Free Where Demons Fear to Tread by Stephanie Chong

all came down to choices, a matter of finding which choice would determine the point at which a person cracked. Sooner or later, Julian would crack Little Miss Perfect. He just had to find out what that choice was.

    Each day that week, the gifts Julian sent became more outrageous. On Monday, it was flowers and chocolate—three-dozen red sweetheart roses and the biggest box of Belgian truffles she had ever seen. Tuesday, a basket filled with French perfume. Wednesday, a tiny Yorkshire terrier puppy with a gigantic, floppy bow around its neck. A courier arrived with a jeweler’s box on Thursday. Serena opened it to find a diamond bracelet glittering against the dark blue velvet. Friday, he sent her a ticket to Paris—on his private jet.
    She sent each delivery back immediately, without so much as a phone call, a note or even a text message. It irked her that he thought she could be bought. That she would abandon her duty to Nick for a few expensive items, gifts that appeared to bear no personal thought behind them. They were the sort of offerings that a man might guess any red-blooded female desired.
    But even more disturbing was her own reaction to the gifts—she wanted to keep them. Each and every one of them. What’s more, she wondered about the man who had sent them. Who was he? And how far would he go to get what he wanted?
    Oh, she was content with her life as a yoga teacher, and more than happy to perform her angelic duties with enthusiasm. But in the year since she’d been ordained, she’d lived frugally, without the comfort of family, or the little pleasures that men in her human life might have brought her when she dated them. In fact, in the past year, she’d shied away from male attention entirely, living almost like a nun.
    How long had it been since anyone had sent her flowers or chocolate? She hated to admit it, but the gifts had brought a smile to her face when she’d opened the door. But none of them had affected her as much as the puppy. She’d snuggled him longingly, burying her face into his soft fur as he squirmed around to lick her. He had a tag on his collar that read Milo . It had almost broken her heart to send him back.
    On Saturday morning, she woke up half expecting to see a new sports car parked in her driveway. But there was nothing.
    As she drove to the yoga studio to teach Nick’s private lesson, she told herself she ought to be relieved. But if she were totally honest, she had to admit that she also felt a tinge of disappointment. Apparently, Julian had an attention span of a fruit fly.
    But it was probably—no, definitely—for the best. Life would go back to normal now that he had forgotten about her. And that was what she wanted.
    Wasn’t it?

    While Julian distracted Serena with the deluge of gifts, he planned. And a few days later, Harry came back to report. While Julian sat at his desk, Harry summarized what he’d found.
    “Serena was born about six hours up the coast, in the town of Carmel. Mother and brother still live there. Father died of a heart attack at the age of forty-six, when the girl was thirteen. She went to college near home at UC Santa Cruz, traveled afterward, then taught yoga full-time. Died last year in a car accident on the Cabrillo Freeway. She was twenty-three years old.” Harry paused, swallowing past what Julian guessed was a lump in his throat. “Joined the Company of Angels immediately upon termination of her human life. They relocated her to L.A., like they move almost all of their members, so she’d be around fewer of her friends and family who might recognize her.”
    Even if someone from her past did recognize her, Julian knew that if she created any glaring inconsistencies with human reality these days, the Archangels would correct her mistakes. They could lift angelic imprints off human memories as easily as wiping chalk from a blackboard.
    Just as Julian himself could erase any trace of demonic activity.
    “Vices?” Julian said. This was