Shannon O'Reilly was bullied and everything his older sister wasn't. When his sister Sarah gives him a chance to change things through a single wish things don't go as planned.     I Wish: Book 5 Chapter 21 Go to Hell By Amethyst

We spent Christmas at home as a family. Jennifer’s parents had invited us to join them for Christmas dinner as we had for Thanksgiving, but Sarah told them maybe next year. She said that she didn’t want to intrude since it wouldn’t just be her and me this time now that Annie and our cousins were living with us, and that we wanted to spend the holiday getting settled into the new house.

The reason that she didn’t mention was, of course, Rebecca. We didn’t want to leave her in the big new house alone for the holiday and we didn’t want to risk having anyone see her with us until we could ‘find’ her after getting back from Heil and officially bring her into our home. The whole reason that we had brought her here from Tír na nÓg was so that she wouldn’t have to spend the holidays alone or with people that she barely knew.

We spent most of the morning just spending time together and hanging out, and Elsaishe had a strange request for me and Rebecca that took up part of the morning as well. My Fae cousin wanted us to change to our Succubus forms so she could make molds of our tails. Not the whole tails, just the spaded tips and a little bit of the tail beyond them. We went along with it and just chilled and talked as the molds set before reverting back to our normal forms.

That evening, Sarah and I made a nice Christmas dinner for all of us, and to my surprise; Rebecca offered to help as well. I guess that it was something that she used to help her mother with, which made her fairly emotional during the whole process, but she didn’t once consider leaving the kitchen to do something else. She was actually pretty good in the kitchen and it was nice to see her trying to be part of the family like that. Sarah was right; I worried too much about her.

We didn’t exchange gifts yet since the plan was for everybody to do that at the cabin before we left for Heil. Instead, we just spent time together after dinner, playing board games and talking about the hypothetical future where we all survived Heil and Rebecca would be living with us. It didn’t escape my attention how interested Elsaishe seemed to be in my fellow pseudo-Succubus; how she would get tongue-tied sometimes, or look away while blushing after saying something a bit too eagerly.

I hoped that they both survived and could explore their feelings for one another because as they got to know one another over the past few days, I could see Rebecca becoming smitten as well. Not that she was sure what to do about it. She had never really had anyone interested in her that way, but with her new body and being back on our version of Earth, she was probably going to have to get used to it.

The brief oasis of quiet and happiness passed as we slept and the next day everyone was tense and nervous as the others arrived at the house after lunch and we prepared to teleport to the cabin. Talisha looked like she hadn’t slept at all the night before when we were all gathered in the living room and ready to go. “I should come with all of you. I can use Ziralin’s old bow,” she said nervously as she looked over our grim faces.

Sarah shook her head and gave our Faery cousin a look of sympathy. “Tali, we talked about this. Someone needs to stay here in case something happens, and you’re the logical candidate. You can’t leave your store for a week while we deal with this, and if we don’t come back, then we’ll need you to warn the Faery in Tír na nÓg that we weren’t able to stop the Demons. Besides, if Annie and I don’t come back then Shannon, Ellie, and Rebecca are going to need you. I trust you to take care of all of them, just like you would Ellie.”

Talisha sighed, and there were tears in her eyes, but she nodded. “Come back. All of you,” she said simply, her voice hitching.

After some emotional goodbyes and promises to do our best to do that, Sarah cast the spell that would transport all of us, and our belongings to the cabin. The cabin was cold when we appeared in the living room and Jennifer immediately set about starting a fire to warm it up a bit, as we all got comfortable and gathered our gifts to exchange. She used her elemental control in her Celestial form to save time, but none of us were going to complain about that.

As the cabin warmed up, we all sat down to exchange gifts. It was mostly little personal trinkets, some clothes (especially in Rebecca’s case), and the occasional joke gift that lightened the mood. The most notable gifts that I had gotten were a blank Book of Shadows from Sarah since I had never gotten around to getting one for myself yet, a silver pendant that Ziralin made with two entwined hearts, and Jennifer got me a big white stereotypical witch’s hat with a pale blue ribbon around the base as a joke gift.

Elsaishe had made everyone but me and Rebecca a silver ring with a small spike that could be used to scratch or puncture any Demons that got too close for comfort. That was when Becca and I found out what my cousin had needed molds of our tails for. For a moment, Becca and I both stared at what looked like spearheads in confusion. They were made of silver, hollow, and had a lethally sharp edge to them from her ability to manipulate metal.

Seeing our confusion, Ellie offered, “You said that your tails are really flexible and can be used for weapons, so I… uhh… thought that we could weaponize them further against Demons since you’re not hurt by silver and they are. See the springy bits inside? You can just slip your tail inside when you need it and then the springs will lock it in place. They should just come right off when you return to human forms and your tails shrink and retract.”

Annie grinned at the young Fae across the table. “That’s nasty, I like it.”

“Yeah, that’s brilliant, and it’ll give Shannon and Rebecca an edge in a fight,” Lisa added with a sage nod.

We all groaned at the pun, but Rebecca and I did change forms briefly to test our new weapons. They worked exactly as Ellie had hoped and when we shifted back to human forms they just fell right off. Once I picked mine up off the floor and placed it back on the table, I wrapped Ellie up in a hug. “Thanks, Cuz, these should be a big help. Hopefully, nobody decides to try to cut off our tails, but they would regenerate and they’re flexible enough that we might be able to use the blades to deflect attacks as well.”

I sat back down beside Ziralin and snuggled close as Sarah cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “I guess that we should discuss our plan of action then. I’m going to suggest that we wait to leave until tomorrow morning. Tonight we can all get a good night’s sleep and have an early breakfast so we can be at our best when we leave. Sadly, I think most of the information that we have on Heil, the Demon King, and his Generals is thousands of years out of date, except for what little we know about Khinara.”

“Khinara has probably been getting weaker every day since I removed her tongue,” I pointed out. “Xuriel said that since I was wearing platinum on my hand when I yanked it off, it won’t grow back. Neither will the arms I blew off with holy magick. She can’t feed without her tongue to suck on people’s brain juice. She was strained when she used magick to take our plane to Heil. She’s likely gone from the strongest of the Generals to one of the weakest, if some other Demon hasn’t already killed her and taken that position by now.”

“I have a feeling that she’s still alive and waiting for us,” Mason interjected with a frown.

“The element of surprise could mean a lot against these generals, the quicker that we can take each of them down, the better,” Jennifer said thoughtfully. “I don’t like us not having any information to go on though.”

“Shannon and I could do some scouting as Succubae,” Becca suggested.

It was pretty obvious that nobody around the table liked that idea. It was Michelle who turned it down though. “Khinara might still be able to sense Shannon, which would take away the element of surprise when we do hit them. And we are not sending you on your own; I don’t want my best friend going alone into the depths of Hell.”

“I’ve got an idea,” Annie announced after a few minutes of silence. As soon as we arrive, we’ll all hide in one of our bunkers and Rebecca and Shannon can quickly get the lay of the land and bring back a weak Demon to interrogate. The problem is that most Demons probably won’t buckle under torture, they’d keep quiet just to spite us.”

“Uh… who needs torture?” Becca asked, looking genuinely confused. “We just need to make sure that it’s a male Demon. With Shannon and me asking the questions in our Succubus forms we’d have him wrapped around our little fingers.”

We all stared at our newest addition for a moment in shocked realization. “That… could probably work,” Ziralin said pensively beside me. “It gives me the willies thinking about it, but it could work.”

“Desperate times, desperate measures,” I said with a groan and shuddering at the thought of debasing myself like that. “It sounds like a plan.”

With that decided, we made dinner and then started preparing our gear for the next morning. We all had our portable bunkers stocked with food and supplies, just in case, and the sheets that served as their entrances tucked safely inside one of the pockets of our Demon hunting clothes. Sarah had made one for Rebecca as well, in case she got separated from us for some reason.

The Celestials among us were each given a share of the okka crystals that I had filled with magick energy in Nhekar. They would need them if they were going to be fighting in Heil for long. Other than that, everyone had a gun that we were comfortable with as a holdout weapon, a pouch filled with my special anti-Demon ammunition, and what Sarah called our bug-out bracelets.

The bracelets were simple silver affairs made by Talisha, with a small shard of okka crystal embedded, and engraved with the Celestial spell runes for a spell that would take us back to the coordinates for our new home in Toronto if the wearer spoke the trigger word. Basically, it was a concentrated single-person planar translocation spell and Sarah had infused each bracelet with not only the spell itself, but enough magick energy to fuel it by having Talisha embed the okka crystal shards. The best part was that they would be reusable since the okka shards would start passively absorbing magick energy again until full once drained by the spell.

The others would be wearing their Demon hunting outfits that had been enchanted with protection spells and to keep them comfortable in any weather, of course, but Rebecca and I couldn’t. Becca didn’t have anything like that since she was new to the group, and I couldn’t use mine if I wanted to be able to use my Succubus form since the corset dress wouldn’t be able to accommodate my wings, and my cloak would have gotten in the way. With that in mind, we had to improvise and I placed the same spells on our clothes as were on my former Demon hunting outfit.

I kept to my White Witch theme, though my new look was, by necessity, fairly revealing. White yoga pants that barely covered my butt, and would allow my tail to come free without damaging anything, were paired with a form-fitting white sleeveless halter top that would do the same for my wings. I wore similarly suitable undergarments underneath and added the boots and face shield from my original White Witch outfit.

Instead of the gloves that I would normally wear on our world to keep from leaving any fingerprints; I wore the platinum handflowers that Yanisse had made for me for a bit of extra punch against Demons. I also had a belt with some pouches on it containing magick bullets, my new tail blade, my bunker entrance, and the holstered Desert Eagle Mark XIX that I had used in Nhekar for my holdout weapon. I topped the whole thing off with my new large-brimmed white witch’s hat, which could be tied securely under my chin with attached ribbons.

For Rebecca, we used yoga pants like mine, but in a solid grey, and a grey hoodie with slits cut in the back for her wings, over top similar undergarments as mine. We had a spare face shield that I used magick to turn grey for her to match her other clothes, as well as a pair of sneakers and fingerless gloves that wouldn’t get damaged when her claws emerged. She also had the shotgun that she had used in Nhekar and a belt similar to mine with pouches for her tail blade, bunker entrance, and ammunition for the shotgun.

With preparations made for the next morning, we all tried to go to sleep early, knowing that we should rest while we could with what lay ahead of us. I was worried that Sarah, Lisa, and I would have to break out the sleep spells, but most of us seemed to fall asleep without too much trouble. Most of us were awake on our own before dawn, and after a quick and hearty breakfast of oatmeal, we were ready to leave.

Well, most of us were ready. Rebecca looked like she hadn’t slept very well after all and had a serious case of bedhead as she finished her breakfast. “You know, Beks,” I casually taunted, “Succubus powers or no, you might want to brush your hair if you want to seduce a Demon today.”

She responded by quickly patting down her hair into something less, ‘just woke up’ and sticking out her tongue at me before adding for good measure, “Go to Hell, Succu-bitch.” Yeah, she was tired and snarky, but the barest smirk on her face told me that it was just our usual taunt-jousting.

“That’s the plan,” I retorted with far more cheer than I actually felt. The truth was that I was nervous as hell, and I was pretty sure that I wasn’t alone in that. A few moments later, Sarah called us all outside to let us know that the gate spell was ready and we were on our way.