On the road again, you and your...friend?

Whatever Angela’s fate will be, she’s human for now. You can’t abandon her; you’re no better than those...things if you do.

The young woman is almost dead weight in your arms. Judging by her fluttering eyelids and her cool flesh, Maria must have been draining her, like she’d done to her husband. Was that all she’d done?

You drag your cohort into the alley, still hefting the axe in case the demons in front of the store come around to cut you off. At the end of the musty run, you peer around the corner to see an auto shop next door to you. Perfect! Wheels are just what you need right now!

A quick tug of the front door knob reveals the shop is locked. As quickly as can be managed, you pull the stumbling Angela against the brick wall and ready your weapon against the offending portal.

WHAM! WHAM! Two strikes are all that’s needed to smash the knob away. You seize Angela by the arm (hoping that was a sigh of weariness she just uttered) and yank her inside.

Frantically, you inspect the shop lobby and waiting room for vehicle keys. Angela slumps over the counter, her dangling hand brushing against a set of keys hanging just behind the overhang.

The jingling sound gets your attention. You smirk as the keys are snatched up. “Good job, kiddo,” you chuckle. She weakly looks up and manages a grin back.

You **** her to her feet and shoulder block the interior door open. You’re sure silent alarms are going off, but screw the cops. You’ve got worse pursuers to worry about.

Inside the repair bay, you strike paydirt. The red-and-white tow truck is old and rusty, but still serviceable, one of those styles with the single light bar and the old-fashioned boom arm with hook. The keys you have work just fine, and you unlock the driver’s side door.

Angela doesn’t seem to have the strength to round the truck, so you guide her in across the cab. While she strains to pull herself in, you frantically ransack the garage, loading the rear storage bins of the tow truck with extra cans of gas and a spare toolkit. Overhead, you notice an automatic opening mechanism on the garage door, and figure there must be a remote inside the cab. You’re just about to throw your axe behind the bench seat when a heavy thump on the building’s roof makes your blood run cold.

“It’s...them...” Angela gasps out.

“Shit!” You heave yourself into the driver’s seat, twisting the ignition and frantically looking for the gearshift and door opener. You end up turning the yellow overhead light bar on, along with the headlights, before finally triggering the right button.

The metal slats creak upwards into the ceiling like a mechanical portcullis, revealing not only the dirt and asphalt beneath the night sky, but two demons right outside.

“Hang on!” you yell, as you floor the pedal and rocket from the bay. The succubus fails to react quickly enough, and finds her lovely body smashed by the grill and crushed beneath your six wheels. The top of the crane arm catches the partially raised door on the way out, crumpling away the center and jamming the mechanism.

You have much more pressing problems right now, though; specifically, the incubus that jumped away from your exodus, and has landed atop the tow arm.

You swerve the wheel left and right, hoping to shake him as he digs thick claws into the metal for purchase.

“Angela,” you shout, “you’ve gotta take the wheel!” She wearily nods as she grasps the leather circle, while you reach back for your axe. The window is already down, making your heave out difficult, but assessable.

The incubus hisses at your lean from the safety of the cab. “Hi, dickhead!” he spits, grinding his thick erection against the stout metal. “Nice axe. Do ya swing both ways, too?!”

His errant claw swipe comes up empty, as Angela’s current state aids your dodge by unintentionally weaving the truck against him. Your foot barely holds the gas pedal as you reach back with the axe, swinging it vertically into the back end of the bed.

“Ooh, bad aim, meat!” the demon taunts.

“If I was aiming for you, yeah,” you gasp out. “But I wasn’t!”

His face betrays confusion, both before and after you twist the handle and pull on the arm control handles currently wedged around your axe. Your weapon falls away into the road as the boom drops like an executioner’s sword into the truck bed.

The flailing demon grasps at the appendage, succeeding only in impaling his chest upon the jagged hook. The tow arm bounces limply against the bed, dragging both the hook and the demon along the tarmac behind you in a bloody, sparking mess.

The sex demon’s shrill screams deafen you as you slink back into the cab, taking the reins as you veer the vehicle to whip him into a convenient bridge pillar at roadside. He takes the hook and part of the tow chain with him in his futile attempt to hold on, snapping them with a sharp din as his form splatters across the landscape. You wish you could believe he's down for good, but your gut tells you otherwise.

You finally breathe a sigh of relief as you continue your flight. It’s short-lived, however, once you see Angela. Her skin is a pale pallor, and quite clammy to the touch. She seems to hover in a state of semi-sleep, punctuated with soft groans, like an erotic R.E.M.

Maria had to know what her kiss would do to Angela. She spoke with such dead certainty, sounded so convincing that Angela would join them. Did she really know, intrinsically know by her nature, or was it all a cruel bluff? What about Angela’s health? Was it a sign of infection, the result of having her soul partially drained, or maybe both? There’s almost no way to be sure, until it’s too late to do anything.

“Angela, listen to me carefully,” you rasp out, fearful of what you may have to do. “From now on, I need you to be completely honest with me. I need to know if you’re feeling sicker, or aroused, or have any strange thoughts, anything like that. I won’t leave you now, but if you start to change, I’ll have to...um, I’ll...”

Her eyes are puffy with tears. “Kill...me?”

You **** back the revulsion. “If it means saving your soul, yes, I will. That’s a last resort, I promise. I’m going to get us far away from here, and I’ll try to find someone who can help you.”

“I...under...stand.” She doesn’t say anything for a good half hour after that. You feel your anger rising, furious at this damnable virus and its spawn that ruined both your lives and may have destroyed this innocent young woman. You grip the wheel tightly with rage; you’ll find a way to fight hellfire with fire, you swear it!

Just as you’re crossing the county line, with just over an hour before sunrise, Angela groggily stirs beside you. She grasps your leg with frigid fingers. “Hey...I need...I need...”