Demon Angel

been soundproofed, even against hearing as acute as hers, and his psychic blocks were impenetrable.
    Oh, well. She had other ways of finding out information about the nosferatu.
    "Hey, Dr. C! Dr. Castleford!"
    Hugh tested the padlock to make certain his bike was secure, then looked up, squinting against the bright morning sun. Jason Willis jogged toward him, holding his neon orange board shorts up at the waist, his book bag swinging against his hip.
    "Dr. C. What's… up?" Too winded to say more, he dropped his bag to the ground. It landed with a solid thump. His freckles had been nearly lost amidst a deep tan, and Hugh wondered where he'd managed to take in so much sun since the last time he'd seen him.
    Hugh glanced at the sky. "I was just thinking that gouty legs make fine barometers, after all." Accustomed to the look Jason gave him—at one time or another, almost all of his students stared at him with similar expressions on their faces—he paid it no mind and unbuckled his pack from the bike frame. Slinging it over his shoulder, he nodded toward Jason's overstuffed bag. "My office hours are in ten minutes, but I won't make you carry it back to the Humanities building. I haven't seen you in class lately."
    "Yeah, well, that's what I was coming to see you about." Worrying the beaded leather thong around his neck, he explained, "My mom lost her job, and I've been working odd hours at the video store; that's why I've been gone a lot. But my schedule's worked out, so I wanted to make sure I could still catch up."
    The kid was a terrible liar.
    Hugh sat down on a bench, slipped off the elastic he'd used to keep his pant leg from catching the bike chain, and considered his options. Though he no longer had his Gift, centuries of being able to feel truth, to force it, had left him with the ability to read it in the most accomplished of liars. Jason, though he clearly wanted Hugh to believe what he'd said, was barely an amateur in comparison to the demons he'd known.
    But pressing Jason for the reason behind the lie wouldn't serve a useful purpose; no matter the cause of the absences, if he thought he could make up the work, Hugh wouldn't prevent him from doing so.
    He wouldn't make it easy for him, though. "You still have your syllabus?"
    Jason nodded, clearly relieved by Hugh's response.
    "Catch up within two weeks; and by the end of the semester I want two extra journals. Next week's paper should be on time."
    "I will." With a mixture of chagrin and relief, he hiked up his shorts again and leaned over to grab his bag. "Thanks, Dr. C."
    He wouldn't be feeling quite so grateful once he realized how much work he'd have to do over the next two weeks. "My pleasure," Hugh said, and waited until Jason backed up a step before adding, "In the future, when you decide to take a vacation in the middle of the term, you'd do well to e-mail your professors first."
    "Oh, man." His blush at odds with his grin, Jason began walking backward. "Did Ian tell you?"
    Hugh shook his head. "I haven't been to Auntie's in a month or so."
    "You gonna be there tomorrow?"
    "Yes." After Savi's outburst that morning, it seemed the best way to mollify both women. Auntie would appreciate the visit, and Savi could hardly call him withdrawn if he sought the company available at the restaurant.
    "Where tomorrow?" A tall blonde sidled up to Jason. Tanned, athletic; Hugh would wager anything it hadn't just been surfing that had pulled Jason from classes. They shared a long, deep kiss, and Hugh grinned as he finished unrolling his cuff.
    Had he ever been that young?
    "We were talking about playing DemonSlayer at Auntie's," Jason told her after she released him.
    "That card game you tried to teach me?"
    Jason turned to Hugh. "I couldn't teach her."
    "I like the video game, but the other…" She flashed a brilliant smile. "I always get to the succubus card and want to try out the powers myself."
    Hugh should have been used to it by then. He watched them saunter off, arms around each others' waists, and experienced a second of chronological vertigo.
    It wasn't the frank sexuality of the modern era that unsteadied him, but the lack of shame that accompanied it. How different it was from the rigid moralizing he'd known as a boy; and later, from what he'd observed on Earth through the centuries. But now he saw everywhere what he'd only regularly seen in Caelum… and Lilith, who had been shameless in all things.
    It had always been one of her most admirable—and