Buford woke screaming as razor-sharp claws scraped his scalp, and glowing red eyes dropped behind the headboard. He smudged a bead of blood from his forehead, leaving a glistening red streak.

A slim figure appeared in the doorway, wings fluttering. May the half-Fae who slept on his sofa cocked her head. “Trouble sleeping again, Buford?”

Staccato hoof beats rang out on the metal stairs from the mechanic's shop below. PJ the satyr living in the storeroom bounded past May. “What’s up, “Cuz?”

Before Buford could answer, a fuzzy head peered over the footboard with flames in its eyes. Three more popped up. “What’re those?”

PJ shrugged. “Demons.”

May retracted her wings and leaned against the doorframe. “Hell kittens.”

The furry monsters stalked across the covers. Buford growled. “It’s things like these that keep me up at night. Where’d they come from?”

“Probably, a hellcat,” PJ answered.

May shrieked as Alley the resident hellcat swatted her bare calf on its way into the room. It rubbed against PJ’s faun legs, leapt onto the bed to catch a kitten by the scruff of the neck before it pounced on Buford, and gave a yowl then exited the room trailed by five hell kittens.

Buford wiped a second bead of blood from his head which stung like the devil.

“Better put some ointment on that. In fact, you might want to stock up. Looks like things’re gonna get prickly around here.” PJ chuckled, and May swatted him on the back of the head.  

Concept thanks to Rob Ashley | Photo by Yosei G