Page 112 of The Succubi's Choice

“You can’t be arrested, though,” Katya says, matching her tone, and she knows Miri well enough that Miri wouldn’t doubt it’s intentional. “It’ll be on your record for forever, you won’t be allowed to live here, you won’t be allowed to work —".

With another puff of air, the Archdemon appears, as if he never disappeared, and Katya has a quick intake of breath, a small reaction, one almost imperceptible to someone who doesn’t know her.

“I’ve eliminated the warrant in the system,” he says, smooth, but his jaw is tight. “But I do not doubt enough people have seen it that it would be...difficult for me to eliminate that people saw it.”

Katya doesn't say anything, but she can see the wheels turning in her head.

“Okay, that’s good, that’s decent, I think,” Miri says, her mind going to her room and to what she would have to do. “I...”

High, tinny, and loud, her phone rings, and they all fall silent.

“It’s Lundy,” she says, because of course he would’ve seen something, would have noticed the disparity.

“Don’t answer it,” Katya says, and Miri nods, before looking up at Not-Thomas quickly.

And she gets stuck, looking up at him, with his pale skin and eyelashes and the light dusting of freckles over his nose. At the entire human-ness of him, couched around something that’s so very inhuman.

Something inside herself solidifies, some sort of reserve, some sort of hidden well of self. “I’ll grab clothes for tonight,” she says, before the feeling changes with some other impact. “You can take me somewhere?”

“Obviously,” he says, voice unreadable in the way that it becomes when she hits too close to home, when he doesn’t want to have emotions but does.

She nods to Katya, who looks a bit stricken, before turning and leaving the two of them in her living room, putting her shoulder into Gabriel’s door and disappearing inside.

In the dark room, Gabriel awakens with a start, sitting up in his bed, obviously just in an undershirt and boxers.

“Miri?” He whispers, and she’s only lit by the streetlights streaming in his open window.

“Gabe, something serious has happened.” She sits on the edge of his bed, and he stares at her, his eyes wide and a bit spooked. “I’m going to be gone for a bit. Maybe a few days, I don’t know.”

He stares at her, blinking rapidly at her, before he rubs his eyes. “Jesus Christ,” he says, baldly. “What the fuck?”

“I know, if they ask where I am, you don’t know.”

He looks about as disoriented as he was the one semester he almost failed a class because his grandmother passed away. “What?”

She leans forward, grabbing at him in a quick hug, and he stiffens, before awkwardly patting her on the back.

“What?” He mumbles again, pulling away, and he’s so disoriented she doesn’t know if he’ll remember it in the morning.

“I’ll text,” she says, standing up, and she’s still wearing the gorgeous dress that shines in the dim light, but there’s a lump in her throat. “It’s okay.”

And quick as she can, she steps back out, then goes to her own room, into her own personal tornado of mess, and stuffs a few days’ worth of clothes into an old backpack and…

After a moment of hesitation, a moment of her holding her hand over the crumpled-up clothing, she stuffs her work uniform in the bag. Because she might as well.

Stuffing her old backpack shut, she swings out of her room, just in time to see Gabriel gives her a slack-jawed look from his doorway, still looking mostly asleep, his hair sticking in every direction.

“Where are you going?” He asks, his voice thick with sleep, and Miri forces herself to face him.

“I’m not sure, but I’ll let you know,” she says, and to her horror she can hear a tinge of panic creep into her voice. “I’ll let you know when I know, I swear —"

His eyes flicker to where Katya and the Archdemon stand in the living room, to their serious faces, to her still wearing the fancy dress and the clock on the microwave, which reads the early morning time, before he looks back at her.

“Okay,” he says, the wisps of sleep leaving his voice, and he blinks, hard. “You’ll keep her safe?” The question is directed to the Archdemon, who simply nods, and Gabriel nods back, in whatever weird understanding they have.

“And you have no trackers on your phone?” Katya asks, final, as she slings the backpack over her shoulder.

“Lundy took them off,” Miri says, and her heart is starting to pound and her mouth is starting to dry up.

---