Date Night

While it might be her fevered imagination, exhaustion from trying this nonsense for three consecutive nights, this time the room faded to pure, pitch black as she finished the ceremony. The candle flames at the pentagram points remained a searing white-gold, drawing and holding her gaze.

Then the candles snuffed out in a gust of icy wind that came from the floor, as if the floor had collapsed into a cave. She stifled a scream.

Flame roared at the pentagram’s center for a moment, and something stared back at her from the flames.

A demon? An imp? Whatever it was, it gazed at her balefully. “What are you trying to summon me for?” What its voice lacked in bass it made up for in clear annoyance.

“T-tell me your name.”

The imp watched her in clear exasperation as the flames died down, then snapped its fingers. The apartment lights switched on.

Debbie let out a startled bark, blinking to clear her eyes. “How—you can’t—”

“Can’t what? Do magic that has effects outside your protection circle? Surprise.” The imp crossed its arms. In the light, it was clearly a rodent. Hamster? Gerbil? Fluffy, as handsome as it was cute, but not so intimidating—except for the goat horns and the flat black eyes. “You can call me Gary.”

“Gary.” She straightened up and squinted. “Gary the demon gerbil.”

“You got a problem with that?”

Her ears folded down. “Uh, I guess not.”

“Here’s the deal, lady. You’re doing your summoning wrong, but you’re just close enough that it’s like you’ve been stabbing a ballpoint pen in my leg the past three days, and I’m guessing you’re gonna keep doing it until I take care of the problem.” He grinned up at her, showing a dismaying array of teeth. “One way or another.”

She swallowed. “I want to go to the underworld.”

“Whaddaya need me for? Walk in front of a speeding bus or something.”

“No, I want to do it while I’m still alive.”

“Oh!” He nodded exaggeratedly, as if to a small child. “I see now. You’re a moron.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m trying to save someone’s soul.”

“From what?”

“From a demon. I think she pledged her soul to one.”

“You think.”

“I don’t know, okay?” She spread her arms in frustration. “I thought it was all weird dreams caused by all the stress of having my workplace literally blow up, except in the dreams it wasn’t explosions, it was one of my coworkers, except she was a giantess, and when we talked she said she’d promised a demon her soul to become a monster.”

“Lemme make sure I’m following here. You talked to this lady in a dream where she’d become a monster, and she told you that she’d sold her soul to a demon.”

“Yeah. We were talking about how…” The coyote swallowed, her tail curling, and finished in a mumble. “Hot she was.”

Gary rubbed his temples, muttering under his breath. “And have you talked about these dreams with, I’m going out on a limb here, a fucking therapist, lady?” He threw his arms in the air.

“Yes,” she said defensively. “But the more we talked, the clearer it all got. The more I remembered. The more I knew it wasn’t a dream. Audrey’s in real trouble, and…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “God, why am I telling you this? You don’t care.”

“I absolutely do not. Look, it’s been a thrill chatting, but I’m gonna eat you now.”

Her ears flattened. “You can’t cross the protection circle.”

He fixed his gaze on her, and his eyes glowed a dull red. “How about you tell me your name.”

“No. I know better…than…” She tried to look away from his eyes, but couldn’t. “Better than…”

The staring contest continued for a full minute. She felt bindings wrapping around her arms and legs, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away to check if they were real. “D… Debbie.”

“Good girl.” Gary motioned her closer. “C’mere, Debbie.”

“No.” She began walking forward even as she protested.

No! she screamed at herself, but she didn’t make any noise. She tried to dig in her claws, but that only made her stumble, walk more awkwardly.

Was Gary getting bigger? Was she getting smaller? She stood eye-level with him now, and the room had darkened once more, only the candles, the pentagram, and the circle visible now, the chalk seeming to faintly glow.

“Stop. P-please.”

“Stop? But we’re just about to have our dinner date, Debs.” He held out his hand.

She heard something behind her crash. A voice thundered from overhead. “Gary!”

The gerbil dropped his hand, head whipping to the voice, and his black eyes widened. Debbie physically felt the binding snap, and after a moment of vertigo, she was back to her normal size. Or Gary was.

A red panda woman strode angrily toward them, across Debbie’s living room. She had to stand close to seven feet high, her black ibex-like horns—horns?—nearly scraping the apartment’s ceiling. Except for a spiked collar, matching anklet, and a few earrings, she was entirely nude. And even hotter than Debbie remembered. Her muzzle fell open.

“Hey, Audrey,” Gary stammered, then made a glrk noise. He stared up at Debbie accusingly. “You mean this Audrey? Are you fucking kidding me, lady?”

Audrey looked down at the demon gerbil. “You’re cute, Gary, so I’ll give you to the count of three before I hogtie you with your own small intestine.”

“Look, I wasn’t—”

“One.”

Gary disappeared in a flash of green fire.

“…Audrey?” Debbie’s knees gave out, and she began to collapse.

Abruptly Audrey’s arms encircled her, and the demon wah lifted the coyote back to her paws. “Debbie, what in the world are you doing? I know Gary doesn’t look dangerous at first, but let me tell you, he can—”

The coyote burst into tears.

“Okay. Okay.” The taller wah guided her over to her couch—how odd that they were still in her living room—and sat her down. “What are you doing summoning a demon?”

Debbie put her head in her hands. “Are you a demon?”

Audrey nodded. “Yeah.”

“I guess I summoned two, then.” She laughed hysterically.

“You got my attention, but I came in through your front door. Sorry about breaking it. What the hell do you want a demon for, though? No pun intended.”

“To save your soul.”

Audrey blinked slowly. “I thought you were, like, a recovering Mormon or something,” she said at length. “They’re not into the exorcism thing, are they?”

“No. I’m… I just…” Where did the rest of that sentence lead, exactly? The coyote slumped back on the couch, ears lowering back into her short, ash blonde hair. “I thought what happened at DTX was a bomb, an unsolved terrorist attack. That’s what everyone says it was. But it was you, wasn’t it? I wasn’t supposed to remember. But I do. Nobody else does. But I do.”

“Nobody else had a conversation with me about how she was turned on by me beating the shit out of the office building and eating the executives.”

“I-I didn’t say that. Exactly.”

Audrey grinned teasingly. “Not in so many words.”

Debbie’s blush deepened, and she looked away. “I keep being told it’s PTSD, that I’m not going to be able to get over it until I face reality. But I’m the only one who really knows the truth and I can’t say it without sounding completely fucking crazy. I was starting to think I really was crazy. But—you’re here. You’re real.”

“Yeah. But, Debbie. I don’t have a soul.” She spread her arms. “I gave it up to become this.” She dropped her arms again.

“You, uh.” Debbie swallowed. “You didn’t say that when you were playing rampage at the office park.”

“I didn’t know. I thought I was doing the ‘get a wish at the price of suffering eternal torment’ thing, not auditioning.” Audrey gestured to the pentagram. “But seriously, why risk your soul for me? We were good friends at the office, but we never got together anywhere else except for after-work drinks. Is that enough to kindle an obsession?”

“No. Maybe. I don’t know.” Debbie leaned forward, muzzle in her hands. “I really am crazy, aren’t I? I’m having hallucinations about cute demons. And complaining to one.”

“I’m not a hallucination.”

“That’s just what a hallucination would say.”

Audrey rested a hand on the coyote’s shoulder. “Debbie, what do you want?”

“I…” She trailed off, looking into Audrey’s eyes. They were still beautiful—possibly more beautiful than they had been—but she could make out a faint, unnatural red glow now. “Are you going to take my soul?”

“Not unless you keep trying to save mine. Or you want me to, I guess.”

“No!” Her ears folded down. “Please—”

“Debbie.” Audrey put both her hands on the coyote’s shoulders now. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“But you just said you’re a demon. And—and if this is all real, I watched you kill dozens of people.”

“Oh, hundreds, especially if you count what we did at the overseas HQ.” Audrey looked off in the distance a moment, licking her lips. “That was awesome.”

Debbie whined.

“But, I told you then I wasn’t going to hurt you, and I meant it. When I ask what you want, I’m not trying to trick you. I’m trying to find out what you want now. If knowing that I don’t need saving is enough, I’ll just go.”

The coyote closed her eyes, rubbing her face. Maybe she wasn’t technically crazy, but this whole conversation definitely was. You know, crazy, like summoning a demon to coerce it to take her to the underworld so she could save a coworker she’d had a crush on. Had she never stopped once in the three months she’d been researching this to just…just say that to herself out loud? To really listen to it?

“I want to still have my job, as shitty as the company was,” she murmured, without opening her eyes. “I want any job that isn’t shit. I want to not be running out of money. I want to not be facing eviction in a couple months. I want what you did to not have fucked up my life as collateral damage. I want to have had the courage to have asked you out on a date two years ago, and the courage not turned down a job offer I got from a web design agency a year and a half ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Audrey said. “I mean, I don’t regret what I did, and I won’t pretend otherwise. But I’m sorry you’re having a tough time you don’t deserve, and I’m sorry I played a part in that. You’re a good designer and people should be beating down your door with work.”

“I don’t know how much of that I can blame you for. Everybody else I knew at the company has better work, and I’ve ended up in retail hell. Hell, other employers snapped up whole teams. I just… I don’t know.” Debbie sighed, cracking open an eye and shaking her head. “So now what?”

“Well, there’s one thing you said you wanted that you can still do, right now.”

The coyote opened her eyes fully and gave the demon a quizzical look.

“Ask me out on a date.”

Debbie stared, muzzle falling open. It took effort to close it again. “Are you serious?”

“The truth is, I’ve had a few…thoughts about you, too, since that night. What-ifs.”

“That m-makes it sound like you’ve fantasized about me.”

Audrey smiled knowingly. “You’ve fantasized about me, right?”

How do you date a demon?

“I…would…uh.” Debbie ran a hand through her hair. “Could we, uh, go on a date sometime?”

“I’d love to.” Audrey smiled brightly, and stood up, holding out a hand for Debbie. “Is now good?”

“I…” She stared up at Audrey with what must have been the stupidest expression any coyote had ever had, which might be saying something. “It’s late. I don’t have anything to wear. You’re not wearing anything. We can’t get reservations, uh, I don’t—don’t—”

“Wow.” Audrey held up a hand. “Let’s just start with coffee.” She snapped her fingers, and sparks flew out. Black jeans and a heavyweight dark red cotton T-shirt appeared on her, the shirt bearing a white circled-A anarchy symbol.

“Okay.” Debbie nodded shakily. “I know, uh, a good place that should still be open.”

They walked out of the apartment together, Audrey pausing to snap her fingers again and fix the lock she broke on the coyote’s front door.

“What about your horns?” she said when they reached the street.

“Nobody but you will see them unless they look real close.”

“Uh.”

But she was right. In the three blocks it took to reach Black Ink Coffee, plenty of pedestrians gave Audrey a second glance—standing six-foot-eight, a full foot taller than Debbie, ensured that—but nobody ran away screaming.

When they ordered, Audrey paid for them both. They sat down with their lattes—a lavender one for Debbie, a salted dark chocolate for the demon—and the coyote took a deep breath. “So. Uh. What’s…what’s it like?”

“Being a demon?”

She nodded.

“I feel like I’m supposed to give you some kind of warning here, talk about how it’s a double-edged sword and how horrible it is to be theoretically damned, but I can’t. The underworld is—it’s not like anything I learned about in church, you know? It’s huge, wildly diverse, endlessly fascinating, and…safe, in a weird way.”

“Safe.”

“In a weird way.” She laughed, sipping her drink. “It’s possible to destroy a demon, but it’s incredibly difficult. And for mortals, dying in the afterlife isn’t the same as dying here. It’s more like, I don’t know, having to start a videogame level over.”

Debbie’s ears splayed. “So they keep coming back when demons torture them.”

“Yeah, but the danger you’re in is proportional to what you need to go through before being reincarnated. You’re not going to be actively tortured unless you were a genuinely terrible person in life.”

“But you might be in different kinds of danger?”

Audrey shrugged. “Oh, yeah, you absolutely will be, unless you’re under protection. Silver lining, I guess, is that you know you’re going to come back from it. You’d be surprised how many mortals want to get into fatal trouble at least once when they know it’s not actually fatal.”

She nodded slowly. “What does ‘under protection’ mean?”

“Just what it sounds like. If I gave you a collar that said ‘this coyote belongs to Audrey,’ other demons wouldn’t knowingly fuck with you without my permission. That’s not an iron-clad guarantee—if you decided to take a tour bus through some of the lower circles and that bus got eaten by a flower, you’d still be plant food—but it’d go a long way.”

“And I’d still come back.” She paused. “Eaten by a flower?”

“Oh, yeah. There are dangerous ones out there. Also sexy ones.”

“Sexy.”

“Yep. You could be eaten by a flower, or seduced and fucked by one.” The demon sipped her drink. “Actually, you could be seduced, fucked, and eaten all by the same one.”

Debbie laughed nervously. “You’re not selling the whole ‘safe’ aspect now.”

Audrey laughed, too, and finished her latte. “Don’t knock flower sex until you’ve tried it. So now where?”

“I don’t…” Where would she even take a demon for a good time? Somewhere she got to do demonic things? That sounded horrible.

Unless it was somewhere…safe.

“What about somewhere in the underworld?”

Audrey lifted her brows. “You want me to take you to the land of the dead. On a date.”

Debbie cleared her throat, ears folding down, and she looked away. “Uh, when you put it that way. Right. Silly. Forget it.”

“No. No. I like it.” She smiled. “I’ll keep you as safe as you want to be.”

The coyote lifted her brows. “You think I don’t want to be safe?”

Audrey leaned over the table, locking eyes with Debbie. “If part of you didn’t want to get in trouble, we wouldn’t be here right now, would we.”

Debbie’s eyes widened. “I…uh…”

Standing up, the red panda held out her hand again.

You can still say no. I mean, probably. She’s a demon, but she’s clearly giving you a choice here. Don’t be an idiot. Take the exit while you still can.

Debbie stood, too, tail twitching, curling. “I…”

Audrey tilted her head, and started to slowly lower her hand.

“No.” She took the red panda’s hand with both of hers. “Let’s do it before I change my mind.”

Audrey smiled, and the world blurred around them. After a brief moment of vertigo, a sensation of the floor disappearing beneath her paws without starting to fall, her vision cleared.

The street she and Audrey stood on—in the middle of—looked like nothing she’d seen before outside of movies. Skyscrapers of all sizes, styles, and vintages, from art deco to pure science fiction, lined the sides of the wide avenue, riotously rainbow neon signs hanging in vertical banner style over ground-level shops. Pedestrians in just as great a variety—carnivores, herbivores, avians, occasionally aliens she’d never seen the like of—filled the district; their clothing styles were, predictably, wildly varied. More than a few wore nothing at all, but nobody seemed bothered by that. If there were any vehicles in use, they weren’t anywhere near this block.

“Whoa.” She looked from side to side, up at the oddly featureless grey sky, and back to Audrey, wide-eyed. “All these people are, uh, dead?”

Audrey nodded. “Yeah.” She motioned Debbie to follow her. “Well, mostly. You’ve got some supernatural beings like me scattered around, and I’m sure there are other mortals here and there.”

“This…really isn’t anything like I’d have imagined.”

The red panda laughed. “If you’re a believer—and I mean, a believer in anything—you’ll find at least one city here that matches what you expect, although it might not be exact. When you die, that’s the city you’d end up in. This is the capital city, though, and as far as I know it doesn’t match anyone’s expectations exactly. So if you don’t have any expectations,” she waves her hand, “here you go.”

“As an atheist and a church abuse survivor, I’m, uh, pleasantly surprised.” She looked through shop windows: jewelry stores, electronics, a sandwich shop with mouthwatering roast beef scents wafting out of it.

“Lots of atheists are kinda pissed when they get here, actually, but they usually come around. Anyway, this is where I guess you’d say I’ve moved to. The palace is at the capital’s center.”

“So you’re royalty?”

“No. My power doesn’t come from a bullshit grant of nobility.” Audrey’s voice shifted for just a moment, the resonance, the timber, and it made Debbie’s fur stand on end, her tail curl between her legs. “I have real power.”

The coyote bit back a whine. She could see a half-dozen other passersby stop and stare at Audrey, some bowing respectfully or fearfully before hurrying past.

Right. This is date night with a demon.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, without thinking. Then her ears colored. “Uh, Audrey. So where are we going?”

“What kind of food do you want?”

“Um. It’s hard not to picture horrifying things served at demon cafés.”

“If you want spaghetti with billionaires, I know a place, but I was figuring more like roast salmon or Pad Thai or whatever.”

“Salmon sounds good.”

“Okay.” She pointed at an intersection on the other side of the street. “Two blocks.”

“You were kidding about the spaghetti with billionaires, right?”

“I think it’s technically vermicelli, but it’s a popular dish at the palace.”

Debbie swallowed and laughed nervously. “Don’t you, uh, run out of billionaires quickly that way?”

She shook her head, grinning. “There’s a lot of people through history who qualify to be part of that dish. Adjust for inflation, give or take the money amount and all because attitude counts for a lot, but, yeah. The other thing is, most of those types never actually do get reincarnated. They don’t learn what they need to while they’re here. So they’re self-renewing food.”

Their walk took them onto a more sedate side avenue, with buildings that seemed more of one stylistic piece—cobblestone street, charming two- and three-story stone buildings, business signs with a more “old world” flavor to them. Still no vehicles. “Are there any cars here?”

“In some cities, yeah. Usually, the less pleasant ones. Here, though, just pedestrians and fast trains—subways here in the city core, elevated as you get out to the ’burbs.”

“Great. Demons have better public transit than the living.” She shook her head, and thought about what Audrey’d said a moment earlier. “Hey, do you feel bad about eating, uh, anyone?”

Audrey shook her head. “No.”

“What if you ate me?”

“I’m not going to eat you until you admit you want it.”

Debbie opened her muzzle and closed it without saying anything obvious, like you expect me to ask? or what makes you think I want that? She was pretty sure if she did, Audrey would just smile, and it’d be a smile she’d find herself fantasizing about being far too close to. Some of the dreams she’d had of the demon wah over the last year might have involved being, uh, swallowed whole, and they might have been, uh…

Audrey looked down over her shoulder and smiled exactly that smile. “So. We’re here.” She held the door open for the coyote.

“Thank you, m—Audrey.” Clearing her throat, she walked inside.

It looked…well, it looked like a restaurant. A fancy, romantic restaurant. The only exotica she picked up on were, as outside, the people themselves: unusually tall or short, species she’d never seen before, occasionally states of undress that would get you picked up on indecency charges. A few other beings here possessed distinctly demonic visages: a winged, horned black cat woman; a bone white wolf with disquieting solid black eyes; a rat woman, again with horns, wearing what could only be described as high fashion bondage gear. The cat woman sat in a group, while the wolf sat alone; the rat had an androgynous vulpine dining companion wearing tight, shiny black shorts and an oversized collar with a leash attached to it. She did her best not to stare, but as they walked to the host stand, Audrey picked up on it.

“The restaurant allows pets, if they’re well-behaved.”

“I…uh.”

Audrey grinned. “Two for dinner,” she said to the smartly dressed serval behind the stand. The woman nodded, picked up two menus, and led them inside.

When they were seated, Debbie glanced over again. “The fox is her, uh, pet. That collar’s like the one you mentioned.”

“Hmm?”

“When you talked about giving me one that would give me protection.”

“Oh. Yeah.” The wah nodded to the collar. “And more, usually. They get magic powers in exchange for being hers.”

Debbie rubbed the back of one of her ears. “So as a mortal I shouldn’t mess with a demon’s pet, either,” she said with a nervous grin.

“It’d be a good way to end up as a pet toy. Or pet food.”

The menu looked as surprisingly normal as the restaurant, except for one bit. “These prices look…low. Are they in dollars?”

“Our dollars. The economy is more…hmm. Magic? I don’t know what you’d call it, but it’s not capitalist. Kind of based on cooperation and service, and a sort of running cosmic balance.”

“This is absolutely not what I’d expect for hell.”

“It’s the land of the dead, not hell. Or paradise. You can think of it more like purgatory.”

When the waiter came by, Debbie pointed at the roasted salmon. “This sounds lovely.” The stoat nodded and turned to the horned red panda.

“Just wine for me.” Audrey tapped her chin. “What would pair well with my friend here?”

Debbie’s eyes widened.

The waiter looked unperturbed as he glanced over the coyote. “I’d suggest the sangiovese, ma’am.”

She gave a thumbs up. “Great.”

“Audrey!” Debbie hissed when he headed off. “You said—”

“That I wouldn’t eat you until you admitted you want it.” She leaned back, and licked her lips slowly. “I’m guessing about forty minutes.”

Folding her ears back, the coyote shook her head quickly. “I’d rather this not be my last date ever, thanks.”

“Oh, you know I’d bring you back. We still have to go out for dessert, right?”

“And will that be me dipped in sugar?”

Audrey laughed. “No.”

In fairly short order, the waiter brought over a bottle of wine and two glasses, poured for each of them, and left a basket of bread.

Audrey held out her glass for a toast. “To unexpected reconnections.”

Debbie eyed her, but picked up her own glass, clinking it. “To what I’m starting to suspect is the craziest dream I’ve had in years.”

The red panda sipped her wine. “If it’s a dream, then you definitely shouldn’t mind me eating you.”

“If you die in a dream, don’t you die in real life?”

“Only in shitty horror movies.”

After a few more minutes, the waiter brought the salmon. She expected it to be fancy, but it was a level or two over that, matching the kind of presentation she only saw in magazine articles about restaurants with Michelin stars. She took a bite, and it lived up to the look. “Wow.”

“I know, right?” Audrey swirled her wine in the glass and took another sip, looking at Debbie with what she could only think of as bedroom eyes. “Everything I’ve had here has been fantastic.” She glanced down at an empty plate that the waiter had set in front of her, then back at the coyote.

Debbie’s ears colored again, and she studiously attacked the fish. God, was she actually considering saying yes? Was she just remembering the way Audrey had somehow made being a monster look hot? She didn’t want to be—uh—

She set down her fork and closed her eyes. “All right, fine!”

“Fine, what?”

“You can—can—” She cracked open one eye. Audrey waited expectantly. “You know.”

“I have no idea,” Audrey said, putting her hand to her chest and looking exaggeratedly insincere about it.

“Eat me,” she groaned. “I want you to eat me, all right?”

Audrey smiled, and the world blurred again. When her vision cleared this time, Debbie was standing on the red panda’s empty plate, not quite as tall as the stem of the nearby wine glass. “You barely made it fifteen minutes.”

She gaped up, muzzle open, without saying anything.

The red panda looked down at her. “Now, you’ve seen me this size before, relatively speaking.”

“Not…uh. Yes.” Debbie licked her lips, tail twitching erratically.

The giantess—giant to Debbie, at least—leaned closer and whispered, “Take off your clothes.”

The coyote looked around, alarmed, ears skewing. Nobody seemed to be watching except the rat woman, who flashed her a knowing smile before turning back to her companion. “I don’t…uh…”

“Come on, you’ve seen me nude before, and you’re going to see me nude again. Clothes off, puppy girl.”

Debbie felt her ears burn again. Screwing up her courage, she undid her blouse and pushed her way out of her jeans, acutely aware of Audrey’s eyes on her. Biting her lip, she reached behind and unfastened her bra, tossing it to the side, and slid down her panties, kicking them off her digitigrade paws.

“Beautiful,” Audrey murmured.

“Th-thank you.”

“Now, stand up straight and tall. Arms at your sides.” She winked. “As tall as a little thing like you can.”

The coyote brushed back her hair and did as asked. No, told. She was doing as she was told. That should bother her, shouldn’t it? Not make her tingle.

Audrey licked her lips again, and slowly lowered her head down toward the coyote, jaws parting.

“Oh, god,” Debbie breathed aloud, staring up at the red panda’s mouth—at the glistening black lips, sharp white teeth behind them, the red wet tongue and the throat high above.

The demon’s muzzle drew closer, tongue extending. She felt something press on her back—fingers?—gently, but still hard enough to make her have to fight to keep from stumbling.

The tongue brushed over her, breast to face all at once. She spluttered, gasping.

“Beautiful and delicious,” Audrey whispered.

Debbie tilted her head back up. The red panda’s waiting mouth filled her field of vision. “Thank you,” she squeaked.

Audrey’s jaws parted widely, and came down over her.

She froze, barely daring to breathe. Her vision filled with teeth, then tongue, the light dimming as fast as the temperature and humidity rose. As Audrey closed her lips enough to let her feel them slide past her chest and belly, she whimpered.

God, why was this so erotic?

The wah closed her lips more firmly, right above Debbie’s knees—and sucked her up completely into her mouth all at once. The coyote got out a startled yip before she tumbled and slid. What—oh. Audrey was straightening up, wasn’t she?

Straightening up, so the coyote was lying on that soft, wet tongue, breathing Audrey’s wine-scented breath, feeling her pulse through the flesh underneath her—

The tongue pressed her to the roof of the panda’s mouth, and Audrey sucked on her like a piece of candy.

Debbie screamed, but it wasn’t a scream of fright. Not just a scream of fright. The demon’s saliva quickly soaked through her fur, slicking it against her body, as she slid back and forth helplessly. She hadn’t felt less in control since she was a puppy. She hated it and she loved it and—and—

She scrabbled to try to hold on to the tongue, tried to kiss it. Tried to push herself against it, to wrap her legs around it. To fuck it.

Audrey moaned, tilting her head back more. God, she was about to swallow her, wasn’t she? If—when—Debbie came, she’d be going right down the demon’s throat, going from temporary toy to food, having to trust that she wouldn’t just become part of—

She thrust herself desperately down against the panda’s tongue, felt it respond, thrust back, shove her against the back of the teeth, pound her again and again—

—part of—

Debbie howled, bucking hard against the tongue, spasming. She kept up the warbling, broken howl even as her ears popped with the change of pressure, as the throat pulled her forward in a rush of saliva, as tight, crushing muscles closed around her, the light vanishing and the world becoming liquid black.

Her predator’s heartbeat, hard and quick, sounded all around her, vibrating through her, forcing her heart to beat in sync as the pressure released and she landed…somewhere. The stomach.

She tried to right herself, to get any sense of space as the tingling increased and the air grew acrid.

Audrey’s voice came dimly from somewhere above, breathy, winded. But she wasn’t addressing the coyote she’d just—just eaten.

“Excellent wine pairing,” the demon was saying. “Thank you.”

If the waiter responded, Debbie didn’t hear it over her own rising laughter. As the demon’s stomach began to churn, she slipped down into thick, heavy fluids. She didn’t fight. Why bother? Mistress Audrey owned her completely.

The wet, sticky sensation faded quickly, though, leaving—what? Nothing she could feel, or hear, or see. Was she dead? If this was a dream, was she about to wake up?

Breath came back all at once, a lungful of bracingly cold air. She gasped, coughing and wheezing. Vision returned more slowly, like stage lights coming up.

“Easy,” Audrey said from somewhere behind her, and an arm wrapped gently around her side, holding her against the red panda demon. “You okay?”

She blinked, nothing but black fur ahead of her for a moment. Neck fur. She was resting her head on the taller woman’s shoulder. They were both nude now, and Audrey was, if anything, even hotter without clothes now that she was a demon. “Yes. God. That was…” She took a deep breath, drawing back just enough to touch noses with Audrey. “I wasn’t nearly as scared as I bet I should have been, but I think I was more turned on than I’ve ever been in my life, and that scares me.”

Audrey brushed her lips against Debbie’s. “I was pretty turned on, too.” She winked. “I’ve eaten lots of people, but you were the best.”

Debbie giggled nervously. “That was…maybe…one of my fantasies about you.”

“It was definitely one of mine about you.” The red panda pressed her muzzle against the coyote’s in a kiss.

Ears straightening up, Debbie wrapped her arms around Audrey and returned the kiss, tail wagging. “I’m fighting a compulsion to call you ‘Mistress.’”

“What a shame.” Audrey nuzzled her neck. “If I call you ‘pet,’ will that make it harder to fight?”

Debbie felt her tail hit something as it wagged even faster. Drawing back, she looked around, then down. Her eyes got big as…that depended on how big she actually was right now, didn’t it, and all she could tell was that she and Audrey were OMG fucking big. “Audrey?” she squeaked.

“This might be another little fantasy I’ve had about you,” Audrey said, voice slightly sing-song.

Little definitely wasn’t the right word. They sat together in the middle of a downtown area, Audrey leaning back against a fat high-rise building, eleven or twelve stories tall. It about reached her shoulders. Their legs sprawled out through traffic, roads, smaller buildings. There should be panic all around the streets, but there wasn’t. There wasn’t any movement at all. The traffic and pedestrians and trains and even the clouds in the sky were all frozen in place. The scene was silent, but for the two giantesses. “Holy shit. I don’t—I didn’t—”

“Didn’t think about me last year and wonder what it was like? To smash buildings under your paws? Lick up helpless little people and feel them slide down your throat?” Audrey tilted her head, long horns gleaming in the sunlight, and ran a finger down Debbie’s side. “You never once fantasized about that, pretty pet-to-be?”

Debbie’s ears flushed. Why was she finding herself thinking that she couldn’t lie to a demon? No, it wasn’t “couldn’t.” It was that she didn’t want to. She looked around the city again, licking her lips almost unconsciously. (Almost.) “Is this supposed to be Salt Lake City?”

“I remember on one of our office nights out, we were the last ones left of the group at some dive Tex-Mex place, and you were on a rant about how much you hated growing up here, your parents, your church, your first job, your first boyfriend. So if there was any place you might want to leave a few oversized paw prints in…” She shrugged.

“First and last boyfriend. Is this, like, the real SLC, or a fake version of SLC we can do whatever we want in?”

“We can do whatever we want. You won’t wake up tomorrow and read stories about massive sexy women flattening skyscrapers.”

“So it’s all waiting for you to snap your fingers or something and make it start.”

With a decidedly wicked grin, Audrey stood up, guiding Debbie to her paws as well, then snapped her fingers.

Everything started.

Even with her ears hundreds of feet over street level, the bustle of the city filled the air—accented by a cascade of immediate crashes and frantic honking as cars smashed into her paws, Audrey’s paws, and each other. The crashes didn’t feel good, but she couldn’t say they hurt, either. The cars were too…small. Too fragile.

“I don’t…wow.” She looked down, from side to side. There were a dozen or so buildings taller than they were—including the church’s main office building, a gleaming white three-section tower—but most of the supposed skyscrapers didn’t reach her chest, and the bulk of the city stood knee-high or lower. “If I move anywhere, I’m going to break something.”

Audrey put her hands on her hips, giving Debbie a smirk.

“Yeah yeah, I know I know.” She took a tentative step, but couldn’t help trying to place her paw as carefully as possible in the road, only catching a couple already-abandoned cars under the pads.

“Let me help.” Audrey gave her a firm shove.

Debbie yipped, stumbling forward, paw smashing down through a four-story building. She spread out her arms, taking a few heavy, unsteady steps before finding firmer footing. By that point, the building had been utterly demolished, and at least a dozen cars and two delivery vans had crumpled under her pads.

She gave Audrey a glare, then looked down again, breathing hard. That had felt—again, not good, but not painful. It wasn’t like stepping on Legos, or sharp rocks. It was like stepping on…crumbly rocks, firm but softer than she’d have guessed, disintegrating into chunky pebbles. Stepping on vehicles might as well have been crushing soda cans. Small soda cans.

She set her paw on an intact building, a taller one, six stories, then tensed and pushed her paw down. If she focused, she could sense each floor give, feel the scrape of rebar, notice the way the pressure of the displaced air blew away paper and furniture and office workers.

Turning, she spied a stretch limo trying desperately to push through the traffic jam. She brought her other paw down on it, slowly enough to sense the way the metal twisted and the glass shattered.

Okay. She was wrong. This did feel good.

Audrey beamed. “Oh, I like that new grin.”

Rolling her shoulders, Debbie located the church office tower again, and strolled purposefully toward it. A direct line, letting her paws fall naturally, making sure each step drove all the way to the ground. The demon followed behind her.

She got up close to the building, and crouched, peering in at the offices and the observation deck, watching tiny panicked people back away or run or stupidly gawk. Between the cool autumn air and their delicious reactions, she was starting to feel…tingly again. Licking her lips, she straightened up and stepped back, laced her hands together, and drew them off to the side, bending both arms at the elbows, preparing a mighty swing.

“This is for you, Elder Brunson.” She barreled her fists into the tower’s side like a massive, furred wrecking ball. It might as well have been an explosion, concrete and dust and broken glass spraying in all directions.

That hurt. But it felt so, so good. She drew them back the other way for another swing.

“I got away from the church and I had a fucking decade of therapy.” Smash “And you know what? I’m an atheist.” Smash “And a lesbian.” Smash “And I’m on a date” Smash “with a fucking” Smash “demon!”

She leapt into the air and brought both paws down on what remained of the building. The tremors brought down smaller buildings around it, and another skyscraper nearly as tall as the former church office tower creaked and visibly tilted. She crouched, then straightened up, panting and grinning stupidly.

“Oooh, work it out, girl.” Audrey looked enchanted. She walked over to the tilting tower, shimmied, and gave it a resounding hip check. It toppled over.

Debbie shrieked and giggled, putting her hands to her muzzle, then threw herself at the red panda demon in a tackle-hug. Audrey chirped in surprise, and let herself fall backward over a still-intact part of the city, bringing the coyote down with her.

“So I’m guessing—mmph!” Audrey was cut off by Debbie pressing her muzzle hard against the red panda’s and kissing enthusiastically. When the coyote relented, the wah let out a little wff. “Uh, guessing you like being giant.”

“I am so horny right now, Mistress.” She ran her hands down the panda’s sides to her hips. “We just took out another major church building. Oops.”

“Oops.” The demon grinned up at her. “No longer fighting that ‘mistress’ compulsion, huh?” She moved her hands down the coyote’s back to squeeze her rump.

“Bring all the compulsions on and let me wallow in them.” She slid her hand between Audrey’s legs. “I think you might be a little turned on, too.”

Audrey slid her arms back up and wrapped her legs around the coyote’s thighs. “Might be.”

She slipped her fingers in, just a little, and Audrey sucked in her breath. Pressing her muzzle against the wah’s ear, the coyote murmured, “I think we need a toy.”

“Have one in mind?”

“Mmm hmm.” Debbie reached to their side, stretching out, straining a little. She’d seen the commuter train pulling in, either oblivious to the destruction or just running on automatic. Her hand closed around one of the cars, lifting it up. The connected cars hung on for a few seconds before clattering back down to the ground. The coyote slowly sat up straight, holding the train car up before her muzzle. “Let’s give them one hell of a last ride.”

It was Audrey’s turn to open her mouth and close it in mild surprise. “You are really taking to this, pet.”

Debbie lowered the car down between their legs. “Not your pet until you give me a collar.”

“Oh, my.” Audrey smirked up. “Then what are yooooooohhh—” Her eyes widened and she shuddered as the coyote spread her sex with one hand, starting to slip the train car in with the other.

“Your date. On a night that’s going really…” She carefully wiggled the train back and forth between Audrey’s folds, spreading more, working it in. “Really well.”

“Oh, god.” Audrey shuddered again, arching her back, hands clutching at buildings.

“Are demons allowed to say that?” She pressed her own sex against the other half of the train car, then spread herself, and ohhhh that was a bizarre, tight feeling. She let out a loud, pained bark as the vehicle slipped inside. Maybe she should have asked Audrey if she knew how to summon lube first.

“I think—mmf!—we can say whatever we want.”

Their bodies met, the train trapped completely inside them, and Debbie shuddered, too, tail wagging erratically. She rolled her hips, carefully, and couldn’t hold back a moan. It hurt. She could feel the train shifting under the strain. She tried to imagine the view from inside the car, and it sent another spasm through her.

Audrey whined, closing her eyes and moving her hands to Debbie’s hips, thrusting upward. They moved together in near-perfect sync, rolling, clenching, faster—faster—

Debbie felt just a little gratified that the demon squealed a second before she had to throw back her head and howl.

They both rolled to the side, demolishing another line of buildings as they hugged each other through their climaxes, still pumping, the train toy sliding back and forth more easily now.

As they slowed, Audrey reached down, still breathing hard. She held on to the train as they separated and both rolled onto their backs. The demon lifted the car up. Bent and crumpled, most of the windows broken, glistening and dripping. “Single use, I guess,” she said breathily, tossing it to the side. “I was hoping to crack it open and dramatically pour a stream of snacks into your mouth, but it’s no fun if they’re not screaming.”

Debbie laughed, still trying to catch her own breath. “You’re terrible.”

“Giant demon, hello.” The wah waved her hands comically.

That just sent the coyote into another round of giggles. “Well, I am hungry.”

Audrey pushed herself to a sitting position. “They’re evacuating the mall a few blocks that way.”

Debbie sat up, too, and looked that way. God, was she casually talking about eating people? We can do whatever we want. Yeah, but did she want…

Well, you can’t have the full experience of being a terrifying sexy monster without trying at least one screaming victim, right? She got to her hands and knees and crawled that way, quickly overtaking groups of fleeing pedestrians, and lowered her head to a knot of them, catching a single one—a burly tiger guy, she thought—between her lips and licking him inside. God, he was smaller than one of her fangs, wasn’t he?

She tilted her head back, letting him flail as he slid around on her tongue, screaming and kicking and begging. Frankly, he didn’t have much of a taste, but it was as if his futile struggling flipped a hidden switch inside her for going feral. Her eyes widened and she swallowed, then growled—playfully, not that most of the terrified crowd could tell—and started lapping them up, four or five or six at a time.

“Cripes, you are hungry,” Audrey said from above. “Stretch out on your back.”

“Wh—” A handful of littles fell out of her mouth as she tried to answer, and she swallowed hurriedly. “Why?”

“’Cause I’m your scary hot demon date and I said so.”

Debbie laughed, and did as commanded, making sure she took out a row of lower, still intact buildings in the process.

Audrey sat down next to her and scooped up a handful of fleeing mall-goers, pouring them right onto Debbie’s chest, then started licking them up one by one.

“Oh. That tickles.” She wriggled back and forth, watching the littles as they desperately tried to escape the red panda’s muzzle, burrowing into her cleavage, futilely trying to hang onto her fur or her nipple.

Once she finished chasing down her prey, Audrey dropped to lie on top of the coyote. Maybe not all her prey, given some of the frantic tiny squirms between their pairs of tits. “So, have you learned why summoning demons is so dangerous?” The wah rubbed noses with her.

“Nope.” She glanced from side to side pointedly. “I mean, not for me.”

“Glad to hear it.” She gave Debbie a kiss. “Although if you really put on a collar for me and come stay at the palace, Gary is absolutely going to eat you.”

“Won’t my mistress stop him?”

“Your mistress will demand he let her watch.”

“You’re evil.”

“Yep.” She nuzzled Debbie’s ear. “Don’t worry, though. The collar gives you special powers.”

Debbie nuzzled Audrey’s neck in return. “Special pet powers, huh?”

“Absolutely.” She sat up, and held her hand low to the ground. “Regular ol’ mortal.” She moved her hand up high. “Demon.” She moved it between the two other positions. “Demon pet.”

The coyote grinned. “Hmm. So now what?”

“Now?” She touched Debbie’s nose with a fingertip. “Now, you fall asleep and wake up, wondering whether this was all a dream, until you find some mysterious subtle thing that makes you go,” she held her hands out in a dramatic pose, “‘But was it?’”

“Uh huh.”

“And, if you really want to give up on your job hunt and your current shitty retail work…you’ll know how to take me up on the pet offer.”

“Hmm. But I’m not sleepy now, so I’m not…”

Debbie blinked. Blinked awake? Blinked awake. Her bed. Her bedroom.

She glanced over at the alarm clock. 7:59. Just about to go off…there it was. She slapped the silence button and sat up, rubbing her face. That was a hell of a vivid dream. Well, coyote, that’s what you get for spending three nights trying to summon a demon that probably doesn’t even exist.

Sighing, she stretched, getting up and heading to the bathroom. Her shift at the discount store was in an hour. She dry-showered, got on her slacks and stupid blue polo shirt, and headed for the door.

Then slowed down, stopping in the living room, staring at the pentagram she’d drawn on the floor. At the pentagram’s center sat a wide, studded black leather collar with a note underneath it.

Biting her lip, she walked slowly to it, picking up the collar. It was beautiful, if slightly intimidating. A silver tag on it read DEBBIE, with AUDREY’S COYOTE in smaller letters underneath.

She picked up the note.

Okay, so maybe not so subtle. See you soon, pet. A.

P.S.: Checked the news?

Ears splaying, she slipped the collar into her purse and hurriedly pulled out her phone. All the headlines were about a catastrophe in Salt Lake City. Bombing? Earthquake? Fires?

“No. No,” she breathed, shaking, eyes wide. “She said—” She stopped, eyes unfocusing. Audrey hadn’t actually answered her when she asked if it was the real SLC or a fake one, had she? What she’d said was that Debbie wouldn’t wake up to stories about massive sexy women flattening skyscrapers.

She dropped to the apartment floor, hyperventilating. “Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, the coyote rocked back and forth. Get it together. Maybe it wasn’t actually you, _it was an earthquake or a bomb or whatever.

No, it was you, you know it was you.

Audrey tricked me—into actually—

Didn’t you want to do it? You didn’t say no, did you? And there’s nothing you can do about it now, anyway.

She didn’t know how long she sat there before she got up, straightened her hair, and headed to the store. Okay. Five minutes late, but maybe no one—

The manager, a perpetually sour rabbit woman, was waiting by the back entrance as she walked up. “Third time this month.”

“It’s the second, and I’m only five—”

“You’re on very thin ice, Debbie.”

The coyote ran a hand through her hair, looking glumly at the store.

“If you don’t want this job, just say so.”

Debbie looked back at her, and they locked eyes in a momentary battle of wills. “You know,” the coyote said, “maybe I’ll show you, instead.” She reached into her purse and pulled out the collar.

The manager squinted. “What’s that?”

“It’s a collar, obviously.” She fastened it around her neck.

“You can’t wear that in the store,” the rabbit said incredulously. “That’s it. Go…” She paused, eyes widening. “Are your eyes glowing red?”

Fire ran through the coyote’s veins for a moment, and her vision blurred. When it cleared, the manager stood at her paws, now ankle-high.

“What—what—” The rabbit’s voice had gone up an octave in fear, and she stepped back fast. “You’re possessed!”

“Close.” Debbie leaned over, grinning with all her teeth, and scooped up the rabbit in one hand. “I’m a demon’s pet. And you know what you are? Pet food.” She tossed the woman in her mouth, tilted her head back, and started dancing over the store as she waited for Mistress Audrey to come for her.