Once Lilith and I were safely away from Frankenstein, I removed my new guise and returned to the more familiar, comfortable one. I didn't drive back to Alexei's place immediately, but instead, I wanted to make a pit stop to my own home first. I had a few ideas on how I could look for help with locating Sara, but I needed to get the necessary stuff from my place before that.

And it's not like I was in a hurry for once. Before Frankenstein finishes his research, I was stuck waiting even if I did find out where Sara was. Speaking of Frankenstein, I turned my attention to Lilith and asked, “So, Lilith, find anything useful back there?”

The reason why Lilith tagged along, and why she was so uncharacteristically quiet during the entire event, was because Alexei and I thought that she should be there to probe the minds of the people at the party. Being a Succubus, she had the distinct advantage to glimpse into the minds of the people around her, and I had hoped that she gained some insights on any kind of rumour regarding Sara.

“I can't read that Frankenstein at all.” She muttered, and I noticed her frown, “It's like that bastard isn't even alive. None of my charms worked either.”

“I thought as much.” I muttered, “Anything from the other guests?”

“Yeah,” She answered with a smile, “That first guy, Jason or whatever his name was, wanted to fuck me like you wouldn't believe. Do you want me to go into detail about what he thought?”

I shuddered, and immediately said, “No, please don't.”

“Pity. And he isn't even the worst of the bunch at that party. Even some of the women were pretty interested. Oh, and there was this one bald man, the one with the cocaine, who wanted to put-”

“Really. I think I'm fine with-not knowing.”

Lilith smirked, and said, “If you say so. Maybe I should take those gentlemen up on their offers. Show them what the true experience is always better than their little dreams.”

I knew that she was probably joking, but then again, she was the type of person to do what she wanted, and it wouldn't be the first time for her to indulge in someone else's fantasy's. Lilith has always been the more impulsive person, whimsical even, but not in the good way. If she wanted to do something, she'd damned well do it, no matter how messy that process may be.

I used to think that I knew Lilith well enough. We did have that pseudo-relationship back when I was still in Hell, and we've gone through our fair share of misadventures together. In fact, I thought that I knew her better than anyone else. I'm not so sure now though. After all, even I still couldn't figure out why she was willing to help me out to such an extent. I know that it was hard for her.

She had to really exert herself today. Reading that many people at once was not an easy task – an impossibility to most succubi – yet she didn't even complain when the plan was proposed to her. I can't even imagine how much mental strain that must have been for her. Normally, when I made Lilith do something she even remotely didn't agree with, I'd never hear the end of it from her. But now, she was joking around, and looking altogether happy. I didn't get it.

“Anyway, Mark.” She said as we pulled up to an intersection, “Drop me off here, I'm feeling hungry. I'll meet you back at Alexei's when I'm done.”

Ah, I didn't need to ask what she meant by that. I nodded, and opened the door for her. The second she stepped out of the vehicle, all eyes were on the gorgeous woman. I dreaded for anyone that caught her interest right now. Lilith when she's hungry is a sight to behold... The light turned green, and I drove off without looking at the succubus.

I got back to my own house at around 7:30pm. I hadn't been back here since Becca got her sword, and I could almost see the happy secretary bouncing around when I told her she could keep the thing. I didn't bother cleaning up after we had left, and the girl had left quite a mess. Don't worry Becca, I'll make sure you're around to clean it up after. Just wait a bit longer... I'll get you back.

I went upstairs to my make shift library, which is just a storage room filled with piles of old books really. The particular tome that I was looking for was an old grimore created sometime in the mid 1700's, a collection of various summoning methods, and in it should be the information that I need to start figuring out where Sara is.

My thought is that if she's out there doing some havoc to reality itself, and the Angels are unable to locate the girl's specific location, then I was going to summon someone who can help. My plan isn't to go for a demon or Angel, since those people are off keeping the sky from falling down, but rather, to someone more like Lady Hel. Someone who was both powerful, and who specialized in finding things. Well, I have no idea who's a good candidate to call upon to search for the girl, but the book that I was looking for lists a whole bunch of deities, and I'm sure that I can find someone who is remotely qualified to look for her.

After an hour of searching, I started to curse my own inability to keep anything organized or clear for that matter. After two hours I was flinging books left and right, and after the third hour, I was so annoyed that I wanted nothing more than to burn the whole stupid, unkept library down. It took five gruelling hours of looking through book after book after book after stupid book for me to finally find the damn thing. It was hidden in the bottom of a stack of boxes all filled with trash novels.

When I finally grabbed the leather bound book, I made a mental note to organize things in the future, and then another note to remind myself to not disregard mental notes. Yeah, that's probably never happening.

After making myself a cup of coffee – it was distinctly less tasty than when Becca made it – I sat down and started to flip through the pages of the book. I needed to find a being, probably a strong one given the fact that even a Seraphim failed at finding Sara, to help me locate the girl. I went through dozens of sections with descriptions of various deities, and decided that I would probably go with a god that specialized in hunting. After all, if anyone can find someone, it would be a god who's whole existence is defined by locating and catching prey. Unless there's a god that specialized in finding missing girls, that was probably the best that I can do.

I ignored some of the gods and goddesses that I didn't get along with – especially Apollo thanks to that one mistake I made – and after careful consideration, I narrowed down the amount of candidates to only two. Well, more like there were only two gods that don't hate my guts for one reason or another. It was either the Aztec god Mixcoatl, or the Egyptian goddess Neith. I wasn't personally acquainted with either of them, which was what I wanted, since they haven't known me long enough to hate me yet.

Either way, I wasn't going to decide right now. It's probably a good idea to have Alexei and Irina give their two cents on which deity I should go with. I tried to return the books that I had flung around back in the library neatly this time, but after I realized just how many books I had, I gave up. Instead, I shoved them all inside the room, and after making sure that nothing was going to collapse, I shoved the door closed. I'll clean it up later... probably.

It was getting really late, or early depending on how you want to view it, so I decided to wait until a reasonable hour before making my way to Alexei's. Although I don't really need sleep to function, I'm pretty sure that my friends do. I made some more coffee, and thought to spend the rest of the night watching old TV shows. But when sat down on my sofa, I realized that familiar warmth that had been beside me was missing. TV just didn't interest me at that moment. I grabbed the remote and turned the system off, and for the rest of that night, I just sat there staring into the blank screen, sipping on my cold coffee.

* * *

I must have dozed off at some point, because when I opened my eyes again, the sun was in full view. I was still in the same position, sitting there on my uncomfortable couch, with the coffee still resting in my hands. I sighed, and stretched my cramped muscles.

It was already past noon, and after I made myself a light breakfast/lunch, I changed into a new set of clothes, took my book and drove to Alexei's manor. The security already knew who I was at this point, and no one bothered to block my way. I strolled into my friend's manor, and after asking around, I found our that everyone was gathered in the garden. I made my way there, and was surprised to see that everyone was sitting together and having tea.

Lilith was back herself, looking mighty satisfied, and her, along with Hel, Alexei and Irina, were having a good time chatting. Irina was the first one to see me, and she greeted me and asked for a servant to get a cup for me as well. I declined her offer of tea, however, and instead told the four what my plans are for locating Sara.

I told them about the potential gods that I wanted to summon. Alexei and his bunch gave a lot of good candidates themselves, but I had to reject most of their suggestions. Let's just say that after I managed to really piss off Apollo that one time, he's done everything he can to make sure that my reputation with every god and goddess of the hunt to be as low as possible. I mean, seriously, that whole incident happened over a thousand years ago!

“By the way, Mark.” Alexei said, “What did you do to make that Apollo so angry?”

“He tried to get in his sister's pants.” Lilith answered for me. “It happened a while back when he was accidentally summoned by some Greek sorcerer.”

“How did you even meet a Greek goddess?” Irina added.

“I didn't meet her on purpose.” I muttered in response.

“He tried to hit on the goddess when she was in disguise.” Lilith remarked. She was definitely having a lot of fun retelling that particular story...

“How was I supposed to know that the servant girl was a goddess in disguise?”

“You tried to take advantage of a serving girl?” Hel asked, clearly amused.

“No!” I half shouted, “She was seriously flirting with me, I swear, that goddess is worse than Lilith in that regard.”

Lilith smerked when she heard that.

“And I can assume that after she turned you down, no offence my friend.” Alexei said, “That her brother was less than pleased to hear what happened to his beautiful sister.”

“No kidding...”

“You have to tell me the full story sometime!”

I was going to decline doing that, but Lilith agreed to Alexei's request before I could. I just signed and shook my head.

“Anyway,” I said, “shouldn't we go back on topic?”

“Right.” Irina said, “So which god or goddess should we try? Does anyone know what they're like?”

Lilith, Alexei and I shook our head to her question. However, Hel spoke up for once, “I say that we go for Mixcoatl. I am... acquainted with him.”

“You're acquainted with an Aztec god?” Alexei asked, clearly surprised. He doesn't know that Helen was actually a goddess herself, so I guess his confusion was due.

“It's a long story.” Hel replied, “But he will probably help us if I asked.”

“Then Mixcoatl it is!”

“Great,” Alexei said, “So what does your little book say about getting him to show up?”

“Let me check...”

I flipped through the book and found the dog eared page that I marked earlier. I read the instructions on the proper procedures, and I frowned. Then I thought about what I needed to actually do, and I frowned even harder. God, this is not like summoning demons. This will probably take a while. I told the four people around me what needed to be done, and they were just as thrilled to hear what needed to be done as I was.