Tara awoke slowly, the gelatinous film clinging to her mind ebbing away in chunks.

Patchy, cloudy memories swirled through her, partly obscured as she strained for more detail. She could tell the lack of clarity was not due to the age of the scenes. They were recent recollections, but fuzzy for another reason. Alcohol? Possibly. Drugs? Unless it was paracetamol, Tara didn’t take it. A knock to her noggin? There was no pain registering throughout any part of her body so far. She groaned groggily, grateful for the feeling of her pillow beneath her head and blankets upon her body. Her eyes only made it halfway open before she allowed them to collapse shut again.

A face painted itself behind her eyes with slow, splattering stroked. Large circles filled with sticky caramel, brown lines coiling from them. Plump curves running round the features that were sketching themselves into her view. Recognition tickled at her, prickling at the wafer-thin skin of her eyelids.

Bee. Sweet, cloying, sticky Bee.

Tara’s breath caught in her throat.

With sugary words and an intoxicating presence, Bee had coaxed Tara into a stupor. It wasn’t just her sweet looks and kind comments, though. Tara was certain. She was not the type to follow a stranger like a puppy dog. Even with Ava she had been wary of until Shawn had encouraged her. There was something sickly, a fog that surrounded Bee and that had penetrated Tara’s mind. The aftertaste of it reminded Tara of the strange lingering feeling she got when Ava used her demon abilities around her. Like an image that appears in the corner of your eye, but you can’t focus on it no matter how hard you try.

Finally, she had to admit what she had clocked from the moment she gained semi-consciousness back in her bedroom, that Bee was one of the demons that Ava and Shawn had warned her about. What were they called? Enforcers? She had been led astray, or maybe more tugged away, by a demon. She groaned again, louder and more gutturally as she allowed her frustration out noisily.

She knew she had to let Ava know. As much as her ex-girlfriend had shunned her and broken her tender little human heart, she would never wish any harm to her. And allowing herself to be swept up in Bee’s charm had definitely put Ava in more danger. She pulled her phone from where it lay on her bedside table but was shocked into stillness when she saw the date and time glowing from the screen.

She had met Bee while walking home from her shift yesterday just after four in the afternoon. It was now ten… in the morning. Her shift had begun two hours ago, and she had a very concerned cluster of texts from the team member that opened Jessi’s Java that morning, who was awaiting her arrival for backup. She sent a rushed, typo-filled, message to them to say she was sick and had overslept with a fever. Then she moved onto Ava.

Tara: I met a woman who I think is like you. Her name is Bee and I think she messed with my head. My memory has turned to goop for the last twelve hours or so. I remember she wanted to talk about you though. I thought I should warn you.

The reply was close to instant. Tara was surprised Ava’s phone could keep up with her super speedy fingers.

Ava: Thank you. What did you tell her?

Tara: I don’t remember. That’s why I’m scared. My brain is foggy.

Ava: What is the last thing you remember?

Tara: She pulled me into a cafe, we had coffee and she was asking about our relationship. I kept telling her we had broken up and I wasn’t in contact with you.

Ava: Bad that you let her touch you. Good that you told her we aren’t connected. Anything after that?

Tara: Why is it bad that she touched me? And after that she offered to walk me home and I said I was fine, but I don’t remember anything between that and getting to my bed.

Ava: Touch makes it easier for her to use her special persuasion on you. It’s like that for all of us, we can work from a distance, but we get stronger up close.

Tara: Special persuasion?

Ava: I am avoiding certain words, Tara, you don’t know who is looking over your shoulder or monitoring your device.

Tara: I am in my bedroom, there’s no one here.

Ava: That is absolutely not guaranteed.

Tara: Are you deliberately trying to scare me? That’s not funny.

Ava: You should be scared. I don’t joke.

Tara sat motionless, unsure how to respond. Was it better to be reassured and live in ignorant bliss or have to face a terrifying reality? Apparently, Ava believed in the latter.

Ava: Stay away from her. If you see her, run. Don’t contact me or Shawn unless she reappears. Avoid us and her at all costs.

Her phone screen was shaking so badly she could hardly read Ava’s additional text. Tara suddenly realised it was her hands that were trembling, not the phone. She wasn’t sure if she was shaking with worry for Ava, knowing someone seemed to be hunting her, or out of fear for herself, realising she was being left alone to fend for herself until Bee reappeared again. How would she know though? How would she know if a demon was spying on her or even following her in the street?

She got up, dressed (she was too scared to get in the shower and be ambushed while wet and naked), and spent the entire day shuffling from room to room in her apartment and jolting at every noise or movement. The relief when Daisy arrived home from work almost brought out the waterworks in Tara. She flew at her roommate and clung to her like a bushbaby before she had even had the chance to shake off her umbrella.

“Tara?” Daisy said slowly. “You okay, babe?”

“No,” Tara whispered.

“Okay, let me get changed and we can chat over tea.”

Once the tea had been brewed and pajamas donned, Tara couldn’t bring herself to tell her best friend the truth. She was fairly certain Daisy would not believe her tale of demons and angels even if she did find a way to spit the words out. Instead she wove a bogus story of having a panic attack that morning and being unable to rid herself of the anxiety all day.

“Oh, Tara,” Daisy murmured, pulling her close and raking her short nails through Tara’s hair soothingly. “I’m so sorry, why didn’t you text me? I would have come home early if I had known. I didn’t know you had anxiety either, is that new? Do you think it’s a knock-on from the break-up?”

“Maybe… I just feel like I’m being watched.”

“Watched by Ava?”

Her roommate had no idea how realistic that actually was.

“No- I- I don’t know.” Tara rubbed her sore eyes. “Don’t worry about it, I just need to get my shit together.”

Daisy exhaled through her nose disapprovingly. “If you have anxiety, shrugging it off will make it worse, Tara.”

“You’re right, but I’m not ready to deal with it,” Tara said, standing and putting away the teacups and saucers.

“I understand, I’m here to talk when you want to, love.”

“Thank you,” Tara mumbled. “You’re the best.”

They hugged hard and Tara struggled to breathe for a few seconds as her fear for herself split, multiplying into fear for everyone that she loved. It filled her like sticky tar, clinging to her insides and bringing a panic bubbling up her throat. She said good night and slipped away as quickly as she could. She cried in bed as quietly as she could.

The next day, Tara returned to work. The safest thing she could do was follow her routine as Ava had told her to. Perhaps normalcy, even fake normalcy, would help keep her nerves under control. Would help her stop running through every possible awful scenario in her mind.

That afternoon, a tall and slender man approached the counter.

“Welcome to Jessi’s Java, what can I get you?” She asked with a forced smile.

His eyes were a cold blue, cutting into her without hesitation.

“Hello. I am not here for coffee.”

An electrifying sensation crawled over her skin.

Before she could respond, he continued, “My name is Mr. Ramiel and I understand you have had dealings with a group of fugitives I am investigating.”

“I don’t know any fugitives!” Tara yelped, her scandalised body language was not completely fake.

“You were working with one, sleeping with another and making frequent visits to the most recent residence of the third.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Where is the creature known as Shawn?”