(The following takes place the night before Riley leaves for Tucson.)

Greenwich Village, NYC...

"Can I help you?" the young woman asked, a doubtful look on her face, as she appraised the other woman who stood before her. She was tall, bleached blond, far too thin, and wearing a short skirt and halter top that only barely concealed the flesh beneath. Her lips and nails were crimson red, brown eyes lined in kohl black against a face far too pale, giving her an almost garish appearance. She was a street-walker, no doubt, but what was she doing in the Village" And more importantly, what was she doing standing outside the door of her apartment at midnight"

"Yes," the other woman replied, pushing her way inside the small apartment and taking a look around. "I need the use of your quarters."

"My what?" the young woman exclaimed. This couldn't be happening. She'd moved to the Village because it was safer than other parts of the city, or so she'd been told. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen here. Hell, she was paying a small fortune in rent to make sure it didn't happen here. "Get out or I'll call security."

"Security?" the other woman asked, crossing the room and pushing the blinds back to peer out the front window. She paused a moment and then chuckled to herself as she realized what the woman meant. "Ah, you must mean the fat fellow at the front desk." She shook her head and clucked her tongue in mild disgust. "Men should not let themselves go like that. Such a waste of flesh. I put him out of his misery."

"You what?" the young woman exclaimed, thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about?"

The other woman sighed. She had been amused at first by their little tete a tete, but her patience was quickly wearing thin. Did she have to spell it out for her" The man was dead. Deceased. No longer among the living. How dense could one be? It was like talking to a child.

She decided to ignore the woman's questions and come straight to the point. "Do you know who lives there?" she asked, pointing a crimson-painted fingertip at the building across the street.

"Look, I don't know who you think you are, but you can't just come waltzing into people's apartments, asking questions, and making demands," the young woman retorted, reaching for her cell phone. "I'm calling the cops."

The other woman smiled, her scarlet lips curling into a malevolent grin. "Yes, I can, and no, you're not." She wasn't quite sure who the cops were, but she wanted no interference from anyone or anything. Without so much as a backward glance, she flicked a finger at the other woman, and the phone flew out of her hands and smashed against the wall.

"What the hell..." exclaimed the other, backing away, eyes wide with fear.

"Yes, exactly," replied the other. "Now, please answer the question before I do the same to you."

"I-I don't know," the young woman stammered, clearly terrified. "Lots of people live there. I haven't been here long. I don't really know anyone yet."

The other clucked her tongue in feigned disappointment, turning to face the young woman, eyes entirely and inhumanely black. "Pity. I have no use for you then."

The young woman gasped and backed away toward the door, her heart pounding with fear. "Wh-what do you mean' What the hell are you?"

"Darling, I'm your worst nightmare," the demoness replied and with a flick of her wrist, the other woman fell lifeless to the floor, her neck tilted at an unnatural angle.

"Silence is golden," Namaah scolded the dead woman, and smiling to herself, returned her attention to the window and the building across the way.

Namaah sensed four souls in the fifth floor apartment — two men, two women — though one soul burned brighter than the other three.

The Lycan bitch was there with her lover, as well as a human woman of little or no significance, and a man who she suspected was a mage of some sort. The gift of magic was strong in him, so strong she could not break through the wards that guarded his home, but she wouldn't let that discourage her. There were other ways.

Namaah closed her eyes and focused her mind, chanting an incantation in a language long since forgotten, powerful words full of dark and evil magic. Though she might not be able to break through the mage's wards, there were others who could. She found a suitable vessel in the form of a fly, who settled itself on a wall, allowing her to see everything that was happening inside the apartment. Some of what was being said made no sense to her, but it became apparent that the Lycan and her lover planned on leaving the city together in the morning.

Namaah frowned deeply. She could not let that happen. Lilith had sent her to separate the Lycan bitch and her lover. "I don't care how you do it, just do it," Lilith had said, and Namaah had been all too willing and eager to comply. It was her task to separate them by whatever means possible, and she would not be thwarted.

She watched as the pair of couples parted for the night and retired to separate rooms. She was not concerned with the mage for now. She suspected he might be the third of Heaven's Agents, but he was not her problem. She would relay the information to Lilith, and Lilith would decide what, if anything, to do about him. She would only take action against him if he proved a problem in achieving her goals.

She watched as the Lycan and her lover settled down to sleep, whispering lovingly to the other. Love. She scoffed. When would mortals realize that love was nothing but a weakness? She had once been human. She remembered what it was to love, and she wanted nothing more to do with it. Love only caused pain and anguish. Lust, on the other hand, was another matter all together.

She smiled a little to herself as the lovers spoke each other's names, sighing breathlessly, enraptured and enamored. Rhys. An old name. It meant Warrior. How appropriate. And the woman was called Riley. How Namaah wished at that moment that she could possess the woman's body and feel what it was to be with a man once again, but it would have to wait. She could not get past the mage's wards, but if she did her job right, she would not have to wait long.

The apartment grew silent as its inhabitants fell asleep and entered the Dream Realm. She smiled to herself again, and focused her power further. It had been a long time since she'd entered a man's dreams and even longer since she had seduced one, but all she needed was a moment — just enough time to stir some memory, to leave him with a dream he would not soon forget. A dream that would terrify even the strongest of souls.