"There. He heard it again.

Something had woken him from a deep sleep. Normally he was a sound sleeper unless one of his girls needed him, and this wasn’t them. It sounded like a small wounded animal of some sort, or maybe a child, although he couldn’t even imagine how that was possible. The ranch had patrols out every night and a watch team monitoring electronic feeds covering all approaches. Surely if there was a child out wandering around they would have spotted them?

Well, shit. He was awake anyhow- He might as well check it out. He carefully extricated himself from a sleeping Maria, eased over a lightly snoring Sarah, and went to the window. He still couldn’t see anything in the pale dawn light filtered by a light early winter mist. Then the sound came once more. This time a wracking sob accompanied it. It was emanating from near the covered front porch!

Ben considered for a moment. Should he alert the security patrol? He paused a moment and sent out his senses. No, there was no imminent threat, although he could vaguely sense a roiled passion coming from Lizzy in her sleep. He grinned slightly, as he leaned over and kissed her on her forehead- his princess must be having sexy times in her dreams.

Ben pulled on a pair of sweats and his slippers. What the heck? No point in getting everyone else’s panties in a knot until they knew what they were dealing with. He made his way down the stairs to the front door, stepping carefully to avoid waking the household.

Cracking the door slowly he stepped out onto the covered porch and there sitting on the top step in the dim light was probably the last thing he expected to see.

A demon was sitting on his porch."