Chapter Text
The commuter bus coasted to a stop alongside a colorful urban park in the heart of downtown Seattle. Its doors hissed open discharging a handful of people crazy enough to think commuting an hour and a half one way was worth their time. They hustled away from the park and to the neighboring high rises, its cheerful demeanor unacknowledged by the weary mob.
If they had been paying the least bit of attention, they would have noticed that the park’s usual pigeons and scavenger seagulls had gone missing. The crows were still there, though they seemed to have grown larger than was ordinary.
The oblivious crowd of walking commuters, weary night custodians headed toward their beds, street folk, and bleary eyed baristas all missed the darker clouds covering Seattle that day.
What were clouds to Seattle, afterall?
The lifelong residents joked they had over a hundred phrases to describe rain, and fifty more to describe clouds, but they only had one word for the sun.
If they gave a thought to the clouds at all, it was to silently remind themselves to grab the hoodie they kept in their bottom desk drawer.
By the end of the day, the residents would learn very quickly to watch the world around them.
——————
One month later
Mik hopped off of her bus, noting that she was the only one to get off at this stop. There used to be a dozen or more people that would jostle her in their hurry to get to work, but it seems they took the option to leave.
She snorted lightly as she walked through the quiet streets. There wasn’t enough money in the world to get her to leave.
She loved this city in all its moods, but she especially loved it at dawn. The filtered sunlight slowly seeped through the clouds of the marine layer, brightening the steep streets and softening the sharp angles of their interconnecting chaos.
In the grand scheme of things, Seattle was an infant of a major metropolitan city. Barely more than 150 years old, it lacked the heaviness of time that older cities like Boston, Philadelphia, or New Haven carried. And the aged grandeur of ancient cities like Cairo, Beijing, or Athens? Forget it.
However, Seattle was a character in its own story. Due to the topography, a giant city destroying fire, and knack for adapting to every possible economic condition, Seattle was a quiet force of nature. Its architecture swung from Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern, and Contemporary, and all points between. Tucked between glass high-rises of the tech companies and the glossy upscale retail shops are old family barber shops, tailors, and teriyaki shops.
Mik loved every inch of it.
She couldn’t think of a better city to handle the coming upheaval.
Turning onto Westlake Avenue, she stepped carefully around a sleeping homeless person, making sure to not disturb them. I wonder if they’ve been given the option, yet? she thought.
She walked down the lively street, enjoying the slowly waking city. The streetcar lumbered by on its tracks, its bell sounding strangely sullen. The walking crowd started growing the closer she got to her office. Her company was ground zero of the coming change, and any coworkers of hers that chose to leave would be the last to go.
Mik left the crowd on the sidewalk and cut into an alley that would act as a shortcut to her office building on the next block. She never feared the alleys like other people tended to do. This close to Seattle’s crowded tech hub in South Lake Union, the worst a person may come across was a rat or a seagull in the bar’s dumpster.
Today, however, Mik saw a man leaning against the bar’s brick wall, one booted foot propped against the wall. He was tall, lean, with dark skin and a shock of white hair. His jeans were well-made and tight, and his black t-shirt emphasized the muscles in his torso. She pretended to ignore him as she walked closer, and he smirked, a dimple flashing in his cheek. He cupped a hand with several gold rings to his face and lit a cigarette.
He took a drag, and blew it out, his shocking blue eyes never leaving her.
She was startled to see a glow of gold in his iris. She couldn’t help the small “Oh!” that escaped her. He chuckled.
“Am I your first?” he purred, his voice warm with amusement.
Shocked, she stopped suddenly. “My first?” she asked, confused. On any other day, she would have scolded herself for talking to a stranger in an empty alley, but something about this man drew her in.
He flicked his cigarette onto the ground and pushed off the wall. He casually walked toward her, grinding the cigarette into the ground as he approached. He stopped about five feet away from her, and slid his hands into his pockets. He leaned his upper body closer to her.
“Your first demon,” he clarified, his smirk shifting into a mocking smile.
Standing this close to him, she could see the subtle differences that made his otherness more apparent. Besides his beautiful blue and gold eyes, he was tall, at least 6’2”; his limbs were just a little too long, his features a little too sharp. He was breathtakingly beautiful, and judging by the arch of his eyebrow as he looked at her, he knew it, too.
Instinctively knowing not to give an inch to the man in front of her, she hooked her thumbs into the straps of her backpack and cocked her hip. “You are the first demon I’ve seen in person, yes. But since I work for the company TLCC has just taken over, I assume you won’t be the only demon I meet.”
He stood straight up, seemingly amused by her answer. “Sure,” he grinned, flashing his sharp canine teeth. “But I’ll always be yer first.” He cocked his head, eyes glinting. “What’s yer name, human?”
“Why?” she teased. She glanced at her watch and blanched. “I’m going to be late!” she gasped. She took a step, but paused. “Have a good day, demon,” she told him, before running past him and down the alley, not waiting for an answer.
———————-
Mammon watched the human woman run down the alley, amused. She clearly worked in the tech company that took up the buildings surrounding them, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt with cartoon animals across the chest.
And man, what a chest it was.
He wondered what her name was. She was an interesting little thing. Most of the humans in the newly claimed territory acted fearful when confronted by the new owners. She looked at him with open curiosity, no fear in her wide eyes.
Mammon’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and glanced at the screen. Grimacing at what he read, he tapped out a quick response, and slid it back in his pocket.
The mystery of the curious human would have to wait.
———————
Mik slid into the lobby of her building, her sneakers barely gaining traction on the slick tile floor.
Whoever thought that TILE was a good flooring in the PNW was on crack! thought Mik, and not for the first time.
Despite running late, she made sure to stop by the receptionist and bid her good morning. “Good morning, Rose!” she sang. Rose smiled at her.
“Good morning, Mik.” The young brunette had definitely looked better. There were deep bags under her eyes, and her bright pink hair hung limply around her shoulders instead of styled in a fashionable curl as usual.
Mik frowned at her. “What’s up, sweetheart?” Lateness be damned, Rose looked like she needed a friend.
Rose took a shuddering breath. “My boyfriend and I broke up. He thinks I’m stupid for not taking the buyout. He wanted me to leave with him.”
It was a common enough tale these days.
“So you’re staying, then?” Mik asked. At Rose’s nod, she grinned. “Me, too. Let’s meet up later and talk about it, ok? Drop some time on my calendar.” Rose smiled a little more genuinely.
“I will. Thanks, Mik.”
The two women exchanged a smile, and Mik continued her journey across the lobby to the security turnstile. She slapped her badge on the reader and the gate opened. Sliding through to the elevator vestibule, she joined the rest of the waiting crowd.
She rode the elevator to the top floor of the building. It wasn’t a tall building, especially compared to the high rises where the really important people in her company worked. She still loved it, all the same. She had a great view of Lake Union, and if the building caught on fire, she only had to jump twelve floors.
Shaking her head, amused at her own thoughts, she headed to her desk. As an executive assistant to one of the smartest directors this company had ever seen, she had exactly the same set up as any other employee at the company. A grand total of fifteen square feet to her name, she tried to arrange it as nicely and as open as possible. Her boss, a rare woman executive at a tech company, had it slightly better. Her cubicle walls touched the ceiling, and aside from her desk, a small round table and a couple of chairs fit almost comfortably.
Mik dropped her backpack on her chair, and hurried to unlock Jaya’s office. The office “walls” were glass whiteboards, and Mik did a quick glance to make sure nothing important had been left written there overnight.
Stepping quickly back to her desk, she pulled out the file folder she had worked on all night, and set up her laptop to connect to her monitors. Then she waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited some more.
Concerned, Mik sent a quick text to her boss.
Mik: is everything ok?
Jaya: Yes. In Ohio. I quit. Forgot to tell you
Jaya: Sorry
Mik sat at her desk, stunned. She knew it was coming, of course. Jaya made no bones about not wanting to work under demons. But she had specifically asked Mik to create and make a relocation plan and packet for her and her family.
So Mik did.
Why?
She didn’t bother texting Jaya again. They had never been close, and Mik always hated bothering people after they left.
Resigned to working without a boss until she was assigned another person to support, she logged into the system and started cancelling and clearing meetings that came from Jaya’s calendar.
She was deep into her eighteenth “Jaya is no longer with the company, cancelling meeting series” when a discrete cough alerted her to someone’s presence. She looked up from her screen, ready to give another “she isn’t here anymore” speech.
Standing at her side was the former CEO’s assistant. She stared at him in shock. Normal, ordinary assistants such as Mik never got an email from this man, let alone face-to-face contact. And nevermind that he was standing at her desk!
He was tapping his foot impatiently, and she realized that he had missed his question in her shock. “I’m sorry,” she said contritely. “Can you please repeat that?”
He sighed, very put out. “I said, do you have the relocation packet you made for your director?”
“Oh! Yes, right here!” She shuffled through the papers on her desk until she found the folder she was looking for. “Here you go.”
He grabbed it from her and flipped through it, his brow furrowing. “I’m impressed,” he told her. “The leg work you’ve done here will be the bones of the Exodus.” He gave her a faint smile. “I hear you’re not leaving.”
She stared at him, and shook her head. “I like it here.”
He snorted in such a way that Mik knew that he thought she was being naive. “You honestly think the demons are going to keep this company, this city, or hell, any of their territory as is?” He shook his head. “If you’re smart, you’ll leave.”
Mik narrowed her eyes. She never got along with assholes, and she especially never got alone with old men who treated her like a child. “Better here than with the angels.” He paled at her words, and tried to shush her. “Don’t shush me. You know I’m right.”
He paled even further. “Stop!” he hissed. “This isn’t protected territory yet. Do you want to die?!” He started slowly backing away.
She rolled her eyes. This was who she idolized from afar? This coward?
“Whatever, John,” she told him, dismissively.
He glared at her, even as he shook in his boots.
And that’s how Mik found herself assigned to the complicated and boring task of assisting in relocation efforts of the Exodus for the next year.
About sixty-five million humans chose to be relocated away from the newly ceded demon territory. The demons were granted the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska, along with the province of British Columbia, upon their coming out. The demons offered to let the humans stay, provided they adhere to demon laws and renounce their citizenship to their countries.
Humans, being creatures of habit, started leaving immediately, with the richest of them all being the first to go, of course. To assist in the relocation efforts, Diavolo, the CEO of TLCC, offered a stipend and logistics assistance to every human leaving.
The efforts took a full year, and soon enough, Mik was assigned a new executive.
This time for the Senior Vice President of TLCC.