What could have been a fulfilling study session was thwarted by the hands of a far greater power—the hypercharged hormones of a promiscuous teenager.

Zeke allowed Ugo to drag him out of the library and across the polished halls of Winterford High School like a child. So far, it was just a theory, but he had hope that maybe, just maybe, there was a good reason for the abduction.

“I swear if this is about a girl…” Zeke started, clenching his doctor’s bag in one hand.

Ugo stopped and shot a flinty stare at Zeke. “Come on, mano.” His gaze intensified. “Of course, this is about a girl.”

Silence took over.

Ugo read off Zeke’s deadpan look, which prompted him to elaborate, “Dude, this is the story you will share at our wedding.” He gushed, swaying slightly, already naming his future kids in his head. “I’m taking you to meet your future sister-in-law!”

Zeke groaned and rubbed his forehead. He surrendered without the will to argue and asked his tall, pasty stepbrother, “Who’s the girl this time? Janie? Ashley? Mary—?”

“A brand new girl, mano,” said Ugo.

Zeke could’ve gone on naming girls for almost five minutes if he wasn’t interrupted. He passed a hand over his slicked-back curls. “In December?”

“Yeah! The beauty of it all is that she literally doesn’t know anybody,” said Ugo, stifling his laugh. “She hasn’t had the chance to talk to any of the girls in this school yet. Score!”

A clean slate, Zeke thought to himself, eyeing Ugo as he nodded. He was somewhat happy about his brother’s blessed opportunity. “So, what do I have to do with this?”

“I mentioned you a lot in our conversation. It wasn’t intentional, but talking about you kept our chat alive, and I may have hyped you up.”

“What does that mean?”

“And now she wants to meet you,” Ugo uttered with slight annoyance. “Look, I need you to be my wingman,” he blurted.

“I don’t know anything about being a wingman,” Zeke lamented, wanting so badly just to return to his serene study session.

Ugo waved his hand. “All you need to do is make me look good and liven her up—“

“And what the hell does that mean?”

“Oh, come on, mano. Just do some cold doctor-shiz, I dunno. Ooh! She has been complaining about some back pains. Just fix that!”

“What am I a wizard?”

Ugo’s expression twisted smugly. “Well…”

“Don’t answer that.” Zeke sighed, accepting that the deviant wouldn’t let him go unless he aided in his newest quest for love. “Where is she?” he asked lifelessly.

“I left her at the courtyard.” Ugo swung his arm over his head, promising adventure. “Come on, let’s go.” He hurried off.

Zeke dawdled along.

The boys stepped out of the school building. The open air welcomed them back with biting winds. Zeke sniffed a couple of times, holding back his sneeze. Ironically, Winterberry wasn’t a city that saw much snow during the wintry season. And, as long as there’s no snow, Winterberry officials have no problem letting kids freeze to death or slip onto broken necks on school grounds.

Halfway down the steps to the courtyard, the boys halted and stared at a flock of not just students, but teachers and other school staff—all of whom were men. The sight was like the prelude to a fight breaking out. Still, instead of two fuming teenagers in the center giving their best Eastwood stare down at each other, a gorgeous senior was seated on the bench.

The attractive girl was graced with sunkissed skin that retained its lively glow even in the dry cold and straight, long light brown hair that stylists would kill to have their way with.

As Zeke walked down the steps with Ugo, he scanned the courtyard, and girls stood across the yard observing the scene with twisted expressions, a mix of hate and jealousy.

“What the hell?” Ugo kicked the dustbin to his side as they reached the end of the steps. “I left her alone for like, three minutes.”

Even with most of the view obstructed by a wall of fellows, just enough of the girl’s gorgeous face was visible to Zeke for him to remain fixed on it. “Wow, she is… crazy attractive,” Zeke said, turning to Ugo. “Are you sure she was talking to you?”

“I didn’t imagine it…” Ugo looked off to the side. “Or did I? Oh, crap.”

Zeke hissed and grabbed his chest. “Ugh, I feel something in my chest and…” he looked down and then made a face. “And somewhere else.”

Ugo flung a fist at Zeke’s chest. “Don’t you fall in love with her now. I saw her first!”

Zeke analyzed the mesmerized crowd of testosterone, notably the beefy jocks. He recognized some faces, a select group of five, with one of them way more handsome than the rest. “Ah, Raylan and his group are there. Yeah, it’s over. There is nothing you can do here.”

The spiky-haired baseball star made his way toward the girl and sat next to her, showcasing his million-dollar smile.

“We can fight them again,” Ugo suggested. “We will destroy them for sure this time.”

Zeke gave him a look, knowing full well Ugo would use magic if he agreed with him. “There’s no need to fight them. Let’s just go—”

The lithe girl slipped from the masses and approached the brothers. “Ugo, you’re back, and you brought along Zeke.”

The pair gazed dumbfounded at their fellow sultry student. The horde of heaving boys and middle-aged men huddled behind her, shoving amongst each other.

She wore a woolen sweater and a pair of blue jeans. The girl’s beauty was frighteningly more apparent up close, mystical even as if she escaped from an exotic, magical island. There was no way she was from Indiana. Forget from out-of-town; she looked like she was from out-of-planet.

She stretched her hand out towards Zeke. “Nice to meet you, Zeke.”

Zeke raised his hand, but a twinge in his chest compelled him to stop.

The girl tilted her head to the side, concentrating on him with her deep hazel eyes. “Something wrong?”

Zeke grunted. The feeling hit again. The girl stepped forward, and he stepped back accordingly, pulling his hand down this time and pocketing it into his distasteful patterned pants.

The girl frowned. “I’m sorry, I’m confused. Is there something I did wrong?”

“Yo, what the hell, you friggin’ Mexican!” a teacher screamed from the crowd, riling up the rest of the admirers.

“Hey, leave him alone!” Ugo shouted back in protest. “It’s okay…” He turned back to Zeke. “I’ll be the one to kill him!”

“Mora?”

Ugo grabbed him by the collar and pulled him close. “What do you think you’re doing making Jill angry like that?”

“Uh… something is going on with her,” Zeke whispered to Ugo and then snuck a glance at her. “Can’t you feel it…?”

“What is it that you feel, Tenth-Born?” Jill said.

Zeke gaped at Jill. “What did you call me?”

Ugo let go of Zeke, and his look mirrored his brother’s.

Jill made a wolfish grin, baring her teeth as her fangs elongated, and her eyes turned scarlet red. “No need to fight against your impulses. Act on them; you are human after all.”

Zeke took another look at Jill’s mesmerized army behind her. He narrowed his eyes, his heart was racing, and his brain began to fill with intrusive thoughts. A deep, primal urge was trying to take over. He fought against it with everything he had.

Jill licked her lips and reached for Ugo’s chin—he was long gone. “Surrender,” she said.

“Okay,” Ugo obeyed.

“That’s a good boy—”

Out of nowhere, her jaw locked in place. She staggered back as the color in her eyes reverted to hazel, and after the exhale of one short breath, she was on the ground clutching her chest.

Zeke ran to her and was stopped by Raylan, who planted his firm palm on his chest. “What do you think you’re doing? This isn’t the time to play doctor, freak.”

“Who here is playing doctor?” Zeke said to him with a dead serious look.

Ugo pushed Raylan. “Get off him!”

Zeke neared Ugo with a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. “It’s time to use that curtain spell you learned.”

Ugo nodded and wasted no time. He made quick hand signs, with the last being one where he kept his fingers curled downward.

The young, mystic surgeon maintained the sign as he grabbed the air—a blue, see-through screen curtain materialized. Ugo pulled the curtain, and it circled and closed around the three of them. The noise of the fracas was cut in its entirety.

Zeke looked past the curtain, and everybody on the outside was carrying on, paying no more attention to them. He gave Ugo a smile, congratulating him on the spell's effectiveness. “Vesklepios!” Zeke called as he turned to Jill,

“Rutapexy Samhita!” Ugo called.

The boys’ Healer’s Garbs cladded them, preparing them for the paranormal medical procedure. Zeke dropped his doctor’s bag and straightened his long, forest green coat.

Ugo inspected his electric blue mummified getup and black robe covering one shoulder. His spiky bleached hair with black roots matched poorly with his mystical garbs.

They kneeled to their patient. Her beautiful face was warped in pain.

“Wait, so we’re going to save her even though she’s clearly a monster…?” Ugo asked.

“Yes,” Zeke answered while examining Jill.

Ugo’s face lit up. “So, you believe there’s a chance! I knew you believed in my love life.”

“That’s not why! Whatever this thing is, it was sent to kill you and me, so we need to find out who sent it. We save it and then take it back to Providence to question it.” Zeke grabbed onto Jill’s wrist and pulled it away from her chest. “I’m going to need to take a look.” He pressed his hands together and focused. He quickly made a couple of hand signs—awareness, energy, absolute—and then pushed his hands together again. As he pulled them apart, a stream of green energy formed between his hands, stretching the further away his hands pulled from each other. He hovered the stream horizontally over Jill’s face, and the front top of her skull became visible. Zeke slowly moved his hands down, ignoring images of her skeletal anatomy until he reached her chest cavity.

Her heart was encased inside a demon.

The fiend was a boney star-shaped creature with a cruel face. It smiled back at Zeke through the X-ray spell. Knowing that it had been seen didn’t seem concerned with the fact.

The demon was shrinking, compressing the heart as it fought to continue to pump blood.

“What is that thing?” Zeke asked.

“Izrastellum,” Ugo answered with certainty. “I remember seeing it in a book I read at the library a month ago.” He stopped, and his eyes started to do a little dance as he sorted out the clutter in his remarkable memory and picked out the info he needed. Ugo’s eyes fixed back on Zeke in an instant. “It’s an intermediate, multicellular demon, but I'm sure we can take it out with an exorcism.”

With their studying and practice, they were more than prepared for an exorcism. Zeke looked down at the demon. “We have to remove the heart first, then.”

“What? Why?”

“If Jill’s a demon, then we don’t want to risk exorcizing her, too. We need answers. Ugo, this is on you.”

“Alright, boss.” Ugo held out his hand in a beggar’s gesture, and his swathed blue surgical knife appeared. “Making a thoracic incision,” he announced, holding the blade up, and then there was a flash of electric blue.

Jill’s clothing was split down the middle, and her chest was cleaved open. The boys were unalarmed by the black goo that oozed out of her innards. Zeke raised his gloved hands, and the veins and arteries reached out from the wrists of his Healers Garb and wrapped around his hands. More blood vessels popped out and twisted around his hands until they doubled in size. Zeke opened the cavity in Jill’s chest even further with his enhanced hands.

He saw the heart and the gray star-shaped demon that surrounded it.

Zeke pulled his hands back and gave Ugo a look. “Do it.”

“Making a circular incision.” Ugo raised his knife, inhaled, and exhaled deeply. He moved his hand in a quick circular motion, leaving an electric trail around the heart, and the major arteries were severed cleanly. Zeke reached into Jill’s chest, cupped the organ and demon in his massive hands, and gently picked it up.

“Ugo, get some chalk and Aba’s book out of my bag for me and turn to page 73 for the exorcism prayer.”

“You haven’t memorized that yet?” Ugo jeered.

“Mora!”

“Alright on it,” Ugo said, dashing to Zeke’s bag.

Zeke walked away from Jill, scowling down at the chuckling demon in his venous hands.

Ugo made it to him with the book opened on the requested page, and the two crouched down. Ugo quickly drew a magic circle on the ground with one hand, using the chalk. As soon as he finished the pentagram, Zeke placed his enhanced hands down on the magic circle and detached himself from them, leaving an accursed heart lying on a bundle of veins and arteries.

Zeke took the book and exchanged a look with Ugo. They held out one hand with an open palm and began the Latin incantation in unison. Zeke followed the words in the book, while Ugo did it from memory.

The magic circle lit up, and the demon screamed in its hellish tongue as it began to burn, exuding black smoke. Throughout the chant, Zeke snuck a look back at Jill and her body was twisting horrifically, splattering her black blood everywhere.

Zeke and Ugo intensified the incantation, raising the power in their voices. The demon expanded and writhed until it ignited with bright holy flames and vanished. The heart remained intact.

Zeke dropped the book and pushed his hands back into the bundle of blood vessels, like re-equipping gauntlets, and ran back to Jill. “Ugo, prepare the suture spell.” He placed the heart back into place and moved away.

Ugo held his hand out to the side, contorted, and locked it into a strange shape. A black needle holder conjured in his hand, clasping a small needle with a single long blue thread hanging off the end.

Zeke watched Ugo in delight as he used the needle magic to reattach the vessels back to the heart. The red and blue bundle that enveloped his hands retracted. He slipped a flat hand under the heart, placed his other on its surface, and began squeezing the organ.

The heart started to contract and expand against Zeke’s palms.

“And look at that, you resuscitated a heart,” Ugo said.

“Just like we practiced, huh?” Zeke said, gently pulling his hands away. “Close her up, Mora.”

Ugo moved the needle in and out of the wound with grace, pulling her chest back together with controlled movements. He sutured the cavity closed, leaving a barely visible scar lined down her chest, and then did the same for her sweater. He stood up and made the surgical instruments vanish and then shared a fist bump with Zeke.

Zeke looked down at Jill. “Now, how long do you think it’ll take for her to wake—”

Jill woke up with her hand over her chest. Her eyes became scarlet red once again. “I’m alive…” she said in disbelief and then looked up at the two. “You are good. Master will be pleased with this result.” She stood up.

“Whoa, whoa, not so fast!” Zeke shouted, and then stopped, wondering what medical reason there would be for a demon wearing a meatsuit to rest after a cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“Sorry, but I need to be elsewhere.” She shoved Zeke to the side and ran past the transparent curtain, making the whole spell fall apart.

Zeke and Ugo quickly called off their Healer’s Garb as eyes around the courtyard fell back on them. Zeke grabbed his grandmother’s book off the ground, stuffed it back into the doctor’s bag, and went after Jill alongside Ugo.

###

The boys chased Jill through the streets, and startled pedestrians jumped out of their way, making it so that Jill and her pursuers didn’t have to worry about slowing down. They dashed across the road forcing some angry drivers to screech to a stop.

They cut their way into an alleyway.

The running figure was getting blurry in Zeke’s vision. “Stop!” he shrieked.

Fortunately for the boys, she actually did.

Zeke and Ugo stopped, almost tumbling over their own weight.

“Oh, gracias a Dios!” Ugo exclaimed. He pushed his hands into his back and arched backward. “I can feel my heart beating in my back.”

Zeke, winded, squinted at Ugo, and he looked to be as close to the brink of death as he was. The difference in physical activity without the Healer’s Garb equipped was jarring.

“Who sent you?” Zeke managed to get out in a breathless voice.

Jill moved up to the two, relieving Zeke, who was a couple of kilometers away from slipping into a coma.

“You’ll find out soon, I promise,” said Jill maintaining an ardent eye at Zeke. “I just need to check with him first.”

Ugo pushed Zeke’s head away and forced upfront eye contact with Jill. “What are you?” he asked.

Jill studied Ugo and bit her lower lip. “Shame. I was hoping to have some fun with you before we had to resort to that.” She brushed his shoulder. “Orders were for me to go as far as I deemed necessary.”

Ugo, entranced, reached out for her as she walked backward, fixed back at them with a lascivious look. Then, crushing bones sounded as Jill twisted her body a bit.

A pair of bat-like wings tore out from her lower back and stretched to either side of her hips. Long, black bones lined the top of the wings with a protruding claw off the end. The wing's skin was scarlet red and had tears here and there. Her skin, alongside her hair and her scarlet red eyes, seemed to get darker as her fangs became sharper. The transformation culminated with red horns sprouting from either side of her head.

She squatted and gave them a wink right before she took to the sky in a powerful blast of wind.

The gale got rid of the sweat Zeke managed to break in the middle of winter.

He received a swift slap across the cheek as he turned to Ugo, almost knocking him over.

“Ezequias, idiota!” Ugo exclaimed like he was one of Zeke’s middle-aged uncles. “That was a succubus! You should’ve let her do whatever it was she wanted to do to me! I should’ve never gone to get you…”

Zeke stared blankly with his hand over his cheek. “Are you serious right now?”

“Dead serious.”

As Ugo stormed off, grumbling to himself. Zeke looked up, watched the demoness glide through the white clouded sky, and then began to wonder.

“So, who wants to kill Ugo?”