Maya drove like her life depended on it, which it probably did. Elena sat in the passenger seat trying to call contacts from her supernatural network while Maya's phone kept going to her mother's voicemail. Every time she heard that cheerful recorded greeting with the haunting music in the background, Maya pressed harder on the gas pedal.
"Anything?" Maya asked as Elena hung up from another call.
"Three of my sources have gone dark. The others are reporting mass disappearances across the city—people just walking away from their jobs, their families, their lives." Elena's voice was tight with fear. "Malphas isn't waiting twenty-four hours. He's already started."
They pulled into Maya's childhood neighborhood just as the sun was setting. The streets that should have been busy with evening commuters were eerily quiet. A few people stood motionless on street corners, all of them staring in the same direction—toward Maya's mother's house.
"Mom," Maya whispered, abandoning the car in the middle of the street and running toward the familiar blue house with white shutters. The front door stood wide open.
Inside, Maya found her mother sitting at the kitchen table, perfectly still. Linda Chen had always been a vibrant woman—constantly moving, talking, cooking something delicious. Seeing her frozen in place like a living statue was more terrifying than any supernatural encounter Maya had faced yet.
"Mom?" Maya approached cautiously. "Mom, can you hear me?"
Linda's eyes tracked to Maya's face, and for a moment they were completely normal—warm brown eyes filled with love and concern. Then they shifted to black, and when Linda spoke, it wasn't her voice.
"Hello, darling daughter," Malphas said through Linda's lips. "Right on time."
Maya stumbled backward. "Let her go."
"Oh, but we're having such interesting conversations, your mother and I. Did you know she's been worried about you for months? All those nights you wouldn't answer her calls, all those times she drove by your apartment and saw the lights on at 3 AM." Linda's face smiled, but the expression was all wrong. "She loves you so much, Maya. It would be such a shame if something happened to her because of your stubbornness."
Elena appeared in the doorway behind Maya, holding something that looked like a combination of compass and crystal ball. "Maya, we need to leave. Now. This whole house is saturated with demonic energy—he's been working on your mother for weeks."
"Weeks?" Maya stared at her possessed mother in horror.
"The moment you first connected with Catherine through that game, I began preparing contingencies." Malphas made Linda stand up with movements that were too fluid, too graceful for her human body. "Your mother was so receptive. All that worry about her daughter, all that love with nowhere to go. It was easy to slip in through her dreams and start... adjusting her thought patterns."
Maya felt like she was going to be sick. Every ignored phone call, every cancelled dinner, every time she'd been too obsessed with the game to visit—Malphas had been there, feeding on her mother's worry and transforming it into something he could use.
"What do you want?" Maya demanded.
"The same thing I've always wanted. You. But I've decided to modify the terms of our agreement." Linda's head tilted at an unnatural angle. "You see, studying your bloodline from a distance has been quite educational. Your family's connection to Guardian spirits isn't just defensive—it's evolutionary."
"What does that mean?" Elena asked, her mystical device beeping rapidly.
"It means, dear Elena, that beings like Maya aren't just immune to demonic corruption—they can transform it. Turn parasites into saints, demons into angels, evil into good." Malphas laughed through Linda's throat. "Imagine what I could accomplish with that kind of power. I could become something unprecedented—a demon who corrupts through purification instead of temptation."
Maya felt the suppressed Guardian stirring weakly in the back of her mind. Even bound and weakened, it was trying to warn her about something important.
"You're lying," Maya said slowly. "If I could really do that, why would you need me to come willingly? Why not just take me?"
Linda's black eyes glittered with amusement. "Because, clever girl, forced transformation works both ways. If you don't choose to use your power, it defaults to its original purpose—complete annihilation of demonic entities. Including me."
Elena's device started screaming like an alarm. "Maya, something's wrong. The energy readings are off the charts."
That's when Maya realized what the Guardian had been trying to tell her. The reason Malphas was here in person instead of sending another parasite. The reason he'd possessed her mother instead of making a remote offer.
"You're not trying to make a deal," Maya said, understanding flooding through her. "You're trying to escape."
Linda's smile faltered for the first time. "Excuse me?"
"Someone's hunting you. Someone powerful enough that a Duke of Hell is hiding in suburban kitchens instead of ruling from his dimension." Maya took a step forward, feeling her bloodline power stirring. "Who's after you, Malphas?"
"That is none of your concern."
"Actually, it is. Because whoever they are, they're the reason you need me. Not to study my bloodline, not to corrupt Guardian families—to protect you from something even worse."
The temperature in the room dropped so dramatically that ice began forming on the windows. When Malphas spoke again through Linda's lips, his voice carried the weight of genuine terror.
"His name is Asmodeus. The true Devil. The King of All Demons." Linda's body began to shake. "He's been systematically destroying every demon who's ever made unauthorized deals with humans. I am the last of the Duke-level entities still free."
Maya felt like the world had shifted again. "Asmodeus is real?"
"Real and very, very angry about demons like me operating without his permission. He'll be here within days, Maya. When he arrives, he won't just kill me—he'll sterilize this entire dimension of supernatural influence. No more Guardian spirits, no more benevolent entities, no more protective magic for families like yours."
Elena grabbed Maya's arm. "Maya, whatever you're thinking—"
"I'm thinking," Maya said, her voice steady despite the chaos in her mind, "that we're about to meet the actual Devil himself. And according to the original game lore..." She looked at her mother's possessed face with new understanding. "Asmodeus and Lucien Morningstar are the same person."
Linda's black eyes went wide with shock.
"You know him," Maya continued, pieces clicking together. "The 'Lucien' I fell in love with in the game—that wasn't Catherine's fake personality. That was Asmodeus himself, somehow bleeding through into the digital realm."
Malphas tried to speak through Linda's lips, but no sound came out.
Maya smiled, feeling her bloodline power flaring to life despite the binding spells. "Which means the King of All Demons has been courting me for months without knowing it. And he's about to show up expecting to find a rogue Duke to punish."
She looked at Elena, whose face had gone pale with comprehension.
"Instead, he's going to find the human woman he's been accidentally falling in love with."
Outside, thunder rolled across the clear evening sky, and Maya could swear she heard the sound of massive wings approaching from the east.