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her as he put his hand up.
    “Sync with what?” she asked when only she was holding out an f-light.
    “I don’t actually need a device like an f-light, detective dear. I can operate without it, “ he told her. He put his hand up to her fairy-magic light and suddenly she felt a tingle and saw sparkles of magical data flowing from the palm of Mephistopheles’ hand into her device. The tingle started in the hand that held the f-light and slowly moved up her arm and to her face, ending at her lips. She couldn’t help it. She licked them. As soon as she did, the tingle headed way down south, reminding her that she hadn’t gotten past a first date in a long time. Mephistopheles, who watched her lick her lips and then go wide-eyed, stared into her eyes as he ended the transmission spell. The low light of his office had dilated her pupils so that her gray-green eyes looked black. For the second time, his look was so intense that she couldn’t seem to make herself break it. This just had to be glamour.
    “Thanks, uhm” she paused as if not sure what she was going to say, not really sure what she was thanking him for, exactly, and completely freaked out that he was able to transfer data without an f-light. She had never seen that before.
    “I’ve been called many names. But you can call me Phil,” he smiled at her slyly. “After all, we’ve already shared so much.”
     
    On leaving Monster-Mate, the two detectives decided to head out on foot to the crime scene for a look in full daylight. Back out on the street, Cal finally worked up his nerve. “So, Tony, what the hell was all that?”
    “All what?” she shrugged casually, but didn’t meet his eyes.
    “Oh no ya don’t. Don’t even try that with me, sister. All” Cal waved his arms and a couple of passing pedestrians changed course and walked away from the sight of an ogre flailing his arms, “ of THAT, back there, with demon-boy.”
    “Cal, he’s got to be, like, a couple of thousand years old at least. So demon-boy?” she smirked. “Probably not. Demon-great, great to the nth power granddaddy, more like.”
    “Really? Now I’m just kinda queasy.”
    “What?”
    “If I hadn’t been in the room, I shudder to think how complicated this investigation would have gotten about five minutes ago.” He paused and tried to lighten his voice to mimic Mephistopheles, which so didn’t work, “We’ve already shared so much...” Cal looked down at her. “What the hell did that mean? What did you share? And by the way, for someone who hates all the crap that goes with dating, you looked like you were ready to jump on board that train!”
    “I was...what?” she quit giggling from Cal’s attempt at mimicry, stopping dead in the street and turning to Cal, “I was trying to get information necessary to the investigation, Calvin Kelly. Period. End of discussion. It worked.”
    She turned and started walking again, leaving Cal behind her for a moment, his jaw dropped. More pedestrians coming their way turned and changed direction. Open-mouthed ogres didn’t tend to attract spectators. Not sane ones, anyway. Cal clapped his jaw shut, causing yet another migration of passers-by to another route. He caught up to Tony in a couple of oversized strides.
    “Since when do you wallow in denial?”
    “What the hell are you talking about?”
    “Check your f-light.”
    Tony gave him a confused look.
    “Betchya 20 bucks that you have Lilith’s profile, her contact spectra, and good ole Phil’s contact spectra, too.”
    Tony gave him a contemptuous look as she pulled up her f-light and found Lilith’s profile, her contact spectra, and something else. “Hah! I do not, in fact, have Mephistopheles’ contact spectra.”
    Cal shook his head, “ But...”
    Tony stood looking at him for a moment and then caved. “But I do have a message.”
    “Which is?”
    “Well,... a little unrepeatable. And...quite hard to picture. Without some visual aids. Lots of ‘em. Maybe an