Since Anya had moved topside, the few humans she encountered thought they could announce their antidemon bigotry to her. Sure, she’d been born human. But that was over a thousand years ago. Eleven and a half centuries as a vengeance demon put her more on the side of the monsters. Even if she herself was just a part-time demon now, six months into her sabbatical from Vengeance LLC.

Anya had always been a good vengeance demon. Great, even. She’d found a decent niche enacting the Wishes of heartbroken women. The phrase Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? Anya was that fury, sent from Arashmaharr, the hell dimension where Vengeance’s headquarters were located. For most of her long life, she’d only come to earth long enough to curse some cheating spouse. She’d cover them in weeping boils or ship them off to a brand-new pocket dimension full of endless torments. Then she’d head back to her condo in Arashmaharr and wait for her talisman to ring. It was a decent life. But it just didn’t thrill her the way it had back in the early days.

Facing down the dawn of another millennium, Anya had found herself wondering whether or not she wanted to spend another thousand years doing the same job. Another thousand years of competing for raises against Halfrek, who was always granting Wishes that would end in chaos, wars, and apocalypses. The sort of pandemonium that the gods of Arashmaharr totally ate up. How could Anya compare with someone who refused to specialize in one type of Wish? No matter how often her boss assured her that she and Halfrek had different strengths, she knew that she was second best. Despite being centuries younger than Anya, Halfrek lived in the penthouse of Anya’s condominium building and had an unobstructed view of Arashmaharr’s famous lava falls. And she wasn’t even there most of the time! Halfrek camped out on a job, living in different realities until she found the perfect Wisher. Anya didn’t have that drive. Not anymore.

She had found herself tired of the office politics. And tired of the office. The new Vengeance LLC receptionist was fresh out of school and so ridiculously chatty. If Anya didn’t know better, she would have assumed the girl was a vampire whose lungs were purely decorative. Anya couldn’t even pop into the office to turn in a time sheet without getting stuck in an hour-long conversation about every change in the weather or rumors about interdemon feuds. If Anya had to hear one more story about Lloyd and Balash’s prank war or how someone kept stealing Frex’s lunch out of the break room, she would scream. Or send the receptionist to an empty pocket dimension where she couldn’t bother anyone.

Instead, Anya had requested a sabbatical. She wasn’t prepared to quit. She didn’t know how to live without her powers. But she wanted time to try something new. Something human-ish.

Earth on the threshold of the twenty-first century was completely different than the world she had been born into. The mortality rate was much lower. Medicine was based on science rather than balancing humors. Bathing was encouraged. It was as good a time as any to experience the fullness of the human life she’d once abandoned, without having to actually live solely among humans. There were more possibilities for demons ever since Mayor Richard Wilkins had won his Sun Is Out, Sin Is In campaign.