“I kinda looked like a wanna-be Goth chick, or an unfortunate Persian girl in a Gothic romance who was wasting away from Tuberculosis. But that was alright. Oz had mentioned he wasn't human. He was probably into that sort of thing.”

“To Oz's credit, he didn't say anything, probably because he'd decided that trying to converse with someone so temperamental wasn't worth it.”

“Don't worry about it. He's just moody because it's been about nine months since he's gotten laid, and he thinks I'm going to get some tonight."I almost choked on the pancakes.Oz put his hand on his belly and looked down. "Don't make that face." He tried unsuccessfully to keep himself from laughing. "I know it's not happening. Besides, I don't you well enough yet. You could be scary."I forced the uncooperative bite of pancake down my throat. "You think I'm scary?" I squealed. "I hope you realize this is coming from the guy who said he wasn't human.”

“He just stared at me."Stop looking at me like that," I begged.Immediately he changed the angle at which he looked at me.I wanted to scream at him.”

“I actually really don't want to know," I admitted. "Up until a few seconds ago I had a lot of illusions about you being this incredible, sane guy and I'd like to keep them, but I'm not going to be satisfied until I do.""Fine then, I won't tell you."I planted my face in my palm and sighed. "It doesn't matter how crazy this is, I'm going to be thinking about it all night."He gave me a purely demonic grin. "Then I definitely won't tell you. "My eyes narrowed. "That's nothing to be proud of.""And why wouldn't I be proud of keeping a pretty girl up all night?" He chuckled and chewed on a French fry.My face and the back of my neck burned. He had to be joking. No one could say something so horrifying and then eat a French fry. Supernatural beings didn't like fast food, I was sure of it. This was all an elaborate hoax and I just hasn't picked up on it yet. It had to be, and even if it wasn't I would pretend it was. Pretend until it became true.”

“Oz suddenly looked very guilty. "About that. Um, that's because I marked you last night."My smile froze on my cheeks, making my face ache. "What?"He suddenly found the half-eaten pancakes on his plate fascinating. "While you were sleeping on the couch, I rolled you over and..."The blood left my face. "What exactly does marking someone entail?""Nothing so bad. I just bit your back.""You bit me?""Yeah. I injected some venom into your bloodstream that would make you feel better around me. I like holding your hand but I didn't think it was very practical."I lifted my shirt, pulled down my pants, and almost fell over. My lower back looked...it looked..."You gave me a festering tramp stamp?" I shrieked."You don't think it's cute?”

“The four of us were together at last--me, the angel, the devil, and my demon. I felt like the moment should have seemed more momentous, or at least more pleasant, like we should have made jokes as we meandered down to the beach, collected driftwood for a fire, and leisurely toasted marshmallows. Instead, I was struggling to keep my eyes open, the angel was looking at the ground, Oz was glaring at the trunk, and for some reason I just knew that Forneus, locked down and wrapped in a sheet, was glaring right back.”