change that.”

“Don't be scared, Cary. You're the perfect person for the job.”

“Why me? I haven’t been with Argos a full year.”

Brent ran a hand across his mouth. “Look, let’s cut the act. I tried to let you go on pretending, but I don't have time to coax you into helping me. I know what you are.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

A sudden piercing shrill erupted from Cary’s cell in her back pocket and she flinched, sweat dripping down her spine. She snatched her phone to shut it off. Stupid thing.

“Sorry, I forgot to silence it.” When she looked up, he was staring at her.

“I studied you.” Brent smirked. “I’ve had you followed for the past month. We recorded your fighting techniques, saw how you rarely use holy water, and only sometimes pull out your lasso. You still fight with your own weapons and refuse to work with anyone else. You interact with demons in a way I've never seen before. You’re not scared or hateful, and honestly, you don't seem to enjoy it. So we caught a demon that escaped from you and interrogated it. That’s when I discovered the truth about you.”

Cary pushed her seat back, the metal feet scratching across the wooden flooring. A swirl of sickness lurched in her gut. “Y…You’re wrong.” Damn, even her waving voice betrayed her.

Brent stood and licked his lips. “But I don’t quite understand exactly what you are or how it’s possible.”

She climbed to her feet. “I need to go.”

“Cary.” His deep voice froze her on the spot. “I know where you live, where you have your morning coffee, who your friends are. There’s nowhere you can hide without me finding you.”

She felt violated, but refused to back down, and squared her shoulders. “What gives you the right to pry into my life? Whatever that demon told you was a lie.”

She remembered Tasha’s earlier words that she’d been asked to create dark spells. Was that about his ‘other avenue’ too?

“Join me. To let me study and understand what a cambion really is.” He smiled a bit too brightly, and it didn’t reach all the way to his eyes. “Together we can finally find a way to stop possessions.”

“If I don’t?” The room seemed to close in around her.

Brent ran a hand through his slick, black hair, shadows gathering beneath his eyes. “Then you give me no choice. I won’t let an opportunity pass if it means saving my daughter from future possessions. This is why I started Argos, and you could hold the cure.”

This couldn’t be happening. No way. Except, this was far from some made-up bullshit. It was her life, her safety shattered, and her secret revealed to the worst person—a demon destruction specialist.

“I’m not what you think.” The words quivered from Cary’s lips. Options swirled within her mind. She could go with Brent and let him examine her, and maybe he'd let her go afterwards. She could take out her lasso, fight him off, and escape. If she tried that and failed, she could end up in a cage, poked prodded and exorcised, experimented on. She had to do something and fast.

She spun around and pulled open the door.

The moment she stepped outside, Brent clicked the intercom button on the conference room telephone and yelled, “Security. Stop Cary Stone. She’s been infiltrated by a demonic force.”

Yep, if ever she wished for the world to split open and swallow her, this was the perfect time.