'You've known Amalia eighteen years and only now you have decided you want to work with her? Why the change of heart, Denab?' Galen asked as he paced the office, his glorious white wings stretching out behind him, like some kind of avenging angel. Galen had tricked all of his followers, The Hunters, into believing he was an angel and that he was here to destroy the demons with his power of light.

Unfortunately that was not the truth; Galen was the keeper of Hope, as demonic as the rest of them were. Hope was one of the worst demons of the Box as it gave the keeper and those around him unrealistic expectations. Still Galen, who hated his brethren for some unknown reason, hoped that the Lords would return. He didn't want them to come back because Hope wanted to rekindle the brotherhood he'd shared with the other demons, but because he Hoped he could kill the demon Lords.

Thankfully Denab, being demon possessed himself, could not become influenced by Hope, already influenced by his own demon every minute and every second of every day. Right now It wanted to rush over there and rip Galen's throat out with his bare claws. If only Gwen had done it when she'd had the chance. Galen had given her a free shot, it had been heard by all the Hunters, and the Harpy had been unable to do it, no matter the fact that her father had locked her away for the best part of a year.

'Why do you want to work with Amalia when you both work better for me solo?' Galen was asking now and Denab wondered about that. Did he really do better work alone, or was Galen just trying to get him to Hope that he did?

'I believe that as two of your greatest Hunters, if we work together we can and will become stronger than you will ever know.' It was not Hope that made him speak so confidently, nor was it his demon. It was the truth, Denab knew that he and Amalia would make the greatest Hunter team there had ever been. Though she claimed to hate the demon kind, she had been all too eager to seduce him last night, he wouldn't put it past her to try and seduce another of his kind.

No! It screeched within his mind. No, no one is to have her but me, she is mine.

The demon within him seemed to crave Amalia the more he thought about her, and the fact that It didn't want her to seduce another demon, to be with another demon, well that just made him a curious fiend.

'If this is what you believe who am I to naysay you? I suppose I could give you a trial as partners,' Galen said and Denab nodded thankful. Though he hated this man to his very bones he would show him what he was made of. 'But if you fail me you will be suspended from our organisation you do know that don't you?' The leader, not Denab's leader never Denab's leader, announced and he nodded. God he hated this man!

'Of course Galen,' he said and bowed his head respectfully, he needed to be in this organisation no matter the personal dispute he had between their leader. 'What does this trial consist of that you would like me to take part in?' He asked curiously.

'Do you recall one of our old Hunters, turned Bait, the one with the voices in her head?' Denab nodded. 'Well she married one of the Lords and conceived twins, a son and a daughter. One of them is here upon Earth right now, the son; I believe his name is Urban. I want you to locate him and I want you to…' Galen trailed off as though he was having an internal monologue with his demon.

'I will annihilate him if it is what you wish sir. After all we cannot have a second generation of Lords upon this land, who knows how strong they are?' Denab nodded understandingly but Galen stopped him with a finger.

'No, I do not want this boy harmed. He has yet to reach his immortality, and his allegiance to his parents may be slim. After all don't many teenagers hate their parents?' Galen said and Hope shone brightly through the feathers of his white wings.

'Of course Galen, I will escort him here as soon as I can locate him,' Denab announced and made for the door.

'Denab, he is not to be harmed, and I do Hope that your experiences with the Lords does not sway you in your actions with him. I want him here and without a single scratch upon him, do you hear me? If anyone is going to harm this son of an ex-hunter and a Lord it will be me, okay?'

'Okay,' Denab said as he pushed open the door, his words leaving his gritted teeth as he narrowed his eyes. Gods he hated Galen.

#

'Hey Amalia, how was your weekend?' All around her, Amalia's colleagues were asking Ever about her weekend, talking to her as though they were her best friends or Hoped to be.

There's something different about Amalia.

Did she always wear gloves?

Wow! When did she get hot!

Those were just a few of the thoughts Ever could pick up and for once, as she tried to concentrate on something important, she found the noises entirely distracting. In the heavens she had never heard the voices this loudly, but now she was here it was as though she could hear the entire town's thoughts, at least in a ten mile radius.

'Where is Denab?' She whispered to herself as she hunched over her desk, looking through the files the Hunters had on her family. They had everything on everyone, even Viola was there. The Hunters knew a lot about the Lords even after they had left for the fortress in the heavens. And as she flicked through the files she discovered that there was even a file on her.

There was even a picture of what the Hunters suspected a daughter of Violence would look like. It wasn't a bad guess. If she dropped her Glamour now, every Hunter here would recognise her from the file and rush to either annihilate her, torture her for secrets, or recruit her for real against her own family. She could never be a Hunter for real, she loved her parents too much, her family with the pregnant aunts, too much to give away their secrets and to harm them.

There was a page in her file about her mother Ashlyn Darrow. Apparently their mother had been a Hunter at one point and then Bait. They even had it recorded down here that perhaps the daughter had inherited the powers of "The Voices". There was an entire paragraph about the pros of recruiting the daughter. Ever, Ever was the daughter they all wished to kill or torture or recruit.

Her blood ran cold and she limply held up a hand when another male colleague greeted her with a dashing, flirtatious smile. She guessed he would have been charming to any other woman. Thought the real Amalia had wished to destroy all Lords, Ever found herself entirely entranced by the very demon who had been one to kill the woman's family.

What the demons had done to the Hunters when barely in control of their bodies was what the Hunters wanted to do to the Lords. Surely they should want to treat the Lords with the same care they wished to be treating themselves.

So a trial? How am I supposed to discover the whereabouts of this demon?

Ever turned at the voice within her head, the one that sounded very much like Denab and found him over by the water cooler, his despondent head against the plastic, gazing into the life giving liquid as though he might find the answers to his problems right there.

'Hey Amalia did you get finished looking through the son's file?' Another colleague asked and Ever shook her head.

'Not just yet Sarah, I just finished the daughters, they're very recent files. I wasn't sure Ashlyn had carried to term,' Ever lied and the woman nodded.

'Oh yeah she did. Little bitch,' Sarah said and Ever found herself wanting to stab the woman as the Hunters thoughts continued on in her head.

She called herself a Hunter, and then she tried to become Bait, fucking whore. She's probably slept with all of the Lords; we all know how they like to share their women. Who's to say that both the twins are even Violence's?

'Yeah well I'm going to go see how Denab's holding out, he doesn't look too good, maybe he came down with something,' Ever excused herself and left with Sarah's musings of whether or not Amalia and Denab were finally getting cosy.

When she reached the water cooler Ever hesitated before placing a hand on Denab's shoulder comfortingly. He jumped as though he didn't realise where he was, as though he thought he had an enemy behind him.

'Hey it's just me Denab, don't you worry yourself,' she said as she linked her arm through his and escorted him out of the building situated within Buda. 'Hey what's wrong honey?' She asked as they made their way down the street to grab something to eat. He looked pale as snow and she wondered when the last time he had eaten was.

'Nothing,' he lied to her and she decided she would tell him just a little about her, Ever instead of Amalia.

'Look Denab, I know something's wrong for sure.' When he eyed her suspiciously she continued. 'I guess you could say I'm an empath,' she told him and he looked at her oddly.

'You can hear my emotions?' In a matter of speaking.

'Yes, you're worried, filled with hate and starving like hell, come on let's go get a bite to eat, my treat,' Ever told him as she slid her hand down his arm and linked their fingers. She liked the feel of his hand within hers, it was comforting.

When she pulled him towards a restaurant she knew served nothing but meat he looked at her oddly.

'You off your salad diets then?' He asked and she nodded.

'I decided a woman needs a little fat on her, you know cushion those hip bones,' she told him, glaring down at her own and the fact that they stuck out like hell. She did not want to bang them, they might actually break.

'Good, because they do,' he told her and Ever smiled so hard. He desired Amalia's body but he preferred women with curves. 'Come on,' he said tugging her towards the door when she didn't move. 'I'll talk to you about the meeting I had with our righteous leader when we get inside.'

The thoughts running through Denab's mind told her that dinner wasn't going to go the way she'd planned. He was filled with too much panic and fear.