Time for a new demon of the week – this time a scorpion
demon hunting down young culebras.
One of them manages to escape to turn up on Freddie’s
doorstep – begging the peacekeeper for help before killing himself with one of Freddie’s
stakes.
Freddie follows up a neck tattoo on the dead Culebra –
who doesn’t turn to ash when he dies which is different – and finds a
fraternity full of culebras led by Aiden Turner. Professor Aiden Turner
Sex Machine
Oh, yay, he’s back. Can we get rid of him and keep
Santanico around
Freddie continues have some reservations about his role
as peacekeeper – especially since the culebras are still biting, turning and
killing people.
Aiden is, as should be no surprise, a super creepy,
handsy molester of his female students. I loathe this character and really
really wish he was eaten. Alas, it doesn’t happen. He has built a “family” of
frat culebras and seems to be genuinely caring of them as he objects furiously
to Freddie dismissing them. He’s still a nasty predatory molester but he cares
about this “family”. Though Freddie still points out he’s turning teens and
they’re eating people so family isn’t that fluffy
Aiden does drop a lot of world building on us, back in Xibalba, hell, their was a hierarchy of demons and Culebras were waaaaay at the bottom, effectively slaves and cattle to the higher demons
A point he could have made far better without holocaust
and slavery comparisons
One of the ways of controlling Culebras is to mutilate
them and remove their venom glands – as the victim at Freddie’s was. Without
the venom a Culebra cannot turn, heal super fast and doesn’t even turn to dust
when they die. The venom is their mojo. And one of Aiden’s other “family”,
Chloe has also been captured and in need of rescue
Said demon with the scorpion tale is happily milking the
venom from his captured Culebros (why? What can they use the venom for). He’s
also noticed the tattoos and uses them to track down and capture the rest of
Aiden’s “family” – and Aiden himself.
Cut to Seth and Richie talking to Ximena about the
possessed Kate and some legends Richie’s heard about a super duper demon hunter
out there. Ximena reacts to all of this by denying everything – oh and Venganza
has gone missing.
This doesn’t put Seth and Richie off so they go find the
hunter themselves – it’s not that hard, the guy is running a little drug shop
and by the quality of his super super vintage cannabis, Richie identifies him
as the hunter. The hunter isn’t impressed, he’s retired and doesn’t want to get
involved in a war against a species that’s trying to wipe him out/enslave him
Oooookay? You’d think he’d have a vested interest in
this?
Anyway, after putting Seth and Richie in their place as
rank amateurs he is willing to come with them because Ximena is his ex and she
said he was dead. They have Relationship Issues
With the hunter about they now have a whole lot more world building. Firstly Venganza has gone into hiding and even Ximena doesn’t know where she is. Secondly, Amara, the demon possessing Kate is a) evil b) the big devil queen, c) can’t be exorcised (Kate will die. Honest. Uh-huh) and d) she wants to open the doors to Xilbaba and unleash all hell
And they confirm that Culebras were slaves – and the
whole reason Amarra came to Earth is because the Culebra lords had the hubris
to call themselves lord. She came through and the lords ate her – and kept the
blood to be stored for the future. That ended up in the blood well which was
the source of so much drama and when that was spilled that ended up in Kate’s
body.
All fully filled in they can get to ride to the rescue of
Aiden and Freddie (who are trying to take down the scorpion demon but not
entirely succeeding) and give him a good killing. Which they do – but the
captured Culebras are gone
We next see Kate and them apparently opening the doors to
Xilbalba, this will not be good
I’m curious about Freddie and his whole change of role
and side. He is now the peacekeeper but… why? Why is he invested in helping the
culebras against the demons? I’d really like to see more – though I really do
like to see the conflict Freddie obviously have but I still feel we need to
know more. In fact, opening the doors to Xilbalba, if they’d talked about it
earlier, would give him an excellent motive
