Naomi and Cutler walked beside her in silence, listening, looking. It wasn’t the beautiful nature that had brought them out bright and early this Friday morning, especially not Cutler. He rarely woke up before noon, let alone dawn. No, they were here on a Mayhem job. Their mission: to locate and slay a pack of wolf-like beasts. For the past of couple weeks, the pack had been terrorizing hikers in these woods. They killed the adults and abducted the children, probably bringing them back to their dens to feed to their young.

The victims had all been human, poor people defenseless against the monsters. The Magic Council had hired Mayhem to kill the beasts, an attempt to smooth over the rapidly deteriorating peace.

The problem was these wolves weren’t your everyday, run-of-the-mill monsters. They had two forms. The first was the savage wolf-like form: big snapping jaws, raking claws, and a howl that could frighten the dead from their resting places. Basically, your typical nightmarish monster. Their other form was cute, hopping bunnies. With big floppy ears and buck-toothed grins. Well, at least if the only witness who’d escaped with his life could be believed.

Whether they found bunnies or wolves, the order was for a full extermination. And they were doing this in the early morning because that’s when these creatures were weakest—at least according to the collective speculative wisdom of Mayhem’s disposal department. The truth was they didn’t know a thing about these creatures or where they had come from. Scary monsters, lack of background info…yeah, it was basically like most Mayhem jobs. Naomi had gotten back last week, so it was just like old times—with the addition of Cutler.

“Why did Simmons put Cutler in charge of this mission?” Naomi asked. “That’s like letting a six-year-old free in a candy store.”

“I’m right here, you know, Naomi,” Cutler said.

“I didn’t fail to notice.”

Cutler’s mouth twitched. He didn’t look upset. More like amused.

“Simmons said something about him being the most responsible of the three of us,” Sera said.

“Well, you did hightail to Europe for like a month, Naomi,” Cutler pointed out.

“Oh, I know why he didn’t put me in charge,” she replied, then looked at Sera. “But why not you? Either the head of Mayhem has a wicked sense of humor, or he trusts your judgment even less than he does Cutler’s. Now that’s a scary thought.”

“I guess I’m supposed to be offended, but I find myself wholly unable to give a damn.”

Naomi snorted.

“I’m not a leader,” Sera continued. “Everyone knows that. I’m just a solution you throw at big supernatural messes.”

“Like a big bottle of bug spray,” said Naomi.

“The biggest. With bright warning labels pasted all over it. ‘Warning! Unleash at your own peril!’.”

Cutler glanced over at her, his eyes shining with genuine amusement. “You two are a hoot. We should play together more often.”

“I think you mean work together,” Naomi said.

He grinned. “That too.” He wiped his hand across his forehead. “Today is going to be hot.”

Since Sera believed he actually was referring to the weather this time, she replied, “Yeah, it’s hardly past dawn and it’s scorching.” She looked at Naomi. “Is it this hot in hell?”

“Hotter.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Why do you think the people there all go around half-naked?”

Sera laughed. “Ah, so that explains your boyfriend.”

Naomi winked at her.

“Naomi has a boyfriend?” asked Cutler.

Of course he’d comment on that, whereas he hadn’t even blinked at the mention of Naomi visiting hell. He knew all about those things as part of his role as a Knight of the Occult, an ancient order sworn to protect the world from supernatural threats. Hell, unsurprisingly, held a lot of supernatural threats.

“Yes, she does.” Sera grinned at him. “Feeling left out?”

“Perhaps.” His face was oddly serious, oddly reflective. “Naomi has sown more wild oats than I have. If she’s finally settled down, maybe it’s a sign.”

“That you should be in a committed relationship for once?” said Naomi.

The seriousness melted off his face. “Nah, that the end of the world is near.”

They all laughed. Cutler was kind of an odd man. On the one hand, he hit on everyone—and he wasn’t subtle about it. He came from an ancient magic dynasty, one of the most important in the world, and he had all the personality quirks of one of its young, privileged members: powerful magic, arrogance about that magic, frivolousness, laziness, an open air of self-entitlement.

But he was also a dedicated member of the Knights of the Occult, serious, professional, hard-working. After he’d revealed that he was a knight, Sera had thought that the frivolous Cutler had just been an act. But it wasn’t. Not really. It was as though he were two people, two contradicting personalities that shouldn’t have existed inside of one man, but somehow they did. He was professional and frivolous, hard-working and lazy. The sheer contradiction of his personality must have been downright exhausting for him, and yet he was always full of energy. The world held many mysteries, and Cutler was one of them.

“And you, Sera?” he asked. “Still sticking with Drachenburg? Or would you like a taste of how we do things on this side of the Atlantic?” He wiggled his blond eyebrows at her.