With one month left, she wasn't supposed to meet someone new.  This time was for friends, for the small group of people that had made her life more bearable over the past several months.

It was only a month because that's what the deal was.  If she kept her end of it until the end of the time, she could battle for her fate, and if she lost a punishment would be dealt by Lynn, who she'd wronged a very long time ago.  Win or lose her friends would be protected from the wrath of a powerful and angry being and it was worth it to Janie.  She knew that the alternate was to have them targeted, just like Phoenix had been.

Her fate would be three Earth Years of an unknown punishment, but she knew that whatever it was would be permanent.  Janie accepted that and went on with her last days, knowing that she could never win, and that she wouldn't find anyone willing to fight for her.

There was demon fighting, and random acts of kindness, whatever she could do to fill the time.

And then there was Julian.  A vampire who introduced himself by turning her into a snack, but he stood out to her, and they began to talk.  Now there was someone else that she trusted, someone new and who she didn't want to leave.

Janie wanted to stay,  to live and get to know him better.  She didn't want to say goodbye.  Not to Phoenix, or Uriel, or Aden.  Not to Phariel, Miniel- not to any of them, and especially not Julian.

There was barely a week left when he offered to be her champion, and now her fate rested in the hands of someone she hadn't known for very long.