Heaven's Rejects - Episode 10

Episode 10 – “Dead Men Walking”

Previously:

I hate it when the opposition thinks things through.  The necromancer made it difficult to stop the animated John Does.  Demona figured out what was powering them, but grabbing gold chains while fighting off something that can't be killed isn't easy.  Not to mention, the necromancer split her army of the dead into three groups.  We're not going to get out of this without injury.

I got scratched up in the last fight.  It stings a little, but it's not so bad right now.  Definitely will have to see a doctor later.  The dead aren't known for their cleanliness.  I don't want to be sidelined by an infection.  Nadia shoiuld've brought some of Team One One Seven with us.  The more people we have, the faster we can stop the Elvii.

Just what did Mom do here?  Two security guards have yelled at me for just being in Las Vegas.  Why?  Because of Mom.  I never had the chance to do anything.  I didn't even want to come here.  She owes me for this.



Now
Nadia, Ian, and Demona dashed across the Strip, heading to the last casino suffering from a walking corpse invasion.  Ian pointed out the SWAT team setting up near the necromancer's white moving truck.  "Our time's almost up," he said.

"Ignore them," Nadia said.  "They can't do anything useful."

Demona caught up to Ian.  "I need the stun stick again."

"It won't work on the John Does.  It's a little late to try to restart their hearts."

Ian pulled the stun stick out of his gym bag.  "Clubbing them isn't going to do much, either."

"It's not for them."  Demona took the weapon from Ian.  "Wait, does gold conduct electricity?"

Nadia slowed her pace while she thought about the question.  "I think it does, but it tends to melt."

Demona grinned.  "Good."

The three agents arrived at the casino.  Its main doors were destroyed.  One hung from its hinge, the other lay on the floor, huge rents in it.  Beyond in the lobby, security guards sprawled unmoving on the floor.  Others tended to their fellows.  One noticed the agents enter.  "Get out!  Get out while you can!  Bullets don't stop them!"

Ian knelt down beside the guard.  "How many are there?"

"Half a dozen?  Maybe?"  The guard shook his head.  "They burst in.  Johnny there," he pointed at a guard bent over the desk, "they just tossed him.  I thought Elvis loved playing here."

"Where's your security chief?" Demona asked.

Another guard stood up.  "That's me.  Hey, aren't you Meleri's kid?  You're not supposed--"

Demona cut his sentence short, jabbing her stun stick into his leg.  "Who is the next in line?"

Nadia pulled Demona back.  "We're just here to deal with the dead Elvis invasion.  That's all.  Where are they?"

The first guard pointed towards the casino floor.  "There.  We got everyone evacuated."

"Thanks."  Nadia pulled Demona along towards the gambling area.  "SWAT should be here soon with paramedics."  She looked down at the head of security who was still twitching.  "He'll be fine."

Ian joined his teammates.  They stopped at the solid steel gate blocking the casino area long enough for two injured guards to raise it.  The gate slammed back down once they were through.  The walking corpses didn't react to the sound.  Instead, they continued to destroy the gambling area.  Chairs were smashed against tables, bending the metal legs and shattering the tables' wood.  The chairs were then thrown at anything neon.

Ian took a quick count of the walking dead.  "Seven of them."

"We're not going to separate them," Nadia said.  She looked back at the steel gate.  "And I doubt the guards are going to help us.  What were you thinking, zapping the security chief?"

"Did you want to waste time trying to say for the third time that I'm not my mom?"  Demona huffed.  "I just got us past all that."

"Good point.  I probably would've done the same."  Nadia turned her attention back to the John Does.  "Looks like there's a limit to how far they can see and they don't react to sound.  If they were near the slots, we could use the rows to split them up.  The roulette table might have worked, but," she paused as a John Doe smashed a chair against another innocent piece of gambling paraphenalia, "it just got destroyed."

"Do you want to try zapping one to see if that works?" Ian asked.  He pointed to a John Doe that approached the casino's bar.  "That one might be far enough away from the others to give it a shot."

Nadia looked over at Demona.  "I'm game.  Me and Ian can block for you."

Demona bit her lip.  "That's better than being bait, I suppose."

Nadia led the group towards the lone John Doe at the bar.  The walking corpse swiped its arm along the bar surface, knocking unfinished drinks to the floor.  Sensing movement, it turned to face the three agents.  Ian and Nadia pushed ahead of Demona, spreading apart enough to give the rookie agent room to attack.  The John Doe swung at Ian.  He brought up his sabre to block the blow.  Nadia raised her gladius.  Seeing the opening, Demona jabbed with her stun stick.  She connected, hitting the John Doe in the chest and catching the gold chains.  The John Doe stiffened.  Demona held the stun stick in place as long as she could before the walking corpse fell back, its silver jumpsuit blackened.  The gold chains, though, remained in one piece.  Ian grabbed at the chains and yanked.  The chains gave way.

Nadia stepped back from the corpse.  "That didn't work."

"I don't think there's enough battery life in this even if it did."  Demona lowered the stun stick.  "What we did at the pool worked better."

"We were outnumbered two to one there, too."

Ian's cell phone trilled.  He pulled it out before it began a second ring.  "Markowitz.  Kaye, I'm going to put you on speaker.  Hang on."  He made the adjustments, turning up the volume.  "Can you still hear me?"

From the phone's speaker, Kaye answered.  "I can hear you.  Byron figured out the necromancer's rod.  He can't quite control them, though."

"The shiksa named each one after an Elvis song, except she didn't use the full title," Nadia said.

"Hang on."  Indistinct talking could be heard from the phone.  "Okay, Byron thinks he can get some control over the rod.  He's going to, wait, what?  Why didn't you just say that?  Never mind.  He's changing the rod's control song.  Turn this up and the dead John Does should follow you."

Demona pulled out her smartphone.  "It might be easier if I just played it from my own phone instead of going through yours.  What's the song?"

"Byron, what song?  What?  Dear God, why?  Sorry, guys, for the earworm.  Any of you have 'Gangnam Style' ready to play?"

"Yes!"  Demona set up the song on her phone.  "I think I know what Byron's trying to do.  We're going to lead the John Does into dancing out of here."  She made sure that the song was set to repeat.

Nadia pinched the bridge of her nose.  "He couldn't have chosen 'The Chicken Dance'?  'The Macarena'?  Those, I know."

"Don't worry about it," Demona said.  "Just get the gate open and clear a path for me."  She ran towards the John Does, her smartphone held high.

The shambling dead Elvis impersonators turned away from their mindless destruction, focusing their attention on Demona.  In fits and starts, they approached her.  Demona held her ground.  She pressed play on her music.  From her phone's speakers, the opening notes to 'Gangnam Style' began playing.  The John Does stopped in their tracks.  Demona began miming riding a horse.  Without hesitation, the John Does followed the former librarian's moves, acting in unison.

Nadia buried her face into the palm of her hand.  "I am not putting this in the report."

"It's working.  And Demona's good at this."  Ian walked over to the steel gate.

"Focus on the mission."  Nadia jogged to keep up.  She hammered on the gate.  "Open up!"

From the other side, a guard called, "Is it safe?"

"We've got the problem contained."

The steel gate rolled up.  The guard looked in.  On seeing Demona dancing with the dead John Does, he said, "That's contained?"

"If it's stupid but it works, it's still stupid, but it's working."  Nadia stepped into the lobby.  "Clear a path.  We'll get them out of your casino.  Ian, do you still have Kaye on the line?"

Ian checked his phone.  "She's still here."

From the phone's speaker, Kaye said, "What do you need, Nadia?"

"Move the truck closer.  The necromancer had a microphone.  See if you can get the song playing through that.  And have some of your team inside.  They're going to take the chains off the John Does once they're in the truck."

"On it."  Kaye disconnected the call.

The head of security pushed himself up to a seated position.  "Where's Meleri's kid?"

Ian pointed at the casino floor.  "Dealing with the Elvii.  I wouldn't stop her."

"She shouldn't be here at all."

Nadia poked her finger into the secuity chief's chest.  "Consider yourself damned lucky she's busy right now.  She zapped you once already.  Leave her alone.  She's with me, not her mother.  And she's doing a lot more than any of your people did to deal with the problem.  If you want her gone, we'll take her with us and leave the walking corpses in your capable hands."

The guard stared down at Nadia.  "She has to be gone before tomorrow.  It's out of my hands."

Nadia narrowed her eyes.  "Just how many demons are there in this city?"

"You're from the Agency.  Great.  Look, we've got an arrangement here.  Not with you, just us demons.  We don't call attention to ourselves here, we get a chance to come and relax for a bit.  We can scout, but can't do anything else.  Some of us have decent jobs here, better than what we can do in Hell.  But Meleri?  She broke the arrangement by preying on men here and not cleaning up her messes.  If she at least didn't leave the bodies around, we could've ignored her.  But she could've had you guys called in, and things would've been messy.  She's got a lifetime ban now.  When we found out she had a kid, the kid got lumped in."

"Preying on men?"  Nadia laughed.  "Demona?  I don't think she knows how to chat up a guy, let alone lure them into bed.  She's not going to start now."  A louder version of 'Gangnam Style' began playing outside.  "Our ride's here."

"Still, she can't stay in Las Vegas much longer.  Someone will notice her and, excuse the expression, all Hell will break loose."

"I'll find a way to keep her out of sight until we leave.  Demona hasn't been too interested in seeing the sights here, so that'll be easy enough.  Will that work?"

The head of security shrugged.  "I guess."

"Good.  Now get out of the way."  Nadia returned to the steel gate.  "Okay, Dancing Queen, lead them out."

Still miming riding a horse, Demona came out of the casino area.  Behind her, six John Does performed PSY's dance steps in perfect unison.  Ian guided Demona and her backup dancers outside.  Demona turned the music on her phone off, not losing a beat as she adjusted to the new source.  Two of Team One One Seven pulled out the loading ramp, then dashed inside.  Demona moved aside, dancing in place, letting the John Does go up the ramp.  After a couple of moments, one of the team inside the truck came back out, her thumb up.  Demona stopped dancing and caught her breath.

Nadia and Ian came outside.  "Is that all of them?" Nadia asked.

"All six of them."  Demona took off her cardigan.  "That was fun."

"I'm sure it was."  Nadia pulled Demona aside.  "I found out why you're banned from Las Vegas."

"What did Mom do?"

"She was a horrible soul-sucking bitch who wouldn't clean up after herself.  And they banned you just in case you turned out like your mom."

Demona rolled her eyes.  "Figures.  Sounds just like her, too.  I got stuck with cleaning up after her every summer."

"The local demons want you out of the city.  It'll take some time for the Agency to arrange a flight back to Chicago, though."

"I wasn't planning on leaving my hotel room except to hit the buffet to finally get to enjoy it."

"Good."  Nadia patted Demona's back.  "I don't have to tell you that."

-**-

The John Does have been returned to the morgue.  Someone else gets to clean up their mess.  The new problem is the necromancer.  The Agency can't let her go, even if she winds up in prison.  She can easily create a new army.  The local cops aren't going to just let her go, though.  Twenty stolen bodies and all the destruction in front of witnesses.

That wasn't the normal way to stop animated dead, but it worked.  Demona had some sweet moves, to.  Not that I was paying attention.

I'm done.  Mom was Mom thirty years ago and wore out her welcome and I get to deal with it.  As usual.  Not that I wanted to be here, but now I'm stuck in my hotel room.  On the bright side, I can get a lot of reading done.


-**-

After cleaning up and changing shirts, Nadia and Ian arrived at the downtown police station.  A few minutes later, Kaye arrived, alone.  She greeted her fellow agents, then walked into the lobby of the police station.  Nadia took the lead as they approached the reception desk.  The officer at the desk turned his attention on the newcomers.  "Can I help you?"

Nadia put a hand on the desk.  "We're here to see a prisoner."

"Does this prisoner have a name?"

"She probably does.  She'll be the one brought in from the Strip earlier tonight, charged with theft, multiple charges of desecration of a dead body, destruction of property, and illegal parking."

The desk officer froze for a moment.  "Who are you with?"

Kaye retrieved her ID from her purse and passed it to the officer.  "This might explain things."

The officer read Kaye's identity.  He picked up the phone receiver and punched in an extension of the keypad.  "Sergeant, there's some people wanting to see the prisoner from the Strip.  Kaye Ortiz.  Thank you."  He hung up.  "The Sergeant will be here soon."

"How soon?"  Nadia leaned down a little, getting closer to the officer's face.

Ian put his hand on her shoulder.  "Let's not cause problems, okay?"

Nadia stood up and put on a smile.  "Not trying to cause any."  She walked away from the desk.

After a ten minute wait, a uniformed sergeant arrived.  The desk officer pointed out Kaye for him.  The sergeant waved Kaye over.  Nadia and Ian joined her.  "I understand you want to see the prisoner from the Strip."

Kaye nodded.  "We do.  It's important we follow up with her."

"Follow up?"

"Is there somewhere a little more private?"  With a sweep of her arm, Nadia indicated everyone in the lobby.  "Somewhere that we can talk openly about what happened?"

The sergeant grimaced.  "Garcia, buzz us in.  We'll be in Briefing Room Two."  The door buzzed.  The sergeant ushed in the agents and led them down the hall.  Once the briefing room's door closed, he said, "Alright, who are you?"

"Kaye Ortiz."  Kaye pointed to Nadia and Ian.  "Nadia Wallach and Ian Markowitz.  We're the ones who stopped the dead from destroying your city."

"I've got nineteen dead bodies, many with wounds.  How do I know you didn't kill them?"

"Us?"  Nadia whirled around.  She jabbed her finger at the sergeant.  "We put our lives on the line and you're accusing us of murdering already dead men?"

Ian got in between Nadia and the sergeant.  "What my partner here means is that your forensics lab can determine the time of death was several days before what happened tonight."

"Sergeant," Kaye said, "the problem here is that the woman your officers arrested is a necromancer.  Someone who can control the dead.  The ultimate in recycling, and I'll bet she knows ways to get a body when she needs one.  She can't be held in general population in jail.  You'll just have more dead walking around."

"What do you have in mind?" the sergeant asked.  "She's allowed a trial.  You just can't kill her in cold blood."

"Heaven forbid," Ian said.  "No, Sergeant, our employer has ways to block her knowledge of necromancy without killing her."

"Sounds more like a lobotomy.  Anyway, you're too late."

Nadia tried to push past Ian.  "What do you mean, 'too late'?"

"The Feds picked her up, must have been twenty minutes ago."

Nadia grabbed Ian's arm.  "Come on!"  She raced through the halls back to the lobby and outside again.  She jumped into the rental SUV.  The engine was roaring before Ian closed his door.

Ian buckled up as Nadia tore out of the police station's parking lot.  "Nadia, slow down."

"No, Ian.  I am not letting this one get away."

"Where can she go?"

Nadia leaned on the SUV's horn to get a pack of slower drivers out of her way.  "Do you really believe that the Feds picked her up?  From here?  How did they know that she animated an army of dead?"

Ian grabbed the door handle as Nadia made a tight turn.  "If I checked social media right now, I'm sure I'll find photos of the John Does labelled as 'the zombie apocalypse.'  Zombies have been a thing the past few years."

"Zombies, Ian.  No one knows they were animated."

"The necromancer called to them from the top of the truck."

"That's control.  Anyone can do that if they get whatever item set up to control the army of the dead."

"That's not in pop culture, Nadia.  The average person thinks that any animated dead are zombies.  If there's someone controlling them, that person created them."

"Answer me this-- get your /tuches/ in gear, you /alta kaka/!"  Nadia cut on to the shoulder to get around a Lincoln land yacht going twenty under the limit.  She ignored the angry honking behind her.  "How did the FBI get someone in this fast?  Demona tased the /chazer/ a little over an hour ago.  The local cops had SWAT involved and never had time to see how bad things were thanks to us."

Ian settled into his seat.  "Unless they also followed social media."

"Check if anyone mentioned the necromancer getting zapped."

Ian pulled out his phone and checked Twitter.  While the hashtags "VegasZombies", "Zombies", and "ZombieApocalypse" were still getting used, none of the tweets showed the necromancer nor did any mention the necromancer being stopped.  "Okay, Nadia, you have a point.  But what if it wasn't the FBI?"

"Then who?  The CIA can't act legally here and we've run into them in the past.  They're barely aware of anything past their tech."

"There's more than them.  There's an alphabet soup of American intelligence agencies.  Or maybe it was another country's team.  They could've been tracking the necromancer before she got here."

Nadia shook her head.  "This nutter feels home grown.  She's too familiar with Elvis and too crazy to be from somewhere else."

"Probably a bit late to ask, Nadia, but where are we going?"

"The airport.  McCarren.  It has international flights.  Get out of the country and they can take the necromancer wherever they want and we won't know where they've gone."

Ian braced himself as Nadia pushed the rented Ford SUV to its limits.  Nadia screeched to a halt at McCarren International, stopping in the white zone in front of the main terminal.  She got out of the SUV, not even bothering to turn the engine off, and sprinted into the terminal.  Ian turned the SUV off and grabbed the key, then followed Nadia inside.

By the time Ian caught up, Nadia had asked the people at the info desk about the agents and their prisoner and was about to run off towards Terminal 3.  With impatience, Nadia implored Ian to keep up with her.  The pair of running agents did catch the attention of airport security, who radioed the disturbance in.

At the AeroMexico check-in at Gate E, Nadia spotted the necromancer, who stood between two tall men wearing dark suits.  "Hey!"  Nadia put in one last burst to close the distance.  "Hey!  Stop!"

One of the men pulled the necromancer away by the arm.  She staggered, unsteady on her feet.  The other stepped away from the check-in and towards Nadia.  He reached under his suit jacket.  "Police business," he said.  "Nothing to see here."

"Like hell there isn't."  Nadia slowed to a walk.  She felt magic beginning to trickle around her.  "Let's see some ID."

"You first."

"That's what I thought.  Let the shiksa go."

"Or what?"

"Ever wonder what a full body cavity search felt like?"  Nadia smirked.  "Consider that the pleasant version of what could happen."

The man grabbed on to something under his suit jacket.  Nadia reached for her Star of David, hoping she could harness enough magic to deflect a bullet.  Instead of the gun she expected, the tall man pulled out a foot long wooden wand painted red.  "Interesting move, Agent."

"Good luck doing anything," Nadia said.  "Or can you not feel magic at all?"

"It doesn't matter."  The tall man pointed behind Nadia.  "I think you're going to have other problems."  He put the wand back under his jacket.

From behind her, Nadia heard, "Hands on your head!  Now!"

Nadia placed her hands on her head, keeping her motions slow to not alarm whoever was behind her.  "Arrest us both."

"On the ground."

"Are you really going to go through this?"

"On the ground.  Now!"

"It'd be easier if I didn't have my hands on my head."  Nadia still obeyed, dropping to her knees before laying down on the marble floor.  "Just make sure the prisoner doesn't leave!"

"Thank you officers," the tall man said.  "My ID.  This is one of the terrorist's accomplices.  Hold her here until I can send someone to pick her up."

"Yes, sir, Special Agent Talbot," the guard said.  He cuffed Nadia's hands behind her back.

"He's not with the FBI!"  Nadia didn't resist when the guard picked her up off the floor.  "Call the FBI's office in town.  They'll tell you!"

The guard gave Nadia a shove in her back.  "That's enough!  You have the right to remain silent.  If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be held against you.  You have the right to an attorney.  If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you."

Nadia glared at the guard.  "What's the charge?"

The guard blinked.  "What?"

"You just gave me the Miranda warning.  What am I being charged with?"

The guard looked over to the tall man.  "Sir?"

"Aiding and abetting a terrorist," the tall man  said.  "Attempted assault on a law enforcement agent.  Attempted jail break."

"That."  The guard pulled on Nadia's arm to get her walking.  "Sounds serious.  Might even get you into Gitmo."

Ian arrived.  On seeing Nadia in cuffs, he got out his cellphone.  "I'm calling Kaye," he mouthed.  WIth a crowd gathering to kibbitz, he ducked back, not wanting to be seen by the guard.

Several more airport guards arrived to handle crowd control.  The first guard hauled Nadia down to the airport's holding cell, locking her inside without removing the handcuffs.  Nadia paced in the small cell, taking two strides to cross from one side to another.  The guard stared at her as she paced.  "You might as well sit down.  You're going to be here a while."

Nadia leaned against the cell door.  "You are going to realize just how big a mistake you've just made.  I hope you don't lose your job for this.  Actually, no, I hope that you never realize how many lives are going to be lost because you fucked this up that bad."

The guard picked up a coffee mug.  "Not my problem."  He set up the coffee maker, leaving his mug under the spout.

"I get a phone call."

"After you're booked."

Nadia sat down on the cell's bench.  She tried to get comfortable on the hard surface.  Giving up, she laid down on her side, keeping an eye on the guard as he did his paperwork.  The clock on the wall ticked loudly, echoing in the small room in the airport's basement.  After twenty minutes, the door opened.  Kaye marched inside, followed by Ian.  The guard jumped to his feet.  "You can't be in here!"  His hand went for his pistol.

"You have thirty seconds to explain why you have her locked up," Kaye said.  "Or should I jump straight to the unlawful arrest lawsuit?"

"What?"  The guard took a few steps away from Kaye.  "Let's see some ID."

Kaye provided the guard several papers, including identification.  "Take your time.  Read them all."

The guard flipped through the pages.  He grew paler with every flip.  "I . . . I didn't . . .."

"Did you ask her if she had ID?"

"No," Nadia called.  She sat up on the bench.

Kaye made a show of rolling her eyes.  "Just how much gross incompetence are we looking at here?  Good God, man, you let a dangerous prisoner escape!"

The guard stammered.  "He had ID saying he was with the FBI."

"Did you even verify it?"

Nadia laughed.  "Nope!"

"Get her out of there!"

Fumbling with his keys, the guard unlocked the cell.  Nadia turned around to offer her cuffed hands to him.  He removed the handcuffs, but not before dropping his keys twice.  Nadia rubbed her wrists.  "Thanks."  Her tone became Arctic.  "For everything."  She walked over to Kaye and Ian.  "They were at AeroMexico."

"The flight's already left," Ian said.  "I did what I could, but when a flight is on time, it's going."

"Damnit!"

-**-

I'm still not sure what happened.  The necromancer's gone, that's for sure.  No idea who has him, but they definitely went to Mexico City.  I doubt that was the final destination, though.

That was the biggest display of stupidity I've seen.  No one checked ID, either at the police station or at the airport.  The necromancer is allowed to get on a plane.  And I have no idea who was behind it.  I didn't recognize either of the men.  They're not mages, though.  They would've known not to try tossing a spell at me when the connection was weak.  The wand, though.  That had potential to it.

-**-

Ian took over the driving chores on the way back to the hotel.  Once there, he and Nadia went their separate ways.  Ian went back out, wanting to catch a show at Excalibur.  Nadia went straight up to her room.  Demona opened her door as Nadia passed by.  "Hi."

Nadia worked up the energy for a feeble wave.  "Hi."

"Want to talk?"

"What did Ian or Kaye tell you?"

"Not much.  You just look like you need company."

Nadia arched an eyebrow.  "I do?"

"Okay, you look like you shouldn't be alone."

Nadia gave Demona a half smile.  "That sounds like me."

Demona stepped aside, holding her door open.  "You don't have to talk.  I can even order room service for us."

"I'd like that."  Nadia entered Demona's room.  She flopped down in one of the room's chairs.

Demona called the front desk, placing a dessert order in.  She then sat down on the bed.  "We did good today."

"You did good today.  I messed up."

"Nadia, we stopped an army of dead from killing people.  That sounds like a win to me."

Nadia clenched her right hand into a fist.  "It's a win for you.  Me?  I should have been more on the ball.  Instead, I've been one step behind ever since we got here.  I should've expected someone wanted to animate those John Does.  I should've expected that the necromancer wasn't going to stay in police custody."

"How?"  Demona crossed her legs underneath her.  "Okay, maybe I'm new at this, but dressing up dead men as Elvis to wreak havok isn't exactly something obvious.  And someone breaking the necromancer out of jail?  She had zombies."

"Animated dead," Nadia corrected.

"Fine, she had animated dead.  And all that noise about punishing Las Vegas.  That doesn't sound like someone who can work well with others."

"You're right.  It doesn't."  Nadia leaned back in her chair.  "And she was cuffed at the airport, so they weren't with her."  She closed her eyes.  "Which means there's someone else involved now."

"Someone else?  You mean demons?"

"Not here.  It's weird, but I think that security chief was telling the truth.  There's an agreement here to not screw things up for everyone."

"If not demons, then who?"

"Ultimately, it's people.  People summon demons.  People play with magic they don't understand.  People trying to get ahead without a care who gets hurt."

"You mentioned this to police before, but something like this sounds above your pay grade."  Demona smiled.  "Isn't that what the Chief is there to do, figure out what's causing the threats to humanity, then send us to fight them?"

Nadia smiled despite herself.  "You're decent."  The grin turned into a smirk.  "For a half-demon.  What did you order?"

"A whole chocolate cheesecake for us and a pint of draft beer for you."