“Okay, okay, we’ll go, we’ll go.” Albaer said and put his hand over the one of Lialah’s which touched his bicep. She squeezed, and when she pulled her hand back again, he gave them one last look, Lialah had a tiny tremble barely showing in her fingers, and Raziel had subtly taken a small, subtle step forward that he had failed to notice until just then, putting herself just a little ahead of her sister as if to protect her.

He gave them both a reassuring smile, “Forget what I said.” He told them, “It’s just my experience has been a bad one and I was projecting that on you… There’s just one thing you need to do and you’ll be fine. You’re both disguised as very pretty girls, that will put you up near the top of the hierarchy right at the start.” Albaer gave a pleasant, encouraging chuckle that came past his closed mouth with a little quirky smile to match.

He then opened the door and held it to allow Raziel and Lialah to pass him by before he shut and locked the door behind him. It was sealed with a click, he noisily jiggled the knob, nodded with satisfaction when the door didn’t open, then put away the key and walked to where his erstwhile roommates stood waiting and watching him with quiet expectation.

“So, what’s this one thing?” Raziel finally asked when they were several minutes walk from Albaer’s home.

“Simple,” he said with a shrug, “pretend you loathe me. Maybe pretend to... pick on me a little bit, I’ll play along, and then your year here will be okay at the least.”

Both angel and succubus traded long looks of utter dismay, eyes widened in both shapely faces. “Not gonna happen.” Raziel said and spat onto the sidewalk.

“Really, it’s all right, you’ve got to understand, high school is full of ingroups and outgroups, the popular kids, the loners, and then you’ve got…” He shrugged and tried to smile only to give up and face away from them, “I won’t put up with things anymore… but if you want to make things better for yourselves instead of harder, I’ll go with it for now and take one for the team.”

“No.” Lialah answered with defiance in her steady sky blue eyes.

He could feel them drilling into the back of his head.

But he no longer chose to argue, “Anyway, so when we get there, just follow me, I’ll have to take you into the administrative office first and get you registered for classes. And if you change your mind… no hard feelings, just give me a wink and I’ll play along.”

Neither Lialah nor Raziel said a word, and close as they were, when Lialah caught sight of her sister, even Lialah could not read what was written across the face of the succubus. But for her part, she had only one thought. ‘That’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.’ Her heart tore in two, but she kept her face absolutely neutral lest he turn around to speak to them, and instead moved on in subject.

“Will it be difficult to get started?” She asked with faux cheer in her voice.

“No, not really, we’ve got a decent cover story, but we might have to fake some paperwork later, nobody will look too closely as long as you’re from a long way away, and…” He looked over his shoulder and smirked at them, a sparkle danced in his deep brown eyes, “there’s not much farther away from where you two came from, short of Heaven or Hell.”

He barked with laughter at his poor joke, and they laughed with him, silvery voices drawing eyes toward them from those who were on foot and going about their business in the early morning hours.

When he realized he was being watched, Albaer lost his step for a moment, nearly tripping over his own two feet and stumbling toward the pale concrete of the sidewalk. The beginnings of mocking guffaws from other boys heading in the same directions themselves began, and before he could stumble halfway over, Albear’s sense of utter shame burned like the surface of the sun, sweat sprang to his skin, ‘How long till I stink like I haven’t showered…?’ Shame atop shame promised a spiral of disgust for himself in his guts that might have gone on to the very doors of the school, except for one curious thing that stopped it all cold.

“Watch yourself!” Two voices rose up at his back, and faster than he believed possible, firm holds took him, a hand from each grabbed his shoulders and drew him upright again, and drew themselves closer so that they were obviously with him.

The eyes that were locked on Albaer’s pending humiliation turned instead to reappraise the illusion clad Lialah and Raziel, as teenage boys were prone to doing.

“Were you planning on running off ahead of us?” Raziel laughed to cover the moment, “You won’t get away that easy!” She traipsed in front of him and did a quick pirouette that would have made any skilled dancer proud. “I’m as quick on my feet as you are, I promise you!”

Catching her drift, Albaer injected, “Yeah, sure you are, sure you are. Heh, we’ll have to race again sometime and see how you hold up.”

The moment was gone, the rush of heat to his skin and his fears of the things that lay ahead, all vanished like they’d never happened, and with that they walked along in amiable quiet for the last few minutes of the journey to school.

The morning was a comfortable one, if trending toward autumn, a light breeze blew and ran through Albaer’s sandy hair to caress his scalp, the brief heat he felt before was lightly blown away, and when they reached the open gate between the stone walls that secured the school he stopped and turned around. Albaer forgot at that moment what he was going to say, the breeze caught the golden strands of Lialah, and the inky dark strands of Raziel, and carried them past their bodies to dance wild and free.

Raziel’s horns, her red eyes, her crimson skin and sharp claws… the wings of both women, all gone… and it was only in that moment that he realized, ‘My god… they’re beautiful…’

Everything about them seemed so different, Raziel struck what could only be called a ‘power stance’ with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face, feet shoulder width apart, while her sister Lialah stood with quiet reserve, her eyes casting about and taking everything in. Whereas Raziel was focused and intent, her sister was broad in her attention giving, ‘I wonder if that made them more compatible for magic use?’ The thought came and went as he was absorbed in his fresh look at them in their disguised state.

‘It’s not real, they’re not humans, this is only an illusion.’ He reminded himself, and said, “Here we are.” He turned to one side to avoid obscuring their view and gestured to his school. “Checkfeld High, my school and…” He glanced around, the grounds were empty, the others had all gone in, “my private Hell.”

Raziel gave it a long look, ‘It looks more like a fortress than a school… a guard at the front door, and thanks to video games I know that’s a gun he’s got there… big stone walls, a lockable gate, everything made of red brick… a lot nicer than where we used to learn. At least to look at.’ She thought, and followed Albaer to the entrance.