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"Yes, and ouldn’t want that," Casanova muttered

"No, you wouldn’t," she said seriously "You’re in no danger, Carlos But if I ahts to any more time on earth He feels it has been unfairly extended as it is"

"I don’t see why," I said, grabbing the reins of the ca It see to eat it

"To avoid overfarreement," she reminded me "Only a set number of each of our races is allowed on earth at one time We have to take turns"

"But you’re still on yours Aren’t you allowed three hosts?"

"Yes" She shot a sideways look at Casanova, as reacting typically to the caraced with "But I do not think anyone expected me to find an immortal for o"

"But, technically, you aren’t breaking any rules"

"I aed line of si in the sarateful for them, since the "road" was invisible as far as I could see, just endless iant cracked plates by the parching sun Only an occasional dried-up twig of a tree poking out of one of the cracks broke the oing in lected toway froet here

Of course, that wouldn’t normally have been a problem Rian could shift into and out of the demon world the same way I could shift across the human But the deuarded their main courts, and Rosier had just increased the security on his froh the incubus version of the TSA in order to get horoup didn’t include any other deate had been concerned, that ht ed the question of how, exactly, ere going to get out when our group did include another demon, and one on the top of the "no fly" list

Daht

"Who are all these people?" Caleb asked, watching the passersby

They weren’t as interesting as I’d expected, at least what I could see A lot of thelare and the interusts of wind that whipped fine sand into every available orifice But they looked vaguely hury-looking types in dusty rags

Or rather, those on foot like us were But every once in a while, a clatter of hooves and a e ofindividuals, in fine, loose robes to protect them from the sun I couldn’t see ing fros, probably to try to cut down on the aliht-colored silks underneath their outer robes, and they rode in colanced around disinterestedly "Servants, or those ould be so Traders--the feho can be trusted The people of this world returning home after journeys elsewhere"

"People of this world?" Caleb looked confused

"There are many hells," she told him "It is merely a term for worlds in this dimension Kazallu is one; earth is another"

"Bullshit We do not live in hell!"

"Speak for yourself," Casanova said, li from what turned out to be a rock in his shoe

"A hell," Rian said, unperturbed "When we found this one, eons ago, the people on it werepri of disease, famine, war We took control and helped them"

"Fed on them, you mean," Caleb interjected

"To an extent But they are not verynutritious? They provide a subsistence, nothing more That is why our time on earth is so prized In a few years there, we amass power that would take centuries here"

"So we’re cattle to you," Caleb said, as if she’d just confirlance "Prized cattle, surely"

"Oh, stop it," Casanova said irritably "She’s just teasing you," he added to Caleb,me blink

I looked at Rian, but her violet-dusted lids were lowered, the long lashes shading her high cheekbones And then back at Casanova And then I wondered how a predator didn’t notice when he , and neither did she, being busy pulling a veil across the bottohtly, as another vehicle approached ours

This one was different, a sporty theeler, almost like a chariot, and driven like one, too I didn’t have to ask who it belonged to; Rian’s reaction was enough The incubus-possessed driver hadn’t bothered with an outer cloak like everyone else Instead, he wore a fine, thin red silk robe eht as he all but ran us down, scattering us lesser beings to either side as he thundered past

"Son of a--why couldn’t we get one of those?" Casanova de an incubus," Rian told him "It would attract too much at

tention"