“Hey, stop!” Asa said, pushing himself to his feet.

  Asa’s demon’s body had wounds littered all across his back and sides from similar bite wounds. Asa’s heart clenched. After all, the demon had fought for Asa, not for himself, even if the demon did have an ulterior motive. Asa ran to where Mouse’s demon held his demon hostage, even as PQ-9 beeped frantically at Asa from his neck.

  “Stay away,” Asa’s demon called. “It’s dangerous for humans.”

  “It’s dangerous for you too,” Asa retorted and then grabbed Mouse’s demon’s neck, pressing on their throat, to try to force them to drop Asa’s demon. It was like gripping a tree trunk: thick, immovable, rooted to the ground. Adrenaline rushed through Asa’s body as he realized that Mouse’s demon wasn’t going to move. Demons killed each other all the time. The bond was new, but Asa would still feel the impact in his soul. Bonds grew like seedlings in nutrient-dense soil—once the bond was deeply entrenched, it was difficult for either party to recover after death.

  Asa’s hands started to feel warm, which was strange because Mouse’s demon’s fur was covered in white, clinging hoarfrost. Asa had only seen snow in pictures. Asa’s hands slowly sunk into the demon, just a little deeper, and then a little more, and then more—

  “Hey!” Mouse said sharply, rushing over to yank at Asa’s wrists. “Get your hands off of them!”

  Asa tried to lift his hands, but they were stuck—just as they had been before in the inter-dimensional space pocket.

  “You can’t steal them, they’re their own being!” Mouse said hotly. “It’s bad manners!”

  “Oh, it’s bad manners to steal something important to someone?” Asa said harshly. “I had no idea.”

  “Shut up,” Mouse said, her face bright red from exertion, pulling even harder at Asa’s hands. PQ-9 scolded Mouse, and her face screwed up in distress. “You’re just a little toaster, what do you know?” she said, but her mouth trembled. “You need to let go right now!“

  “You never answered me,” Asa said, his hands sinking further into the demon’s body. The process of being drawn into the demon against his will felt disturbingly familiar, his hands burning as they moved closer to the center of the demon’s soul. It was like a space ship being shoved by gravity into a planet’s atmosphere, catching fire all the way down. “Why do you want my collar so bad anyway? There’s easier stuff you could pawn for money.”

  Mouse didn’t answer, still pulling uselessly at Asa’s arms, breathing so hard that Asa was starting to think she would pass out if she didn’t stop.

  “Give me my collar back, and I’ll stop,” Asa bargained, even though he wasn’t sure that he could. He wasn’t even sure why this was happening—hadn’t he already soul-bonded to a demon? He shouldn’t have room for another, he shouldn’t be able to absorb another demon’s heart jewel.

  Mouse’s gaze darted between her demon and Asa, her brows furrowed, her mouth in a jagged and furious line. But still, she didn’t give up his collar. Frustration bubble up inside Asa, impotent and intense—that was his collar, not hers, and she had no business holding onto it.

  Asa pushed his hands further into the demon’s chest, leaning his weight into the resistance of the demon’s soul, and the demon’s jaws released Asa’s demon onto the ground and then they screamed.

  “Okay!” Mouse shouted. “Okay, okay, just stop!” She wrenched the collar from her inter-dimensional space pocket, which was situated right behind her hip, an invisible slash in reality. Mouse shoved the collar in Asa’s face, her face angry but tears streaming down her cheeks. “Have it,” she said harshly. “But let them go. They don’t want to be your demon.”

  Asa suddenly found that he could pull his hands away from Mouse's demon now that he was in proximity with the collar. He snatched the collar from Mouse’s hands and slid it onto his neck, hooking the clasp with shaking fingers. Relief flooded his body as soon as he felt the cool weight of the collar against his skin again, his mother’s protection spells settling against his body.

  Asa’s demon was collapsed onto the ground, shrunken into his small form, breathing shallowly. His eyes were closed, and his little antennae waved feebly. Asa scooped him up into the crook of his arm and cradled him to his chest. The demon radiated unnatural heat, which only grew worse in proximity to Asa chest and the demon contract that had tattooed itself there.

  Mouse tucked her face into her demon, her shoulders shaking, her body curling into itself. She was crying.

  Asa sighed. He should just walk away. He wasn’t even in his own time-line. PQ-9 needed to charge, his demon needed rest, she had fucking stolen hist most precious possession from him—this girl wasn’t his problem at all. But she was also just a kid.

  Asa rubbed his hand through his hair, which destabilized PQ-9. PQ-9 beeped in protest as Asa turned toward her, kicking himself for feeling sorry for this girl that had stolen from him. “Where are your parents?” Asa said quietly.

  “I don’t have any,” Mouse said, her voice muffled by her demon’s fur.

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  “Where do you live?” Asa pressed, but Mouse didn’t answer. “Don’t you want to go home?” Mouse shook her head emphatically. “Do you need money? Is that why you wanted the collar?”

  “For the last time, I wasn’t going to sell it!” Mouse said, her head shooting up to glare at him, as if Asa was an idiot. Tear tracks stained her face, even as she furiously wiped her sleeve across her cheeks. “It has super special ultra cool magical power!”

  Asa snorted. “Yeah, right,” he said, rolling his eyes. Sure, the collar had protection spells—really strong spells, even, because they were performed by his mother—but so did half the Station to protect its infrastructure during the alarms. “I can’t believe I was starting to feel sorry for you.” He turned, wincing when he saw the damage that the battle between demons had caused the downtown area of the Station. People were gawking, taking photos, and it probably wouldn’t be long before SAD arrived.

  Asa should leave before that happened.

  “I’m not lying!” Mouse said, indignant. “You have a demon contract, can’t you feel the energy?”

  “What would you know about demon contracts?” Asa said, tightening his arm around his demon as he started to walk back the way he had come. PQ-9 trilled in approval that they were finally leaving. “Just because you have one demon doesn’t make you an expert.”

  “I don’t have a contract,” Mouse said, sounding deeply offended. “We’re friends.” Mouse’s voice sounded closer than it should. He glanced behind himself to see that Mouse was following him. Her demon…friend had disappeared, presumably to a pocket dimension to lick their wounds and heal.

  “Oh, you’re friends huh,” Asa said, skeptical. “Demons don’t have friends. They just have energetic food sources.”

  “How would you know?” Mouse argued.

  “Do you know how many demons the Vermilion House is contracted with?” Asa said, walking down Moonstone Street to exit the Pearl District. “I was the Head Apprentice for Madame Katusha, and she was in charge of handling all the contracts.”

  Asa remembered the first time he had seen Madame Katusha activate an initial contract with a new novice apprentice who was only twelve years old–when she broke the contract that night, Asa had never seen her again. No one had seen her again. She was eaten by the demon whole: only bloodstains were left on the bed-sheets.

  “Maybe because humans are rude,” Mouse said insistently.

  “Yeah, they are,” Asa said pointedly. “Sometimes they steal from you and then try to follow you home. Why don’t you go to wherever you live and leave me alone?”

  This was what Asa got for trying to be nice. It probably just felt like an invitation for the kid to try to steal his necklace again.

  “I already told you–” Mouse started to say, her voice rising, when another voice interrupted.

  “Who the hells are you?”

  The voice sounded as familiar as his own. Asa started to frown, turning around in slow motion to see that it was Rose—except it was another version of Rose. This Rose had close-cropped magenta hair, when Asa’s Rose had a hairstyle that was short in the front and long in the back. Asa’s Rose liked to wear tightly fitted tank tops with a high collar—all the better to show off his contract tattoos. But this Rose wore a loose black sweatshirt with a hood, which covered the entirety of his skin

  Rose had one eyebrow raised, his arms crossed, his stance wide and aggressive. “I said: who the hells are you and what are you doing in my territory?”

  Asa huffed out a breath, squeezing his eyes shut tightly before reopening them. “I’m no one,” he said, trying to smile innocently. “I was just leaving.”

  “To where?” Rose said, his tone forceful. “The Station is small, and ships can’t leave tonight.” Asa had forgotten about the 24-hour moratorium on allowing ships to dock or leave after a demon alarm. Rose cocked his head. “You’re not trying to skip time-lines, are you?” Rose said.

  “And what if I was?” Asa said, starting to run out of patience. “What’s it to you?”

  “You just caused a huge blow-up in my territory and now you want to leave without paying for the damages?” Rose said, his eyebrows rising higher. “Everyone saw you and that girl on the holo.”

  “Well, if she had just given back what she stole from me, it wouldn’t have gotten to that point!” Asa said defensively, clutching the demon closer. He hadn’t woken up at all. Asa would have to ask PQ-9 to scan the demon for health if he didn’t wake up soon.

  "It shouldn’t have gotten to that point anyway,” Rose said, and it was the same lecture tone that Asa’s own Rose liked to use on him. Asa ground his teeth in frustration. “Someone really could have gotten hurt.” Rose transferred his intense green gaze to Mouse. “What did you steal, kid?” Rose said.

  “Hey!” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “You just believe him?”

  “I notice you’re not denying it,” Rose said dryly. He looked Asa up and down, before his eyes settled on Asa’s collar. “You’re from the House?’

  Asa put a hand on his collar protectively because he could see where this was going—the Golden Seal Syndicate was going to demand payment from the House, and then it was going to get really messy really quickly.

  “Look,” Asa started. “I’m not from here, I don’t think there’s any point in involving the House—”

  “I think we should let the House decide that,” Rose said, more cheerfully than his Rose ever would. He whistled, a piercing sound, and then several people appeared suddenly from where they had been loitering out of sight. They all possessed full-sized laser guns. PQ-9 made a small sound of dismay. Asa recognized all of them as Rose’s subordinates. Ugh. His mother was going to kill him.

  Mouse pulled out her own tiny pink laser gun.

  Rose smiled. Asa had totally forgotten how much it brightened his whole face. “I don’t think so, kid,” he said, casually waving his own laser gun in their direction. “Come on,” he said brightly. “Let’s pay a visit to the Madame.”

  “She’s going to be mad we’re just dropping in on her,” Luna warned, who Asa recognized as Rose’s second-in-command.

  Rose shrugged. “Then she shouldn’t have let one of her people do so much damage in my place of work,” he said, his bright smile turning into a sharp smirk. This looked more familiar to Asa: Rose was about to do something audacious. He turned to Asa. “After you,” he said, smirking wider. His subordinates closed in on Asa and Mouse, and even Mouse seemed to realize she was outnumbered at this point.

  Luna roughly grabbed Asa’s upper arm, jostling the demon in Asa’s arms. “Hey, watch it, he’s hurt,” Asa snapped, even as PQ-9 hid in Asa’s neck, the metal cool against Asa’s skin.

  “This is a demon,” Luna said, as if Asa was being an idiot. “They heal.”

  Asa frowned, looking down at the demon, because—he had felt that way too. But the demon had gotten hurt defending him. Just because demons were hard to kill, it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt when they were wounded. Asa sent the demon more of his energy, and the demon sucked it up like like a Station greenhouse flower.

  Luna gripped Asa’s arm harder to jerk him forward, and all of them walked the very familiar route to the Vermilion House.

  [Timeline: 002]