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“That depends, Theodore,” she growls, “are you going to stop being an insufferable–”

“Annie,mi amor,” Ben interrupts, “if you can be a good girl and leave Theo alone today, I promise I’ll make you the spiciest dinner you’ve ever had. You’ll be burping flames for a week.”

Slowly, her mouth turns up in a tiny smile. “Very well. I suppose I shall play along.”

Once we’re done eating, Annoth plants herself back in her blanket nest on the floor and Ben goes to the office to change his clothes. While he’s gone, I check my kitchen cabinets and the pantry. Not only did he buy groceries, he also got paper plates and bowls, trash bags, dish soap, and paper towels, plus a bunch of microwavable freezer meals. I feel slightly touched at the idea that he did all this without me asking him too, but there’s still a tiny kernel of suspicion in my chest.

He’s a complete stranger, who has no real motive to help me except that I’m literally blackmailing him. And then there’s the way he acts with Annoth. Either he doesn’t believe how dangerous she is and is actually flirting, or he meant it last night when he said he was trying to get her attention off me. He might be friendly, but he doesn’t strike me as naive, so I’m choosing to believe that he’s playing her. I guess I just have to pray that my ability to read people hasn’t completely vanished over the last few months.

After a few minutes, Ben comes out of the office wearing black jeans and a flannel shirt with the top three buttons open. I can’t help but watch as he rolls the long sleeves up over his forearms, one of which is sporting half a dozen colorful, beaded bracelets.

“First thing’s first,” he says to me, “you two are going to have a little counseling session before we go anywhere.”

Annoth groans loudly. “I told you, I will not do this.”

“Yeah, I’m really not sure how much it’s going to help,” I tell him.

“Just trust me,” he says quietly, then gives Annoth’s back a pointed look. I understand. He just wants her to talk as much as possible. Maybe he thinks she’s withholding information, or maybe he justwants to continue distracting her from her ‘mission’, but either way, it’s not actually about helping the two of us get along.

“Alright, fine,” I say begrudgingly, going to sit on the couch. Annoth pouts in her nest, arms folded and everything.

“I have no feelings to speak about!” she insists. “I was not created for this purpose!”

“Yeah, your default setting seems to be ‘full of violent rage’,” I huff as she flops down beside me and folds her legs up under her chin.

“I am a demon of the Seventh Tower, you idiot!”

“Ok! Let’s start there!” Ben says, dragging my armchair over so it’s across from the couch. He props his feet up on the coffee table and puts his arms behind his head, grinning as usual.Fuck, why do I want to crawl into his lap when he looks at me like that?

“Start where?” Annoth asks.

“Why don’t you explain to us what the Seventh Tower is?”

She sighs. “I have told you that the horrors of Hell cannot be–”

“Yes, yes, you said we can’t comprehend or whatever.” Ben interrupts her and I swear flames are about to shoot out of her eyes. “But, based on what you’ve told us, I’m gonna take a stab at it.”

“Take a stab at Theo too while you are at it, darling,” Annoth says in a sugary-sweet tone. She smiles at me and I try to keep my face neutral. Ben just continues grinning.

“Here’s what I think: seven deadly sins, so there’s seven towers. Each one contains souls of the damned that are specific to that sin. So, Annie here is angry and violent all the time, so she’s a demon of wrath, and the Seventh Tower is full of sinners being punished for sins related to wrath.”

Annoth silently folds her arms, and I can’t help but smirk. “Wow, he nailed you, didn’t he?”

“Not yet,” she retorts, exposing her fangs in a wicked smile.

“Wow, I can’t believe I was right about all that!” Ben crows. “Excellent! So, Annie, is it only wrath demons who get to possess people?”

“I will not be answering any more questions on this topic. It is Theo’s turn.”

Ben turns his attention to me. “Theo! What boring, generic, white-boy job did you do before you got fired?”

I can’t help but laugh. “I worked in marketing, if you must know.”

“Ay dios mío,” Ben groans, “I knew it. Did you have any personality other than your girlfriend and your bullshit job andStar Wars?”

I know he’s teasing, trying to get both of us to lighten up, but I suppose there’s a bit of truth to what he’s saying. Ros was everything to me.

“I guess…maybe I didn’t,” I say with a shrug.