I have a little bit of writer's block on chapter 55 of In the Ever Afterlife, so I figured I'd pick up this story for a bit of an easy break. Besides, Devi's getting pretty pissed at me.

The demon Devasanniyakseya began to tap his foot impatiently. His new little minion was still a bodiless soul in a bottle and he was getting very displeased that two and a half months had gone by without a single peep from her.

"Well?" he demanded. "That's all you could come up with? That I blew up a subway? What the hell kind of lame-ass plot bunny is that?"

TW winced and shrugged. "Um, sorry, I was sorta concentrating on my NaNoWriMo story, and there were all those lab reports to grade, and…"

Devi growled and popped the cork, dumping the mist that was TW's little swirly pink soul into the palm of his hand. For a swirly little pink mist, it was remarkably stable and didn't leave his hand. "Last chance," he said menacingly.

"Look, Devi, honest, I'm just having a bit of writer's block with you. Give me something to work with!"

Devi looked nonplussed. "Like what?"

"I dunno…like, tell me a story. Why'd you blow up the subway, anyway?"

Devi shrugged. "Summoner told me to."

The pink mist shifted impatiently. "….and?"

"And what?"

"Was this summoner male? Or female?"

"Male."

"Devi, work with me here. Details! What did he give you?"

Devi cocked his head curiously, seeming to catch on. "Information on the whereabouts of a certain wizard," he said cautiously.

"…and why blow up a subway?"

"How the hell should I know? I didn't ask. I didn't care. Maybe he wanted a really good work excuse?"

The mist gave the distinct impression of rolling its eyes. "Ok, fine, how about this wizard?"

"He's a sneaky little human who's got two of my fucking marks on him, reneged on a deal, and still manages to slip my snare every time I get close to catching him! How the hell is he hiding the signature of my demon marks, that's what I want to know!"

"Oooh, this is good!" Devi glared at the mist, and it shrank ever so slightly. "I mean, good for a story. I can work with that. Who's this wizard?"

Devi looked at the mist suspiciously. "No, I think I'm done with details. Now you pump out a few chapters and we'll see about getting you a real body. In the meantime…" he looked around for inspiration, his eyes settling on Newt's prone form.

"Oh, no you don't! She'll fucking kill me if I go gallivanting around in her body!"

"Do you really think she intends to come back here?"

"Hmm. Good point. Still. I don't want to go around being her. Isn't there another option?"

Devi chuckled. "Sure there is. You asked for it."

Without ceremony, he simply brought the mist to his face and inhaled. There was a muted "Eeeeeeeee!" before the mist vanished entirely.

Hey! Hey hey hey! Let me out of here! Eww, it's all….manly…in here!

Devi grinned and burped. "Now then…where should we start looking?" he asked.

While TW was adjusting to her new digs, Newt was still adjusting to TW's body. She had driven other bodies before, but this one was just a mere human, and it was irritating as hell. She'd had a very bad moment when she realized that all her stored curses were part of her physical form and hadn't transferred. At least this clumsy shape had retained its ability to jump to other worlds, though the real trick was figuring out which world was the one she wanted.

This one certainly wasn't it. This one was a dank, dark cavern with two figures, the larger of whom had just pinned the smaller to the wall by the throat. Both of them froze and looked back at Newt with identical expressions of irritated confusion.

"You again?" gasped the dark-skinned girl, who was dangling defiantly in the tall one's grip and kicking ineffectively at his armored stomach. She fell to the dirt as the taller one released her, turning to deal with the intruder.

Venger didn't waste any breath on a warning, just sent a fireball Newt's way with a hiss of annoyance. He looked rather surprised as the figure didn't EEP! and dodge it. Instead it splattered against an invisible circular barrier.

Newt cackled. "And what the hell are you supposed to be?" she asked, eying the bat-winged figure appraisingly.

Venger wasted no time launching another spell at her, which was also deflected with no visible movement on the part of the intruder. "What trickery is this?" he demanded, flinging a third volley of powerful bolts at the impudent girlish figure, and had to duck as they came flying back at him, crashing into the stone behind him and sending foot-ball sized chunks everywhere.

"Hmm. Not bad," Newt said, sounding satisfied. "What else have you got?"